[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 416]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          COMPLETION OF VOTES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as I indicated in our conversations that we 
have had about the conduct of the Senate, one of the things that I have 
seen over the years is how much time is wasted, waiting for Senators to 
come from committee meetings, from airports and other places, causing 
the Senate, in effect, to be in lockdown until a vote is complete. We 
have had votes that take a long time--an hour. We had a first vote 
today. We finished the 15 minutes, the 5 minutes--the vote is over. 
That is the way it is going to be.
  Today at least one Democratic Senator missed that vote. I hope that 
Senator doesn't miss any more votes. We are going to get in the habit 
of completing the votes on time.
  I have told my counterpart, Senator McConnell, if there is an issue 
that is one vote here, one vote there, it is 50 to 50 and people are 
moving around trying to get someone to change a vote, we will extend 
the time. But 98 percent of the votes are not close; 98 percent of the 
time we are going to finish the vote in 20 minutes. Everyone should be 
aware of that, Democrats and Republicans. This applies to Senator 
McConnell and Senator Reid. If we are not going to be here, the vote 
will be closed.

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