[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15940]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we will shortly resume consideration of the 
energy legislation. There are no rollcall votes scheduled today. We 
have heard from a number of Senators on both sides of the aisle of 
their desire to come and offer amendments. The managers of the bill 
have indicated they are willing to set amendments aside to move on 
that. I think that is appropriate.
  There will also be no rollcall votes on Monday. This has been a long 
schedule, but it is, again, my hope that Members will take that 
opportunity to come offer and debate amendments on this energy 
legislation.
  Sometime next week--and I will meet and discuss this with the 
distinguished Republican leader--if this debate doesn't speed up and 
more amendments are not offered, then we will have to see if we can 
move to end the debate and finish this legislation.
  There are issues that are important. There has to be some decision, a 
finality made with regard to the pieces of the bill that are so 
important, such as the renewable portfolio standard, the CAFE 
standards, and there is also interest in coal-to-liquid and the 
different ways that can be done.
  As I understand it, those are the three big issues, so I would hope 
Members who have those issues, whether amendments or whatever else they 
want to focus their attention on, would do so. The American people want 
us to do something dealing with energy. This is a good bipartisan bill, 
and I would hope Members would understand this is their time to come 
and offer amendments.
  I would also note, as indicated in the morning press, that Senator 
McConnell and I met last evening with a bipartisan group of Senators 
regarding immigration, and we now have a pathway forward on that. When 
we finish the energy legislation, we will move to that legislation. I 
think we have now an agreed-upon number of amendments that will be 
offered by Republicans and Democrats and we should get to that sometime 
next week.
  We are going to finish that legislation and the energy legislation 
prior to our having our Fourth of July recess. I would also indicate to 
all Senators and staffs, it is Friday, and I know that a lot of times--
I would not say a lot of times but on a number of occasions--I have 
indicated we might have to work weekends. I know this causes a lot of 
stress to folks. But everyone should know that to complete this bill 
and to complete the immigration bill will require next weekend, without 
any question, next weekend, Saturday and Sunday.
  Now, of course, it is always possible that through unanimous consent 
certain work that could be done in 1 day could be put over to another 
day, and I understand that. But Senators should understand this is the 
real thing. If we are going to finish these two bills, which both the 
Republican leader and I think is absolutely mandatory and essential, 
Senators should be advised that next Saturday and Sunday, which means 
the preceding Friday, which is a week from today, and a week from 
Monday, we will be in session.
  We only have 2 weeks left in this work period, and I hope we don't 
have to run into the Fourth of July recess period, which is only 1 week 
long. We have a number of things we are going to try to do this 
morning. We are going to get to a couple of judges. We hope to pass 
those. We have a number of other things we need to do. We have so many 
things we need to complete, but a lot of them are very complicated and 
difficult, such as the Energy bill and immigration. At least we have a 
pathway forward on these, and I think we can work them out.
  It goes without saying that if we are able to complete these prior to 
the Fourth of July recess, that would be fine. But if we can't, the 
Fourth of July recess will take second fiddle to these important pieces 
of legislation.

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