[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16296]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, this morning the Senate will be in a 
period of morning business for an hour, the time equally divided and 
controlled between the two leaders. Republicans will control the first 
half and the majority controls the final 30 minutes.
  The reason we did not go immediately to the bill at this time is 
there is a very important markup taking place in the Finance Committee 
dealing with the Energy bill, particularly the tax portions of the 
Energy bill. It is my understanding that Senators Boxer and Grassley, 
with other members of the committee, have worked out a bipartisan 
measure they will bring to the floor as an amendment in the immediate 
future and it will be done today.
  Once morning business closes, the Senate will then immediately resume 
consideration of the Energy bill about which I referred. Under our 
order of yesterday, the Senate will debate the Bunning and Tester 
amendments for a total of 2\1/2\ hours.


                           order of procedure

  I ask unanimous consent that the time for debate for these two 
amendments this morning be equally divided and controlled as previously 
ordered until 1 p.m., and that the Senate then recess until 2:15; that 
at 2:15, the remaining debate time also be equally divided and 
controlled, with the other provisions of the previous order remaining 
in effect.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. The agreement just entered now delays the conference recess 
period until 1 p.m. Following disposition of those two amendments this 
afternoon, the Senate will then debate three more amendments with the 
total debate time up to 90 minutes. Votes on these amendments will 
occur upon the use or yielding back of that time, so Members should 
expect two votes around 3 to 3:15, and then three more votes around 
5:30.
  I have conferred in detail with the distinguished Republican leader 
going over the schedule. I have told Democratic Senators, and I will 
repeat this at the caucus, we have a lot to accomplish before this work 
period ends. We have to complete the energy legislation, we have to 
complete work on the immigration bill, and we have to start defense 
authorization in some manner, recognizing that we will not have a lot 
of time on that.
  It is up to the individual Senators as to how much time we take. If 
all time is used--as I said, I have gone over this in detail with the 
Republican leader and our staffs--we will not be able to finish until 
Saturday, a week from this Saturday, sometime in the evening. That 
would mean we would have to be in session this weekend. Maybe we have 
some people who may not object to one or two things. That being the 
case, we may not have to be in on Sunday this week. But everyone should 
understand, we have a lot of important votes. We have people running 
for President on both sides of the aisle. They should plan on being 
here, because their votes could make the difference. The energy 
legislation is extremely important. There are three issues that are the 
main focus of this legislation, by the business community, the 
environmental community, and the press. That is coal to liquids--that 
matter is going to be resolved this afternoon, hopefully; CAFE, which 
hopefully will be resolved in the next 24 hours; and then we have the 
renewable portfolio standards we are always working on. We hope we can 
get that done in some manner. There are other important amendments, but 
I mentioned the top three. We have what we have to complete prior to 
the July 4 recess. It is up to us how much time we take. If we happen 
to finish this conglomeration of legislation earlier, it would be to 
the good of the order, but if we aren't able to do that, we are going 
to have to stay here, which would be sometime Saturday evening.

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