[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18372]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MINORITY RIGHTS

  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I so greatly admire the Senator from 
Georgia, and his words are so well spoken, I hope people will take them 
to heart. I also wish to rise on this issue. Before I do that, I wish 
to speak briefly on the issue pending, which is the cloture motion on 
the amendment from the Senator from Virginia, Senator Webb. I haven't 
decided how to vote on the amendment of the Senator from Virginia. I 
have an immense amount of respect for the Senator, the former Secretary 
of the Navy, whom I greatly admire for his service to this country, but 
I am deeply concerned by the process which is being used.
  It has always been the tradition of this Senate that there would be 
side-by-side votes. It used to be, when I first arrived, that there 
were actually second-degree votes, and then we got to a position where 
everybody knew if you had a second degree, you could always get to the 
first-degree vote, so you gave people side-by-side votes. Unless the 
issue is on the fundamental question of an overriding bill, the use of 
cloture for the purposes of cutting off the debate to that amendment 
has not occurred around here. This is an attempt to basically make the 
Senate operate as if it had the autocratic Rules Committee of the 
House, and it is wrong. It is just plain wrong.
  The minority should be afforded the right--and has the right--to 
assert an amendment to an amendment offered on this floor. It has the 
right to a second degree if it wishes to, and then the author of the 
first degree has the right to position himself or herself so he or she 
can bring that amendment back up. As an alternative to that, the offer 
of a side by side is the way you resolve the issue. That offer was made 
to allow a side by side on the amendment of the Senator from Virginia. 
It was rejected, as I understand it. That is what this cloture vote, 
for me, is about. It is not about the credibility--not the 
credibility--it is not about the appropriateness or the correctness of 
the underlying amendment of the Senator from Virginia; it is about 
whether the minority has the procedural right to assert its standing as 
a functioning entity within the body and, therefore, the ability to 
amend or at least have a side-by-side amendment when amendments are 
brought to the floor on which there may be other views.
  So that is why I intend to vote against cloture. It is not to extend 
the debate; it is not to, in some way, undermine the bill or even to 
undermine the amendment; it is to make sure that the rights of the 
minority are protected in this institution where the rights of the 
minority are the essence of the way this institution functions.

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