[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 24]
[Senate]
[Pages 33300-33301]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT H.R. 6

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that 
following the prayer and the pledge tomorrow, the Senate proceed to the 
message from the House on H.R. 6, the comprehensive Energy bill; that 
notwithstanding the receipt of the papers, the majority leader be 
immediately recognized to move to concur in the House amendment and to 
file cloture on that motion; that there be 20 minutes equally divided 
in the usual form for debate on the majority leader's motion, followed 
by a cloture motion on that motion; that there be no other motions or 
amendments in order prior to the vote; further, that the cloture vote 
on the substitute amendment to the farm bill be delayed to occur at a 
later time, to be determined by the majority leader after consultation 
with the Republican leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, certainly the Senate is a place for 
squabbles. We have had lots of them. But also with the work that has to 
be done in this body, sometimes it takes a little debate here and 
there.
  Today has been an important day for the Senate. We have been in a 
quorum call a lot. But during the time there were speeches being made 
on rare occasion here, there was a lot of work being done. The AMT is 
now done. I don't know that that is the case yet, but I heard that the 
House indicated they will accept our bill. That is quite important.
  We have been working for weeks on the farm bill. A cloture vote is 
set at 9 o'clock in the morning, or whatever time we agree to. Maybe we 
would have gotten cloture on that, I don't know. I am happy with this 
agreement. It will be a lot of work, but we will finish the farm bill 
before we leave, unless something untoward happens.
  This has been a day of progress. Tomorrow we will finish work on the 
farm bill, and there will be one vote. After we do that, the two 
managers, Senators Harkin and Chambliss, said they will work through 
amendments tomorrow. There are a lot of amendments that can be agreed 
to. We want Senators, tomorrow and Monday--there will be no votes on 
Monday, but if Senators feel strongly about an amendment, work with the 
managers and have that offered and have that be one of the 40. 
Hopefully, we can set up votes for Tuesday and finish the bill sometime 
before we leave here.
  On the Energy bill, we are going to have a cloture vote in the 
morning. From all indications I have gotten from the minority, cloture 
will not be invoked. I will give a speech and others will. We would 
have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to try to come up with how we are 
going to proceed on this matter afterward. I hope we can work something 
out by consent; otherwise, because of the way we have the bill, I have 
the authority to do certain things. I would rather do it by consent. I 
will do the best I can to be as cooperative as possible with the 
minority. It is an extremely important piece of legislation. I think 
there is a mindset of everyone here to do an energy bill. The question 
is, what is in it? If we have a bill, will it be signed by the 
President?
  I understand all of the moving parts of the bill. But we have made 
progress today with AMT, the farm bill, and now the Energy bill, on 
which we have had an agreement to move this up 1 day and not be here 
Saturday.
  For everyone who thinks we don't get a lot done, we and our staffs 
will be heavily involved in the matters I have outlined over the 
weekend. So I appreciate the cooperation of the Senators to get to the 
point where we are, and I feel pretty good about the day's work.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me just say I do agree with the 
majority leader that we made some substantial progress today. First of 
all, on the principle that in order to extend tax relief to one set of 
Americans we don't have to raise taxes on another set of Americans, all 
but five Members of the Senate concurred in that approach to extension 
of the AMT relief. I think that is an extremely important principle to 
be established in the Senate.
  With regard to the farm bill, there is widespread agreement on both 
sides of the aisle that we ought to pass a farm bill and we ought to 
pass it as soon as possible. I think getting the consent agreement to 
get the amendments down to 20 on each side is a significant step in 
that direction. I am pleased to hear the majority leader would like for 
us to stay on that bill, make progress on it, and finish it before 
Christmas. That is certainly my view as well.
  With regard to the Energy bill, we understand there are two highly 
contentious, well-publicized provisions of tax increases that have been 
inserted by the House: At a time when oil is close to $100 a barrel, 
many of us think a tax increase is not a good idea, and the wind 
mandate, which is particularly onerous on those of us in the Southeast 
where there is not much wind, which basically means, in effect, a 
mandatory rate increase for utilities and for utility ratepayers all 
across the Southeast. I am hopeful we can get those two items out of 
that bill.
  The President has indicated he will veto the bill, and I think there 
is a view on the other side of the aisle, as well as on our side, that 
we would like to have an energy bill actually enacted into law; that 
is, signed by the President. As the majority leader has indicated, 
hopefully we can get those problems removed from the Energy bill next 
week and move toward a Presidential signature.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from New Mexico is 
recognized.
  Mr. REID. If my friend will allow me.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this has been cleared by floor staff. The 
unanimous consent request I just entered needs a clarification. So I 
ask unanimous consent that it be clarified that nothing else be in 
order prior to the vote tomorrow morning--no points of order. I think 
there is a general understanding.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The senior Senator from New Mexico is recognized.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I just want to say that I have no 
objection. I wish to comment on the Energy bill. It has been a long 
time getting here, and it still is not finished. There are provisions 
of that Energy bill that, if passed, will be superb for the people of 
this country. It is too bad the bill is laden now with two provisions 
that we did not have in our bill, that we did not contemplate. We will 
have to work our way and see what happens. They are serious. They are 
serious enough to cause the President to veto the bill. I am hopeful we 
will be able to find our way to get those two provisions out--the tax 
provision and the provision with reference to mandatory 15-percent 
alternative energy fuels in our States. Those two are very difficult. 
If we keep any of them in, our work is going to be for naught.
  So I hope everybody understands the situation. It will be an 
excellent bill without those provisions, and there may be a few other 
cleanup provisions we need in the House bill. We will work on them in 
the next few days.
  I thank the leaders.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The President pro tempore is recognized.
  Mr. BYRD. What is the floor situation, Mr. President?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The President pro tempore is notified there 
are no orders in effect.

[[Page 33301]]


  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I speak out of order for no more than 10 
minutes.

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