[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9142]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FINISHING CONSIDERATION OF S. 378

  Mr. REID. Madam President, if I could take another minute of the time 
of the distinguished Senator, we hope we can finish this bill tomorrow. 
That would be my desire. Tomorrow is Thursday. I am filing this 
tonight. The time ripens for voting on this Friday morning. But Friday 
morning occurs at 1 a.m. We have to finish this bill as soon as we can. 
I am alerting everyone, there could be a vote Friday morning at 1 a.m.
  I also suggest that I have been trying for some time now to do a 
bipartisan bill that has been worked on by many Senators. There are 50 
cosponsors of this legislation, dealing with competitiveness. On our 
side it will be managed by Senator Bingaman. It is my understanding on 
the other side it will be managed by Senator Alexander. I hope we can 
have an agreement to move to that. I hope I do not have to file a 
motion to proceed to that piece of legislation. Remember, next week we 
need to complete work to send to the President the supplemental 
appropriations bill.
  Having said that, I want to alert everyone I think it is too bad. 
This bill that is before the body now, the Court Security bill, has 
been passed by the Senate on two separate occasions. We have filed 
cloture; cloture was invoked. I appreciate very much the minority 
allowing us to move to the bill. But this afternoon I had a meeting 
with Mr. Clark, head of the U.S. Marshals Service. This year, threats 
to Federal judges have gone up 17 percent. We have had vile things done 
to judges all over the country, even in the State of Nevada, and we 
need to give Federal courts and local courts protection. We need to be 
a country that is ruled by the finest judicial system in the world, 
which we have now, and we cannot have bad people take away our court 
system--and violence can do that.
  I hope we can finish this bill in a reasonable time tomorrow. If not, 
tomorrow will be a long night.
  I appreciate very much my friend from Iowa allowing me to speak for a 
minute.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

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