[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 688]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate will be in a period of morning 
business until 12:30 today, at which time we will break for the 
Democratic caucus. As was indicated yesterday, the Republicans are 
having a retreat at the Library of Congress today. When we come back at 
2:15, the Senate will resume consideration of the Indian health bill. 
There were some amendments offered yesterday, some debated yesterday. 
We could not arrange a vote yesterday. I do not expect any votes on 
this bill this afternoon. I have been in close touch with Senator 
Dorgan. He is trying to work this out so we can complete this 
legislation quickly. If there are any amendments that Democratic 
Senators have, I hope they would come and offer them today. That way we 
can prioritize how we are going to move through this bill.
  Mr. President, as I indicated yesterday, we are going to, this 
evening, start on the FISA legislation to complete that. We are going 
to finish that legislation this week. That means we are going to have 
all day tomorrow and all day Friday and, hopefully, not all day 
Saturday. But we need to finish this legislation. It is critically 
important. It is not fair to jam the House. Since we have been refused 
an extension by the Republicans, we need to finish this legislation 
now, send it to the House, have a conference, and see what we can come 
back with as quickly as possible.
  As I indicated, it is not fair to do as we did last August and send 
something to the House: Take it or leave it. We are not going to do 
that. That is why I am not going to wait until next week to go to this 
legislation. We have to complete it now. There are strong feelings on 
both sides of this issue. As I have indicated on a number of occasions, 
I do not support the immunity provisions that are in the Intelligence 
bill, but it appears that a majority of the Senate does. That being the 
case, those people who want to amend the Intelligence bill with that 
information and that legislation we have from the Judiciary Committee 
will offer that. I hope they will do it as quickly as possible.
  There are a number of other issues other than immunity. I have spoken 
to Senator Feinstein. She says she has something dealing with immunity 
she wants to offer. She wants to offer something with exclusivity.
  There are a number of other things we need to do. As I have 
indicated, I would hope that if somebody does not like an amendment, 
they would move to table that amendment and not try to talk it to death 
because that being the case, we are going to have to let them talk 
during the evening. We are not going to have a gentlemen's agreement 
on: OK, so you don't want this to go forward; we are not going to let 
it go forward. We are going to complete this legislation as quickly as 
we can.

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