[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 14187]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT--H.R. 6304

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the previous 
order with respect to H.R. 6304--that is the FISA legislation--be 
modified as follows: that all debate time on the amendments must be 
utilized during Tuesday's session; and that on Wednesday, at 9:30 a.m., 
immediately after the opening of the Senate, the Senate resume H.R. 
6304, with the debate time previously specified prior to the cloture 
vote commencing at that time; with Senator Bingaman controlling 10 
minutes of the time controlled by the majority leader; and that after 
all debate time has been used or yielded back, the Senate then proceed 
to vote in relation to the amendments, that upon disposition of the 
amendments, the Senate then vote on the motion to invoke cloture, and 
then passage, as previously ordered; provided further that the previous 
order with respect to debate time between votes and the vote time and 
sequence and all other provisions of the previous order remain in 
effect.
  Mr. President, if the Chair would withhold, this is the matter about 
which I spoke to the Senate earlier today. I, of course, have conferred 
with the distinguished Republican leader. What we want to do--the order 
is set now that we would do all the debate time and all the votes 
tomorrow. We are not sure how late the plane will be getting back from 
North Carolina. This morning we had one Democratic Senator--there may 
be two or three--now going to North Carolina.
  So rather than having people who are here waiting around until the 
plane gets back, we will complete all the debate tomorrow, and then 
vote, and have all the time used up except what I have outlined here, 
Wednesday morning. I would assume we would start voting probably at 
around 11:15, and we would complete those votes well before the caucus 
of the Republicans on Wednesday.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I could also inform Senators, there are 
storms in the Midwest and, as a result of that, we have received calls. 
I guess what happens after a holiday, we have Democrats and Republicans 
who may not be here 20 minutes after 5:30. We are not going to do any 
heavy lifting after the vote tonight anyway, so we are going to keep 
the vote open for a while to see if some Senators who would like to be 
recorded--I do not think it will be a close vote--have that 
opportunity, both Democrats and Republicans. As everyone knows, we have 
had a rule around here that, unless it is a close vote, we close it as 
quickly as we can after the time has expired. We will continue doing 
that. But I thought tonight it would be appropriate to not cut people 
off because of these flights being delayed.
  Also, of course, the previous order with respect to counting 
postcloture time, if cloture is invoked--there is an order already in 
effect for that--and that would remain as if cloture had been invoked 
at 5 p.m. today. We will invoke it a little later today when the time 
is up.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, what is the business of the Senate?

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