[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16608-16609]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--S. 3268

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate 
considers S. 3268, the bill be considered in the following manner: 
there be 3 hours of general debate on the bill, equally divided and 
controlled between the leaders or their designees; that the only first-
degree amendments in order be those listed in this agreement and that 
second-degree amendments which are relevant to the first degree to 
which offered be in order; provided further that if the managers and 
leaders acting jointly determine that a side-by-side amendment strategy 
is the appropriate manner to address the amendments in order, then in 
lieu of a second degree a side-by-side amendment would be in order, 
with the majority side getting the first vote if that were the case; 
that debate time on any amendment, first or second degree, in this 
agreement be limited to 2 hours equally divided and controlled in the 
usual form; that each amendment, first and second-degree, be subject to 
an affirmative 60-vote threshold; that if it achieves that threshold, 
then it be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the 
table, but if it does not achieve the affirmative 60 votes, then the 
amendment be withdrawn; the Republican amendments would be offshore 
drilling, an oil shale amendment, nuclear energy, and then there is a 
package of--I think there are 42 cosponsors in a package they have 
relating to energy; the Democratic amendments: We would have four 
amendments on the subject of energy; that upon disposition of all 
amendments, the bill be read a third time, and the Senate vote on 
passage of the bill, as amended, if amended, with no intervening action 
or debate.
  Mr. President, before the distinguished Republican leader decides 
what to do on this, basically this is on the energy package to set this 
up where there would be, as indicated here, four amendments on each 
side. Ours could either be second degrees or, if we wanted a side by 
side, we could do that. There would be, as has been the standard around 
here on issues such as this, a 60-vote threshold. This would take care 
of issues that we understand are important to the minority: offshore 
drilling, oil shale exploration, nuclear energy, and the omnibus 
package that they put together.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  The Republican leader is recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me 
say to my good friend, the majority leader, I think we are getting very 
close to being able to reach an agreement to go forward. This is a 
significant step in the direction I had hoped we might take.
  I ask my good friend, I have a leadership meeting in an hour or so. I 
wish to consult with my leadership team about the proposal he has 
offered. But I think----
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I withdraw the consent request and will 
renew it at a later time.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me say, I am very encouraged by 
this development. I thank my good friend for his offer, and I should be 
able to get back to him within a couple of hours or less, after having 
a chance to talk about it with my team. I thank him very much.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the other consent I was going to ask is 
consent that S. 3268--that is the Energy bill that is before us now, 
the speculation bill--remain the pending business, notwithstanding the 
adoption of a motion to proceed to a nonprivileged item; namely, it 
would be the Coburn package. The reason that is important is, if we do 
that now--we have a vote at 4 o'clock or 4:20, whatever the case might 
be--I wanted to make sure that one of the arguments used against that 
going forward, which is that energy would not remain as the pending 
business, that this agreement would take care of that. So if people 
want to object to proceeding on the matter we now have before us, that 
we are going to be voting on in a short period of time, if they want to 
use the excuse it is going to take us off energy, this consent 
agreement would not do that.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, as I 
understand it, this consent, if entered, would have the effect of 
moving us off of energy, and it is my view, and I think close to the 
unanimous view of my conference, that we ought to stay on this energy 
speculation bill, as it might be amended, and proceed to amendments 
such as we have in good faith discussed here a few moments ago. So I at 
this time would object to this.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, this does not take us off energy. But 
anyway, the objection has been heard. So I thank the Chair.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The objection is heard.

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