[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20708]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following the remarks of the leaders, the 
Senate will proceed to morning business. We are going to go to morning 
business for an hour. I alert Members that we may be in morning 
business for longer than that time. We will come back at a later time. 
The first 30 minutes will be controlled by the majority, and the 
Republicans will control the last 30 minutes. Following that time, we 
will continue to have Senators limited to 10 minutes each. If that is 
not the order, I ask that be the case.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. That is the case.
  Mr. REID. The legislation we have this week is the Department of 
Defense authorization. We have a continuing resolution. We have the 
stimulus. We have the economic recovery program. And, of course, the 
most important thing on everyone's mind is what we do about the bailout 
of the financial institutions.
  I think we made progress yesterday. Certainly, it appears there were 
a lot of questions asked. The Secretary of the Treasury and the 
Chairman of the Fed will be over in the House around 2 o'clock this 
afternoon. Democrats are holding a caucus at 4:30 p.m. to talk about 
this issue. The Secretary is coming to that caucus at 5 o'clock.
  I hope we can make more progress. We have not only the Jewish 
holidays coming up next week, but a very important event is this 
Friday. I was told and heard on the radio this morning that as much as 
85 percent of the American people will watch the debate this Friday. 
That is a stunning number. It will be the most widely viewed 
Presidential debate in history. I assume, if we are still in session, 
we can take a brief recess for an hour and a half and work through it. 
I am sure there is not one of the 100 Senators who will want to miss 
that debate.
  I will be back later to talk about the so-called Coburn package. I am 
not going to do it now.

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