[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23393]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following the remarks of myself and Senator 
McConnell, we are going to move to continue on the consideration of 
H.R. 2095, the rail safety-Amtrak legislation. Cloture was invoked on 
the motion to concur in the House amendment yesterday, so we will 
continue to debate this today during the 30 hours. There will be no 
rollcall votes today in view of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, but we will 
have votes tomorrow evening after sundown. We are still working on an 
agreement to consider the United States-India nuclear agreement. I am 
quite certain we will finalize that so there can be a vote on that 
tomorrow.
  Mr. President, on the financial crisis facing our country, the blame 
game needs to end and we need to move forward on doing what is right 
for our country. Yesterday's drop on Wall Street amounted to a loss of 
more than a trillion dollars--about $1.2 trillion, to be exact. Most of 
that money doesn't come from Wall Street titans but from the pensions 
of people who have retired and who have worked for city government, 
county government, State government, or in some business they worked at 
for many years, or people who have frugally worked during their 
lifetime to save a few dollars and put it into a retirement account. 
These people are rightfully worried that the security of their golden 
years will be compromised by what has happened with the 
irresponsibility in the financial sector. So the most important job we 
have as Members of Congress is to safeguard the physical and fiscal 
security of the American people. Despite yesterday's setback in the 
House of Representatives, this continues to be our No. 1 goal.
   Last night, I spoke with the President's Chief of Staff, Josh 
Bolten. I talked to him again this morning and spent quite a long time 
with him on the telephone. I spoke to Senator Obama this morning, who 
had just completed a conversation with President Bush. I mention that 
not to be a name-dropper but to indicate that we are working together 
to try to resolve this important issue.
  Senators Bennett, Corker, and Gregg on the Republican side, as well 
as Senators Dodd, Baucus, Conrad, Durbin, Schumer, and Jack Reed on the 
Democratic side, have done an exceptionally good bipartisan job to move 
the rescue legislation forward here in the Senate. Their work continues 
as we speak. I will also continue to work closely with the minority 
leader, Senator McConnell, as well as our counterparts in the House of 
Representatives. We are all committed to keeping the progress on this 
rescue package moving forward. So in the coming days, I will continue 
doing everything possible to see that this dire and avoidable financial 
crisis moves to the best possible outcome and toward a future of 
stability and growth for our country. I am going to have a meeting 
within an hour with the Senators I have just spoken about on the 
Democratic side. They have extremely good contacts on the Republican 
side.
  I wish to say, Mr. President, that I thought the statement made 
yesterday by Judd Gregg was an extremely good statement. Judd Gregg is 
the past chairman of the Budget Committee and someone both sides 
respect for his knowledge of finances. So I commend and applaud Senator 
Gregg for his statement.
  I am hopeful and I am confident that all sides, House and Senate and 
White House, will work together to achieve a goal that will be good for 
the American people.

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