[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10147-10148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF BUSINESS

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I have just spoken with Senator Gregg, the 
ranking member of the Budget Committee. He has graciously agreed that I 
could begin to discuss the budget conference report. He is at the White 
House and will be returning shortly. We have agreed in principle that 
the time I consume and that perhaps he consumes when he later arrives 
will be used against the 10 hours, that we will do that retroactively. 
But we start without an agreement because they are working on a global 
agreement as to how we will conclude the work of the Senate the 
remainder of this week. Until they have that agreement, we

[[Page 10148]]

will not reach a unanimous consent agreement with respect to how we 
dispose of the budget conference report.
  For the information of colleagues, there is up to 10 hours allocated 
to the budget conference report discussion. We hope that could be done 
in less time, obviously, and that we might vote this evening, for the 
notice of my colleagues, or potentially tomorrow, depending on how long 
it goes and the decision of the leadership.
  Before I begin the discussion of the conference agreement, I ask that 
the clerk keep a close tab on the time because we will try to reach an 
agreement later to retroactively apply the time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the Senator from 
North Dakota is recognized.

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