[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 5749

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, my distinguished friend, the Senator from 
the State of Arizona, is here. As a result, I am going to propound a 
unanimous-consent request so as not to cause him to have to spend any 
time here he would not ordinarily have to do.
  The House has passed an unemployment compensation bill. I am going to 
show the Senate in a little while that we are at 76 filibusters. I am 
not going to go through another one on unemployment compensation. If we 
do not agree to pass this bill at this time, there will not be a long 
floor debate on unemployment compensation. What we will do, it is my 
understanding this legislation will be in the supplemental we will get 
from the House. That being the case, we will have ample time to talk 
about the issue if anybody wants to.
  The distinguished majority whip is going to speak on unemployment 
compensation, as are some others today. But right now I ask unanimous 
consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 
780, H.R. 5749, a bill we recently received from the House, the 
Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act. I ask that the bill 
be read a third time, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon 
the table, with no intervening action or debate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I do object. I wonder if I may make one brief 
comment.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I wish to make the point that when we do 
extend unemployment benefits, if we do, the Senate needs to weigh in on 
its ideas about how it ought to be done, for one thing. The House-
passed bill, which I don't think we want to consider, eliminates the 
20-week work requirement which has been the law now since 1981. So 
theoretically someone could work a very short period of time and be 
entitled to this 13-week extension, something I don't think we want to 
change. As a result, we would like the Senate to weigh in and get it 
done the right way. For that reason, I have to object to bringing the 
House bill up at this time.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we will be willing now to accept that change 
in the legislation and pass it.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, if I might further address the majority 
leader then, I have several concerns. I highlighted one.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, this, I believe, will be in the package 
we get from the House, and we will be happy to work with the minority 
if they feel some changes should be made. There are a number of people 
on my side who would agree to this, and maybe there are other points on 
which we can agree.
  Mr. KYL. I appreciate that. I think there are some issues the Senate 
wishes to modify in the proposal. The offer to work together is a fair 
one, and that is how we ought to proceed.

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