[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19472]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks, there will be a 
period of morning business for 1 hour. Senators during that time will 
be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes. The majority will control the 
first 30 minutes and the Republicans will control the second 30 
minutes. Following morning business, the Senate will resume 
consideration of the Energy and Water appropriations bill. The Senate 
will recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. today to accommodate the 
weekly caucus luncheons.
  Mr. President, I have spoken with the Republican leader at some 
length over the last few days, and we all know what we have to do 
before we leave here. We are going to finish the Energy and Water 
appropriations bill, the Agriculture appropriations bill. We have the 
Travel Promotion Act we have to do. We have to complete the Sotomayor 
nomination.
  We have a package of extenders, for lack of a better description, the 
House is going to send us. They are going to likely be out next week 
but not for certain. In that package they are sending us, there will be 
an extension of the highway bill. I think all of this goes until about 
December. The Postal Service, we have to help them. We have to do 
something with FHA. We have to do something with unemployment 
compensation. That is all in one thing they are going to send us for 
short extensions. I have not seen what they are going to put together; 
therefore, I could not share it with my esteemed colleague. But as soon 
as we have some information, we will make sure the committees of 
jurisdiction on both sides have knowledge of what that is. But we have 
to complete that work before we leave here, and I hope we can do it 
sooner rather than later. I hope we do not have to work this weekend.
  We have a finite number of things we need to do before we proceed on 
to the summer recess. This is something Members look forward to. I 
personally have a very busy schedule, as I am sure most Members do. But 
once a year, I get together with my family. I am looking forward to 
that. It is for 7 or 8 days. But to justify that, we have a lot of work 
to do. If we look back in the years past, Congress adjourned by this 
time in years past. They were through for the year. We are, 
unfortunately, not able to do that as much as we would like that. There 
is a lot of work we could do at home but we cannot because this is 
where business is when we are in session. So we are going to continue 
to work through these things and do it as quickly and as efficiently as 
possible.

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