[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 4206]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 2204

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that if cloture is 
invoked on the motion to proceed to S. 1789, which is the postal reform 
bill, and the motion to proceed is later adopted, the Senate resume 
consideration of S. 2204, which is the Repeal Big Oil Subsidies Act, at 
a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation 
with the Republican leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I share 
the majority leader's view that we ought to turn to the postal reform 
bill. What I intend to do is to ask that we modify the consent that the 
majority leader just offered--modify his request so that on Monday, 
April 16, we proceed to the consideration of S. 1769, the postal reform 
bill.
  That would give us an opportunity to further debate and discuss the 
Menendez proposal, which we just invoked cloture on yesterday, for the 
remainder of the week. So I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I think most 
people know I worked here as a police officer for most of the time I 
was going to law school. I also worked for a period of time in the post 
office. I am not an expert on the post office, but I know the 
importance of post offices.
  I know what is going to happen in the State of Nevada if we do not 
make some arrangement to help the Postal Service survive. Scores of 
small post offices in Nevada will go out of business. There will be 
distribution centers that may not exist after a few months. So I wish 
to get to the postal bill as much as anyone in this Chamber, having 
worked for the Postal Service, through the House Post Office.
  I wish to move to the postal bill. But I am not going to be forced 
into doing it at a time that may not work out just right for our 
schedule; that is, the Senate. So I will move to that shortly after the 
recess as quickly as I can, but I am not going to agree to a specific 
time.
  I object to the modification.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The request of the initial modification is 
objected to.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I object to the initial request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard to the initial request.

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