Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to H.R. 131.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and that any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to Calendar No. 56, S. Res. 49.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and that any statements relating to this resolution be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from consideration of S. Res. 111 and the Senate proceed to its consideration

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 154.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, there be no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, May 20; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 2346, the supplemental appropriations bill, as provided for under the previous order.

Mr. President, under the previous order, there will be up to 2 hours for debate in relation to the Inouye amendment regarding funding with respect to detainees at the Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prior to a vote in relation to the amendment. Senators should expect the first vote of the day to begin around 11:30 a.m. tomorrow. Under rule XXII, the filing deadline for first-degree amendments to H.R. 2346 is 1 p.m. tomorrow.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, following remarks of the leaders, the Senate will be in a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. There will be no rollcall votes today. The next vote will be tomorrow morning at about 10 a.m. That vote will be on the motion to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment to H.R. 627, the credit card bill.

Mr. President, in these past few weeks, we have seen the good that can happen when we look out for Main Street, not just Wall Street. We have accomplished a lot. This work period has been tremendously productive, but we have a lot to finish this week before we can adjourn for Memorial Day. We have to finish an important bill that puts fairness and common sense back into credit cards--those credit cards we use every day. It stops companies from taking advantage of their customers with hidden charges and misleading terms. We need to finish a bill we passed a couple weeks ago that will crack down on corporate fraud and mortgage scams. We need to finish a bill that will help millions of families keep their homes. We need to finish a bill that reins in out-of-control Government contractors who waste taxpayer money, the so-called procurement bill. We need to confirm President Obama's nominee to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior--a man who is supremely qualified and held the same position in President Clinton's Cabinet. Finally, we have to pass a supplemental appropriations bill to give our troops the tools they need to succeed as they fight in two wars. This funding will strengthen our military, rebuild our standing in the world, and reduce our key security threats.

So I hope this week we can cap off a productive and successful work period with another fruitful week, but it will take the cooperation of both Democrats and Republicans to do this. I have had a brief conversation with the floor staff, and it is something we should be able to do fairly quickly. I hope that, in fact, is the case. I look forward to visiting, sometime today, with my counterpart, the Republican leader, to see what we can do to work toward this common goal of finishing our work as quickly as we can. We all have scheduled a lot of things for the Memorial Day recess. It is one of those rare times when we can be home during the week. We look forward to that. We want to make that time as lengthy as possible, and we will do what we can on this side to see if we can move through these very important pieces of legislation.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, following the remarks of Senator McConnell and myself, there will be a period of morning business for up to an hour. Senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the exception of Senator Feinstein, who will control the full 30 minutes on the Democratic side. The next 30 minutes will be under the control of the Republicans. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the credit card legislation.

Last evening, I filed cloture on the substitute amendment and on the underlying bill. That was under rule XXII. Because of that, the filing deadline for germane first-degree amendments is at 1 p.m. today. I hope we can reach agreement to have that cloture vote today. It is scheduled for the morning. If we can't do it in the morning, we will have to do it Tuesday morning because of the Senate schedule. If we complete that cloture vote tonight, we would be able to finish the germane amendments Tuesday morning and move on to other matters we have to do next week before we take our Memorial Day recess. We want to be able to leave here, if at all possible, on Thursday of next week. People have things scheduled. But we may have to work into Friday. I hope not. I hope we don't have to work into Saturday. But we have to do this credit card legislation, the financial fraud. We have been in contact with Republicans. They will have a number of amendments. They want it to come back from the House. There will be some amendments in order. I have spoken to the Republican leader on that, and they are going to try to get us those amendments as quickly as possible. Hopefully this morning we can set that up to complete that legislation quickly.

Then, of course, we have to do the supplemental appropriations bill. I hope that is not going to be controversial. It will be marked up in the Senate today, and then we will have the ability to look at what the House and Senate did before it comes to the floor here.

There are a number of issues that will be discussed. I hope there aren't any that should take a lot of time, but we will see.

That is our workload this work period. I hope we can work through this, as much as we can get done today. If not, we can complete a lot of the work on tomorrow and Monday even though there will be no votes on those days.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that no further amendments be in order, except a managers' amendment, which has been cleared by the managers and leaders, and that at 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 19, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 627, and proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Dodd-Shelby substitute amendment No. 1058; that if cloture is invoked on the substitute amendment, then the Senate proceed to consider any pending germane amendments; that upon disposition of those amendments, all postcloture time be yielded back; the substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, and the Senate then proceed to vote on passage of the bill; that the cloture motion with respect to H.R. 627 be withdrawn.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to S. 386, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur in the House amendment with the amendment which is at the desk; and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; further, that the Senate then concur in the title amendment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair lay before the Senate a message from the House on S. 454.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate disagree to the House amendment, agree to the request for a conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees, and that the Senate Armed Services Committee be appointed as conferees.

Mr. President, there will be no votes until Tuesday morning.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of David Hayes to be Deputy Secretary of Interior. There will be up to 1 hour for debate, equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, prior to a cloture vote on that nomination. The Senate will recess from 12:30 to 1:30 to allow for a special Democratic caucus meeting.

The reception for the spouses dinner at the Botanic Garden begins at 6:30 tonight, and Senators are encouraged to attend. This is a nice event. We don't have an opportunity to get together very often, so this is something we all look forward to, and I am confident it will be a very good evening for us all.