Floor Statements

Mr. President, under the previous order the Chair has issued, the Senate will consider up to three amendments to the tax extenders legislation with limited debate on the amendments and on the bill. The first vote of the day is expected to occur prior to the caucus luncheons and the remaining votes to occur in the afternoon. This bill is one of the most important ones done by this Congress. It is so important that we get this bill done. I hope the House will accept this legislation very quickly.

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

Mr. President, following the remarks of the two leaders, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

I have been in contact with the Republican leader. We hope, in the near future, to be able to enter a unanimous consent agreement to move forward on the tax extenders legislation, with limited debate. We also were unable to reach an agreement to consider the Advance America's Priorities Act. I am expecting a call from Senator Coburn momentarily to see if we can work our way through that. If we are unable to reach an agreement today on the extenders package--and we certainly think it would be possible, with an agreement, to work through the Coburn problems, but if we cannot do that, we will have to have a cloture vote in the morning on S. 3297. I hope that is not necessary.

I remind everybody that the adjournment date is next Friday. Everyone who holds things up must be very careful that they are not holding up our getting out of here on time. We have to do the extenders. We have to do the energy legislation. We have to do work on the stimulus bill, a CR, and a few other things that are absolutely necessary. I have spoken to the House leadership, and they want to be out by next Friday. But we have to send them some things before we can be out by next Friday.

I remind everyone that it is possible that we might have to work the next few days. There is nothing to change that at this stage. Monday, there will be no votes. I announced that some time ago. That being the case, whatever we do this week, then we have next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and that is our adjournment date. If we don't finish our work by next Friday--or Saturday, if that is the case--the following week is a Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah, which means we would have to come back the following Wednesday. So I hope everybody understands how difficult this is. One of the Senators said to me: Why aren't you more definite in what you are scheduling? I just cannot be, with the procedures in the Senate. One or two people can really throw a monkey wrench into how we move forward.

I hope we can have a very productive day. It is possible that we can complete the tax extenders and the energy legislation today. We could do that all today. There is no reason we can't. We know what we need to do. We need to pass the paid-for extenders on energy. We need to have a vote on AMT, whether we are going to pay for that, and we need to have a vote on the rest of the extenders package. Time limits are in

the proposed unanimous consent agreement. We can do that quickly, and we can then move to have the votes on the energy package. Senator Bingaman has an amendment. We have a House bill. We could move to substitute the Bingaman amendment for that. The Republicans have something they want to do on drilling. And then we will see if there is going to be the alternative offered by the Gang of 10. We could do that all today. We may go into the evening a little bit. But I hope Senators realize that every little bit of time that we don't have an agreement to move forward with legislation, it makes it more apparent that we are going to have to be here tomorrow, maybe Saturday, and certainly after the adjournment date.

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

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

Mr. President, as we speak, the financial turmoil of this country is ongoing. One way we can help is create some jobs, and that is what this legislation regarding the tax extenders would do.

We have waited for months for this legislation--months. It seems to me we should move forward. I am so disappointed that it has taken so long to get where we are. It has been months.

Senators have worked for a long period of time. We had a problem early on about how we were going to pay for it. I admire and respect the work done by Senators Cantwell and Ensign. They have worked very hard. It was a bipartisan effort to move forward. We have Senators Baucus and Grassley who have worked very hard, joining with Senators Cantwell and Ensign to move this legislation forward. We have a program to do this.

The longer we wait, the more difficult it is. We are in the waning hours of this legislative session, and there is going to be a lot of hue and cry that we not go home now. There is all this financial turmoil.

I tell everyone here, we should try to complete our work. The committees have a right to meet, even if we are not in session. And if there is something they come up with that we need to do, the President can call us back within a matter of minutes.

So let's try to get the work done that we know we have to get done now. The work we know we have to get done now is to get the tax extenders passed. We have to do something on energy that is nontax related, we have to do something on stimulus, and we have to do something on a CR. There are other issues we can work together to get done. But here it is Thursday afternoon. It is 2:30 in the afternoon.

I am going to ask for consent. It is something I have discussed at length publicly. I have discussed it privately with the Republican leader. We want to get this done. I think that is a fair statement.

It is never quite enough. There are some people who never can quite get enough. They want a little bit more. In the Senate, as it is set up, a person or two can wreak havoc with what is going on around here. I hope people understand that if we don't get this bill done, it is going to add to the financial catastrophe we are facing in our country.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 6049, energy extenders, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the Republican leader; that when the bill is considered, it be considered under the following limitations: that there be 60 minutes of general debate on the bill, equally divided and controlled by the leaders or their designees; that the only first-degree amendments in order be the following, with no other amendments in order and that they be subject to an affirmative 60-vote threshold, and that if the amendment achieves that threshold, then it be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that if the amendment does not achieve that threshold, then it be withdrawn; that each amendment be subject to a debate limitation of 60 minutes equally divided and controlled in the usual form: Baucus-Grassley substitute amendment regarding energy tax extenders with offsets; Reid or designee perfecting amendment regarding AMT with offset; Baucus-Grassley perfecting amendment regarding tax extenders, amendment without full offset; that it be in order for Senator Conrad to raise a budget point of order against the amendment; that once the debate time has been used or yielded back, the motion to waive the applicable point of order be considered to have been made; further, that if the motion to waive is successful, then the amendment be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that if the motion to waive is not successful, the amendment be withdrawn, and that Senator Conrad control up to 10 minutes of time during debate on this amendment; provided further, that regardless of the outcome of the vote with respect to the Baucus-Grassley substitute amendment, the Senate vote in relation to the remaining two amendments covered in this agreement; that the votes in relation to the above-listed amendments occur in the order listed after the use or yielding back of time; that upon disposition of all amendments, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended, with no intervening action or debate.

I will say this before asking for acceptance of this consent request. It is Thursday afternoon at 2:30. This bill has to go to the House of Representatives. I had somewhat long conversations with the Republican leader. I think this is going to work out fine. The longer we wait, the more difficult time we are having getting this through all the hoops that need to be jumped. So I hope people will allow us to go forward with this bill.

I ask through the Chair a question: When? That is the question. When is all this going to be worked out, if it is going to be worked out?

Mr. President, I will say this: I received a call from the Governor of Louisiana and the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. Everyone wants more. When is enough enough? We know Texas has been hit hard by this storm, and our hearts go out to the people without homes and without power. We understand that. But this is not the last train through this body. We are going to have a stimulus bill and a continuing resolution. Let's finish this bill. No one wants to leave Texas without the resources they need, but we need to complete this legislation now.

I say, if I heard my friend right, they are going to have to work through the afternoon to do this? What do we do with the State of Louisiana? Do we have to wait now to match that, that they get their fair share, as comparing it to Texas? As I said, there is other business we have to complete before we leave. One of them is a continuing resolution.

I say to my friend, if he doesn't get everything he wants on this bill, wait until then. We need to get this done; otherwise, we are going to be in a bottleneck, and there is no way in the world we can finish this work we have to do by a week from tomorrow.

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

Mr. President, for the information of Senators, we are trying to work things out here. It has been very difficult. At this stage, it appears that the vote on cloture on the Coburn package will be vitiated. We will not have that vote tonight or in the morning.

We are now waiting to see if we can work out an agreement on the extenders. This has been something that the chairman of the committee has worked on all day, and it has been very difficult. We thought we had it worked out on a couple different occasions, and we did not. We now are told that one Senator who had a problem with it is reading the new language. We hope that can be done fairly quickly. That being the case, we will be back and report to the Senate again, hopefully in the next half hour or so.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Tuesday, September 23, following a period of morning business, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 767, H.R. 6049, the energy extenders, that the bill be considered under the following limitations: there be 60 minutes of general debate on the bill, equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees, that the only first- degree amendments in order be the following, with no other amendments in order, and that they be subject to an affirmative 60-vote threshold, and if the amendment achieves that threshold, then it be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on table; if the amendment does not achieve that threshold, then it be withdrawn; that each amendment be subject to a debate limitation of 60 minutes, equally divided and controlled in the usual form: Baucus-Grassley substitute amendment regarding energy tax extenders with offset; Reid or designee perfecting amendment regarding AMT with offset; Baucus-Grassley perfecting amendment regarding tax extenders amendment without full offset; that it be in order for Senator Conrad to raise a budget point of order against the amendment, and that once debate time has been used or yielded back, a motion to waive the applicable point of order be considered to have been made; further, that if the motion to waive is successful, then the amendment be agreed to and a motion to reconsider be laid on the table; if the motion to waive is not successful, the amendment be withdrawn; and that Senator Conrad control up to 10 minutes of time during debate on this amendment; provided further that regardless of the outcome of the vote with respect to the Baucus- Grassley substitute amendment, the Senate would vote in relation to the remaining two amendments covered in this agreement, that the votes in relation to the above-listed amendments occur in the order listed after the use or yielding back of time; upon disposition of all amendments, the bill be read a third time and the Senate then proceed to vote on passage of the bill as amended, if amended, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, we are keyed up now to start the energy debate on Tuesday. It has been a long, hard 24 hours. Everyone has been working hard. You have to be patient in this business. I especially extend my appreciation to Senators Baucus and Grassley, and it has been difficult.

We have had a terrible natural disaster that has hit. Louisiana--not to denigrate Katrina--they still got hurt, but Texas was devastated. That is the reason this was held up. I understand Senator Hutchison and Senator Cornyn being concerned. I would say to them, if this does not take care of all of the problems, we will have to take another look at it because pictures are worth 1,000 words. We have had a lot of pictures about what took place with this terrible wind storm.

So, again, I wish we could have moved this more quickly. But certain things do not happen as you would want. Next week we have to complete this legislation. We just arrived at a way to move forward on it. We have to do what remains with energy after that. We have to do a CR and maybe a stimulus.

We still have the Coburn package floating around. So we have a lot to do. We will do our best to try to complete our work by a week from tomorrow. I also appreciate the efforts of my colleague, Senator McConnell. It has been difficult for him because the problems have been on his side. But he has been a gentleman about this and has been probably more patient than I have.

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

Mr. President, we are going to move to next week. We have business we need to conduct. We have had a very busy day. We have been at an event with the Secretary of Treasury and Chairman of the Fed and a number of others. Next week should be very interesting.

We have an agreement where we are going to finish the extenders now. We have a decision to be made on what we are going to do on the stimulus package but certainly, with what has gone

on in our country the last several weeks, we need a stimulus package more than ever. So we will see what we can get done on that next week and fund the Government until, hopefully, next year.

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until Monday, September 22, at 3 p.m.; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

I would further say, one reason we are not going to be in session tomorrow is we are waiting to get a response from the administration as to what they think should be done as the next step in the financial problems we have facing this country. We need to hear from them. So there is no objection to my request, Mr. President?

Mr. President, this evening, as I indicated, we were able to reach an agreement on the tax extenders. The Senate will debate and vote on amendments and passage of that on Tuesday.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it stand in recess under the previous order.

Mr. President, the scheduled termination date of this Congress is a week this coming Friday--a week after the day after tomorrow. We have a lot to do. We are going to finish, sometime today, the Defense authorization bill. I am in conference with Senator Levin to see if there is something we can work out. If not, this matter will be completed, no matter what anyone does, at 9:30 tonight. The vote tonight is on passage of the bill. It is not 60 votes. We just have to get a simple majority.

I will file cloture on the Coburn package, which has scores of bills in it that have been held up. I had a very good conversation with him yesterday. I will meet with him later today to see if we can work something out and move forward on that without a cloture vote. I hope that can be done. Senator Coburn said he thought it could be. I hope that is, in fact, the case. I will be as reasonable as I can be, and I am hopeful and confident that he will be.

After that--whatever is determined on that--we are going to move to the tax extenders. We need a vehicle to do that. Any of the 99 Senators can object to having a vehicle to do that. We, of course, procedurally, could move to something, but it could take a couple extra days. Of course, everyone should understand that we may have to be working the next week or so with no time off. If we have people who are trying to slow things up, stall things, then we are going to have to use the time that we have to use, procedurally, to get to an instrument. Once we get to that, Senator McConnell and I have an agreement that we are going to try to effectuate where we would vote on paying for all the tax extenders as it relates to renewables. Then we would have a vote on whether we are going to pay for AMT, and then a vote on the package and send that to the House.

Of course, after that, there are other things we need to do. We have an economic recovery package. The House will be sending us that. We have a CR that we have to complete to fund the Government. There is one thing I didn't mention by oversight.

When we finish the tax extenders, we have to do the rest of our energy legislation. That is the bill the House passed last night. We can use that for a vehicle. Everybody is expecting--rightfully so--that there would be a vote on Senator Bingaman's alternative, there would be a vote on the Republican alternative, and there would be a vote--if, in fact, they decide to move forward on it--on the Gang of 10's so-called bipartisan legislation. So there is the House-passed bill, the Bingaman bill, the Republican alternative, and the bipartisan bill. All of them include drilling. So people can vote their hearts out on drilling. Someone could actually vote for all four of those.

As I indicated, we have the CR. There are a lot of other things the CR may take care of that we have not finished, including MilCon, VA, and Homeland Security appropriations; and there are people out there who are concerned about things we should do before we

leave here, such as LIHEAP. Hopefully, that could be included in either the stimulus package or the CR. Oil prices are not as high as they have been, but fuel oil in the Northeast is expected to be high this winter. We hope to work something out on mental health parity, the Ledbetter issue. We could have another vote on that, if I decide that. We have a lot to do.

This morning, we are going to have a period for morning business for up to 1 hour, as soon as I complete my statement. The majority will control the first 30 minutes. My understanding is that Senator Dorgan is here and available, and he will speak for about 15 minutes. The Republicans will control the last 30 minutes.

Following that, we will resume consideration of S. 3001, the Defense authorization. Yesterday, cloture was invoked on the Defense bill, and I announced at that time I was appreciative of the help we got from the Republicans. All postcloture debate time will expire about 9:30 tonight.

Mr. President, I applaud my colleague for the statement he made. The Constitution is our guiding document in this great country. There isn't too much emphasis we can place on it. I respect the words of my colleague. I am confident that he speaks for all Senators.