Floor Statements

Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. President, in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to further proceeding en bloc.

Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. President, I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 5842, which is at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to this measure be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 860 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

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

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 531, S. 3501.

I ask unanimous consent the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 642, S. 3687.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

As in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the Senate on November 13, 2006, by the President of the United States:

Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, Treaty Document No. 109-21.

I further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the President's message be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, November 14. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 5385, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill.

Mr. President, tomorrow we will continue to work on the bill we began today, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. The bill's managers, Senators Hutchison and Feinstein, were here today and will be here on the floor tomorrow. Senators should consult with them at the earliest time possible if they want to have an amendment considered to this important funding bill.

We do expect to complete this legislation tomorrow afternoon. Senators are reminded we will be voting tomorrow late afternoon, and we will alert everyone once a vote is scheduled.

As I mentioned earlier this morning, we plan this week to do a continuing resolution, to do a Vietnam trade agreement, and to do the U.S./India nuclear agreement, as well as other appropriations bills as they come to the floor.

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

Mr. President, this morning at 10, we will have a vote on the adoption of the conference report to accompany the Department of Defense appropriations bill. That will be the first vote of the day. We will then resume postcloture debate on the border fence bill. Given yesterday's cloture vote of 71 to 28, I am hopeful to complete this bill early in the day.

Following the border fence bill, under the order, there will be a cloture vote on the Child Custody message. The Homeland Security appropriations conference report has been filed, and we will need to consider this important funding legislation as soon as it becomes available. In addition to the items I have outlined, we have executive items to address, including treaties and nominations, one of which is the Secretary of the Department of Transportation. As of now, a Saturday session certainly is a possibility, and I will update my colleagues on the schedule later today as we continue to move forward.

As I said, Senators can anticipate a full day during today's session.

It should be 3 a.m.

Mr. President, while you are checking that out, it is my understanding, based on discussions last night, that we started at 9 o'clock last night. That is when the time officially started, and it would be 30 hours from 9 o'clock last night, which will be about 3 a.m.

Mr. President, did the Senator make a unanimous consent request?

Reserving the right to object, and I will object, I saw for the first time 10 seconds ago what the minority leader has proposed.

I had a unanimous consent request that we proceed to the bill the House passed last night when we started the discussion, and this is a continuation and a response to the fact that we do have to act today.

What I prefer to do is work through the bill the House already passed, H.R. 6198, which has been received from the House. But what we can do is for us to get together and see how best to address this matter, either with the approach the Democratic leader put forward or the approach that I think is much better and much more complete, the House bill.

So I object to his unanimous consent request. Rather than go through the formal unanimous consent request on the House bill, which I have before me, why don't we try to address it.

On the India Nuclear Act, it is something we are working on. I believe we do need, before we leave, to put together a package, as the Democratic leader and I have been working toward, something along the order of a day, as he mentioned. Both of these issues are very important. I brought them up last night and we do need to act on those today.

Mr. President, in closing, I wish to say this is a good example. There is going to be a lot happening over these next 24 hours. If we can work through these matters and we can receive the final legislation to be considered on the floor, legislation such as homeland security and port security, I think we will be able to act in a fairly expeditious manner. The clock will run on the border fence bill until 3 a.m. That is when the vote would occur. If, through working together, we are able to manage things in a more orderly way, we will be able to do that.

Following that vote, we have one more vote on child custody protection. Again, these are issues that are very important, but we will do our best working together to get things as coordinated as we possibly can, given some legislation isn't quite ready yet for the floor.

With that, I hope everybody will be very patient over the next 24, 36 hours, and then we will have everybody out and have our Nation's business done.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent there now be a period of morning business until 12 noon with the time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, the time count under rule XXII, and the following Senators be recognized in the following order: Senator Byrd, for up to 20 minutes; Senator Santorum, for up to 20 minutes; Senator Feinstein, 15 minutes; Senator DeMint, for up to 10 minutes; and 20 minutes under the control of Senator Frist.

Mr. President, I will modify the unanimous consent to Senators Byrd, 20 minutes; Santorum, 20 minutes; Feinstein, 15 minutes; DeMint, 10 minutes; 20 minutes, Enzi, not Frist.

I am going back to my original unanimous consent request because I have too many Members wanting to talk. What we are doing, just for the information of our colleagues, is to lay out just morning business. We might even be able to extend morning business until the Democratic leader and I plan out the remainder of the day.

Now, as soon as I do the unanimous consent, we have a lot of Members who want to talk. We will not cut anyone off, but Members have been waiting--including Senator Byrd--since last night, and I want to be able to recognize them.

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, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period of morning business until 12:45, with the time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, and further that the time count under rule XXII, and that the following Senators be recognized in the following order: Byrd, 20 minutes; Santorum, 20 minutes; Feinstein, 15 minutes; DeMint, 10 minutes; Enzi, 20 minutes; Landrieu, 10 minutes; Boxer, 10 minutes; and Craig, 10 minutes.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent at 9:10 this evening, the pending amendment, No. 5036, be withdrawn, the bill be read the third time, and Senator Salazar be recognized for 5 minutes, Senator Bingaman for 5 minutes, Senator Craig for 5 minutes, Senator Reid for 3 minutes, Senator Frist for 3 minutes, and the Senate proceed immediately to a vote on passage, with no intervening action or debate; and I further ask consent that following that vote, the Senate proceed as under the rule to the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur on S. 403; I further ask consent if cloture is not invoked, the Senate proceed immediately to the conference report to accompany H.R. 5441, the Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Report, and there be 5 minutes equally divided for debate prior to a vote on adoption of the conference report.

I further ask consent that if cloture is invoked on the motion to concur to S. 403, the pending amendments be withdrawn and the Senate vote on the motion, with no intervening action or debate; and further, the Senate proceed as above to the Homeland Security conference report.

I also ask following the vote on the Homeland Security conference report, Senator Lautenberg be in control of 10 minutes, Senator Collins for 5 minutes, Senator Stevens for 5 minutes; the Senate proceed to a vote on the conference report to accompany H.R. 4954, the port security conference report, if the papers are received from the House and they are identical to those at the desk currently, with no intervening action or debate; further, I ask that if the papers have not arrived from the House, then upon receipt of those papers, the Senate proceed to its consideration, again, only if those papers are identical to those at the desk currently, then the conference report be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

I further ask consent that following the vote on the port security conference report, H.R. 5441, if port security has not arrived, then the Senate proceed to consideration of H. Con. Res. 483, the adjournment resolution; provided further, that Senator Levin be recognized to speak for up to 10 minutes, and following that time, the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

The Senate proceed to the vote on the conference report to accompany H.R. 4954, the port security conference report, if the papers are received from the House and they are identical to those that are at the desk currently, with no intervening action or debate; further, I ask that if the papers have not arrived from the House, then upon receipt of those papers the Senate proceed to its consideration, again, only if those papers are identical to those at the desk currently, then the conference report be agreed to, with the motion to reconsider laid upon the table.

Mr. President, let me briefly outline--because that wording is very complicated--what that means. At approximately 9:30 we will begin voting and we will have a vote on the border fence. Following that, we have a cloture motion to concur with the House on child custody. That also would be a rollcall vote. Following that, there is a short period of debate on Homeland Security, and we have a third rollcall vote on Homeland Security. Following that, port security will be dealt with, which should not require a rollcall vote, and the adjournment resolution, which should not require a rollcall vote.

Thus, we would have three rollcall votes in this unanimous consent request.