Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, reserving the right to object because I want to make certain we also got in the language that second-degree amendments would be permitted during the above times and their debate would be limited to the time specified under the agreement.

Mr. CONRAD. The unanimous consent request the manager of the bill and I will offer will extend the time until noon.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, through the Chair I would like to say to the Senator from Washington that at this point, because the only time remaining is her time, and we are not yet prepared to enter into the unanimous consent request to extend the time, although I hope that will happen momentarily, it would be in her best interest to use the time.

Mr. CONRAD. How much time remains on our side?

Mr. CONRAD. We are taking time off the amendment. I thank the Chair. I excuse the interruption.

Mr. CONRAD. The ANWR amendment has been submitted. Are we taking time off the amendment?

Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Chair. May I inquire, has the amendment been submitted?

Mr. CONRAD. Will the Senator yield for a moment?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, first I thank the Senator from Arizona for his graciousness and indicate that there are Senators who have expressed an eagerness to speak, and what we have been trying to do on both sides here is fit in Senators as they come to the floor. So this may be a good time to alert Senators there are a few moments here that would be available conceivably until 4:15 if Senators on either side want to come and have a chance to make a comment. Perhaps it is also a good time to alert Senators after this amendment we will go to the Murray amendment on dual eligibles from 4:15 to 5, the Ensign amendment from 5 to 5:30, and the Landrieu amendment from 5:30 to 6. With that, I yield the floor. I thank the Chair. Again I want to thank the Senator from Arizona.

Mr. CONRAD. No objection.

Mr. CONRAD. Colleagues should be aware that tomorrow is going to be a day of voting one vote right after another. Votes have already been scheduled for 5 solid hours, at least. This is a time for restraint. This is a time for colleagues to realize what it is like when we go into these vote-aramas and to try to reduce the number of votes that colleagues are asked to take. When you get into this vote-arama, it almost becomes hard to fully appreciate and understand the votes you are casting. These votes come so fast and so furiously. I hope colleagues are thinking about that as they consider how we conduct the business of the Senate tomorrow. I thank the Chair. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, very briefly, we now are going to go to the Landrieu amendment. I understand Senator Landrieu is on her way to the floor. She will have from 5:30 to 6 o'clock. At that time, we will be done. I see Senator Landrieu now in the Chamber. We will then be finished with the debate on reconciliation, which means we then go to votes on the amendments. I want to again alert our colleagues, we have 15 amendments already pending. That is 5 hours of solid voting. We would like to send the message, as clearly as we can, to our colleagues: 15 amendments is probably enough. We do not need to add to the time of the Chamber with additional amendments. I think we have had a very good, full debate on reconciliation. We hope very much that 5 hours of solid voting will be sufficient. I thank the Chair and yield the floor. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, if the Senator from Louisiana is ready, that we could begin on her amendment at this point.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we are making very good progress. It is very important that we stay on track. The next amendment is a Byrd amendment on visa reform. That is to be followed by a Lott-Lautenberg amendment on Amtrak, followed by a McCain amendment in the 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. timeframe, then a Murray amendment on dual eligible from 4:15 to 5 p.m., an Ensign amendment from 5 to 5:30 p.m., and finally a Landrieu amendment or an amendment by someone I might designate from 5:30 to 6 p.m. We only have 4 hours of debate left on the reconciliation matter. All of the time has been allocated. I am informed that Senator Byrd is on his way. I very much hope that Senators understand, because of the events of yesterday and because of the very tight time limitations under reconciliation, there simply was not additional time for other amendments. Obviously, we will be going to votes on amendments tomorrow. I think we already have some 15 amendments. That means at least 5 hours of voting tomorrow. I hope colleagues will think about that very carefully: 5 solid hours of voting tomorrow with just the amendments so far. I see Senator Byrd now entering the Chamber. His amendment is next. I know the chairman of the committee shares the view that we need to move through the rest of these amendments expeditiously and then Senators recognize that tomorrow we are going to be casting a lot of votes. With what is already scheduled, already lined up, we will have 5 solid hours of voting. We are glad to see the senior Senator from West Virginia, who will offer his amendment. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, perhaps this is a good time to remind colleagues of the lineup and encourage those who have remaining amendments to come to the floor. If there is anyone wishing to speak during the next 15 minutes, there is time available. Now that we have gone to the Byrd amendment, the next amendment up from 3 to 3:30 is the Lott-Lautenberg amendment, to be followed by the McCain amendment from 3:30 to 4:15, from 4:15 to 5 the Murray amendment on dual eligibles, to be followed by the Ensign amendment on DTV from 5 to 5:30, and then the Landrieu amendment or an amendment to be designated from 5:30 to 6. I hope very much that colleagues who have requested time watch the floor closely. We are down to the last 3\1/4\ hours on the reconciliation bill in terms of debate time. If there are those who have not had a chance to speak, if they watch the floor closely--a number of these amendments may not take the full amount of time--that would be their opportunity to talk. As I have indicated, we have a few minutes left before 3 p.m. If there are Senators listening or staff listening and their Senator would like a chance to speak, either on the Republican side or on this side, this is their opportunity. This is one of their opportunities. There may be a few more left, but it is a fleeting opportunity.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following material be printed in the Record.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, if I could revisit the point, I hope colleagues understand what we are headed for tomorrow. It is not going to be fun. We already have 5 hours, at least, of voting tomorrow. We hope people take that into consideration as they think about their schedules tomorrow. The chairman might remind us. We start tomorrow at 9 o'clock and we will go right to votes; is that not correct?

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Iowa for this time. Let me indicate that there are really three abuses which are occurring in the current system. No. 1, there is no effective limit on the marketing loan benefit. Current law does not limit gains received through commodity marketing loan forfeitures or commodity certification transactions. The fact is there is no limit on marketing loan benefits. That was never the intention. No. 2, payments are not attributed to the individual who receives the benefits. Producers may create multiple entities, such as corporations, to increase the total amount of payments received. In the last farm bill debate in the conference committee--and I was one of the negotiators on the conference committee--I took to my colleagues an example from a State that will remain unnamed that involved 49 different entities that represented only 5 people. This was an incredible shell game to avoid and evade any kind of reasonable payment limits. This is the kind of abuse that will be shut down by the Grassley-Dorgan amendment. No. 3, the definition of ``actively engaged'' has been weakened. A cottage industry of lawyers and accountants has developed to create shell organizations to allow nonfarmers to qualify for farm program payments because they have a minimal interest in a farming operation. In some cases, participation in a farm management conference call once a year now qualifies them as ``engaged.''

Mr. CONRAD. These are the three critical points I hope my colleagues will focus on.

Mr. CONRAD. The Senator is correct.

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be dispensed with.

Mr. CONRAD. I thank very much the Senator from Iowa for yielding.

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, might I inquire through the Chair if the Senator would allow an interruption for a unanimous consent request with respect to who controls the time in opposition?

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I think it might be useful for the purposes of informing our colleagues where we are now. We have completed the debate on the ANWR issue. We now go to the Grassley- Dorgan amendment that is on payment limitations. We will then go to the Bingaman amendment on the subject of FMAP. We will then go to the Byrd amendment from 2 to 3 on the issue of visa reform. We will then go to the Lott-Lautenberg amendment on Amtrak; that is from 3 to 3:30. From 3:30 to 4:15, we will be on the McCain amendment; from 4:15 to 5 on the Murray amendment on dual eligibles; then an Ensign amendment on DTV from 5 to 5:30; then the Landrieu amendment or an amendment that I might designate from 5:30 to 6. That uses up all of the time. If we could alert colleagues, we have a very restricted schedule. These are the only amendments we could schedule time for and get unanimous consent. We apologize to our colleagues who wanted additional opportunities to offer amendments. It simply was not possible given the very tight time limitations of reconciliation and given the events of yesterday. I ask unanimous consent that Senators Harkin, Obama, and Mikulski be added as cosponsors to my pay-go amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield the floor.