Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Time is running evenly at this point?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I want to inform colleagues, I will not be able to agree to such a unanimous consent request. I want everybody to know we will not be able to agree to waive this throughout the process. We might agree to waive it for Senate consideration, but we would have no assurance this would not be altered. There is no way to guarantee it might not be altered.

Mr. CONRAD. Let me finish. Then I would be happy to yield. There is no way to assure that other provisions might be added, and so we cannot agree to eliminating points of order through the whole process. I am happy to yield.

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. Parliamentary inquiry: How much time remains on this amendment now?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I make a unanimous consent request that we give the Senator 5 minutes that will come off the Republican side when we agree to extend the time for this debate momentarily.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, might I interrupt the Senator for a moment so we might propound a unanimous-consent request?

Mr. CONRAD. I very much appreciate that. Madam President, I would like to yield 45 minutes, the time in opposition, to the Senator from Georgia, Mr. Chambliss, for his control.

Mr. CONRAD. Reserving the right to object--and I hopefully will not be objecting, I am sure we can work this out--in terms of the time for Senator Byrd's amendment, did we have that?

Mr. CONRAD. Very well. I have no objection.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, how much time does the Senator seek?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, Senator Gregg and I entered into a unanimous consent agreement that the first amendment to be considered today will be the amendment on the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. The time will be controlled by Senator Cantwell on our side. The second amendment will be an amendment by Senators Grassley and Dorgan on payment limits. The third amendment today will be an amendment by Senators Lott and Lautenberg on Amtrak. I want to say to my colleagues, given the events of yesterday, our schedule has been somewhat altered. It is going to be exceedingly difficult to get debate time on all of the remaining amendments, even the significant amendments. We have previously agreed that we will end debate at 6 p.m. today and then tomorrow go into a sequence of votes on the remaining amendments. So I say this by way of urging colleagues to show restraint with respect to the use of time so a maximum number of amendments can be considered and debated. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. CONRAD. Yes. We have a unanimous consent agreement that is in place with respect to Cantwell, Grassley, Lott.

Mr. CONRAD. With the understanding we will try to insert an amendment in between the second and third.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, how much time remains on the Republican side?

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

Mr. CONRAD. And who controls the time in opposition?

Mr. CONRAD. Could the Chair alert us as to the time remaining?

Mr. CONRAD. I understand. I ask the manager, is there a way we can perhaps parcel out the time in a way that would be acceptable to the manager?

Mr. CONRAD. The majority manager controls the time in opposition and the majority manager is not in opposition.

Mr. CONRAD. Parliamentary inquiry: Who controls the time in opposition?

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

Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Chair.

Mr. CONRAD. So in terms of making a decision, the Parliamentarian simply does not have all the information before him to make a judgment.

Mr. CONRAD. And that part of the analysis has not yet been done, I assume, in terms of the Parliamentarian making a final determination. He has not had the evidence put before him; is that correct?