Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Can we slow down a minute.

Mr. CONRAD. Could we ask a sponsor to briefly describe the amendment for colleagues.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I thank Senator Lugar and Senator Durbin for working together to clear this amendment so we could get this accomplished without a rollcall vote. We appreciate that very much. I yield 1 minute to the Senator from Illinois.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we need to be clear with our colleagues, there is no new money. This is rearranging debt. To the extent that means it is not terribly real, that is the reality. I thank my colleagues.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. Chairman, I think it would be useful to do that. This has a bit of a complexity.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, this is a very complex scoring issue. It may take some work after it leaves the Chamber tonight to get this right. We very much appreciate the fact that all the parties have worked together to avoid a rollcall vote.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I say to the Senator from California, I would be happy to yield time off the resolution to the Senator from Michigan so it would not come out of her time.

Mr. CONRAD. I could yield 10 minutes off the resolution to the Senator from Michigan. How much time does the Senator from New Jersey seek?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I yield the Senator 1 additional minute.

Mr. CONRAD. I would say in response to the inquiry of the Senator, in terms of what I found at home, North Dakota has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Nation. We have a very low rate of unemployment in our State. Yet job anxiety is growing there. Why? It is not because the unemployment rate is high; it is because good jobs are not available. It is because people who are more highly educated, more highly trained, are not able to get jobs commensurate with their training and education, and this is creating a whole level of people who are what we would call underemployed--underemployed based on their previous job experiences, underemployed in terms of their education and training. I say to my colleagues, there was a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine that my wife drew to my attention the other day. The cartoon was two guys who kind of looked like deadbeat guys. One guy says to the other: You know, you are out of work, aren't you? He said to the gentleman: I have quit looking. I understand that's good for the economy. No, it is not good for the economy. That I think is what is increasingly of concern to people. These are middle-class people, people with good education, with good training, who had good jobs. I have a relative who was very advanced in a major corporation and his entire division was laid off. These are very highly skilled people, very highly trained, very highly paid. They found all of their jobs were being shipped to India. To add insult to injury, they were asked to go to India to train the people to take their jobs.

Mr. CONRAD. If I might clarify, I can understand why this may be surprising. We were not able to arrive at a time agreement because you needed to talk to the chairman. We thought it would be more appropriate to withhold sending the amendment to the desk until you had a chance to consult with your chairman.

Mr. CONRAD. Senator Lautenberg never sent the amendment up.

Mr. CONRAD. We thought that would be more fair to you. If we could enter into a time agreement on the Harkin amendment, that would help substantially.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I hope the point is clear. The Senator has every right to offer her amendment. The Senator will have a chance to offer her amendment. The point is this: We have an order. We have an agreement. We are working through those amendments where Senators have been put in the queue. I am not going to yield time to other Senators who break the line. We have made commitments to Senators for an order of recognition. I intend to keep those commitments. Again, I yield to the Senator from Arkansas 10 minutes off the resolution. Amendment No. 2803

Mr. CONRAD. The Senator had been previously yielded 4 minutes off the resolution.

Mr. CONRAD. Will the Senator withhold? Amendment No. 2725

Mr. CONRAD. I would be glad to yield 2 minutes off the resolution on this amendment to the Senator from Massachusetts. Might I ask the chairman if we could get a time agreement on this amendment so we can get that amendment sent to the desk. We will try to keep this queue as orderly as possible.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Kennedy.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield an additional minute off the resolution.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, is the Senator from Connecticut seeking additional time for wrap-up?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, how much time would the Senator from Connecticut like?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I think it is important to note at this time the situation we face. It is important for our colleagues to understand. Senator Nickles could yield back all the rest of his time. I would then have 4 hours 46 minutes left. But he would have a right to half of that time. So it is important for colleagues to understand, when we say there are 4 hours 46 minutes left on our side, no, there really are not in a functional way. The chairman would verify that. I understand he is unable to enter into a time agreement at this moment on this amendment because he has to communicate with the committee chairman, but I am saying to other colleagues who are listening, please understand, we are rapidly approaching the time when we have far more requests for time than we have time. The dislocation that occurs here is people hear I have 4 hours 46 minutes left. All the chairman has to do is give back his remaining hour 50 minutes, and then he has rights to half of my time. So instead of 4 hours 46 minutes, I would then have 2 hours 23 minutes. I now have pending requests for 4 hours of time. It doesn't fit together. We have to ask restraint on the part of our colleagues. I understand we can't enter into a time agreement on this amendment. Senator Lautenberg has been very gracious in saying he will live with whatever time agreement we can produce. Perhaps the best we can do now is to have Senator Lautenberg proceed and at the earliest possible convenience of the chairman, if we can enter into a time agreement on this one and subsequent amendments that are pending, I think we could make real progress.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield 3 minutes off the resolution to the Senator from Connecticut.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, how much time does the Senator from Massachusetts need?

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Seven more votes on this list, and then I have in my hand, after having gone Member to Member, 34 more amendments on which Members are insisting a rollcall vote. Seven votes will take us about 2\1/2\ hours. Thirty-four more votes would take us another 11 hours, and that does not count the votes on the other side. That is 11 hours straight of voting in addition to the 2\1/2\ hours now. I say to our colleagues, we are masters of our own fate. If everybody insists on having rollcall votes on all of their amendments, we will be here until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, and then we will be here until late tomorrow night. That is where we are at the moment. Hopefully, people will relent and agree to try to get amendments accepted or dispatch with them.