Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we are very close now to starting to vote. Again, I ask our colleagues who have amendments in the queue to come so that they could make their final argument before the vote with 1 minute to each side. I think that would be reasonable.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I say to my colleague, the chairman, Senator Bingaman is in the Chamber. He would be willing to take 5 minutes to describe an amendment, and I am wondering if we could give him that time. My intention would be to give him 5 minutes off the resolution. I would ask him, because we have just given the amendment to the other side, not to send his amendment to the desk at this moment but to describe it. I would give him 5 minutes off the resolution. If the Senator needs more time, I would add time. We need unanimous consent to allow him to speak on his amendment without sending it to the desk and set aside Senator Byrd's amendment for the moment. I ask the Senator, would that be acceptable?

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, Senator Dodd is next on our side with an amendment. I ask Senator Dodd to proceed at this point.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, might I just inquire of the sponsor, what is the cost of this amendment and what is the source of the funding for it?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, this has been 4 long days and 4 difficult days in which the two sides have worked together with a remarkable spirit of cooperation and good will. I would call on my two colleagues--both Senator Kyl, whom I like and respect, and Senator Durbin, about whom I feel the same way--and ask them both to allow those two votes to go away. They can come back on other vehicles at a later point. Here we are, at 12:30, with an amendment that has a political agenda and calls for a political response. I think it is not appropriate, at 12:25, after we have worked together for 4 days with substantive disagreements which we have dealt with in an orderly and cooperative way. Can't we just withhold on this budget resolution and deal with this issue on a later vehicle?

Mr. CONRAD. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendments be dispensed with.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

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

Mr. CONRAD. That is not next on our list. Next on our list after Levin--and perhaps that can be worked out, the Levin-Collins amendment; it is not additional money--is the Durbin global AIDS amendment. That is the next in our line.

Mr. CONRAD. Senator Pryor would like to discuss his amendment. I yield him 2 minutes off the resolution.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the four amendments that were sent to the desk referenced by the chairman have no objection on this side.

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

Mr. CONRAD. We have to ask for people's patience, because, please understand, the staff of the chairman of the committee and my staff now have in a queue a whole series of amendments that have been shared on both sides but have not necessarily been evaluated fully by staff on both sides. Senator Levin's is on homeland security.

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

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

Mr. CONRAD. Senator Landrieu would be next on our side.

Mr. CONRAD. Let's be clear. No one on our side is saying the Senator cannot get a vote. He certainly can get a vote. The point is it will take a vote and some discussion. There is a point of order that lies against his amendment. The Senator has every right to seek a vote.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, my understanding is this is directed scorekeeping. The committees are told this doesn't cost any money, but it does cost money. I was willing to take this amendment when I was under the impression this didn't cost any money. But if we are going to start down the road of saying things that cost money don't cost money, then we have a real problem. I have a real problem with that amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. Senator Landrieu has a pending amendment, Senator Durbin has an amendment pending, Senator Schumer has a pending amendment, Senator Graham of Florida, Senator Reed, Senator Levin.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I just ask what the Senator wants to do at this point. Does he want to proceed on a discussion? This is obviously something that cannot be accepted and would require some discussion at this point. What is the desire of the chairman?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, my colleague, Senator Landrieu, is next on this side. She is prepared to go. I say to Senator McConnell, the ranking member of the Finance Committee has looked over his amendment, and that is not something we could accept at this point. I don't know if he is interested in going forward with the amendment at this stage.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Oklahoma if we might take the package of seven we reached agreement on.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, these five are fine. We have an agreement on both sides on these five.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, in the interest of moving things along, I want to register, to the extent there is directed scoring here, strong opposition. We cannot go down the path of saying things don't cost money. Maybe there is a view that it doesn't. But if the scorekeepers say it does, and we start telling them it doesn't, that creates a serious problem. I am not going to insist on a vote. I have confidence this will be taken care of in conference.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am advised that we have eight more votes still on this list. There may be some variance between us.