Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONRAD. Would the Chair yield for a moment?

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I think it would be useful at this point to recap the next tranche of amendments. The following amendments are in order: Menendez, 4259; Sessions, 4231; Cornyn, 4242; Pryor, 4181; Allard, 4246; Nelson, 4212, Ensign 4240; Sanders, 4218; Conrad, undesignated; Gregg, 4305; Reed, 4154; DeMint 4328; Biden, 4164; Dole, 4208; Dodd, 4254; Allard, 4232; Brown, 4155; Brownback, 4284; Kohl, 4197; Baucus side-by- side, undesignated; Hatch, 4280. That is the order of the next tranche of amendments. Let me say for the benefit of our colleagues that it is going to take real restraint if we are going to have any kind of reasonable ending by any kind of reasonable time. All of those amendments are in order. We are prepared to vote on them. To the extent colleagues could withhold on additional amendments, that would certainly be helpful. We are rapidly approaching the point at which we will have had the average number of amendments on a budget resolution. It runs from 32 to 36, roughly, on a budget resolution for rollcall votes. If we get through this tranche, I think we will be well over that number. But colleagues have a right, we understand that. We ask people to think if there is a possibility to withhold. Senator Menendez is next. Amendment No. 4259

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, might I ask the Parliamentarian, through the Presiding Officer, a series of questions about this amendment?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, No. 1, is this amendment germane to the budget resolution?

Mr. CONRAD. No. 2, if this amendment were to be adopted, is it corrosive to the privileged nature of a budget resolution?

Mr. CONRAD. No. 3, if this amendment came back from the conference committee, would it be fatal to the privileged nature of the budget resolution?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, that is the problem with this amendment. This is not in the jurisdiction----

Mr. CONRAD. It is not in the jurisdiction of the committee. Is all time yielded back?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we have now cast roughly 19 rollcall votes. We have another 20 pending. For the background of Senators, in 2005, we had 37 recorded rollcall votes; in 2006, we had 36 recorded rollcall votes; in 2007, we had 32 recorded rollcall votes. So with the votes we have already had and the votes in the train, we will have exceeded the recorded rollcall votes of any of the last 3 years. I say that knowing Senators have a right to continue to ask for amendments, certainly. But to put it into some perspective, with 20 additional amendments to be voted on, that would take 7 hours, which would put us at midnight. I know sometimes the Senate does its best work after dark, but I hope we will think seriously about relinquishing some of these amendments and save them for a later vehicle. Amendment No. 4181

Mr. CONRAD. The next vote in order is the vote on the amendment by the Senator from Arkansas, Mr. Pryor. We have indicated that on both sides we would be willing to take that as a voice vote.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, that would take us to the Allard amendment No. 4246.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the next amendment in order is the Nelson amendment on construction. I understand the Senator has a modification.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I want to, one more time, implore our colleagues--we have some colleagues who have multiple amendments pending. By the time we end this tranche, we will have had nearly 40 votes. That is significantly more than any of the last 3 years we have had a budget resolution in terms of recorded rollcall votes. But we have some colleagues--I do not know whether this is their staff speaking for them or whether Members are actually so wedded to those amendments. I would ask colleagues to ask their staffs how many amendments they have on these lists. We have a list here of 50 more amendments. That really is not reasonable. That is not reasonable by any historic standard. The next amendment in order is the amendment by the Senator from Rhode Island.

Mr. CONRAD. Yes, that is correct. Senator Gregg's amendment is next in line, but we have agreed to drop that down. Some work is being done on that amendment, which makes the next amendment in order the amendment of the Senator from Rhode Island. Amendment No. 4154

Mr. CONRAD. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONRAD. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I think there is no time in opposition.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, there is no opposition. We ask colleagues to accept the amendment on a voice vote, if the Senator would agree.

Mr. CONRAD. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. CONRAD. Next in order is an amendment by Senator Dodd, No. 4254.

Mr. CONRAD. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I think there is a kernel of a good idea here. Unfortunately, I think the PART program has been defective in its analysis. It says, for example, the Community Development Block Grant program is defective because it lacks a clear purpose. Ask your mayors and your Governors about that. It says Amtrak's purpose is ambiguous. Ask the millions of people who go to work every day on Amtrak. It says the Department of Homeland Security security grants have an ineffective risk assessment formula and a lack of consistent performance. Ask that of the first responders around the country who have the responsibility of protecting the homeland. This would cut programs $750 million--programs that are vital to the security of the country, to the economic growth of the country. I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment.