Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I yield 5 minutes off the resolution to the Senator.

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 I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Missouri for her remarks. Next up is Senator Cornyn. Could the Senator give us a rough idea of how long he will require?

Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Senator, who is always a gentleman. Then Senator Reed wishes to speak or offer an amendment?

Mr. CONRAD. We will have to ask the Senator to speak on the amendment but to reserve sending it up, because we have this order where we have to go back and forth. If you are not here, I will send up your amendment when your slot arrives. It may be a while before your slot arrives. We are going to go back and forth. It requires a delicate balance. Is that okay with the ranking member?

Mr. CONRAD. If you could share the amendment with the Republican side so they have a chance. They give us their amendments, we give them ours. I yield to Senator Cornyn.

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I would ask the Parliamentarian, through the Chair, a series of questions, if I could, about the Cornyn amendment. Does the Parliamentarian have the Cornyn amendment?

Mr. CONRAD. Actually, I would ask the Senator--we are in this situation in which we try to go back and forth on both sides. There are a number of other Senators who have preceded you in presenting the argument for their amendment, but they have had to withhold actually sending it up so we can go back and forth. I do not know if we are at the point where Senator Cornyn can send his amendment to the desk.

Mr. CONRAD. The Senator is next. The amendment can be sent to the desk.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I thank the ranking member for his continuing courtesy and graciousness. This is my 60th. As I left the house this morning, I told my wife and our son, who is there visiting, I have to question: What have I done wrong in my life to have my 60th birthday spent here managing the budget? But I will get over it. I appreciate the many courtesies of the ranking member. This is a special day for me, and I am looking forward to a good debate. With that, we want to go to the next amendment, unless the Senator--

Mr. CONRAD. Fair enough.

Mr. CONRAD. It is OK. You would not be going out of line. We have cleared the others who are before you. It would be OK for you to send yours up. Amendment No. 4242

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I say to the Senator, if you can give us a heads up at some point what your next amendment will be, that would be helpful as well. Now we will turn to Senator Bingaman and Senator Alexander, who I think have a very constructive amendment. We welcome their description of it. I ask unanimous consent that the time come off the resolution.

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. CONRAD. Then we will go to the Kyl amendment, and there would also be a side-by-side for that amendment. That would be, at this point, an amendment in my name or by my designee. I also ask unanimous consent that there be a half hour on each for those amendments.

Mr. CONRAD. Our understanding is the same. Look, we are going to have to be flexible. We have other committees that are meeting, and other Members who are involved in these amendments are at other meetings. They won't be here until later. It is our intention to have that amount of time on these specific amendments, but it may not occur all at once.

Mr. CONRAD. Correct. Our amendments are side-by-sides. Our amendments would normally be second-degree amendments. They are not being offered as second-degree amendments here because we don't do that on the budget resolution. But those amendments that are the side-by-sides would be in the regular order. That means they would be voted on first. We also have the Bunning amendment. Do we want to put that into the queue?

Mr. CONRAD. Maybe we should have a discussion and make sure we are on the same page with respect to that. Do we want to have the Bunning amendment next?

Mr. CONRAD. All right. That is an amendment that involves Social Security, correct?

Mr. CONRAD. There would be a side-by-side on our side. Would we want to limit debate on those to a half hour each?

Mr. CONRAD. Maybe we should thank the desk crew for working under very challenging circumstances because we know we are sending them a tremendous flood of amendments and paper. They are having to keep it straight, and we very much appreciate their diligent work. Amendment No. 4242

Mr. CONRAD. I think we could.

Mr. CONRAD. Yes, we may have a side-by-side for the Allard amendment. We have reserved that slot at least.

Mr. CONRAD. All right. That will be the order. The colleagues who want to offer amendments and want to have floor time, it is a very good time to contact us to get time allocated because time is going to go very quickly. Please don't come tomorrow and say: Gee, where is our floor time? This is the time, this is the moment. If you want floor time, we urge you to come now. Amendment No. 4191

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.