Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, Senator Enzi and Senator Cantwell have an amendment which I believe both sides have agreed to. I send the amendment to the desk.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I compliment my colleague from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, and also Senator Cantwell. Again, this is going to save us about 45 minutes because they had different amendments and they came to a compromise. I compliment them for that and urge the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we have reviewed the amendment and have no objection. For the information of our colleagues, that eliminates a couple of amendments. I thank our colleagues for cooperation and urge its adoption.

Mr. NICKLES. We just need a little time to look at the amendment. I got caught off guard. We will consider your amendment. If the Senator does not mind, we will set it aside temporarily and try to dispose of it in a very short period of time. I suggest the absence of a quorum. We need a little break to assess where we are.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we have a couple, three on our side that may require votes. I think we may be able to work out a few of these without votes. That is my intention. It is my hope. I am relatively sure we are not going to agree to Senator Dayton's amendment. If he insists on a rollcall vote, we can vote on that. We need to have a rollcall vote, I believe, on NIH. We only have a couple on our side. And we have had very few on our side. I might just mention, we agreed to about four, six Democrat amendments, and you agreed to one or two of ours. We need a little more cooperation. I think we can finish tonight. That would be my intention. I apologize because I know for some colleagues it is getting very late, but I am afraid if we come back tomorrow we might have 20 votes. I do believe we can continue plowing ahead. I thought when we agreed to Senator Pryor's one amendment, that was it for the night. Maybe we did not have quite the understanding I thought we did. I would suggest this. Let's lay aside Senator Landrieu's amendment because we might be able to work that one out. I am not familiar with what Senator Levin's amendment is. I am familiar with Senator Dayton's amendment. We can dispose of that very quickly. Pell grants--we have already had four amendments on Pell grants, and we adopted an amendment on Pell grants. I do not think we need another vote on Pell grants, is my initial thought. I would suggest, let's put one or two of these in the votes, and then maybe we can work out the rest of these while we are voting on a couple of amendments.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

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

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, moving right along. I believe the Senator from Michigan and the Senator from Maine have an amendment. Unfortunately, I feel compelled not to agree to that amendment. Maybe we can dispose of it very quickly.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I regret I cannot accept this amendment. I will follow the will of the Senate. This is basically saying let's take out $1.7 billion from SPR and spread it around in homeland security. We are fully funding the President's request for homeland security which is 15 percent over last year, 10 percent if you take out bioshield. We already have several amendments on homeland security. I urge our colleagues not to support the amendment. I call upon the chairman of the Energy Committee, Senator Domenici, to conclude.

Mr. NICKLES. Can we voice vote the amendment?

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, just for the information of our colleagues, we are making good progress. I believe we have the amendment of Senator Durbin that will be modified by Senator Lugar and that will be accepted. I believe we have the amendment of Senator Byrd which will be agreed to momentarily. I am not positive. I need to run that by Senator Gregg. I think we are going to be able to work out the amendment of Senator Lincoln. We do expect a couple of amendments on our side. I believe Senator McConnell has an amendment and I hope he would be recognized next. Amendment No. 2840

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I also believe that an amendment by Senator Dole and Senator Leahy has been agreed to, and I send it to the desk as well.

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

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I compliment our colleague, Senator Dole from North Carolina and Senator Leahy for cooperating. They saved us a lot of time by putting their amendments together. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, my colleague, Senator Specter, has probably been more patient than anyone for the last 3 days. He has been requesting an opportunity to offer an amendment, so I yield to the Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I compliment my colleague from Pennsylvania. He is persistent, to say the least, on this subject. The night is late. I see my colleague, the Senator from New Mexico, wishes to speak. I will yield my colleague 1 minute--2 minutes?

Mr. NICKLES. Would the Senator like 2 minutes?

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I yield my colleague from New Mexico 3 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining? I don't have the additional time to yield, I tell my colleague?

Mr. NICKLES. I yield the Senator 1 minute.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we are making progress. I hope our colleagues will continue to be patient. I know the hour is late. Again, I thank my colleague from North Dakota. He has been very helpful. We have had some success with Senator Lugar and Senator Durbin. They have been able to combine their amendments. I thank both for their cooperation. Amendment No. 2845

Mr. NICKLES. I send the Lugar-Durbin amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

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