Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I ask unanimous consent the amendment be withdrawn.

Mr. NICKLES. I say to my colleague from New York again, just to make sure we understand, we are trying to respect each other as far as management of the bill. I will be happy to work with the Senator on the amendment. I thank my colleague.

Mr. NICKLES. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. NICKLES. How much of an increase did you have in 2004? I heard $88 billion over the life of the bill.

Mr. NICKLES. I have no objection to my colleague sending the amendment to the desk.

Mr. NICKLES. To further clarify for all of our colleagues, we wish to review amendments. That was the problem. I appreciate the cooperation of my colleague.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask unanimous consent that the time be equally divided.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, would the Senator mind if Senator Brownback sent his amendment to the desk? He was ready to offer the amendment last night and did not. He has already spoken on the amendment. We agreed to allow Senator Schumer to send his amendment to the desk. Can we send his amendment to the desk?

Mr. NICKLES. I have not looked at it. Let me look at his amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, Senator Brownback has an amendment. I believe it is at the desk. I ask unanimous consent we set aside the pending amendment for consideration of the Brownback amendment, and following that, I ask consent to set aside the Brownback amendment to have the Feingold amendment be considered.

Mr. NICKLES. That is correct. There is also a Cochran amendment that will be offered as an alternative to the Schumer amendment. I would like to have that voted on adjacent to the Schumer amendment, but we have not sent that to the desk yet. The Schumer amendment is in the queue. This would put the Brownback amendment in the queue, and it would also put the Feingold amendment in the queue. At some point, I will be asking consent for Senator Cochran's amendment, and I will ask consent to have it considered adjacent to the Schumer amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. For the time being, I am asking consent for the Brownback amendment to be considered and then the Feingold amendment. I understand from the Parliamentarian he has two amendments. I am not sure which one the Senator requested to be sent to the desk.

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

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

Mr. NICKLES. Parliamentary inquiry. How much time----

Mr. NICKLES. I am inquiring how much time I have left on the resolution.

Mr. NICKLES. I asked that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. NICKLES. We set aside the Brownback amendment, and now the Feingold amendment is the pending amendment. Mr. President, I inquire of the Parliamentarian, how much time do I have remaining on the resolution?

Mr. NICKLES. I yield back the remainder of my time on the resolution.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, tomorrow the Senate will resume consideration of the budget resolution. At 9:45 tomorrow morning, the Senate will begin a series of votes on the remaining amendments on the budget resolution. There will be a number of amendments to be included in this stacked series of votes, and Members are encouraged to remain in the Chamber during this very busy session. With the cooperation of all Senators, we will be able to move to a vote on final passage at a reasonable time tomorrow.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:30 a.m. on Friday, March 21. I further ask that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 23, the concurrent budget resolution; provided that the time until 9:45 a.m. be for debate only on the resolution; further, the time be equally divided between the chairman of the Budget Committee and the ranking member.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Will the majority leader yield?

Mr. NICKLES. I just request of the majority leader if we might start the votes at 9:45 instead of 9:30 to accommodate one of our Members. I also request of our colleagues, I know some people--Senator Conrad and I do not want vote-aramas. And I hate for anybody to come back and say: I have not had a chance to debate my amendment. We will be here tonight to discuss amendments, and we will work together to schedule amendments according to Senators' wishes. But we need to see copies of the amendments in advance, and then we will try to schedule the amendments. We will work energetically--as soon as we get copies of amendments--to work out some of these amendments, maybe accept some amendments if we have some advance notification. We are going to try to be as cooperative as possible. So my first request would be, hopefully, to move the first rollcall vote to 9:45. And then I just urge our colleagues, if they wish to debate their amendments tonight, please do so. And if not, I request that they submit us copies of the amendments as early as possible so we can do some work on those amendments tonight.