Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on November 21, 2013, at 10:15 a.m. in room SD-406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Oversight Hearing: NRC's Implementation of the Fukushima Near-Term Task Force Recommendations and other Actions to Enhance and Maintain Nuclear Safety.''

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on November 21, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., to hold a hearing entitled ``Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.''

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on November 21, 2013, at 10 a.m., in SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on November 21, 2013, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on November 21, 2013, at 2:15 p.m., to hold a Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs subcommittee hearing entitled, ``Political, Economic, And Security Situation in Africa''.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am told there are four bills at the desk due for their first reading, en bloc.

Mr. REID. I ask for a second reading en bloc and object to my own request en bloc.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that during the adjournment or recess of the Senate from Thursday, November 21, through Monday, December 9, Senators Warren, Kaine, and Rockefeller be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn and convene for pro forma sessions only, with no business conducted, on the following dates and times, and that following each pro forma session, the Senate adjourn until the next pro forma session: Friday, November 22, at 11:15 a.m.; Tuesday, November 26, at 11 a.m.; Friday, November 29, at 1 p.m.; Tuesday, December 3, at 11 a.m.; and Friday, December 6, at 10:30 a.m.; and that the Senate adjourn on Friday, December 6 until 2 p.m. on Monday, December 9, 2013, unless the Senate receives a message from the House that it has adopted S. Con. Res. 28, the adjournment resolution; and that if the Senate receives such a message, the Senate adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, December 9, 2013; that on Monday, following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; and that following any leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business until 4 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 1197, the National Defense Authorization Act, to allow the chairman and ranking member to provide a status update on the bill; further, that at 5 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of Calendar No. 327, the nomination of Patricia Millett to be U.S. circuit judge for the DC Circuit, postcloture, with up to 30 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form; and, finally, that at 5:30 p.m. all postcloture time be expired and the Senate vote on confirmation of the Millett nomination.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the next rollcall vote will be at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, December 9.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican Leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business for 1 hour. The majority will control the first half and the Republicans the final half. Following morning business the Senate will resume consideration of the Defense authorization bill. We will debate the sexual assault issue for up to 6 hours today. I hope we will reach an agreement on the ability to vote on those two amendments. We have worked very hard on arriving at a point where we can debate this issue. I hope we can do that. I think it would be very appropriate to have that issue resolved as quickly as possible.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I am told that S. 1737 is due for a second reading.

Mr. REID. I object to any further proceedings with respect to this bill at this time.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to recommit be withdrawn; the pending Levin amendment No. 2123 be set aside for Senator Gillibrand, or designee, to offer amendment No. 2099 relevant to sexual assault; that the amendment be subject to a relevant side-by-side amendment from Senators McCaskill and Ayotte, amendment No. 2170; that no second-degree amendments be in order to either of the sexual assault amendments; that each of these amendments be subject to a 60-affirmative-vote threshold. I am told each side would like 10 minutes; that is, the McCaskill side and the Gillibrand side would receive 10 minutes to close. If there are other people who wish to speak, now is the time to say something.

Mr. REID. How much time does the Senator need if I get a consent agreement?

Mr. REID. So we need 10 minutes for McCaskill also. That would be 20 minutes on each side. That the time then until 5:30 be equally divided between the proponents and the opponents of the Gillibrand amendment and the McCaskill amendment; that the Senate proceed to vote in relation to Gillibrand first; that upon disposition of the Gillibrand amendment, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the McCaskill-Ayotte amendment; that there be 2 minutes equally divided between the votes; finally, that no motions to recommit during the consideration of these amendments be in order.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we went through this yesterday. I reluctantly object.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have 350 amendments which have been filed on this bill. I know every person who has filed an amendment feels entitled to offer that amendment. I just think we are not in a position to deal with this for all the reasons we have talked about here for several months. We are not seriously legislating anymore. We can pass the blame to anyone we want, but we have tried all kinds of things. How about so many amendments on each side? We have done that before. It is not anything unique. We have done that lots of times in the past. It doesn't work. How about 13 amendments? No. It won't work because we want more amendments after that. So I understand, and I am not denigrating anyone's intent. I know the intentions are good. The record reflects how I feel about this bill. I am sorry we are at the point we are. Couldn't we at least have everybody vote on this amendment which people have spent days of their lives working on? It doesn't matter how we feel about what has been done, but there has been tremendously important work done on the sexual assault issue, and we should at least have the opportunity, with the work that has been put into this, to have a vote. No one is disenfranchised by doing that--or move to try to figure something else out after that. But, gee whiz, couldn't we do that? Otherwise, we will walk away not having done anything on this. I think that is just so unfair to the people who worked on this. I know other people have worked hard on their amendments. But I have to say, in the last year or two, no one has worked harder on amendments than the proponents and opponents of this amendment. So having said that, I ask unanimous consent that we move to a period of morning business for debate only until 7:30 p.m. tonight.

Mr. REID. Yes, it was.

Mr. REID. I am sorry.

Mr. REID. I would say, while they are reserving the right to object, there is still time left. With the tentative agreement we had, which was just kind of a handshake, there would be 6 hours, and there is still time left on that. So that time for debate only, that time could still be used.

Mr. REID. I know there is a unanimous consent pending. I have no problem in the world with continuing to work to see if we can come up with something. We have tried. It is not as if we have not tried. But my disappointment is that we are just not doing any legislating here, and people can bring the blame to me all they want. We can get into all kinds of statistics that we want about what has happened in years past and why it has been necessary to fill the tree, but that doesn't accomplish anything. Everyone knows what is going on around here. So I am not going to get into a he said, they said situation. I know the two managers of this bill want to get something done. Let's give them the time it takes to get that done. So my consent is pending, and I would like the Chair to rule on that.

Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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