Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate the courtesy of my friend from Delaware. He and I have been together for 31 years and I appreciate him. I wanted to make sure Senator Collins was on the floor. Mr. President, I withdraw my motion to proceed to Calendar No. 236, H.R. 3204.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask the Chair what the pending business is now before the body.

Mr. REID. I have a cloture motion at the desk.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I want the record to reflect also that Senator Jeff Merkley is on the floor, who has been instrumental in allowing us to get to the point we are on the bill. I ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, November 7, the motion to recommit and the pending amendments to the underlying bill be withdrawn; that the Reid of Nevada amendment No. 2020 be withdrawn; that no further motions to recommit or points of order be in order and the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the pending Toomey amendment; that the Toomey amendment be subject to a 60-affirmative- vote threshold; and upon disposition of the Toomey amendment, the substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to; and the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S. 815, as amended; that if cloture is invoked, the time until 1:45 p.m. be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that at 1:45 p.m., all postcloture time be yielded back, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended; finally, if cloture is not invoked, I be recognized.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate everyone's cooperation. This is how we should do legislation, work together. This is something we have done together and I appreciate everyone's work. It has not been easy for everyone. Not everybody is satisfied, but a lot of people are satisfied.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I now ask unanimous consent we proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, until 7 p.m.

Mr. REID. I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of Senator McConnell, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 815, the Employee Non-Discrimination Act postcloture. The Senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. for weekly caucus meetings. If we can reach agreement, we will move forward on the bill today. Mr. President, I am wondering whether my friend from Delaware wishes to make a speech regarding the guest Chaplain. If so, I will be happy to yield to him.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have spoken to the Republican leader on more than one occasion, but I want to make sure all the Members understand that we have a 4-week work period. This is the second week of a 4-week work period, and we have certain work we have outlined that needs to get accomplished. I hope everyone understands what we have to get done this week, next week, and the week after. The reason we are pressing so much work into this limited work schedule is, first of all, it is necessary for a number of reasons and, second, this Senate has worked over the last number of years really hard during holidays. I have traveled, trying to get home for Christmas. I was here on Christmas Eve; I have done that twice. It has been extremely difficult for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and, of course, New Year's. It is wonderful to be able to go home to our families, our friends, but we also have work to do. We represent our States, and there is work we cannot do when we can only go home for weekends. Some of us live a long ways away--it takes a day to get there and a day to get back--so it really is more complicated for those who live west of the Mississippi. The whole point is to communicate to everyone that we are going to try to take Thanksgiving week off and the week after. The Republican leader and I really want to get that done, but we cannot do it if we are held up on procedural matters that are unnecessary. I have outlined what we need to get done. I have explained this to the Republican leader and explained it to my caucus on more than one occasion. The issue at hand is this: We have a few weekends left. We are going to be out Monday because it is Veterans Day. But all weekends until we leave here for Thanksgiving are going to be work weekends in order to get our work done. I know people have schedules, but understand that you better keep them pretty loose; otherwise, you are going to be missing some votes around here. We voted on EDNA last night, and we were able to move that, get past the cloture aspect of that. We have a way of going forward. There is no reason to eat up the whole 30 hours that are postcloture. I am just telling everybody who is in effect forcing us to do this that it may impinge upon the holidays, the situation dealing with Thanksgiving. I hope we can get out of here on the Friday before Thanksgiving, but it is up to people who I think have gotten into the habit of having unnecessary delays. I need not say more. I really would like, for myself personally and for the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, to have those two weekends off.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I am told that H.R. 3204 is at the desk and ready for a second reading.

Mr. REID. I object to any further proceedings at this time regarding this legislation.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 393 through 402 and 419, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, and Navy; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; any statement be printed in the Record; and that President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Res. 286.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Res. 287.

Mr. REID. I further ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID. Madam President, if it were in order, which it is not, I would ask that the Record be spread and this resolution be passed with the name ``Tim Mitchell'' on it. I have followed baseball since the time I was a little boy, and I consider myself a fan of baseball, but I have never known a more rabid fan of a baseball team than Tim Mitchell, whom we depend on so very, very much to help us work through all that we do in the Senate. He is a fan bordering on illness in supporting this team. He has a Red Sox tie, a pen. I expect next to see, if he lifted up his shirt, that he would have a tattoo of the Red Sox.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 6, 2013; that following the prayer and the 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 motion to proceed to S. 815, the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, be agreed to and the Senate begin consideration of the bill.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. 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. I ask unanimous consent we now proceed to Calendar No. 231.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask further the bill be read a third time, passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wish to tell the Senate that following my remarks and those of Senator McConnell, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 815, the Employee Non- Discrimination Act. At 5 o'clock today the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the nominations of Gregory Woods to be United States district judge in New York and Debra Brown to be United States district judge in Mississippi. After debate on those two nominations, at 5:30 there will be up to three rollcall votes. I hope one of them will go by voice, but we will have to wait and see. We will have votes on the confirmation of the Woods and Brown nominations and then the vote on the motion to proceed to ENDA, the Employment Non- Discrimination Act.