Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, has the matter just voted on been tabled?

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the time until 4:25 p.m. be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, with Senator Sessions controlling 7 minutes of the Republican time, and this be for debate on the following amendments: Manchin No. 1268, Lee No. 1208, as modified, with the changes at the desk, Pryor No. 1298, Heller No. 1227, and Merkley No. 1237, as modified. We still have a number of other amendments the managers are working on and we will get to those later, or try to at least. Continuing my request: At 4:25 p.m. the Senate will proceed to votes in relation to the amendments in the order listed; that the amendments be subject to a 60-affirmative-vote threshold; that there be 2 minutes equally divided prior to each vote and all after the first vote be 10 minutes in duration.

Mr. REID. I would say through the Chair to my dear friend from Louisiana, the managers have been working through these amendments. I know my friend says there is no opposition. Having said that, that doesn't mean there isn't opposition.

Mr. REID. We have a number of people trying to get amendments on the list. We will continue to work on that. It is not because the managers haven't tried. Mr. President, I would ask my request be modified to have the vote start at 4:35 rather than 4:25; otherwise, Senator Sessions will not have time.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by me, in consultation with Senator McConnell, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 182; that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form; that following the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote with no intervening action or debate on the nomination; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session. It is Michael Froman to be U.S. Trade Representative.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, unless Senator McConnell objects, we will have a vote right after this batch of votes.

Mr. REID. I yield it back.

Mr. REID. For the information of all Senators, following the disposition of the Merkley amendment, the Senate will consider the Froman nomination. Amendment No. 1237, as Modified

Mr. REID. I apologize to everyone for not mentioning this before. We are very close to coming up with an agreement that the managers have developed, along with our able staff, to have a series of amendments in order. As things are now contemplated, we would debate those tonight and in the morning and have some votes starting at 2:15. Hopefully tonight and in the morning we will add to what we are going to agree to later so that we would have even more amendments. It is my understanding that there is already contemplation of some important work in the morning. In short, I don't think we will have any more votes tonight after this one we are going to take on the Froman nomination. We are going to have a consent agreement to put a number of amendments in order and start those. There are four or five--I don't remember the exact number. We will start those votes at 2:15 and continue working on this important legislation.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I can remember when the Senator first came here 10 years ago, approximately. There was an issue dealing with the military. Mary Landrieu was a new Senator. She was over here, she had her desk on the other side, and she went on, and, wow, it was quite an impressive speech. For a long time after that, I called her Military Mary. The reason that it is such a memorable time for me is her good father, ``Moon'' Landrieu, was watching his daughter. I called him and told him what a great job she had done. Of course, he was very proud of all 10 of his children but especially that night of his daughter Mary. I have no problem with Mary Landrieu coming to the floor and doing what she thinks is appropriate. She is absolutely right. We have a lot of trouble now getting simple things done. On a bill like this, it used to be that we would have two managers, whip through all these amendments. We would just accept them. I mean, I listened to Senator Landrieu talk about the best interests of the child. Who in the world would oppose that? The problem we have is that if we get a lot of amendments pending, it will be hard to get rid of them. So Senator Leahy, who is a very experienced legislator, Senator Grassley, their staffs, I hope what Senator Landrieu has done is maybe to give the impetus to do what we used to do routinely; that is, the amendments that couldn't be taken care of on the floor would be in what was called a managers' amendment where the two managers would agree on matters most of which were noncontroversial. Sometimes there was a little trading going on--this is a Republican amendment, this is a Democratic amendment; we don't totally love this one, we don't totally love that one, but let's put it together and have that be part of the managers' package. We haven't done that much anymore. We can't agree even on the simple things. She is right. So I hope, Mr. President, that the night will bring the ability for us to move to these amendments of hers or have a managers' package. I am here to inform the Senate that one of my goals is to work very hard to try to finish as much of this bill as we can as soon as we can. I have told everyone many times we are going to finish the immigration bill before we leave for the July 4 recess. We are going to do that. I hope we don't have to work this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I hope that is the case, but right now we don't know. The odds right now are that is where we are headed. I am going to come tomorrow morning at 11:30 and be recognized, and I will move to table one of the pending amendments. That will get everybody over here, and maybe in the light of the day, prior to noon, people will be more reasonable. By that time maybe I will have a better idea as to how we are going to move forward. As I have said in the past, we can file cloture Friday, Saturday, or Sunday or maybe even Monday. But right now it looks like we may have to move that up a day and maybe I will have to file cloture on something tomorrow. So I have really appreciated everyone's movement on this bill today. I think basically there is a good feel there is an end in sight. We have a number of Senators who have been working with the Gang of 8 to come up with some suggestions and, hopefully, they will have an amendment they can offer tomorrow sometime that will put forth what they think they need to improve this bill. The focus for the last several days has been on border security. So let's see what they have to offer on border security. The one thing everyone has to understand is, while I am happy to look at anything they think will help border security, it cannot get in the way and take away from this bill a pathway to citizenship, which the American people want. So we are going to continue working. Staff will work on it all night. The managers of this bill and others interested in this bill will work on it. There are calls being made to the White House tonight. So at 11:30 tomorrow I will come in and see if we have a path forward to getting this bill in a position where we can finish it next week without working the weekend. But if we can't, the weekend is still in play.

Mr. REID. Of course.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, to my friend from Louisiana, I reiterate what I said earlier: I understand her concern. The only thing I would say in regard to her statement is, she wants to do things in the normal way. I am sad to report the normal way is what we have been doing the last 6 or 8 months. And that is the sad commentary that this has become the normal way. I will be happy to review that list. I will do it looking at every amendment. There are some people, you know, who don't want this bill to pass. They don't want to do anything to improve the bill. No matter what side you are on, these are people who offered these amendments in good faith that they believe will improve the bill. But understand some people don't want the bill improved; they just want the bill to go away. So I will work on this. I haven't talked to Senator Leahy tonight, but I will. I talked to Senator Grassley earlier today. So I heard the Senator loudly and clearly, and I will do the best I can.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent to proceed to Calendar No. 86, S. 579.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the following bills en bloc: Calendar No. 45, S. 23; Calendar No. 46, S. 25; Calendar No. 47, S. 26; Calendar No. 48, S. 112; Calendar No. 49, S. 130; Calendar No. 50, S. 157; Calendar No. 52, S. 230; Calendar No. 53, S. 244; Calendar No. 55, S. 276; Calendar No. 56, S. 304; Calendar No. 59, S. 352; Calendar No. 61, S. 383; Calendar No. 62, S. 393; and Calendar No. 63, S. 459.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 170, and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we whipped right through this, but John Lewis in my lifetime is one of the finest, most patriotic, courageous people I have ever known. I have so much admiration for this man. I have told him this personally. I want the Record to be spread with this. He is a person who as a very young man wanted to change the world in his own way, and in his own way he has helped change the world. I so admire him.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 176.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent 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. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Res. 177, submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Pursuant to the previous order, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 475 and that it be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage as provided under the previous order.