Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. The unanimous consent request is that the time on any amendment be limited to 30 minutes unless specifically requested otherwise by myself or the minority whip.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I renew that request.

Mr. STEVENS. I also ask unanimous consent that the time on any amendment be limited to 30 minutes unless specifically requested otherwise by myself or the distinguished minority whip.

Mr. STEVENS. My request was that the time on the Kennedy amendment be 30 minutes equally divided.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time on the Kennedy amendment be 30 minutes equally divided.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent the Senator from Rhode Island and the Senator from West Virginia be recognized for not to exceed 10 minutes total.

Mr. STEVENS. Ten minutes total?

Mr. STEVENS. I inquire how much time the Senator from Rhode Island and the Senator from West Virginia wish for their colloquy?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. May I announce there will be no votes for a little while now. We have worked out we will have another series in a few minutes. Right now we would like to have the colloquy out of the way. I urge we adopt the Murray amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. I understand the Senator from Rhode Island has a colloquy?

Mr. STEVENS. Let her offer it, please.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the next amendment in order is Senator Murray's amendment. There is a minute on each side, if the Senator wishes to use it. I wish to state now we will accept this amendment and it will be included in the across-the-board cut as an offset. Because of an amendment that was adopted yesterday, we now have leeway in that ceiling that we self-imposed, and we can take the amendment of the Senator from Washington. I believe her amendment has the approval of the House also. Many of us want to vote for it. We are prepared to accept the amendment.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS. I have no objection.

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

Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent time for the vote on the Mikulski amendment be limited to 10 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the next vote be 10 minutes in length.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. We ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. That was my request.

Mr. STEVENS. Is the Senator ready to start now?

Mr. STEVENS. For the information of Senators, as I indicated last evening, we will have a series of amendments that we will offer in small groupings very soon. I believe we will have some amendments identified on our side of the aisle as soon as this first vote will begin. It is my understanding that the vote on Senator Feingold's amendment will commence at 11.

Mr. STEVENS. Very well, I don't have any problem with that. But I do want to reserve the right to schedule amendments from this side in between if Senators wish to offer amendments in this period of time.

Mr. STEVENS. Yes.