Congressional Record UNUM

E PLURIBUS

United States

of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 110th

 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor.

.

S10841 

Vol. 154 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2008 No. 185 

Senate 

The Senate met at 10:30 a.m. and was 

called to order by the Honorable E. 

BENJAMIN NELSON, a Senator from the 

State of Nebraska. 

PRAYER

The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, offered the following prayer: 

Let us pray. 

God of glory, center of unbroken 

praise, Your wonderful deeds of old 

shine forth even to our day. For the 

beauty of the Earth and the glory of 

the sky, we thank You. For the opportunity our lawmakers have each day to 

labor for liberty, we praise You. 

Guide the work of our Senators. Empower them to do Your will on Earth as 

it is done in heaven. May their lives 

provide models of exemplary excellence 

that will inspire thousands. Let Your 

compassion protect them and Your 

grace sustain them. Give them a new 

sense of power and purpose as they do 

what is right no matter the cost. We 

pray in Your great Name. Amen. 

f 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 

The Honorable E. BENJAMIN NELSON

led the Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: 

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the 

United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 

f 

APPOINTMENT OF ACTING 

PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The 

clerk will please read a communication 

to the Senate from the President pro 

tempore (Mr. BYRD). 

The assistant legislative clerk read 

the following letter: 

U.S. SENATE, 

PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, 

Washington, DC, December 10, 2008. 

To the Senate: 

Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, 

of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby 

appoint the Honorable E. BENJAMIN NELSON, 

a Senator from the State of Nebraska, to 

perform the duties of the Chair. 

ROBERT C. BYRD, 

President pro tempore. 

Mr. NELSON of Nebraska thereupon 

assumed the chair as Acting President 

pro tempore. 

f 

RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY 

LEADER 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized. 

f 

SCHEDULE 

ORDER OF PROCEDURE

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following 

the leaders’ remarks, I ask unanimous 

consent that we stand in a period of 

morning business until 12:30 today; and 

that from 12:30 to 2:15 the Senate stand 

in recess. 

The Republicans are going to hold a 

caucus at that time. I ask unanimous 

consent that be approved. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, this is 

Wednesday, and each day we come here 

and say the document that is going to 

be the bill that we are going to report 

on is done. Now I understand it is done. 

But the piece of paper is not before the 

Senate. There are two provisions I have 

instructed Senator DODD—and he has 

agreed—to take out of the document 

we are moving forward on, and that 

should be done momentarily. 

I understand, in fairness, that all 

parties, Democrats and Republicans, 

deserve the opportunity to study this 

bill. It is about 25 pages long, as I understand it. But even though we have 

some speed readers in the Senate, they 

still need time to study it. In speaking 

with various Senators today, it appears 

pretty clear that the minority, the Republicans, are not going to move forward on this unless there is a lot of opportunity to study this legislation. 

Therefore, it appears unlikely we will 

be able to have a vote on this today. 

That being the case, let me say I will 

file the work done by the Banking 

Committee, the Senate Banking Committee, because they are not totally in 

agreement with what is done by the 

House. 

That way I will have it here, we will 

file the necessary motions on that, 

which would mean we would have a cloture vote on Friday on a motion to proceed to it. Now, we can always move 

that forward with unanimous consent. 

But everyone should understand, if this 

is something that everyone is going to 

make us dot every I and cross every T, 

then we would have that cloture vote 

early Friday morning, maybe as early 

as 9 o’clock. 

If we did that, then the second vote 

would not take place until Saturday 

afternoon at about 3 o’clock, give or 

take a little bit of time. Then everyone 

can do the math as well as I can. The 

next vote would probably take place 

about 9 o’clock on Sunday. So the 

point is, if everybody is not cooperative and wants to create problems, we 

would not be able to complete this 

until Saturday or Sunday, but we are 

going to complete it. And when I say 

‘‘complete it,’’ that means we are going 

to have our final vote on it, it will either pass or fail, but we are going to 

give Senators an opportunity to vote. 

As indicated in the press today, Senator BIDEN said he would be willing to 

come back and vote if his vote were 

necessary. I apologize to everyone but 

not too sincerely, because I have done 

the best I can to move this forward. It 

is difficult. 

We have the House, the Senate, the 

White House, and once in a while we 

hear from the new administration. So 

it has made it real difficult to come up 

with a final piece of paper, which I 

hope will be forthcoming in the next 

few minutes. But I think I have done 

the best I can to alert everyone. I know 

there are lots of people, Democrats and