Working on a Unanimous Consent Agreement
WORKING ON A UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT -- (Senate - September 27, 2006)
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate the majority leader yielding. So everyone understands where we are, let me repeat what the majority leader said. As things now stand, we are going to have a cloture vote on the Hamdan matter, the Supreme Court detainee situation that now confronts the country, sometime this evening.
What we are going to try to do in the next hour or so is work out a unanimous consent agreement that there will be amendments allowed to be offered on the Hamdan matter. There would be amendments. We would agree between the leader and me as to how much time will be on the amendments.
I have cleared this matter with most everyone. As I told the leader today, I still have to work things out with two other members of the Judiciary Committee. Hopefully, I can do that. If not, what will happen is cloture will be invoked on Hamdan and then 30 hours will start, and there will be cloture on the fence bill, the barrier bill, sometime tomorrow. We are trying to work our way through this so the Hamdan matter will have some debate on it and some amendments offered on it. We are doing our best to do that.
As I said yesterday, late in a session such as this, everyone becomes a Charles Atlas--one person can stop anything. They have the right to do that. We understand that. But procedurally that is where we are now. Hopefully, we can work our way through this and have some debate on this detainee matter and move on to the fence bill, hopefully work something out on that, and put us on a glidepath to completing the work of the body, as the majority wants to do, in the next couple of days.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, will the Senator yield on that point for a couple of moments?
Mr. REID. Of course.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I commend the two leaders for trying to work out these issues. Over the years, I have seen leaders try to do it at the end of a session. I don't consider myself a Charles Atlas, but I do consider myself a U.S. Senator. I have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
Some of us have sat in this Chamber and in committee for 5 years while what was being done in detaining the prisoners violated our Constitution and our traditions in the United States. Seven of the nine Members of the Supreme Court are Republicans, incidentally, and have said the same thing in the Hamdan decision.
We tried for 5 years to get the administration to listen to us, to tell us there are ways we could have worked this out so the United States would follow its own laws, would follow its own Constitution, would follow the ideals on which this country was founded, and give that kind of example, a shining light to the rest of the world. And now suddenly the administration, after meeting behind closed doors, predominantly just with the Republicans, says: Here, in 2 hours' time, we have a solution; accept it. I have some problems with that. I will discuss this with the leaders.
As I said, I don't stand here as Charles Atlas, but I stand here as a U.S. Senator with my rights and to protect the rights of Americans.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, reclaiming the floor for just a moment, I say to my friend from Vermont, I consider him a Charles Atlas today and any time I have ever served with him in the Senate. He is one of the most senior Members in the Senate. He is the person the Democrats have designated to be the arbiter of issues that go on in the Judiciary Committee, the busiest committee in the Senate.
I also say to my friend that he is not only a U.S. Senator but a very good one, and I look forward to working with him to work through this issue, and with other members of the committee, as I mentioned, not in name, but there are others I need to work with on the Judiciary Committee.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we will continue our discussions. The goal will be to make sure Senators do have the opportunity to debate and amend this bill. We are just trying to put together an agreement to do that. If not, we will have the cloture vote and still have that debate and that opportunity as we go forward.
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