Congratulating the Lawlesses

Floor Speech

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by me, after consultation with Senator McConnell, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 438, S. 2244; that the committee-reported amendments be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered original text for the purposes of further amendment; that the only amendments in order to the bill be the following: Coburn No. 3549, Vitter No. 3550, Flake No. 3551, and Tester No. 3552; that each amendment have 1 hour of debate, equally divided between the proponents and opponents; that there be 1 hour of general debate on the bill, equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate proceed to votes in relation to the amendments in the order listed; that there be no second-degree amendments in order to any of the amendments prior to the votes; that upon disposition of the Tester amendment, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. REID. So, Mr. President, we understand that in getting this agreement, Senators should expect a rollcall vote in relation to the Coburn amendment and another rollcall vote on passage of the bill, as amended. The other amendments in this agreement are expected to be subject to voice votes.

Mr. President, we have whipped right through this very quickly, but it is an extremely important piece of work that was done on a bipartisan basis on a very, very important piece of legislation. We have to do this, this terrorism insurance. With all the things going on in the world, if we do not finish this, there will be no construction in America. We went through this a number of years ago. Construction came to a screeching halt. It was bad enough, but with this not being able to be done, it made it even worse. So we are very fortunate we will complete it next week--with this UC agreement.

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