Heidi Alexander: “at 11 a.m. we will have three votes on the Merkley, Flake, and Reid amendments. That will bring to a total of 17 the…”

“at 11 a.m. we will have three votes on the Merkley, Flake, and Reid amendments. That will bring to a total of 17 the number of amendments we will have disposed of on the floor. Senator Feinstein and I have worked with Members on both sides of the aisle to include many of their policy suggestions and requests in our basic bill. The last count I saw said 77 Members of the Senate had at least part of their requests or policy suggestions in our basic bill. So we are doing very well. Cloture has been filed. There are only a few amendments remaining that are in question. We hope to conclude that quickly and bring the bill to a conclusion. My hope is that when a Senator has a germane amendment, we can have a vote. Sometimes, if they are controversial, they will be at 60. We have done pretty well with that so far--giving Senators a chance to have a say and to have a vote. I would like to spend about 4 or 5 minutes on an amendment we will be voting on at 11, when we will have limited time to talk--unless Senator Feinstein has something she would like to say before I do that. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.”