So the regular order is the Levin-McCain amendment; is that correct? The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct. The Senator from Alabama.

Mr. President, first of all, I thank my friend and colleague from Arizona, the ranking member, for his comments and for all of his work on the committee. All of our colleagues on the committee have put in a lot of time. I want to emphasize…

Mr. President, I will be done in one moment so that our friend from New Mexico can schedule his presentation. I just wanted to add one additional thing to what the Senator from Arizona said, in addition to agreeing with him. We will be…

Let me notify Senators on our side that we are more than willing to do that same courtesy for them if they would let our staff know at the cloakroom this morning. We can do the same thing for Senators on our side as the Senator from…

And if I may, doing what the Senator from Arizona just did will also facilitate, hopefully, the acceptance of a unanimous consent request that there then be a cutoff as I described at perhaps noon or 1 o'clock today so we can know what the…

I thank the Senator from New Mexico for his remarks. I agree with him; it was a lively debate. I also agree with him it is to be desired that kind of debate occurs more often in the Senate. The Senator from New Mexico has been very active…

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New Mexico again for the comments, but also tell him how very much impressed I have been right from the first day I heard him with his openmindedness on subjects. It is very important that we keep…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendments be temporarily set aside to call up, on behalf of Senator Bingaman, amendment No. 1117; and on behalf of Senator Gillibrand, amendments Nos. 1187 and 1211. Before the clerk…

Mr. President, I ask for the regular order on the Levin- McCain amendment. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment is now the pending question.

Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. President, in a short while I hope we will have, and expect that we will have, some amendments that have been cleared on both sides that we are going to be able to offer and hopefully adopt. What I thought I would do now is make a…

Mr. President, let me thank the Senator from Oregon. We are happy to work with him. He is very deeply into these and so many other issues. His contribution is well known to all of us in the Senate. We are happy to work with him on these…