Kent Conrad

Yes, sir. For management of the floor purposes--and I apologize to the Senator for interrupting him--it would be helpful for us to know, because of the time constraints, does the Senator intend to take about 30 minutes?

And Senator Coburn after that. We are trying to put colleagues on notice. That is basically the speaking order. At this point we yield 10 minutes to the Senator from New York, Senator Schumer. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). The…

We have Senator Schumer next, who will consume 10 minutes. Then we have Senator Allard, who probably will be here at that point. We will go to Senator Allard for half an hour. Then we would like to go to Senator Stabenow for 10 minutes. At…

Whatever time the Senator consumes, we will go to Senator Kennedy for 15 minutes and then to Senator Schumer, so colleagues have an understanding of where we are headed. Then my understanding is we try to slot in Senator Stabenow, and then…

Why don't we go to Senator Chambliss. My understanding is the Senator will take 15 minutes; is that correct?

I would be happy to yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Illinois. And then how much time would the Senator from Montana like?

It is very dramatic. You can see the trend continuing. Now, when we have a bond auction, about half of the debt is being bought by foreigners.

The Senator is correct. This package really does have three chapters. The first chapter is the spending cuts, $40 billion over 5 years. There is only $8 billion a year in a $2.5 trillion budget. It is so insignificant. But then the second…

No, I won't yield. The Senator had his chance. I am going to respond, and then I will be happy to engage in debate.

Is the Senator seeking time off the bill or she would have her own amendment time? I would not object to the request of the chairman to have speaking time. We would then intend to lay my amendment aside.

In the interest of time, very briefly, this is to help rural remote pharmacies with modestly enhanced reimbursement. I very much thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have agreed to support this amendment. I especially thank…

I ask the Chair of the committee if it would be appropriate now to go to the Cantwell amendment?

Let us repeat the message loud and clear: These next three votes are going to be strict 10-minute votes. At the end of 10 minutes, the manager and I are going to call the vote. That is the only possible, conceivable way we can get done…

The fiscal year 2006 Agriculture appropriations conference report was written under some very difficult spending constraints compared to the needs of U.S. agriculture. Because the bill contains many positive elements for North Dakota…

The majority manager controls the time in opposition and the majority manager is not in opposition.

I understand. I ask the manager, is there a way we can perhaps parcel out the time in a way that would be acceptable to the manager?

If I could revisit the point, I hope colleagues understand what we are headed for tomorrow. It is not going to be fun. We already have 5 hours, at least, of voting tomorrow. We hope people take that into consideration as they think about…

Might I inquire through the Chair if the Senator would allow an interruption for a unanimous consent request with respect to who controls the time in opposition?

The Chair has informed us the Senator from Alaska has 1 minute 28 seconds remaining. The Senator from Washington has 58 seconds remaining. Right now they are charging the time equally.

That is not correct. There is no ban on second-degree amendments. This second-degree amendment specifically provided for it.

Let me say that the problem, my counsel informs me, is other provisions could affect this one and I cannot agree to waive all budget points of order throughout the whole process on this amendment. We can conclude debate on this issue right…

I want to inform colleagues, I will not be able to agree to such a unanimous consent request. I want everybody to know we will not be able to agree to waive this throughout the process. We might agree to waive it for Senate consideration…

Let me finish. Then I would be happy to yield. There is no way to assure that other provisions might be added, and so we cannot agree to eliminating points of order through the whole process. I am happy to yield.

In terms of the time remaining, I think the Senator from Washington, as I hear her question, is wondering about the disposition of the Talent-Wyden amendment or the Wyden-Talent amendment, however it is, that was previously reserved in the…

Yes. We have a unanimous consent agreement that is in place with respect to Cantwell, Grassley, Lott.