Harry Reid: “for my colleagues who are in the Chamber and want to speak under the half hour that is allotted to us, I will leave time…”

“for my colleagues who are in the Chamber and want to speak under the half hour that is allotted to us, I will leave time for them. I know Senator Leahy has a matter elsewhere, and I will speak and give him the time next. The committee bill that was reported from the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote is a bill that virtually all Democrats support. We now are past that piece of legislation and on what we call the Martinez substitute. Virtually all Democrats support the Martinez substitute. I thought yesterday morning we were going today to be able to pass this important legislation. As I was walking from the caucus we had yesterday, Senator Tom Carper of Delaware said: I have to leave early; I sure hope we can get something worked out on this. That is how the Senate felt yesterday. I sure hoped we could work something out. But as the day went on, things didn't work out as well as we had anticipated. In the Senate, there are different ways of conducting filibusters. One is to have people stand and talk for long periods of time. The other is the ability Senators have, if they wish, to filibuster by virtue of amendment. I made a proposal to the distinguished majority leader that we would have the Judiciary Committee do the conferees and have a limited number of amendments and move on. Last night, Senator Frist said on the floor that he would have 20 amendments and, as we know from conversations we had on the floor, that was just the beginning.…”