Harry Reid: “the majority leader spoke to the Democratic leader on more than one occasion following a conference between Senator Byrd…”

“the majority leader spoke to the Democratic leader on more than one occasion following a conference between Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens, seeing if we could move some of these appropriations bills. The sprint is now on. We on this side believe we can move them quickly. It sounds a little unusual that the minority is pushing appropriations bills, but we are doing that because we want to do everything we can to avoid this omnibus bill. Anything we can accomplish that avoids the omnibus, we are better off. There are just a very few issues that remain. One of them is the Dodd-McConnell or McConnell-Dodd amendment. That is an important amendment. It will take a little bit of time--not a lot. We also need to finish this matter here now before the Senate. I want the record to be spread with the fact that we are doing everything on this side to move the legislation. We have agreed to set amendments aside. We have done everything within our power to move it along. We have sent a hotline to Senators on our side to find out what amendments they have to offer. We have gotten a response back. It is not complete, but certainly it is reasonable at this stage. Again, what I want to say is we don't want someone coming later saying we are not moving the appropriations bills because of the minority. We are willing to move these bills as quickly as possible. We have two managers here who are experienced on the bills before us. I believe they are doing everything they can.”