On the recordOctober 6, 2011
I appeal the ruling of the Chair and request the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I have a parliamentary inquiry. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader. Mr. McCONNELL. If I may make a brief observation. Listening carefully to the majority leader, he is suggesting the specter of filibustering by amendment when, in fact, we had already agreed to seven. Having agreed to seven, it strikes me as very difficult to argue that we are establishing some precedent for filibustering by amendment because he and I had agreed to seven. The only place this ran aground was the majority leader trying to pick all seven of the minority's amendments. So what we have is that no amendments have been considered other than those of a technical nature offered by the majority leader in order to fill up the tree. That was prior to cloture. So what is about to happen is that the majority is trying to set a new precedent on how the Senate operates. For the record, my preference would have been to consider amendments on both sides under a regular process, which we could have done earlier this week. Instead, we have been locked out, and in a few moments the rules of the Senate will be effectively changed to lock out the minority party even more. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
