Harry Reid: “I will use leader time, in that all time has expired. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the motion…”

“I will use leader time, in that all time has expired. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the motion to waive the valid budget point of order raised by my colleague, Senator John Ensign. This is not a technicality, it is the absolute foundation of this flawed program, this trust fund. A vote on the budget point of order is the key vote on this bill. Cloture was filed last night by the majority leader on both the bill and the Specter substitute amendment. The first cloture motion will ripen tomorrow morning. The effect of that action will be to ensure there will be no meaningful opportunity to amend this bill. The chairman of the committee says we should not defeat the bill on a budget point of order and should instead attempt to improve the bill by amendment. Mr. President, please, that is not very sensible. The majority leader's decision to file cloture last night completely undercuts that argument. There is no serious chance this bill will be improved through amendment. Why do I say that? After cloture is invoked on the substitute, only germane amendments will be in order, and after the substitute is adopted, no amendments at all will be in order. Many of the most important amendments to the bill are highly relevant but nongermane. There are lots of them. How about the amendment of Senator Lindsey Graham to deal with environmental exposure to asbestos across the country?…”