Harry Reid: “I am going to suggest to Democratic Senators to oppose cloture today. I will say to all assembled that the vote under…”

“I am going to suggest to Democratic Senators to oppose cloture today. I will say to all assembled that the vote under the rules is to occur tomorrow. If the majority leader decides he wants to do it today, we would not oppose even having that vote today. We are going to oppose cloture. The reason being, if you read newspapers today, you will see the House of Representatives, by a 99- percent margin in the supplemental appropriations bill, put a provision in that basically bans the Dubai Ports situation. I agree with that. I suggested to the majority leader that we could have a vote on that matter right now after a very short time period to debate it. That would take it off of this bill. The majority leader said he doesn't want that. He suggested voting on it tomorrow. To make a long story short, the majority leader at this point has not agreed to do that. As a result of that, any other thing we come up with takes the second-degree amendment away. It doesn't allow that to be the matter before the Senate. I had a conversation with Senator Dodd last night, and he was telling me how disappointed he was that we weren't going to complete this bill today. But this is where the American people find the Senate today and that is where we as Senators find ourselves today.…”