Unanimous Consent Request --H.R. 2316

Floor Speech

UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 2316 -- (Senate - June 28, 2007)

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 182, H.R. 2316, Lobbying Disclosure; that all after the enacting clause be stricken, and the text of S. 1, as passed by the Senate on January 18, 2007, be inserted in lieu thereof; that the bill be read a third time, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table; that the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate with a ratio of 4 to 3, with the above occurring without intervening action or debate.

I would say to my distinguished colleague--my counterpart, Senator McConnell--that it is my intent not to appoint the conferees until we get back.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.

Mr. McCONNELL. Reserving right to object, and I will not object, I was not on the floor Tuesday when the majority leader first brought this issue to the Senate floor. I was down at the White House. I am pleased he is ready to go to conference on lobby reform, the first bill introduced in this Congress, S. 1, and passed with a vote of 96 to 2 almost 6 months ago, on January 18.

I am also encouraged the Democratic House finally decided to pass a bill after many months of stalling and excuses. However, before we agree to this unanimous consent request, I would like to engage my colleague in a brief colloquy to ensure minority rights are not trampled, as they were in the supplemental.

As the Senate will recall, the majority drafted that bill and included matters not related to troop funding and not part of either bill. This was designed, obviously, to get around 41 Republican Senators here in the Senate. Obviously, putting those items in a troop funding bill made it very difficult to oppose the bill and we know how that story ended.

In that vein, I ask my good friend, the majority leader, to commit that, consistent with the provisions of S. 1--to commit not to drop extraneous provisions into this conference report not dealt with by either body. I think it is important that this very significant issue, on which we have had extraordinary bipartisan cooperation, continue to deal with the subject matter related to this bill.

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