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| Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act For Defense, The Global War On Terror, And Tsunami Relief Act, 2005—Conference Report—Continued |
May 10, 2005 |
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Robert Byrd, D-WV
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"Mr. President, there were some problems in conference, most notably the recessing at the call of the Chair and not returning, which left some of our members unable to offer motions. During the recess, 55 pages of modified REAL ID immigration legislation were inserted into the conference report, sight unseen, by the conferees. Now, can you imagine that? That would not have happened when I was chairman of the Appropriations Committee. That would not have happened when I was majority leader of the Senate. I will tell you, I don’t blame our chairman or any committee members for this situation, but I do acknowledge that there were problems."
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| The Sabbath |
October 9, 2004 |
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Robert Byrd, D-WV
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"Mr. President, I don’t see why we can’t have the vote today, or if not today, move it over until Monday. That could be done. The majority leader can easily do this, no question about it. I could do it when I was majority leader. I respect the majority leader, and I respect his doing whatever he has to do, but I am saying that a stitch in time would save nine."
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| National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2005—Continued |
June 15, 2004 |
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Thomas Daschle, D-SD
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"This is not the first time the Senate has voted to strengthen existing federal protections against hate crimes. I brought these same protections to the Senate floor when I was majority leader in 2002. They were first introduced in 1997 and passed by the Senate in 1999. In 2000, majorities in both the House and Senate supported hate crimes legislation—only to have the provisions stripped out behind the closed doors of a conference committee at the insistence of the far right."
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| Omnibus Appropriations |
December 9, 2003 |
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Robert Byrd, D-WV
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"I understand the reluctance of the majority leader. The leadership worries there may not be enough votes to pass the conference report and send it to the White House. But we would not know that until we voted. It is not unheard of to ask Members of the Senate to come back and vote. It has been done before. I have done it when I was majority leader. It has been done by other majority leaders. I don’t criticize the current majority leader. He is doing what he thinks he has to do under the circumstances. But I think we all could have done better. I think the Members should have been asked to come back and do their work and finish the job, debate the conference report, have a rollcall vote and then go home for Christmas."
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