Today –

• Following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 5325, the vehicle for the continuing resolution.
• At 12:00 PM, there will be a filing deadline for all second-degree amendments to both the substitute amendment #5082 to H.R. 5325 and the underlying bill.
• At 12:30 PM, the Senate will recess until 2:15 PM for the weekly conference meetings.
• At 2:15 PM, the Senate will VOTE on the motion to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment #5082 to H.R. 5325.
• Note: If cloture is invoked on the substitute amendment, cloture will be considered to have been invoked at 6:00 PM on Monday, September 26. 

 

Senator McConnell: (10:02 AM)

• Spoke on the continuing resolution.
  • "It's almost as if a few Democratic leaders decided long ago that bringing our country to the brink would make for good election-year politics. And then they've just made up the rationale as they go along. But that couldn't really be true, could it? Could it be true? That would mean Democrats have been playing politics with the lives of expectant mothers and babies suffering from Zika, after a few months ago demanding immediate action. That would mean Democrats have been playing politics with the lives of those struggling from the heroin and prescription opioid crisis, after promising they'd help. That would mean Democrats have been playing politics with the lives of flood victims, after saying they cared. Now I know our Democratic friends wouldn't want the American people to think that. I hope every one of our Democratic friends will show us today that they're actually serious about supporting veterans and tackling Zika and flood relief and the heroin and prescription opioid crisis, and we all know the way to do that: by supporting the legislation before us that actually does those things."
• Unanimous consent –
  • The Senate recess from 3:00 PM until 4:00 PM for an all-senators briefing.
  • Further, the time from 10:45 AM until 11:30 AM be under the control of the majority and 4:00 PM until 5:00 PM be under the control of the Democrats.
  • (Without objection)

 

Senator Reid: (10:07 AM)

• Spoke on the continuing resolution.
  • "The provision that my friend, the Republican leader, has to have in this bill, this resolution, is this: that the Securities and Exchange Commission will be powerless to tell corporations that they have to disclose their campaign contributions. They have to disclose everything else to their shareholders, but not that. Oh, no, that would be terrible. Any type of disclosure - we want to keep all this money out there dark, secret. No one knows, all these phony names they advertise is just so unfair. The Republican bill includes a rider that prevents shareholders from knowing how their money is being used in political campaigns. Again, the Republican leader is trying to shut the door on disclosure. Now, the Republican continuing resolution also ignores a two and a half year crisis in Flint, Michigan. Lead has poisoned all 100,000 people, almost 10,000 children, some of whom are babies."
• Spoke on Donald Trump.
  • "But even as Trump tried to say nothing about his tax returns, he revealed at least one shocking truth. Donald Trump thinks that paying taxes is a fool's errand. People shouldn't pay taxes. It was reported at least five times in three decades Trump paid nothing in federal income taxes. When Secretary Clinton alluded to the fact in last night's debate, Donald Trump's response: that makes me smart. So what does that make the rest of us? Suckers, unintelligent, dumb? He's smart, does that make us dumb because we pay our taxes? We know that refusing to pay his taxes makes him, as we've come to learn, a scam artist."