Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I make a point of order that the pending bill violates section 407 of H. Con. Res. 95, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2006.Mr. SPECTER. I move to waive the point of order under the applicable provisions of the rules and statutes.
The route to the statutory expression of the 3/5ths requirement is actually direct, not indirect as I posted above.
SEC. 407. LIMITATION ON LONG-TERM SPENDING PROPOSALS.(a) CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE ANALYSIS OF PROPOSALS- The Director of the Congressional Budget Office shall, to the extent practicable, prepare for each bill or joint resolution reported from committee (except measures within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Appropriations), or amendments thereto or conference reports thereon, an estimate of whether the measure would cause, relative to current law, a net increase in direct spending in excess of $5 billion in any of the four 10-year periods beginning in fiscal year 2016 through fiscal year 2055.
(b) POINT OF ORDER- In the Senate, it shall not be in order to consider any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that would cause a net increase in direct spending in excess of $5 billion in any of the four 10-year periods beginning in 2016 through 2055.
(c) WAIVER- This section may be waived or suspended only by the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the Members, duly chosen and sworn.
(d) APPEALS- An affirmative vote of three-fifths of the Members, duly chosen and sworn, shall be required to sustain an appeal of the ruling of the Chair on a point of order raised under this section.
(e) DETERMINATIONS OF BUDGET LEVELS- For purposes of this section, the levels of net direct spending shall be determined on the basis of estimates provided by the Committee on the Budget of the Senate.
(f) APPLICATION TO RECONCILIATION- This section shall not apply to any legislation reported pursuant to reconciliation directions contained in a concurrent resolution on the budget.
(g) SUNSET- This section shall expire on September 30, 2010.
H.CON.RES.95.ENR - Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow the Senate will complete consideration of the pending motions to instruct the conferees on H.R. 4297, the tax relief bill, and send that bill to conference. We will have multiple votes starting close to 10 a.m. Senators should plan to stay around the floor for a series of up to 16 stacked votes in the morning. I truly hope that some of those will not be pushed to a rollcall vote and we would finish at a reasonable time.Tomorrow afternoon, we will resume consideration of S. 852, the asbestos bill. There is a pending motion to waive the Budget Act that must be disposed of before we can move forward with the amendment process.