ms. mccaskill: mr.president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. ms. mccaskill: well, i am confused. mr. coburn: then objection was heard? the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. mccaskill: i am confused. this law was passed in the most bipartisan way possible -- 96-2. are we going to pretend that this law doesn't say what it says? let me make sure i put in the record what it says. "the majority and minority leaders of the senate or their designees shall recognize a notice of intent of a senator who is a member of their caucus to object to a proceeding or a measure, only if the senator, first, following the objection to unanimous consent proceeding submits the notice of intent in writing to the appropriate leader or their designee -- and -- not later than six session days after the submission under paragraph 1 submits for inclusion in the "congressional record" and in the applicable calendar section describing subsection-b the following ntsz: i, senator blank, intended to object to

ms. mccaskill: you know, mr. president, i know that someone is going to be able to use the fig leaf and stand behind the argument that the amendment that was offered at the very last moment this afternoon was about something they cared about and that it's something that we need to vote on. and it is a subject matter that we care about, that we need to work on, but, really, it's pretty transparent what's going on here. that at the very last moment, when all of a sudden we were this close for everyone having to go on record about secret holds, that someone shot it out of the sky like a clay pigeon, and that's what this amendment did. now, -- so the argument is, well, you know, the wyden-grassley amendment on secret holds isn't really about financial reform bill. why does it get a chance to be voted on? it's very simple, mr. president. the reason the widen-grassley amendment should be considered germane to every bill we debate in this body is because it's about the way we do business. every day that goes by that we