Agreement re: sequester bills

Senator McConnell obtained consent that the Inhofe-Toomey bill at the desk be considered as the bill that qualifies for introduction under the previous order. He then moved to proceed to S.16, Sequester replacement, and filed cloture on the motion.

The Senate then reached an agreement that results in 2 stacked roll call votes in relation to the sequester replacement bills at a time to be determined tomorrow. We expect the votes to occur after 2pm, but as always, another message will be sent once a time has been set.

The votes would be in relation to the following items:

-          Motion to invoke cloture on the McConnell motion to proceed to Calendar #19, S.16, a bill to proceed for sequester replacement.

-          Motion to invoke cloture on the Reid motion to proceed to Calendar 18, S.388, the American Family Economic Protection Act of 2013

The details of the agreement are as follows.

On Thursday, February 28^th, at a time to be determined by the Majority Leader after consultation with the Republican Leader, the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the McConnell motion to proceed to Calendar #19, S.16. If cloture is not invoked, the motion to proceed would be withdrawn and the Senate would then proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Reid motion to proceed to Calendar #18, S.388. Further, if cloture is invoked on the McConnell motion to proceed, the motion to proceed would be agreed to and the Senate would resume consideration of the Reid motion to proceed to S.388 and vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Reid motion. If cloture is invoked on the Reid motion, the motion to proceed would be agreed to. If the motion to proceed to S.16 was previously agreed to, the Senate would then resume consideration of the bill and upon disposition of S.16, the Senate resume consideration of S.388 if the motion to proceed was previously agreed to.