First Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, got fed up Wednesday with all the non-substantive votes the House was taking as it rushed through its final day of session for 2009.

Then, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, appears to have lost his cool when he was asked by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas whether it was acceptable to keep speaking. (See video.)

But while Begich may have rattled Cornyn, it turns out the freshman Democrat was acting under the orders of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, the majority leader of the Senate. Begich, who as a junior member of the Senate is required to preside frequently to learn the rules of the chamber, had been asked to limit everyone to 10-minute speeches to speed up proceedings in the chamber. (Another freshman, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., did the same on Thursday to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.)

Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau said that Democrats are fed up with what they see as Republican stall tactics -- including yesterday's call for an entire 767-page amendment to be read out loud. (The sponsor, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had proposed a single-payer health care system in his amendment, which had no chance of passage.)

So the presiding senators have been holding the senators speaking in the chamber to a 10-minute time limit -- despite the unspoken rules of the Senate that senators can yammer on as much as they want.

"You can usually get more time, the Senate's a pretty leisurely place" Mollineau said. "But time is of the essence. so 10 minutes is what you get."

They want to see a defense spending bill come to the floor, said Begich's spokeswoman, Julie Hasquet.

"Under the agreement that each speaker be given ten minutes, Senator Begich was showing frustration at what he perceives as continual efforts to delay," she said in an e-mail. "He would have tried to keep any speaker -- from either side of the aisle -- to the agreed-upon time limits."

Begich wants the defense appropriations bill passed "to support the men and women serving our country," Hasquet said. "The service members deserve to have the equipment and resources they need to get their jobs done."