Dale Bumpers

Mr. BUMPERS

Mr. BUMPERS. I ask unanimous consent that the Dodd amendment be temporarily laid aside while we deal with some amendments that are agreed to, at the conclusion of which, we will automatically return to the Dodd amendment.

Mr. BUMPERS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. BUMPERS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. BUMPERS. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Byrd be listed as a cosponsor on the Bumpers sense-of-the-Senate resolution on program funding levels which was previously adopted.

Mr. BUMPERS. Will the Senator take 10 or 15 minutes?

Mr. BUMPERS. Will the Senator be willing to set his amendment aside temporarily to allow the Senator from Virginia to proceed?

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Dodd amendment be temporarily laid aside to allow Senator Robb, who has been waiting patiently for about 3 days, to offer his amendment--it should not be long--and that immediately upon the adoption or disposition of his amendment, we return to the Dodd amendment.

Mr. BUMPERS. Let me again echo the very eloquent words of the chairman, and for the purposes of the Record state this has been sort of a festering sore down at the Department of Agriculture for some time. I know the President is personally--very personally--interested in the extension of the statute of limitations so nobody who has a meritorious claim will be denied that claim simply because he did not understand the intricacies affecting his claim. By the same token, I think it is well, for the Record, to say--and I think this is precisely what has been said by the chairman; I will simply repeat it--we are not making a judgment on the merits of a single claim. We are simply saying that if you have a claim that has merit, we are going to give you a chance to present it; and hopefully it will be decided in a very judicial way and a justifiable way. So with that little caveat, I congratulate Senator Robb. He has worked diligently to try to find offsets in order to offer this. He has done a magnificent job. I thank the Department of Agriculture and the White House for their cooperation. With that, on this side of the aisle we are prepared to accept the amendment, Mr. President. Mr. ROBB addressed the Chair.

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, would the Senator yield just a moment. What was the Levin amendment?

Mr. BUMPERS. I have fire blights.

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President all of those amendments have been cleared on this side. Amendments Nos. 3178 through 3187, En Bloc

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BUMPERS. Yes, Senator Johnson, I do have some concerns about the amendment. However, I am prepared to accept the amendment today if I can secure a commitment from the Senator from South Dakota to sit down and address my concerns between passage of the Senate's legislation today and completion of action by the conference committee. Can I have that commitment from you, Senator Johnson?

Mr. BUMPERS. I am in full agreement with Senator Cochran. While the need of farmers in Florida is clear and pressing, other farmers are also suffering as a result of the many disasters which have struck the country this year. The final conference agreement on this provision should reflect the full extent of damage to farmers in all affected regions of the country.

Mr. BUMPERS. I thank Senator Baucus for agreeing to look at funding this project in the future. I look forward to working with him on that effort.

Mr. BUMPERS. May I ask the floor manager, what was the last amendment?

Mr. BUMPERS. That has been cleared on this side. Amendments No. 3188 through 3191, En Bloc

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, the first amendment that the chairman mentioned has been cleared on this side. The amendment by Senator Coverdell has not.

Mr. BUMPERS

Mr. BUMPERS. I just want to echo the words of my chairman, Senator Cochran, and state, first of all, this is a sense-of-the-Senate resolution. So the world is not going to come to an end, no matter how strenuously somebody might object to a particular provision of the bill. I would have been willing--when I came on the floor, I discussed it with Senator Cochran--I would be willing to accept it and go to conference with it. It doesn't seem all that ominous to me. But there are some really strenuous objections on this side. So I suppose, as the chairman said, we are going to have to have a vote on it. I not only find nothing objectionable, I find a lot in it to commend. I think it is an excellent, very thoughtfully crafted proposal, and I agree with every one of the items he has listed here. I understand, as I say, that there are strong feelings on the other side. In conclusion, this is one of those things--I see my colleague from Arkansas seeking the floor, and I think I know which provision he dislikes intensely in it, and Senator Byrd, I think, has voiced objection to the fast-track provision. I wish we could adopt it on a voice vote. If we can't do that, why, then do something else. Maybe we can get Senator Grassley on the floor and at least get a time agreement on this amendment. It is the kind of amendment that can just go on all day long and it is a sense-of-the-Senate resolution. We never will get the bill passed if we spend this much time on sense-of-the-Senate resolutions. We have a lot of work to do here. If we finish this bill today, we will be lucky, in my opinion. In any event, Mr. President, I hope that people who want to speak on this bill will hurry to the floor and get said whatever they want to say, and we can get Senator Grassley on the floor and maybe work out a time agreement so we have some definition of what the day in front of us is going to look like. I yield the floor. Mr. HUTCHINSON addressed the Chair.

Mr. BUMPERS

Mr. BUMPERS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I am in the majority leader's corner on this. This is unforgivable. Maybe there is some forgiveness in the order because most Members on our side are in a meeting with the President right now. I am hoping that somebody will have the nerve to walk out of that meeting to come over here and offer an amendment and get this show on the road. The other thing that is mildly encouraging is that we have been going over the list of Democratic amendments, and an awful lot of them are folding, and some are going to be accepted. I only know about three or four fairly controversial amendments that are probably going to require a rollcall vote--in the vicinity of three or four. The rest, I think, are either not going to be offered, or we are going to be able to accept them. Hopefully, we can get through here by sometime in the middle to late afternoon. I certainly appreciate the majority leader's frustration, with all of these amendments lying around and nobody here to offer them. In all fairness, the reason nobody is over here is because they are all in a meeting with the President. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BUMPERS

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, there is just one final little anecdote that I would like to share with the Senate. When my former colleague, Senator Pryor, left the Senate last year, he went home to the University of Arkansas to teach. He is sort of a roving professor. He taught one day at the school of business, and the next day the school of agriculture, and so on. He was at the law school one day. He said that some smart law student got up and said, ``Why don't you deliver a lecture someday on the comparison of our democracy and the Athenian democracy?'' Senator Pryor said he didn't know what to do. So he went back to his office and he called the Senate historian and he told him what he was up against. The historian said, ``You are lucky. Senator Byrd has just delivered about 15 speeches on Athenian democracy.'' He sent those to him, and he said everybody in the university thinks he is an Athenian scholar.

Mr. BUMPERS

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendment be agreed to.

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill, as amended, be read for the third time, passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be placed in the Record at the appropriate place as if read.

Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.