Thad Cochran

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 14, 1998 at 10:00 a.m. to hold a hearing.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 14, 1998 at 2:00 p.m. to hold a closed business meeting.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the Finance Committee requests unanimous consent to conduct a hearing on Tuesday, July 14, 1998 beginning at 9:30 a.m. in room 215 Dirksen.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on energy and Natural Resources be granted permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 14, for purposes of conducting a full committee hearing which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on H.R. 856, a bill to provide a process leading to full self-government for Puerto Rico; and S. 472, a bill to provide for referenda in which the residents of Puerto Rico may express democratically their preferences regarding the political status of the territory, and for other purposes.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure be granted permission to conduct a hearing Tuesday, July 14, 9:30 a.m., Hearing Room (SD- 406), on S. 1647, to reauthorize and make reforms to programs authorized by the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, and other pending legislation to reauthorize.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the amendment has been cleared on this side of the aisle. Mr. DODD addressed the Chair.

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

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am delighted we were able to work out a modification to the Daschle amendment. It is the pending business. I urge all Republicans to vote for the sense-of-the-Senate resolution indicating that there are problems in agriculture; they need the immediate attention of the President and the Congress.

Mr. COCHRAN. Yes.

Mr. COCHRAN. I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, it sounds like a good amendment to me, too. We have checked on our side of the aisle. There is no objection to the amendment. We urge it be approved.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am delighted to join the distinguished Senator from Arkansas in cosponsoring this amendment. He has identified the problem. It really ought to be labeled the ``truth in budgeting amendment,'' because it requires the administration now to acknowledge when a proposal is made for user fees to be approved by Congress. In the absence of such approval by the legislative committee, in the legislative process a submission has to then show how much money should be appropriated from the Treasury through the appropriations process, not to continue to assume that there is this pot of money there that has been generated by the enactment of user fees. I think this will help everybody understand the process better. And we certainly welcome this change in the law as proposed by the distinguished Senator from Arkansas. We know of no objection to the amendment on this side. We urge that it be approved by the Senate.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, if there are Senators who want to discuss this or other issues, there is an opportunity between now and 5:15 to do that. Pending such discussion, the distinguished Senator from Arkansas and I have been able to review additional amendments, and we are prepared to recommend to the Senate that they be accepted as a part of this agriculture appropriations bill. I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside for the purpose of propounding these additional amendments for consideration.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I commend the distinguished Senator from Montana for his comments and his leadership. I don't know whether Senators realize this or not, but he has been getting Senators together on an invitation basis at his office to discuss the problems in agriculture, bringing to the attention of all of us who are interested in that subject some very serious challenges that we face now in terms of trade policy and the other related issues that he has already talked about this afternoon. His comments to the Senate are very helpful as we put in perspective what our challenge is and what our options are for responding to these very real problems in agriculture. Mr. President, I am also happy to be able to advise the Senate that we have reached an agreement with the Democratic leader on the subject of the sense-of-the-Senate resolution which was offered earlier today and which has been the subject of a good deal of discussion. There has been an agreement to modify the amendment, and I am ready to propound a unanimous consent request with the clearance of both leaders, and it is as follows: I ask unanimous consent that at 5:15 p.m. this evening, the Senate proceed to a vote on amendment No. 3127, as modified, offered by the minority leader. I further ask unanimous consent that no second-degree amendments be in order prior to the vote.

Mr. COCHRAN. I appreciate the concerns raised by the Senator from Oklahoma, and would make a similar request of the Secretary with respect to this matter. Motion to Waive Budget Act--Amendment No. 2729

Mr. COCHRAN. I thank the Senator from Utah for his remarks. I can tell him that we will try to do everything we can to restore the cuts in FDA's cosmetics program.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the pending amendment is the resolution that was offered by the Democratic leader and others which is a recitation of some of the challenges and problems that face those who are involved in production agriculture throughout America. Several Senators have taken the floor to point out some specifics that back up the suggestion made in this sense-of-the-Senate resolution. Other Senators have added their comments in the form of other resolutions. We have already adopted on a voice vote a resolution offered by the Senator from Texas dealing with the problems of the drought that is confronting agriculture producers in that State. We have another amendment that has been brought to my attention that will be offered by the Senator from Florida, maybe both Senators from Florida, on the subject of the problems of agriculture that have been caused by the wildfires and the other disasters that have occurred in that State. So it is no secret that we have plenty of problems out there. There may be disagreements on exactly how to approach the difficulties. They are not all the same. Some are weather related; some are not. Some have to do with market conditions in various parts of the world. So it is a complex and wide range of problems facing the Senate. We are being put to the test today, to come to some decision on these issues. I encourage Senators who have comments to make on this subject to come to the floor and express their views. This is a good time to do that. At some point, we will have to either agree to this amendment or consider an amendment to it and move on to other issues. So any Senators who would like to comment on that at this point, I encourage them to do so. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to be able to point out the distinguished Senator from Maine has chaired committee hearings in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on the subject of food safety. It has been a pleasure to participate with her in that effort and to observe the quality of leadership she has brought to that issue. Her comprehensive investigation on the subject of food safety will greatly assist all of us in the Senate in our efforts to improve the food safety system in this country and ensure legislation on this subject is responsive to the real needs for improvements in the programs that are administered by the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies of the Federal Government.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I listened very carefully to the excellent remarks of the distinguished Senator from Kansas. I think he put in perspective the challenges that face American agriculture, particularly out in the northern plains. But he also, I think, put in proper perspective the legislative history and the effort that was made, on a bipartisan basis, and with the approval of this President, to authorize farm programs that meet the modern needs of farmers, do not solve all the problems, but within the context of Federal legislation give farmers an opportunity to operate their farms in the context of a global economy, within the limits of the Federal budget that has been constrained in recent years, and with a predictability about the future, with rights of flexibility, with rights of choice on the part of farmers as to what they plan and how they manage their farm operation. The distinguished Senator has been a very important leader in agriculture and I think, in listening to his remarks, it is clear to all of us why he has been chosen and why his advice is so often taken here in the U.S. Senate and when he was chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and why he has been such an effective leader throughout the country on agriculture issues. It also shows us that we are in a situation now where we have to make a choice. We have before us a resolution offered by Senators Harkin and Daschle stating the problems in some sectors of the country in agriculture and calling on the Congress and the President to take action in response to these problems. I support the general tone and the general sense that is contained in that resolution, and I hope the Senate will work its will soon and adopt this resolution. If it has to be modified, let's modify it and then move on to specific amendments. We have a list of amendments. As we started the consideration of this bill, which we had been advised Senators wanted the Senate to consider, there were about 50 amendments. We have worked our way down to a point now where it is a little less than 40. We have sent out hotline requests to Senators' offices to let us know what their intentions are in terms of specific amendments. Give us the benefit of the suggestions. Let us look at them. Senator Bumpers and I will try to accommodate Senators' requests where we can, and get the reaction of the administration to other suggestions Senators make for amendments and work our way through those amendments to final passage of the bill. We would like to get that done tonight if we could. It is probably not realistic to expect to complete action within the next 2 hours. But I would like to do that. Then we could turn to other appropriations bills tomorrow. The majority leader has already indicated that we will not be in late tonight. Certainly we ought to be able to finish this bill at least at an early hour tomorrow. But to accommodate the requests and the interests that we all have in moving along expeditiously on the passage of appropriations bills, we need to have the cooperation of Senators. The first order of business is to deal with this sense-of-the-Senate resolution. I have suggested to some Senators on this side of the aisle that if they have suggestions for changes in that resolution, let us know about it, and we will take them up with the authors of the resolution and see if we can pass that resolution within the next several minutes. I hope we can do that. Cosmetics

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I was pleased to be able to grant the request of the distinguished Senator from Maine, the request to ensure that this valuable agricultural research is continued at the Agriculture Research Center's laboratory.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I yield the floor. Several Senators addressed the Chair. Amendment No. 3127

Mr. COCHRAN. I too appreciate the Senator bringing the critical nature of this issue to our attention. When we meet with the House Conferees on this bill, we will give every consideration to provide funding for this project.

Mr. COCHRAN. My colleague from Georgia is correct.

Mr. COCHRAN. I appreciate the Senator's remarks. We will do everything we can to make sure that the funding for this worthy program is adequately addressed. tomato spotted wilt virus