Thad Cochran

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 39, H.R. 1226.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read the third time, and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill appear at this point in the Record.

Mr. COCHRAN

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

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution appear at this point in the Record.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 115, Senate Concurrent Resolution 41.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read the third time, and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill appear at this point in the Record.

Mr. COCHRAN. I ask unanimous consent that the Energy Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 709 and, further, that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table and that any statements relating to the resolution appear at this point in the Record.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 114, S. Con. Res. 40.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. For the information of Senators, this amendment modifies the amendment previously agreed to, that had been offered by me for Senators D'Amato and Sarbanes regarding rural housing. Mr. President, we hope to continue to consider amendments of Senators so we can proceed to complete action on this bill today. We now have two votes that have been set to occur beginning at 4 o'clock this afternoon. There are, to our knowledge, at least two more amendments that are going to be offered that will probably require rollcall votes. What we would like to do is to stack votes on those amendments immediately following the votes that have now been ordered, and then have final passage of the bill. To do that, we need to have the cooperation of all Senators who are interested in the passage of this bill and those who have amendments to the bill. We hope they will come to the floor as soon as possible to offer their amendments. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I send a modification to amendment numbered 963 to the desk.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senate Resolution 109, the Murkowski-Stevens resolution, be temporarily set aside and a vote occur on the adoption of the resolution at 4 o'clock p.m. today, to be immediately followed by the vote on the Cochran motion to table the Durbin amendment, No. 965. I finally ask consent that there be 2 minutes, equally divided, for debate prior to the second vote.

Mr. COCHRAN. If the Senator will yield, I am prepared to make a unanimous-consent request to that effect, if that is satisfactory to the Senator.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the motion to table be set aside and to occur at a time to be established later in the day.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, this has been a very vigorous and informative debate, in my judgment. I have no parochial interest in that our State does not grow tobacco. We have no program for tobacco, for any of the producers of agricultural commodities in our State, but I am persuaded by the arguments that have been made by the Senator from Kentucky about the economic consequences of this amendment, and that is bolstered by the letter the distinguished Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Ford], mentioned that had been received by me today from the Secretary of Agriculture which points out the detrimental effect that the amendment offered by the Senator from Illinois would have on agriculture producers in the United States if it were to be passed by the Senate. So I am constrained to oppose the amendment of the Senator from Illinois, but I am also troubled very much by the second-degree amendment that has now been offered by my good friend from Kentucky which limits the application of the crop insurance program to farmable acreage of less than 400 acres. And that is troubling because so many of our farmers in my State and elsewhere throughout the country have more than 400 acres under cultivation, and this would be discriminatory in a different kind of way. So I am troubled by that amendment and I do not want to see that passed. So I am in a position and I think the best course of action for me as manager of the bill is to move to table the underlying amendment. If that motion to table passes, then it takes both the underlying amendment and the second-degree amendment with it as I understand it. So at this point, knowing that debate has been occurring for a little over an hour now and with the knowledge that we will set this aside, not to vote on it now but at a time to be determined later, I now move to table the underlying amendment and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COCHRAN. The ranking member is correct.

Mr. COCHRAN. The ranking member is correct.

Mr. COCHRAN. The ranking member is again correct. The committee notes its strong approval of the Department for actively working to fund this important project from existing resources. The committee reserves the right to revisit this project next year should the Department fail to continue its laudable efforts.

Mr. COCHRAN. I would be pleased to join the senior Senator from Arkansas in a colloquy.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. arkansas communications project

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to offer this amendment on behalf of myself and Senator Bumpers. This amendment contains two technical changes to the competitiveness provisions of the domestic cotton program. This amendment has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office as having no cost. I am informed that the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee has no objection to the amendment. The original provisions in the law were designed to ensure that U.S. cotton is competitive in both domestic and overseas markets. The program has worked well, but changes made to the program in 1991 and 1996 have had unintended consequences. The amendment I am offering would address those problems by doing two things. First, it makes it possible for the various components of the program to work simultaneously to ensure that we do not rely too much on cotton import quotas to make domestic cotton competitive. Second, it slightly increases a ceiling that unduly restricts the availability of the step 2 certificate program. By capping loan rates in the 1996 FAIR Act, Congress unintentionally restricted the operation of the cotton competitiveness program. The amendment eases the restriction slightly, but would not affect loan rates. Mr. President, this is an amendment that has been cleared on both sides of the aisle. I know of no objections to it. I know of no Senators who want to speak on the amendment.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk which has been cleared.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I understand that Senators are considering offering amendments. Let me say this is a good time to come to the floor and do that. We expect amendments to be offered. We hope to wind up consideration of all amendments so we can stack votes and have those votes at 4 o'clock this afternoon, and then final passage of the bill. To do that, we need the cooperation and participation of Senators. We invite that at this time. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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