Thad Cochran

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I have been requested by the Senator from Arizona to ask unanimous consent that the yeas and nays that had been ordered on the McCain amendment be vitiated. I, therefore, ask unanimous consent.

Mr. COCHRAN

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

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, under the previous order, the Senate will debate any amendments in order to the agriculture appropriations bill beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Any votes ordered will occur beginning at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Also, it is the majority leader's intention to conclude action on the agriculture appropriations bill during Wednesday's session of the Senate.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 1956 be placed back on the calendar.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 24; further, that immediately following the prayer, the Journal of the proceedings be deemed approved to date, no resolutions come over under the rule, the call of the calendar be dispensed with, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate immediately resume consideration of the agriculture appropriations bill.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that following the stacked votes regarding the reconciliation bill, the Senate proceed to vote on or in relation to the McCain amendment No. 4968 to be followed immediately by a vote on or in relation to the Gregg amendment No. 4969.

Mr. COCHRAN. Senators should remain in or around the Senate Chamber during these votes in order for the Senate to complete the reconciliation bill in a timely manner. Votes will occur throughout the morning. And it is the leader's intention to hold these votes to 10 minutes in length. Therefore, Senators are reminded again to remain in or around the Chamber during this voting series. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess between the hours of 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. for the weekly party caucuses to meet.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, tomorrow morning, beginning at 9:30, there be a lengthy series of rollcall votes on, or in relation to, amendments to the reconciliation bill. Members should be alerted that there may be as many as 24 consecutive rollcall votes. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that beginning after the first vote, all remaining votes in the voting sequence be limited to 10 minutes in length.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23; further, that immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be deemed approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate immediately resume the reconciliation bill as under the previous order.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter that I received as chairman of the subcommittee from the Coalition of U.S. Exporters in support of the Market Access Program.

Mr. COCHRAN. I will be happy to yield to my friend from Nevada.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, this Market Promotion Program has been one that has attracted an awful lot of attention and some controversy over the last several years. Senators have heard the arguments for it and against it, and why it is important for us to continue to support those who are trying to market their commodities and food products in overseas markets, particularly when they are confronted with trade practices that are developed by our competitors, or even those countries in which we are trying to export our products that operate against our interests. Under the rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, we have tried to reduce barriers to trade, make the playing field fair, and have as a principle for our international trade that if we are going to make available our market here in the United States, we are going to insist that other countries do the same. But from time to time, even though this is the general understanding and the general basis for these international agreements, we run into specific problems--structural difficulties, bureaucratic redtape, call it what you will. It is all an effort to prefer one of our competitors over our exporters in these markets, or to keep us out of the markets altogether. These funds have been very helpful, I am told at our hearings with the Foreign Agriculture Service, in breaking down barriers to trade, to overcoming these efforts to keep our suppliers and our exporters out of international markets. There is no question that this is an area of economic activity that has benefited American business, agriculture, and industry. We have seen a growing amount of jobs created in our own economy here at home because of access to overseas markets for our products. There is a direct correlation between the amount of exporting we do and the amount of benefit we get economically here in terms of jobs, pay for workers, and renewed and invigorated business activity. It has been consistently shown on the basis of experience that we have had using these funds that as we provide assistance to exporters and suppliers in international markets, we do better; we sell more; we are more successful. I hope the Senate will not be persuaded to further reduce the ability of the Foreign Agriculture Service to go to bat for our exporters, to try to help where help is needed, and use these funds in a targeted way, in a way that is designed to help us sell more of what we produce in these emerging markets around the world. I know that we are not going to resolve this issue tonight, and we have a lot of information that will be available to Senators, but almost all the Senators who are going to vote--and I presume we are going to go to a record vote on this unless the Senator decides to withdraw his amendment on the basis of my overwhelmingly persuasive remarks in opposition to his amendment. I presume we are going to vote on this amendment tomorrow.

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

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, with that understanding, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of the Senator from Alaska, [Mr. Murkowski], on the subject of seafood inspection and ask that it be reported.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, that will be in the proposed request which the majority leader will propound. That is an excellent idea. We are going to try to include that in the request of the majority leader as we wind up business tonight. I am told now the amendment of the Senator from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, which we had tried to clear earlier, has now been cleared for adoption. Amendment No. 4983 (Purpose: To reconcile seafood inspection requirements for agricultural commodity programs with those in use for general public consumers)

Mr. COCHRAN. OK. Mr. President, we understand that it will be unlikely that we can get an agreement tonight to limit the amendments to those that I have just read. We had hoped to be able to get that agreement. We understand, if we propounded that request, there would be an objection. So we will not propound a unanimous-consent request, but we hope that will be all the amendments we will have to this bill, and we will take them up when Senators come to the floor to offer them. If they don't come to offer them tonight, we will be here tomorrow.

Mr. COCHRAN. Yes, it is.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I also understand that Senator Hatch is going to propose an amendment on the subject of generic drugs. We will add that to our list.

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

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, it appears that Senators who were prepared to offer their amendments have come to the floor and offered and discussed the amendments that they have to this bill. We understand there are other amendments that Senators would like to offer to this bill. I have a list, which I am prepared to read just for the information of all Senators. It is obvious we are not going to be able to complete action on this bill tonight. We do have amendments that votes have been ordered on that will occur tomorrow, and during the wrap-up tonight, an agreement will be proposed for an order in which those amendments will be taken up and voted on tomorrow. Let me suggest, if Senators can still this evening come to the floor to offer their amendments, we are prepared to be here for that purpose. We have this list: Senator Burns, an amendment on barley; Senator Brown, an amendment on water rights; Senator Santorum, who has eight amendments on peanuts; Senator Mikulski, an amendment on the Food and Drug Administration; Senator Leahy on milk orders; Senator Craig on GAO study on agriculture workers; Senator Lugar on double cropping; Senator Kerrey, which he has now offered, three amendments; Senator Murkowski on seafood inspection; Senator Kerrey, another amendment, which he has offered; Senator Kennedy on Food and Drug Administration; Senator Thurmond on agriculture research; Senator Frahm on section 515 rental housing program; Senator Simpson on wetland easements. We know of no other amendments. We hope those will be the only amendments, and maybe if Senators will let us know about suggested changes, we may be able to work out accepting some of these amendments tonight or when we reconvene on this bill tomorrow.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendments were agreed to.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination on today's Executive Calendar: Calendar No. 588, Edmund Sargus. I further ask unanimous consent that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements relating to the nomination appear at the appropriate place in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.