Thad Cochran

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I send three amendments to the desk: one on behalf of Senators Durbin and Akaka; one on behalf of Senator Domenici; and one on behalf of Senator Talent. I understand these amendments have been cleared on both sides of the aisle. I ask unanimous consent that they be adopted en bloc.

Mr. COCHRAN. It may have been made and I just haven't heard about it. The Senator from Florida may be more up to date than I am. But I knew it was an option that was being considered and being discussed. I was not aware that the decision had definitely been made to do that.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COCHRAN. My expectation is that the committee leadership, in consultation with the leaders of the Senate, will make that decision at a later time. Today they are trying to mark up individual appropriations bills, and in due course they will take up the supplemental as well.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, notwithstanding the adoption of amendment No. 3589, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be modified with the following change: On line 7 of the amendment, insert ``and the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate'' after ``Governmental Affairs.''

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, my understanding of the order is another vote will occur on an amendment without intervening debate under the order?

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, let me make a couple points I think are important before we vote on this amendment. This is a report--the subject of this amendment by Senator Kennedy--that was prepared at the President's request to advise him on intelligence issues. The report constitutes privileged advice to the President from a confidential adviser. In order to protect the ability of not only this President but future Presidents in their ability to receive advice as a matter of separation of powers, recognized previously by the courts, Presidents of both parties have long declined to turn over to Congress privileged advice that is prepared for them at their request. For this same reason, the President does not ask Members of Congress to turn over advisory information prepared for us by our staff members. We think this is a tradition that should be honored in this case. I am prepared to move to table the amendment if no other Senator wants to be recognized. If others want to speak on the issue, I am happy to yield the floor. Mr. President, I move to table the amendment of the Senator from Massachusetts and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COCHRAN. This vote will be a 10-minute vote. Would the Chair state the question before the Senate?

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, under the order previously entered, there is an opportunity for consideration of a pending Kennedy amendment or the offering of amendment No. 3631 by Senator Clinton.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the funds allocated for this program in this bill are done on a formula basis under the provisions of the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held hearings on this issue and has reported out a bill, S. 1245, the Homeland Security Grant Enhancement Act, to deal with domestic preparedness grants and how they are distributed. That is the legislation that is the appropriate vehicle for further debate and amendments if Senators want to offer amendments dealing with the formula for distributing State and local first responder grant funding. This should not be done on an appropriation bill, on this bill, as the Senator seeks to do with her amendment. Therefore, I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COCHRAN. I am happy to yield.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I think we are at a point now where the Senator from Massachusetts has an amendment, which is the only one left under the agreed-upon process for finalizing the handling of the bill.

Mr. COCHRAN. I thank all Senators.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, this amendment would add $350 million to the bill for rail and security transit grants. A previously adopted amendment has already added $128 million to the bill for this purpose. The amendment will cause the bill to exceed the committee's 302(b) allocation; therefore, I make a point of order under section 302(f) of the Congressional Budget Act that the amendment provides spending in excess of the subcommittee's 302(b) allocation.

Mr. COCHRAN. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that these votes be stacked that are in order: the two Schumer amendments, the Clinton amendment, the vote on final passage, and any vote in relation to the Kennedy amendment as well--that they be stacked so we can then proceed with debate on the second Schumer amendment or the Clinton amendment and dispose of the discussion, and then we will have a vote on all of those issues at the same time.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, we are at a point where we can advise Senators of amendments that will now be presented to the Senate for votes. We hope we can get this unanimous consent agreement adopted so we will have an orderly process to follow. I ask unanimous consent that other than any amendments cleared by both managers, the only remaining amendments be the following and that there be no second degrees in order to the listed amendments prior to votes in relation to those amendments: the pending Kennedy amendment for 5 minutes equally divided; the Schumer amendment on rail safety with 10 minutes equally divided; the Schumer amendment on immigration with 10 minutes equally divided; and the Clinton amendment, No. 3631, with 10 minutes equally divided--and I am sure the Senator from Florida will call up his amendment on funds for the Red Cross, and we will adopt that on a voice vote--further, that any other pending amendments be withdrawn, and following disposition of the above-listed amendments, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to passage as under the order.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, this amendment would add to the bill $350 million for components of the United States Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology system, known as US VISIT. We have included the amount requested by the administration in this bill for the US VISIT system in the amount of $340 million. So the Senator's amendment would double the amount that is already included in the bill. The amendment will cause the bill to exceed the committee's 302(b) allocation. Therefore, I make a point of order under section 302(f) of the Congressional Budget Act that the amendment provides spending in excess of the subcommittee's 302(b) allocation.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, we are at a point now where we can proceed with two or three other amendments that may require votes and then we expect to have a vote on final passage. We would like to get an agreement that these are the amendments which will be voted on and that we will have votes in sequence on those amendments and final passage of the bill. I hope my friend from Nevada will consider that. The Senator from Florida wants to be heard. I yield the floor. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, we are happy this has been resolved. I think it improves the bill. We are ready to accept the amendment.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Special Committee on Aging be authorized to meet Tuesday, September 14, 2004 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Dirksen 628 for the purpose of conducting a hearing.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to continue its markup on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 at 10 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226. Agenda I. Nominations Claude A. Allen, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit; David E. Nahmias, of Georgia, to be United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia; Ricardo H. Hinojosa, to be Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission; Michael O'Neill, to be a Member of the United States Sentencing Commission; Ruben Castillo, to be a Member of the United States Sentencing Commission; William Sanchez, to be Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practice; Richard B. Roper III, of Texas, to be United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas for the term of four years. II. Legislation S. 1635, L-1 Visa (Intracompany Transferee) Reform Act of 2003, Chambliss; S. 1700, Advancing Justice through DNA Technology Act of 2003, Hatch, Biden, Specter, Leahy, DeWine, Feinstein, Kennedy, Schumer, Durbin, Kohl, Edwards; S. 2396, Federal Courts Improvement Act of 2004, Hatch, Leahy, Chambliss, Durbin, Schumer; H.R. 1417, To amend title 17, United States Code, to replace copyright arbitration royalty panels with Copyright Royalty Judges Act of 2003, Smith-TX, Berman-CA, Conyers-MI; S. 2204, A bill to provide criminal penalties for false information and hoaxes relating to terrorism Act of 2004, Hatch, Schumer, Cornyn, Feinstein, DeWine; S. 1860, A bill to reauthorize the Office of National Drug Control Policy Act of 2003, Hatch, Biden, Grassley; S. 2195, A bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act to clarify the definition of anabolic steroids and to provide for research and education activities relating to steroids and steroid precursors Act of 2004, Biden, Hatch, Grassley, Feinstein; S.J. Res. 23, A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for the event that one- fourth of the members of either the House of Representatives or the Senate are killed or incapacitated Act of 2003, Cornyn, Chambliss.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. I will not object. I have a unanimous consent request to make.