Tom Daschle

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Let me begin with the chairman. I want to thank the Senator for his kindness. We would not be here if not for the leadership and the extraordinary effort the Senator from Alaska has put forth to bring us to this point. I publicly acknowledge his work and his leadership on behalf of the people in South Dakota and our colleagues here in the Senate. I thank him for all of his effort. I heard my colleague from South Dakota express what I hope to also express, and that is gratitude to so many people who are responsible for the fact that we are here this afternoon. I begin with our Governor, who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in ways that are recognized on both sides of the aisle, and Brenda Barger, the mayor of Watertown. Watertown is lucky to have a leader as talented and as gifted as she is. All across South Dakota organizations have come forth and put so much effort into ensuring that our communities and our people could hold themselves together in the way that they did. South Dakotans have endured much over the past months, but throughout these most difficult and unfortunate times they have shown courage and compassion. I also want to thank my colleagues for all of the effort they put forth in making possible this tremendous assistance. I appreciate very much the work of the administration--the President, the Vice President, James Lee Witt. People in the administration at all levels could not have been more responsive. They went out to the Dakotas and Minnesota not once, not twice, but on numerous occasions in an effort to fully appreciate the magnitude of the problem and to respond as quickly and as comprehensively as they could. The President, on at least two occasions, declared natural disasters in record time, trying as he could to respond in ways that exceeded virtually everyone's expectation. It has all been said so eloquently by my colleagues but this help is desperately needed. People have waited too long. In some cases, lives have been lost. Throughout our region, hundreds of thousands of livestock have been killed. The magnitude of this loss is only now being fully appreciated. We need this help and it will now at long last be on the way and in the hands of people who have been waiting patiently, in some cases, for more than 2 months. The work is only beginning. The passage of this legislation starts the process by which rebuilding can begin. There is so much work to be done in such a short period of time. We have about 100 to 110-some days of construction time available to us. I call upon those in the administration who have already demonstrated such willingness to work with us to respond now in this second phase, making sure that we maximize the use of our time, making sure that we eliminate whatever bureaucratic encumbrances there are in an effort to get this assistance to those who need it the most, as quickly and as efficiently as we possibly can. So there is much more work to be done and we need to expedite our efforts to ensure that it gets done in the most meaningful way in what time is left, this year, in order for it to be done right. Again, Mr. President, I express gratitude to all of those who had so much to do with the fact that we are here now this afternoon. I appreciate very much the cooperation, the partnership, and the efforts made by all of those responsible to at long last send the help so desperately needed by so many.

Mr. DASCHLE. I thank my friend and colleague from North Dakota. I yield the floor.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would certainly not object. On this side of the aisle, there are no reservations or objections to that at all.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I appreciate that clarification. That is exactly the assurance I assumed the majority leader would give, and I appreciate very much appreciate his assertion in that regard. I yield the floor.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would ask if the majority leader would just clarify one, I hope, minor point. In the last unanimous-consent request there was a reference to legislation which provides for the continuing of Government funding at a level of 100 percent of fiscal 1997 for fiscal 1998 appropriations. I assume that the reference to that particular legislation only refers to that particular matter and no other extraneous issues that could be attached. Is that the understanding of the majority leader, there would not be anything else in the bill other than continuing appropriations?

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished majority leader. I think we have made great progress today. I have had the opportunity to look at all of the details of both the supplemental and the amendments, and I advise my colleagues that I am enthusiastic about the arrangement and would want to agree with the unanimous-consent request. I appreciate very much the great willingness on the part of the majority leader to work with us to accommodate our concerns, and we are ready to move ahead with the agreement.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would like to join my colleagues in congratulating Israel on the 30th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and in welcoming Senate passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 21, which reaffirmed the Senate's views on this issue. This important event came about as a result of the 1967 Six-Day war, before which the city of Jerusalem was divided, with Jews denied access to the Old City and its holy sites. We should not underestimate the significance of this event. Jerusalem has been undivided now for 30 years. As a result, people of all religious traditions have access to Jerusalem and all its religious sites. On this anniversary, and with Senate passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 21, we commit ourselves again to seeing that Jerusalem remains an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected. This anniversary presents a good opportunity for us to assess progress toward peace in the Middle East. While the peace process is moving at a slower pace than many of us would like to see, it is important to acknowledge the difficulty of the task and the progress that has been made thus far under the Oslo accords. It is also important to point out the importance of security as the process unfolds. Previous terrorist attacks have provided graphic justification of Israel's security concerns. I urge the Palestinian Authority to see that its security forces cooperate fully with Israeli security to thwart the work of the terrorists. Again, I congratulate the people of Israel on the 30th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, and I commend them for ensuring that this holy and historic city is undivided. Mr. FORD addressed the Chair.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, today I am submitting a resolution that recognizes the essential role our Nation's community pharmacists play in protecting the public health and educating consumers about over-the- counter [OTC] medications. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed revisions to the content and format of OTC product labels to make them more informative and consumer-friendly. Among these changes, FDA has proposed adding to OTC labels the recommendation: ``Ask your doctor or pharmacist.'' The FDA is currently soliciting comments on this proposed change, particularly on the benefits and appropriateness of referring consumers to pharmacists for guidance on OTC medications. By demonstrating strong support for a labeling change that refers consumers to pharmacists as well as to doctors, this resolution acknowledges the relevant expertise of community pharmacists and the contribution they make in assuring proper use of OTC medications. Each year, millions of Americans purchase medications such as painkillers, allergy medications, cold and flu remedies, and other products to treat nonacute medical conditions. Most of these products are purchased at pharmacies, where an on-site pharmacist is always accessible to help the consumer select the medication that is most appropriate and cost effective for them. The labeling change this resolution supports acknowledges that consumers face an intimidating array of medication options, and it reinforces the fact that pharmacists have the experience and expertise to help consumers make the right choice about their medications. Making this labeling change is also a matter of public health. A significant number of potent prescription medications are now available on an over-the-counter basis, and many more are likely to be introduced. Most consumers are unaware of the potential problems that may occur when prescription drugs and OTC products are taken together. In some cases, the pharmacist may be the only health professional with a complete record of all medications being taken by the consumer. The pharmacist's intervention may well prevent tragic consequences. Recommending that consumers consult with their pharmacist is particularly important for older Americans, who already use one-third of all prescription and OTC drug products. With the aging of the population, older Americans are expected to use almost half of all OTC medications by the year 2000. As OTC products proliferate and more potent medications become available, the risks to seniors and other consumers compound. It makes sense to foster the pharmacist-consumer link to minimize the potential problems that may result from this trend. Finally, this labeling change can save the health system money. According to recent studies, Medicare, Medicaid, and the health care system as a whole incur billions of dollars in unnecessary costs each year as a result of medication-related problems. Input from the pharmacist can help reduce this wasted spending, and more importantly, prevent the needless pain and suffering this spending reflects. For these reasons, I ask my colleagues to join me in urging the FDA to turn a good idea into a reality and make this labeling change. It is a minor revision that could make a major difference as consumers negotiate the increasingly complex array of medications available without a prescription.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I rise today to bid farewell to a wonderful group of young men and women who have served as Senate pages over the last 5 months. This particular group has served with great distinction and has done a marvelous job maintaining a high standard of excellence in both the academic arena and the contributions they make to the day-to-day operations of the Senate. Page life is not easy. In fact, most people may not fully appreciate the rigorous nature of the page's work. On a typical day, pages rise early and are in school by 6:15 a.m. After spending several hours each morning in school, the pages then report to the Capitol to prepare the Senate Chamber for the day's session. It is the responsibility of the pages to ensure that each Senator's desk has a copy of: The Senate Legislative and Executive Calendars; the legislation under consideration; and the Congressional Record, as well as any other document that a Senator might want to have available to colleagues. Throughout the day, pages are called upon to perform a myriad of tasks. These tasks might include obtaining copies of documents for a Senator's use during debate; ensuring that copies of relevant documents are available for Senators and staff; running errands between the Capitol and the Senate Office Buildings, as well as providing assistance at the regularly scheduled conference luncheons. Once the Senate has concluded business for the day, no matter what time, the pages return to the dorm and prepare for the next day's classes and Senate session and, we hope, get some much-needed sleep. Even with all of this, the Senate pages continually discharge their tasks efficiently and cheerfully. Mr. President, it is my hope that we have given the pages some insight into the need for individuals to become involved in community and civic activities. The future of our Nation strongly depends on the generations who will follow us in this august body. I look forward to the likely possibility that one or more of this fine group of young people will return here to serve as Members of the U.S. Senate. In closing, I hope the experiences the pages have gained here will inspire them to return to their respective communities as better citizens and with a greater appreciation for public service. Speaking on behalf of all Democratic Members, we wish them well and thank them for a job well done. Good luck and best wishes for a bright and successful future. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a list of the 1997 spring pages be printed in the Record.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, the majority leader propounded a similar unanimous-consent request yesterday. As he recalls, I noted that we have not seen the amendment proposed by Senator Bond, nor has this legislation had the opportunity to be the subject of hearings or markup in the committee. Most importantly, however, since we still have not been able to resolve the matter pertaining to disaster relief, I am compelled to object.

Mr. DASCHLE

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

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. No objection.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. As I reiterated, again, this morning to the distinguished majority leader, I am more than happy to look at the language that he suggests. I think there may be a way to accommodate just the emergency and all related legislative proposals in the supplemental dedicated to dealing with the disasters throughout the country, emergency or whatever related matters those may be. Obviously, we would have to see the language before we agreed to any kind of procedural commitment that would allow consideration of this yet unseen proposal. So we would not be in a position right now, as the majority leader certainly understands, to agree to a unanimous-consent proposal until we have had the opportunity to see the language. But I think the majority leader is on the right track. And if that will break the impasse, I am willing to look at it.

Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object, I ask the majority leader if he could share a copy of the substitute amendment referred to in the unanimous-consent request.

Mr. DASCHLE. It would be the subject of the debate as you have proposed, as the majority leader has proposed. You had asked unanimous consent that there be debate only equally divided between the two leaders for discussions with respect to the supplemental appropriations bill. I am not suggesting we change that. I am simply saying let's keep our focus on that, and I would not object to a request that involved a discussion as the majority leader has proposed.

Mr. DASCHLE. That we have, as you suggested, debate on the Senate floor on the supplemental divided evenly for the next 4 hours, as the majority leader suggested.

Mr. DASCHLE. I concur with the distinguished majority leader about the efforts now underway and his hope and expectation that at some point these efforts could lead to further success in resolving the impasse that we have faced now for some time. I appreciate his leadership and his personal involvement in making that effort. I also have to note that there are many on our side of the aisle who have indicated strong objections to committees meeting during such time, so as not to lose the focus that we currently have. There are those who are involved in these efforts who need to be at these committee markups who would otherwise be occupied if they are prevented from participating in the discussions involving the disaster assistance legislation. I would amend the unanimous-consent request propounded by the majority leader simply to suggest and propose a unanimous-consent agreement that would allow debate on the floor on the supplemental, with debate equally divided with no further consent requests, presuming Senator Dorgan, of course, has had his opportunity to make a request, but that there be no committee meetings.

Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I want to take a couple of minutes of the time allotted to thank so many of our colleagues from both sides of the Congress for their participation in our all-night vigil last night. We began at 6 o'clock yesterday evening and worked through until 9 o'clock this morning, nonstop. We had about 25 Senators who participated, Senators from all over the country, and some Senators from States that were not affected by the disaster, not included in the supplemental legislation. We had Members of the House of Representatives who participated and came all the way over to express their concern and to participate. I am told we had close to 50 Members of Congress who participated throughout the night. Many of them stayed up all night. I myself had the opportunity to get a couple hours of sleep. Especially, I want to thank all of the leadership committee staff for the tremendous job that they did, the DTCC staff, the DPC staff, certainly the steering coordination people, and my staff in the leadership office. They deserve our commendation and a heartfelt thanks for all of the work they did in bringing this about. We had the opportunity, as some of my colleagues have already noted, to talk to people around the country and express to them our sincere hope that they know how hard it is sometimes to get this legislation back on track, but also recognize how desirous we are of making that happen soon. I have had the opportunity to talk to Senator Lott this morning. I am hopeful that as a result of our conversation and the conversations that I know he is having with other Members, especially on the House side, that we might actually find some way to reach an agreement sometime before the end of the day. I think that is possible. I think there still has to be a lot of good discussion and good-faith effort to try to find a compromise procedurally. But I certainly am hopeful that can be done today. Last night we talked to people who simply said that they cannot wait any longer, and there are those who said that the problem they are concerned about now is the very short timeframe that we have within which to do any real construction work in the Dakotas and Minnesota. We have no more than 120 to 125 days. In some cases it is less than 100 days depending on the kind of construction project they are considering. So the bottom line is that if you do not get started soon, you miss an entire construction period in the northern part of our country. That is why it is imperative that these people know exactly how much money they can expect so they can budget for purposes of letting contracts and making plans on infrastructure. There are going to be projects that are going to require more than 1 year. The mayor of Watertown said she felt that it is going to take 2 to 3 years to deal with all the infrastructure problems that are out there. So there is no doubt that we are not going to be able to deal with all of the problems we have right now. But we are going to be able to prioritize as soon as we know what the budget is. We are going to be able to let contracts. We are going to be able to address these needs one by one and make some effort at trying to resolve the most difficult priorities first--the most contentious and problematic issues that many of these people have to deal with. So, Mr. President, I think it is so critical that we get on with this legislation, that we pass it, and that we take out the extraneous legislation. I indicated that we would be more than happy--and I will repeat it again this morning--to work with leadership on both sides of the Congress and with our Republican colleagues in particular to design a way in which to have a time certain to consider these provisions with even an amount of time to be debated. We could even perhaps consider limitations on amendments--I am not suggesting that today--but perhaps even an amendment limitation in an effort to expedite consideration of these extraneous matters. The two most contentious, of course, are the census and the continuing resolution. They are the ones that we would want to find a way in which there could be a separate debate, a date, and a time certain for consideration and ultimately a vote. Let's do that. We can do it simultaneously with the passage of the disaster bill. But that would allow us the opportunity to move forward even this afternoon. So I am hopeful that we can accomplish that. I am hopeful that perhaps now in the last 24 or 48 hours there can be a growing appreciation of the need to do something like that. I remain ready to sit down and discuss the matter with anybody who has another idea. Until that time, I think it is important that we begin working on this effort. I yield the floor. Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Will the majority leader yield?

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, there are many other Senators who want to be recognized to speak, so I wouldn't want to exclude other Senators who would like very much to participate.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I am a cosponsor of that particular legislation and I appreciate having the chance to debate it on the Senate floor. I think there is probably broad bipartisan support for it. But I have indicated to the majority leader on a number of occasions now our strong desire to delay the consideration of any other legislation until we have the opportunity to consider again the disaster bill. There are people out there that have birth defects. There are people out there that do not have homes. There are people out there that do not have their farms, their businesses. There are people out there that do not have the opportunity to conduct their lives in a normal way that are waiting day by day for us to respond in a meaningful way to their circumstances. People in 35 States now have been affected by the disastrous circumstances that are addressed in this piece of legislation. We ought not do anything until we have had the opportunity once more to consider that legislation. So on behalf of the Democratic caucus, Mr. President, I object to the unanimous-consent request.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me take the opportunity to respond to a number of points raised by the distinguished majority leader.

Mr. DASCHLE. The majority leader says that all disaster bills, all supplemental bills have had extraneous legislation. I suppose that is probably true. But I have also gone back and looked at all these disaster bills and extraneous legislation added to supplemental bills, and there is one difference between all of those in the past and this one: All of those in the past have the agreement of the President; all of those in the past have been negotiated with the White House. So, of course, you had supplemental legislation. Of course, you had extraneous legislation. But each and every time when that happened, the White House said, ``Send it down. I will sign it.'' In this case, the President has said, ``Look, these issues are so controversial and so far reaching and so problematic that I cannot agree.'' And the difference between this experience and all the others is the majority said, ``We will do it anyway.'' Now, I give great credit to the Senator from Minnesota, the junior Senator from Minnesota, who sent all of us a letter in the last couple of days. The Senator from Minnesota had a very practical, pragmatic way with which to address this problem. What he suggested is that we simply take those controversial pieces out, have a good debate, have a discussion, see if we can find a compromise. Let's do it. Let's agree right now without any filibusters, without any delay. We can commit to a time certain for legislation dealing with census, for legislation dealing with a continuing resolution, for anything else that may be extraneous and onerous to the White House. We can agree to that. Now, I have suggested that to some of my Republican colleagues and the answer I get is, ``Well, the President is going to veto those bills if they go in their current form and we don't want that.'' So, in a sense, what they are saying is, we will hold hostage our troops in Bosnia, all of the people detrimentally affected by the natural disasters, and every single other item in this legislation because we want our way. That is what we are being told. Mr. President, there is no way to compromise with something like that. Now, like the majority leader, I have tried to find ways, and I give him credit for trying to come up with innovative ways with which to address this problem, but I must say we are in a set of circumstances for which there can be no compromise when it comes to holding hostage victims of natural disasters, holding hostage people serving their country in Bosnia. We cannot allow that to happen. So, let's take the suggestion made in good faith by the Senator from Minnesota. Let's take those pieces out, let's have a good debate on them, and maybe, in the process, we can find a compromise. But until that happens, Mr. President, as I said a minute ago, we are going to object to any other piece of legislation coming to the floor. And I object.