Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. That is all right; I will be happy to yield for a question.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, let me further ask, following along what the Senator from South Dakota suggested, that first-degree amendments may be filed up to the close of business on Friday, July 14, or if the Senate recesses prior to that time, early, they may be filed up until 4 p.m. on Friday, even if we were out of here by 1 o'clock. So let me also indicate that I appreciate the cooperation, and I believe that there is a determined effort on both sides to pass a good regulatory reform bill. That is my conclusion after visiting with the Democratic leader and after visiting with the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Johnston]. As I have indicated before, what the leader is trying to do, and the leader has that responsibility, is move the program, and I would like to insert in the Record at this point a tentative agenda between now and the time we leave here in August. Hopefully it will be August when we leave here for recess. And I will ask to have that printed in the Record. I will just say, to highlight it, it has us completing this bill on Tuesday, and then we have Bosnia. And then we have appropriations next Thursday and Friday, and then the Ryan White provision on July 24, the gift and lobbying bill on that date if possible. Then we get into the State Department and foreign ops authorization bill, which will take us up to July 29, and then the [[Page S 9841]] DOD authorization and DOD appropriations bills would take us up until August 5, and then begin welfare reform on August 7. And whenever we concluded our business on welfare reform, the recess would begin. Now, all these things are, of course, subject to change because if we do not keep up on the schedule, it obviously pushes us further into August. If everything worked as we would like it to work, it is possible we could begin the recess even before August 12. I ask unanimous consent that this be printed in the Record so that everybody will have a chance to look at it carefully and then start complaining to the leader about it.

Mr. DOLE. With reference to the pending amendment, I will need to do some checking on that before I am in a position to respond to the Senator from Louisiana. In other words, the amendment pending would in effect take Superfund out of the----

Mr. DOLE. Right. If I can just have a few minutes to clear that, I did not--we did discuss that this morning at our 8:30 meeting. We did discuss it briefly with the Senator from Louisiana. It is a very important provision. There are some of our colleagues who want to leave it as it is, others who have mixed feelings on it--in fact, some who would probably vote to remove it. The question is how many would vote to remove it. That is sort of the bottom line. If I could have a few moments to check with two or three people.

Mr. DOLE. I would like to dispose of the pending amendment if the Senator will just give me a few moments.

Mr. DOLE. And either have a quorum or if somebody wanted to speak on some other--does the Senator from California wish to speak on another matter?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Right. So if it were adopted, then we could vote immediately then on the Daschle amendment, as modified. But if it were defeated, there would be probably another second-degree amendment. I think that is the only protection we would like to keep. There would be another second-degree amendment to the Daschle amendment which might be something that the Senator from South Dakota could agree with, maybe not. I am not certain.

Mr. DOLE. I would not want to mislead the Senator. But could we then proceed, after the Senator from New Jersey and the Senator from new Vermont finish their statements, to vote on the Johnston amendment?

Mr. DOLE. If the Johnston amendment is accepted, then the question is moot, of course,

Mr. DOLE. So it would be hard to make an agreement until after we dispose of the Johnston amendment.

Mr. DOLE. I would have to check with other Members on this side before I could make that agreement. So maybe while they are debating, we can make some determination.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I understand--if I could have the attention of my colleagues--I understand the Senator from Wisconsin has an amendment on which he is willing to accept a time agreement of 30 minutes. We were going to propose 30 minutes and any second-degree amendment be limited to 20 minutes equally divided and must be relevant to the first-degree amendment. I do not have a copy of the second-degree amendment. There may be one or more second-degree amendments. But if we could start off on the premise that the Senator from Wisconsin had 30 minutes, maybe by the time he finishes, we will have a copy of the second-degree amendment. Will that be OK? Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. In the meantime, the Senator from Wisconsin will proceed on the basis we hope to have a time agreement?

Mr. DOLE. So any of my colleagues who would like to eat, I think it is safe to say there will be no votes until 8 p.m.

Mr. DOLE. Thirty minutes on the Roth amendment equally divided and then any second-degree amendment 15 minutes.

Mr. DOLE. Hopefully for a while. I understand the Senator from Delaware will have an amendment following disposition of the amendment of the Senator from Wisconsin. We are not moving too quickly. There are still, as I understand it, numerous amendments. We have not had the major amendment from the other side, the Glenn amendment. So, we will be here for a while yet this evening.

Mr. DOLE. Right.

Mr. DOLE. Right. I do not know if we have had any cleared on either side, but I think we should try to cooperate where we can. As far as I know, nothing has been cleared.

Mr. DOLE. I will be happy to yield to the Senator from Utah for that purpose.

Mr. DOLE. We had a brief discussion last night, I guess before we adjourned, with the Senator from Louisiana because the Senator from Ohio raised a question last evening about 9 major areas of difference and 23 minor areas of difference which consumed--I do not know--25 or 30 pages of suggestions, or a number of pages. I think we are in the process--at least I understand Senator Hatch and Senator Johnston may be in the process--of going through those one by one trying to get some response to the Senator from Ohio. But that does not mean we should not meet and see if we cannot make further progress.

Mr. DOLE. We have, I might add, requests for morning business for about an hour and a half in the morning. That might accommodate concerns, and give Senators time to sit down and at least go over each of the items. Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I am going to propound a unanimous consent request. I am going to ask consent that the Senator from Delaware be recognized next to offer an amendment concerning risk-based priorities; that there be 30 minutes for debate to be equally divided in the usual form; that any second-degree amendment be limited to 15 minutes to be equally divided and must be relevant to the first-degree. I do not know if any second-degree amendments are going to come from that side or not. Since it will not come from this side, maybe it will not be necessary that they be seen ahead of time.

Mr. DOLE. As I understand, the amendment of the Senator from Delaware is available.

Mr. DOLE. I understand. The Senator from Ohio is not prepared to consent to any agreement. I do not quarrel with that. The amendment will be laid down tonight, and then maybe tomorrow we can work out a time agreement. There will be no more votes this evening, unless someone wants to have another vote; no more votes. Tomorrow morning, there will be, as I understand it, a meeting with Senator Kerry, Senator Levin, Senator Johnston, Senator Glenn, Senator Hatch, Senator Roth and others.