Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I make an inquiry, are we making progress this morning?

Mr. DOLE. I think what we are doing is awaiting the return of Senator Hatch right now, as I understand it. Habeas Corpus

Mr. DOLE. Hopefully, we can dispose of that and move on quickly to the other amendments. It is our intention to finish this bill today. We will be discussing in our conference trying to further limit the number of amendments on this side.

Mr. DOLE. It has been offered.

Mr. DOLE. I understand the Senator from California was available earlier. Others were not available. She was here. I do not think the amendment has been offered.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, 45 years ago last Thursday, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine rose from her seat in this Chamber and delivered a speech she called a ``Declaration of Conscience.'' Many historians believe this speech marked the beginning of the end of the era of McCarthyism. And it also marked the finest hour of the remarkable career of Senator Smith, who passed away last week at the age of 97. I was privileged to serve alongside Senator Smith for 4 years in the Senate. She was as she has been described by many others. No nonsense. Fiercely independent. And sometimes as thorny as the red rose she wore every day. During her 32 years of service in Washington, Senator Smith accomplished many firsts. She was the first woman to be elected to both Houses of Congress. She was the first woman elected to the Senate who did not succeed her husband. She was the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for President by a major political party. [[Page S7718]] As she made history, Senator Smith became a role model for many women. One of them was my wife, Elizabeth, who has told me of the time in 1960, when, as a young college graduate interning on Capitol Hill, she called upon Senator Smith. Not many Senators would share an hour with a total stranger seeking advice, but that is just what Senator Smith did. And she advised Elizabeth to bolster her education with a law degree--advice she eventually followed. When President Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Senator Smith in 1989, he said that she ``looked beyond the politics of the time to see the future of America, and she made us all better for it.'' President Bush was right. Both this Chamber and America are for the better because of Margaret Chase Smith. I know the Senate joins with me in sending our condolences to the people of Maine.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I understand morning business has ended?

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent there now be a period for the transaction of routine morning business not to extend beyond the hour of 6:30 p.m., with each Senator to be allowed to speak for 5 minutes--or whatever.

Mr. DOLE. OK, you can give him the whole 20 then.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, can I just indicate to my colleagues on both sides, I thank the managers of the bill. They have been spending the last hour or so trying to work on some amendments. They are ready to accept a number of amendments. There will probably be a vote on the amendment about to be offered by the Senator from Connecticut. We hope to get a short time agreement on that amendment and finish all the amendments, except the habeas corpus amendments, tonight. So there will be votes tonight. I advise and urge my colleagues, if they have to leave the Capitol, to take their beepers so we can notify them when the votes will occur. Mr. HATCH addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DOLE. We are going to vote tonight. We worked out about a dozen amendments. We have made a lot of progress in the last 2 or 3 hours. We exception of the habeas corpus amendment, which we will do tomorrow morning. We will vitiate the cloture vote and do habeas. We need to complete action tonight. I think it may be another hour before the votes begin. If you ate fast, you might make it.

Mr. DOLE. We do that every day around here and we never finish anything. I would like to do the voting tonight on all but habeas and vitiate the cloture and finish habeas and start on telecommunications sometime tomorrow morning. We have some momentum now that we do not want to lose. A lot of people may not be willing to do this in the morning.

Mr. DOLE. You could try to go home, but you probably would not be able to eat much. Mr. BIDEN addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. We hope that by 9 o'clock we will start voting. There will probably be three or four votes.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I will just announce, the Senator from Delaware and the Senator from Utah have been meeting. We now have a list of amendments, but I think we need time to determine whether or not we are going to proceed, because there are 24 amendments now. There were not that many when they went into the meeting, but they came out with 24 amendments. The time agreements just on the Democratic side would take 9 hours. I think I need to meet with Senator Hatch to see whether there is any other option, other than waiting and having the cloture vote tomorrow morning. So, Madam President, I move that the Senate stand in recess until the hour of 6:10 p.m.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, as I understand it, the Senator from Illinois wanted to speak in morning business.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. We are close on that amendment, too. If the Senator and Senator Hatch could go off somewhere for 10 minutes they could probably get back pretty much with an agreement.

Mr. DOLE. You cannot take it? You do not want to take it or you cannot take it?

Mr. DOLE. It is like making sausage out here. It may be we can work it out. I do not see much problem with the Kerrey amendment. We might be able to accept that with some modification. But we want to finish the bill. I promised the President we would finish it before Memorial Day. I like to keep my word. That was not possible. But the President did not know it was not possible and he said some things I did not like. So I am going to finish this bill. If I do not finish the bill it will not be my fault. Because we could not get cloture or we could not get cooperation on the other side. That is his side, not my side. We are ready. We are ready to do habeas corpus and have final passage before 6 o'clock. That would be an antiterrorism bill. All these other things are going to be around here a long time, this year and next year. We can offer all the amendments we wish. This came to us as an emergency. This was an emergency. We were all called to the White House. We do not do this on every bill. This is very important to the President of the United States. He has been to Oklahoma City. He saw the need. He met with the Attorney General. He met with leaders of Congress and said, ``Let's do it.'' We did not say let us see how many amendments we can offer, who can outpoint each other, make some political points on some issue, whatever it might be. That is what we are about to get into here, and I do not think I want to be any part of that. I want to try to keep my word to the President. If we cannot, we cannot. We will do the best we can. I think he will understand. If he does not understand, I will write him a letter. But that is the way it goes.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I wonder if the two managers might go off somewhere and try to see if they cannot put together something. Better than do it out here in the open.

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

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DOLE. You are getting better.