Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for morning business until 5:30 p.m., with Senators allowed to speak for not to exceed 5 minutes each.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, last month, the Medicare Board of Trustees issued its annual report. Four members of this committee are appointees of President Clinton--three of them currently serve in his Cabinet. The trustees concluded that Medicare will begin to go broke next year, and will be completely bankrupt by the year 2002. If this were to occur, no payments, by law, can be made by Medicare to pay for hospital care or for any other services paid for by the trust fund. Thirty-three million seniors and four million disabled individuals depend on the Medicare Program every year. It is for them, and for those who will follow, that we must commit to preserving, improving, and protecting the Medicare Program. Tuesday, the Speaker of the House and I extended a verbal invitation to President Clinton to sit down with us and to begin working on a bipartisan plan to preserve, improve, and protect Medicare. Judging from the President's actions in the past weeks, and from remarks he delivered earlier yesterday at the White House Conference on Aging, it appears that the President has once again chosen partisanship over leadership. Instead of heeding the advice from his trustees, the President heeded the advice of his political pollsters, using yesterday's speech as an opportunity to engage in scare tactics and to mislead America's seniors. Nevertheless, Speaker Gingrich and I are willing to give the President the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he did not watch the news Tuesday evening or read the paper yesterday morning. Perhaps no one at the White House told him of our invitation. myself was delivered to the White House, and I ask unanimous consent that the text of that letter be placed in the Record following my remarks.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. We each have 11 minutes.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I will take 2 or 3 minutes, and I think the Senator from Utah wishes to speak, and maybe others. There will be one more cloture vote on the substitute amendment.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, my understanding is that this request has been cleared with the Democratic leader, Senator Daschle. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in recess until the hour of 10 a.m. on Friday, May 5; that, following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be deemed approved to date; that the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in day; and, that there then be a period for the transaction of morning business not to extend beyond the hour of 11 a.m. with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 5 minutes each, except for the following: Senator Dorgan for 20 minutes. I further ask unanimous consent that at the hour of 11 a.m. the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 956, the product liability bill.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of House Concurrent Resolution 53, expressing the sense of Congress regarding a private visit by the President of the Republic of China on Taiwan to the United States.

Mr. DOLE

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 that the vote on or in relation to the Abraham amendment No. 600, occur at 12:15 on Thursday, May 4, followed by a vote on or in relation to the Kyl amendment No. 681, to amendment No. 682, to be followed by a motion to invoke cloture on the Gorton substitute No. 596.

Mr. DOLE. I further ask that all votes occurring in the stacked sequence following the first vote be limited to 10 minutes in length.

Mr. DOLE. For the information of all Senators, there will be no further votes tonight. However, Senators who wish to offer their amendments may do so tonight. Also, Members should be aware that second-degree amendments must be filed 1 hour prior to the cloture vote under the provisions of rule XXII. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DOLE. I further ask that following the first cloture vote, if not invoked, the time following the vote at 2 p.m. be equally divided in the usual form for debate only; at 2 p.m. the Senate proceed to vote on the second cloture motion; and the mandatory forum under rule XXII be waived for both cloture votes.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I think we have a consent agreement now. I will recite it. If there are any questions I will be happy to respond. I ask unanimous consent that during the Senate's consideration of H.R. 956, all second-degree amendments to the Dole amendment must be debated during today's session of the Senate.

Mr. DOLE. Would that be all right with the Senator from West Virginia?

Mr. DOLE. No. I wish it were.

Mr. DOLE. I further ask that at the hour of 10:15 a.m. there be 1 hour for debate to be equally divided between the two managers for discussion on any of the pending amendments to the Dole amendment.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. My original intent was to try to get an agreement where we could offer amendments tonight and vote on those tomorrow which I thought the Senator from North Dakota was supporting and obviously is supporting. For some reason we cannot reach that. The only other alternative we have is to stay here and grind through the amendments because we are now on the second week on this legislation. It seems to me that there may be other things we want to do in the next couple of weeks. But I would be prepared if we can reach an agreement. I certainly am not going to shut off the Senator from North Dakota. But if we could reach some reasonable agreement upon what time we could move to table the amendment, because we are going to stay here late tonight, late tomorrow night, and late the next night if we cannot reach an agreement. We do not have any alternative. Would the Senator have any indication of how much time he might need?

Mr. DOLE. Can we vote at 8 o'clock?

Mr. DOLE. How much time does the Senator from North Dakota require?

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I will just take a second. I wonder if the Senator from Wisconsin can give us some idea how long he may wish to speak, and then the Senator from North Dakota, I understand, wishes to speak, too, on his amendment? I would say before they respond, I share the views just expressed by the Senator from Washington. We had thought we would have an agreement where amendments would be offered this evening and then tomorrow morning we would start voting on amendments in the order they were offered. Apparently we cannot. Agreement has not been cleared on that side of the aisle. We are still prepared to negotiate that agreement. That would get us finished with punitive damages on any and all second-degree amendments. Failing that, I do not see any alternative than to stay here late tonight and dispose of as many amendments as we can between now and 11 o'clock or midnight. If I could just inquire of the Senator from Wisconsin how long he may wish?

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

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I send a modification to my amendment to the desk.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, this is a bipartisan amendment--Senator Exon is a cosponsor, as are Senators Hatch, McConnell, Abraham, Kyl, Thomas, Hutchison, and Gramm. This is an amendment that offers needed protections from lawsuit abuse to every American--small business or large; volunteer or charitable organizations. The spectre of lawsuit abuse hangs over us all, and our amendment would expand the protections in the Gorton substitute to ensure that every American is covered. The bill as it now stands calls for limiting punitive damages in product liability cases to three times economic damages, or $250,000, whichever is greater. This amendment makes two changes: It would extend the limits on punitive damages beyond product liability to all civil cases; and it would provide a rule of proportionality that limits punitive damages to two times compensatory damages; that is, any economic and noneconomic damages combined. This amendment is needed because our Nation desperately needs broadly based relief from lawsuit abuse. America's litigation tax--the tort tax--hurts every American; at least every American who is not a personal injury lawyer. Anyone who cares about middle-class American families, consumers, and workers would want that litigation tax reduced. We all know the numbers: $20 in the cost of an ordinary $100 step ladder goes to the litigation tax, as does one-sixth of the price of an $18,000 pacemaker and $8 of an $11.50 DPT childhood vaccine. The litigation tax is a national ``value subtracted'' tax--$1,200 on every American, rich or poor, with nothing received in return. And where does that money go? According to a 1986 Rand Corp. study, less than half ends up with those who are suing. Most goes to trial expenses and particularly to lawyers. In other words, the litigation tax takes income right out of the middle-class family's pocket and puts it into the pockets of one of the wealthiest groups in America--personal injury lawyers. Even worse, just the fear of litigation has led to the canceling of life-saving research and product improvements in many fields. Companies are afraid of being sued over anything that is new and this has made America less safe. In other words, the biggest cost of the litigation tax may be measured, not in dollars, but in lives. The underlying bill goes a long way toward reducing the abuses we currently suffer. But, in my view, it leaves many deserving organizations and small businesses outside its protective scope. The litigation tax is paid, not just by consumers who buy products, but by every nonprofit organization, every small business, every municipality in the Nation--and those who depend on the services they provide. This amendment will free our nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and local governments to serve America without first serving up a tribute to personal injury lawyers. We do not have to look far to count the costs of the litigation tax to nonprofits, small businesses, and municipalties--and to the rest of America. For example, the head of the Girls Scout Council of the Nation's Capital Area wrote this to House leaders during the debate over there: Locally, we must sell 87,000 boxes of cookies each year to pay for liability insurance. We have no diving boards at our camps. We will never own horses. And, many local schools will no longer provide meeting space for our volunteers. The chief executive officer of Little League Baseball, Dr. Creighton Hale, has issued a similar plea. Writing in the Wall Street Journal recently, Dr. Hale reported that, as he put it: In recent years, litigation has been the end result of two boys colliding in the outfield [the two picked themselves up and sued the coach]. * * * In still another case-- He continued: A man and woman won a cash settlement when the woman was hit by a ball a player failed to catch. The player was her daughter. Dr. Hale says: The costs of this litigation lunacy score out * * * in bewildered dads calling our offices asking about personal liability, and volunteer coaches waking up to the fact that they're taking major league risks. And he added: It's a problem common to all nonprofit organizations and the volunteers they depend on. what most people think of when we think of justice in America. Mr. President, legal speculators have declared war on American volunteerism, entrepreneurship, and local government--the institutions that make for strong communities and a better America. Expanding the limits on punitive damages to all civil suits will help end the legal speculators' war on these institutions. It will help return justice to the law. It will reach into every home and school and town board and small business and community group in the Nation. It will tell them that they need not fear for their financial security when they venture outside their home to help a neighbor or open a small business. It will tell them the siege is over. Mr. President, it seems to me that this is a very, very important amendment to the substitute. It is one that I hope my colleagues will look at very, very carefully. I would certainly be willing to enter into a time agreement on this amendment. We would like to finish action on the punitive damage amendment today, as well as a joint and several liability amendment. I hope we can reach some time agreement. I state that now so that my colleagues on the other side of this issue, perhaps we can negotiate a time agreement later this afternoon. I yield the floor. Mr. HATCH addressed the Chair.

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