Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. After the remarks of the Senator from Hawaii, I ask unanimous consent that we stand in recess until 1:45.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I move the Senate stand in recess subject to the call of the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess under the previous order.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Democratic leader. Mr. President, I will place in the Record at this point a description of the Daschle-Dole compromise, which includes the add-backs and the offsets and the total cost of the add-backs, plus total deficit reduction, in addition to paying for the add-backs. So my colleagues will have notice, it will appear in the Record tomorrow morning and they will have a chance to go over it. If there are any questions, they can contact either myself or Senator Daschle. Hopefully, they will not have any questions.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the two leaders with several other Members have been working in good faith all day to reach a compromise with respect to the consideration of the Daschle and Dole/Ashcroft amendment. I hope to reach a unanimous- consent agreement early tomorrow which would allow us to complete action on this bill by noon or shortly thereafter with no further amendments in order. Therefore, Members should be on notice that votes can be expected to occur during Thursday's session of the Senate including final passage of the rescissions bill. Also, the Senate is expected to consider and pass the paperwork reduction conference report, H.R. 1345, D.C. financial board. I understand there may be some amendments. They are trying to work those out. I also understand it is complete action on the defense supplemental conference report, H.R. 1240 regarding child pornography, executive calendar nominations, and I think we are working together on all those, we hope to get them all done by tomorrow. Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, as many Members of the Senate know, it is my custom to speak each year about a disability subject on April 14. It is the date I was wounded in World War II and joined the disability community myself. This year we will be in recess on April 14, so I will give my annual message today. Mr. President, I will talk about another member of the disability community--certainly one of its most prominent members. But throughout his life, his disability was not only unknown to most people, it was denied and hidden. I am speaking about President Franklin Roosevelt. Next week, the Nation will commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death on April 12, 1945. He will surely be recalled by many as a master politician; an energetic and inspiring leader during the dark days of the Depression; a tough, single-minded Commander in Chief during World War II; and a statesman. No doubt about it, he was all these things. But he was also the first elected leader in history with a disability, and he was a disability hero.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that H.R. 1345, just received from the House, be placed on the calendar.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Is there any further business to come before the Senate? If not, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, a cloture motion was filed on the substitute amendment to the appropriations bill today. We have been, throughout the afternoon, trying to figure out if we can reach some agreement. We have been working with the Democratic leader, Senator Daschle, in good faith on both sides, to see if we can come to some closure. We have also had discussions through Senator Lott with some of the Members of the House that will be critical in trying to get a conference report finished on the rescission bill. It is my hope that tomorrow morning we may be able to reach some agreement. If not, the cloture motion then would ripen on Thursday morning. I do not see any other way of dealing with 100 and some amendments at this point if we intend to complete action on this bill and on the other defense supplemental, on the DC bill, on paper simplification, and perhaps other items on which we can agree. So a cloture motion was filed on the substitute amendment to the appropriations bill just a few moments ago, and if we cannot reach an agreement there will be a cloture vote on Thursday. It is my hope that if Members feel constrained to offer amendments to the bill, they will be prepared to offer those amendments tomorrow to expedite action on the bill. And I would also say that if we complete action on everything on Thursday, we would probably either not be in session on Friday or have a session where there would be no legislative business conducted or only a pro forma session. It may be that some people might want to speak on Friday. Hopefully, we might have everything done so there would be no legislative business on Friday. But that will depend, of course, on the cooperation we have on both sides. There are a number of things going on as we speak to see if there is some way we can come together and some way we could complete action on this bill. We are talking about a $15 billion rescission package in the Senate, $17 billion in the House. If it is not completed before the recess, it seems to me that much of that money will be spent by the time we are back so we could lose, it has been estimated, maybe $1.5 to $2 billion--if we do not act before the recess. So hopefully we could have final disposition fairly soon; we could still have the conference completed and vote on the conference report either Thursday night or Friday morning. And hopefully, if we did that on Friday morning, it could be done without the necessity of a rollcall vote.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, the State of Qatar is planning a major expansion of its electric transmission system, which will be carried out under its phase IV transmission extension project. This project, with a value of more than $500 million, is being pursued by the energy group of Black & Veatch, which has headquarters in Overland Park, KS. Many of the firm's employees are constituents of mine. We are proud of this competitive American company. It is a world leader in the field of electrical power generation and distribution, and is recognized for the technological and managerial quality of power projects that it has undertaken over the years in more than 50 countries around the globe. Companies like Black & Veatch are part of the answer to bringing down our trade deficit, which is now running at an all-time high. The world needs U.S. Technology and U.S. Services, and we should do everything we can to ensure that our companies get the chance to compete in overseas markets. I have asked the Crown Prince of Qatar to give serious consideration to Black & Veatch's proposal for the electric transmission system project, and I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my letter to the Crown Prince be printed in the Record. I thank the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Would the Senator want 5 minutes?

Mr. DOLE. I thank the Senator from Kentucky. How much time does the Senator from Minnesota need?

Mr. DOLE. I yield, without losing my right to the floor.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me explain the Jordan amendment. It is $275 million debt relief for Jordan, $50 million in fiscal 1995, $225 million in fiscal 1996. And it is an effort by this administration, supported by bipartisan supporters on each side of the aisle, to support the peace process. The Senator from Kentucky has just arrived on the floor and can explain it in greater detail. But the purpose of it and the reason for it is the fact that Jordan has made peace with Israel. We hope there would be an overall peace in the Mideast at the earliest possible time. I know the White House supports the amendment. I hope they would support it on this bill and then help us bring this bill to a conclusion. It does not take any rocket scientist to figure out we are not going to deal with 100 amendments if we are going to have sense-of- the-Senate amendments on everything. We had one from the Senator from Massachusetts, taking a couple hours on Friday, several hours yesterday, on a sense-of-the-Senate amendment that does not mean anything. Now we have another one by the Senator from Minnesota on the WIC Program. And we will probably have a lot of sense-of-the-Senate amendments. Maybe that means something somewhere, but I fail to see where. If we really want to get this bill done, if we are really concerned about reducing the debt, we ought to be voting to do it. This is $13.5 billion in rescissions, a fairly substantial package, talking about real spending restraint. If the White House does not want to pass it, if they do not want any spending restraint--which, apparently, they do not--that is certainly the prerogative of the President. I assume we will be hearing from the Chief of Staff momentarily. In the meantime, I would ask the cosponsor of this amendment if I have forgotten anything in the process.

Mr. DOLE. I am happy to.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I have the floor. Mr. President, last time I checked there were 70 amendments on that side pending. This may clarify the question of the Senator from Nebraska. We had 28. This is Tuesday. We hope to recess on Friday. And everybody is just dreaming up little amendments to try to make a few political points. I have talked with the White House this morning. If they do not want this bill, that is fine with me. But what we hope to do is to take Jordan aid off the first supplemental and add it to this bill. Then maybe that will get White House attention. This is a Jordan aid amendment that has wide support. It is supported by the President. Many of us met with King Hussein this year. It has broad bipartisan support. All I do in my amendment, in lieu of the matter proposed by the Senator from Minnesota, I insert the following. And if we are going to proceed with this bill, then we will have a vote on this amendment. Maybe then the White House will become interested in this bill because now I do not think the White House cares, and I do not see any reason to continue this spectacle on the Senate floor, have everybody offering some little amendment to score some political points. We will move on to something else. So I have asked Mr. Panetta, the White House Chief of Staff, to let me know after he has a discussion with the Democratic leader, Senator Daschle, and then after lunch we decide whether we pull the bill down or whether we proceed to vote on this amendment and on the Daschle amendment and on the amendment offered by Senator Ashcroft of Missouri. But if there is no interest in passing this supplemental bill--there does not appear to be any in the White House--then it would be my intent to just take the bill down. Then we are not going to send the other supplemental to the White House either. If they do not want to be involved in this process, that is up to them. But they cannot have it both ways. So the amendment is simply the Jordan amendment, which we have discussed and which has been a matter of intense interest to the Senator from Kentucky, Mr. McConnell, and this amendment is offered by me on Senator McConnell's behalf. I would be happy to yield to the Senator from Nebraska for an additional question.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Why do you not go ahead.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, the Senator from Ohio wants to make what looks like an address to me. Will the Senator from Ohio have any objection if we reach an agreement we can interrupt to get the agreement?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. So did I. [Laughter.] But I think it is fair to say I certainly agree with the comments made by both Senators from Arkansas. It is an outstanding team, outstanding coach. Senator Pryor indicated the momentum did go back and forth. It was tied, two behind, one ahead. It was one exciting game. I know it is a lot more fun winning. We have all experienced that from time to time. But I do think it says a lot about the coaches, a lot about the fans, primarily a lot about the young men who were involved in not only the Final Four but the Sweet 16, the whole group. They have all done an outstanding job. I know we are all proud of our respective teams.

Mr. DOLE. I think we are still awaiting one phone call before, hopefully, we can reach an agreement. I do not want to miss this opportunity to talk about the University of Kansas Jayhawks. [Laughter.]

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I say to my colleague from Arkansas, I believe we are about to get an agreement. The distinguished Democrat leader is still on the telephone to one of our colleagues. The Senator may proceed if he wishes to be recognized. Mr. BUMPERS addressed the Chair.