Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 27, 1995, at 2 p.m., to hold a hearing on judicial nominees.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the full Committee on Environment and Public Works be granted permission to conduct a hearing Wednesday, March 27, at 9 a.m., Hearing Room (SD- 406), on possible Federal legislative reforms to improve prevention of, and response to, oil spills in light of the recent North Cape spill.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be granted permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 27, 1996, for purposes of conducting a Full Committee hearing which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on S. 1605, a bill to amend and extend certain authorities in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act which either have expired or will expire on June 30, 1996, and S. 186, the Emergency Petroleum Supply Act.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 27, 1996, to conduct a mark- up of the following nominees: the Honorable Alan Greenspan, of New York, to be Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; The Honorable Alice Rivlin, of Pennsylvania, to be a Governor and serve as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; Laurence Meyer, of Missouri, to be a Governor of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; Stuart E. Eizenstat, of Maryland, to be under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; and Gaston L. Gianni, Jr., of Virginia, to be Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session on the Senate on Wednesday, March 27, 1996, to conduct a mark- up of pending nominations.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 27, 1996, at 10 a.m., to hold a business meeting to vote on pending items.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be allowed to meet during the Wednesday, March 27, 1996 session of the Senate for the purpose of conducting a hearing on Spectrum Use and Management.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Pursuant to a previous unanimous consent agreement, I now call up Senate Concurrent Resolution 49, correcting the enrollment of the farm conference report.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me indicate on this side of the aisle, for the present time the Senator from New Mexico, Senator Domenici, will be the manager in charge of the time on this side for the line- item veto. Mr. BUMPERS addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the majority leader, after consultation with the Democratic leader, may proceed to the consideration of a concurrent resolution to be submitted by Senator Lugar, further, the resolution be considered agreed to, and the motion to table be laid upon the table, the Senate then proceed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 2854, the Agriculture Reform and Improvement Act, that the reading be waived, and there be 6 hours of debate on the conference report to be divided as follows: Senator Lugar, 2 hours; Senator Leahy, 1 hour; Senator Daschle or designee, 3 hours; further, that immediately following the expiration or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote on the adoption of the conference report with no intervening action.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me add my hope that we can resolve the problem. I know there are a number of projects, including the Presidio, that I support, and hopefully this will--now and then we get things resolved around here. Maybe we can do this in the next few days. But we would like to in the interim, if we could, do the line-item veto and the farm bill conference report. That will give us some time, if there is any negotiating opportunities, to do that. It is also my hope that we can have a time agreement on the line-item veto. I understand that the distinguished Senator from West Virginia, Senator Byrd, would like us to at least proceed and then perhaps enter into a time agreement a bit later.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I understand the distinguished Senator from West Virginia is on his way to the floor. Hopefully, we can have the agreement before we commence the debate on the line-item veto because debate is 10 hours in the agreement. We would like to have it immediately start taking affect. If we speak for an hour or two beforehand, that would be an additional time. The Senator from New Mexico will be here, as will others who are interested in this issue. Hopefully, we will not use the full 10 hours, have a vote early this evening, and then take up the farm bill conference report tonight.

Mr. DOLE. Senator Byrd.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I am happy to indicate for the record that I would be pleased to try to be helpful in an effort to resolve the differences. Obviously, the one big difference is the Utah wilderness provision. The other projects, I understand, are not particularly controversial. I indicate that I am happy to be of help, or to take the leadership and try to bring people together. I have already spoken briefly to the distinguished Senator from Alaska, Senator Murkowski. It is the hope in the next few days we can make some progress.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Let me do that while we also work out a time agreement on the line-item veto.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the conference report to accompany S. 4, the line-item veto bill, and that the reading be waived.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I send a motion to the desk.

Mr. DOLE. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the motion to the desk.

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

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I now move the Senate stand in recess until the hour of 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 27, 1996.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, we are prepared to vote on this motion at this time. Medicaid reform and welfare reform are high on everyone's priority list in America, particularly the voters and the taxpayers, and we would be prepared to vote on this motion, say, at 6 o'clock or 5 after 6 or 6:15, or whenever. But I do believe now we are back on an issue that the American people are really concerned about: how we can save maybe $50 billion on welfare over the next 7 years by sending it back to the States, and maybe as much as $85 billion over the next 7 years on Medicaid by sending it back to the States, all in accordance with the 10th amendment to the Constitution, which says unless the powers vested in the Federal Government are denied to the States it belongs to the States and the people. That is what we will debate at this time, unless there is a willingness to accept the amendments, or we can debate tomorrow after the cloture vote, whichever the Democratic leader prefers. But I am prepared and now ask that we stand in recess until 9:30 tomorrow morning. Motion To Recess

Mr. DOLE. Again, I would be happy to discuss it with the distinguished Democratic leader, Senator Daschle. I am not certain I would make that agreement. I know it is important on that side of the aisle. It may be important to some on this side of the aisle. But it is also important to many small businesses in America. It is very controversial. I just do not believe it should be on this bill unless the intent is to kill this bill. Maybe it is. I happen to support it. There are 23 States involved in this legislation: West Virginia, Massachusetts, California, Louisiana, Tennessee. I do not think the State of Kansas is involved, but there are a number of States--Colorado. So I hope we might dispose of the pending legislation and then complete action on a number of conference reports this week and get the omnibus appropriation bill passed and the debt ceiling extension. That would just about complete the week.

Mr. DOLE. Is the question on the motion to table the Kerry amendment?