Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2196; further, that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be agreed to, the bill be deemed read a third time, passed, as amended, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any colloquy and statements relating to the bill be placed at the appropriate place in the Record.

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be deemed read a third time, passed, that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any colloquy or statements relating to the bill be placed at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from further consideration of S. 1510; further, that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. DOLE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DOLE. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I move we stand in recess under the previous order following the remarks of Senator Daschle.

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess for 2 minutes.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. On Friday, February 23, the Senate will conduct a period for morning business, and following morning business it will be the majority leader's intention to file a cloture motion on the District of Columbia appropriations conference report. Therefore, votes will not occur on Friday, February 23. It will be the majority leader's intention to set the cloture vote on the D.C. appropriations conference report for Tuesday, February 27, 1996, at 2:15 p.m. I further ask that when the Senate completes its business on Friday, February 23, it stand in recess until 3 p.m. on Monday, February 26; that immediately following the prayer, Senator Akaka be recognized to read Washington's Farewell Address. It will be the leader's intention to then recess following the address until 11 a.m. on Tuesday, February 27, 1996.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in recess until the hour of 11 a.m. on Friday, February 9, and that following the prayer there be a period for morning business not to extend beyond the hour of 1 p.m. with the time to be equally divided between the two parties, and that following the use or yielding back of the morning business time the Senate automatically stand in recess until Tuesday, February 13, at 10:30 a.m. for a pro forma session only, and that immediately following convening, the Senate stand in recess until 10:30 a.m. on Friday, February 16 for a pro forma session only, and that immediately following convening that day the Senate stand in recess until 11 a.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 1996, and that following the prayer there be a period for routine morning business not to extend beyond the hour of 1 p.m. with the time to be equally divided between the two parties, and that following the use or yielding back of time the Senate automatically stand in adjournment until 11 a.m. on Friday, February 23, 1996.

Mr. DOLE. I further ask unanimous consent that following the prayer on Friday, February 23, the Journal of proceedings be deemed approved to date, no resolutions come over under the rule, the call of the calendar be dispensed with, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and there then be a period for morning business not to extend beyond the hour of 1 p.m. with the time equally divided between the two parties, and that following the use or yielding back of time, morning business be closed and the Senate then turn to the conference report to accompany the District of Columbia appropriations bill, and the conference report be considered as read.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. If we make a case, that is fine.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the bill.

Mr. DOLE. I hope the Senator from Utah and the Senator from Idaho might let us have hearings on it. It might have a lot of merit. I think rather than press it to a vote and lose, it might be preferable to have a hearing in the Agriculture Committee and the Nutrition Subcommittee. I am happy to be there if that would help.

Mr. DOLE. It may be a good idea.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, have the yeas and nays been ordered?

Mr. DOLE. I ask that the Chair announce the vote at the end of 10 minutes from here on.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I will just take about 30 seconds. I have had a lot of experience with the peanut program. There have been reforms made over the years. There are reforms in this bill. We are trying to get a farm bill passed, and I know that the Senator from Pennsylvania has worked very long and very hard and has done a great job, but I think in the spirit of trying to get the bill passed, we ought to take the reforms that have been made. Therefore, I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I further ask that when the Senate completes its business on Monday, February 26, it stand in recess until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 27, and that following the prayer there be a period for the transaction of morning business not to extend beyond the hour of 10:30 a.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each.

Mr. DOLE. I further ask that at 10:30 a.m., there be 2 hours to be equally divided in the usual form for debate with respect to cloture on the D.C. appropriations conference report.

Mr. DOLE. I ask that the Senate stand in recess between the hours of 12:30 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, February 27, in order for the weekly party conferences to meet.

Mr. DOLE. Again, for the information of all Senators, the first rollcall vote will occur at 12:15 on Tuesday, February 27, 1996, and that vote will be a cloture vote with respect to the D.C. appropriations conference report.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me indicate that I think we have accomplished a great deal this year in the Senate, and we will accomplish a great deal more. Normally there is a period of recess for Lincoln's birthday so Republicans can go out and do whatever they do during that week, and then there is a later period of a week for Democrats. I regret that we could not adjourn the Senate to accommodate many members of the staff who will now be required probably to stay here, because if we take a look at last year, we came in early in January and stayed throughout the year with hardly any breaks. I am not complaining about that, but those are the facts. I should know. I think we may have set records with the number of votes and the number of hours in session. It was truly a remarkable year, and we accomplished a great deal. We have a great deal more to do this year. I regret that we were unable to just recess. There will be no votes until February 27, and perhaps members of the staff whom I am looking at now can work out some little time to have some relaxation and rest because they certainly deserve it. We have had long sessions. We have been in late at night and some of us were here during the holidays negotiating with the President trying to work out a budget agreement. We do not have it yet. America's Governors may have moved it along a little bit. We are still not in accord with the President, and we hope that might be possible. I must say the American people will only accept a good agreement, not a game of arithmetic, but policy changes that will mean a great deal to the American people, bring interest rates down a couple of percent so that when you buy a home or car or borrow money for one of your children going to college or whatever, you will pay 2 percent less interest. The American people can understand that. That is what the first session was all about, and that is what the second session is going to be all about. In the meantime, today we passed historic farm legislation. We passed a very significant DOD authorization report. We passed a START II Treaty which the President requested in his State of the Union Message. We had all the work done before and we were just waiting for a vote. We also passed the telecommunications bill, probably the biggest jobs bill in this decade. We have done all that plus public housing reform, which was very significant legislation. So I do not want the Record to only reflect the statements I heard earlier from my friend from Ohio, Senator Glenn, and the Senator from Michigan, Senator Levin, that it has been sort of a waste of time. Because there will be no votes does not mean that there will not be hearings and progress, and I am certain my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will either be here working or be at home working. I think that from time to time it is good to go home and find out what the people are thinking. It is not 3 weeks. It is about 2 weeks--10 days--10 days. So we will be back. In the interim, if there is anything that should be done, obviously we are going to be in here on this Friday, and next week there are pro forma sessions, and then we are in again for a couple hours each day and we can take care of any business that might come before the Senate. So I want to thank all of my colleagues for their help and their cooperation so far this year. It is going to be a long year. There will be a lot of work to do, but I believe we can accomplish what we set out to do in the first place--welfare reform, balance the budget, regulatory reform, tax relief for families with children, all those things that are so necessary if we are going to get the economy moving again and if we are going to have that hope and optimism that the American people are looking for. So I thank the Presiding Officer.