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

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in adjournment until 7:30 a.m., Wednesday, February 7; further, that immediately following the prayer, 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 the Senate then immediately resume consideration of S. 1541, the farm bill.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, for the information of all Senators, the Senate will resume consideration of the farm bill tomorrow morning. Under the previous unanimous consent agreement, amendments will be offered throughout the day on Wednesday. Therefore, all Members can expect rollcall votes throughout tomorrow's session in order to complete action on the farm bill by 4:45 p.m. I would be happy to yield the floor. Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, is the Senator from Minnesota going to ask for the yeas and nays now?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. We think maybe those we accommodate later in the day might be available in the morning.

Mr. DOLE. Right.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, as I understand it, there will be an amendment offered tonight by the Senators from Minnesota, Senator Wellstone and Senator Grams, with reference to the dairy compact provision--that will be the first amendment debated tomorrow--and then at approximately, what, 11 o'clock we have a series of votes to see where we are in the process.

Mr. DOLE. Yes, 7:30 in the morning. We are looking for a presider.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, if I could just add to that, in other words, we need another amendment ready at 8 o'clock. We need one at 8:30, and we need one at 9. They may not take 30 minutes. We need people available because we are trying to accommodate some of our colleagues in the afternoon. So we will need to be accommodating to the managers, Senator Lugar and Senator Leahy, throughout the morning. So, hopefully, the staff, before we leave tonight, will have at least two or three lined up so there will not be any problem.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I now ask for its second reading and object to my own request on behalf of Senators on the other side of the aisle.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I understand that S. 1561, introduced today by Senator Hatch, is at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Finally, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that final passage occur on S. 1541, as amended, no later than 4:45 p.m., Wednesday, February 7, 1996.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I further ask unanimous consent that all amendments in order to amendment No. 3184 as modified be limited to 30 minutes, to be equally divided in the usual form, and must be relevant to the subject matter contained in amendment No. 3184 or farm related.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, what I am going to do here is obtain the consent on the farm bill so that we maybe can vote on final passage tomorrow at 4:45. So let me start that consent. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Craig be recognized to modify amendment No. 3184 with permanent law provisions, and once that modification has been made, no amendments be in order to strike the permanent law modification during the pendency of S. 1541.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I further ask unanimous consent that all amendments be offered in the first degree and not be subject to second degrees and offered on an alternating basis between the parties, and that the majority side be limited to 5 amendments, the minority side limited to 10 amendments.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I also ask unanimous consent that not prior to April 15, but no later than May 3, the majority leader, after consultation with the Democratic leader, turn to the consideration of Calendar No. 205, S. 1028, the Health Insurance Reform Act of 1995.

Mr. DOLE. Further, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that it not be in order to offer any amendment or motion relative to health care portability or similar to the text contained in S. 1028 prior to the execution of this agreement.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hutchison. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I thank the Senator from Illinois. I want Members to know I have had a brief visit with the distinguished Democratic leader, Senator Daschle. We have now asked staff on each side to see if they can sit down and work out a series of amendments on each side on the farm bill and work into the evening and work tomorrow and set a time certain for action on something, say 6 o'clock. That means we would have, if there is an agreement--we do not have it yet, we just started--so if there is an agreement, then there would be votes tonight, there would be votes tomorrow. It is my hope that part of that agreement, if in fact one is reached, would be a recess period until the 26th of February, because many, including many of the staff in the Senate, have been here right around the clock through the Christmas holidays and New Year's. In any event, that is all we can advise our colleagues at this time. If we have any additional information, we will pass it on. So I cannot put out the no-vote signs. There could be votes tonight. We will let you know as soon as we can. Mr. GRAMS addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I announce that the Senator from Texas [Mr. Gramm], the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Lott], the Senator from Arizona [Mr. McCain], the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Murkowski], and the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. Smith] are necessarily absent.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, the vote was 59 to 34. That would be short. Right?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, today was a very special day at the Senate Republican policy lunch, as we spoke with President Reagan on the phone, and wished him a very happy 85th birthday. Last week, the Senate passed a resolution paying tribute to President Reagan on this occasion, and I have seen a variety of other salutes in recent newspapers. One of the best of these was written by long time White House correspondent Trude Feldman, and is published in today's Wall Street Journal. Trude first met Ronald Reagan when, as the then-president of the Screen Actors Guild, he signed her SAG card. She also covered the Reagan presidency, as she has so many others. And her portrait of him is rich in personal recollections and fond memories. In short, it captures the essence of this remarkable man. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the article by Trude Feldman be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. If I can just take a couple minutes.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, first, I thank the distinguished chairman of our committee for his effort and also Senator Leahy from Vermont, the ranking minority member of the committee. As I have indicated in the past, farm bills are always difficult to pass. They are even more difficult than the House side. I hope today we can demonstrate in a bipartisan way we want to move forward, try to get this to conference. I think American farmers want and deserve certainty, and I assume, as the chairman just indicated, maybe if we do not do anything, they will just do it on their own. It is interesting today, the Governors are in town and this morning, by unanimous vote, they passed a resolution calling for us to pass a farm bill without delay no later than February 15. These are Democrats and Republicans, but they were unanimous. Nearly every Governor has someone or many or hundreds or thousands of people in their State who rely on agriculture for a living, and they understand the importance of agriculture. President Clinton also spoke this morning with the Republican and Democratic Governors. He said we ought to strike while the iron is hot. Well, the iron is hot. This is the time to strike because there is not any administration farm bill, as far as I know. Somebody even offered a reward if anybody can find an administration farm bill. If they are just against what we are doing and do not have an alternative or if they have an alternative, vote on both, give them a vote, give us a vote, 1-hour debate and we are out of here. The farmers will have some certainty. We are prepared to do that this afternoon. So the iron is hot and the farmers are hot, and the farmers are getting hotter every day. They do not understand why this is being mired down in a partisan effort to stall to go to conference. We have had 33 hearings. This bill has been endorsed by nearly every major agriculture commodity group. We have had a bumper crop of profarm rhetoric, but we do not have a profarm bill. Farmers really do not care what we say on the Senate floor. They are not hanging on every word uttered on the Senate floor, but they would like to have some guidance so they know what they can tell their banker, for example, or their employees. So on behalf of the American farmers, I ask my colleagues to pull the plug on the filibuster, because the choice we face is clear. We will either adopt a policy that fosters the future growth of America's No. 1 industry or we are going to continue a farm policy that is the equivalent of driving a truck while looking in the rear-view mirror. U.S. agriculture is dynamic and growing. It is time for Washington to help foster this growth by implementing a simpler and more flexible market-based farm policy. So I think we have a lot of opportunities to offer amendments if people disagree with the farm bill. There are a couple hundred amendments filed, I understand. So I hope we can adopt a bill that will meet the concerns as we go into the 21st century. I think the future is bright for American agriculture. But we have to be prepared, and part of the preparation is adopting a farm policy that is growth oriented, which means eliminating supply controls, providing farmers with full planting flexibility and a program which is simpler and more certain. So I hope we will do what we should have done. The President vetoed the bill. That is his right. As far as I know, there is no alternative offered by the President. That is his right. Again, as I said, if there are alternatives, why not just have a vote on each today. Vote on the freedom to farm; vote on the Leahy amendment, whatever. There has been a lot of bipartisanship in putting together the pending substitute. So I hope my colleagues will understand that it is time for action. It is time to strike, as the President said, while the iron is hot. It may not get any warmer. Sooner or later, we will get cloture, because I think the farmers and farm groups are beginning to contact our colleagues and are persuading our colleagues, for the right reasons, to move forward. So I urge my colleagues to do what we should have done sometime ago-- pass a farm bill. I am from a winter wheat State. At the end of every 5-year farm bill, we never know what the farm program is going to be, and so farmers do what the chairman said. They go out and sort of plant everything and hope that the legislation will let them destroy some of it or continue to produce it. So the time is long past due, and I hope we will take positive action today.