Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I thank my friend from Virginia. I will be happy to yield the floor.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues. I certainly share their view. I do not see any sense in what we have been doing, frankly. Maybe I missed the point. I have been here a while. Maybe something went by me. But I think we have had shutdowns before lasting a day or 2 days, and you can handle that. But when it is--what is today, day 18? And we have already had a 7-day. As I said earlier, you are going to have 30 days here very quickly. I do not believe any side gains. I do not believe we are sitting down because the Government is partially shut down. I do not believe the President is sitting down because the Government is partially shut down. We better be sitting down because we agreed we ought to balance the budget in 7 years. And the Federal employees are going to be part of that. I think they are going to be asked to make sacrifices like everybody else if that is done. But to say that they cannot work and they cannot be paid until we put together an agreement--I know there are some of my colleagues in the House who feel just as strongly the other way, but I do not quite understand the logic of it all. As I said earlier, I think the Speaker is inclined to be receptive. All the House Members are back, I understand, tomorrow, and they will have an opportunity to discuss this. I hope that we could have quick action. People have been gone from their jobs long enough. Enough is enough. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Stevens be added as a cosponsor to amendment 3115, the CR until January 12, 1996.

Mr. DOLE. And they live from paycheck to paycheck.

Mr. DOLE. When they do not get the check, we say, ``Oh, well, they can borrow the money.'' If they borrow the money, they have to pay for it--if they can borrow the money. So I hope, based on fairness and getting people back to work and eliminating some of the stress that I am certain some have undergone, that the House will look upon this favorably. If not, I think the second option--I know it is not the preferred option by a lot of people--would be the first bill we passed, which deems all workers essential and promises they will be paid. That is not the same as being paid. Plus, we added a number of categories--the Senator from Maryland was not here at the time--to take care of Meals on Wheels, protective services for children, unemployment insurance--there are about 11 States, plus D.C., which will have exhausted Federal funds for administering the Federal Unemployment Insurance Program, including, I might add, the State of Kansas, where somebody said today they shot out the windows at the unemployment office. I have not verified that story. In other words, if the office is closed, people with unemployment benefit claims cannot have their claims addressed. The District of Columbia would be included, and also assistance payments to 53,000 Indian families and foster family care for about 3,000 Indian children. Then we have the same problem with about 170,000 veterans. And we believe that, of course, if you have a CR, you do not have to worry about that. If you do not have a CR, then the backup would be adopting the deeming provision. Let me just say, in fairness--I will not make all these requests, because I hope that we have a bipartisan, or nonpartisan solution here that can be dealt with in the same way on the House side--but I would say, everybody wants to assign blame. I am not here to assign blame. I am just here to suggest that we have three appropriations bills that were vetoed. Had they not been vetoed, a lot of people would be working, they would not be worrying about the 7- or 9-day CR. But the President vetoed those bills. I understand some of them just have two or three areas where we have disagreements. I urge my colleagues--on the Interior bill, for example, I understand there are only three areas of disagreement. If we can work out the areas of disagreement, we ought to pass the bill, meet the President's request, and send it back and that will take care of any future problems in case the Government was shut down a third time. I hope that would not happen. The same is true with VA-HUD. I understand that is another bill that could be, with a little effort, worked out, just a give and take on both sides. State, Justice, Commerce, I think there are probably a number of differences there. I am not certain that can be accommodated. On the D.C. appropriations bill, there is one issue, vouchers. Only one issue keeps that bill from going to the President and being signed by the President. Foreign operations, one issue, one issue on the Mexico City policy. That is the only issue that keeps that bill from going to the President. I do not think he has a problem with that bill. Finally, Labor-HHS, and we have had two party-line votes on bringing it to the membership on the floor. It takes 60 votes. It has been a party-line vote so we have not been able to bring Labor-HHS to the floor. Maybe there is some way to work out our differences there. But one way to avoid the CR's and the potential problems of a shutdown would be to get together on the appropriations bills. We are urging our colleagues on this side to do that starting immediately. We would be happy to accommodate anybody on the other side. I know there is a lot of interest in Interior and State, Justice, Commerce; foreign operations; HUD; District of Columbia. If those bills could be passed-- and three of them have been vetoed--but passed again, to accommodate some of the concerns raised by the administration, then we would not be here worrying about 5 days, 9 days, and 10 days. Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Senator Daschle, and Senator Sarbanes, and anybody else.

Mr. DOLE. Let me indicate we did not cover all those in the other one because we thought some were not as urgent as others, but I think we ought to enable people to be able to get a passport, to open the parks, and other things that I think are important to all people.

Mr. DOLE. Senator Robb, and Senator Dorgan already have.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Today there will be a period for morning business until the hour of 12:30 p.m. and hopefully after that we can turn to the so- called back-to-work bill, S. 1508. There may be some modification to that. I will be in touch with the Democratic leader before we do that. It is also my hope we can reach some agreement on expedited procedures. In the event we should reach an agreement on all sides--the President and members of the Senate leadership, and members of the House leadership want a balanced budget. Any other thing we can do by unanimous consent, we can do today, but otherwise I think we have indicated to Members they would be given plenty of time to return if there are any rollcall votes. We understand we have to delay those.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me just comment briefly here, because this is a matter of some contention. Even though it is a Senate matter, the reason we had expedited procedure in the other provision is we tried to get consent on the Senate side and it was objected to. So the House put in a bill and sent it over here. I think the concern was if we did reach some agreement with the President and the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate and Republican leaders in the House and Senate, that when it came to the Senate, it could be subject to filibuster and might take 2 weeks or 3 weeks. So I have discussed this at length with the Democratic leader, Senator Daschle, and we have agreed that if we have an agreement with the President and leadership, we will, in effect, say it is considered in the reconciliation process and be a reconciliation bill. Under those procedures, I can move to reduce the time to 15 hours, to 20 hours, whatever, and it would speed up the process considerably. I hope my colleagues in the House appreciate the fact that we think we have moved along the process here considerably if, in fact, there should be an agreement. That is why we have stricken the expedited process language out of the previous bill.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate receives from the House a bill entitled ``A bill to provide for deficit reduction and achieve a balanced budget by fiscal year 2002,'' and the majority and minority leaders are in agreement, that the bill should be considered under the reconciliation process, and then once the Senate begins consideration, the bill be deemed a reconciliation bill, and all provisions under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 apply to the bill.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent, and this has been cleared by the Democratic leader, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on the day's Executive Calendar: Calendar Nos. 267, 378, and 410. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, that any statements relating to the nominations appear at the appropriate place in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. As I have said almost on a daily basis, there will be no rollcall votes tomorrow. If somebody should demand one on something--I do not know what it would be--we would certainly give our colleagues ample time to return to the Senate. I do not anticipate any votes this week. I think we can work out anything that needs to be done, including putting people back to work, by unanimous consent on the Senate side. So we will give everybody notice if there should be a vote, but I do not see any votes this week and hopefully none next week.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 11:55 a.m. on Wednesday, January 3, and 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 during the day, and the majority leader be immediately recognized to adjourn the Senate until the second session of the 104th Congress reconvenes at noon.

Mr. DOLE. It will be a short 5 minutes there. So I just say for the information of all Senators we do begin the second session of the 104th Congress at noon tomorrow, January 3, 1996. I ask unanimous consent that once the Senate reconvenes, the leaders' time be reserved for their use later in the day and there be a period for the transaction of morning business until the hour of 12:30 p.m., with statements limited to 5 minutes each.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Norman Johnson, Executive Calendar No. 348; that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the nomination appear at the appropriate place in the Record; the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I want to say a few words. But I will object. We are working on a lot of these things in our meetings at the White House, where we have both been for a number of hours. I think we have made some progress. We are a long way from any solution yet. I think all of the things listed by the Democratic leader are areas of concern in the meetings we have had. And the meetings will start again on Tuesday. But it seems to me that it would not be appropriate to proceed under those terms, and therefore I object.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if there is 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. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in adjournment until the hour of 12 noon on Tuesday, January 2d; 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, 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 12:30 p.m., with statements limited to 5 minutes each.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I know there is an effort here by both sides to make a record. Even though we both agree that something is going to be done, I think we have Members on both sides of the aisle who may have different views. I am not going to ask consent that we reconsider all the appropriations bills that the President has vetoed. I have here a consent form prepared. But I think we must keep in perspective that the reason many Federal employees are not working is because the President has vetoed the Interior bill, the State, Justice, and Commerce bill, and the HUD-VA bill; and, also the fact that Labor-HHS has been tied up on the Senate floor--I say this in no disrespect--because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refuse to allow us to bring it up. We need 60 votes to do that. We only have 53. So I want to continue to make the record that many Federal employees would be working today had the President signed the bills. In the meantime what we thought we might do--we tried to do this one other time and it was objected to--is in essence--we are in these very serious negotiations, good-faith, bipartisan negotiations--send the bills back to the President, which he vetoed, and then see if he will sign those bills, put people back to work, not temporarily but on a permanent basis, and then make the changes in this big agreement we hope to reach on each of those bills. But Senator Leahy objected to that. And then I was prepared to go through them one at a time and just say, Well, let us send the Interior bill, and let us send the next bill and the next bill, for a total of six bills. But I am certain those would be objected to. But I just want the record to reflect that while we are not in agreement yet, I believe the White House, and I certainly believe the Democratic leader, Senator Daschle, and I know this Republican, and I know the Presiding Officer because he expressed his views earlier to me, would like to see this thing ended and Government employees go back to work and get paid. That is not going to happen, unfortunately, today. So it is not going to be a happy new year. But we will meet the day after New Year's Day, on the 2d, and hopefully by then we will have some agreement that will pass the House, and they can start work by midweek. Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I thank my colleague.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 2808, the Middle East Peace Facilitation Act of 1994 just received from the House.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I shall object. Again, repeating, it seems to me that there was a provision that we might have added to the deeming provision which would have defined the scope of employment once back to work. We are told that the Justice Department, or whoever would make that determination, would probably conclude that they could go back into almost normal duties. We were prepared to at least look at that provision. In fact, I ask unanimous consent that that provision be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, it was not made part of the technical changes. The White House had some concern with it, too. In any event, we need to end the impasse. That is what I have been about and what the Senator from South Dakota has been about, and the Senator from North Dakota, along with a number of my colleagues. I met this morning with Congresswoman Morella from Maryland and Congressman Davis from Virginia, and I have been in contact with Congressman Wolf from Virginia and Senator Warner from Virginia. They have a lot of Federal employees in their States and districts. We believe they ought to be paid. They should not be hostages or pawns. We ought to end this. It has gotten to the point where it is a little ridiculous, as far as this Senator is concerned. We are going to keep trying. Hopefully, on Tuesday, if we cannot do anything else, we may pass whatever it takes on the Senate side, I say to my colleague from South Dakota. In the meantime, I must object.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. Let me indicate, first of all, I regret we were unable to reach some agreement today. We have not given up. We are going to come back here again Tuesday and, hopefully, by then we will have an agreement. I do not share the view of some of my colleagues that we ought to have a partial shutdown of the Government, or that the people should not be paid. But I do believe that we need to find some agreement. If we can get this done, we also would be willing to give some on what would happen if a balanced budget amendment were agreed to by the President, the Democratic leader, and the Republican leaders in the Senate and in the House, and we could move rather quickly if that were possible. I am afraid that if this goes back to the House without some agreement even between me and my friend, Senator Daschle--we hoped to get a unanimous-consent agreement--not put it to legislation--and send back the deeming provision with a couple of provisions that the White House asked us to add today. One would permit Federal employees to apply for and receive unemployment compensation, which would be returned or refunded once they were paid. And the second thing, even though they have been furloughed, it would not interrupt their normal leave policy. We were prepared to add those at the request of White House counsel. By Tuesday, hopefully, we can work that out. I regret we were not able to do it now. Therefore, I object.