Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. If I may proceed for 5 minutes.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I would ask the yeas and nays be vitiated.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Yes.

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that the first vote at 8:50 be a regular 15-minute vote; final passage will be a 10-minute vote.

Mr. DOLE. It is coming out.

Mr. DOLE. We hope that if we proceed on this basis, it will be a very quick disposal of that provision in this particular bill.

Mr. DOLE. On a side?

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that following disposition of the motion to instruct, [[Page S 16914]] the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, without any further debate or action.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate then insist on its amendment, agree to the House request for a conference, and prior to the Chair being authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, that there be four motions to instruct the conferees, which under the statute are limited to 1 hour each, and that the time to be divided: 40 minutes for the offeror of the motion; 20 minutes for Senator Domenici or his designee. Those motions are as follows: A motion to instruct regarding Social Security; a motion to instruct regarding health care; a motion to instruct regarding Medicare tax cuts; a motion to instruct regarding nursing standards.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 10 a.m. on Monday, November 13, the Chair lay before the Senate a message from the House on H.R. 2491, the reconciliation bill.

Mr. DOLE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. That is correct.

Mr. DOLE. Immediately following that vote between now and 6:45, the debate occur on an amendment to strike the Medicare provision offered by the Democratic leader, Senator Daschle, and that the votes occur back to back.

Mr. DOLE. I say to my colleagues, we hope we can expedite this. That would mean we might be able to finish action on the CR by 7 o'clock. By that time, hopefully, the debt ceiling will be here. We have to deal with that yet tonight, and therefore we can be expected to be in session until we finish that. It may be there will only be a couple of amendments. In any event, we would like to finish that this evening.

Mr. DOLE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendments Nos. 3045, 3046, 3047, and 3048

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I think most of our colleagues are here and have been notified, if we might have consent that this be a 10-minute vote, and then, following that, there will be a rollcall vote on final passage of 10 minutes.

Mr. DOLE. In light of the vote, I now ask that the amendment 3048 be agreed to, and amendments 3047, 3046 and 3045 be withdrawn.

Mr. DOLE. Yes. Amendment No. 3050 (Purpose: To strike the provision for the determination of the Medicare part B premium for 1996)

Mr. DOLE. I move to table, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DOLE. I would ask that we have 1 minute before the next vote so the chairman of the committee, the Senator from Oregon, may offer a technical amendment which has been agreed to.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, we have been trying to reach an agreement the last couple of hours on the continuing resolution. We have not been able to do that, so I think since it may take some time and some debate--if we could get consent to go to the so-called CR--we should start as quickly as we can, because in addition to disposal of this legislation today we need to dispose of the debt ceiling extension, which will not arrive from the House until 5 o'clock. It is my hope we could complete action on both of those. There will probably be, hopefully, not many amendments, but an amendment or two, and we have to get it back to the House yet this evening or be here tomorrow, notwithstanding the fact that it is a Federal holiday. I hope we could have everyone's cooperation and that we can move very quickly on the continuing resolution, and then be in a position when the debt ceiling extension arrives to move quickly on that. The President has indicated he will veto both the continuing resolution and the debt extension, which I hope is not the case because we would have very little time to act on Monday to prevent a shutdown of the Government. I hope the President would understand that and accept these very modest proposals.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, early next year, the substantive provisions of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, which, among other things, creates procedures for judicial review of employment discrimination claims throughout the Congress, begin to take effect. Although the 1995 Act will govern all cases that arise after the requirements of the new law takes effect, the Senate's process for review of employment discrimination claims in Senate employment, which was created by the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991, continues to govern older cases. Office of the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms versus Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, now pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, is a case initiated under the 1991 act. The petitioner in this case is the Office of the Sergeant at Arms, which under the 1991 law is the employing office for Senate-paid members of the Capitol Police. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms seeks review of a ruling of the Select Committee on Ethics, which affirmed a decision of a hearing board appointed by the Director of the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices. The Ethics Committee decision, which was signed jointly by the chairman and vice chairman, held that there had been a failure to reasonably accommodate a Capitol Police officer's disabilities of alcoholism and depression in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as incorporated into the Government Employee Rights Act. Under the Government Employee Rights Act, a final decision of the Ethics Committee is entered in the records of the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, which is then named as the respondent if the decision is challenged in the Federal Circuit. As petitions for review in the Federal circuit challenge final decisions of a Senate adjudicatory process, under the Government Employee Rights Act the Senate Legal Counsel may be directed to defend those decisions through representation of the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices in court. Accordingly, this resolution directs the Senate Legal Counsel to represent the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, in the case of Office of U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms versus Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, in defense of the Ethics Committee's final decision.