Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I just say for the information of all Senators, my first- degree amendment will be printed and available for all Members by late Monday morning. We believe we have introduced it in a way that when someone offers an amendment, they can be sure they are going to get a vote on their amendment. Nobody is going to be able to second degree it. If the Senator from New York has an amendment, there will be a vote on that amendment. It might be a tabling motion, but there will be a vote on or in relation to the amendment. So I think we are ready to go, and I know the Senator from New York has been waiting to make a statement. I appreciate his patience.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the consideration of Calendar 125, H.R. 4, the welfare bill.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I know we are going to start this, but I want to thank the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, who comes from the House, who did a lot of work on the House side putting together welfare reform. And we have been fortunate on this side of the aisle to have Senator Santorum's daily, hourly assistance on a very important piece of legislation, bringing people together with diverse views. It is not easy. It is all about leadership. And I congratulate and commend the Senator from Pennsylvania for his extraordinary effort. And because of that, largely because of that, I might add, I will be introducing the bill here following disposition of a number of amendments by our colleagues in reference to the DOD bill. I thank the Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I know the managers are not right here right now, but we are back on the DOD authorization bill, which we I guess terminated last night about midnight. There are 20 some amendments that I understand have been cleared throughout the day and there will be Senators here in a few moments to start taking up those amendments. In the meantime, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I understand that concludes the action, is that correct, tonight? It concludes action on the amendments that have been cleared. We cleared about 25 amendments. We appreciate that very much. We hope to return to the DOD authorization bill on Monday. I know there are some negotiations going on with reference to a couple of areas. If that is negotiated successfully, we hope to be back on the DOD bill late Monday afternoon, and wrap it up. I think in a couple of hours we can complete action on this bill. I know there are a few amendments out there that might require rollcall votes. If we reach the negotiation agreement, there could be at least one amendment that will require a vote, plus the others we did not complete last night. But I understand there will be very few amendments that we would have to deal with. So, hopefully we can complete action on the DOD authorization bill on Monday. It is a very important bill. It takes a long time. Last year I think it was 6 days. It always takes a great deal of time because it is so involved and so complex. It involves the defense of our Nation, so it deserves a great deal of consideration and debate. I thank the managers.

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was rejected.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I have an amendment that has been agreed to, and I ask unanimous consent that Senator Mikulski now be recognized to offer an amendment to the committee amendment, as amended, regarding ``medically necessary'' and that there be 30 minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form and that following the conclusion or yielding back of the time, the Senate proceed to vote on or in relation to the Mikulski amendment.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if I could have my colleagues' attention. I am informed by the managers they have done an outstanding job. They did not tell me they have done an outstanding job, but I am informed---- [Laughter.] But they have. They have worked out a number of amendments, and they may be in a position to take any additional amendments to this bill and have a voice vote on final passage. We will have a rollcall vote then on the conference report. There is a standing request that we have a vote on the bill and, if not on the bill, on the conference report. Also, as we speak, there are negotiations going on with Senator Nunn, Senator Warner, Senator Levin, and Senator Cohen on an issue relating to the DOD authorization bill. We should have some information on that between now and a quarter of 4. If there is some resolution of that matter, plus I guess another one the Democratic leader mentioned, it might be possible to get an agreement on the remainder of the work on the DOD authorization bill. If we are able to do that--we will not do that today--we will get the agreement today and finish the work on Monday or sometime when we have a little spare time next week during the welfare reform debate. So if my colleagues can give us a little bit of time, we will be able to make an announcement about whether or not there will be additional votes today.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of routine morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE. Yes.

Mr. DOLE. Well, I just hope that the Senator from Nebraska will not give up too easily. I know the process is very difficult. We found that out about midnight last night on the Defense Department authorization bill. We thought we were humming along pretty well. We got down to about half a dozen amendments. Suddenly there were 61 amendments. I do not know. We only had one amendment. I know the Senator is prepared to accept a number of amendments. Is that true?

Mr. DOLE. A couple of outstanding amendments that are controversial?

Mr. DOLE. It seems to me, you might be on to something here. We might even finish a bill over here. There is not much precedent for doing anything in the Senate, but there is always hope we might finish something. We have got a lot of stuff in the bone yard now that keeps piling up out there. Sooner or later we have to finish it. If we do not do it today, then we will be doing it a week from today or sometime. So if we can reach a time agreement, that would certainly help the managers. I do not want to discourage the managers. We can go on to the Interior appropriations bill or we can start the welfare bill today. But I would rather complete this bill before we go to the Interior bill. And there is still some hope we can come back to the Defense authorization bill that we almost completed yesterday and would like to complete today. But I hope that the managers might try to shop around for time agreements, and if not, maybe set aside this particular controversy and go ahead and do the rest of the bill and see if we can negotiate in the meantime. If we are going to have what amounts to a filibuster all day long, then I think probably we would just go on to something else.

Mr. DOLE. Yes.

Mr. DOLE. There are 94 Senators here. I do not know why we want to stack votes on Monday. We gave notice that there will be a Saturday session. There are four absent on our side, two absent on the other side. We are disadvantaged. They knew we were going to have a session. We do not have them very often. This is the first one we have had all year. We are trying to get into a recess mode. I hope we will not push anything off to Monday. Before long, it will be a week from Monday and we will still be here, and a lot of people will not be happy with the majority leader.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I rise to thank Jill Maycumber who is departing my staff after nearly 5 years of outstanding service to me, to the Senate, and to Kansas. Like many Senate staff, Jill began her Senate career as an intern in my office. She quickly proved herself and became a key member of my staff. For a time, Jill served as our receptionist--no doubt about it, the toughest job in Washington. But her outstanding people skills and deep desire to help Kansans made Jill the right choice to head my regional office in southeast Kansas. When the massive floods struck the midwest in 1993, Jill Maycumber tirelessly crisscrossed the State, inspecting damage, and coordinating Federal assistance to flood victims. Hundreds of Kansans who have needed a helping hand knew who to call. They have Jill Maycumber to thank. Earlier this year, Jill returned to Washington to help run my Senate office--not an easy task as my colleagues can attest. But most importantly, Jill took the extra time to greet thousands of constituents, always making sure that their visit to Washington and to my office was a special event. I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Jill Maycumber for her outstanding service to the Senate and to Kansas. Jill can be very proud of what she has accomplished--she has truly made a difference. I extend my heartfelt thank you and best wishes to Jill in her new career.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, the Senate will lose one of its most dedicated floor staffers today. Elizabeth MacDonough will be leaving us to attend law school this fall at the University of Vermont. Liz has worked in the Senate for the past 5 years, first in the Senate Library as a legislative reference assistant, and then as the assistant morning business editor of the Congressional Record. In addition to her duties preparing the morning business section of the Record, Liz can be found sitting at the corner of the Reporters' table in the well of the Senate, listening intently to our every word, ready to chase us down to retrieve those materials we have asked to have printed in the Record. We will miss her dedication and wonderful sense of humor. On behalf of all Senators, I say farewell and wish her good luck in all her future endeavors.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I also say, with reference to the schedule next week, in a moment I will introduce the Work Opportunity Act of 1995. That debate will begin in earnest on Monday morning, at 10:30 a.m. From 9 to 10:30 there will be a period of morning business. But at 10:30 a.m. we will start serious debate on the Work Opportunity Act of 1995. I assume there will be a number of opening statements. Amendments can be offered. Votes can be expected on Monday. I do not know how long the opening statements will take. Of course, if we are able to go back to the DOD authorization bill we would have votes on that on Monday. So I urge my colleagues to stay in close contact with their offices. I assume there will not be any votes prior to--4:30, 5 o'clock will be my best guess. It will be my hope we can complete the welfare reform measure, the Work Opportunity Act, next week. That is, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. There will not be a Saturday session next Saturday. I guess, if necessary, if we were near completion, we will come back then on the following Monday and try to complete action on the Work Opportunity Act of 1995. I have had a discussion with the distinguished Democratic leader, Senator Daschle. I have indicated to him that is our hope. Also, there are a couple of appropriations bills we would like to, in our spare time, resolve next week. One is the Interior appropriations, which can be done in a matter of hours. And the other is the DOD appropriation bill, which will not be taken up until we complete action on the DOD authorization bill. That is a very, very big money bill. That might take as much as a day. Now, obviously, I do not believe we can do all of those things next week. I hope to be in a position on Monday or Tuesday to advise my colleagues what to expect for the remainder of next week and the following week.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1225, just received from the House.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate a message from the House of Representatives (S. 395), a bill to authorize and direct the Secretary of Energy to sell the Alaska Power Marketing Administration, and for other purposes. The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: July 25, 1995. Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 395) entitled ``An Act to authorize and direct the Secretary of Energy to sell the Alaska Power Administration, and to authorize the export of Alaska North Slope crude oil and for other purposes'', do pass with the following amendments: Page 2, strike out line 1 through page 9, line 6. Page 9, strike out line 8 through page 13, line 26, and insert:

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate disagree to the amendments of the House and agree to the conference asked by the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses thereon, and that the conferees on the part of the Senate be appointed by the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. For the information of all Senators, the Senate will resume consideration of the welfare reform bill at 10:30 a.m. Then the amendment I have offered is the Work Opportunity Act of 1995. Votes can be expected during Monday's session of the Senate, but will not occur prior to the hour of 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Also, votes could occur later that evening with respect to amendments to the DOD authorization bill during Monday's session. I outlined before we hope to be able to go back to that late Monday and complete action on that bill. I know the distinguished Democratic leader wishes to speak, and also the Senator from Nebraska--how much time?--2 minutes.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in recess until 9 a.m, Monday, August 7, 1995; that following the prayer, the Journal be deemed approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period for routine morning business not to extend beyond the hour of 10:30 a.m. with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each, with the following exceptions: Senator Frist for up to 60 minutes, Senator Daschle or his designee for up to 30 minutes.