Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I further ask that the cloture vote scheduled to occur on Monday be postponed to occur at a time to be determined by the majority leader after consultation with the Democratic leader.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, so, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Nebraska be recognized for 2 minutes, and the distinguished Democratic leader be recognized for whatever time he may use, and that after his statement the Senate stand in recess under the previous order.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I thank the Senator from New York.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be deemed to have been considered, read a third time, and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statement relating to the bill appear at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I wanted to indicate that there will be no more rollcall votes today. We have already notified the cloakrooms in case somebody was not notified. We will complete action on this bill. I wanted to congratulate the managers. Getting it done in one day is, I think, an outstanding accomplishment. Then we will go back to the DOD authorization bill with the managers dealing with about 20 to 30 amendments that have been cleared. So following disposition of this bill, we will go back to the DOD authorization bill. It will probably take about 30 or 40 minutes to do that. Authority for Enrolling Clerk

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, following the opening statements on the Treasury, Postal appropriations bill, at 9 a.m., the Senate will begin 3 hours of debate on a committee amendment. All Senators can expect votes on or in relation to the postal appropriations bill or the DOD authorization or the Interior appropriations bill during Saturday's session. All Senators are reminded that a cloture motion was filed on the DOD authorization bill, therefore all first-degree amendments must be filed by 1 p.m. on Saturday. If there is no further business---- Mr. HARKIN addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. I have the floor. I will put it in the final unanimous- consent request.

Mr. DOLE. Does the Senator want to speak?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. That would mean 1 hour 45 minutes, if all time is used. Most of it is apparently used around here. Members can plan their return if they are leaving.

Mr. DOLE. I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

Mr. DOLE. Will there be a rollcall vote?

Mr. DOLE. I think that answers my question. There is no desire to pass this bill. And I do not fault the Democratic leader. I have probably stood on this floor in the same position, saying, ``We do not want to pass this bill.'' But I would like to pass some bill. I know there are a lot of frustrations about August, and I put in the adjournment resolution as honestly as I could that we would like to be out of here by August 19. I would like to be out of here before August 19, like next weekend. But I do not believe that the majority leader has any choice, if we cannot complete our work by next Friday--and that would be this bill, the Treasury, Postal bill, DOD appropriations bill, and some disposition of welfare, and the Interior Appropriations bill-- than to say we will be here the week after next. I may be the only one here, but we will be here, because it seems to me that this is very important business. I hope the President will let us at least go through the legislative process, have the conference and then make a decision. But apparently that will not happen. So I think the only--this is sort of a finite list of 61 amendments? There will not be any, cannot be any additions, I guess.

Mr. DOLE. I appreciate that. I know that--at least I suspected there were a couple of amendments here that troubled the administration and troubled some Members on the other side. But, of course, the bill has to go to conference. Obviously, the President has great leverage in conference--the administration--because there are not enough votes to override a veto. The ABM vote was 51 to 48, 49. The other vote was five or six votes apart. So it would seem to me what we ought to do is go through the process, go to conference, and then the President can decide when it comes out of conference to veto the bill. But to tell us at half the way, unless they get everything they want, they are going to veto the bill, in my view is not the wise course to follow. There are a number of Members on both sides of the aisle who have spent weeks and weeks and months and months on this legislation, and they have been in good faith. We were going along at a pretty good pace, thought we would see the finish line, and then someone moved it. And I do not suggest that that has not happened before. We had 190-some amendments this morning. Now we are down to 61. So it would appear either they have disappeared or we have disposed of 130 of them, and many of these are in the process of being disposed of. Even though all of these are disposed of, if we agreed right now that the two managers, which I would not object to, get up and say, ``We accept all these amendments,'' then could we go to third reading?

Mr. DOLE. I think what I need to determine, because we have to decide what course of action to follow--if it is the intent not to let us pass the bill, then there is not much reason in trying to even take up the 61 or any of the 61 amendments. But it would seem to me, if we are serious about this bill, if we intend to pass this bill and we come back to it tomorrow after disposition of the Postal, Treasury bill, then I would be prepared to recess and take up Postal, Treasury, come in at 8:30 and have opening statements. Then at 9 o'clock we will have the first amendment offered under a 3-hour time agreement. [[Page S 11436]] But I might ask the distinguished Democratic leader, is there a possibility we can finish this bill tomorrow? Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I thank the chairman. I think probably it is more appropriate, in the long run, on the State Department authorization bill. But if we are unable to get that, it will be on the foreign operations bill later on. But I think that Senator Brown has agreed to set it aside, and have further discussion with those who are directly involved. And I know it is very, very controversial and very, very complicated. I have learned a lot just listening to the debate on the floor. I hope we can maybe have an opportunity to discuss that tomorrow and see whether it will be resolved. Mr. President, I have been handed by the Democratic leader a revised list of the amendments on that side. As I understand, the total number is 61, and I think 5 of the 61 have already been cleared, others are in the clearance process as I understand it. I do not know how many more might be in the process, but maybe another 5 or 10.

Mr. DOLE. There are a number of people who support the amendment. But I think just in the interest of trying to move along here, it is 11:30 p.m., and we need to decide what to do with the other 61 amendments that are directly related to the Defense Department authorization bill. This is not directly related, and I assume the others here, for the most part, are. So I would have no objection if we are going to be here for some time--the Senator, even if it is set aside, could still speak to the amendment. So if there is no objection, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be temporarily laid aside.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. We were here, too.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent after the Senator from Iowa is recognized for 5 minutes, that the Senate stand in recess under the previous order.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to hold a business meeting during the session of the Senate on Friday, August 4, 1995.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until the hour of 8:30 a.m., August 5, 1995; that following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2020, the Treasury, Postal appropriations bill.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of House Concurrent Resolution 92 just received from the House. I ask that it be read so that all Members will know what it is.

Mr. DOLE. I thank my colleague. If that took more than 1 minute, take it out of my leader's time.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be considered and agreed to, and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. So, Mr. President, I do not see any reason to keep my colleagues here any longer. But it is fairly clear to this Senator that for reasons stated by the Democratic leader, we will not complete action on this bill tonight. But it will be the intention of the majority leader that after, hopefully, disposition of the Treasury, Postal bill we will go back to this bill tomorrow afternoon. There will be votes tomorrow. There will be a lot of votes tomorrow. I do not want anybody to leave town thinking, ``Oh, well, we have got that taken care of.'' But, again, let me say to my colleagues, I would hope that we could cooperate here in the next 4 our 5 days and try to get out of here for at least part of the August recess. And I know everybody has plans or would like to have plans. Everybody asks, ``Why can't we say now we can leave next Friday?'' This is a good reason why we cannot say we can leave next Friday. We could have finished this bill by this morning or tomorrow afternoon, but we are told that is not possible. If we took all these amendments we could not go to final passage. It is pretty obvious that there may be enough Members on the other side to prevent us from obtaining cloture. And even if cloture is obtained, you have 30 hours. That would take some time. So there will be no more votes this evening. And we will do our best to proceed tomorrow on the Treasury, Postal bill.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I do not know of any other alternative than to file cloture, which probably the Democrats have made a decision they do not want this bill to pass and that we cannot obtain cloture, but I send a cloture motion to the desk.