Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I would be happy to yield. It seems rather obvious to me that we are not going to get a time agreement. It is a very serious matter. I am not suggesting there should be. I am trying to find out if it is possible. If not, then I would hope we could have some other disposition. Is the Senator from Iowa a supporter of the amendment?

Mr. DOLE. Yes.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I had risen earlier to see if there was any chance of getting a time agreement on this amendment. There are a number of Senators apparently who want to speak.

Mr. DOLE. I wonder if I might suggest that we set aside this amendment, and the discussion that was going on beforehand might be continued either tonight or tomorrow. There apparently is some progress being made with all the people involved. If that is satisfactory with the principal sponsor of the amendment, I would suggest we set this amendment aside and that perhaps there could be a further discussion. If they cannot agree, it would be back before us. Would that be satisfactory?

Mr. DOLE. The Senate is still not in order. Will Senators take their seats?

Mr. DOLE. We ought to vote tonight. Are there any amendments on this side that we can get a time agreement on? Does the Senator from Arizona have an amendment? We will work on this side of the aisle, if they do not want to work on that side of the aisle. The Senator can offer his amendment.

Mr. DOLE. Will somebody hand it to me? Who has it?

Mr. DOLE. It says ``relevant.''

Mr. DOLE. I would say, as far as absent Senators, if we are going to start accommodating absent Senators, we will never get anything done around here. We accommodated Senator Bumpers because of the special circumstance. I understand Senator Pryor has an amendment on the bill tomorrow. We are trying to accommodate him because of an illness in the family. I am not suggesting that. But if absent Senators are going to determine what the rest of us do who stay here, then we will never finish any bill. But it is pretty clear from the leader there is no intention to let us pass this bill. That follows the pattern we have had all year long, to slow down every time you get close. ``Wait a minute. Let's don't pass this. We don't like the ABM vote. We don't like some of the other votes.'' It makes it very difficult for the majority leader, whether it happens to be a Democrat or Republican, when there is no cooperation. And we do not have much leverage except for nominations and other things that we can hold up. And we will do that. We will do that. But I would rather work something out where we do precisely--can we get a list of the 41 amendments? That would be fewer than the 105 amendments we had earlier. Can you identify the 41 amendments?

Mr. DOLE. I wonder if the managers might be in the position to indicate now if they have any opportunity to find out how many amendments are remaining and if we can reach some agreement on the number of amendments. As I understand, there are no amendments on this side. Well, I think two exceptions--one, I think, may be part of the managers' amendment; one may be offered by the Senator from Colorado. He has been negotiating with the other side. So, I would say at most there are maybe two or three amendments on this side of the aisle. I do want to commend the managers. We wasted 5 hours yesterday on this bill. Then we had 7 hours--was that yesterday?--so long ago, the day before, I guess. We had 7 hours on one amendment. So I think if you take out those 12 hours, we made a lot of progress on this bill. But I get the strange feeling that there are a number of people on the other side who do not want the bill to ever pass. If that is the case, they might as well be up front about it, and we can take the next step. So we are down to about at least two or three amendments on this side. Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. I do not know what the correlation is. Are there amendments on this side of the aisle?

Mr. DOLE. There were about 18 cleared last night. It is not that we have not taken care of a lot of amendments for, I guess, Members on both sides of the aisle. I think the managers are prepared to look at others, if they can be negotiated; is that correct?

Mr. DOLE. We will just proceed. Amendment No. 2081 (Purpose: To provide authority for the surrender of fugitives and the provision of judicial assistance to the international tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, in accordance with the obligations of the United States under certain resolutions of the United Nations Security Council)

Mr. DOLE. I ask for the yeas and nays. If the Senator would want to make a point, he can do that.

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that amendment be set aside.

Mr. DOLE. How much time do you have on the Glenn amendment? I guess about 8:40.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, as I understand, I have been told by the minority leader there will not be any more time agreements--which I think is unfortunate--on any amendments. It will just take us longer. I assume that we can finally reach a point where we will be able to finish this. If we can put together a list of the real amendments--we thought we had a list, and we were told it was not an accurate list. I do not know how many additional amendments have been added. Maybe we can make a reasonable judgment. Otherwise, I do not know what alternative the leader has. We are trying to complete action, and we are not given any assurance there is ever going to be any end to it--how many amendments and no time agreements. How much time will the Senator from Pennsylvania need?

Mr. DOLE. I understand the Senator from New Mexico may be prepared to offer amendments. Is he prepared to offer amendments?

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

Mr. DOLE. Can we get the yeas and nays on all the amendments?

Mr. DOLE. So there will be the yeas and nays on four amendments.

Mr. DOLE. We will do the amendment of the Senator from Wisconsin first, then. Following disposition of the McCain amendment, Senator Kohl be recognized to offer his amendment; that he have 1 hour and 15 minutes, and 15 minutes on this side.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I will use 1 minute out of my leader time. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the first of the consecutive votes, there be 4 minutes of debate equally divided between Senator Thurmond and the sponsor of each amendment before each of the remaining votes.

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be the only first-degree amendments in order to S. 1206, and that they be limited to relevant second-degree amendments. I will submit the list, since there are 185 amendments; 105 Democratic amendments and 80 on the Republican side. This has been approved by both sides. At least it gets us to a limit. I do not know how we can finish this bill. Senator Thurmond is prepared to stay all night tonight. He has a plane at 5:30 in the morning. So we can go at least until 5:30.

Mr. DOLE. I ask unanimous consent that the list be printed in the Record.