Pete Domenici

Mr. DOMENICI

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DOMENICI. How much time did the distinguished Senator from Colorado have under the unanimous consent agreement?

Mr. DOMENICI. How long do you plan to be a Senator?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, is it fair to assume now that we have both yielded our time on this?

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. I wonder if the distinguished Senator from New Jersey can agree we will both yield back the remainder of the time. I wonder if you intend to second degree the amendment. If you do not, then based on a UC that says that, we won't offer a second-degree amendment. If not, we intend to----

Mr. DOMENICI. Yes, I am. Obviously, when this amendment comes up, if you desire to yield off the resolution, we can still do that. I just want to get on to another amendment, if we can.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I say to the Senator from New Jersey, I received a note from the majority leader that votes will start tomorrow at 12 noon on a number of stacked amendments.

Mr. DOMENICI. We know of three that will take quite a bit of time, and they are willing to do that.

Mr. DOMENICI. All amendments that can possibly be taken up on the floor.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I say this in all sincerity, because the votes were very long. One was in excess of a half hour, and quorum calls before the votes don't count and the vote time doesn't count. We have not even used 5\1/2\ hours today from starting at 9:30 this morning. We still have 29 hours remaining at this point, and we have essentially 2 days, Wednesday and Thursday, to get it done. That is going to be very difficult. I am going to stay here, and we are not going to close the Senate. We would like Senators to come down and offer amendments. I propose the following so there will be a sequence: First of all, there will be no votes until 12 noon tomorrow, and then there should be three votes. While this is not a unanimous consent request--it will be proposed later--let me say those votes will be on or in relation to the Kyl amendment, on or in relation to the Conrad amendment, and on or in relation to the Coverdell-McCain amendment. We are expecting to debate at least, if not more, Senator Conrad's amendment and the Coverdell, McCain, et al. amendment. We are trying to get Senator Conrad, and I hope Senator Coverdell is on notice we will be ready soon after that. With that, I yield to my friend from New Jersey.

Mr. DOMENICI. Will the Senator let me make an assignment? Mr. President, Senator Gorton is going to take over my responsibilities as manager, and whatever privileges I have under the Budget Act belong to Senator Gorton from this point until I return.

Mr. DOMENICI. I yield back any time Senator Kyl had on his amendment.

Mr. DOMENICI. It is understood there will be no second-degree amendments, and the Kyl amendment will be voted on tomorrow in sequence. I ask unanimous consent that that be the case.

Mr. DOMENICI. I yield the floor. Amendments Nos. 2204 and 2205

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. I note the presence of the sponsor of the amendment, Senator Sessions, on the floor. Mr. ENZI addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I want to make sure that he does speak, but time is controlled.

Mr. DOMENICI. The sponsor is on the floor, and he controls the time. Will Senator Sessions designate that to me for now to try to use our time?

Mr. DOMENICI. All right.

Mr. DOMENICI. Reserving the right to object. What was the request?

Mr. DOMENICI. I have no objection.

Mr. DOMENICI. Yes. I object. I thought your request was that you send them to the desk and that they be sequenced as the leadership is sequencing in a manner we consider to be fair.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, even though it is 5 minutes of 10 and the order said we will start debating the Sessions amendment at 10, I ask unanimous consent that, since we already discussed it, we start the discussion now and it be equally divided over the next 30 minutes.

Mr. DOMENICI. The reason I am is because I really believe when it comes to this issue, while there are many people involved and many people who work on the issue, I listened tentatively to the Senator's observations and his rationale, his common sense applied to it, and I think he articulated the very best American approach to this. While we may not be able to get policy adopted that accomplishes that--it is always difficult--I compliment the Senator from Indiana because, indeed, I think what he said today and what he said before is right for the country and right for our children and right for the American system of work, people working to get ahead and people who want to take care of their children instead of going to work for part of their lives. I really commend him for that.

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