J. Exon

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. Certainly.

Mr. EXON. I will.

Mr. EXON. I would have to check on it. Could we put in a brief quorum call and see if--this surprises me. I do not know whether there is objection to it or not. I know Senator Pryor is ready to go. Could we put in a quorum call for a few minutes?

Mr. EXON. Wait a minute. How many amendments? We have Pryor, Conrad, Roth. Is it Conrad-Simon? All right. We have three amendments; right.

Mr. EXON. All right.

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

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I thank the chairman of the committee. I now recognize Senator Pryor, as I did previously, and have awarded him the 5 minutes on our side.

Mr. EXON. I yield 2 minutes off the bill to the Senator from Maine.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, we are down to the final amendment, as I understand it, we will be debating tonight. Therefore, I yield the 5 minutes on our side to Senator Simon for his distribution.

Mr. EXON. I advise my colleague we have been working on that. We were talking about it a few minutes ago in the Cloakroom. We do not have a definitive number. We have made major reductions generally in the area that we have been indicating to you in our series of negotiations about where we think we will end up. I do not know that I can give a specific number tonight. I will explore that.

Mr. EXON. I yield back my time.

Mr. EXON. I yield back our 30 seconds.

Mr. EXON. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. EXON. I yield 30 seconds to the Senator from Iowa.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, I move to waive the applicable sections of that act for the consideration of the pending amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to waive.

Mr. EXON. The pending amendment would add two new matters to the bill and violate the prohibition of nongermane amendments. I raise a point of order that the pending amendment is therefore not germane and thus violates section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. I yield back the remainder of my time. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. EXON. I yield 30 seconds to the Senator from West Virginia.

Mr. EXON. I yield 30 seconds to the Senator from West Virginia.

Mr. EXON. I yield 30 seconds to the Senator from Louisiana.

Mr. EXON. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2975, As Modified

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I yield 30 seconds to the Senator from North Dakota.

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. On the EITC issue.

Mr. EXON. I thank the Chair. As I understand it, we have now used up all time and completed debate on the amendment offered by the Senator from New Jersey. As I understand it, we are about then, per the previous agreement, ready to take up an amendment that I understand is to be offered by the Senator from Florida who I believe is in or near the Chamber with regard to Medicaid funding. Is that the understanding that has been tentatively agreed to as far as the other side is concerned?

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, for the record, I would like to have the Chair advise the Senate of the time remaining on both sides overall.

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. I thank my friend and say, to accommodate a lot of people, we have subtracted 5 minutes.