J. Exon

Mr. EXON

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

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I yield 1 minute to the Senator from Arkansas.

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

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, according to the pending business, the next item of business is the rural restoration motion. I yield to the Senator from Montana for 1 minute.

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 motion, and I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to waive.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, in order to move things along, we have a great amount of work to do, we yield back our allotted 5 minutes.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum and that it be charged to the 5 minutes on our allocated time.

Mr. EXON. Be glad to.

Mr. EXON. We are having a great deal of difficulty. Since you have changed the order of offering amendments, our Senator was not alerted, and we are having trouble getting him here.

Mr. EXON. I would appreciate that.

Mr. EXON. I thank my friend for his courtesy.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague. I yield back the 5 minutes of time that was allotted to us in the interest of conserving time and moving ahead. Let me say the next amendment that we have now, which we do not have, is the amendment to be offered by Senator Brown, as I understand it. We are having a great deal of difficulty with this shifting back and forth, trying to accommodate an awful lot of people. We do not mind accommodating people, but it is very difficult for us to make a determination on these things and get the proper people here the way we are receiving the amendments, or not receiving them, before they are introduced. Mr. HELMS addressed the Chair.

Mr. EXON. That is a question mark, yes.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, may I suggest in the interest of an orderly process--I already yielded back 10 minutes of our time, which still holds--therefore, I would suggest possibly it might be a good idea to take a 15-minute quorum call without being further charged to each side, and to come up with an orderly process so we can move expeditiously ahead. Would the Senator from New Mexico respond?

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I yield 1 minute to Senator Harkin.

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

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, we have reviewed the amendment and checked it with the Finance Committee sources. I am prepared to yield back the full 5 minutes in order to move this thing along. Once again, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the chairman of the committee for his diligence and consideration, in allowing a 15-minute discussion period when we worked this out. Let me say this. We have unnecessarily delayed the process here, though, because both sides have not been as forthcoming as I think we should be--or that we intend to be, for that matter--in supplying copies of the amendments to the other side. I am not saying it is just on your side, it is on our side as well. Suffice to say, I am ready to yield the remainder of my time. I believe--if the chairman agrees--that would take us to the Harkin amendment.

Mr. EXON. Yes.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I believe the next amendment in order is the amendment to be offered by the Senator from Iowa, Mr. Harkin.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I am somewhat disappointed. I thought this was perhaps one amendment that we could get Republican agreement on. This is a good amendment. There may be reasons to oppose it, but I do not know what they are and they have not been explained to me.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, this amendment has very broad jurisdictional problems with a whole series of committees. It is the opinion of this Senator that probably the primary committee of jurisdiction would again be the Finance Committee. Therefore, I will yield to a member of the Finance Committee, the Senator from West Virginia, for remarks to be included in our 5 minutes.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, following up the inquiry that was made just a few moments ago by the chairman of the committee, I would also presume we have not made up our minds on this side of the aisle on this amendment. I also assume that, without taking action now, it would not preclude us from making a point of order which might lie against this amendment at some future date before the vote is taken; is that correct?

Mr. EXON. I thank the Chair.

Mr. EXON. We have 40 seconds left.

Mr. EXON. I am prepared to yield that back in a moment.