J. Exon

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. EXON. The Pell amendment expresses the sense of the Senate that the Labor and Human Resources Committee, in seeking to achieve mandatory savings, should not increase the cost of borrowing for students participating in the Robert T. Stafford Federal Student Loan Program.

Mr. EXON. Senator Pell.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. EXON. I am advised we cannot accept this until we clear it with Senator Pell. I apologize to my friend. Can we lay this aside?

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, this amendment I am offering on behalf of Senator Lautenberg is called the ex-patriots amendment. This amendment would close the loophole that allows billionaires and others to avoid Federal taxes by renouncing their citizenship, and would apply the savings for restoring funding for the veterans programs. Amendment No. 1167 to Amendment No. 1166 (Purpose: To repeal the ``Ex-Patriots'' loophole and use the money to eliminate the Social Security earnings penalty)

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. EXON. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 1162 (Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate on the importance of research, technology, and trade promotion and trade law enforcement programs)

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. EXON. Is it in order to proceed now in a semi-orderly fashion with amendments that are properly of record?

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

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, it was.

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. First, the second-degree amendment by Mr. Dodd, as I understand it, is the same second-degree amendment being considered by the Senator from Minnesota, and also the Senator from Massachusetts. Is that correct? We are talking about one second-degree amendment?

Mr. EXON. Certainly, we would agree. We will need about 2 minutes for the negotiations that are going on. I think we are pretty close to making an arrangement along the lines that you outlined.

Mr. EXON. May I inquire at this particular time, if we have a little time left. We have been having various discussions. Has there been an agreement reached on how we are likely to handle a whole series of amendments, especially those not debated, with regard to brief statements from the Senators--30 seconds or a minute? Has there been a determination on that, I ask my colleague?

Mr. EXON. Yes. I will tell you now that we have 31 sure amendments. And, as the Senator knows, other Senators may reserve their rights by appearing and offering their amendments. But there will be 31 amendments filed to be voted on from this side of the aisle.

Mr. EXON. One further question. Could we get agreement at this time to move things along. As the Senator from Nebraska has continually warned, we are running out of time. Could we get an agreement, as a part of this unanimous-consent agreement, to have the votes on the series of amendments that have been outlined by the chairman of the committee to start, I am suggesting, maybe at 10 minutes after 10 or something of that nature?

Mr. EXON. I appreciate the attitude expressed by the chairman of the Budget Committee. I appreciate the remarks and the agreement made by the Senator from California. What we are trying to do is give Senators on this side 2 or 3 minutes to explain amendments that will later be offered, and trying to use the time in that fashion. Hopefully we can cooperate.

Mr. EXON. I will be able to use that, or as much time that the Senator from New Mexico cares to be gone.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, 3 hours and 45 minutes, with about 70 amendments. We will have to extremely limit our time. I think that the requests--may I suggest that we yield 8 minutes to the Senator from Massachusetts and 8 minutes to the Senator from Ohio.

Mr. EXON. The Senator from Ohio wants 10 minutes. I would start out today by saying to all the Senators that we are extremely strapped for time. Five minutes here, ten minutes there, under ordinary circumstances would be in order. I think we have about what--4 hours maximum left? How much time is remaining?

Mr. EXON. I applaud the Senator.

Mr. EXON. So the vote will be in the area of 10:15?