Wendell Ford

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, could we have the unanimous consent request agreed to by the chairman of the committee, the manager of the bill, that we go to Conrad-Lieberman and then go to Simon without putting a time limit on it? I ask unanimous consent that following the motion by the distinguished chairman, that the Conrad-Lieberman amendment be next in order and the Simon amendment follow that with any second-degree amendment in regard to it.

Mr. FORD. There is no agreement as far as time is concerned. I recognize the majority leader would have the right to second-degree the sense of the Senate, if that is what he wants to do. You are getting a pecking order here. A time agreement has not been worked out. The majority leader would not need much time.

Mr. FORD. I was trying to work it out so my colleagues on this side will be accommodated. I know the majority leader is trying to do that. We want to get the bill finished as much as he does. If my friends from North Dakota and Illinois are satisfied, I will be glad to yield the floor. Mr. CONRAD addressed the Chair.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. Bradley], the Senator from Iowa [Mr. Harkin], the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy], and the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Nunn], are necessarily absent.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from California [Mrs. Boxer], the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy], and the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Nunn] are necessarily absent. I also announce that the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Biden] is absent because of a funeral.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from California [Mrs. Boxer], the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy], and the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Nunn] are necessarily absent. I also announce that the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Biden] is absent because of a funeral. [[Page S8064]]

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I want to thank the majority leader for his patience, Senator Lott's patience, and others as we have tried to move through this, because it is complicated. If it is a resolution, it only applies to the Senate. If it is a bill, it applies to the House and Senate. There are different views on lobbying reform and on gift ban. But this S. 101 is a bipartisan piece of legislation. It is Cohen, Levin, Wellstone, and others as it relates to bipartisanship. So there is an interest on both sides of the aisle to work something out. Senator Levin has worked very hard, as the majority leader knows, to put this together and to bring this bill to the attention of the Senate and to have a stand-alone vote. Also, Senator Wellstone, Senator Feingold, Senator Lautenberg--very sincere and like-minded individuals--and others. I hope we at some point, as the majority leader says, can come together with a bipartisan effort so we can agree on it. If we do, I think it will be a bellwether day. Let me thank him and others who have been so diligent in this. We all understand the give and take, and sometimes we have to walk off and let it cool a little and come back and go after it again. That is the system. That is the institution. As of today, I am proud I am here. I thank the Chair.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, will the Senator qualify during the recess? Work on it after we go or is he indicating we may not go out?

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, it may be wise, since not all Senators knew that this resolution was coming, and I think most, if not all, would support it, that we have a timeframe in which all Senators would have an opportunity to become cosponsors. Would that be agreeable? I do not know what time would be right or sufficient, but I do think it is important that others not feel left out. I am sure the Senator does not want that, either. With that, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be added as a cosponsor.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, will the majority leader yield?

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

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from California [Mrs. Boxer], the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy], and the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Nunn] are necessarily absent. I also announce that the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Biden] is absent because of a funeral.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Am I correct in that if the television set is cable ready, you do not need the box?

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Biden] is necessarily absent.

Mr. FORD. I am not sure the cable company can still scramble on a cable-ready. You cannot get HBO--it is scrambled--unless you pay for it and then they release that. The box is almost a moot question in some respects. But I still have the same concern I had earlier about the small cable operator. You have a rural State; I have a rural State. I remember the satellite dishes we put up, about $3,000 apiece, and then you had to go to the cable company and get it turned on. There are a lot of things going on. But progress has been made. Now FCC is not going to help build anything. They are not going to mandate anything, I understand, but you are going to set standards. I agree with the chairman, when you set standards, you limit the technology in a great many places, because as long as they meet the standards, they do not have to be competitive. We have 8 or 9 minutes we can have some debate with. But it is awfully hard for me to agree that the box is a problem, except in cases where the television set is not cable-ready. I believe what the Senator from North Carolina said a few minutes ago--it is setting up for a lot of theft as it relates to intellectual property. I hope this amendment will be defeated. But better than that, I wish the Senator from Maine would let us study it and convince us and be sure when he comes forward with this, that we all understand it. It could be a 3-month study, 6-month study, a 1-year study, or whatever it might be, so that we can come back and that study will be available, and then we can go forward with legislation and we can probably give better instructions to the FCC. I thank the Senator for his courtesy.

Mr. FORD. I understand that, Mr. President, and I say to my friend, with cable ready, I do not believe you need the box. I think he agrees with me that basically that is true.

Mr. FORD. That is no longer being done.

Mr. FORD. I wanted to clear up one thing with my friend from Maine. Time Warner withdrew that, and they no longer do that.

Mr. FORD. As I recall, and the Senator might agree with me, we would allow only one charge under the cable bill, no matter how many TV sets you might have in your home. They used to charge you for each one, now they charge for one.

Mr. FORD. So most television sets are becoming cable ready. They may not go up to 98--they may be 60-some-odd, most of them. So, technically, the box is not used on a cable-ready television.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, will the distinguished Senator from Maine answer a question for me, just one?

Mr. FORD. Not only, would I say to my friend, is my concern for the small cable operator. I would encourage those who are promoting this amendment to give us an opportunity to study it. All of a sudden we get this amendment out on the floor and people have an opportunity maybe to study it for a short period of time. Competition is great, but competition putting out a lot of cable operators, small entrepreneurs struggling for a long time, does not set very well with me, and I am sure it does not set very well with the Senator from Nebraska.

Mr. FORD. After this amendment passes, how long does the Senator think it would take the companies to go to China and have these boxes made for practically nothing and come back over here and flood the area with them?