Chuck Grassley

Mr. GRASSLEY

Mr. GRASSLEY. I have one more unanimous consent request, Madam President. I ask unanimous consent that, following that, on Wednesday, following the passage of H.R. 1836, there be 1 hour of morning business equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. I further ask consent that, following that time, the Senate then proceed to executive session and the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of the nomination of Senator Howard Baker to be Ambassador to Japan. I further ask consent that the Senate then proceed to its consideration and there then be up to 2 hours for debate on the nomination, to be equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the committee. Finally, following the use or yielding back of time, that the Senate proceed to a vote on the nomination and, following that vote, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent no additional amendments to the pending reconciliation bill be in order other than consideration of the Collins-Warner amendment. I ask further consent that, following the disposition of the amendment described above, the bill be advanced to third reading, and a vote occur on passage, all without any intervening action, motion, or debate. Finally, I ask, following the vote, the Senate insist on its amendments, request a conference with the House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, those conferees being: Senators Grassley, Hatch, Murkowski, Nickles, Gramm, Baucus, Rockefeller, Daschle, and Breaux.

Mr. GRASSLEY. I renew my request, Madam President.

Mr. GRASSLEY. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I send a managers' amendment to the desk. It has been agreed to by the two managers. I ask unanimous consent the amendment be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements regarding these amendments be printed in the Record.

Mr. GRASSLEY

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I change my unanimous consent request that the Senate stand in recess now until the hour of 1:40.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I make that as part of my unanimous consent request.

Mr. GRASSLEY. I believe Senator Baucus would agree with me. I have been asked now if we can do it this way. We will recess until 1:30, but we would vote on the amendment by the Senator from Virginia and the Senator from Maine just prior to final passage. So we would have this rollcall vote and then final passage.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Let me be perfectly candid with the Senator from Virginia. If the Senator from Virginia and the Senator from Maine still want a rollcall on their amendment, we will do that at 1:30.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now stand in recess until 1:30.

Mr. GRASSLEY

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise to support my point of order and to say I agree on the need for long-term care insurance, a need to encourage family care giving through tax credits. The Senator and I have introduced legislation to accomplish that. Also, people need to remember that senior citizens who pay income taxes are going to benefit from our tax reduction as well. The second and last point I will make is: This, again, is one more time of, I will bet, dozens of times over the last 4 days that we have had amendments from the other side to break up the rate structure, the bipartisan compromise in this bill. I ask we vote against waiving the point of order.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for equal time.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I have a point of order that the pending amendment is not germane to the provisions of the reconciliation bill. I make that under section 305(b)(2) of the Budget Act.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I move to waive the Budget Act and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, this amendment, rather than raise taxes, will be paid for out of the budget surplus. I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. GRASSLEY

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 23, 2001, at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., to hold two hearings as follows: 10:30 a.m., room S-116--Nominee: The Honorable Howard H. Baker, Jr., of Tennessee, to be Ambassador to Japan, to be introduced by the Honorable Fred Thompson, the Honorable Bill Frist, and the Honorable Robert C. Byrd. 2:30 p.m., room SD-419--Witnesses: Dr. Norbert Vollertsen, Volunteer, German Emergency Doctors, Germany; Mr. Chuck Downs, Former Defense Policy Analyst, House Republican Policy Committee; and Consultant, McLean, VA; the Honorable James T. Laney, co-chair, Council on Foreign Relations Korea Task Force, Atlanta, GA; the Honorable Robert L. Gallucci, Dean, Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Washington, DC.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Wednesday, May 23, 2001, at 9:30 a.m., for a business meeting to consider pending committee business.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to conduct a hearing on Wednesday, May 23, 2001, at 10 a.m., in Dirksen 226.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet on Wednesday, May 23, 2001, at 2 p.m., on carbon sequestration.

Mr. GRASSLEY

Mr. GRASSLEY. I say to the Senator from California, she does not have a bad amendment. I think in the proper time and place, such as on the Work Opportunity Training Act or things of that nature, it would be a good thing to do and for us to take a look at it. I will be glad to take a look at it. But at this point I am going to have to ask the amendment be defeated. I raise a point of order, but it needs to be defeated because of the changes it makes in the tax rates. We are working on a tax bill. We have a well-balanced, well-crafted bipartisan bill. We have had 40 votes on amendments. There is too much effort, regardless of the good faith of this person in offering a good idea, to stall, stall, stall. I think we have to get this bill passed and get tax relief to the American people. I raise a point of order. The point of order is against the amendment under section 305(b)(2) of the Budget Act.

Mr. GRASSLEY. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to this amendment. While I understand how important the notch issue is to millions of senior citizens, this is neither the time nor the place to address this issue. The bill before us today provides much needed tax relief to hard working Americans. The amendment offered by Senator Reid is not germane to this bill. This amendment has never been reviewed by any committee of jurisdiction, nor scored by the Congressional Budget Office. No one has any idea how much it would cost or what new benefit inequities it would create. In addition, the proposed offset contained in the amendment is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority to the Secretary of the Treasury. This is not a serious amendment. If Congress is going to seriously consider this issue, it must be done in the context of overall Social Security reform so we can carefully consider the costs and benefits of any proposed change.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Point of order, Mr. President. This amendment that we are supposed to know was here overnight, has a point of order against it. The amendment is not germane to the provisions of the reconciliation measure. I therefore raise a point of order against the amendment under section 305(b)(2) of the Budget Act.

Mr. GRASSLEY. I think we have a copy of the next amendment, so I am not speaking about the next amendment that will be up, but I will plead with the people on the other side who are stalling to keep us from voting on this bill to at least, within the spirit of how Senator Baucus and I have run the Finance Committee, be very open and transparent with us on what these amendments are going to be. We cannot expect 100 Members of the Senate to vote yes or no on an amendment unless we know what that amendment is. The pattern I set in the Senate Finance Committee is best illustrated by something I told each of the other 19 members when I went to their offices to visit with them about how they saw the committee ought to function and how we ought to do business. That is, No. 1, transparency; and, No. 2, communication. The bottom line was I told every member if they wanted to know what was going on in this committee, all they had to do was ask and they would get an answer. If they didn't get an answer, at least they were entitled to know why they couldn't get an answer. And 99.9 percent of the time I figure everybody is entitled to know what everybody else is doing. Now we reach a point where the product of this bipartisan effort is in this Chamber, and I hope in the very same way we can communicate with each other, we can be very transparent. But most important, on the issue of what amendments we are going to vote on, we ought to have those amendments at the desk so we can study them while we are debating other amendments.

Mr. GRASSLEY

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