Jim Jeffords

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. I think I have a unanimous consent request that has a sequence.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, will the Senator from Minnesota yield for a unanimous consent request?

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Wellstone amendment be laid aside and the Senate then turn to amendment 451, and with respect to the Lincoln amendment, the time between now and 1:45 today be equally divided in the usual form with no second- degree amendment in order.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask that the Lincoln amendment be allowed one-half hour.

Mr. JEFFORDS. That is something we can work out.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Wellstone amendment be laid aside, and the Senate then turn to the Lincoln amendment No. 451, with 15 minutes under the control of Senator Lincoln and 5 minutes under the control of Senator Jeffords, with no second-degree amendments in order, and, further, following that debate, the remaining time until 1:45 be divided equally on the Wellstone amendment. I further ask consent that the vote occur in relation to the Lincoln amendment following the Wellstone amendment at 1:45 p.m. today, with 2 minutes prior to the vote for explanation.

Mr. JEFFORDS. That is correct.

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

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

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I want to comment briefly on Senator Wellstone's willingness to modify his amendment. We all agree we want high-quality tests, and it is entirely proper the tests required under this act be demonstrably valid and reliable. I appreciate the Senator offering his amendment, and I believe it is vastly improved. Hopefully, it will be acceptable. The Senate now has returned to consideration of the Better Education for Students and Teachers, called the BEST, Act. We have now spent a little over a week on this bill, and we have made good progress. We have disposed of about a dozen amendments, and we have eight that are pending, most of which I hope we can complete action on quickly. As my colleagues know, consent was reached that first-degree amendments were to be filed by 5 p.m. yesterday, and I want to bring my colleagues up to date as to those results. I compliment my colleagues for their interest and industry in preparing the amendments. Somewhere around 280 amendments were filed to the bill. Of course, this number does not include possible second- degree amendments that could be allowed under the rules. At our current base of 20 amendments a week, we would complete this legislation, say, in another 14 weeks. Obviously, that is about the time we intend to adjourn for the year, if we assume we did not do anything else. Assuming the Senate takes up no other business and all amendments are offered and everybody is happy, that would be fine. Obviously, that is not the case. I urge all my colleagues to make sure when we get back into the amendment process after today that they cooperate so we can narrow these amendments and hopefully consolidate many of them, or whatever, so we can finalize this bill within the next week or 2. I hope my colleagues will reflect on what is really important to them and this legislation and communicate to Senator Kennedy's staff or my staff which amendments they want considered. At a minimum, I urge my colleagues to restrict themselves to education amendments. I advise my colleagues that I plan to oppose all amendments that are not relevant to the bill regardless of the merits of the particular proposal. We will obviously have our hands full completing action on this legislation without undertaking debate on largely unrelated issues. Senators rightly have taken a great interest in this legislation and have proposed hundreds of amendments to the bill. We will do our very best to work with Senators to clear as many amendments as possible and, in turn, will ask our colleagues to identify over the next few days which amendments are their highest priority. As we move on today, hopefully Members will let us know which amendments they want to pursue so we can narrow the number as soon as possible without having to bother Members with calling up amendments. I urge my colleagues to please let us know which amendments they really want to have offered, and we will try our best to expedite them. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. JEFFORDS. I have no requests for time. I yield back my time.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. JEFFORDS. If the Senator will yield, I would like to share some experiences I have had in this area also. As you may remember, a few years ago, Congress took back--sort of-- the school system of the District of Columbia. I had the opportunity of sort of being the de facto superintendent of schools for awhile. I have been following up on some of the problems they have had, as all schools are having, with finding teachers who are qualified. I find that the only teachers they can get in the science and math area are retired people who have come back in and had some sort of a certification process to make sure they knew the basics about teaching. Also, in Vermont, we have one of the largest IBM plants, and we have the same shortage of teachers. They are finding there that the source of getting good teachers back into the schools is from the retired IBM employees. This is an idea we have been talking quite a bit about today. I wanted to share those experiences with the Senate because we have to do everything we can. At some point, the States would be better to do that, to make sure the standards just of the common capabilities of teaching are there and all that sort of thing. I commend the Senator on his amendment and the Hutchison amendment.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be set aside.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I plead with my fellow Members of the Senate who may still be here that we are waiting for another Senator to hopefully offer an amendment. We have some 270 remaining to be brought to our attention. Hopefully, we will be here for a little length of time anyway. I am not sure how long. Now is the time. I yield the floor to Senator Byrd.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I commend my colleague from Massachusetts for this dialog. I was in this Chamber, I think it was probably a week ago, when there were similar circumstances, when the Senator from Massachusetts asked the Senator from West Virginia to bring together his memories of his childhood and the importance of history and the importance of a good education. So I am pleased to have had the opportunity to hear the Senator speak. I wish more Members had the opportunity to be able to do that because it is a step back into history and a move forward in our ability to understand this great Nation of ours. I thank the Senator from West Virginia so much for his efforts and for the amendment he has offered today.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Let me share another moment, too. When the Senator mentioned who his teachers were, I thought, let's see if I can remember my teachers. They were Miss Anderson, Miss Maughn, Miss Burns, Miss Brown, Miss Shipp, and then back to Miss Burns for the first six grades. I remember them just as if it were yesterday.

Mr. JEFFORDS. But it is amazing what influence teachers have on students, and others. The principal at the high school I went to was a good friend who was a real mentor to me, also. So we have to do all we can to make sure every child in this country has the ability to get as good an education and have as wonderful teachers as we all had.

Mr. JEFFORDS. And an important part of history.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, we have had a wonderful moment here, and I now would like to give the opportunity for others to come and give their moments if they so desire.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 10, 2001, at 10 a.m., in open session to consider the nominations of Dr. David S.C. Chu to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; Mr. Thomas E. White to be Secretary of the Army; Mr. Gordon England to be Secretary of the Navy; Mr. James G. Roche to be Secretary of the Air Force; and Mr. Alfred Rascon to be Director of Selective Service.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 10, 2001, to conduct a hearing on the nomination of Mr. John E. Robson, of California, to be president of the Export-Import Bank; Mr. Peter R. Fisher, of New Jersey, to be Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance; and Mr. James J. Jochum, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration. The Committee will also vote on the nomination of Mr. Grant D. Aldonas, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; Mr. Kenneth I. Juster, of the District of Columbia, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration; Ms. Maria Cino, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service: and Mr. Robert Glenn Hubbard, of New York, to be a member of the Council of Economic Advisors.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 10 at 9:30 a.m. to conduct an oversight hearing. The committee will receive testimony on the President's proposed budget for FY2002 for the Department of Energy.