Jim Jeffords

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Airland Forces of the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet on Wednesday, March 10, 1999, at 2:30 p.m. in open session, to receive testimony on tactical aircraft modernization programs.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support of the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 10, 1999, in open session, to receive testimony on the condition of the services' infrastructure and real property maintenance programs for fiscal year 2000.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 12 noon on Thursday, March 11. I further ask unanimous consent that on Thursday, immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and the Senate then begin consideration of S. Con. Res. 5, a concurrent resolution regarding congressional opposition to the unilateral declaration of a Palestine state, as under the previous order, for not to exceed 45 minutes, and the vote occur on adoption of the concurrent resolution first in the voting sequence on Thursday, beginning at 2 p.m.

Mr. JEFFORDS. I further ask unanimous consent that following the debate on S. Con. Res. 5, the Senate resume consideration of the Ed- Flex bill, with the time until 2 p.m. equally divided between the chairman and the ranking member or their designees. I further ask consent that the votes ordered to occur at the conclusion of debate time in relation to S. 280 occur in the order of the original unanimous consent agreement.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the Senate will reconvene on Thursday at noon and debate a resolution on Palestine for not more than 45 minutes, to be followed by debate on the Ed-Flex bill for 1 hour, as outlined in the earlier consent agreement. At the conclusion of that debate time, the Senate will proceed to a stacked series of votes, with the first vote relative to S. Con. Res. 5, and the other votes on or in relation to the amendments on the Ed- Flex bill, including passage. Therefore, Members should expect up to a dozen votes beginning at 2 p.m. Following passage of the Ed-Flex bill, it may be the leader's intention to begin consideration of the missile defense bill.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment until 12 noon on Thursday, March 11, 1999. Thereupon, the Senate, at 6:17 p.m., adjourned until Thursday, March 11, 1999, at 12 noon.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order for the majority leader, after consultation with the minority leader, to discharge from the Foreign Relations Committee S. Con. Res. 5; and, further, the Senate would then proceed to its consideration under the following limitations: 45 minutes of debate equally divided between Senator Brownback and the ranking member or designee; no amendments in order to the resolution or preamble. I further ask unanimous consent that immediately following the debate, the Senate proceed to a vote on the adoption of the resolution, with no intervening action or debate. I finally ask unanimous consent that if the resolution is agreed to, the preamble then be adopted.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I am sorry to interrupt, but it is our time. Today marks the fifth day of discussion by the Senate on the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999. We have spent time discussing several education issues that are important to debate, but do not necessarily pertain to the underlying bill. The Education Flexibility Partnership Act, which has overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle--all the Governors in the Nation; the President supports it; everybody supports it--what is it? The Secretary of Education gives a State some authority to determine whether some schools may be granted waivers pertaining to certain requirements for the purpose of enhancing services to students through flexibility and real accountability. It is important to note that States cannot waive any requirements pertaining to health and safety, civil rights, maintenance of effort, comparability of service, equitable participation of students and professional staff in private schools, parental participation and involvement, and the distribution of funds to State or local agencies. Currently, 12 States have ed flexibility authority. Through Ed-Flex, these 12 States have been better able to coordinate programs which create a seamless education delivery system that benefits both teachers and students. During the first day of debate, I offered a managers' package which contained various accountability provisions which we worked out through a bipartisan agreement. Those provisions and additional accountability provisions which were added last Thursday will improve school and student performance, which should be the mission of every education initiative. I will remind my colleagues that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is up for review this year. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is the foundation for most of the Federal programs that assist students and teachers in our elementary and secondary schools, and it accounts for $15 billion in Federal spending, excluding IDEA--that is, special ed money and vocational education. We are currently engaged in the hearing process. One of the first hearings we held regarding this legislation looked at various education proposals offered by Members of this body. I look forward to working with all of my colleagues as we draft the first Elementary and Secondary Education Act of the 21st century. We only do that once every 5 years. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is the most important education legislation we will consider this year. There are a number of good ideas being discussed which deserve a thorough review. That is what these amendments are about. They deserve a thorough review before we leap off prematurely, ahead of the committee process, to put the President's programs, which have not been reviewed, in place without thorough hearing and understanding. It is for this reason that we should not be debating many of the amendments that have arisen in the Ed-Flex debate. We should be debating these proposals in conjunction with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Last year, as I pointed out earlier, we passed 10 education bills, all out of the committee, by either unanimous or close to unanimous votes, because we worked in committee to work the matters out, like we should, and not to do it on the floor before any hearing. I urge my colleagues not to short circuit the process of offering major elementary and secondary education initiatives on Ed-Flex. The Education Flexibility Partnership Act is not designed to be the sole response by the Federal Government to improving school and student performance. However, Ed-Flex does give States the ability to augment education services for students and teachers. I also point out that the amendment that I have is perfectly consistent with this policy. What it says is, okay, we appropriated last year $1.2 billion for a program--and this was decided in the back halls of the Capitol somewhere; I was not present--that we should take the President's 100,000 teachers, put the first year in effect. We are saying, wait a minute, we haven't had any review of that, but we will do this. We will let the local governments for this year decide whether they would prefer to have it, not knowing what is going to happen in the future, until we work it out in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We would like to give them the flexibility at the local level to determine as to whether or not they would prefer this year to use that money to augment their special education funds or whether they want to start off on a course, which may not be followed, to start hiring new teachers. I point out, there are a lot of questions about a bill which gets you on the route to new teachers. If you have 100,000 new teachers, you need 100,000 new rooms. If you have 100,000 new teachers and you do not know where the funds are going to come from in the future, how are you going to pay for it? These are all important questions to be answered when that bill gets into final shape, if it does get into final shape. Mr. President, I hope that we can make progress. I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle, we are at a point where we can either vote this out and get on with other business or we can just spend the rest of the year in this kind of a debate and inability to act together. I am proud of our committee. We have worked so many things out in a bipartisan manner. And to think that we could get stalled and find ourselves without the ability to pass a simple bill which merely gives flexibility to the States--I do not understand how we could go forward with that kind of process. We have important bills coming up. We have health care bills, we have all sorts of bills out of my committee, extremely important bills, and we are getting off to a rough start here by the inflexibility of the minority.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Just briefly I will yield.

Mr. JEFFORDS. So far I have had no problem with the majority leader, and I do not expect we will. This committee had worked together very well last year, and I expect we will this year. I yield to the Senator from Tennessee.

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

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I now ask for its second reading, and I object to my own request.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I understand that S.J. Res 13, which was introduced earlier by Senator Abraham and others, is at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 9. I further ask consent that, on Tuesday, immediately following the prayer, the Journal of the proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and there then be a period for morning business until 11:30 p.m., with the following limitations: 10:30 to 11:30 under the control of Senator Durbin or his designee; 11:30 to 12:30 under the control of Senator Frist. I further ask consent that at the hour of 12:30 p.m., the Senate stand in recess until the hour of 2:15 p.m. in order for the weekly party caucuses to meet.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that when the Senate reconvenes at 2:15 p.m., the Senate resume consideration of S. 280 for debate only, to be equally divided between the chairman and ranking minority member, or his designee, until the hour of 4 p.m. I further ask that the cloture vote occur at 4 p.m. without the mandatory quorum under Rule XXII having been waived.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order following my remarks and the remarks of Senators Feingold, Murray and Kennedy.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Objection.

Mr. JEFFORDS. If the Senator from Wisconsin will yield, I have a couple of comments that I would like to make.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I want to follow up by saying I think it's important that all of my colleagues understand that, hopefully, what will happen tomorrow is we will be able to make some progress. I hope that my colleagues will read the amendment that we have offered and that we will hopefully have action tomorrow, which will give an opportunity for the schools themselves to make the choice as to whether or not they desire to either spend the money on new teachers or to spend it on special education. It is a simple amendment, and I hope that the members will give it some consideration. We desire to move the process along. It is hard for me to understand how anyone could disagree with giving the local schools that option. The President had this bill put in and it had no hearings. It was put in in the final moments of the last session. I am sure that if we had an opportunity, we might have been able to get this amendment on. This will move the process along. I point again to the chart behind me, which indicates that what we are trying to do is to relieve the incredible pressure that is placed on our local governments by having to fund special education themselves in the States--primarily all of it. We promised to fund 40 percent of it back in 1975 and 1976. We are now at around 11 percent. If we were to fully fund it, it would do more to allow the local communities and the States to be able to meet the educational needs of their people than any other act of this Congress. That is what we are pushing for. I think it is a reasonable thing to do. It would have no impact, of course, on the Elementary and Secondary Education reauthorization, except to give a tremendous opportunity for local governments to be freed up to work, and we could design programs to go along with those options. With that, I hope tomorrow we will be able to move matters along with this amendment, which I think everybody ought to find desirable. I yield the floor. Mr. FEINGOLD addressed the Chair.

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. For the information of all Senators, at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, the Senate will resume consideration of the Ed-Flex legislation. Under the order, a cloture vote will occur at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, with second-degree amendments needed to be filed by 3 p.m. in order to qualify for post-cloture.

Mr. JEFFORDS

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

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 40.

Mr. JEFFORDS. I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, a motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and a statement of explanation appear in the Record.

Mr. JEFFORDS

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

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 882 which has been received from the House.