Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. What is the Chair's impression?

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, has the Chair ruled on the request?

Mr. LOTT. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2942, as Modified

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, we are back to the Dodd-Santorum amendment. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, once again, let me thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Senator Dodd for his efforts, and Senator Feingold for his cooperation in getting an agreement to move forward with the pending amendment. The pending issue is the Dodd-Santorum amendment, and I believe we are clear now to act on that amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, Senator Inhofe has been so helpful and understanding. We have kind of, because of the effort to go back and forth, pushed him aside. I ask that in view of the fact that we are waiting for a Senator to arrive--I think the amendment Senator Inhofe wants to offer can probably be accepted. Would it be possible to ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and go to the Inhofe amendment and be prepared to come back to the pending amendment?

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I make that unanimous consent request.

Mr. LOTT. Those who would like to be heard, we want to make sure they can be heard. I would be glad to yield my own floor time so they can comment. I do have some comments I would like to make, and I will ask unanimous consent--I will do it then--that we set aside the Reid amendment so that we can have one offered by Senator Santorum, and we can begin debate on that. The emphasis will be on the Reid amendment, if you want to check that and make sure you are OK with that. I see one potential speaker. In order to try to keep things moving, we are going to try to get another amendment offered, and we will alternate back and forth.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, full disclosure, too. We have other Senators who would like to get into the mix, I say to Senator Dodd. Senator Inhofe is here with some amendments, some of which we can probably get an agreement on, some of which will take more time. Also, Senator Vitter, who is in the chair now, would like to get into the mix. As we go back and forth, I thought we would go to Santorum, and then if you have a Senator--or maybe we can clear a couple of the Inhofe amendments. That is what we would like to do. Mr. President, I want to respond a little bit to the Reid proposal. I think you have to give credit to Senator Reid and the Democrats for developing some legislation for this body to consider. People may be shocked to hear me say that, thinking that is not the way we do things. This is basically the Democratic leader's proposal. My attitude is, look, good work was done on it. They have a package here. Some of it was good enough that we pulled it out and put it right into the Rules Committee bill. I want to give credit to the fact that they want to work on this and have made some recommendations. In that vein, Senator Santorum, at the request of our leader, as chairman of our conference, went to work and started developing a package of ideas, amendments, and concerns and solutions, too. So both parties were working on this. Yes, it was on separate tracks, but as we went forward Senators began to realize that this is not really partisan. It is even bigger than the institution. It is about us and the people we represent and their rights. We need to think this through because whatever we do, we are going to have to live with it, and the American people are going to have to live with it. As time went forward, Senator Santorum was working with Senator McCain and Senator Lieberman. I started working with Senator Dodd--we talked--and Senator Feinstein, and then bipartisan meetings started to happen. I tell you, I wish we could do more things here like this. We came to a juncture and we reported out a bill from the Rules Committee that was unanimously approved. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported out a bill that had only one dissenting vote. This is the way it ought to work. I give credit to Senator Reid and the Democrats for getting involved and helping this process. But now we have to produce legislation. It is important that we hear each other out and that we have some debate and some amendments and votes and get this job done. Mr. President, the amendment presented by the Democratic leader is not fundamentally different from any of the provisions of the bill reported by the Rules Committee and by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It has similar provisions to what was in the Santorum package. Our main differences are on issues such as how to treat gifts from lobbyists, and the Reid amendment bars all gifts from registered lobbyists. The Rules Committee bans gifts from registered lobbyists, except for meals, which are not included in the definition of a gift. I will give you one example for why we are making this exception. Our bill bars gifts from registered lobbyists and foreign agents. A very thoughtful Senator, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Lugar, inquired: Wait a minute. How will that work if I am invited as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to a dinner at an embassy of a foreign country that involves foreign agents? Will I be able to go? How will I deal with that? That is the kind of thoughtful question we better think about because we don't want to put ourselves into a position where we cannot do our jobs. Another example of where I am concerned is we have language in the Homeland Security bill that is going to restrict or require more reporting of grassroots lobbying activities. This will have a chilling effect on grassroots lobbying. Do we want to do that? What about the right of the people to petition their government for a redress of grievances? Why are we letting on like there is something wrong with people with a point of view who would get people involved and get our constituents to contact us about an issue? We are big boys and girls. We should be able to hear from our constituents, even if they are inspired by the Chamber of Commerce or the Sierra Club, or even if it is something such as the ports issue. I heard from a lot of my constituents. We need to make sure we think through what we do here. The Reid amendment claims to prohibit privately funded travel, yet, in fact, it does no such thing. It opens a loophole that would allow 501(c)(3) organizations to finance congressional travel. The Rules Committee requires far stricter preclearance of such trips. My attitude is, instead of setting up a new process or new loophole, let's have these trips reviewed mandatorily and approved or you can't do it. Then you have to also divulge the itinerary and who is involved in these trips. I think that is a far better approach. The Democratic alternative presented by Senator Reid bars lobbyists from participating in such trips whereas the Rules Committee measure requires disclosure of lobbyist involvement. The Reid amendment also prohibits a Member from negotiating for prospective private employment if a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict exists. We have that in our Rules Committee language. We actually went a step further than that. The law prohibits this already, but I also think that a rule in this area is fine. The Reid amendment makes it a felony for a Member of Congress to seek to influence a private employment decision by threatening to take or withhold an official act. Absolutely we should do that. I think the law already does that. I honestly believe the bills reported by the Rules Committee and Governmental Affairs Committee are superior to the Reid amendment. When I first looked at the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs bill, I wasn't quite sure what it did. But as I read it more and more, it is very good in terms of reporting, disclosure, and transparency. It requires more reporting with regard to lobbyists. We better continue to ask ourselves about what we are doing here. For instance, I am particularly troubled by the provisions that would only allow travel sponsored by 501(c)(3) organizations. Do my colleagues not realize that 501(c)(3) organizations can be manipulated and used by lobbyists as fronts for their lobbying activities? In fact, that is exactly what Jack Abramoff did. He laundered money through a 501(c)(3) and used a tax-exempt entity to finance congressional travel. This is one of my major concerns with the Reid proposal. I think it actually endorses a process that has been used to abuse the lobbying rules. While the effort here is a good one by Senator Reid and in good faith, we have a superior bill. Where Senator Reid had some good proposals, we put them into the Rules Committee bill. But there are many provisions, a much more detailed package from the Rules Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. I hope when the time comes, this amendment will be rejected. We are trying to make this a responsible bill--not inferring that the Reid amendment is not responsible. We are also trying to make it bipartisan. So I am concerned that we have come right out of the gate with a partisan package. I assume we are not going to have the Santorum alternative offered as a package. It has been melded into what we have. I urge my colleagues to reject the partisan package. Let's take the good stuff out of it and make it a part of our final product. Mr. President, I will be glad to yield the floor so a Senator may speak on the Reid proposal. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in answer to the distinguished Senator from Oregon, we have before us the Reid amendment which is in the nature of a substitute. I am advised it is not; it is a regular amendment. We are going to have a vote on it at 11:30. We are open for debate on that amendment. Then we are working out arrangements where we would come back to this side to Senator Santorum and Senator Dodd, who are going to offer the next amendment jointly, sometime between now and 11:30, or immediately after the vote on the Reid amendment. Then it would be back to the Democratic side and going back and forth for the next amendment that might be in order. We are encouraging Members to come to the floor and offer their amendments. We have Senator Inhofe coming up to offer amendments on our side. But after Senator Santorum, we would be back for I guess a jump ball if anybody wanted to offer an amendment.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe the Senate did clear the Dodd- Santorum amendment, so the pending issue is the Wyden-Grassley-Inhofe amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe, then, we would be ready to go with this amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: Does he have to have consent? He just calls it up and it would not----

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess until 2:15 p.m. today so that the parties can have their respective conference meetings.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations' Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 2:30 p.m. to hold a hearing on The Impact on Latin America of the American Servicemembers' Protection Act.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions meet in executive session during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 10 a.m. in SD-430.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 9:30 a.m. for a hearing titled, ``Hurricane Katrina: Recommendations for Reform.''

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 485 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing on S. 2078, Indian Gaming Regulatory Act Amendments of 2005.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the subcommittee on Trade, Tourism, and Economic Development be authorized to meet on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 2:30 p.m., on the ``Impact of Piracy and Counterfeiting of American Goods and Intellectual Property in China.''

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 8, 2006, at 2:30 p.m., to receive testimony on the Department of Defense Quadrennial Defense Review.

Mr. LOTT. 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 Wednesday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. to consider pending calender business. Agenda Agenda Item 3: S. 476--To authorize the Boy Scouts of America to exchange certain land in the State of Utah acquired under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act. Agenda Item 8: S. 1131--To authorize the exchange of certain Federal land within the State of Idaho, and for other purposes. Agenda Item 9: S. 1288--To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to enter into cooperative agreements to protect natural resources of units of the National Park System through collaborative efforts on land inside and outside of units of the National Park System. Agenda Item 10: S. 1346--To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study of maritime sites in the State of Michigan. Agenda Item 11: S. 1378--To amend the National Historic Preservation Act to provide appropriation authorization and improve the operations of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Agenda Item 13: S. 1913--To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to lease a portion of the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center for use as a visitor center for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and for other purposes. Agenda Item 14: S. 1970--To amend the National Trails System Act to update the feasibility and suitability study originally prepared for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and provide for the inclusion of new trail segments, land components, and campgrounds associated with that trail, and for other purposes. Agenda Item 15: S. 2197--To improve the global competitiveness of the United States in science and energy technology, to strengthen basic research programs at the Department of Energy, and to provide support for mathematics and science education at all levels through the resources available through the Department of Energy, including at the National Laboratories. Agenda Item 16: S. 2253--To require the Secretary of the Interior to offer the 181 Area of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing. Agenda Item 17: S. Con. Res. 60--Designating the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO, as America's National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Agenda Item 18: S.J. Res. 28--Approving the location of the commemorative work in the District of Columbia honoring former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Agenda Item 19: H.R. 318--To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating Castle Nugent Farms located on St. Croix, Virgin Islands, as a unit of the National Park System, and for other purposes. Agenda Item 20: H.R. 326 (S. 505)--To amend the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area Act of 2000 to adjust the boundary of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. Agenda Item 21: H.R. 409 (S. 179)--To provide for the exchange of land within the Sierra National Forest, CA, and for other purposes. Agenda Item 23: H.R. 1129 (S. 100)--To authorize the exchange of certain land in the State of Colorado. Agenda Item 24: H.R. 1728 (S. 323)--To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating the French Colonial Heritage Area in the State of Missouri as a unit of the National Park System, and for other purposes. Agenda Item 25: H.R. 2107--To amend Public Law 104-329 to modify authorities for the use of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Maintenance Fund, and for other purposes. Agenda Item 26: H.R. 3443 (S. 1498)--To direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain water distribution facilities to the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. In addition, the Committee may turn to any other measures that are ready for consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 10 a.m., in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, to hear testimony on ``Taking a checkup on the nation's health care tax policy: a prognosis''.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 10 a.m. to hold a hearing on Nominations.

Mr. LOTT

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