Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. If the Senator will withhold a second, I think the way I had asked for that consent is that he would be recognized immediately following Senator Gramm. I was trying to ascertain how much time he might need.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I appreciate the Senator's explanation. I yield to the Senator from Massachusetts for a question.

Mr. LOTT. I wonder if we could do this: Maybe if the Senator from Massachusetts would like a couple minutes to respond, I think that is fair because he has some comments to respond to what I had to offer. Then we could go ahead and have a vote on an issue on which we need to proceed. Then when that is over or during that vote, we can work on an order to make sure everybody has a chance to be heard, the time that they need to speak, and we can continue on, having had one vote disposed of.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I now withdraw the motion to proceed to S. 2557.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask the minority, and I am sure Senator Kerry is prepared to respond to this, if they are in a position to set a vote on the pending bankruptcy conference report after an hour or two of debate. I yield the floor for a response to that question from the Senator from Massachusetts on behalf of the leadership.

Mr. LOTT. I certainly expected that. I know there are Senators who do object to that. This is very important legislation which needs to be enacted into the law. I appreciate the procedural cooperation we have had. The bill has been debated for weeks, and many amendments have been offered on both sides. Minimum wage was offered, as a matter of fact, to this bill while it was pending on the Senate floor, but minimum wage now is going to be put in the tax relief package we have been discussing. The bankruptcy bill ultimately passed by a vote of 83-14, so I will file cloture on this bill probably Sunday or Monday so we can get to a cloture vote and complete its action.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move to proceed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 2415 regarding the Bankruptcy Reform Act, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the continuing resolution, H. J. Res. 117, that no motions or amendments be in order, and the time between now and 3:15 p.m. be equally divided between the two leaders. I also ask unanimous consent that the vote occur on adoption of H.J. Res. 117 at 3:15 p.m. and paragraph 4 of rule XII be waived.

Mr. LOTT. Therefore, the next vote will occur at 3:15 this afternoon. Mr. President, for the information of Senators who are interested in the schedule, it is expected that the vote at 3:15 p.m. will be the last vote of the day. However, at this time, in view of the need for continuing resolutions, unless some different agreement can be worked out, we will be expected to have votes on Saturday and on Sunday with continuing resolutions. Of course, there is serious work underway right now on the matters of disagreement. I note Saturday is the sabbath for a number of our colleagues and for observant Jews, and Sunday is my sabbath. I prefer we get a CR that will take us to Monday while we continue to work, but we have not been able to enter into that agreement yet. If necessary, we will be here and voting on CRs on Saturday and on Sunday. It is my expectation that vote will come late in the afternoon or early evening on Saturday. Also, again, Senator Stevens from the Appropriations Committee and the appropriators are meeting right now on the final details of the Labor-HHS bill. There is also some discussion about how we can move some of the problem issues out of the CSJ bill that has been reported out of conference and passed by the House. Corrections or changes, if agreed to, could be entered into the Labor-HHS bill. I do want you to know the appropriators are busily working in their magical way, and I am sure at sometime a cone of honey will be produced, or maybe that is the wrong terminology to use, but they are getting closer to agreements. I hope it is something that can be signed, or I hope it is something I can vote for, too. Both of those are undetermined at this point. I know Senator Kerry wants to make further comments about an earlier issue. We now have 3 hours and 15 minutes to talk about the CR or other issues Senators wish.

Mr. LOTT. I will yield since I invoked the name of the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. LOTT. Very good. That is right, and I hope you will start rubbing it very fast.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I say to the Senator from Alaska, we do not quite know what the appropriators do. I am not sure we really want to. We wish you the best because at least all of our schedules are in your hands, if not our lives. But I think what the Senator is saying is eminently reasonable. I urge you to get Senator Byrd to discuss that with the leadership on the other side, and if you talk with Senator Reid, we will communicate with the administration and hopefully maybe by 3:15 p.m. we can take that reasonable action. I certainly would support it. But we have to get an agreement. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to S. 2557.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I can assure the Senator that the change has absolutely no effect on the jurisdiction of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources over that program. As the Senator knows, at one time there were discussions about adding the entire CARA package to the Interior appropriation bill. The allocation of funding required us to add this portion, which includes Coastal Impact Assistance, to the Commerce appropriation. The change made in what Secretary disburses the funds does not alter in any manner the nature of the program, the purposes of the program, or the exclusive jurisdiction of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources over the program.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, and immediately following the routine convening requests, the Senate proceed to the continuing resolution and a vote occur without any intervening action, motion, or debate on passage of the House joint resolution. I further ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business on Saturday, it stand in recess until 5 p.m. on Sunday, and immediately following the routine convening requests, the Senate proceed to the House joint resolution regarding continuing of Government funding, and time between then and the vote be equally divided, and following the use of the time, a vote occur, without any intervening action, motion, or debate on passage of the House joint resolution.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Therefore, unless an additional consent can be granted--and I will continue to work on that, along with Senator Daschle and Senator Reid and others--the next two votes will be at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and approximately 7 p.m. on Sunday. The reason for those times is we understand now that the House will be voting on those continuing resolutions around 9 o'clock or so on Saturday and around 6 o'clock or so on Sunday. I still hope that when we vote tomorrow, we could prevail upon those who insist on a vote on Sunday night to consider doing a continuing resolution that would take us over until Monday night for the next continuing resolution. In the meantime, the members of the Appropriations Committee are going to be meeting further this afternoon on the Labor, HHS, and Education appropriations conference report. I am sure other issues will be discussed and other discussions will occur with regard to the tax bill. Also, the Commerce-State-Justice conference report just passed. It is our intent to take up the Tax Relief Act early next week. We haven't locked in a time yet because there is no necessity for it at this moment. I know as many Senators as possible will want to be here and know when the vote is coming. I presume that would probably be sometime during the day Tuesday--probably late afternoon--but we will talk about that. Members will have as much advance notice on that as possible.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a period for morning business, with Members permitted to speak therein for 10 minutes each, with the exception of the Senator from Utah, Mr. Hatch, for up to 30 minutes and Senator Kerrey of Nebraska for up to 30 minutes.

Mr. LOTT. We could perhaps go later Sunday night. I think we can accommodate that. Give me a chance to see if there is any problem because I already told people it is going to be 5. I will get back to the Senator. We will try to accommodate that. I guess some Senators would want to speak late Sunday afternoon. I can't imagine who it would be, but perhaps some would. Give me a few minutes.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I modify the earlier request and ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business on Saturday, it stand in recess until 4 p.m. on Sunday, and immediately following the routine convening requests, the Senate proceed to the House joint resolution regarding continuing of Government funding and the time between then and 7 p.m. be equally divided, and following the use of any time, a vote occur, without any intervening action, motion, or debate, on passage of the House joint resolution.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I am pleased to sponsor this resolution to extend the authorities of the Senate National Security Working Group through December 31, 2002. The Senate National Security Working Group is a bipartisan Group, established almost two years ago by myself and the Democratic Leader, that seeks to shed further light on important national security topics of interest to the Senate and the American people. Such topics include, but are not limited to: ballistic missile defenses, arms control, export controls, and weapons of mass destruction. During the 106th Congress, the Working Group held numerous important briefings on topics of concern to the members of the Group and the Senate. Senior Executive branch officials from the Departments of Defense and State and other U.S. Government agencies appeared before the Group to describe the status of and rationale for on-going diplomatic discussions and formal and informal negotiations on various issues and to answer questions from Republican and Democratic Senators about those discussions and negotiations. I am certain the Administration would agree with my assessment that the give-and-take in those meetings served a useful purpose. In addition, I am pleased to report that members of the Group and staff were able to travel overseas, as part of their official responsibilities, to witness first-hand on-going diplomatic discussions and negotiations involving the United States, Russia, and other nations, and to visit certain foreign capitols for intensive discussions with foreign diplomatic and military leaders on topics of mutual concern. I strongly encourage the members of the Group to continue and expand this practice during the 107th Congress. I am also pleased to announce that Senator Thad Cochran from my home state of Mississippi has agreed to serve during the 107th Congress as the Republican Administrative Co-Chairman of the Group. I appreciate his willingness to once again serve in this capacity. I look forward to participating in the Group's activities beginning early next year.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in our legislation, we also sought, at the request of our Mississippi State officials, to clarify the State of Mississippi's ownership in the mineral rights underlying the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Mississippi conveyed much of the surface property to create the Seashore in 1972. Until recently, the National Park Service has conceded ownership of these subsurface rights to Mississippi, as is reflected in the State's authorizing legislation in 1971 and the subsequent deed signed by the Governor and other Mississippi State officials. A copy of such deed is entered into the record with this statement. The only limitation on these rights was to be the way in which any future development of them occurred, so that the surface of the Seashore property would not be used for extraction of the minerals.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the bill as introduced included language which would have allowed the State of Mississippi to maintain the State's rights in or to any oil, gas, or other minerals through this acquisition. After further review of this legislation and the deed and related documents, our inclusion of the mineral rights provision was unnecessary, as the language was merely redundant with respect to the deed of 1972. It is our understanding that the deed clearly reserves the State of Mississippi's mineral rights with respect to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and that no additional legislative language on mineral rights is required in the Cat Island legislation, because the State has made no conveyance with respect to Cat Island. Does the Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee agree?

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to the conference report accompanying H.R. 2614, and I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to proceed.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I withdraw my pending motion to proceed.