Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I will continue to work with Senator Fitzgerald and others to try to resolve this issue as best we can and any other problems that may exist. I do believe it is necessary to prepare the Senate for a cloture vote if it should be necessary. I now ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 641, S. 662.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee substitute be agreed to.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill, as amended, be considered read the third time. The bill (S. 662), as amended, was considered read the third time.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate then proceed to Calendar No. 542, H.R. 4386, all after the enacting clause be stricken, and the text of S. 662 be inserted in lieu thereof. Further, I ask unanimous consent that the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and, finally, any statements relating to this very important piece of legislation be printed in the Record.

Mr. LOTT. I note, Mr. President, that this is the breast and cervical cancer legislation. It has broad bipartisan support. I am very pleased we were able to come to an agreement to bring it this far. It came up this morning in the Finance Committee. I asked the Senator from New York if he would help us get it cleared through to this point. Senator Moynihan indicated he would, and he has done so, as always. I do not think we would have this clearance without his help.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I will be glad to yield the floor to Senator Moynihan.

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent that S. 662 be placed back on the calendar.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, notwithstanding rule XXII, that the Senate turn to the consideration of Calendar No. 817, H.R. 4986, relating to foreign sales corporations, and that following the reporting of the bill by the clerk, the committee amendments be agreed to, with no other amendments or motions in order, and the bill be immediately advanced to third reading and passage occur, all without any intervening action or debate. I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate then insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, who would be Senators Roth, Lott, and Moynihan.

Mr. LOTT. Absolutely. We had some reservations on both sides of the aisle last night. The reservations on Senator Reid's side of the aisle were worked out. The problem now is, as I stated, that Senator Fitzgerald has a problem. The Senator from Nevada has worked on his part of the problem on which, by the way, I agreed with him. I believe we have gotten the language we need, so it is not necessary for that objection to be filed.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I may comment, as Senator Reid mentioned, we hope to move to the Transportation and Agriculture appropriations conference reports. I had hoped one or both of those would be ready today. I believe they are both close to completion. In fact, I am sure the Transportation appropriations conference report is completed, and we should have it, hopefully, early in the morning. Agriculture has been more difficult for obvious reasons: Getting an exact reliable number on what is needed for disasters, but also dealing with issues such as the drug reimportation question and the sanctions issue. They are going to attempt to close that conference this afternoon. We hope to have a vote and be ready for action on tomorrow. With regard to this particular bill, the foreign sales corporation, I understand there are some reservations, but hopefully we can find a way to consider it.

Mr. LOTT. I do not believe I have the floor, I say to the Senator, but I am sure that Senator Reid would yield to the Senator.

Mr. LOTT. I would like to make clear, if there is a technical amendment, or if there is a germane amendment, we could certainly get an agreement to make that in order. What bothers me is that earlier on there had been indications that there were unrelated amendments that would ball the Senate up and this bill into protracted debate. What bothers me even more is, as we get closer, hopefully, to the end of the session, the thinking, I guess, would be, well, we will just drop this into something. The opportunity for mischief at that point is endless because if one Senator shows up and objects, we could lose it. So I know Senator Reid will be working on this. But this is something that is important to our country. I assume that the White House also would like to get this done. We need to continue to focus very closely on this piece of legislation.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I believe there was objection.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 506, H.R. 2884, which extends energy conservation programs under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act through fiscal year 2003. I further ask consent that a substitute amendment at the desk submitted by Senators Murkowski and Bingaman be agreed to, the bill be read a third time and passed, as amended, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would be glad to yield the floor to Senator Murkowski.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to H.J. Res. 110, the continuing resolution, and after the reporting of the joint resolution by the clerk, it be considered under the following agreement, with no amendments or motions in order: 2 hours equally divided between the chairman and the ranking minority member or his designee; 3 hours equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. I further ask consent that all time be used or considered yielded back by the close of business today, and when the Senate reconvenes on Thursday at 9:30, there be 30 minutes under the control of Senator Stevens and 60 minutes under the control of Senator Byrd for closing remarks, and at 11 a.m. the bill be read for a third time, and passage of H.J. Res. 110 occur, all without any intervening action or debate, and that this all begin immediately following the statement by Senator Murkowski.

Mr. LOTT. I believe the Senator from Illinois understands it will be 6 or 6:15 or thereabouts before he would be able to resume making his statement. So that would give us a couple hours that we could use before that time, and then additional time after that, if it is necessary. So hopefully we can get started right away.

Mr. LOTT. Or thereabouts. It could be earlier or 5 minutes later, but fully it is our intent to have the Senator from Illinois resume his statement at that time or at about that time.

Mr. LOTT. Was there objection? I believe the request was agreed to.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I rise today to applaud the efforts of everyone who worked to pass S. 1198, the Truth in Regulating Act. Last evening, the House passed this important legislation, following the Senate's passage of the bill on May 9th of this year. I was pleased to learn of the final passage of this bill in the House, as this event marks the culmination of the hard work of many Senators, Representatives, and members of their staffs in achieving another milestone in our journey towards comprehensive regulatory reform. This legislation establishes a process for Congress to obtain reviews of economically significant rules. These reviews, to be performed by the General Accounting Office, will help Congress to better assess the impact of federal agency regulations. I am confident that the information which will be provided in these reports will enable Congress and the public to have a better understanding of the potential costs and benefits of these regulations, and I believe that these independent analyses will help federal agencies to develop the most efficient and beneficial regulations for all concerned. Mr. President, passage of this legislation would not have been possible without the hard work of several Senators on both sides of the aisle. Both Senator Shelby and Senator Thompson have been active in addressing this issue for quite some time, and the efforts of Senator Bond and the input of Senator Levin were also helpful to the process. Similarly, I know that Representatives Kelly and McIntosh worked hard on the House side to get the Truth in Regulating Act passed. The details of this legislation were worked out by countless hours of work by a number of staff members, both former and current, for these Senate and House members. In addition to members of my staff, these staff members include Paul Noe, Mark Oesterle, Suey Howe, Linda Gustitus, Meredith Matty, Barry Pineles, Larry McCredy, Barbara Kahlow, and Marlo Lewis. Mr. President, I look forward to the President signing this legislation.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of the affected Members of the Senate, I would like to state for the record that if a Member who is precluded from travel by the provisions of rule 39 is appointed as a delegate to an official conference to be attended by Members of the Senate, then the appointment of that individual constitutes an authorization by the Senate and the Member will not be deemed in violation of rule 39.

Mr. LOTT

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I understand that the Senators from Iowa and Vermont are ready to yield back their time; is that correct?