Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Oregon for his time in the Chair, for his commitments, and for the leadership that he provides in the Senate.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today, I have the pleasure to announce that Senator Pat Roberts has achieved the 100 hour mark as Presiding Officer. In doing so, Senator Roberts has earned his second Gold Gavel Award. Since the 1960's, the Senate has recognized those dedicated Members who preside over the Senate for 100 hours with the golden gavel. This award continues to represent our appreciation for the time these dedicated Senators contribute to presiding over the U.S. Senate--a privileged and important duty. On behalf of the Senate, I extend our sincere appreciation to Senator Roberts and his diligent staff for their efforts and commitment to presiding duties during the 106th Congress.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk to the pending H-1B amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. LOTT

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, Senator Dorgan had indicated he had some questions he would like to ask. I have some tributes and routine business and also the closing script that we would like to go into. I thought maybe I would yield for some questions before we begin that.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would be glad to try to respond to some of the questions and comments. First of all, I certainly understand the Senator's interest in this very important funding bill for agriculture in America. There is a lot of funding here. I don't know the total amount of this bill, but it is multibillion dollars, and it is important for our farm economy, for food for our people in this country, and also for exports in many ways. My State also is heavily involved in agriculture and has to deal with a number of problems, all the way from droughts to floods--everything but locusts. Then, of course, we have the timber industry, which is an important part of our agricultural economy. Now that is in very difficult straits, caused to a large degree because of subsidized timber products and lumber from other countries--Canada, Russia, and every place else. It is just killing our domestic timber industry. When you add to that the administration's very bad national forest policy and timber policies, they are having a hard time. So I agree, it is important, and I share the Senator's interest in it. Maybe he is asking the wrong Mississippian about this bill. I certainly have an interest, and as majority leader I continue to try to urge the various Senate committees of appropriations and conferees to get together and complete their work. But the Senator from Mississippi, Mr. Cochran, is the chairman of the Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittee. He is directly and intimately involved. I think there are two or three reasons that conference has not yet met. First of all, the main reason is the House hasn't appointed conferees. They have to appoint conferees. One of the reasons they haven't done that, as the Senator from North Dakota knows, as a former House Member knows, and I do, after they do that, they are then subject to motions in the House that could be a further complicating factor in getting the work done. I think they are waiting to appoint conferees when they are ready to complete action in conference. That is one thing. The second thing is there still has been, up until yesterday, I think, some question about exactly how much money was going to be needed in the disaster area because, as the Senator knows, there continue to be problems that are related to the fires, and they are still trying to get an estimate of exactly what that amount of money would be. Then there are some issues that are not going to be easy to resolve, but they are going to have to be resolved--reimportation of drugs, as the Senator mentioned. The Senate acted on that. We had the Jeffords- Dorgan amendment as amended by Senator Cochran, then the House language by Congressman Coburn, I believe. You have to find some way to get a result. I am satisfied that there is going to be some language in that bill in this area. I don't know what it is going to be. There are a lot of people with a lot more expertise in how that will work, and the safety aspects of it, and what individuals will be able to do. All of that is going to have to be resolved. You have the sanctions question. There is no easy solution there. You have kind of the Senate position, the House position, a third position, and other options. I wish the Senator the very best in working all of that out. I am not a member of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee, and I hope not to be there when the final decision is made. Last but not least, I assume within the next week or so the conferees will meet. There are areas sometimes when communication between the bodies of the Congress or between the parties is not as good as it could be, I guess. But usually in agriculture you have pretty good input all around because it is so important to individual Senators. But I am assuming conferees will be appointed at some point before too long and that there will be a vote and action taken. I quite often wish for magic, but I rarely see it in dealing with these appropriations issues.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, 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. LOTT. I will be interested in hearing that speech.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask consent that the amendment that is offered in the nature of a substitute be agreed to, the bill be read the third time and passed, as amended, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and that any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. LOTT. Senator Frist has an amendment at the desk and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent the reported amendments be agreed to en bloc, with the exception of amendments numbered 4 and 5. Further, I ask unanimous consent the reported amendments numbered 4 and 5 be withdrawn.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to an amendment at the desk submitted by Senator Murkowski of Alaska.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk due for its second reading.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I object to further proceedings on this bill at this time.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I submit a report of the committee of conference on the bill H.R. 4919 to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask consent the conference report be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to this conference report be printed in the Record.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I now ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 405, which corrects the enrollment of H.R. 4919. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until 12 noon on Monday, and all other provisions of the previous orders be in effect.