Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 341, which is at the desk.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, we have worked this morning, in some ways long distance because Senators who have been involved in these discussions are on their way back, and we have been trying to get agreements on how to proceed. We have not gotten it worked out yet. But in a full measure of precaution, because we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to complete our work this week, it is necessary for me to go ahead and move to call up an appropriations bill and the intelligence authorization bill and file cloture. They would then be ripened on Wednesday. We would be prepared to vote on cloture, if necessary, on Wednesday. It is my hope that, through communications and meetings that will take place--perhaps later on this day or in the morning--we will be able to vitiate that because there is no need, really, to have to invoke cloture on the motions to proceed. But it is the only way I can begin the discussion and be assured that we get to the substance of these two bills some time this week.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. So, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 4871, the Treasury-Postal Service and general government appropriations bill.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I now move that the Senate stand in adjournment for 1 minute, and when the Senate reconvenes, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, no resolutions come over under the rule, the call of the calendar be dispensed with, and the time for the two leaders be reserved.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I note that we had hoped this week to complete action on some additional judicial nominations, to complete at least two appropriations bills and begin a third one, and have the first cloture vote on China PNTR. It is still our hope, but at this time, at least, there is objection from our colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle to proceeding on appropriations bills. We have a lot we can do this week, and I certainly hope we will do that. Under this action we have just taken, we can have some discussion by the chairman of the Treasury, Postal Service appropriations subcommittee. I see the manager, the chairman of the subcommittee, is here. I am sure he will want to make some comments and outline what is included in the bill.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I repeat my hope that we will be able to work out an agreement on how to proceed and that a vote on the cloture motion will not be necessary on Wednesday morning. But until we can get that done, we need to get the proceedings started. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. LOTT. I now withdraw the motion to proceed.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, we also need to get the intelligence authorization bill done this week. I don't think it will take that long to complete it, although I suspect there are at least a couple issues that will have to be debated and voted on. I had the impression maybe half a day or a night would be all that would be necessary to complete this. I am hoping maybe sometime even Thursday we might complete it, and before, if possible. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 654, S. 2507, the intelligence authorization bill.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I want to note that I did not move to proceed to the energy and water appropriations bill. I did that on purpose. I did it out of respect for the Democratic leader and the objection he has made to a particular section and the fact that it is obviously something very important to him and the Senators from North Dakota and South Dakota and other States. But there are Senators on both sides of the aisle who actually support section 103 because of the impact this might have on the Missouri downriver in States such as Missouri, Illinois, and perhaps even, most importantly, as far as my own State of Mississippi. I talked to Senator Domenici and Senator Daschle this morning. I still hope we can find a way to resolve that. If that one issue can be resolved, I think that bill might take a couple hours and could be completed. I still have that on our list as one of the three bills we really must do this week. With regard to the judges, I have made a commitment to try to continue to move judges who have been reported by the Judiciary Committee. I continue to urge the chairman of the Judiciary Committee to act on those judges who could be reported out. They did report out five judges last week, including a circuit judge from the State of Nevada who will wind up being on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California, I guess, and so I think I have been keeping my word to try to move those. I believe the Judiciary Committee is prepared to have a hearing or is having a hearing tomorrow and will move at least four more judges tomorrow. I think it would be unfortunate if those four got tangled up in these difficulties we are outlining now. It is very hard for me to understand why these appropriations bills and this authorization bill, the intelligence authorization bill, would be held up over one circuit court judge or even two circuit court judges who may still be acted on or have hearings and be reported out. But the majority leader cannot just direct the Judiciary Committee or the chairman that he must report a specific judge. I think it is responsible for me to say: Report those judges where you can and that can be cleared and voted on. But I am not now in a position to guarantee that a specific one judge will be reported by the Judiciary Committee. We will keep working with the chairman of the committee, and hopefully some solution can be found. I think we can find it. In the meantime, we are losing a day here. I hope we don't lose all day tomorrow. But that is our goal this week, to try to get some judges, try to do two or three appropriations bills, try to do intelligence authorization, and to begin debate on the China PNTR issue. I guess there is no option for me at this time, though, but to move to proceed to the bill. Cloture Motion

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I move to proceed to S. 2507, and I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I don't know what the number was, but I think on Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday of last week and the previous week, we probably cast at least 20, 25 votes--maybe 30. So we certainly are turning out votes and getting our work done. We had a very good week last week and the week before. I hope we are going to have one yet this week. We are just not ready to make a lot of progress today.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, this cloture vote will occur on Wednesday, unless we are already in a post cloture situation on the Treasury- Postal Service appropriations bill, or unless, of course, we have done away with the procedure and found a way to go directly to the substance of the bill. And, again, I hope we can do that. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum be waived.

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

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, we could manufacture a vote, as the Senator knows, and force that vote. But in light of all that is going on, I don't see that it would serve any purpose other than sort of a bed check vote. It had been my intent to have votes on amendments to the Treasury-Postal Service appropriations bill, but that is not possible. I think since we have had to take this action and file cloture, we should announce that there will not be a recorded vote or votes tonight at 6 o'clock. The next opportunity to vote, I presume, will possibly be in the morning. I hope we can begin to make progress in some way during the day today, or early tomorrow, so votes can be held, if necessary, before the luncheon, or immediately thereafter.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I have been in contact through senior staff, the top staff of Senator Hatch, with a suggestion of how we could proceed on that and get that information back to Senator Daschle. I did that, I guess, about an hour ago. I have not gotten a response back from them yet. But if I don't get one pretty quick, I will pursue another call to see if we can work that out.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that after conclusion of the 6:00 p.m. vote or votes, if any, on Monday, the Senate proceed to the intelligence authorization bill, S. 2507, and following the reporting by the clerk, Senator Thompson be recognized to offer an amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me say again, of course, judicial nominations are important to the country on both sides of the aisle. I guess in the Senate everything is related to everything else. But who the hearings are on in Judiciary doesn't directly affect this bill. We need to get the intelligence authorization bill done. Once again, this is important to the national security of our country. There had been some objections to it, but we have worked through those, and it took a lot of give and take and cooperation on both sides because there were objections on both sides of the aisle. We have cleared that. Regarding the amendment I pointed out of Senator Thompson, I have been looking for any number of ways to have this very important matter of nuclear weapon proliferation by China reviewed. Senator Thompson has been very helpful and willing to withhold, or to consider any number of options as to how that would be considered. It seems to me that if we can get the intelligence authorization bill up, that would be an appropriate place for this issue to be considered, so that we can move to the PNTR for China issue on Wednesday. We are going to do that anyway. But I would like to have been able to deal with Senator Thompson's very meritorious amendment, either freestanding or as an amendment before we go to the China PNTR issue because I think he is going to be constrained to offer it as an amendment to the bill. That would be difficult because if it should be approved, of course, it would have to go on the bill and it would go back to conference and the House would have to consider it again. Perhaps, there will be enough votes to defeat it, but I, for one, do not feel constrained to vote against an issue of this significance. I think it is a legitimate argument that this is a national security and nuclear proliferation issue that should maybe be considered separate from the trade issue, but it is related to how we are going to deal with China in the future. So, again, Senator Daschle objected with the recognition that we are working on another angle or issue. We will try to get that worked out, and then we will try again later this afternoon on this issue. Rather than me controlling the floor for the debate, I think it would be best at this point if perhaps I would yield the floor, and perhaps Senator Thompson and Senator Hollings, who are very interested in this issue, could speak on their own time. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the distinguished assistant minority leader will yield to me under his reservation, I will be brief. Then under his reservation or on his own, Senator Daschle may want to comment. What I have asked is consent that we go to the energy and water bill, and I asked consent that if a motion to strike section 103 is offered, the motion to strike be limited to 3 hours to be equally divided in the usual form, and we would go to a vote. Under Senator Reid's reservation, if I could respond to two points: One, in addition to the very important energy aspects of this legislation that have been mentioned, I will focus on the water side. So much of America benefits from our water and our water projects, whether it is navigation or recreation, flood control. These are not just projects that individual Members want to get for their particular district for political benefit. They have a lot to do with the economy of this country, the creation of jobs and the lifestyle in America. This is an important bill both on the energy and water side. I know both sides want to get it done. I have absolutely no doubt about that. I know the managers of this legislation, Senator Domenici and Senator Reid, are probably two of the best we have in the Senate. It would probably look as though magic had been performed, how quickly this bill could be completed. The issue we are talking about is a very difficult one with which to cope. It has been in the mill a long time. I know there are very strong beliefs on both sides of the issue, probably on both sides of the aisle. I hope we will continue to work to see if we can't find a way to deal with this issue in a way that is fair. My thinking is under an agreement to try to take it out with a time limit; that is fine, or an agreement to try to take it out and then put it back in with a time agreement; that is fine. We are looking for any possible solution. I hope we will find a solution in the next few minutes or next couple hours today. If we can't, then I am already looking, I say to Senator Daschle, to see if we can get managers available and try to proceed to the Treasury-Postal Service appropriations bill Monday afternoon, see if we can make progress on that. I don't know of any big controversy on that one. Of course, it funds the Treasury. It also funds the Postal Service, and it funds White House operations. Hopefully, we could look to that as an alternative. I would rather do energy and water. I would like to do them both so we can get them into conference and so progress can be made next week and they will be hopefully ready to go to the President soon after that. I thank Senator Reid for allowing me to speak under his reservation. I will withhold if Senator Daschle wants to respond or comment under reservation, too.

Mr. LOTT. I have the floor and I propounded a unanimous consent request, if the Senator would like to respond under a reservation.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me say to the distinguished minority leader and to Senator Domenici and Senator Reid, we will continue to work. I have learned from experience working on both sides of the aisle, if everybody just hunkers down and says no, this way or no way, you don't ever get anything. I will continue to probe and work with Senator Daschle, Senator Reid, and Senator Domenici, to see if we can find a way to resolve this problem. I think perhaps we can. We will be talking further. I want to make sure we have on record that we are trying to get it done, and we will hopefully come back here in another hour or two and try again.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 4733, the energy and water appropriations bill. I further ask that the committee substitute be agreed to and the substitute be considered original text for the purpose of further amendment, with no points of order waived. I further ask consent that if a motion to strike section 103 is offered, the motion to strike be limited to 3 hours to be equally divided in the usual form, and a vote occur on the motion to strike following the use or yielding back of time, without any intervening action, motion, or debate. I further ask consent that any votes ordered with respect to this bill, either on amendments or final passage, be stacked to occur at 6 p.m. on Monday, July 24. I observe that both managers of the appropriations bill for energy and water are present and ready to proceed, and therefore I submit that unanimous consent request.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Friday, July 21, 2000, to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Mr. Robert S. LaRussa to be Undersecretary for International Trade at the Department of Commerce; and Ms. Marjory E. Searing to be Assistant Secretary and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (US&FCS) of the Department of Commerce.

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 Friday, July 21, 2000, for purposes of conducting a Full Committee business meeting which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. The purpose of this business meeting is to consider H.R. 701, the Conservation and Reinvestment Act.