Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I do have some Executive Calendar matters and other unanimous consent agreements that have already been worked out. I will proceed to those. However, I do note I want to offer a unanimous consent request with regard to the estate tax matter. I want the Democratic leader to be here when I make that request. I am hoping within the next few minutes we will also be able to conclude an agreement with regard to the Department of Defense authorization bill. Discussions are still underway, but I thought I would take advantage of this time.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on the Executive Calendar: Calendar Nos. 567 through 570. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements relating to the nominations be printed in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I will be happy to yield.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 642, S. 2071.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the estate tax repeal bill.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 1 p.m. on Monday, July 10, under the provisions of S. Con. Res. 125. I further ask that on Monday, immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and that then the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 4578.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Thank you, again. Senator Byrd, I want to note, when you enter my young grandson's room, on the wall to the left, in a beautifully framed device is the fantastic speech that you gave on the floor. It will always be there. What you had to say was so beautiful to say about our grandchildren, and about his birth, and quotes from the Bible, quotes from history. Anybody who thinks there is not a bipartisan spirit around here needs to know that there is no quote from the Republican majority leader in my grandson's room. The only speech in his room is the speech from that great Democrat of West Virginia, Robert Byrd.

Mr. LOTT. I yield to Senator Reid.

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I use my leader time to make some announcements about the schedule. I, too, commend Senator Burns from Montana, the chairman of the Appropriations Military Construction Subcommittee, and his ranking member, Senator Murray of Washington State, for their work on this legislation. It is important. It has a lot of projects that are very important for our defense and the underlying military construction appropriations bill. I also extended to them my sympathy and appreciation for the fact that their bill had to carry a title II which brought a lot of emergency legislation, but it needed to be done. Their bill became the catalyst to move this emergency legislation through. It was not easy for them to have to deal with all the conflicting problems not in their jurisdiction. I thank them for what they did on this legislation. I thank Senator Gramm, Senator McCain, Senator Stevens, and Senator Byrd for their usual brilliance and innovation. What looked like 6 hours of readings, multiple votes on points of order, and a contested final passage sometime tonight, Saturday, or Sunday, was resolved in a matter of minutes. It is a miracle. I know there will be objections to various parts and a lot of speeches will be made. That is great. There will be time for that later. I appreciate the help of Senator Daschle and all involved. We needed this bill. We needed this emergency legislation. Senator Stevens did the right thing. I thank him. I wanted to express my appreciation to all.

Mr. LOTT. I am happy to yield to the Senator.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it looks as if we are going to be here for quite some time. I believe we will have an opportunity later on in the day to try again. We will certainly do our very best to get this agreed to. It is an important issue. We will do everything we can to come up with a fair agreement.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. LOTT. I believe it would.

Mr. LOTT. I don't believe it is necessary, but I amend my request to that effect.

Mr. LOTT. Thank you very much. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in answer to the question of the Senator from New Mexico, this is legislation that has been developed by Senator Thompson. It is the China Nonproliferation Act. Perhaps under the Senator's reservation, he would like to yield to Senator Thompson so he could give a brief response to that question.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we have talked a great deal about the need to find a way to consider the China trade bill and also to consider the problem of China nuclear weapons proliferation. Senator Thompson has done a lot of work in this area, as have others. He has a bill that he would like to have considered and has agreed for it to be considered freestanding, separate from the China PNTR legislation, and that he would not feel a need--if I could speak for him just momentarily--to offer it as an amendment to the China bill, if we can get it considered freestanding. So we have worked through that. I have discussed this with a number of interested parties, including Senator Daschle, and other members on both sides of the aisle. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, July 10, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the minority leader, that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 583, S. 2645, the China Nonproliferation Act. I further ask consent that the bill be limited to relevant amendments. I finally ask consent that not later than 12:30 on Tuesday, July 11, the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, with no intervening action or debate. Before the Chair rules, I would like to announce that it is my intention, as I have reiterated to the Armed Services Committee, that I will give them the opportunity to consider and, hopefully, conclude the DOD authorization bill. In fact, I am going to try to do a unanimous consent request on that next. We will try to get that Department of Defense authorization bill done--a very important bill--before the August recess. We are now working on a consent that was outlined last night by the chairman and ranking member. It is my hope that we could get an agreement on that time. If there is a problem with it, we will continue to work to find an agreement where we can remove the nongermane amendments, deal with the Defense amendments, and complete that very important legislation. So that is my request that I propound at this time.

Mr. LOTT. Others might seek to be recognized on this on their reservation.

Mr. LOTT. Certainly.

Mr. LOTT. Yes.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would be glad to yield under the Senator's reservation and respond to the question.

Mr. LOTT. This unanimous consent request only deals with the bill S. 2645, the China Nonproliferation Act. No other issue, no other bill is included in it.

Mr. LOTT

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