Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Plus, if you have a substitute and then you have, let's just say, one or two related germane amendments, then you have five amendments on each side--that is 10 amendments--and even if we got a time agreement, you are talking about 12, or more, or 14 hours, which would be a minimum of 2 days. The problem we have in July is that we now have completed six appropriations bills, meaning there are still seven we have to get done. I hope that, at a minimum, we get five or six more done in July because they are very important bills that need to get completed so they can get in conference with the House, so they can be sent to the President, so hopefully he can sign them. We are talking about Agriculture; Interior; Housing and Urban Development; Treasury-Postal Service; Commerce-State-Justice--these are big, important appropriations bills. We have all those we have to do in July--a 3-week period--plus we have to do the marriage penalty tax elimination. I think there is an overwhelming desire to get that done, on both sides of the aisle, although we still disagree on how to get it done. But the Finance Committee has reported that out in a reconciliation bill. And there is a desire to do the China PNTR. I know we don't have the time to set aside 2 whole days in the midst of all that for the death tax. If we could just agree to a substitute and germane amendments--this is a bill that passed the House overwhelmingly. Sixty-five Democrats voted for it. Members in the House, regardless of region or race or sex, voted for it. Why does the Senate need to get into all these other nonrelated matters? But I understand there are Senators on the Democratic side who wish to have a debate and votes on these other matters. I believe they will probably have an opportunity to come up on other bills before the session is out. But that is why I object at this time.

Mr. LOTT. Under my reservation, I yield to Senator Reid.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I may respond to that, just briefly. After the good work that has been done, in a bipartisan way, this past week, and after having participated in the effort that was just made to complete action on the military construction appropriations conference report, it has restored my faith that anything is possible in the Senate. I hope we can continue to work to find a way to resolve this and get it considered other than through the cloture process. I am going to hold out hope until the very last minute that we can get that done. So we will continue to work. Our staffs have been exchanging proposals, and we will continue to do that right up until the time we need to begin voting, which would be, I guess, Tuesday or Wednesday of the week we return. Under my reservation, I yield to the Senator from Montana.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in light of the objections--and I do object--I now move to proceed to H.R. 8 and send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this cloture vote will occur on Tuesday, July 11. I will notify all Members as to the time of the vote. In the meantime, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. LOTT. If I may respond, I hope we can work through that. I thought maybe that would be the case. I want to say, again, I am still hoping we can come to an agreement to have some limited number of amendments that would be offered. Then we would be able to vitiate this whole thing. In view of the time in July, I felt I needed to go ahead and get the process moving. And we still would have that option right up until Tuesday when we come back.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I now withdraw the motion.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Further, I ask unanimous consent that the Record remain open until 3:30 p.m. today for the submission of statements.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. For the information of all Senators, on Monday, July 10, the Senate will begin consideration of the Interior appropriations bill. We will be looking forward to having the Presiding Officer on the floor managing that important legislation. I am sure it will move expeditiously. Opening statements will be made and amendments will be offered during the day. Senators who intend to offer amendments are encouraged to contact the bill managers during the recess in preparation for consideration of the bill. Senators should be aware that the next rollcall vote will occur on Monday, July 10, at approximately 5:30 p.m.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in adjournment under the provisions of S. Con. Res. 125, following the remarks of Senators Byrd, Warner, and Levin.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I have a unanimous consent request that has been cleared now on both sides of the aisle, if I may interrupt momentarily. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to waive the Budget Act for consideration of the Gramm point of order be withdrawn. I further ask consent that the Gramm point of order be temporarily laid aside, to be recalled by the Senator from Texas, after consultation with the majority leader and the minority leader, and the Chair rule on the point of order immediately, without any intervening action, motion, or debate.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. Will the Senator from North Carolina yield so we can get an agreement on how to proceed for the remainder of the night?

Mr. LOTT. I thank my colleagues and yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if Senator Helms will yield one second more, we are going to confirm some nominations tonight. I do note it is our intent after we complete Labor-HHS and the MILCON conference report to proceed to the Interior appropriations bill. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President I want to take a few moments to go over the schedule for the remainder of the night and the morning and get a final agreement on a unanimous consent request. These were the last two votes of the night. We want to complete the offering and debating of the remaining amendments that have been requested tonight, and then we will have those votes stacked beginning at 9:30 a.m., which is a little different from the time earlier mentioned. We had discussed 9:15 a.m. and there was a request we do that at 9:30 a.m. I renew the unanimous consent request regarding the Labor-HHS bill which now includes possible votes tomorrow, Friday morning, beginning at the amended time, 9:30 a.m., relative to the following issues: a Wellstone amendment regarding drug pricing; a Helms amendment regarding school facilities; a Harkin amendment regarding IDEA; a Baucus amendment regarding impact aid; any amendment that is not cleared within the managers' package; disposition of the point of order; and final passage of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill.

Mr. LOTT. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their cooperation.

Mr. LOTT

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, just so nobody will get nervous, I want to talk about the schedule. I am working with Senator Reid on a couple unanimous consent requests that we may offer later. But I wanted to talk about the progress being made and what our hopes are. I realize this is a very big, very important bill--the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. It is important we get it done, and it is important we have a few minutes to think through critical amendments that are offered. We are in that process. I thank the managers for what they have been doing. I urge them to keep pushing forward. The number of amendments has been substantially reduced. The ones still pending are not easy amendments. But I think if we can keep focused, we can complete this very important appropriations bill at a reasonable hour today. I urge my colleagues, when they have an amendment, when there is an amendment on both sides, that we find a way to accept them both or get a vote on both of them and let the Senate speak its will and then move on. I think that would be the best way to do it. What I really want to comment on today about this bill, and others, is that there are Senators thinking we are going to finish tonight and there won't be votes tomorrow. Senator Daschle and I have been indicating for quite some time now that that is not going to happen. We have to complete this bill. I still would like to go to the Interior appropriations bill. But we also have a very important military construction appropriations bill with a title II that involves emergencies. That has to be completed and considered by the House Rules Committee, the House has to vote, and then it comes over here. That could be late this afternoon or tonight or tomorrow or later. If there are complications, it could take more time than that. I assure everybody that we are going to be in session and voting tomorrow. I think that hoping we can wave a magic wand and miraculously complete this bill and the other measures by a reasonable time tonight is just not likely. I wanted to say that now. Those who have planes booked for 10 o'clock tonight or 10 o'clock in the morning, you better start making other arrangements, unless you are willing to miss votes. Quite often, some Senators think that if enough of us leave, there won't be votes. That is not going to be the case this time. This work is too important. I urge my colleagues to help us get this very important work done in this critical week.

Mr. LOTT. Obviously, the Senator from Nevada is correct. We do allow these votes to drag on too long, and we should be prepared to cut them off after the 15 minutes and the 5-minute overtime. On both sides we try to be understanding, but the more we are understanding, the more it is abused by our colleagues. So, for today, I will work with Democrats and Republicans and be prepared to cut these votes off. It could save us a lot of time. Let me say to the Senator from Nevada, we would not be making the progress we have made on this and other bills without his diligence, his presence on the floor, and the hard work he does. I appreciate that. Last night, even though I was disturbed about the timing because of commitments that have been made, we worked that out and we got a lot of good work done last night. I thank those who were involved.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I did not include that. But I would be happy to work up an agreement where we could bring that back and have germane amendments on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, have an agreed-to list of amendments that are germane, so we can deal with that important issue. I will be glad to work with Senator Kennedy or anybody else to try to get that agreement.

Mr. LOTT. I have a unanimous consent request I would like to propound now. I believe the Senators involved in this are on the floor. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate turn to the consideration of the NCAA gambling bill, S. 2340, and following the reporting of the bill by the clerk, the committee amendments be immediately agreed to. I further ask consent that there be 4 hours of debate on the bill, to be equally divided in the usual form, and only relevant amendments be in order during the pendency of the bill. Finally, I ask consent that following the conclusion of the time and the disposition of any amendments, the bill be advanced to third reading and passage occur, all without any intervening action or debate. I know Senator Reid will want to make some comments. This is an issue that has been pending for some time. We have tried to find a way to have it as an amendment on other bills. I know Senator Brownback has been diligent and also very much interested in this matter, as are other Senators, including Senator McCain. Senator Reid has indicated he would like to work with us on it. But I will let him speak for himself. Part of what I am doing here is this: I made a commitment to the sponsors to try to find a way to consider this on some bill, or freestanding at some point. In order to complete work on the Department of Defense authorization bill, now that we have worked through the disclosure issue, this issue is one we also need to find a way to address. That is why I am asking for this consent. Mr. President, I submit that unanimous consent request.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, will the Senator withhold his objection?