Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me thank my friend from Massachusetts for raising this issue here today. And he is absolutely right. Aviation is not the only transportation account that may be impacted by this bill. And it was certainly not the intention of the conferees to in any way restrict funding for the Coast Guard or Amtrak. The conference report includes a provision which reserves Airport and Airways Trust Fund revenue and interest spending for aviation programs with a majority point of order. Additionally, under another majority point of order, the provision requires the authorized levels of funding for the Airport Improvement Program and the Facilities and Equipment accounts to be fully funded before the Operations and Research and Development accounts are funded. While this latter provision is not a statutory guarantee that general revenue will be spend on aviation programs, it is a significant incentive. The bill thus provides a reasonable assurance that aviation appropriations will reach authorized levels, which would result in an approximately $2 billion increase in aviation funding for fiscal year 2001. My good friend from Massachusetts is concerned that spending for other transportation priorities may be decreased as the appropriations process increases aviation spending. Let me assure my good friend that I expect adequate funding for the Coast Guard and Amtrak, as these transportation priorities are important to the Nation and to my home State of Mississippi. I intend to work with the chairmen of the Budget and Appropriations Committees to ensure the Transportation Appropriations account is increased so that these aviation program increases do not come at the expense of other transportation programs.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to take a few minutes to address the needs of the Coast Guard. In a typical day the Coast Guard will save 14 lives, seize 209 pounds of marijuana and 170 pounds of cocaine, and save $2.5 million in property. The Coast Guard's duties have also grown, as there are more commercial and recreational vessels in our waters today than ever before in our Nation's history. International trade has expanded greatly, and with it maritime traffic has increased in our Nation's ports and harbors. Tighter border patrols have forced drug traffickers to use the thousands of miles of our country's coastlines as the means to introduce illegal drugs into our Nation. The Coast Guard currently faces a number of readiness shortfalls as it struggles to keep up with the increasing demands placed upon this service. In order to continue this valuable service to our Nation, the Congress must provide the funding to address personnel shortages and to repair or replace the Coast Guard's aging ships and aircraft. I am confident that with an increase in the transportation budget, we can protect the Coast Guard and Amtrak, as well as make the improvements air travel so desperately needs.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the importance of today's passage of H.R. 1000, the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century. Today is a great day for rural America's air passengers. This legislation will bring much needed air service to under served communities throughout the Nation. It will also grant billions of dollars in federal funds to our Nation's airports for upgrades, through the Airport Improvements Program (AIP). Senator Slade Gorton, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Aviation, is to be commended for his superb leadership on this complex and contentious measure. My friend and colleague from the State of Washington proved himself pivotal earlier during floor consideration of the Senate bill and during the conference with the other body on this bill. Together with Chairman Domenici, Chairman Stevens, and Senator Hollings, their joint efforts moved this bill to today's passage. Rural Americans are the biggest winners with the passage of H.R. 1000. Citizens of small and under served communities can look forward to the day when they no longer have to travel hundreds of miles and several hours to board a plane. This legislation provides incentives to domestic air carriers and their affiliates to reach out to these people and serve them conveniently near their homes. Many Americans will be able to travel a reasonable distance to gain access to our Nation's skies and, from there, anywhere they wish to go. Mr. President, I also applaud the hard work of Senator Frist of Tennessee, Senator Abraham of Michigan, and Senator Ashcroft of Missouri, all members of the Senate Commerce Committee. Their dedication to the flying public helped move the FAA conference when agreements on contentious aviation issues were not met. They understand the delays, inconvenience, and headache their constituents must endure when flying--they get it. I firmly believe that without the engagement of these three gentlemen the Senate would not be voting on H.R. 1000 today. The people of Tennessee, Michigan, and Missouri should be extremely proud of their representation in Washington. The major policy changes in H.R. 1000 led to hard fought, but honest disagreements. I have enormous respect for the efforts of Chairmen Domenici, Stevens, and Shuster, as well as House Ranking Member Oberstar, as they diligently advocated for their committees' jurisdictions. One thing was abundantly clear during the FAA conference--my colleagues recognized our Nation's aviation needs and made significant commitments to increase aviation funding. This honest debate and willingness to work together to achieve common goals is what makes it exciting to serve in Washington. Mr. President, I am extremely proud of my colleagues. Since 1995, the Republican majority has made infrastructure a top legislative priority. Two years ago, my friends in the House and Senate successfully led an effort to boost the amount of federal funding for highway construction and improvements. History will reflect that this Congress also deeply cared about our Nation's infrastructure. One of the main components of H.R. 1000 directs the expense of all Airports and Airways Trust Fund revenue and interest on aviation needs. Trust Fund revenue and interest means that America's airports will get the improvements they desperately need to take our aviation infrastructure into the 21st Century. Mr. President, no legislative initiation is ever possible without the dedicated efforts of staff, and I want to take a moment to identify those who worked hard to get FAA legislation through conference and to the Senate for approval. From the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation: Marti Allbright; Lloyd Ator; Mark Buse; Ann Choiniere; Julia Kraus; Michael Reynolds; Scott Verstandig; and Sam Whitehorn. From the Senate Committee on the Budget: Beth Felder; Bill Hoagland; Mary Naylor; Barry Strumpf; and Cheryle Tucker. From the Senate Committee on Appropriations: Wally Burnett; Paul Doerrer; Peter Rogoff; and Mitch Warren. The following staff also participated on behalf of their Senators: Chrystn Alston; Kerry Ates; Rich Bender; David Broome; Bob Carey; Steve Browning; Jeanne Bumpus; John Conrad; Margaret Cummisky; Brett Hale; Keith Hennessey; Ann Loomis; Randal Popelka; Mitch Rose; Lisa Rosenberg; Greg Rothchild; Jim Sartucci; Lori Sharpe; Brad Van Dam; and Andy Vermilye. Mr. President, these individuals worked very hard on H.R. 1000, and the Senate owes them a debt of gratitude for their dedicated service to this country. Mr. President, our Nation's small communities are a step closer to receiving long-sought air service. Also, America's airports will be enhanced. This is good for all Americans.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I believe, traditionally, it is in order postcloture to have a motion to table or a motion to postpone indefinitely. I don't know the precedents in terms of that actually having been used. I am certainly not advocating it. But under the rules of the Senate, I am under the impression that it would be in order. I thought maybe I could answer it succinctly without getting into the precedents. Mr. President, has the request been----

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I have a unanimous consent request and closing script. As you know, cloture was just invoked on two Ninth Circuit judges. I still hope we have not set a precedent. I don't believe we have because it was such an overwhelming vote to invoke cloture and stop the filibuster. We should not be having filibusters on judicial nominations and having to move to cloture. But we had to, and it was an overwhelming vote of 86-13 on the first one, and I guess that was the vote on the second one, too. I intend to offer a time agreement between the proponents and opponents regarding postcloture debate. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Smith of New Hampshire be in control of up to 3 hours of total debate on both nominations, and that Senator Leahy, or his designee, be in control of up to 1 hour 30 minutes of total debate on both nominations; that following the conclusion or yielding back of the time, the Senate lay the nominations aside until 2 p.m., at which time the Senate would proceed to back-to-back votes on or in relation to the confirmations of Berzon and Paez. That would be at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. They appointed only five.

Mr. LOTT. Let me ask the Senator something, if I may. This is a sophisticated title, the Millennium Digital Commerce Act. What does this bill do?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could try to respond, is the Senator a cosponsor of the legislation?

Mr. LOTT. As is our tradition around here, it could be the Abraham- Leahy bill, or the Lott-Daschle bill, or something other bill.

Mr. LOTT. I assume the Senator has been interested and involved in this.

Mr. LOTT. They did not appoint anybody from the Banking Committee, as I understand it.

Mr. LOTT. I think that clearly would be the intent of our conferees. Therefore, I assume Senator Leahy would support getting conferees appointed and going to conference. Is that correct?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could respond to the distinguished Democratic whip, this is for conferees on this Millennium Digital Commerce Act. We have tried, over the past couple of weeks, to get clearance to appoint conferees. The recommendation was that we have, I believe, 11 from the Commerce Committee, 3 from Banking--6 and 5 and 2 and 1. For some reason, there have been objections to that. There continue to be objections, but this is a bill that has broad support in the industry and on both sides of the aisle. So I am confused and perplexed about why we can't get these conferees appointed and move forward to this conference. So it has not been signed off on, as I understand it. But since I talked to the Democratic leader last week twice, I thought perhaps we had reached a point where this could be done.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could be heard on this issue at this time. I don't understand, again, what the objection is to this procedural motion. The House appointed conferees to this bill 2 weeks ago, and they have been calling over saying, ``What is the deal?'' I understand that perhaps there are other Senators who would like to be conferees from other committees. There is some indication that maybe the problem is they don't like the fact there are some Banking conferees. The House bill has several provisions that are clearly in the Banking jurisdiction, and that is why we have recommended having three from Banking--two and one--so we can get this into conference and get it worked out. There are a lot of us who realize there are Silicon Valley interests in this. We also have the Dulles corridor high-tech industry in Northern Virginia that really wants this legislation completed. I don't think it would be a long conference. So I want to highlight the fact that we are anxious to get to conference. I have addressed concerns as best I could. I don't think we can take Banking members off the conference. Maybe there is another way to solve this problem. But since I was getting questions both from the high-tech industry and from the House as to why we weren't going on to conference, I had to point out or emphasize what the problem was. I would be glad to yield to the Senator from Michigan, the author of this legislation. He probably knows more about it than any other Senator.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to appoint the conferees to S. 761, the Millennium Digital Commerce Act.

Mr. LOTT. If the Senator will yield on that point, I also note at this time that I think the House only has perhaps five conferees. I don't believe I have ever been to a conference where the House has one- third as many conferees as the Senate. So we have already tried to include as many Senators as we possibly could.

Mr. LOTT. I yield to the Senator from Michigan. Senator Daschle is on the floor. He may want to get involved in this.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the Senate proceed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 1000, the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. I further ask unanimous consent that there be 60 minutes of debate equally divided as follows: 20 minutes for the majority manager, 20 minutes for the minority manager, and 20 minutes for Senator Lautenberg. I further ask unanimous consent that following that debate time, the conference report be laid aside with a vote on adoption to occur at 5 p.m. just prior to the scheduled cloture votes with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. LOTT. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank my colleagues for their cooperation on this. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I am glad too yield.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank both Senators for their comments.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, these cloture votes occur in the order in which they were filed at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, and that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII in each case be waived.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it is my understanding that if cloture is invoked in each case, Senator Smith of New Hampshire will require 5 hours of total debate on both nominations under his control, and following the conclusion of the time, the Senate would be in a position to vote in a back-to-back sequence on the confirmations of Berzon and Paez. I will not propound that request at this time but will put Members on notice that this is the fashion in which I see the Senate considering these nominations. I have discussed that with Senator Daschle, and he understands that. Of course, there will be a need to have equal debate on both sides, if that is required by Senators. I thank all my colleagues for their cooperation. I look forward to further debate on these nominees during tomorrow's session prior to the 5 p.m. back-to-back cloture votes. In light of this agreement, we can announce that there will be no further votes this evening.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I understand there have been a couple of hours of spirited debate on the nominations of Judge Paez and Mrs. Berzon, which is certainly the right of the Senate. I am sure we will have some further spirited discussion about these nominees. However, I have given my word that these two nominees should at least have the opportunity for a vote. We did work out an agreement last year, and I made a commitment that these two nominees would have a Senate vote on their confirmation. With that in mind, in order to accomplish this--while I had hoped it would not be necessary, again, I emphasize, as I did last year and earlier this year, I think it is a mistake to begin to have cloture votes on judicial nominations on the floor. We had one instance of that last year, and I said to my Democratic friends I thought that was a mistake, and pretty shortly thereafter we worked that out and moved that nomination. I don't like to have to file cloture on these nominations either, but in order to fulfill the commitments that have been made and have a good debate but some limit on it where we would get a vote, I send a cloture motion to the desk on the nomination of Marsha Berzon to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send to the desk also a cloture motion on the pending nomination of Richard Paez.