Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I appreciate the fact the Senator did not object.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could respond, it is unanimous consent that the Agriculture Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 2344, which is a bill that allows farmers who are suffering from the drought to begin receiving emergency transition payments that they are entitled to in October instead of having to wait until January.

Mr. LOTT. It says, as I understand it, that they would get the same amount they would get either way. They would just get it earlier in the year instead of later in the year so they could begin to deal with the problems that they have had to face as a result of disasters.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this is a bill that has been offered. It provides help now. I know no Senator would want to delay that help that they were going to get anyway. We just get it earlier. This is a bill that is going to pass the House next Monday, probably unanimously, which would provide some more immediate help to these farmers. There is no effort to play games here. This is an effort to provide some help to the farmers who need it as soon as they can possibly get it. That is all there is to it. The idea we are playing games here--I will be glad to yield to the Senator from Idaho.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate receives the House bill relative to H-1B, the text of which I send to the desk, the bill be deemed agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table. I further ask that if the text of the House-passed bill is not identical to the text just sent to the desk, then the House bill will be appropriately referred.

Mr. LOTT. Let me ask Senator Craig, if he would respond, do you think this bill, which is very limited, with no budget impact, would, at any rate, still provide some help quicker to the farmers who had been affected by these disasters?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Agriculture Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 2344, and that the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I think the Senator would like to withhold that last comment about it being uncalled for. I don't do this lightly.

Mr. LOTT. I did it for a reason. Mr. President, if I could respond to the Senator's comments, this is not a controversial issue. This is an issue that I am sure that all agriculture Members would very much like for us to get resolved. There is no budget impact. All it does is say that this allows farmers suffering from drought, El Nino, fire, and other natural disasters to begin considering and receiving emergency transition payments that they are entitled to under the Freedom to Farm Act. As a matter of fact, I understand that it will allow them to get these benefits in October rather than having to wait until January. I did it for a reason. If we don't get it resolved before we get to a final vote, then objections later on tonight would make it impossible for us to get any consideration. If the Senator would indicate to me that there is some idea that we could get this agreed to tonight, I would be glad to work with him like I always do. But the timing was such that we have to do it now in order to get it considered, or it could be objected to after Senators have gone, and we would not get it completed. I am trying to complete action so that we can go through a long list of Executive Calendar nominations, so that we could complete some more of them tomorrow. If we don't do these two issues now, they are basically gone until September. I thought that--I understood there was an objection, but that we had worked through that, and that we would not have any problem in getting this cleared. I had talked to Senators on your side of the aisle that have agriculture interests that indicated they would not object to this. If there is some problem that we could resolve right quick, I would be glad to withhold. But we need to try to get this resolved, because it is something that is very important timewise to the Department of Agriculture and to the farmers that have been affected by drought. We have worked this year on both sides of the aisle on the agriculture appropriations bill to get considerations for farmers that have been impacted by these disasters. This is just one way to do that. Since there is no cost factor involved, it just gives authority for this to be moved forward.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Let me say if I could, to the chairman, if there are amendments that are debated and ready for a vote at that time, we could put them in the sequence at 2 o'clock.

Mr. LOTT. Baucus amendment, 20 minutes equally divided. Several Senators addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT. Let me renew the request because Senator Daschle and I have other things we would like to do. If you want to talk and have votes, we will just be having votes every 20 minutes the rest of the night. We are not going to stack them. You need to be reasonable. The request as it now stands--does Senator Graham have an addition?

Mr. LOTT. I understand you have an amendment in there which they are attempting to work out.

Mr. LOTT. I agree. I further ask that no second-degree amendments be in order prior to a vote on a tabling motion.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let's add Senator Graham to the list for 10 minutes. I don't think we can lock it in at this point because we have the managers' amendment and other problems could be caused doing that.

Mr. LOTT. The Senator's reservation is recognized, and if the issue is not worked out, he will have an opportunity to offer it and vote on it. Senator Daschle has a suggestion to make.

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

Mr. LOTT. I believe we have to act on the underlying amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I am continuing to struggle to try to get a finite list of amendments. I think we have that. I know a number of these amendments will be worked out, will be included in the managers' package. I have discussed this arrangement and this list with the chairman of the subcommittee, the ranking member, and with Senator Daschle. I believe this is the best way to get this to a conclusion that would be fair to one and all. Again, I do note, before I make that unanimous consent request, that we do have some Senators who are going to represent the entire body at the funeral in the morning. So we are trying to go ahead and take up the Department of Defense appropriations bill first thing in the morning, lay it down at 9 o'clock, and then any stacked votes would occur at 1 o'clock. To renew the bidding, in the earlier unanimous consent agreement, we have lined up for consideration the McConnell amendment for 30 minutes, the Glenn amendment for 30 minutes, and the Harkin amendment for 30 minutes; Harkin with regard to drug control, the other two with regard to FEC. I now ask unanimous consent that no further first-degree amendments be in order other than the list agreed to earlier this evening and the below-listed amendments, and they be subject to relevant second-degree amendments: Graham relevant amendment, managers' package; DeWine regarding Customs; Domenici regarding FLETC; Stevens relevant amendment; Senators Daschle and Lott--one relevant each; Conrad regarding high-intensity drug areas; Dorgan regarding an advisory commission; one by Graham; Harkin and Bingaman--all three on the high- intensity drug issue. I hope they could work those out or roll them into one or something of that nature; Kerrey regarding sense of the Senate; and a Kohl managers' amendment. I further ask all amendments must be offered and debated tonight and the votes be postponed to occur at 1, if any are needed, on the amendments. And, of course, final passage on Thursday, and that they occur in stacked sequence with 2 minutes for debate at that time before each vote for closing remarks, and that following those votes the bill be advanced to third reading. I further ask that if the motion relative to the Graham motion to reconsider is not tabled, the underlying amendment and motions be limited to unlimited debate.

Mr. LOTT. That is correct.

Mr. LOTT. All right. Then we would have those stacked votes at----

Mr. LOTT. At 2 o'clock? Is that agreeable with the chairman?

Mr. LOTT. No, you would be in the order about 10 or 11 o'clock.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it will be the intent of the leadership after we finish the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill that we will go to the Department of Defense appropriations bill. We would like to lay it down tonight and be prepared to stay on it. I say to all Senators, that will be the final bill that we will take up this week. When we finish that bill, we will be prepared to recess for the August recess. That can be tomorrow night, that can be Friday morning, that can be Friday afternoon or Friday night. It will be our intent to stay on it, with cooperation from both sides of the aisle, to complete that very important Department of Defense appropriations bill.

Mr. LOTT. Yes, we have a number of nominations that I believe we can clear, that we need to clear. We will be working on that beginning tomorrow night. I thought maybe we could do some tomorrow night and then some more on Friday, after we complete the Department of Defense appropriations bill. I yield the floor, Mr. President.