Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Like to; unless there is obstruction or resistance. (Laughter.) I am sure when the time comes, the Senator may have some second thoughts. But at any rate, let's do higher education and then we will talk about that. Amendment No. 3116

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, will the Senator from Montana allow me to make a brief statement before he proceeds?

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, as all Members are aware, when a cloture motion is filed in the Senate, the provisions of rule XXII, the cloture rule, require all first-degree amendments must be filed at the desk by 1 p.m. the day before the cloture vote occurs. Last evening, I filed cloture on the substitute amendment to the product liability bill. Realizing and observing how upset the Democratic leader was when cloture was filed last night, I checked with the desk as to exactly how many amendments had been filed to the product liability bill by our Democratic colleagues. To my dismay, earlier only two had been filed, but still a very small number, and only 21 Democratic amendments have been filed, and it is almost 1 p.m., the deadline time. The Democratic leader stated last evening that many Members on his side of the aisle had amendments they wish to offer on this bill. And he also stated, ``It is the right of all Senators to fulfill the functions of their responsibilities to offer amendments.'' Well, where are the amendments? And why have Members on the Democratic side of the aisle chosen not to file amendments within the timeframe that is outlined under rule XXII? Could it be that our colleagues had never been prepared to exercise their right to offer amendments when it comes to the legislation? Instead, have our colleagues on the other side of the aisle just decided they would vote against cloture with the intention of never attempting to offer amendments that would have been intended, I am sure, to ``improve the bill,'' as Senator Daschle suggested? Since there have only been 21 amendments filed, it seems to me that maybe our Democratic colleagues are not serious about addressing this important issue which is, by the way, a bill that has been laboriously worked out. It is a compromise bill. Senator Gorton of Washington, Senator Rockefeller of West Virginia, have spent hours, days, months working on this. And this legislation has been approved by the administration, by the White House. They have indicated they would sign it. So why in the world would there not be a serious attempt here to pass this legislation? But having said all that, I am prepared to offer a consent agreement that would extend the filing time for first-degree amendments until 5 p.m. this afternoon, if that would help accommodate our colleagues on the Democratic side or, for that matter, on the Republican side. Therefore, I do now ask unanimous consent that, notwithstanding rule XXII, that the filing deadline for the first-degree amendments with respect to the product liability bill be extended to 5 p.m. this afternoon.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor, Mr. President. Mr. BAUCUS addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Thank you, Mr. President. Welcome back.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, this vote in relation to the space station was the last vote of the evening. Wednesday, the Senate will consider the IRS conference report. I expect a considerable amount of time for debate to occur with respect to this IRS reform and restructure bill. A lot of Senators put a lot of time into it. There are some important provisions I know they will want to emphasize. Therefore, a late afternoon or early evening vote can be expected to occur with respect to the IRS reform legislation.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I do this in order to introduce a resolution. I am joining today with Senator Torricelli and a number of others in introducing a resolution on Taiwan. I ask now that additional cosponsors be added to this resolution until the end of business today.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. As a reminder, then, to all Senators, under the provisions of rule XXII, all first-degree amendments must be filed by 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and all second-degree amendments must be filed 1 hour prior to the cloture vote.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this is the cloture motion on the substitute product liability bill, and so for the information of all Senators, this vote will occur on Thursday of this week. I will consult with the Democratic leader as to exactly what time that will be. And I now ask that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I now move to proceed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 2676, the IRS reform bill.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. These articles, certainly newspapers that don't always take the same editorial positions, certainly agree in this case and express their concern about siding with Beijing on this very important issue relating to the freedom and the democracy of Taiwan. I thank the handlers of this bill and the managers for yielding of this time. We wanted to get this submission done this afternoon. I am glad to yield to Senator Torricelli.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this resolution does not break new ground with regard to Taiwan. It simply reaffirms our support of the principles of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. It calls on the President to seek a Chinese renunciation of the use of force to affect Taiwan's future. President Clinton gave two impressive performances at Beijing University and at the joint press conference, but I am very much concerned about the perception of what he had to say, of what the effect is of what he had to say with regard to Taiwan. Instead of pressing Beijing to renounce the use of force against Taiwan, President Clinton accepted Beijing's position on Taiwan. By ending the ambiguity of the U.S. position, we have harmed democratic Taiwan's position. Congress has pressed previous administrations to change its policies with regard to Taiwan. In fact, the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 was a clear example of congressional restraint on executive actions on Taiwan. In 1995, we urged the President to grant a visa to Taiwan's President to enter the U.S. for a college reunion. The administration changed its position after Congress took that action. This resolution is necessary to correct the effects of the statements that were made in Shanghai. Before Shanghai, U.S. policy was to acknowledge Beijing's position. Now we have prepared to make Beijing's position our policy. China refuses to take the use of force off the table. We should not unilaterally deny Taiwan membership to international organizations, and we should not take action in concert with the dictatorship in Beijing without even consulting the 21 million people under democratic rule in Taiwan. Instead of undermining Taiwan, we should support our fundamental national interest in the peaceful resolution of differences. We do not want to see a war in the Taiwan Straits. Deterrence is the way to avoid such a possibility. We should support the provision of missile defenses to Taiwan so that they can protect their democracy from a dictatorship's missiles. We should support Taiwan's membership in international organizations where they are willing and able to help an organization's goals--such as free trade and economic stability. There is a second resolution, S. Con. Res. 30, on the issue of Taiwan's membership in the IMF and the World Bank. It has already been passed out of the Foreign Affairs Committee by unanimous vote. I hope we can pass that resolution this week. I thank Senator Torricelli and the rest of our cosponsors. I urge other colleagues to join us because this is certainly a bipartisan issue. I look forward to rapid Senate action on the resolution to reaffirm our relationship with Taiwan and the primacy of the Taiwan Relations Act. I ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, that editorials from the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post be printed in the Record at this point.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I know of no further requests for time on the pending motion to proceed to the product liability bill.

Mr. LOTT. I believe the question is on the motion?

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Also, at this point I would like to welcome back our colleague, the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter, who is recently back from surgery, and he just made this vote this afternoon. (Applause, Senators rising.)

Mr. LOTT. I am sure he was watching that on TV essentially, but he did make this vote, and we are glad to have him back.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will immediately proceed to a vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the product liability bill. If cloture is invoked, the Senate will debate the motion to proceed until the policy luncheons at 12:30 p.m., and following the policy luncheons, it is expected the Senate will resume consideration of the HUD-VA appropriations bill. It is hoped that Members will come to the floor this afternoon to offer and debate amendments to the HUD-VA bill. I understand there are some amendments and some very legitimate amendments. I hope we will get started on those early in the afternoon so that we can have a reasonable debate, but under a time agreement, and get to a conclusion as soon as we can this week on the VA-HUD bill. The Senate also this week will consider the IRS reform conference report. We are not sure exactly when that will begin. We thought about possibly tonight. It will depend on what happens on product liability and the HUD-VA bill, but we are definitely taking up the IRS reform and restructuring conference report before the end of the week to get a vote. I think this will be a tremendous reward for the American people for their patience, and also to help address the serious problems we have had with the IRS in recent years. I also remind Members that July is expected to be a very busy month with late-night sessions and votes, and votes on most Fridays and Mondays. If anything develops to the contrary, of course, we will notify Members as soon as we can. Members have to expect votes late on Monday afternoons and on Fridays also. We certainly need all Senators' cooperation to get this work done. We did get time agreements at the end of the session before we went out for the Fourth of July recess period on higher education and also on a package of energy bills. So we will work those in at the earliest possible opportunity this week or next week. I yield the floor, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I thank you, I say to Senator McConnell. I do note that Senator Daschle and I have been communicating on this back and forth the last 2 weeks. I am sorry he is not able to be here now. But this is an example of how we do come together and work very carefully and sensibly, hopefully, when it comes to foreign policy questions. And he certainly wanted to go forward with this. I am glad we were able to make this announcement this afternoon. I do have a series of bills I believe we can deal with before we adjourn for the week. I know Senator Ford here is on behalf of the Democratic leader. So we can go through these pretty quickly.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent the Senate turn to Calendar No. 90, S. 648, the Product Liability Reform Act.

Mr. LOTT. I move to proceed to S. 648 and send a cloture motion to the desk.