Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I will withhold the unanimous consent request at this time, and while I am working on both of these unanimous consent requests, the Senators from Iowa wish to be recognized so I yield the floor. Mr. GRASSLEY addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 1415, the tobacco bill, be referred to the Finance Committee until 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, and if the committee has not reported the bill at that time, the measure be automatically discharged and placed immediately on the calendar, notwithstanding a recess or adjournment of the Senate. I further ask the Finance Committee have permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 14, to consider S. 1415. Mr. McCONNELL addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent again that the Senate turn to S. 2057, the DOD authorization bill.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor. privilege of the floor

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 1415, the tobacco bill, be referred to the Finance Committee until 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, and if the committee has not reported the bill at that time, the measure be automatically discharged and placed immediately on the calendar, notwithstanding a recess or adjournment of the Senate. I further ask that the Senate Finance Committee have permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 14, to consider S. 1415.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the Senate has now passed the second of the four high-tech bills that we had been working on and have worked to get agreements. And we have been successful in that. It is our intent at the earliest opportunity to consider and pass the WIPO bill, even though I understand there may be a technical problem with the blue slip issue involving the House of Representatives. We are trying to check that out, and also the immigration bill that the Senator from Michigan has been working on, and Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts. It would be our intent to call up that immigration bill, if we do not do it before noon on Monday, with the possibility of stacked votes on Monday afternoon about 5:30. I am not asking unanimous consent to that effect right now. I have discussed that with Senator Abraham, and Senator Kennedy. But I would need to check that with Senator Daschle and others. But I want the Members to know that we need to complete action on these high-tech bills. A lot of great work has been done. We have been able to pass two of them. We are very close to being able to get the other two done. Our intent is to stay with that until we get it completed. The Senate will now begin the DOD authorization bill. Having said all of that, there will be no further votes this evening, and the Senate will consider the DOD authorization bill throughout Thursday's session of the Senate. I had hoped there would be opening statements. But I understand we will just lay the bill down, and then we will begin tomorrow. But I want the Record to show that I was requested to have the remainder of the night for the DOD authorization bill so that we could get 2 or 3 hours on it. We are not going to be able to do that. But I am certainly prepared and willing, and wanted to do that.

Mr. LOTT. I might respond to the fact that we do want to get that bill done. We have run into a possible technical problem that we are trying to work out, as you well know.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I am trying to have an announcement for the Members. But I need to check with a couple of people in just a moment. So if the Senator from Iowa would like to proceed with statements, I would like to maybe interrupt in a moment.

Mr. LOTT

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

Mr. LOTT. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I would be pleased to join Senator McCain and Senator Jeffords in a colloquy on this subject.

Mr. LOTT. A particular success is the Engineering Research Centers Program which has stimulated focused university-industry partnerships in research and education, and has served as a catalyst for economic development within the United States. Much success can be attributed to the Foundation's leadership in ensuring each center establishes a clear vision and conducts careful strategic planning involving their industry partners. Among the impacts of this program are: Next generation engineering systems developed from new knowledge discoveries and new technological developments; Technology transferred to hundreds of companies and governmental agencies; Technical assistance and training provided for industry and government; Thousands of undergraduate and graduate students involved in the research of the centers and exposed to next generation systems research and development; and Outreach to K- 12 and to underrepresented groups. NSF Science Technology Centers and other NSF university centers have likewise cultivated strong university-industry affiliations with centers focused on specific research areas related to industry needs. For example, the modern Internet browser was developed at the NSF National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois; a turbomachinery computational model developed at the Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation at Mississippi State University is now used by all jet engine manufacturers; the Center for Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington is developing tools for industry use to analyze and interpret the information content of biological molecules such as DA and proteins, to analyze and interpret the information content to biological molecules; and the Center for High Pressure Research at the State University of New York at Stony Brook works with several companies to develop new ways that industry can use high-pressure technology to produce exotic materials, such as industrial-grade diamonds. Hundreds of similar contributions can be cited from these and other NSF-funded university centers. I believe this program should be greatly expanded and that the NSF should become even more active in ensuring the development of long-term vision and strategic planning of each center. Further, NSF should build on successful centers and seek ways to sustain the investment with continual support when appropriate. Areas that show great potential for the future include: computation engineering, biotechnology and bioengineering, manufacturing, and industrial systems, electronics and communications systems, materials processing including polymers and composite materials, manufacturing systems, remote sensing systems and technologies, and optical systems as well as ship building, telecommunications and super-computing supercomputer technology for university research centers.

Mr. LOTT. I also would like to thank Senator McCain and Senator Jeffords for their leadership in these areas of science and technology.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I am pleased that the Senate will be considering a series of bills that truly impact and shape our lives in this age of ever-changing technology. Many of us in this chamber can remember a time when the words ``Internet'' and ``intellectual property'' had no meaning in our day- to-day activities. That is changing. Rapidly changing. New, competitive markets are emerging, and exploding, thanks to continuing technological advancements and innovations. The potential benefits of such unprecedented growth is exciting. Besides transforming the structure of the communications industry, high technology is literally changing the way millions of us live and do business. I would like to share a good Samaritan story about how wireless technology does impact, and possibly save, lives. Mrs. Debbie Sanders, one of my constituents from the small town of Enid, Mississippi, is the 1998 recipient of the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award for her act of heroism. On her way home from a long day at work as a store's assistant manager, Debbie saw a car flipped upside down in a water-filled ditch. She used her wireless phone to call for help and pulled the victim from the vehicle. Not sure of her exact location on this lonely stretch of deserted, rural road, Debbie had to remain on the phone for over one hour with emergency personnel until she and the victim could be reached. Mr. President, this is only one example of how high technology can enhance our world. There will be boundless opportunity in the next century for new technological applications to evolve. With that opportunity will come an absolute necessity for a highly skilled labor work force to ensure America's competitive standing and high-technology leadership. Our vibrant economy is directly tied to this cutting-edge technology. Bills that advance our country's ability to compete will strengthen our future and our children's future. Several measures will be considered, but I want to particularly mention the Consumer Anti-Slamming Protection Act. We need a public policy to crack down on slamming. We need to protect the telephone consumer. The world indeed is shrinking, and we all have come to depend upon long distance service, not as a luxury but as a necessity. We want to talk to those closest to our hearts, wherever they may be. The practice of ``slamming''--unauthorized switching of long distance telephone service carriers by competing service providers--must stop. It is abusive to the consumer, and has become much too frequent and too disruptive. Our colleagues have told us horror stories in the past, and today we will hear even more illustrations of slamming abuses. With this statute, I join my colleagues in urging the FCC to strengthen its enforcement program to stop this unscrupulous practice. Tougher penalties against companies that intentionally slam will be an effective solution. I want to thank my Senate colleagues for their diligent leadership and keen focus on tackling these legislative challenges. Their willingness and commitment to work in a bipartisan manner is the reason we are here today. Although some of the issues may be fundamentally noncontroversial, I know the issues are complex, and I appreciate their efforts. Mr. President, I look forward to the debate. It is also my hope that progress will be continued, and consensus achieved, on other critical pieces of legislation to address a variety of high-technology related concerns shared by many in this Chamber.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Good morning, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, on Monday a good deal of work was done and the predicate was laid for a number of bills to be considered this week. We will begin the morning with morning business until 10 a.m. I observe that there are at least a couple of Senators who wish to take advantage of that. Following morning business, Senator D'Amato will be recognized to introduce a bill regarding patient care for breast cancer. It is hoped that a short time agreement can be reached with the D'Amato bill. At 11 a.m., under a previous order the Senate will proceed to the consideration of the agriculture research conference report. The time until 12:10 will be divided among several Members for debate on that conference report. Following that debate, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of the National Science Foundation reauthorization bill, again under a short time agreement. A rollcall vote will occur on passage of that bill, the National Science Foundation reauthorization, at approximately 12:15 or so. Therefore Members should be aware that the first vote of today's session will occur at 12:15. Then the Senate will recess after that vote for the weekly policy caucuses. When the Senate reconvenes at 2:15, Senator Gramm of Texas will be recognized to move to recommit the agriculture research conference report. There will be 1 hour of debate equally divided on the motion. At the conclusion of that debate, the Senate will proceed to vote on or in relation to the motion. Following the vote, it is hoped that a short time agreement can be reached with respect to the agriculture research conference report. Any of several high-tech bills or other legislative or executive items also may be taken up today, if they can be cleared. I did have a good conversation late on Monday afternoon with Senator Daschle. I believe we are going to be able to clear at least three of those high-tech bills. All of them are broadly supported and I believe will have an overwhelming vote once we get to a vote. I won't list them now, but we will make some further announcement on that later on today. Finally, as a reminder to all Members, a cloture vote will occur on Wednesday on the motion to proceed to the missile defense bill. Senator Cochran handled this debate on the floor on Monday. He has done excellent work on this bill. This is something we should do for the defense of our country. The American people, I find, when I go around and talk about missile defense, are shocked to learn that we don't have a National Missile Defense System in place. So this bill is very important, I believe. I appreciate the work that has been done by my colleague from Mississippi. The next 2 weeks obviously will be extremely busy as Members attempt to complete action on several important pieces of legislation. There are a number of conferences that we hope to have completed and voted on before the Memorial Day recess, including the ISTEA II, the highway transportation bill, the education conference report, the IRS reform and restructuring conference report. We also have a vote already agreed to with regard to Russia-Iran missile technology transfer, which is a continuing concern. Progress is not being made sufficiently, and I do expect that there will be a vote on this before the end of the next week. There are a number of other very important bills now that Members are getting cleared through committees or that Members are seeking to have voted on. We will try to schedule as many of those as we can. Obviously, we will need the cooperation of all Members as we try to get through this process before the end of the May recess for Memorial Day. I again emphasize we do have probably three high-tech bills that we have cleared: we have the agriculture conference report, we have the missile defense bill that Senator Cochran has been working on, and the National Science Foundation reauthorization bill. And we are going to try to clear some Executive Calendar nominations, too. So, again, thank you for your cooperation. These are all very important bills for the American people and I hope we can continue the good progress that we have made over the last 3 weeks. When you look back at what we have been able to get through the Senate, in terms of education, the NATO treaty enlargement, and also last week the IRS reform--if we can have another week and complete the week with the DOD Department of Defense authorization bill I think we can feel very good about what we have accomplished over the last month. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me say to the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania that we have discussed this on two or three occasions, and he is absolutely correct; he has been cooperative and has not insisted on offering this important amendment on a couple of bills where he could have done that, because at the time it would have caused problems with those bills and made it more difficult for us to finish them in a timely way. This is the Senate and I think the Senator is entitled to be able to offer his amendment soon. Frankly, it is an amendment that I find very attractive, personally. So I would like to be able to be on record having voted for it. So I will work with the Senator to find a vehicle and a time that he is comfortable with later on this month, or in June, where this amendment can be offered and we can have a reasonable discussion and a vote.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senate will resume consideration of the Thompson-Sessions amendment to H.R. 2676, the IRS reform and restructuring bill. Under the previous order, the time between approximately 9:30 and 10 a.m. will be equally divided for debate on the amendment. At the conclusion or yielding back of the time, the Senate will proceed to vote on or in relation to the Thompson-Sessions amendment. I repeat, that will be around 10 o'clock, maybe slightly after. Or, of course, some time could be yielded back. As a reminder, we have reached an agreement limiting amendments to the bill. However, there are almost 50 amendments on the list. I had hoped maybe there would be a dozen. I assume, even though some of these, or most of them, would qualify as relevant amendments, Senators will decide that they can offer them on some other legislation or some of them, hopefully, will be accepted after working with the managers of the legislation. I hope those who do want to offer amendments will come forward and do that this morning. We need to begin to get a lineup of which amendments will be debated and voted on and a time that will be used. I see no need to debate these amendments for 2 or 3 hours. Most of them we ought to talk about 30 or 40 minutes and have a vote, because a lot of work has already been done on this legislation. We have two or three contentious issues we need to flesh out and have a debate and vote on, but even those amendments I don't think are going to be critical at this point if either side wins. We still can work further on this once we get to conference, even though I hope the conference will be short. I think it is incumbent upon the Congress to complete this legislation before we go home--I mean in its entirety--for the Memorial Day recess. We need the cooperation of all Senators in order to complete action on this important bill today, and we all have assumed it will be done today. It should be done today. We don't need to, and should not, drag it over until next week because if it does it will bump everything else. We have high tech, crop insurance, and Department of State authorization, just next week. Higher education is pending out there. We need to act on that. There will be a lot of work during the next 10 days to see if we can get an understanding of how to proceed, if we are going to proceed, on the tobacco bill. We need to get this done. For those who think I am huffing and puffing here, we can replicate last Thursday night if the Members want to. We can be sitting right here at 11 o'clock finishing up this bill or we can get going. Progress was made yesterday because we got an agreement to limit amendments, but I didn't feel the sense of urgency. So I say to the managers of the legislation, let's get going. Let's get the amendments racked up and be prepared to tell Senators that if they are not going to come to the floor and offer their amendments they will be shoved off at the end and they will get 5 minutes or 2 minutes to describe their amendments. Again, we don't want to stifle the Senate being able to work its will, but I think we have to be reasonable and be prepared to complete our work. I thank my colleagues for their attention. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent Senator Coats be permitted to sign S. 1502 as Acting President pro tempore.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I had not intended to speak on this amendment, but I did want to speak in wrap-up on the bill itself, and also to notify the Members of what the schedule would be. This seems like a good time to do all of them because I have been inspired to want to speak on this amendment. I want to associate myself with the remarks of the Senator from Georgia, and especially my colleague from Mississippi. This is totally outrageous that this kind of random audit is going on, and the people who are getting the brunt of it are the people at the low end of the scale, from a poor State like my own State of Mississippi. As a matter of fact, I believe we first got the inkling that this was going on at hearings last fall when we had hearings in the Finance Committee, because I remember being struck by the fact that States like Mississippi and Idaho were the ones that had a disproportionate share of these random audits. I think a great job has been done on this bill, and there has been bipartisan input. But this is an unfairness that cannot be allowed to go on. I am going to support this amendment. I realize it is going to be difficult, under the circumstances. But I plead now with the chairman and the ranking member to get into this because we cannot allow this to continue. It is just another example of the type of thing going on at the IRS that I think Senators and the American people, frankly, as a group, have been shocked to learn from the hearings that we had, and as we are finding out more information. I commend the Senator for his amendment. I call upon the committee to do more on this and to work to make sure the IRS stops this kind of conduct. Order of Procedure Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, so they will have a feel for what is going to be happening in the next few minutes, I believe this will be the last vote on an amendment. Shortly, we will be going to final passage on the IRS restructuring and reform bill-- hopefully, within the next few minutes. That will be the last vote of the day when we get to final passage. The Senate will be in session tomorrow for morning business speeches, confirmation of some Executive Calendar nominations, and the entering into of several time agreements with respect to energy legislation. However, no votes will occur during Friday's session of the Senate. On Monday, May 11, the Senate will consider a conference report, along with, hopefully, at least three of the so-called high-tech bills. We are working through the process now to clear those. The three we are looking at on Monday are the S. 1618, an antislamming bill; S. 1260, a uniform standards bill; S. 1723, skilled workers legislation. The Senator in the Chair has been encouraging that. We are ``hotlining'' to get those clear. However, because of a particular problem with one of our Senators who has had a death in the family, we will not have any recorded votes during Monday's session of the Senate. But there will be business on probably at least four major items. The Senate will also begin consideration of Calendar No. 345, S. 1873, the missile defense bill, which will be offered by the Senator from Mississippi, Senator Cochran. On Tuesday, the Senate will attempt to reach a time agreement on the D'Amato bill regarding in-patient health care for breast cancer, and resume and complete action on any of the high-tech bills not completed on Monday. Any votes ordered Monday will be postponed, to occur on Tuesday, May 12, at approximately noon. The latter part of next week, we expect to call up the DOD authorization bill. I want to thank my colleagues for their cooperation in lining up this schedule. Senator Daschle has been very helpful. Also, I thank our colleagues for the cooperation they have given us on the important legislation that is before us. I thank Senator Roth for his determined leadership on this very important effort of reform and restructuring of the IRS. Others were prepared to rush to judgment, but he said, no, there is more to be done, there is more to know and more work that we need to do on this important legislation. He persisted and he was right. We have learned more and we have a better bill. I appreciate the cooperation of Senator Moynihan. Senator Kerrey has been very much involved, and I am glad that we have reached a conclusion. The American people expect this. There is no issue now. I find, when I go to my State, or others, nothing gets people more upset than what they have experienced in dealing with the IRS. Do they have an important job to do? Yes. Are there a lot of IRS agents who do good work and don't like the intimidation and threats and coverups going on there because of the misconduct? Yes, there are good people there. But we have to stop the culture of intimidation, and we have to shift the burden to the IRS, away from the taxpayer. We have to stop some of the payments that they are having thrust upon them. We have to stop a system that protects workers at IRS that misbehave. I think this bill will be a major step in that direction. It may not be enough. This may be just the third in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. There may have to be a fourth and a fifth. But the Senate, the Congress cannot let up. So I am pleased that we are going to bring this to a conclusion this afternoon. I thank all the Senators who have been involved in this effort. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to say, before Senator Kerrey leaves the floor, that the time that he outlined so both Senators could explain what is in the amendments that would pay for the costs of these corrections at IRS sounds fine. If we could have votes by 10:30 in the morning, I don't see any problem with that, two back to back at 10:30. Let me say to Senator D'Amato, once again, I appreciate his cooperation here, and it is not the first time he has cooperated this year on a lot of issues. But on this issue in particular, I know how strongly he feels about it and I am absolutely satisfied that he is going to get a vote on this issue, and he should get a vote on this issue, and I am going to work with him to make that happen in a reasonable way. I will work with you to try to see if we can get an agreement to bring this up next week. It is going to take work on your part and on my part. Senator Daschle has a number of Senators who have views, or amendments even, on this. That is a problem, because it could very easily get totally out of control and have the whole world caving in on it. But we will work on that. If, for some reason, that does not work out, every bill that comes along will be a prospect for an amendment, for the Senator's amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Having reached this agreement, there will be no further votes this evening. After Senator Daschle makes his comments, I do want to respond and comment on the fact that, frankly, Senators on both sides of the aisle have had to hold back and be cooperative. This was not easy to reach. But this is a very important piece of legislation that has been crafted in a bipartisan way. If we didn't get this agreement, we could have been working on it for days and weeks and it would have wound up pushing everything down the line, many bills that we do want to do and can do. So I appreciate the cooperation and I appreciate that Senator Daschle has had to work very hard. I could start naming Senators on this side and he can start naming Senators on that side who had good and valid amendments. But I think we did the right thing. After the Senator comments, I would like to respond further to Senator D'Amato's generosity and very responsible action and talk about what we are going to try to do to be helpful.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, Senator Daschle and I have been working throughout the day to get an agreement that will allow us to come to a fair and reasonable conclusion to the IRS restructuring and reform bill. We have been able to work out, I think, a fair agreement, and I would like to propound that. I ask unanimous consent that with respect to H.R. 2676 all amendments be relevant to the bill except amendments to title VI must be both relevant and cleared by both the managers and leaders, one amendment offered by the chairman that pays for the cost of the legislation, with no second-degree amendments in order, one amendment offered by Senator Kerrey that also pays for the legislation, with no second-degree amendments, and it not be in order prior to the conclusion of debate on the chairman's ``pay for'' amendment.