Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that at the hour of 5:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the modified substitute amendment to S. 1173, the so-called ISTEA legislation, the surface transportation legislation, and then proceed to a rollcall vote on passage of S. 1668, the intelligence disclosure bill.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. In conjunction with the previous consent agreements, then, on Monday the Senate will be in for a period of morning business from 12 to 1 p.m. At 1 o'clock, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 1173, the so-called ISTEA bill. It is hoped the Senate will be able to consider some of the numerous amendments which have been offered and filed in regard to this legislation throughout Monday's session. And then, at 5:10 p.m., the Senate will set aside the legislation and have 20 minutes of debate on the intelligence disclosure bill. Under the previous order, at 5:30 p.m. the Senate will proceed to a vote on the cloture motion on the modified substitute amendment to S. 1173, followed by a vote on the intelligence disclosure bill. So, there will more than likely be two rollcall votes, back to back, on Monday, beginning at 5:30.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Daschle.

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. In answer to the Senator's question, I might say that I believe an analysis would be available. I have learned that you can get two different lists, and they might sometimes show a little different analysis or interpretation than what is in the bill. Would the chairman of the committee like to respond?

Mr. LOTT. Unless we get permission for the Banking and Finance Committee provisions to be allowed, and that would be my intent. But Senators who have some concerns with it--with the formula, really, the donor States, see this as a way, speaking candidly, to keep a little pressure on this whole issue. Hopefully, we can work their concerns out, and then we would be able to get permission to add the Banking and Finance Committee provisions at that point. But that might be Wednesday of next week.

Mr. LOTT. It is 5:30 on Monday.

Mr. LOTT. The unanimous consent request was objected to with regard to the Banking and Finance Committee provisions.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could respond to the comments of the Senator from Michigan, first of all, I don't think you can find a Senator more sympathetic to donor States' concerns and desires than this Senator. My State has been very badly underfunded and mistreated over many, many years on a lot of things but on the highway trust fund formula, in particular. We have been getting much less than an 85 percent return on the dollar here. We are the poorest State in the Nation, a big State, so don't get me started on donor States. I am sympathetic with what the Senator is saying. I know he will continue to work with the chairman and the ranking member to see if there is a way to work this out without causing a blowout on the other side. This is a very delicately balanced bill. None of us is totally 100 percent happy with it. There are a number of things that came out of the committee that I just detest, but I realize there has to be a balance. There has to be a blend between regions of the country--big States, small States, donor States, donee--and I think they have done about as good as they could to this point. I know you will work with Senator Chafee and Senator Baucus to see if your concerns can be worked out, but also I think that most of the amendments that you might want to offer to help solve your problem really would be available. Now, maybe not every one that you can think of--and I know you don't want to give up anything, but I think you also understand, as the majority leader, this tends to make people focus. We kind of gloated all week; the managers are doing the best they can and they made some good progress. The Senate really hasn't been paying attention. Just now they are beginning to say, ``Wait, what does this mean, what exactly do I get--90.07 or do I get 91.2 cents back on a dollar?'' So, by doing what I have done, this tends to make people say, OK, the train is leaving. It also limits the debate. If we get cloture, in 30 hours we are finished with this bill. So I understand what you are doing, and I hope you understand what I am doing. Try to work it out if you can. I urge all Senators to vote for cloture so we can begin to move toward bringing this to closure. I think it will put pressure on the other body to act. Remember, funds are going to be running out on May 1. I have made extra efforts and have met with a lot of Senators to try to get this bill done because I don't want to be blamed when May 1 comes. I don't think anybody would want to do that. We better find a way to make this happen. The cloture vote will occur at 5:30 on Monday. I hope Senators will vote for cloture. I will continue to try to obtain a consent that allows the Senate to consider these two issues in a fair and orderly fashion. And, certainly, on Monday when we are back, we will get right back to this and see if we can move it along.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe we have Senators interested on the floor. Once again, I regret having to address the Senate regarding the lack of cooperation that we have been getting on the part of some Members with respect to trying to find a way to bring the highway bill to a close. We need to do that. I think Senators have had enough time to analyze what is in the bill and offer amendments during the week. We debated it last year, and even with the cloture vote, we still would have a considerable amount of time next week to consider it and have relevant amendments in order. Senator Daschle, for instance, this morning said: This is the time to move this legislation forward. I am hopeful that we can have a good debate on other amendments on Monday and have that vote on cloture on Monday night so that we can complete our work some time by the middle of the week. That is Senator Daschle's comments. I share the sentiment that he expressed and thought all Members were in agreement with regard to the fact that the Senate needs to complete action on this bill as soon as possible in order to go to other pending bills. In order to achieve that goal, a successful cloture vote must occur in order for the managers to ascertain their remaining work load, what amendments they will have to deal with, and know what time they are talking about. As I discussed with the minority leader, and with Senator Harkin, there are two additional issues, however, that the Senate must consider prior to the passage that are vital to the bill. Those are the Banking Committee transit title and the Finance Committee title. It was my understanding we would make other arrangements for consideration of those two issues outside the parameters of rule XXII. With that in mind, I now propound a unanimous-consent request that is necessary to do that. I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the invoking of cloture on the Chafee substitute the Banking Committee title and the Finance Committee title, and relevant amendments thereto, still be in order.

Mr. LOTT. Let me say, Mr. President, if I could reclaim my time, I certainly understand what the Senator is saying. I am sympathetic to his concerns. Certainly, he is not getting into cross purposes with me. I am trying to bring this to a conclusion. I understand why he will vote the way he will. By the way, if you want to keep more of that oil and gas revenue in Alaska, put me down, I will be with you. We need to find more ways to leave more money with the people in the States anyway.

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I will just say, again, I think the Senator has legitimate concerns, and we will have to get an agreement to accommodate those concerns, and we intend to do that.

Mr. LOTT. I think what we are saying is we hope to have the banking issue done before we get to cloture. But if we can't get it worked out, then we will try to work out an arrangement so the Senator's concerns will be addressed. We would not want to foreclose that, let's put it that way.

Mr. LOTT. At 5:15, 5:30, and it could be even a little later, depending on what is going on.

Mr. LOTT. I understand that at 12 noon, approximately, Senator Brownback will be ready to offer an amendment regarding rail banks. I hope other Senators will come and be prepared to offer amendments and have them considered one way or the other this afternoon. Would the Senator from Iowa like me to yield?

Mr. LOTT. I will note, Mr. President, that the chairman and the ranking member have asked me to advise Members they are going to be here for more time today, into the afternoon. They are open for business. If Senators have amendments, particularly if they think they will not be controversial and would like to get them considered, perhaps accepted or get them in line to be considered, I hope Senators will contact the chairman or the ranking member in the next hour. They will be off the floor in a meeting for the next few minutes, but they plan to stay here for several more hours to work on this bill. I ask unanimous consent now that all first-degree amendments under rule XXII be filed up to 1 p.m. on Monday and all second-degree amendments by 5 p.m. on Monday.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the cloture vote will occur on Monday, March 9, probably around 5:15 or 5:30. Again, we will check with the Members' schedules and with the Democratic leader, but it will be around that time. We indicated there would not be a vote before 5. It may be a little after 5, depending on when planes arrive and when we can get agreement to have this vote scheduled. Call of the Roll

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, first of all, it has already been announced informally that that is the last vote of the day. I thank the managers of the very important surface transportation legislation for their efforts this week. I think some good progress has been made. Several amendments have been disposed of. This was one that required some 8 hours, I believe, of debate. Now that we have voted on that, we want to continue to make progress to complete this legislation. I think Senators on both sides believe that good progress has been made. I really appreciate, once again, the effort of Senator Chafee, Senator Baucus, Senator Byrd, Senator Domenici, Senator Gramm and others, in coming up with the formula change that I think generally is agreed to on both sides of the aisle. But we need to begin to think now about how we conclude this so we can deal with the other very important issues that are awaiting, including the NATO enlargement issue and the Coverdell A-plus education issue. We have a couple other bills we are looking at considering on Monday, including possibly a resolution with regard to Saddam Hussein being a war criminal, and an intelligence bill. But at the request of the chairman and the ranking member of the Environment Committee, our respective hotlines have asked that all Senators come forward with their amendments. We are developing a list and we need to know the ones that are serious. I know there are a lot of them out there still that Senators are contemplating offering, but we need to begin identifying the ones that really are serious. For instance, the list we have from the hot line is 250 amendments, with two Members on one side of the aisle having 100 amendments; just two Senators have 100 amendments. I must say, on our side of the aisle, there are 75 amendments. That is ridiculous. We need to identify the ones that we really are going to offer. We need cooperation in order to get that done. We have been considering the bill really since the last session. Everybody has had a chance in the committee. Last year, we spent about 2 weeks talking about it. We had four cloture votes. We have had a total of 14 days on it. There are several other issues that are important that we are going to have come up and will vote on, but I think now we need to get serious about bringing this to a conclusion. After looking at the list of amendments and consulting with the Democratic leader, I think we do need to go ahead and get a cloture vote so that we can eliminate the amendments that are not related directly to this bill and then begin to narrow the list. Cloture Motion

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 thank the Chair. (The remarks of Mr. Frist, Mr. Lott, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Harkin, and Mr. Bingaman pertaining to the introduction of S. 1722 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'') Mr. TORRICELLI address the Chair.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to be recognized for a statement now.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a period for the transaction of morning business until 12 noon, with Members allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.