Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I would indicate that that vote will probably not occur until after the recess coming up at the end of this week. I yield the floor, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT

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 I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe the Senate has already had a healthy debate on the cloning legislation and I thank Senators Bond, Frist, Gregg and others for their leadership on this issue. I find it unfortunate that our democratic colleagues have chosen to block consideration of legislation at this time, even a motion to proceed. Clearly, this is an issue that has America's attention. The idea that so much progress has been made in the cloning area, and that we have doctors or scientists already threatening to clone human beings, is a very serious matter from a scientific, medical, moral and ethical standpoint. I don't think we can afford to set this issue aside without some immediate consideration and some immediate attention. I am very pleased that the Senators that are involved on both sides of the aisle are obviously very concerned, very thoughtful, and would like to get an agreement. I am particularly pleased that one of the leaders on our side of the aisle is Dr. Bill Frist of Tennessee, one of the Senators who knows the most about questions of science. He would never want us to sacrifice appropriate advancements in science and medical achievement in any way. The difference is he really knows what he's talking about. So, while there are some disagreements about how far to go, what would be appropriate, what would not be appropriate, a lot of good work has been done. It seems to me that the thing to do is to go forward. Let's have a continued debate in addition to what we have already heard from a half dozen or seven Senators or so. Let's have other Senators become informed, read the debate we have already had, think about this issue, study the bills, and make recommendations. If there are amendments by the Senator from California, I think they should be offered. Let's debate them and let's think about them. This is an issue whose time has come--maybe sooner than we would have ever dreamed, and maybe in a lot of ways we had not anticipated this. But if we don't act, what could be the result? Do we want to allow the possibility of human cloning to go forward? I don't think so. Leaders in the scientific and medical communities, and others, have already indicated their concerns about that. The President of the United States has made it very clear in an early statement that he wanted to make sure that this human cloning did not occur. So I urge the Senate--we can go forward with deliberate speed, which is always the case, but we should go forward and not have this pigeon-holed somewhere in the bowels of the building for weeks or months while time and events pass us by.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, at noon, the Senate resume consideration of the Satcher nomination for up to 6 hours of debate, as under the previous order.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 11 a.m. on Monday, February 9, and immediately following the prayer the routine requests through the morning hour be granted, and that there then be a period for morning business until 12 noon, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 5 minutes each, with the following exceptions: Senator Kyl for 10 minutes, Senator Byrd for 20 minutes, and Senator Hagel for 20 minutes.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order following the remarks of Senator Kennedy. Mr. President, the Senator is in the area. He will return shortly I am sure to give his remarks. I observe the absence of a quorum until he can return.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in conclusion, before I take the Senate out following the statement of Senator Kennedy, I want to briefly comment on some statements that have been made today and yesterday here and in other arenas and forums. There are those saying we should immediately bring up the ISTEA highway bill. First, I want to remind the Senate that I urged the House and the Senate and interested parties to do this bill last year when it should have been done, because it expired last year. That is No. 1. No. 2, because it was not an election year and I knew, if we waited until this year, we would have less time and more pressure as we try to decide how $175 billion or more is fairly distributed across the country. I remind the Senators of that, and they know now and they knew then that I was right. I stood right here and filed not one, not two, not three, but four cloture motions to try to bring to a conclusion unrelated debate and delays based on pure politics, if I may suggest, but for an unrelated issue. I kept saying we need to deal with this bill, and others kept saying, ``Until you agree to what we want on an unrelated issue, we are not going to let you bring up ISTEA.'' That was a mistake. The Senate made a mistake. Now some of the same people not voting to bring it up last year are saying, ``Where is it? Please bring it up,'' demanding that it be brought up right away. Well, the world is different now. A lot has happened. For one thing, we find that we may actually have a little more money than we anticipated last year. There are very few Senators that have a longer history of having voted to spend the highway trust fund for the purpose it was intended--highways. There are very few places where I think the Government should be involved in spending money. Defense is one and budding infrastructure is the other. This is a place where people can't do it by themselves. The Government has to do its part. So I want this. I want more money. But I also have a responsibility as majority leader to look at this from the standpoint of how does it relate to the overall budget? How is it going to affect all these other programs? And what we did last year--we stood out here in the rotunda and said that we had reached an agreement with the President of the United States on a balanced budget, on how to control taxes and how to control spending. We entered into an agreement. We entered into an agreement in every category across the board. We said we will spend this much on transportation, this much on education, this much on housing, interior, energy, right across the board. Now, if we open the year up by raising spending, without looking at how it will affect everything else, we could break the dam and have another avalanche of spending. I am not saying it will happen. I am not saying how it should happen. I am just saying we should take our time and see what's going to happen before we charge forward. Why does the Senate need to do this when the House is not going to act? They are not going to act this month and not until at least the end of next month. I tried to get the Senate to show leadership and to lead and go first. The Senate would not do it. Now, let's act in concert. Let's work with the House. Let's do this together. Nobody wants to bring this up more than I do. But my responsibility as majority leader is to make sure that we have thought it through and know what the impact will be on a budget agreement that we gave our word to the American people on. I intend for us to keep it, and I will do everything I can to get that result.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Record remain open until 4 p.m. today for Members to introduce legislation and to submit statements for the Record.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote occur at 11 a.m. on Thursday, February 10, with the mandatory quorum being waived and, further, that if cloture is invoked, the Senate proceed to an immediate vote on the confirmation of David Satcher to be Assistant Secretary of HHS and Surgeon General, all without any intervening action or debate. I further ask that following the vote, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I further ask that there be up to 6 hours for debate on the nomination on Monday, February 9, to be equally divided between Senators Jeffords and Ashcroft, and that there be 1 hour, equally divided in the same fashion, on Tuesday morning.

Mr. LOTT. Once again, Mr. President, regarding this matter, I want to make it clear that there is no intent to rush to judgment here. This nomination has been pending for quite some time. There is strong support for this nomination on both sides of the aisle, and there are legitimate concerns about this nominee. I had indicated yesterday that we would not go forward to a vote until requested information from the Centers for Disease Control had been received, as requested by the Senator from Missouri, Senator Ashcroft. I had FAXed that list to the Secretary of HHS, Secretary Shalala, and talked to her subsequently on the telephone. I had been told that there were seven items listed. One of them had already been provided, one was on the way, and the other five were being pursued. I believe that most of that information now has been obtained. If not, there is time for it to be received Saturday, Sunday, or Monday before we get to vote on Tuesday. I urge the White House, the Centers for Disease Control, and everybody involved, to make that information available. It was inferred that, well, it might be used against him. I don't know what the information is. It may be used against him. If it is out there and in the public record or should be in the public record, we need to know that, and we will make a decision. We have had time given to this nomination in that it has been pending a long time, and now we have had debate pointing out where the problems are and pointing out the assets of this nominee. I think we should not delay it any further. It would be my intent to vote for cloture, which I don't always do, but I think once you have had adequate time--in fact, I rarely do it, but I think this nominee should have a vote on his nomination. So if we in fact do come to a final vote on cloture, I will vote for cloture. That does not indicate how I would vote on final passage. I will make that final decision based on all the information made available before the vote occurs. But I think we should bring it to a conclusion.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now resume the nomination of David Satcher in order for me to file a cloture motion on the nomination.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senate will not be in session tomorrow, but will convene on Monday, as I have just indicated, February 9-- although no rollcall votes will occur on Monday--so that the debate can go forward on the Satcher nomination for the position of Assistant Secretary of HHS and Surgeon General. As a reminder to all Members, the next rollcall vote will occur then on invoking cloture on the Satcher nomination, if necessary, and I presume it will be at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, February 10. If cloture is invoked on that nomination, a second vote would occur immediately on the confirmation of the nomination. Also, a cloture motion was filed on the motion to proceed to the cloning legislation; therefore, that vote will occur on Tuesday as well.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I emphasize once again that this is only to end debate on the motion to proceed. Could we at least go to the substance of the bill, and then we can make a judgment about whether we have had enough discussion, whether we know enough, or whether we have amended it appropriately. We have no option at this point other than to file cloture. For the information of all Senators, the vote will occur on Tuesday, February 10, at a time to be determined by the majority leader after discussion with Senators on both sides of the issue and with the minority leader. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. LOTT. I now withdraw the motion to proceed.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk so that we can proceed to the very serious legislation on the issue of cloning.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Four nominations reported by the Armed Services Committee today. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements relating to the nominations appear at this point in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and then the Senate return to legislative session.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to announce, for the information of all Senators, that at 3:45 the Senate will receive, on a bipartisan basis, the Secretary of State in S. 407 for a briefing on her recent visit to Europe and the Middle East. Then, also, a number of Senators and House Members will be meeting with Prime Minister Blair in the Rayburn Room on the House side at 4:30. So we would like to make sure that all Senators can attend the briefing at 3:45, and since we have such a large number of Senators that are going to be meeting with Prime Minister Blair, it would not be our intent to have recorded votes or further substantive business this afternoon. Obviously, we still have time for morning business speeches, if Senators would like to do that. That is why we are not scheduling anything else this afternoon legislatively, because these are very important meetings we have pending.

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 object to further consideration of this bill at this time.

Mr. LOTT. I understand the cloning bill is at the desk awaiting second reading by the clerk.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today, we begin the process of restoration. Restoration and renewal. Today, we look to our past, our history, as prologue of our future. We examine the events of recent years in the context of history in an effort to restore and renew our faith in this place we call America. They lynchpin of this process will be our restoration of what our flag--our American flag, the flag of these United States, the flag of what our founders referred to as ``We, the People''--means to us as a people, as citizens, as people united in the common cause of Freedom. Our flag is no mere piece of cloth, even a brightly-colored piece of cloth--it is the symbol of our nation, and it stands for our ideals, our freedom, our hopes and dreams and, yes, our faith in our nation and in one another. Let's consider this common cause, freedom. Some may say that we need no symbols to embody this cause. I might agree with those people if I had no knowledge of our history or how the American flag is viewed by people around the world. For many, in this country and around the world, the American flag is the symbol of the freedom that they long for, that they strive to achieve and to preserve and that they honor. America has been called a ``melting pot'', where people of many cultures and nationalities come together to live, work and raise their families. Immigrants all, save those native Americans whose roots in this land we must also continue to honor and preserve, we recognize our fortune derived by living in a country where we don't merely talk about freedom, we practice and work to preserve it. Symbols such as our flag don't just appear and receive acceptance. The flag hanging at the Smithsonian didn't come to be so large by chance--those who made that flag wanted our people to see it waving in the breeze and take cheer and for our opponents to see it and beware. The flag was born in our struggle for independence, and continues to exist in our struggle to ensure freedom for all Americans and other peoples of this world. Our flag has survived burning and desecration in this country and in other countries. It will survive, as will our faith in our country and our freedoms, no matter the strength of our enemies. We who believe in this country must recognize that our symbols, such as our flag, are important and must be protected and preserved for they are the very embodiment of the ideals, hopes and dreams they stand for. We must protect our flag just as we would protect those ideals. In 1942, Congress recognized that the flag should be treated in a way more special than the way we treat any other symbol. That year, the Congress enacted the Flag Code to set requirements for how the flag should be displayed and honored. In that day and time, the question was not how to prevent destruction and desecration but merely to set rules for the care and handling of the flag. There was no thought given to doing what we propose to do today because it was beyond thought that conditions would exist in this country that would require such action. Even then, Congress recognized that with freedom comes responsibility. It is time that we recognize that responsibility again as our predecessors in the Congress in 1942 did. Mr. President, I will close by quoting from an address in 1914 by Franklin K. Lane, then Secretary of the Interior, to the employees of the Department of the Interior on Flag Day, commenting on what the flag might say to us if it could speak: I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope. I am the day's work of the weakest man, and the largest dream of the most daring. I am the Constitution and the courts, statutes and the statute-makers, soldier and dreadnaught, drayman and street sweep, cook, counselor, and clerk. I am the battle of yesterday and the mistake of tomorrow. I am the mystery of the men who do without knowing why. I am the clutch of an idea and the reasoned purpose of resolution. I am no more than what you believe me to be, and I am all that you believe I can be. I am what you make me, nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation. My stars and stripes are your dream and your labors. They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your hearts. For you are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory in the making. Mr. President, we made this flag as we made this nation. We can destroy this flag or we can protect and preserve it, just as we can destroy this nation or we can protect and preserve it. The choice is clear. The result is in our hands. As for me, I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I urge the adoption and passage of this Constitutional amendment.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I want to congratulate and express my appreciation to the Senator from Georgia for the leadership he has exhibited here. He kept calm and he got the job done. I think it was the right thing to do, and I am very proud that the Senate, in a very broad, bipartisan vote, voted to name this airport after former President Reagan. I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of colleagues here in the well as we were voting --Democrats who came up and remembered acts of kindnesses they had experienced from former President Reagan, and they voted for the legislation. I know some had reservations or misgivings, but I think it was the right thing to do and it was the right time to do it. I thank the Senator for his efforts; he did an excellent job. I thank one and all for their cooperation. Mr. BYRD addressed the Chair.

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. Mr. President, the Senate will be in a period of morning business today until 10:30 a.m. Under a previous order, the Senate then will resume consideration of S. 1575, legislation renaming National Airport after former President Ronald Reagan. Under this consent that was entered into yesterday, there will be 4 minutes equally divided in the usual form before each vote on the remaining four amendments in order to S. 1575--amendment No. 1643 offered by Senator Robb, amendment No. 1641 offered by Senator Dodd, amendment No. 1640 offered by Senator Reid, and amendment No. 1642 offered by Senator Daschle--with a vote on final passage of S. 1575 following those votes. I guess it is possible still that there may be some change, some agreement on one of these amendments, at least where a recorded vote might not be necessary. But at this point we expect four votes on amendments and final passage beginning at 10:30. After that, the Senate will begin debate on the nomination of David Satcher to be Surgeon General. We do not know exactly how long will be needed for that debate, but at least the balance of the afternoon is anticipated, and it could actually go over until tomorrow. Senators will be notified if there are going to be additional votes today. There could be a vote on the Satcher nomination late this afternoon if we complete the debate and Senators are ready to vote; otherwise, it is anticipated the vote would then occur on the Satcher nomination tomorrow. We will consult with Senators about legislation that may come up tomorrow. We have a number of issues we are still working on, and we will make that announcement late this afternoon. I yield the floor, Mr. President.