Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could just respond. I am glad to hear the minority leader's comments. As the leader of the Democrats, certainly he has an obligation to represent their views. I agree this is certainly important legislation, and we should continue to look for ways that we can have it freely debated and amended and move forward. We will keep talking, and maybe we will find a way to do that. It is my preference to have every Senator have a chance to make his case. I would like to get out of the process we are in, but I want us to stay on the transportation bill and not have this become another debate on campaign finance reform. There are other ways that will be done. There are other opportunities that I am sure will come along, but we are trying to keep the focus on the highway bill. I have discussed with other Senators amendments they have in mind. I am going to do everything I can to assure every Senator, he or she, who has an amendment will be able to offer it. I would prefer it not be done in this process, if we can work out some kind of arrangement whereby we would not go with this, where any Senator, as is usually the case, can get up and offer an amendment. I know Senator Byrd, Senator Gramm, and others are working on an amendment that there will be a lot of interest in. I want to make sure that amendment has a freestanding opportunity to be fully debated and voted upon. I do not think we can ever complete this legislation without that occurring. I would like for a lot of other amendments that you have--this is important to every Senator. Every State will be affected by this, by the formula and by various parts of this bill-- urban mass transportation. It is not something that is partisan. It is not something that is regional. It cuts all kinds of different ways. So if we can come up with a way over a period of time--I am not rushing to judgment, but I do want us to get on--I promised the chairman and the ranking member a week ago or more--and we had met earlier--that we would begin this bill today, the 8th of October. So I am trying to fulfill that commitment. I think we will find a way to get it done in a way that will allow us to complete our work, and then hopefully the House will follow our leadership on this. I would be glad to yield to the Senator from West Virginia.

Mr. LOTT. For the information of all Senators, this exercise, unfortunately, is necessary to keep the Senate's focus on the vital legislation to reauthorize our Nation's surface transportation programs for the next 6 years. Really good work has been done by the Environment and Public Works Committee. In fact, I believe it was reported by a vote of 18 to 0-- unanimous. While there are obviously some concerns--at any time you have concerns on a major transportation bill of this magnitude, there will be Senators on both sides of the aisle who will have amendments that will need to be offered and debated and voted on. And I am sure they will have support on both sides of the aisle. In accordance with all Senate rules, I have now completed the amendment process with relevant and needed changes to the bill. It is the intention of the manager to eventually have these necessary amendments agreed to by the Senate. However, in the meantime, these amendments will remain pending and the manager will agree to a consent that will lay aside amendment No. 1312 at any time any Member desires to offer a relevant transportation amendment. We have been in touch with Members who have relevant amendments they would like to offer. We will have Senators prepared to begin offering amendments this afternoon, and we will continue on that tomorrow. I look forward to making progress on this bill prior to our recess at the end of the week. I thank all colleagues for their cooperation. We do have cooperation from Senator Baucus, who has been working on this with Senator Chafee from the committee and Senator Warner and others on both sides. I know that there has been an agreement reached on some amendments coming up later on after we come back from the religious holiday and the Columbus Day recess, but we will have full time for debate. I think this is perhaps the most important bill left that we need to get done before we go out for the year sometime later on this month or early in November. So my intent would be to stay on it and try to make progress. I do not intend for this to become a campaign finance reform forum. There will be votes on that issue tomorrow. They are already scheduled. There will be other opportunities to debate this issue. But I think that the transportation bill is a very important bill, and we have a limited amount of time. The Senate is leading the way on this legislation, so we need to go ahead and get the process underway. I am prepared to give as much time as it takes to try to get it completed. Now, I might say for the information of all Senators, there is the possibility of at least one more vote. I had hoped we could clear the HUD-VA appropriations conference report. The chairman and the ranking member are ready to go but don't have the papers yet, so apparently we are not going to be able to do that tonight. We hope to do that tomorrow. Then, if we cannot work it out, we may even have to have a recorded vote to go out for the night. Now, we do not know exactly what time that would come. But I presume around 6 or 6:30. Perhaps it will not be necessary. But the Members should be on notice there is at this point the likelihood of one more vote tonight. Several Senators addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT. I will be glad to yield the floor or respond to questions.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, a quorum being established, I now move to recommit the bill to the Environment and Public Works Committee with instructions to report back forthwith.

Mr. LOTT. I will repeat. I now move to recommit the bill, S. 1173, to the Environment and Public Works Committee with instructions to report back forthwith. And I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion.

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

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. And I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. LOTT. I send an amendment to my amendment to the desk.

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk to the instructions.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Could I inquire of the Senator from New Jersey how long he thinks that he would need to do that?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 188, S. 1173, the so-called ISTEA legislation.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT. That would be fine. Will the Senator require a rollcall vote?

Mr. LOTT. I am not asking for an agreement--just for the information of all Senators so we know when there might be some further action-- just some general idea of the time expected.

Mr. LOTT. Does the Senator think an hour is about what he is thinking about?

Mr. LOTT. I am not asking for a specific hour, just some general--an hour or two.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move that the Senate now stand in adjournment.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, United States versus Delyla D. Wilson is a criminal case set for trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, charging the defendant with assault on Federal officials. The case arises out of the defendant's disruption of a public meeting in Montana earlier this year attended by Senator Conrad Burns, along with other Federal and State officials. Both parties have subpoenaed an employee on Senator Burns' staff, who witnessed this incident, to testify at the trial. This resolution would authorize the employee to testify and would also authorize Senator Burns' testimony at related State proceedings.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today the Senate will resume consideration of S. 25, the pending campaign finance reform bill. As announced last week, there will be no rollcall votes during today's session. Senators who desire to speak with regard to the pending amendment or bill are encouraged to do so during today's session. We should be able to get 5 hours or so of debate in today if the Senators are willing to speak. I also remind my colleagues that a cloture vote is scheduled on the pending amendment regarding paycheck protection at 2:15 tomorrow. Also, under the provisions of rule XXII, Members have until the hour of 1:30 today in order to file timely amendments to S. 25. In addition to the cloture vote on the pending amendment, a cloture vote may occur on Tuesday on the underlying campaign finance reform bill. On Friday, a cloture motion was also filed on the Mack-Graham amendment on immigration to the D.C. appropriations bill. So it may be necessary to have a cloture vote during Tuesday's session on that also if an agreement is not reached. The Senators are working together. I have spoken with them and I am still hopeful that an agreement can be worked out. There are some other pending amendments on the D.C. appropriations bill, but we think maybe we will be able to reach a conclusion on those if we can get the immigration amendment by Senator Mack worked out. Therefore, it is possible that we could complete action on the D.C. appropriations bill tomorrow. This week, the Senate will also be considering other available appropriations conference reports. I talked to the chairman, Senator Stevens, on Friday. We think maybe there could be as many as three that would be ready in the next couple of days that we can bring up for consideration. We intend, also, to begin consideration of the ISTEA transportation infrastructure legislation, and we hope to be able to go to that on Wednesday or Thursday and spend the remainder of the week, except for interruptions for votes on the conference reports, on that. I believe we will be in session on Friday and will probably have votes up until around noon. But we will get more information on that as the day progresses. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the vote scheduled at 12:15 now occur at 12:30.

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

Mr. LOTT. For the interest of all Members, there has been a meeting at the White House that went a little over time and there are a number of Members involved. They will be here by 12:30, so the vote will be at 12:30. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LOTT

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