Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, today the Senate begins to formally debate what is probably the most discussed and least understood issue before the Nation, campaign finance reform. I have made clear, for the last several months, actually, that the Senate would, in due time, after finishing its work on the budget and the 13 appropriations bills, move to this matter. I indicated all along that I knew this issue would come up, that it should come up, and it should be debated. And, therefore, I have kept that commitment and we will begin our debate. We will have a full debate, and we will have some votes. Maybe not the votes that everybody would like to have, but critical, key votes on assessing where the Senate is. Are we near a consensus yet? Are we prepared to stop trying to claim an advantage here or an advantage there and see if we can come together in a consensus in this area? I have my doubts that we have reached that point yet. But we begin the debate, I hope, in a respectful and thoughtful way. I trust no Member of this body doubted my intention to do what from the very beginning I said we would do, in terms of calling this legislation up. We are taking up this issue now under a unanimous-consent agreement identical to the one I propounded a few days go and to which the minority leader did not at that time agree. So at the outset of this debate, I want to make this clear. President Clinton's standing on this subject of campaign finance reform is a case study of the problem, not an exemplar of the solution. Indeed, it would take the Senate, and the House too, staying in marathon session all the way through Christmas, just to trace the appalling campaign finance practices that were so large a part of President Clinton's reelection effort. Just today I understand from WTOP radio news this morning, the President is in Houston after last night calling, trying to get Senators ginned up to come in here and speak on this subject. But what is he going to be doing in Houston? I have his whole schedule, off the wire service, as well as the remarks made this morning on WTOP. I will put it in the Record. I ask unanimous consent to have it printed in the Record at this point.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I am happy to yield to the Senator.

Mr. LOTT. I had not anticipated votes at that time. I assume those days, most of the votes will be on the appropriation conference reports and the continuing resolution. I had thought we would need more time for debate before we started voting on that. I didn't specify it, but I assumed the votes would not come until the 6th or 7th of October.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. It would be. I hope we would not take 8 hours on the CR. I hope we have an understanding what is in it. It would be clean, I believe. There are only two amendments in order, one on each side. I hope maybe that would not be necessary and we would have short debate and go straight to vote.

Mr. LOTT. I apologize for the delay in starting the votes that we have scheduled, but we were having some very important discussions that will affect the schedule for the next several days that I wanted to discuss with the minority leader and with the interested Senators. For the information of all Senators, these next two votes will be the last votes for the week. The next vote will occur at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 30, on a motion to invoke cloture on the Coats amendment to the D.C. appropriations bill regarding scholarships. Following these votes, I encourage the managers to remain on the floor for any additional amendments Members may want to offer to the pending D.C. appropriations bill. I believe perhaps there is a Senator that is waiting that will have an amendment that he could offer tonight, and have debated, if it is not worked out in the interim. On Friday, tomorrow, beginning at 10 o'clock a.m., the Senate will begin consideration of the campaign finance reform legislation. I expect a full day of debate on that issue. However, no votes will occur during Friday's session of the Senate. On Monday, the Senate will resume consideration of the campaign finance reform bill. Again, however, no votes will occur at that time. On Tuesday, September 30, I expect that following the 11 a.m. cloture vote the Senate might be in a position to complete action on the last remaining appropriation bill, the D.C. appropriations bill. It will depend on what happens, of course, with the vote on the Coats amendment, and there are a couple of other key amendments that are still pending. Also, since Tuesday is the end of fiscal year, the Senate will consider the continuing resolution. We believe we have a continuing resolution agreed to that will be clean, and with a date that I discussed with the Democratic leader and with our leadership on the other side of the Capitol. Therefore, votes will occur throughout the day on Tuesday, and of course the pending business at that time will still be campaign finance reform. Wednesday, October 1, is the start of the Jewish holiday. Therefore, votes will not occur past 1 p.m. However, the Senate will be considering the campaign finance reform bill for debate as long as Members want to remain into the evening. On Thursday, October 2, there will be no rollcall votes in observance of the Jewish holiday. I expect the Senate to resume consideration of the campaign finance reform bill on Friday, October 3. However, no votes will occur. Again, with regard to the 3d, we want to talk with all the interested Senators to see whether we want to have debate or not. Then we will continue on campaign finance reform the next week but we would like to reserve further commitments on time or identification of when votes might occur until we have had time to get started with the debate and see how things go. I thank my colleagues for their cooperation and remind Senators following these two back-to-back votes there will be no further votes today, and the next vote will occur 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 30.

Mr. LOTT. I might say, Mr. President, continuing with my leader time, I met with the committee leaders and discussed legislation on both sides of the aisle--for instance, the ISTEA, or the highway infrastructure bill--as to when they would be ready with that legislation to go to the floor and how much time that might take. We also have been looking at fast-track trade legislation, when that might be available. It was obvious to me that we had a window here in the next few days that we could take up the debate on campaign finance reform, but as we got on into October we would need to have time for the highway bill and the fast-track legislation. I do think it is important that we continue our effort to get a 6- year transportation bill that is within the budget. I have been discussing this with the chairman of the committee and the ranking member. They agree. So we intend to go forward somewhere around the 7th or 8th on the highway infrastructure bill. I just wanted to give that explanation as to why this decision was made.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, they are privileged, and would be brought up as soon as they are available. That is our highest priority as we reach the end of the fiscal year, and we want to move to immediate consideration of a continuing resolution also when it is available, if it is necessary, which I presume it will be.

Mr. LOTT. 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. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed under my leader time.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the majority leader, after notification of the Democratic leader, must turn to S. 25, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, prior to the close of the first session of the 105th Congress, and Senator McCain will immediately be recognized, then, to modify the bill, and it be in order that the majority leader immediately offer an amendment relative to campaign finances. I further ask unanimous consent that it not be in order for any Senator to offer any legislation regarding campaign finances prior to the initiation of this agreement.

Mr. LOTT. My amendment would be a first-degree amendment after the McCain-Feingold modification.

Mr. LOTT. No. Followed by the modified McCain-Feingold bill.

Mr. LOTT. The original McCain-Feingold.

Mr. LOTT. Well, we need to look at the conference reports on appropriations bills. We need to look at the continuing resolution, if one is needed. I presume it will be. We need to look at what progress is being made with regard to the ISTEA or the highway transportation bill. And we need to look at when we will need to schedule fast track. And we will need to consider when we are going to have an opportunity to take up serious product liability. So there are several issues that we feel like, I think on both sides of the aisle, we must do this year, and one way or another--or should do--and we will look at all of that. It is not my intent to drag this out to the end of the session because I would like for us to be--if I had my way, I guess the last thing we would do would be probably the fast-track legislation in one form or another and to deal with it up or down. That would be my thinking what we would do last, not because I am pushing it off to the end but because we have to have some hearings, it has to be marked up, go to Finance and I think Banking and two or three other Committees. That is what looks like will probably come up toward the end of October or early November. So it is my thinking that we would want to do it before then. I will try to, you know, make sure everybody has an input here. We have Senators on both sides that have interest. We have chairmen that have interest. It is not my desire to have this come up in the congestion at the end. I want to find a window. I can see a possibility of one before long where we can take this up and consider it for a period of time that everybody might be comfortable with.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it is the same unanimous-consent request I offered last Friday. I thought it was a fair procedure within the bounds of the 105th Congress' 1st session to take up consideration of campaign finance reform. I still think it is a fair procedure. I indicated last Friday it was never my intent to try to have this come up on the last day or the last week. I do not think that would be in anybody's interest. And I did not intend to do that. I said at the time I did not intend to do that. So I am glad we have this worked out. We will work now to try to determine a time to bring up consideration and debate of this issue in a way that will allow us to have time to discuss it freely but also give us time to look at other issues that we hope to have completed before the end of the session. With regard to the President's letter, I have not had an opportunity to read the letter yet. I am always glad to have a communication from the President. I do not feel threatened or intimidated by the letter because we still have an awful lot of work to do together on appropriations bills. I am still hopeful that we can have the ISTEA follow-on transportation infrastructure bill passed. And we hope to even consider the fast-track legislation. So the President has a lot of issues that he would like for us to work with him on. We would be glad to do that. And we intend to do that. However, we do not intend to be threatened or intimidated on this or any other issue.

Mr. LOTT. We have not made a final decision. We have a number of options we are reviewing. It could be an amendment or it could be an amendment in the nature of a substitute. And we are looking at both of those possibilities. But before we bring it to the floor, we will notify the Members of what our intent would be on that.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in recess for 5 minutes so we may greet our guests from the European Parliament.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I am pleased to welcome a delegation from the European Parliament to the U.S. Senate. The parliamentarians are in the United States for the 47th interparliamentary meeting. Europe continues to move forward with economic integration and the European Parliament's role is increasingly important. As the European Union--like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization--expands, the role of the European Parliament will become even more important. The United States and the European Union have the world's largest commercial relationship, with trade and investment approaching $1 trillion. I believe increased interaction between our legislature and the European Parliament will serve the interests of both sides. I would like to add that I met with the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Mr. Vernon Weaver, earlier this summer and was impressed with the job he is doing to protect American interests in Brussels and across Europe. I urge my colleagues to greet this delegation, led by Mr. Alan Donnelly of the United Kingdom. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that a list of all of the delegation be printed in the Record.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. In light of the earlier consent with respect to debate time on the FDA bill--I believe Senator Jeffords got the unanimous-consent request agreed to a few moments ago--there will be no further votes this evening. The Senate will begin, now, up to 4 hours of debate on the FDA bill. The concluding 4 hours of debate will begin at 12 noon on Wednesday. Therefore, final passage will occur at approximately 3:45 on Wednesday, of the Food and Drug Administration reform bill. I guess I should put that in the form of a request, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled cloture vote be vitiated with the previous debate limitation still in effect.

Mr. LOTT

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I think we have made a very fair unanimous- consent offer here that we would bring this issue up before the end of this session of Congress, that we would bring up McCain-Feingold and then the latest iteration of that, which I believe is the McCain bill, and that I would have the opportunity, as majority leader, which I have anyway, to offer an amendment or a substitute for that. A very clear, understandable, fair process. Now, if the Senator is surprised, I thought he had been talking to his own Senator Feingold. I have in my hand a press release from yesterday that went out from Senator Feingold's office announcing that Senators McCain, Feingold, and Lott, much to my surprise, ``will discuss the McCain-Feingold campaign finance proposal in coordinated statements on the Senate floor this afternoon.'' That was yesterday. ``Attached is an outline of the new proposal.'' I thought if it had gone that far--which I thought was certainly jumping the gun because we were trying to make sure everybody had an opportunity to know how this unanimous-consent agreement was being constructed and what was in it, and Senator Feingold, to his credit, apologized that it was done in the way it was. I said, no problem. I understand how sometimes we get a little carried away, maybe staff got a little exuberant and released it before it was completed. For instance, I felt like I ought to at least talk to Senator McConnell and make sure he was aware of what we were developing here. I thought this was a very good proposal. This is a fair way to get the issue up, have a full discussion, for us to offer proposals that would correct some of the problems and abuses of union members, abuse of their dues, to deal with the illegal foreign contributions that we have seen over the past year in 1996, to deal with the other abuses of the law, tighten up the law and make it clear, or clearer if we need to, about the President and Vice President should not do certain things while on Federal property. Whatever. It seemed like a fair proposal to me. And I was ready to go with that. And my intent is to try to get an agreement where we could do this some time early in October. But if the Senator feels constrained to object, that is certainly his right. Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I commend the Senator for what he has done with the education issue. I am really excited about the prospect of having, in fact, more education funds available for my State but decisions made about those funds going to the States and local governments. I commend him for doing that.