Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. That is my intent. If we do not have any cooperation on other matters, we would vote.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. For the information of all Senators, again, there will be one vote at 9:50 on Friday. Any other votes ordered Friday or Monday before 5 will be stacked to occur on Tuesday morning, except for the one vote on Monday afternoon. I yield the floor, Mr. President, and I ask that we proceed with the regular order.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate now turn to the consideration of S. 830, the FDA reform bill.

Mr. LOTT. I move to proceed to S. 830, and I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. LOTT. I withdraw the motion to proceed.

Mr. LOTT. For the information of all Senators, I regret that the cloture motion is necessary at this time. I understand all of the interested parties were in agreement just prior to the recess. In fact, I stayed very close to the members of the committee that reported this legislation and to those who have continued to work to try to work out remaining disagreements, including Senator Jeffords, Senator Mack, Senator Frist, others on this side of the aisle, as well as Senator Dodd and Senator Mikulski. This is truly a bipartisan issue and one we certainly should take up and finish before we go out at the end of this year. When you talk about quality of life for Americans, certainly having a reformed Food and Drug Administration would be in their interest. Too many procedures, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices are delayed, hung up by bureaucracy. What we need is an expedited process, the reforms that are necessary to make that happen, and safe procedures for the American people. I hope we can get this done. The only objection I know of was one that has been lodged by Senator Kennedy. We thought we had the agreement all worked out the last week we were in session. At the last minute, there seemed to be some further objection. As a matter of fact, I had hoped over the last 2 weeks before we went out the 1st of August for our State work period that we could get this agreed to. Now there is apparently some disagreement with regard to cosmetics. I would think this legislation is much more important than some remaining small disagreement in this area. So as a result of filing this cloture motion, a cloture vote will occur on Friday, September 5 in the morning unless something is worked out in the meantime. I will consult with the Democratic leader and all the Senators involved on both sides of the aisle as to how we can proceed. We need to get this done. By the way, this is on the motion to proceed. It looks like we will have a filibuster even on the motion to proceed. I am committed to this. If we have to have a cloture on the motion to proceed, if we have to have more than one, if we have to have cloture on the bill itself, whatever is necessary, I feel that we should force this to an action. However, I do ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived at this time.

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 ask unanimous consent there now be a period for the transaction of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each, with the exception of Senators Hutchison of Texas and Roberts.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Today the Senate will resume consideration of the Harkin amendment No. 1057 to the Agriculture appropriations bill. Under the previous order, there will be 20 minutes for debate on the amendment equally divided between Senator Cochran and Senator Harkin. Following the use or yielding back of time, a vote will occur on or in relation to the Harkin amendment at approximately 9:50 a.m. Following the disposition of the Harkin amendment and passage of the Agriculture appropriations bill, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 1061, the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. I remind Senators that this issue, of course, was considered in July. The Harkin amendment was defeated at that time, I believe, by a vote of 52 to 48. I urge my colleagues to again vote against the Harkin amendment and to, of course, support passage of the Agriculture appropriations bill. I believe Senator Cochran in July outlined clearly what is involved in this issue, and I think obviously he has stated the position that we should support which is to defeat this Harkin amendment. Members can expect a number of amendments to be offered today and votes will occur throughout the day on Labor-HHS. We hope to be able to complete action in short order on the bill. We may not be able to do it tonight, but we will stay with the Labor-HHS appropriations bill until it is completed, either today or, if necessary, tomorrow. We will notify Members when votes can be expected. In addition, the Senate will recess at 12:30 until 2:15 for the weekly policy luncheons to meet. As announced earlier, Members can expect votes each day this week, including the very real possibility of at least one vote, maybe more, on Friday of this week. As the Senate continues the session through September and October, we will notify Members, after consultation with the Democratic leadership, when we will definitely have votes on Mondays or Fridays or if there will not be any votes on a particular Monday or Friday. But if we are going to be able to complete our work by a reasonable time this fall and then go back to our constituencies in our respective States, we are going to have to work on some Mondays and Fridays. I yield the floor, Madam President.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today, the Senate will be returning from the August recess and will begin immediate consideration of S. 1061, the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Specter, is here and is ready to go with the opening debate. As announced prior to the recess, there will be no rollcall votes during today's session. Members will be offering amendments, hopefully, to the bill. Today, however, any votes ordered on those amendments will occur during Wednesday's session. Also under the order, at 2:15 p.m. today, the Senate will resume consideration of the Agriculture appropriations bill to allow Senator Harkin to offer an amendment regarding the FDA. A rollcall vote will occur on or in relation to Senator Harkin's amendment at approximately 9:50 on Wednesday morning, tomorrow morning. I remind my colleagues, in addition to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill this week the Senate needs to consider and complete action on the Interior appropriations bill as well as the Food and Drug Administration reform bill. If there is difficulty continuing with the FDA reform, it would be my intent to file a cloture motion tomorrow, which would then ripen on Friday morning, and unless some agreement can be worked out we would have to have that vote on Friday morning. Therefore, after today's session, votes will be occurring each day. The chairman just indicated to me he would hope to finish the Labor-HHS bill tomorrow night, but we will stay on the bill and get it completed except for the one vote at 9:50 on Wednesday, and of course, if we have to go to FDA reform--we can complete the bill, although I hope it can be completed by the time we get to FDA. I urge Senators that are back in town that have amendments to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill to please come to the floor, offer those amendments today, so that you can have them debated now and not get under a time pressure late tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night or whenever we get to the close of the debate. I think you get a lot better consideration of amendments if you come and offer them early rather than later. I want to thank all Senators for their past and hopefully continued cooperation during the remainder of the first session of the 105th Congress. As all Members are aware, as we approach adjournment at the end of this legislative session it will be very busy and will necessitate everyone working with the leaders as we try to complete the remaining schedules. We have not had an opportunity to meet with the leadership and to talk with the leadership on the Democratic side of the aisle about exactly when our target adjournment will be, but during the remainder of the week we will be doing so. Later on this week, to early next week, we will give Senators some idea of our hoped for adjournment. I do want to say again how much I appreciate the cooperation that we have had this year. We did complete the Balanced Budget Act and the tax relief package. We also have already passed 10 of our 13 appropriations bills, with only 3 remaining, this bill, the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, Interior, and the District of Columbia. We would like to finish, in fact, we plan to finish, all three of those bills by the end of next week. Then we will begin to take up conference reports and other bills that are necessary before we end the session for this year. It did take cooperation from all Senators and it took cooperation of the leadership on both sides of the aisle. I hope we can continue that and do the people's business in a way that produces results that will help the quality of life of all Americans. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I see Senator Harkin is here. Therefore, the managers of the bill are now ready. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Thank you, Mr. President, and welcome back. I am glad that the Senate is back in session, and I am pleased to see you back in the chair, as is always the case.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I am glad to yield to the Senator from Massachusetts.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I see a number of Senators that wish to speak. I believe Senator Domenici has something he needs to do, and I have a couple unanimous consents, and then the Senator may speak. Within a very few minutes, he can get recognized.

Mr. LOTT. I yield to the Senator from Maryland.

Mr. LOTT. Maybe before we go out tonight.

Mr. LOTT. I yield to the Senator from Delaware.

Mr. LOTT. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank all the Senators for their cooperation. I know this is kind of like ``school's out'' for a break, and we are taking advantage of the opportunity to say good-bye to each other and enjoy the district and State work period. But I want to thank all the Senators for the tremendous cooperation we have seen here in the last 2 weeks. I do not know that I have seen it any better since I have been in the Senate. We have already moved 10 appropriations bills. We are going to try to get lined up to start on the 11th one right when we come back. We have passed these two very important bills, the Balanced Budget Act and the Tax Relief Act. It took a lot of cooperation on both sides of the aisle. I want to thank my counterpart on the Democratic side of the aisle, Senator Daschle. He is a pleasure to work with. I think we have a relationship that is important for the Senate; that we be able to talk to each other and work with each other in honesty and frankness. We are going to continue to do that. Before we leave, we are going to work on doing as much as we can, and I think it is going to be substantial on the Executive Calendar. So I just want to thank Senator Daschle and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their good work. If we could keep this pace going, I think the American people would be very pleased, and maybe they would feel very good about our Senate and what we are trying to do. So thank you very much for your cooperation. I would be glad to yield to the Democratic leader.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Will the Senator yield for a unanimous-consent request that I think would be of great interest to all Senators?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe that everybody knows what is in this bill now and Senators have had many opportunities to express their enthusiastic support for the bill. It seems to me that Senators are ready to vote. If we can get this unanimous-consent agreement that I have discussed with the Democratic leader, we would have this vote this afternoon and we would be through with our work and we would not have another vote until Wednesday, September 3. I ask unanimous-consent that the vote occur on adoption of the pending tax fairness conference report at 6 p.m. this evening, and that no further action occur prior to the vote.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I renew my request.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I need some additional time, I yield myself time off my leader time, although I hope--I will stay as close to the appointed hour for a vote as possible.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, a lot of effort has been put into the Food and Drug Administration reform legislation. The committee reported it out by a, I believe, 14 to 4 vote. It was an overwhelming bipartisan vote. A tremendous effort has been underway to get an agreement on that legislation and to bring it to the floor. I think we should do that and, if I have to, I will begin a cloture proceeding the week we come back because I think this reform is very important. Some parts of it in the law will expire, I believe, at the end of August and will begin to have an impact in September and October. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the consideration of S. 830 regarding FDA reform.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I appreciate the cooperation of all Senators on both sides of the aisle, as we have cleared these lists. When we get through today, we hope to have cleared most of the Executive Calendar. We have some that are still being held for matching nominations, some reservations on both sides. But when we get through here, I believe we will have cleared all that is on the calendar, except maybe those that have just been reported today and maybe just eight or nine others that we are still working on. I appreciate, again, the support that we have had from Senators on both sides and from the Democratic leader. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on the Executive Calendar: Nos. 121 through 127, 133, 134, 166 through 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175 through 178, 179, 182 through 185, 201, 203, 204, 205 through 223, 225 through 232, and all nominations placed on the Secretary's desk in the Foreign Service. I finally ask consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of George Munoz, to be president of OPIC. I understand that before the Senate confirms the above nominations, there are several Senators who may like to speak. 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 the appropriate place in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session. I might note, Mr. President, we are still trying to clear some other nominations. There may be another opportunity before the night is over to clear some other nominations. Some of these nominations did not actually get reported from the committees until today. We are scrambling to try to see if we can get them confirmed so they can begin their service during the August recess. Therefore, that completes my unanimous consent request.

Mr. LOTT. I thank the Senator for doing that. I do note that we had 10 pages of nominations. When the night is over, those that were on the calendar will be down to one page. And some of those have holds on both sides of the aisle. We are still working on trying to move those. So I appreciate your cooperation. Mr. President, I yield the floor at this time.