Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I modify my unanimous consent request that there be 10 minutes, equally divided, before the votes in the morning on the Grams amendment, if necessary, and the Wellstone amendment, if necessary, and then final passage.

Mr. LOTT. I thank the Senator from Minnesota for his cooperation and his understanding that these things are very difficult and sometimes we all get a little carried away in our comments. I appreciate his cooperation on this. He will have time to make his case and he will have 10 minutes in the morning. I thank him for his cooperation. Mr. President, in furtherance of this reservation, Mr. President, I-- how long does the Senator need?

Mr. LOTT. I didn't ask for any time agreements on the Grams amendment or the Wellstone amendment, thinking that Senators could have a full time opportunity tonight to discuss their amendments, without time limit. The only time limit would be that we would come in at 9:30 and have 10 minutes on Wellstone, equally divided, and then go to final passage.

Mr. LOTT. So that we can get the train underway, we have one UC agreed to. Let's have the debate and we will have the votes at 6:30 and, in the meantime, we will see if we can work out the final agreement that would get us to final votes tonight. I have to say that because we don't have this agreement, then we have no conclusion about whether or not there would be additional votes after 6:30. We will try to clarify that when we get through with those votes, sometime shortly before 7.

Mr. LOTT. I also ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Arizona have 4 minutes before we begin on the amendments we have lined up.

Mr. LOTT. That's right.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I must say that I agree with the Senator from Arkansas on the last part of his comments.

Mr. LOTT. Therefore, there will be no further rollcall votes this evening. The next rollcall votes will be a series of votes completing action on the Agriculture appropriations bill occurring at 10 a.m. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. This is the normal language that we use in this type of consent, getting the final passage. It is the normal procedure and the normal language. I guess, in theory, it is subject to amendment.

Mr. LOTT. The Bryan amendment is available and we do have 30 minutes reserved for debate equally divided, and I don't believe--under the request we asked for, no second-degree amendments would be in order.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I had hoped to do that. I would be willing-- well, if I could get an agreement to what I have asked, and then I would like to propound a second unanimous consent request.

Mr. LOTT. Will the Senator repeat the question?

Mr. LOTT. Did the Senator from Minnesota have a question that I did not respond to?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senator is correct. That was the agreement. So we need to modify the agreement that there would be 10 minutes equally divided before the Wellstone amendment would be voted on tomorrow morning.

Mr. LOTT. Is it regarding the legislation?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I have another unanimous-consent request we would like to make on the amendments that are pending and how we can get to a conclusion. Then we can advise the Members that there would be no more votes tonight if we can get this agreement worked out. I think we have talked to all the interested Senators, and we should get this agreed to. I ask unanimous consent that the following be the only remaining amendments in order and they be limited to relevant second-degrees and votes ordered with respect to those amendments be stacked to occur beginning at 10 a.m. on Thursday, with 2 minutes for debate between each stacked vote, equally divided. Those amendments are as follows and subject to time restraints where noted: Grams, dairy compact amendment; Wellstone, school breakfast, 1 hour equally divided; a managers' amendment; the Bingaman amendment with regard to CRP; the Robb amendment with regard to farmers' civil rights; and the Johnson amendment regarding livestock packers. I further ask unanimous consent that following the disposition of the above-listed amendments, the bill be advanced to third reading and, if the Senate has received H.R. 2160, the Senate proceed to the House companion bill, all after the enacting clause be stricken, the text of S. 1033, as amended, be inserted, and the bill be advanced to third reading, and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the Agriculture appropriations bill, and following the passage the Senate insist on its amendment and request a conference with the House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate. Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT. The request we have here is that the Grams amendment would go first, because I think we have that worked out where it will be just a very brief period of time, and we would go right to your amendment after that with a time limit of 1 hour equally divided.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in light of the objection, I now move to proceed to S. 39, and I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor. I believe we are ready to proceed with the order.

Mr. LOTT. It will be the intention of the leadership to schedule this vote to occur on Friday. I now withdraw the motion to proceed.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I have a motion that I need to file. I believe that there is a Senator who will want to object on this. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the consideration of Calendar 109, S. 39, regarding the International Dolphin Conservation Program.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I want to take a few moments to recognize the work of Mr. Mark Lacovara, who has retired after more than 27 years' employment in the Senate. Mark came to the Senate in 1969 as a reference assistant in the Senate Library and has since served in various capacities with the Official Reporters of Debates, the Sergeant at Arms, the Secretary of the Senate, and administrative services. The position from which he leaves us is that of assistant Journal clerk. To those of us who are a part of the Senate, Mark's regard for this institution is well-known and highly valued. Such dedication is no doubt rooted in his early years. Mark grew up in the Washington, DC, area and observed his father, the late John Lacovara, in service as the Senate's Republican Deputy Sergeant at Arms. Mark began employment with the Senate as a young man of 18. As he worked, he also earned a college degree and served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Mark has been committed to the best interests of the Senate and to the United States throughout his career. This is evident in both the quality of his work and his enthusiasm for it. I want to thank Mark for his outstanding service in the U.S. Senate; we will miss him. I'm certain my colleagues join me in expressing appreciation and in wishing him well.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, today the Senate will be in a period of morning business until the hour of 3 p.m. Following morning business, the Senate will begin consideration of the VA-HUD appropriations bill. We made great progress on appropriations bills last week and I hope that will continue. As a matter of fact, we completed action on four bills and completed everything on the fifth appropriations bill except for a vote on an amendment or amendments and final passage. So I ask all Members' cooperation in working with the chairmen of the remaining appropriations bills to enable us to finish each of these measures in a timely manner. We are hoping that we can complete the bill that we brought over last week, the Treasury, Postal Service, with votes this afternoon. As I said, we will begin the VA-HUD and will consider agriculture, military construction, and even State, Justice, Commerce this week. So I remind all Senators that at 5:15 today we will temporarily set aside the VA-HUD appropriations bill and resume consideration for final passage and, I believe, one amendment we have pending on the Treasury, Postal Service appropriations bill. Senators can expect, at 5:15, a series of rollcall votes on or in relation to those amendments on Treasury, Postal Service, and then final passage. Following those votes, I encourage Members who have amendments to the VA-HUD appropriations bill to remain and offer their amendments this evening so we can make progress also on that measure. There are 2 weeks remaining for business prior to the August recess period. There are a number of appropriations bills now available, and the committee will be reporting additional bills tomorrow. It is my hope that the Senate will be able to finish action on many, if not all, of these. Obviously, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the Senator from Alaska, Senator Stevens, and his ranking member, Senator Byrd, are doing an excellent job in getting these bills through the subcommittees of appropriations and through the full committee. So we can perhaps also have conference reports available soon, in September, on appropriations bills, and we will have, hopefully in short order, conference reports agreed to which accompany the Tax Fairness Act and the balanced budget amendment, and they will be available later on this week, or certainly early next week. Prior to the recess, we will conclude action on those conference reports. Some have suggested that we may not be able to do that, but I think we have made good progress. There has been a lot of work even over the weekend, Senators and Congressmen meeting on both sides of the aisle on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and also with administration officials. I think good progress has been made. Obviously, there are some very important decisions yet to be worked out. But I think we will be ready to be doing that today and tomorrow and maybe even Wednesday if it has to go over to that day. I previously announced that S. 39, the tuna-dolphin bill, and the FDA reform bill could be considered this week, and probably at least one will be brought up. On the tuna-dolphin bill, we will begin the process on Wednesday to move toward a cloture vote on Friday, if some other agreement is not worked out. I believe the interested parties can work out a compromise that is acceptable to all sides. I know the administration is very interested in getting this legislation considered. I have been called by the President to urge that we schedule this legislation and we come to an agreement. This is an international agreement with regard to tuna and dolphin that has been laboriously worked out by 12 or 13 countries. We should not leave for the August recess without acting on it. We intend to do that. Although I say to one and all, we cannot tie up the Senate for an extended period of time on either one of these issues, FDA reform or the tuna- dolphin bill. Needless to say, the remaining sessions during the legislative period will be busy, and Members should expect rollcall votes occurring throughout each day and into the evening if necessary. Senators should be cautious with their scheduling during the next 2-week period as we will attempt to complete these items just mentioned. They should expect votes, obviously, on this Monday and on this Friday. There is even a possibility that we will have to go over in session to Saturday to resolve the State, Justice, Commerce appropriations bill and/or the tuna-dolphin bill. Then we will have votes the following Monday and we will have votes, if necessary, on Friday of next week, so that we can complete action on these two very critical conference reports. But I feel very good about the prospects of doing that. There are those who are concerned right now, can we complete that work. I think the way to do it is just redouble our efforts and develop the attitude that we are going to complete action. I know the President and his administration wants us to get this done before we leave for the August district and State work periods. Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we are going to have this debate next week, I presume. I thank everyone for all of their good efforts. Please allow me to complete my unanimous-consent request, and then we will complete the debate on the Treasury, Postal Service appropriations bill. I want to emphasize this again. The Senate will next consider after this bill the VA-HUD appropriations bill on Monday, and votes will occur on amendments and passage of the treasury, postal bill at 5:15. I ask unanimous consent that all amendments must be offered and debated with respect to the Treasury, Postal Service tonight, and those votes then would occur on a case-by-case basis at 5:15 on Monday.

Mr. LOTT. Yes. I yield to the Senator.