Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Select Committee on Intelligence has received a request from the inspector general of the Department of Justice for copies of certain committee records relevant to the inspector general's pending inquiry into allegations of involvement by the Central Intelligence Agency in crack cocaine trafficking with supporters of the Nicaraguan Contras. It is anticipated that other Senate committees may receive similar requests for documents in the future. This resolution would authorize the chairman and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, acting jointly, to provide committee records in response to this request, utilizing appropriate security procedures. This resolution would also authorize the chairman and ranking member of other Senate committees, acting jointly, to provide relevant records of such committees in response to similar requests without the necessity of further Senate action. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution be placed at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Senate Resolution 91 submitted earlier today by Senators Lott and Daschle.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent the amendment be agreed to, the resolution be agreed to, as amended, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements related to the resolution appear at this point in the Record.

Mr. LOTT. Senator Thurmond has an amendment to the resolution at the desk and I ask for its consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of Senate Resolution 76 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 768 which was reported by the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be placed at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendments be agreed to, the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution appear at this point in the Record.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 61, Senate Resolution 57.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Senate Resolution 90 submitted earlier today by Senators Byrd, Coverdell and Cleland.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, with these agreements we did pass the three judges by voice vote, the Chemical Weapons Convention implementation bill by voice vote. Therefore, there will be no further votes today. We will therefore not have another vote before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2. We will announce the details of the first 2 days we are back later on this afternoon. I yield the floor, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor. Mr. HATCH addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senate Concurrent Resolution 27 be placed back on the calendar.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we will have just some response from the chairman in a moment. But let me proceed to the next unanimous-consent request.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the title amendment be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that statements relating to the bill appear at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I do have some unanimous-consent requests to make and an Executive Calendar list. First I want to say to the distinguished Democratic leader I understand his feelings and appreciate his comments. We did work to try to get through all the legislative hurdles in moving the supplemental and resolving the problems attached to it. We ran into some procedural limitations there at the end that made it impossible for us to complete it, but we need to get it done. We are going to get it done. We are going to make sure the people of the States that have had disasters are going to get the aid they need. I have already sent a letter urging everything be done to make sure the funds continue to flow through FEMA and any other agency that has a role in providing disaster assistance, whether it is in South Dakota, North Dakota, Kentucky, or Minnesota. When we come back, it is going to be one of the two first orders of priority. One, we have to do the budget conference report, which I think will be done very quickly, and then we can really focus on getting the supplemental completed and resolving some of the issues that are critical issues attached to it so that we can come up with a solution everybody can live with on the census question and address the roads problem and also find a way to deal with avoiding Government shutdowns in the future. I think we can do all of those once we make up our minds to focus on it and get our minds committed to working on that effort.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Also, the Senator from New Jersey stood right there with him. They worked together. He kept his word, and we got a tremendous result here of 78 to 22, overwhelming. Without that type of cooperation across the aisle from the Budget Committee, it could not have been achieved. So I thank one and all for what has been achieved today. [Applause, Senators rising.]

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I further ask unanimous consent that committees have between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28, to file reports to accompany legislative or executive items.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent on Monday, June 2, at 1 p.m. the Senate resume consideration of S. 4, the comptime-flextime bill which would guarantee a family friendly workplace. Amendments are expected to be offered. However, votes will not occur prior to the hour of 5 p.m.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 3, the Senate proceed to 3 hours of tributes to honor our most distinguished President pro tempore, who will break the all-time Senate record on Sunday, May 25, for the longest Senate service. I know all of our colleagues will want to participate in this worthy tribute to the distinguished Senator from South Carolina, Senator Thurmond.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in adjournment until the hour of 10 o'clock on Tuesday, May 27, for a pro forma session only and immediately following the prayer, the Senate stand in adjournment until 11 a.m., Friday, May 30, for a pro forma session only. I further ask unanimous consent that immediately following the prayer on Friday, May 30, the Senate stand in adjournment until 12 noon on Monday, June 2, and further that on Monday, immediately following the prayer, the routine requests through the morning hour be granted and the Senate then proceed to a period of morning business until 1 p.m. with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Craig of Idaho.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. For the information of all Senators, it is the hope of the leadership that the budget conference report will be available for Senate consideration on Tuesday, June 3. Therefore, all Senators can expect a rollcall vote on passage of the budget conference report on Tuesday, June 3, hopefully, early in the evening rather than going late into the night.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. A primary thrust of the amendment in the 104th Congress by the House of Representatives was to clarify that the agreement shall not affect in any way the Jones Act and other laws related to our essential coastwise trade. My colleagues know my position on the Jones Act--I support it unequivocally. I believe the language in S. 629 also supports the Jones Act by requiring the withdrawal of the United States from the agreement if it interferes with our coastwise trade laws. However, I am continuing to work with Senator Breaux to further strengthen this provision.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all votes after the first vote be limited to 10 minutes in length, and, further, all time consumed by the votes count against the overall time limitation, and, further, any remaining debate time under the statute be consumed this evening, and, finally, beginning at 9:30 a.m., tomorrow morning the Senate proceed to vote on any pending amendments, and following disposition of all amendments, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 56, House Concurrent Resolution 84, the House companion, and all after the enacting clause be stricken, and the text of Senate Concurrent Resolution 27 be inserted, and the Senate proceed to vote on adoption of the budget resolution, with no intervening action or debate.