Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. That will be fine.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Wednesday, February 26, immediately following the vote on Senator Feinstein's amendment, Senator Torricelli be recognized to offer an amendment relating to capital budgeting. I further ask consent that there be 3 hours for debate, equally divided in the usual form, with no amendments in order to the amendment. I finally ask that following the expiration or yielding back of the time, the Senate proceed to a vote on or in relation to the Torricelli amendment.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

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.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that upon the conclusion of Senator Hollings' remarks, the period for morning business be extended with Senators permitted to speak therein for 5 minutes each, except Senator Dorgan for 30 minutes, Senator Kerrey for 15 minutes, Senator Domenici for up to 30 minutes, and Senator Gramm for up to 15 minutes. I want to emphasize that Senator Hollings goes forward with his remarks. I want to thank Members again for your cooperation in getting this vote done, and I want to confirm, as we have already notified Members as they come in, this is the last vote this week. There will be a vote at 5:30 on Monday.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this is the population planning language. In our continuing resolution, last year, we included statutory language that would require a vote before funds could be released. This is dealing with that issue. Therefore, there will be a vote around 2:15 on Tuesday on that population planning issue.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 1:30 on Monday, February 24, the Senate begin consideration of House Joint Resolution 36 under the statutory limitations. I further ask that following the expiration or yielding back of the 2-hour debate limit, the resolution be considered read the third time and set aside; and, finally, beginning at 2:10, Tuesday, February 25, there be 5 minutes of debate, equally divided in the usual form, prior to a vote on the resolution, which would begin at 2:15 on Tuesday, February 25, with no further intervening action or debate.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of a Senate resolution submitted by Senator Specter regarding milk prices. I further ask consent there be 15 minutes for debate divided as follows, Senator Specter allocated 5 minutes, Senator Kohl allotted 5 minutes, and Senator Feingold 5 minutes. I ask that following the expiration or yielding back of that time the Senate proceed to vote on adoption of the resolution all without further action or debate.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, will the Senator from South Carolina yield to allow me to address it? If I could get him to allow me to get consent with regard to the milk resolution, I would like to ask unanimous consent that following the resolution of this issue, the Senator from South Carolina resume his discussion at that time.

Mr. LOTT. So I propound that unanimous-consent request.

Mr. LOTT. I think in order to do that we need to get Senator Kohl to agree and he is literally on his way, so we cannot actually reach him. If we go ahead and get started, we can have debate time and have a vote and accommodate Members who have commitments, if the Senator would allow us.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Today the Senate will be in a period of morning business until the hour of 3 p.m. this afternoon. This will accommodate a number of Senators who have requested time to speak on various matters. Following morning business today, there will be a number of items that are possible for Senate consideration. Due to several scheduling conflicts, I am uncertain at this time exactly whether or not we will be able to make further progress on Senate Joint Resolution 1, the constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. But it is my hope that at some time today the Democratic leader and I will reach an understanding as to the number of amendments that are expected to Senate Joint Resolution 1 as well as an indication as to when we might be able to complete action on this important constitutional amendment. We have worked very hard at trying to accommodate all Senators' schedules, and, of course, this morning we have a funeral service for Ambassador Harriman and other problems in that area we tried to accommodate. We have taken up a few amendments and voted, but earlier my conversations with the Democratic leader were that he did not see--I believe this is a fair statement--any reason why we could not complete this work by the end of this month. So we have today and then 5 days when we come back after the Presidents' Day recess. I hope we can get a list that would have a reasonable amount of serious amendments and then get an agreement on a time to complete that action. We want to make sure we have a full debate, everybody feels that they have been treated fairly, but there needs to be a limit on how long this goes on. We have been acting so far this year in good faith. We have been trying to accommodate each other's schedules, but when we come back we are going to have to move these amendments through the process and get a final vote because we do have other work we would like to bring to the floor. I remind my colleagues that we have scheduled a rollcall vote on the pending amendment offered by Senator Byrd. That vote will occur at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, February 24, the day we come back. It is also possible the Senate will vote today on a resolution submitted by Senator Specter regarding milk prices. If an agreement can be reached, we will have a short period of debate on that resolution followed by a rollcall vote. We are also still attempting to clear consideration of a resolution relating to the American Airlines strike which was submitted by Senator Hutchison. This is timely, obviously. We are looking at the possibility of a strike which could cripple that airline and impact jobs in the thousands all over the country. So I am hoping that we could pass a resolution expressing our concern and urging the President to use his powers to find a way to avoid this threatened strike. Finally, there are a couple of nominations that were reported from committee yesterday. We may be able to clear those nominations for action. I am not sure that they would even require a vote, but we will have to work through it here in the next 3 or 4 hours. This is the last day of the session prior to the Presidents' Day recess, so I thank my colleagues for their cooperation as we try to finish business at a reasonable hour today. We will notify all the Senators when we may have actual rollcall votes. And, again, we have had good cooperation, but we have not had a lot of pressure in terms of schedule, and when we come back we really have to begin to make some progress on these amendments, and I hope we will be able to do that. I yield the floor, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I reclaim my time. I understand. As I have said earlier this year, and again here today, every Senator is within his or her rights to offer amendments. I know, as we go forward, there will be disagreements, and I know that the Senator from Minnesota is going to pursue this issue. He is entitled to do that. I appreciate his comments today and that he is not going to object. We will have to see how it moves forward in the future.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of House Concurrent Resolution 21, the adjournment resolution. I further ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. LOTT. I try to be calm and respond gently, but when the Senator pricks me a little bit, I have to try to respond in a way that explains why I can't just say, ``April 15 on tax day we are going to take this bill up.'' I need help. I need cooperation on your side. We have done that. The Senator from Minnesota knows that last year I worked with him, I kept my word to him even one time when there was a little misunderstanding, but we worked through it and got it done. I am willing to do that, but you have to keep in mind what we are trying to accomplish here on a number of issues that do interrelate. I am happy to yield for a response to that.

Mr. LOTT. Do I have the floor?

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could respond to the Senator's question. First of all, it is very hard to pick a date, to say by a date certain we will get something done. For instance, on the matter that has been pending before the Senate, Senate Joint Resolution 1, the constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, we had hoped we could have a reasonable and fair debate and amendments being offered--I believe the Senator from Minnesota has had three or so and maybe he had some more--and that by the end of the month we would have a vote on that after having had a good, fair debate and amendments being offered. But now we are having trouble getting amendments up and getting a time agreed to. Now I understand we may have, I do not know, 20 or 25 amendments lurking around out there. So now I have to begin to consider filing cloture on something that--we do not want to start the cloture wars this year. So I try to take into consideration everybody's needs, and we have problems we have to take into consideration, like funerals of relatives or the Ambassador today. So it is very hard to say a time certain. Another example is, before we have reform, I think we ought to find out, first of all, what laws have been violated already on the books. Today we have in the paper that China is working, perhaps, on trying to get some foreign contributions, illegal contributions in the Presidential campaign. There seems to be an article every day--every day. Before we start trying to reform a law, I think we ought to see a law that is already on the books that I voted for back in 1973 or 1974 that is being used or abused. Yet we are seeing an all-out fight to stop the funding for the Governmental Affairs Committee to begin its work to find out what happened so we will know what laws have been violated, so we will know what kind of reform we may or may not need. Unfortunately, as it is being delayed and the appearance of obstruction in getting that hearing started, that has an impact on when we might get to a vote on legislation here in the Senate. The next thing is we would like to have hearings on this issue in the Rules Committee. In fact, we will have. And yet the Rules Committee has been tied up for almost 2 weeks on trying to get the committee funding resolution and the resolution of the question with regard to the alleged illegal contributions in the Presidential campaign in 1996. Then, also, I have to say to the Senator, are we ready now to begin to work on a bill that maybe both sides can agree to, or will it be one where you want to stick it to our side? Are you ready now to begin to get some language in there that would say that we must have paycheck equity? In other words, when I talk to my friends in my hometown, union members, some of which I used to represent when I practiced law, and my father was one, they get irate that their dues are being used for campaign purposes across this country without their approval or designation. So, there is not going to be a campaign finance bill that does not address a question like that. So, is the Senator ready to include something like that in the legislation?

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, February 24, immediately following the vote on or in relation to the Byrd amendment, Senator Reid be recognized to offer an amendment relative to Social Security. I further ask unanimous consent that when the Senate convenes on Tuesday, February 25, the time between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. be equally divided in the usual form on the Reid amendment. I also ask unanimous consent that following the vote at 2:15 on Tuesday, February 25, the Senate resume debate on the Reid amendment until 6 p.m., with a vote occurring on or in relation to the Reid amendment beginning at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, February 25. I finally ask that on Wednesday, February 26, Senator Feinstein be recognized at 9 a.m. to offer an amendment, with the time between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. divided equally in the usual form for debate on the Feinstein amendment; and, finally, a vote to occur on or in relation to the Feinstein amendment at 11 a.m. on the 26th. I also ask that no amendments be in order to Reid or Feinstein or any language proposed to be stricken.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, that means we will have a vote on the Byrd amendment around 5:30 on Monday. We will come in at 9 on Tuesday, the week of the 24th and 25th, and we will have debate during the morning of Tuesday on the Reid amendment. We will recess for the policy luncheons then and come in at 2:15 for a vote on the population planning issue. We will continue to debate the Reid amendment after that, with a vote at 6 o'clock on Tuesday, the 25th. We will come in at 9 o'clock on Wednesday and begin the debate on the Feinstein amendment and vote at 11 o'clock. I thank the Democratic leader for his cooperation in getting these three amendments to the constitutional amendment for a balanced budget scheduled. Because of that cooperation, I did not file a cloture motion this afternoon. That is somewhat risky, because if we don't get good cooperation, if we don't work through these amendments with time agreements, that will mean that I could not file a cloture motion and require a vote until Wednesday of that week. But if the Members will work with us in good faith, on both sides, if we make progress and we move toward completion of the constitutional amendment that first week that we are back, ending the 28th, then maybe a cloture motion will not be necessary. But we must have cooperation on these amendments to either get the ones that are not serious dispensed with, or to get a vote scheduled quickly on Wednesday of that week. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. There will be no further votes this evening, but I do understand there are several requests for morning business in the morning. In light of those requests and the memorial service for Ambassador Pamela Harriman, I expect the Senate will be conducting morning business only until around 2 p.m. on Thursday. Following morning business, there is a possibility for consideration of a resolution regarding milk prices, and there is the possibility of another resolution but we are trying to see if that resolution has been filed and, of course, we will need to clear it with the Democratic leader. There are rollcall votes possible during tomorrow's session but we do not have an agreement on that yet. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 1, the balanced budget amendment, on Monday, February 24, the Senate resume consideration of Senator Byrd's amendment No. 6 beginning at 3:30 p.m. I further ask that there be 2 additional hours of debate equally divided in the usual form prior to the vote on or in relation to the Byrd amendment and finally no amendments be in order to that amendment.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators here and back now at their offices, there will be no further votes this evening. I understand there are----

Mr. LOTT. I am highly complimented and appreciative of the Senator's comments.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, there will be a vote then on Senator Byrd's amendment at approximately 5:30 on Monday, February 24, which is the date the Senate returns from the Presidents Day recess. I have discussed these Monday afternoon votes with the Democratic leader. We are agreed we will have votes quite often on Monday afternoons. We will try to tell you as far in advance as we can. It does seem to get the Members back and ready for work. It allows us to get committee work done on Monday afternoons or certainly on Tuesday mornings. And also I should remind Senators that that week after we come back after the Presidents Day recess, in order to complete our work on the balanced budget amendment there is a good possibility we will have to stay in late on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That is not definite yet. It will depend on how many amendments and time agreements. We will work with the leader on that. But we have been very aggressive in trying to keep our schedule reasonable. If we need to do some late nights that week to finish our work so that we can do other things that are pending, including nominations, then we would be prepared to do that. But we will advise you in advance when we are going to have to be in session at night.