Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, there is an amendment pending. I believe that we have a copy of it now. We should be ready to go to the vote momentarily. It would be our intent, on both sides of the aisle, to make this the last vote tonight and resume voting again in the morning at 9:30, at which point I am hoping that Senator Daschle and I can work together and get an agreement as to how we would proceed in the morning and as to how we would complete action on this legislation. I am not going to propound a unanimous consent request now, but we want Senators to know this will be the last vote of the night. We will be back at 9:30. Our intent is to work together to find a way to successfully complete action on this legislation.

Mr. LOTT. I would be glad to yield to Senator Byrd or to Senator Reid.

Mr. LOTT. I believe we have other amendments that would be in order. I believe Senator Snowe has indicated that she will have one in the morning.

Mr. LOTT. If we do not have one ready to go at 9:30, we would go to the Durbin amendment, and then one--have we offered one today?

Mr. LOTT. We might want to have one every other day until we can complete action. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I will use a brief part of my leader time to outline the schedule of how we will proceed tonight after the other two speakers have spoken. I withdraw my reservation.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I yield myself such time as I may consume under the leader's time, but it will only be 2 or 3 minutes. First, parliamentary inquiry: We are now ready to proceed with a vote on the first amendment in sequence that could very well go on for quite some time; is that correct?

Mr. LOTT. Before we do that, I want to make two or three points. First, we have reached a historic point. Tonight we are going to pass this very important, significant tax relief package for working Americans. When one looks at all that is in this bill, it is very impressive, not just the amounts, but also what it does in reducing individual income tax rates, dealing with the death tax, doubling the child tax credit, and reducing the marriage penalty. It provides relief on the alternative minimum tax, encourages savings for education, and it also encourages retirement security. This is a very large package already in the number of provisions that are in it. In fact, one of the greatest dangers we face right now is loving it to death or loading it down because we still have a number of amendments we may be voting on tonight that could begin to drive up the overall cost of the bill, but also every time colleagues add something, unless they can get over 60 votes, they are taking something away. So I hope we will stick with the package we have before us. It is a good package. It will benefit the economy in America. It will help working American families. Once again, I have to give a lot of credit to the chairman of the Finance Committee, Chuck Grassley, for working very hard and reaching out to everybody on both sides of the aisle. He is the new chairman of the committee but has worked it as the old pro he really is. He also was determined from the beginning that this was going to be bipartisan. He and the Senator from Montana got together and talked. They came to some agreements that maybe the leaders on both sides of the aisle would not have necessarily preferred, but that is the way the Finance Committee has worked in all the years I have watched it up close and now as a member. It has come out not always on a partisan vote but a bipartisan vote as we have tried to get the job done. I commend the chairman and the ranking Democrat. Despite the fact Senator Baucus, the ranking member, will be criticized on his side of the aisle for crossing the aisle a little ways along the way, he did the job and he deserves credit. With regard to the schedule, we have a lot of work to do this week. This could be a breakthrough week in which we provide tax relief for Americans and pass the most fundamental education reform in years, again, in a bipartisan way, and that would be a tremendous boost to the American people if they see us doing both of those things this week. We will begin voting now in sequence. We will limit the votes to 10 minutes plus not more than 5 minutes overtime. After the first vote, we will cut the votes off. If we can get all the Senators to stay in the Chamber, we can actually get votes done in 12 minutes and then, of course, have 2 minutes equally divided to explain the next amendment. We are going to stick to our guns tonight. Senator Byrd has been calling for that. He is right. If ever there was a time we needed to do it, it is tonight. If we do not do that, we will be here voting at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, however long it takes. I emphasize this point. We are going to vote on the amendments on which we need to vote. I encourage Senators not to insist on a vote unless they absolutely have to. We are going to keep voting until we complete our work and get to final passage tonight because we must go back to the education bill in the morning, and we must begin to have a conference meeting across the aisle and across the Capitol tomorrow on how we are going to proceed on tax relief. We are going to limit the time on these votes. We are going to vote on the amendments, and we are going to vote on final passage tonight. I hope Senators prepared for that and will not be leaving the Capitol. Senators will have a few minutes between votes to run and get a sandwich. Maybe we can get pizzas brought up. We will be glad to invite Senators to come into our Cloakrooms and have pizzas. We need to get this bill finished, and we are going to do it tonight.

Mr. LOTT. I yield to the distinguished Senator from Nevada who has been in the Chamber again doing yeoman work. I appreciate it.

Mr. LOTT. If I can say to the Senator, he is right, and the only way we are going to complete our work is stay in the Chamber and cut them off in the regular time. I will do that. I ask for the Senator's support in that effort and the managers. That is the only way we are going to complete this at a reasonable hour.

Mr. LOTT. I will be glad to yield.

Mr. LOTT. Not more than 20 minutes; 15 minutes, and I believe tradition allows for 5 minutes overtime--not more than 20 minutes.

Mr. LOTT. Subsequent amendments will be 10 minutes or could go as much as 5 minutes overtime. When every Senator is in, it could be as little as 12 minutes, but not more than 15 minutes.

Mr. LOTT. I did that one time, and I found out it is actually 10 minutes plus 5 minutes that is allowed under the rule. Once every Senator is recorded, if it is 10 minutes, 11 minutes, we will cut it off right then. I am going to stay here and watch every vote.

Mr. LOTT. That is correct.

Mr. LOTT. I will be glad to.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I do not believe there is an objection to that request.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the next votes in the series be limited to 10 minutes each, with 2 minutes before each vote for an explanation.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 670

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Motion to Commit

Mr. LOTT. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. LOTT. I move to reconsider the vote.