Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank the Democratic leader and praise his commitment and dedication to this issue. I am honored to be working with him, and my other colleagues, on strengthening our national rail passenger system. I have been an active supporter, and was very much involved a couple of years ago when we passed the Amtrak legislation. I think we need it. Now, I must confess one of the reasons I think we need it is I want us to have good service, not just in the Northeast, but I also would like to have access for my own State of Mississippi to be able to get to Atlanta and Washington and Dallas. We are the beneficiaries of Amtrak service. I think we have to support it. What's most important is that we give Amtrak an opportunity to succeed. If you do not have adequate capital investment, if you don't have modern equipment, if you don't have the new fast trains, if you don't have a rapid rail system, it will not work. So I support this legislation, and will work with my colleagues to get the appropriate hearings in the Finance Committee and hopefully in the Commerce Committee. I am on both committees, and Senator Daschle and I will work with the ranking member and the chairman to get hearings and move this legislation. When we talk about bipartisanship, transportation is an issue on which we have been able to work together in a bipartisan way, whether it is roads, AIR-21, TEA-21, Amtrak, rapid rail system. We can do it again, and I am committed to ensure that we do. I now yield to the Distinguished Senator from the state of Massachusetts, Senator Kerry.

Mr. LOTT. I strongly concur with the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee on this issue, and also urge that the Senate provision on advance appropriations be included in the final conference report.

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.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2 p.m. on Monday, April 23, the Senate resume H. Con. Res. 83, and the majority leader, or his designee, be recognized to make a motion for the Senate to insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes thereon, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, those conferees being: Senators Domenici, Grassley, and Gramm, and Democratic nominees to be announced on Monday, April 23. There will be two of them. Further, there will be 4 hours equally divided for debate only, and following that debate, the motions be immediately agreed to without any intervening action, motion, or additional debate, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could take a moment while Senator Daschle is present, I thank the managers of this legislation on behalf of all the Senate. Being chairman of a committee and ranking member of a committee always has its challenges. And when you manage a bill on the floor, any of them can present difficulties and take quite some time. But probably no bill is any more difficult than the budget resolution because you have so many different parts. You are dealing with mandatory programs, appropriated accounts, the aggregate numbers, and those categories, as well as what you are going to do with regard to tax policy. It is not an easy job. I must say that Senator Domenici, the chairman of the Budget Committee, and Senator Kent Conrad, the ranking Democrat on the committee, have done an excellent job. We really appreciate it. It has been long hours. But I watched you working last night and again this morning, and I am sure there are many Senators who would not have believed we would be where we are at this moment--20 minutes to 3-- having completed a bipartisan budget resolution. I am sure many of us would make changes and say it is not perfect, but in the years I have watched votes on budget resolutions--and they now go back over some 25 or 26 years since we first started the budget resolution--I only remember two or three times where it was really a bipartisan budget resolution. This vote of 65-35 was, I think, a good vote, a positive vote, and a good step toward completing our work this year on all the different components of this bill. So I congratulate you and thank you for your work. I say to Senator Daschle, would you like to comment?

Mr. LOTT. In conclusion, Mr. President, I would like to join in expressing appreciation for Senator Reid. We consider him the utility player for both sides. He does wonderful work. We do appreciate it. Also, I want to take note that Senator Domenici, as chairman of the committee or ranking member, has been involved in every budget resolution we have worked on since the law went into effect back in the 1970s; and he has been the manager on our side 14 times. So we have the old pro here, and we have the new ranking member, and they both did a great job and worked together quite well. We do appreciate it. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today is the beginning of the Tartan Day weekend, a time to be celebrated nationwide in honor of the millions of Scottish-Americans and their contribution to our Nation. In 1998, the Senate passed Resolution 155 recognizing April 6 as National Tartan Day, the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, signed on April 6, 1320. On that day, a group of Scots declared their independence and stated, ``We fight not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, but only and alone we fight for freedom, which no good man surrenders, but with his life.'' Our own Declaration of Independence was impacted by the wording and spirit of this Declaration of Arbroath. Today, we begin the Tartan Day celebrations with a special ceremony at 11 a.m. on the West Steps of the Capitol. The William Wallace award will be presented to the distinguished actor, film star, and benefactor, Sir Sean Connery. In celebration of Tartan Day, it was a pleasure to have The Rev. Campbell Gillon as the guest Chaplain and give our opening prayer this morning. Mr. Gillon is a native Scot who has served as the pastor of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church for 20 years. Our own Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, who also serves as president of the St. Andrews Society of Washington, is the organizer of the Tartan Day Celebration here at the Capitol today. It's good to see both our Chaplain and the guest Chaplain in their tartan kilts. They are ready for a great day and weekend for the Scots. I'm proud of my own Scots heritage through the Watson clan and look forward to the ceremony this morning. I will join our Chaplain and the guest Chaplain soon, as will my son and I am sure many other Senators of Scottish ancestry. This will be a great day, a great weekend for all Scots, both in America and in Scotland. I want to make the Senate aware of the special occasion. Amongst all these amendments and this great debate of the budget resolution, I am sure the spirit of the Declaration of Arbroath will be felt throughout the day.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk due for its second reading.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I object to further proceedings on this bill at this time.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I yield myself such leader time as I might need, although I will be brief. On the issue before us, the amendment by the Senator from Michigan, once again, this is a continuation of what I referred to yesterday: Fiddling while Rome is burning. Once again we are going to increase spending, albeit in a good cause, and we are going to take it away from tax relief for working Americans. The Senator from Maine has a better alternative. I say again to all who are watching, the pattern is clear--spend more and tax more. That is what the Congress has been committed to for so many years, and we are trying to change that culture. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I yield myself such time as I might need off the leader time for the opportunity to sort of go over what is going to be the process at this point. The chairman and ranking member might want to be prepared to comment or respond. For the information of all Senators, we are about to start a series of votes, which has been unfortunately referred to correctly as the ``vote-arama.'' The first of these votes will be in relation to the Domenici amendment regarding reconciliation. Following that vote, we will have votes on the remaining pending amendments in the order in which they have been offered. I believe Senators have access to those amendments in their order and, therefore, will know when they will come up. I also announce that in order for us to be able to bring this to some conclusion, it is going to be necessary to move forward into the night, and we will shorten the voting period from 15 minutes after the first vote to 10 minutes on the subsequent amendments. There are approximately, as I understand it, 160 amendments that have been filed. I hope Senators will show restraint, not offer the amendments, and work with the chairman and the manager to identify the amendments we really do want to consider. If we did all of the amendments on the list that are available here tonight, assuming we could do about three votes an hour, we would be here until I guess until 9 or 9:30--something such as that. I know the chairman, the manager, and the sponsors will work with them. Maybe they can work through some of those amendments to reduce them. Of course, tomorrow morning we will continue with the so-called vote-arama every 15 minutes to vote on other amendments that would be pending or would be necessary to be voted on, with the idea that we would get conclusion of voting sometime and final passage tomorrow around 2:30. I know it is going to take a lot of patience to get to that point. But that is our goal. I believe that is the way it is presently lined up. Is that correct?

Mr. LOTT. Yes.

Mr. LOTT. I think we need to do that. We quite often have legitimate requests. Senators are stuck in elevators, are in the area and we can't find them, or whatever. After the first vote I will remind Senators again, if you will join me and remind them that we need them to stay in the Chamber, we can get through at a more reasonable hour and still be able to complete the list of amendments tomorrow and get to final passage at a reasonable time tomorrow afternoon. Senator Daschle I see just came on the floor. I was just going over the process of how we will proceed tonight and tomorrow. With that, I believe we are ready to proceed to the first vote.

Mr. LOTT. We will do that on an individual basis, and also publicly after the next vote. We don't want to eat up a lot of time. We will remind them of that.

Mr. LOTT. I thank Senator Daschle. We will work with you on that. Parliamentary inquiry: Has all time expired?

Mr. LOTT. Are we prepared to go to the first in a series of votes? Have the yeas and nays been ordered?

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we have been consulting on both sides of the aisle as to how to complete action tonight and how we will begin in the morning. I think everybody understands the best way to proceed at this point. I ask consent the Wellstone amendment be laid aside and the Senator from Louisiana be recognized to offer a first-degree amendment; that it be laid aside and the Senator from Maine, Ms. Collins, offer a first-degree amendment; that no amendments be in order to these amendments prior to the votes, and votes occur in relation to these amendments, also in a stacked sequence, first in relation to the Breaux amendment and then in relation to the Collins amendment. I further ask consent the first vote tomorrow morning occur in relation to the Wellstone amendment beginning at 9:30.

Mr. LOTT. To clarify that, on the two I just outlined, the Collins and the Breaux amendments, those votes would occur tonight. Then tomorrow, of course, we would have the Wellstone amendment which would have the parallel second-degree amendment to it also.

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

Mr. LOTT. I believe we are ready to proceed, then, with the two amendments. Of course, they would be 10-minute votes with a brief explanation of the two amendments, a minute each. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I have a unanimous consent request I would like to propound to see if we get agreement. I believe Senator Domenici and Senator Conrad are familiar with it and are prepared to proceed on this basis. I believe we have all signed off on this. I ask consent a vote occur in relation to the pending amendment at 3 p.m. today, and the time between now and then be equally divided, and no other amendments be in order prior to the vote. I further ask consent that the next four amendments in order to the substitute be the following in the following order: Specter regarding NIH, Landrieu regarding defense, Collins regarding health--home health, and Conrad or designee regarding debt reduction.

Mr. LOTT. Let me make sure I understand what you are saying. This indicates Conrad or designee amendment regarding debt reduction. Are you now saying it may not be about debt reduction?

Mr. LOTT. If I can then modify my consent, that we line up the next three and we confer further on what the next couple will be after that?