Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Under the agreement, I believe it is actually five, but we have worked out that we will shorten that time and it will only be 4 hours.

Mr. LOTT. I remind all the Senators that we can expect one or two, maybe even more votes, as many as four around 6 o'clock on Monday. As always, Senator Daschle and I will try to accommodate as many Senators as is possible, but we have to make some progress on this legislation. We are trying to accommodate everybody by having debate and then stacking those votes on Monday. As my colleagues know, we have not been stacking votes, but we need to do that in order to make progress and have those votes late Monday afternoon. Also, while we have had a free-flowing debate and vote on amendments and some people like the way this is progressing, at some point we need to identify how many amendments are out there, how many are pending. I understand Senators are now coming up with some new ideas for amendments they may want to offer. The whole idea has been from the beginning that while we will have full debate and amendments offered, at some point next week--hopefully by Thursday night--we will get to a conclusion of this consideration. We cannot do that if we do not know what amendments are out there and if we do not begin to make more progress in terms of the amount of time we spend on amendments. We do not have to spend the full 3 hours or 4 hours on amendments. If my colleagues need to, fine, but I hope the managers of the legislation and those who have been working on it-- Senator McCain, Senator Feingold, Senator McConnell, and Senator Dodd-- will receive the cooperation of Senators so we will know what we can expect next week. If you look at the stacked votes on Monday and look at the next 3 days--we have been doing two or three amendments a day, perhaps as many as three now--that would mean we could only do nine or ten more amendments. I hope Members will think in those terms to get to a point where we get a fair conclusion.

Mr. LOTT. I am happy to yield.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it is obvious we are probably going to have to go late Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night to get this accomplished. We have difficulty when we have Senators say: I have an amendment, but I don't want to offer it Thursday night or Friday or Monday, but I am available Tuesday--as is everybody else. I hope Senators, if they are serious, will take advantage of prime time on Friday morning or Monday night at 8 o'clock, which is, I believe, about 5 o'clock in California. It would be a very good time to offer a serious amendment. I yield to Senator Daschle.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I know the managers are trying to identify those amendments. I talked to Senator McCain and Senator McConnell about getting that list identified clearly by Tuesday; certainly to get that done it would have to be in on Monday. We do have pending before the country the need for action on our budget for the year, on tax relief that could be beneficial to all Americans and the economy. We have the education legislation reported out of the Health Committee ready to go as soon as we come back from the Easter recess, and we have an energy problem in this country that needs some attention, too. We have a lot of very serious work we need to do on behalf of the American people. I hope we can complete this bill by the end of next week, and I expect that to be the case.

Mr. LOTT. I yield to the Senator.

Mr. LOTT. I yield.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today the Senate will immediately resume consideration of the campaign finance reform legislation. An amendment regarding self-financed campaigns is expected to be offered, with up to 3 hours of debate in order. It is also expected that some debate time will be yielded back and that a vote will occur sometime around noon today--certainly before the weekly party luncheons. We will be in recess from approximately 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly conferences to meet. Amendments are expected to be offered throughout the day and therefore votes on amendments are expected to occur approximately every 3 hours. I am concerned about the very inauspicious beginning that the Senate had on this legislation yesterday. I had described it as a jump ball, where everybody would have a free and fair opportunity to offer amendments and have debate but there would be votes on those amendments after 3 hours. I expected we would have a vote sometime between 5:30 and 6:30, as we did yesterday, and there would be debate on the next amendment last night and we would be ready for a vote now. That is not the case because of the spectacle that occurred at the end of the vote yesterday. I thought it did not go well, and I thought the Senate looked very close to being silly on our first amendment on this very important issue. I was stunned, quite frankly; on an amendment as broadly supported as I know the amendment is, to give candidates that are running against superwealthy candidates some way to be able to compete, I can't help but believe that when we get a direct vote on that issue, it will pass overwhelmingly. My assumption was that it got tangled up just because it was the first vote and there was a desire to show that one side or the other was going to win. I was very disappointed in that. I am also concerned, with the agreement that was reached, in all fairness, on both sides, that we would have amendments and regular votes every 3 hours, we had already slipped 3 hours on that. And also I hope, once again, that objections to Senators amending their own amendments will not be heard. The tradition around here is that we allow colleagues to amend their own amendments. I think that is when the confusion began yesterday in a very disappointing beginning. But Senators on both sides worked last night and worked this morning, and I understand an agreement has been reached as to the amendment that will be offered in a few minutes. After that is offered, we will come back and have another amendment on this side of the aisle and Senator McConnell and others will have an opportunity. I yield to the Senator from Arizona.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me say to Senator McCain--and then I will yield to Senator Reid--I appreciate the fact that something has been worked out which appears to be fair to all sides. And since we already debated it for a time yesterday, it won't be necessary to rehash all of that. Maybe we can make up for some of the lost time. The clear understanding, when the Senator from Arizona and I discussed this issue, was that we would try to keep it on a steady schedule and get amendments offered and voted on every 3 hours, or less if possible. I yield to Senator Reid.

Mr. LOTT. If I may respond to the last suggestion, that would be fine. However, we want to make sure that, if we don't alternate, at the end we don't have amendments show up that would be offered, one behind the other, on the other side. I know that is not the Senator's intention. That is one of the reasons why we alternate, so that one side or the other won't have a block of amendments at the end of the process.

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, just to respond to the last comment of Senator Dodd, that is the point. We want to make sure, if you are going to take advantage of the opportunity to offer an amendment tonight, fine, or we will have one the first thing in the morning. But we had an agreement that we would do these by regular order of 3 hours. So hopefully you will either have one in the morning or we will be prepared to go with one on this side.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I had prepared to offer a unanimous consent that when we come in, at 9:45 in the morning the pending business would be the modified Domenici amendment. If they are going to work on this tonight, we will be glad to work with you on that. But we have to keep this process going forward. Just one thing on the substance. I think it is going to be a sad commentary if we don't address this issue of candidates being able to put unlimited amounts of money in their races without the opponents having some way to at least be competitive. I hope the Senate will find a way to come together on this issue. I know it has the support of both sides of the aisle. It is going to be a bad start of getting to a proper conclusion to this legislation if we don't address this issue. I would encourage both sides to work on this overnight.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield under his reservation, first of all, I appreciate what Senator Daschle had to say about allowing Senators to modify their own amendments. We need to continue to honor that practice. Second, I don't see any problem with his request. If he does not act on his right, then we will be able to reclaim and move forward on our side. I don't see a problem with that under the circumstances.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I believe Senator Hatch would be in control, or his designee, of a total of 20 minutes and 20 minutes on the other side divided among Senators Daschle, Leahy, Kerry and I hope none of them will take the full time.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would modify the request but also would need to reserve an equal amount of time for Senator Hatch or his designee of 15 minutes in addition to that 15 minutes.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe we are ready to go with a unanimous consent agreement which will allow us to complete action on this legislation and hopefully go to conference. Let me propound the request, see if we can get it locked in so that we can go ahead and get a vote here shortly. Let me note before I do that, we may allow, for instance, 10 minutes or 15 minutes for debate. I am assuming that maybe most of it will be yielded back. Obviously, you don't have to use the full time. That is why we do put some amount of time in here so that it will be available if there is a need for it. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Sessions be recognized to offer his amendment No. 59, that it be considered in order, and there be up to 10 minutes for debate, and following that debate, the amendment be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table. I further ask unanimous consent that Senator Feingold then be recognized to call up his amendment No. 51 and there be up to 15 minutes for debate and, following the debate, a vote occur. I further ask unanimous consent that all of the pending amendments be withdrawn, and I ask unanimous consent that following that, the Senate proceed to a managers' amendment, to be followed by third reading of the Senate bill, and the Senate proceed to the House companion bill, H.R. 333, and that the text of S. 420 be inserted, the bill be advanced to third reading, and passage occur on H.R. 333, as amended, and the Senate bill be placed on the calendar.

Mr. LOTT. I yield to Senator Reid for a comment at this point.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, on that, since the Chair asked for consent and it was objected to, Senator Reid is suggesting that a change be made. For the information of all Senators, this is standard and routine language necessary to send a bill to conference. This action is made and agreed to 40, 50 times on average in a year of a Senate session. However, this objection indicates to me that, once again, the goal here is to try to make it difficult for us to get to conference. The Senator from Minnesota knows what the rules are and what his rights are. You recall last year we had a hard time getting the bankruptcy bill into conference. It was for a different set of reasons, but that is what we have here, too. Again, I may have to go through some hoops to get this bill to conference. That could take some time, and I am prepared to do that, since there was objection heard. I think that with the kind of support this bill has, with Senators speaking for it on both sides of the aisle, and with 80 Senators voting to invoke cloture, surely a bill with that kind of support--and I assume there are going to be about 80 votes for it on final passage--we should find a way to get it to conference. Since objection was heard, then I renew my request but amend it to withdraw the reference to the House companion bill so that passage would occur on the Senate bill.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I join all of our colleagues in the Senate in welcoming and thanking our guest Chaplain today for the beautiful prayer he just delivered. He is Rev. Alan Mitchell. With that name, he could just as easily be from Sledge, MS, instead of Sligo, Ireland. I love the accent he has but, more importantly, the beauty of his prayer. So many in America have roots back in Ireland, Scotland, and that area of the world. We feel a special kinship to the people in Ireland, and we wish them well and pray for them often as they seek greater economic opportunity and continued democracy and freedom. We are delighted to have Reverend Mitchell with us today.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senate will immediately resume consideration of the bankruptcy legislation with 10 hours remaining for postcloture debate. This morning, Senator Wellstone is here and ready to go, and he will be recognized to offer any of his germane amendments. Following the Wellstone debate, we will go to Senator Kohl who will be recognized to offer his homestead amendment, with up to 90 minutes of debate on that issue. Under the previous order, there will be two votes at 12 noon on the Leahy amendments, Nos. 19 and 41. A vote is possible just prior to the vote scheduled at noon if time is yielded back with regard to the homestead amendment. Further amendments will be offered and debate will continue during today's session. Therefore, votes will occur throughout the day. The Senate will complete action on this bill as early as late this afternoon or tonight. I, again, thank Senator Wellstone for his persistence and also his willingness to cooperate as we have gone along. I was very pleased and impressed with the vote on cloture. I believe it was 80-19. It is clear the Senate wants to vote on this issue and wants to pass some needed bankruptcy reform. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. That is correct. I hope that maybe it will not even be that late. It is possible we could get completed with our work a little earlier--6 or 6:30. That would be ideal. I believe, counting the votes and all of the time, it would not go beyond 7:30, so Senators should be aware of that. I might note, in terms of any other legislative action, certainly we wouldn't consider anything further without close consultation with the Democratic leader. We have the possibility of considering the SEC fees bill, but we want to do that in such a way it can be done either by voice vote or in wrap-up, or if there had to be votes, it would not occur until late on Monday afternoon. We will work through that. I put Senators on notice that we will at least consider how we will bring that bill up at some point. I yield the floor.