Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senate Resolution 379, as adopted by the Senate, be star printed with the changes that are at the desk.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, we will shortly proceed to a continuing resolution that will fund the Government through December 5. I should note there were a number of conversations during the day on Monday between the leadership in the Senate and the House and the President. The agreement was that a continuing resolution to a later date would be appropriate. There were earlier dates considered, but there was conflict with House Members on November 27. That is why the date of December 5 was agreed to. It is expected that the Senate will also receive the adjournment resolution from the House fairly quickly so that it can be considered prior to the policy luncheons. Both the continuing resolution and the adjournment resolution will be passed by unanimous consent. Therefore, no votes will occur during today's session. I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and also urge that we complete our discussions at 12:30 p.m. as scheduled for the policy luncheons and that we move toward a quick adjournment when we return after the luncheons, hopefully by 2:30 p.m. We will continue to work on the issues that are outstanding between the Republicans and the Democrats, House and Senate, and the administration during this interim period. Senator Daschle and I expect to meet tomorrow to talk over the substance of the issues pending.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a period for the transaction of morning business until 12:30 p.m., with the time equally divided between the two leaders and each Member be limited to 5 minutes.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a resolution to the desk on behalf of myself and Senator Daschle and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of the Senate, this resolution provides for the videotaping of Senator Byrd's statement in the Chamber in December at the organizational meetings and the orientation of our new Members so that this tape will be available for historical and educational purposes. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I will make one comment at this point, and that is, this morning I had occasion to see Senator Reid as he was passing by my office. We talked a little bit about history and the fact that the very office in the Capitol where I sit was where the House of Representatives met in 1801 to determine who would be President because there had been a tie in the election. The House of Representatives voted 36 ballots before they determined the winner by 1 vote to be Thomas Jefferson. He won over Aaron Burr. He went on to be one of the greatest Presidents in the history of our country. I leave that for a little thought for all concerned, and now worried, about what the future holds. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. That is my intent. While we may not have normal policy luncheons, it is my intent to recess at 12:30 so we can have luncheons as a group or individually, and we will come back after the luncheons, I presume at 2:15. Hopefully, we will close the session by 2:30. I will want to make sure that Senator Daschle has been consulted on that and agrees with that.

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor, Mr. President. Mr. SPECTER addressed the Chair.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I rise today to commend Salissa Wahlers of Gulfport, Mississippi, for her selection to the Peace Corps program. Salissa is teaching English in Uzbekistan, where she will be working for the next two years. This is only Salissa's most recent accomplishment, and it adds to a long list that has grown throughout her life. Salissa graduated from Middlebury College where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and sociology/ anthropology. She was named Woman of the Year by the Women's Studies Program while at Middlebury. While in college, Salissa participated in the semester abroad program by attending Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Additionally, she attended a winter semester at Berea College in Kentucky as a part of her college's winter term exchange program. Mr. President, Salissa worked for three years during college to complete her honors thesis, which is very impressive for an undergraduate student. Her hard work paid off when she was able to present part of her thesis at the Northeastern Anthropological Association Conference in Queens, New York, this spring. She is clearly a model student, and she exemplifies the rewards that individuals and society as a whole realize when education is a priority. I know her family, especially her mother, Kemmer McCall of Gulfport, is very proud of her.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the bankruptcy bill.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I note that I will renew this motion with a vote at a time when we have the largest possible number of Senators here. I note there are some absentees, and I believe that could have made a difference in this vote. But we will persist in our effort to pass this important legislation. I thank Senator Grassley and Senator Torricelli and all who worked very hard on it. We will have another vote before the year is out, whenever that may be.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I believe we are ready to proceed to the vote.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today the Senate will immediately proceed to a cloture vote on H.R. 2415, the bankruptcy legislation. Following the vote, it is hoped, if cloture is invoked, that there will be a reasonable amount of postcloture debate time to be followed by a vote on the adoption of the conference report. As a reminder, the Senate will recess for the weekly party conferences from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. Also, today a vote on a continuing resolution may be necessary. But we are working on how that will be handled, and we should be able to determine that right after this recorded vote. If there is a vote on the continuing resolution, it is expected to be late this afternoon. But we are seeing if some other arrangement can be worked out. Senators will be notified if and when that vote is scheduled.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate turn to Calendar No. 817, H.R. 4986, regarding foreign sales corporations, and following the reporting by the clerk, the committee amendments be immediately withdrawn, the compromise text regarding FSCs, which is contained in the tax conference report, be added as an amendment, which I will send to the desk, the bill then be immediately read for a third time, and passage occur, all without any intervening action, motion, or debate.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I respond to the Senator that I had planned to ask for a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. I will be glad to specify that the Senator would have the first 10 minutes to comment on this issue.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, is there objection to my request?

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Correct.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent there be a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each between now and 12:30 p.m., with the time equally divided between the two leaders. And I ask consent, in order to get some fair debate, that the distinguished ranking member of the Finance Committee be recognized for the first 10 minutes, Senator Wellstone for the second 10 minutes, Senator Gramm for the third 10 minutes, and Senator Durbin for the fourth 10 minutes.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the Senator would yield, as we had discussed, we hope when the House does act within the next, hopefully, 20 or 30 minutes, we would talk further and make some decisions about whether or not we would want to modify that continuing resolution in any way. If we couldn't, of course, then we would see if we could clear it by a voice vote. We don't have it done yet, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. Within 30 minutes, we hope to get a clarification of when a vote would occur or if any modification might be forthcoming. I don't want to go too far beyond just saying that right now. Senator Daschle and I are exchanging ideas. I do think we have reached a point where we need to make some decisions. Senators as well as House Members and the administration need to know what to expect. I think, to be perfectly honest, nobody wants to step up and say we have to look at an alternative. I am prepared to do that. I believe Senator Daschle is prepared to join me in that. We ask your indulgence for at east 30 minutes, and then we will see what we can do at that point.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I amend my request that after Senator Durbin, Senator Hutchison be included in the queue.

Mr. LOTT. I thank my colleagues and yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank Senator Biden for his comments and for yielding the floor at this time.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed immediately to Calendar No. 428, H.J. Res. 84, and following the reporting by the clerk, the amendment at the desk sponsored by myself be agreed to, the resolution be read the third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I announce then to the Senate that the continuing resolution to be passed at 2:15 today provides for a continuing of the Government for 1 day. The resolution just passed provides for Government funding through November 14, 2000. I thank the Democratic leader for his cooperation on this. I know he has been involved in this process, trying to find a date that is fair and reasonable to all interested parties. I know it is not easy, but I think this is the right thing to do. I hope the House will accept this resolution and then we would proceed to wrap things up after that. In light of this agreement, there will be no further votes today. All Senators will be notified when the next vote will occur in the Senate.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I have spoken to the Speaker of the House. There have been staff contacts with the leadership on both sides of the aisle. It is my impression that the leadership on both sides will work for this to be accepted. We had some discussion about a different date, but the House felt very strongly that this date was preferred to the later one, and that is basically one of the reasons why we settled on this date. Hopefully, they will move quickly to accept this and then we will be able to go do our responsibilities in other areas. I say also that while we will be home and will not be here for awhile, there has been further progress made on the Labor-HHS and Education appropriations bill. I understand there are only a few issues remaining. The staff will not be on vacation. Work will continue. It would be my hope that the areas of disagreement can be worked out and when we come back on November 14, we will have a vote or two and that is all, that we would be done with it. But hope springs eternal, and it doesn't always come true. That is what we are thinking about right now.