Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I, too, want to thank the appropriations chair, as well as the ranking member, Senator Byrd, who have been very helpful in this process, and in particular to thank the Senator from Florida, Senator Mack, for a job well done. We have not agreed on every part, but he has been wonderful to work with and I appreciate his willingness to step down and go through this with me. I thank him, and Jim English, who worked with me. I appreciate the opportunity to work with you on my first bill, Senator.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I do believe we will have a vote on the pending question.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. I want to thank all of my colleagues who have come to the floor tonight to speak so eloquently for equal opportunity. I yield my remaining time to the Senator from Maine, Senator Cohen.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield 1 minute to the Senator from Illinois.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, how much time is remaining?

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from Minnesota.

Mrs. MURRAY. I just wanted to know if veterans preferences were acceptable to the Senator.

Mrs. MURRAY. I have one quick additional question. Would the Senator yield?

Mrs. MURRAY. I appreciate that because I wanted to ask the Senator this. Under the legislative branch appropriations in fiscal year 1995, the Library of Congress awarded five contracts for a total of $10 million that would be affected by your amendment. Out of, I believe it is, well over $266 million total contracts, only five of those would be affected by your amendment. I am curious as to why you are approaching that for such a minute number on this appropriations bill.

Mrs. MURRAY. Will the Senator further yield for a question?

Mrs. MURRAY. I thank the Senator. I wanted to ask the Senator specifically about his amendment. Obviously, we are dealing with the legislative branch appropriations here. What programs funded under legislative appropriations are there that concern the Senator and that brought this amendment to us at this time?

Mrs. MURRAY. Will the Senator yield for a question at this time?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Connecticut.

Mrs. MURRAY. Will the Senator from Texas yield for a question on his time?

Mrs. MURRAY. Let me thank my colleague from New Mexico. And I agree with him we should not be legislating on this appropriations bill. As the ranking member on this committee, I did not chose this evening and this time to have this debate. It was certainly brought before us by the Senator from Texas. And under that I offered my amendment to second degree it. I am not afraid to debate this. But I agree with you. It should not be done on a legislative appropriations bill. I thank the Senator. Mr. GRAMM addressed the Chair.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from New Mexico.

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Simon].

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to add Senator Dodd and Senator Feinstein as cosponsors of the amendment.

Mrs. MURRAY. I would be happy to let the Senator from Texas use his time since I have a number of speakers. We do not have much time at this point.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I have a number of speakers who want to speak on my side. I would like to know how much time is left on both sides.

Mrs. MURRAY. Yes. I yield 1 additional minute.