Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Following the 9:40 a.m. vote, the Senate will begin consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 1119, the Department of Defense Authorization Act, as under the previous order.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 6. I further ask that on Thursday, immediately following the prayer, the routine requests through the morning hour be granted and the Senate immediately resume executive session to consider the nomination of Ronald Gilman of Tennessee to be a circuit judge, for 10 minutes, to be followed by a rollcall vote on the confirmation of Judge Gilman.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to the consideration en bloc of the following resolutions and bill which were submitted and introduced earlier today by Senator Warner: Senate Resolution 143, Senate Concurrent Resolution 61, Senate Concurrent Resolution 62, Senate Concurrent Resolution 63, and S. 1378.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate go into executive session and proceed en bloc to the following nominations on the Executive Calendar: Nos. 271, 272, 279, 282, 288, 352, 372, 376 through 379, 382, 383, 440, 441, 442, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Coast Guard. I finally ask unanimous consent the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the nominations appear at this point in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that at 9:30 on Thursday, November 6, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the Executive Calendar No. 326, the nomination of Ronald Lee Gilman to be circuit court judge for the sixth circuit. I further ask consent that there be 10 minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form, and following that debate the Senate proceed to a vote on the confirmation of the nomination. I finally ask consent that immediately following the vote, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that if and when S. 1253 is reported by the Energy Committee, it be referred to the Agriculture Committee solely for the purpose of considering matters within its jurisdiction for not to exceed 40 days of Senate session. I further ask that if the Agriculture Committee has not reported the matter after that period, the bill be immediately discharged from committee and placed on the calendar.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 245, H.R. 2367.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendment be agreed to, the bill be considered a third time, and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, the title amendment be agreed to, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 236, Senate bill 714.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, today, I am introducing the Candy Lake Land Conveyance Act of 1997. The purpose of this legislation is to direct the Secretary of the Army to convey lands acquired for the Candy Lake project in Osage County, OK, back to the original landowners. Briefly, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acquired 3,657.45 acres of land in Osage County from 21 landowners for the purpose of constructing Candy Lake. The project was not constructed, and in December 1996, the Corps of Engineers declared the Candy Lake property excess to the needs of the Federal Government. My legislation will give each of the 21 landowners the option to purchase their original property from the Federal Government at fair market value. If a landowner, or their descendant, opts not to purchase their former property, that land will be disposed of in accordance with the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 471 et seq.). Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, today, I am introducing the Candy Lake Land Conveyance Act of 1997. The purpose of this legislation is to direct the Secretary of the Army to convey lands acquired for the Candy Lake project in Osage County, OK, back to the original landowners. Briefly, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acquired 3,657.45 acres of land in Osage County from 21 landowners for the purpose of constructing Candy Lake. The project was not constructed, and in December 1996, the Corps of Engineers declared the Candy Lake property excess to the needs of the Federal Government. My legislation will give each of the 21 landowners the option to purchase their original property from the Federal Government at fair market value. If a landowner, or their descendant, opts not to purchase their former property, that land will be disposed of in accordance with the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 471 et seq.). Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period of morning business until the hour of 6 p.m. with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with Senator Gorton permitted to speak for 15 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. First, let me respond to my colleague, Senator Dorgan. I hear what the Senator is saying. I know that the Senator has some amendments he wishes to offer on fast track. I know that we wish to pass fast track. We also wish to pass Amtrak reform and we also wish to pass all the appropriations bills, and we only have a couple of days. So we are going to try to accommodate everybody's requests. But the highest priority I believe will be to pass the appropriations conference reports as soon as possible. I believe the D.C. bill will be the first one up. That is not a conference report. It is a bill. But I think we have an agreement on D.C., so we will get that one accomplished. Hopefully then we will have three other conference reports we will be able to do in the next day or two, and we will have, I am sure, some additional time for my colleague to spend on fast track as well. Mr. KERRY addressed the Chair.

Mr. NICKLES. I would have to ask the Presiding Officer on Amtrak. My colleague is correct on the conference reports on appropriations bills. Yes, they could. We have four appropriations bills that we are trying to get through. It happens to be that we are at a deadline by November 7, so our highest priority is try to complete the various authorization bills.

Mr. NICKLES. That is correct.

Mr. NICKLES. That remains to be seen. That is really Senator Lott's call. It may well be Thursday. It may well be Friday. It may well be after the House would take it up.

Mr. NICKLES. To respond to my friend and colleague, I think the next order, after we pass the DOD authorization bill, would be to take up the District of Columbia appropriations conference report, or appropriations bill. In addition to that, we may well be taking up Amtrak reform legislation, which has also been working its way through, not exactly on a fast track, but it has been working its way through, and hopefully we can get it done as well.

Mr. NICKLES. To respond to my colleague, the Senate has already agreed to a unanimous-consent request that would call for the DOD authorization bill to be voted on tomorrow at some time, at 2 p.m. I think the order calls for 4 hours of debate. We will go on it at 10, and vote at 2. That is on the DOD conference report. Beyond that, I am not prepared to tell my colleague what--I know the House is planning on voting on the fast-track authorization on Friday. There is some discussion that since that is a House bill and we are working on the Senate bill, we might entertain taking up the House bill when it passes so we wouldn't be working on two different bills.

Mr. NICKLES. Yes.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, we will now have a period of morning business until the hour of 6 p.m. with Senators to be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, it is a longstanding tradition in the Senate to recognize and honor those Senators who serve as Presiding Officers of the Senate for 100 hours in a single session of Congress. Today, we add to the list of Golden Gavel recipients Senator Allard of Colorado, whose presiding hours total 100 hours today. November 5 is a very significant date for Senator Allard and his family, as on November 5, 1996, 1 year ago today, Senator Allard was elected to the U.S. Senate. Therefore, it is an appropriate date to recognize his contributions as a Presiding Officer of the Senate. With respect to presiding, Senator Allard has been extremely generous with his time and has often rearranged his schedule at a moment's notice--and, I might add, with the assistance of his very courteous staff--to assist in presiding when difficulties arise. As a Presiding Officer, his dedication and dependability are to be commended. It is a great pleasure to announce Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado as recipient of the Senate's Golden Gavel Award. My compliments to my friend, my colleague, and the Presiding Officer.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, first, I wish to compliment Senator Roth and Senator Moynihan for their leadership on this very important issue on fast track. I will announce--I think it has been disclosed to both sides--that will be the last rollcall vote today.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the motion was agreed to.

Mr. NICKLES

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