Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, also, I would like to comment on another retiring colleague from the State of Maine, Senator Bill Cohen. Bill Cohen served 6 years in the U.S. House of Representatives during a very turbulent time, a time many people called ``Watergate.'' He served, I believe, on the Judiciary Committee. I remember being an interested observer in Oklahoma and watching the House committee and Senator Cohen's involvement. That was back in 1973 and 1974. Senator Cohen was elected to the House in 1972. In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. So he has served 18 years in the Senate. In addition to being an outstanding Senator on Armed Services and also on the Intelligence Committee, he is an author, he is a poet, he is a person who is respected on both sides of the aisle. He is a person who all in the Senate, Democrat and Republican, have certainly come to enjoy, to respect. He will certainly be missed in the Senate. We wish Senator Bill Cohen all the best and thank him for his years of service to our country, both in the House and in the Senate.

Mr. NICKLES

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, in the next day or two, we will be closing the 104th Congress. One of the things we will be doing is saying farewell to some of our colleagues who have served this institution and served our country so well. One of the colleagues I would like to recognize today who I have the greatest respect for is Senator Hatfield who served this body and our country so well for the last 30 years in the U.S. Senate. Prior to that, he served the State of Oregon for 8 years as Governor. He also served in the Oregon House of Representatives, the Oregon Senate, and also served as Oregon Secretary of State, and had a distinguished career in the Navy, including the time during World War II. Mark Hatfield is a unique Senator, a courageous individual, independent, sometimes stubborn, a person with strong personal religious convictions, a person whom I know people on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican, have really grown to know, to love, and respect. His years of service as the Appropriations chairman and also ranking member on the Appropriations Committee have been outstanding. He has an outstanding rapport with my colleague, Senator Byrd. To see the two of them work in tandem, and work so well, has certainly been a role model for all of us. He also, as I think some of my colleagues know, is a historian, a lover and collector of items in relation to Abraham Lincoln. He is a person who has made invaluable contributions to this body and to our country. Certainly his expertise, his guidance, his friendship will certainly be missed by all. My best wishes to Mark Hatfield and his lovely wife Antoinette. And my thanks on behalf of all of our colleagues. We thank him, and both of them, for their service to our country.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, looking through it, there are several projects in Colorado that are objected to. It says: The President also objected to a deal that would have added 22,000 acres of wilderness to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument and transformed it into a full- fledged national park. A series of lengthy public hearings already had resolved concerns about the national park designation. That is just one. I know President Clinton stood outside of the Grand Canyon and had a big environmental picture day and talked about taking 1.8 million acres in Utah, without consulting the Utah delegation or the Utah Governor. But I am looking at their reluctance to cooperate with us on this package as being a lot more detrimental, because this package does lots of things in all States, from California to New Jersey, including Colorado. I just think there are some real inconsistencies here. I hope our colleagues will join us in working together to see if we can't pass this bill later today. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Alaska. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an article in today's paper, Saturday, September 28, from the Denver Post. The headline of the editorial is ``Clinton's partisanship threatens lands bill.''

Mr. NICKLES. Or before.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I appreciate the Senator's comment. I agree with him. Hopefully, we will figure out a way to get through this impasse. I am going to work with the Senator from Alaska today to try and make that happen, but it has to happen today because I think the House will be leaving later this evening.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I will make one comment. Looking at the first one, authorizes the Secretary of Interior, I believe, to convey 1.5 acres to the city of Sumter, OR, for public purposes. Senator Hatfield and Senator Wyden, I am guessing, felt like this was important to the city of Sumter. I don't know. It is an acre and a half. I somewhat question why they are objecting to that. Senator Hatfield is going to be retiring. I am shocked, and I almost bet there has never been a veto threat or objection raised on that land before. I see the Shenandoah National Park, adjust 1923 park boundary authorization to match today's existing park boundary. That seems to me to make sense. We could go through this entire list. We already have entered it in the Record so people can see. I have looked through this list, and there is no reason to veto this bill or to object to taking up this bill. To answer the question of my colleague from Alaska, I urge the minority to allow us to bring the bill up and vote. I will be shocked if we don't get 90 votes for this bill, 90-some votes, because there is no reason to object to this package, if you look at all the good things in this bill. I am not totally knowledgeable of all 126 projects, but I have looked through the list, and what they are objecting to makes very, very little sense. My guess is--and I count votes on occasion--my guess is we will have overwhelming support. At least 80 or 90 percent of our colleagues would vote for passage of this package. So I urge the minority leader to reconsider and talk to the administration and allow us to bring this bill up, pass it and let it become law this year.

Mr. NICKLES. To respond to the question of the Senator from Alaska, the parliamentary situation is such, in the last day or two of the Senate, a lot of things will not move unless you have unanimous consent. I know the Senator from Alaska has tried to get this bill up but there have been holds. There have been objections. Now I think we are at the place where we cannot bring this bill up unless we have unanimous consent. We have an objection from the Democratic side. Maybe that will be removed. I hope that it will. I hope they realize what is at stake, and maybe it will be reconsidered. I am urging them to do so. I just think there are too many positive things for the entire country for us to let this fall. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the sections which I understand the administration is objecting to, so people can see.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, again, I thank my colleague from Alaska for his leadership. He has been very fair, No. 1, in putting this package together. As a member of the Energy Committee for many, many years, working with him, he has done a good job. I might say, most of these deal with our national parks. I think a lot of us like to consider ourselves big friends of the national parks. We like to enjoy them. You mentioned Shenandoah Park. You think of Yellowstone or you think of some of the other projects, Presidio next to San Francisco. That is a project that a lot of people have been working on. The compromise package on Presidio is going to allow better management so the Federal Government is not writing checks, as we were, and utilization of the property is going to be a lot better for the public. Thinking of some of the other parks and systems that we have in this, to enhance the parks throughout our country is a good, significant investment. That is what we are trying to do by this bill. I did talk to our colleague, Senator Campbell, from Colorado, who, unfortunately, had a bad motorcycle accident and is not here. But he requested, he said, would you please help me try to pass some of these bills? I have been working on these for the last couple of years. I counted, I think, eight or nine bills dealing with Colorado and the parks and so on, some land exchanges, that are important to Colorado and really important to our country. I told him I would try to help. I told the Senator from California I would try to pass Presidio. I want to do it. There have been holds, primarily on the Democrat side, that have been blocking this bill for months. The Senator from Alaska has been trying to bring it up. Some of that dealt with the land in New Jersey. That is in this bill. So we do need to pass it. I hope we can still find a way. I cannot imagine, when you have such strong bipartisan support, that we cannot find a way to do it. I am troubled by the administration's objection. I am troubled by the fact that they would come up with moving the goalposts. They had objections before. The Senator from Alaska took those out. I urged him to take out, at some sacrifice to the Senator and to the State of Alaska, one of his largest year-round employers. And he made that sacrifice so we could pass this package. I compliment him for his willingness to make some sacrifice so we could enact a bill that would benefit most of the country. Now, for the administration to come up with a lot of, I don't know, excuses, to object to that package? I hope they will relent. I hope they will reconsider. Because it will be a real shame not to be able to pass most all of this legislation that the Senator from Alaska has brought before the Senate.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I compliment the Senator from Alaska, again. I want to encourage him not to give up faith, and maybe we will have some better cooperation from the administration and hopefully the minority leader so we can pass this package. It does have strong bipartisan support. As I mentioned before, I read through a few of these projects. There are a lot of projects by Democrats and Republicans in this package. The Senator from Alaska runs the Energy Committee in a very bipartisan way, as Senator Johnston has. So these projects are not partisan.

Mr. NICKLES. I was going to say, the grazing provisions were also seriously objected to. So you have removed the really contentious issues. I have looked through the list of 46. There are some Democrat's, and mostly Republican projects. For most of those there is not a great deal of land, there are not significant projects that they are trying to have removed. But it bothers me to think in many cases there has never been an objection raised to any of those, even in the Senate, when we passed it in the past, or from the House. Is that not correct?

Mr. NICKLES. Correct me if I am wrong, but I remember the administration originally said they might veto it if it had a provision dealing with an Alaska pulp mill, a provision in Minnesota, a couple of major provisions that they strongly objected to. Those were removed, were they not, out of the package?

Mr. NICKLES. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I ask for a division vote on the resolutions of ratification.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following treaties on today's Executive Calendar: Executive Calendar Nos. 35 through 38. I further ask unanimous consent that the treaties be considered as having passed through their various parliamentary stages up to and including the presentation of the resolutions of ratification; that all committee provisos, reservations, understandings, et cetera, be considered agreed to; that any statements in regard to these treaties be inserted in the Congressional Record as if read; and that the Senate take one vote on the resolutions of ratification to be considered as separate votes; further, that when the resolutions of ratification are voted on the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; the President then be notified of the Senate's action; and that, following disposition of the treaties, the Senate return to legislative session.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, one thing I would urge my colleagues-- and particularly leadership on the Democrat side in the Senate--would be for us to work together to pass the parks bill. Time is growing very, very short. I know that some of our colleagues--we have a lot of colleagues who are retiring this year--have bills that they would like to get passed. And a lot of these bills are very, very important. I have had the pleasure of working with Senator Bumpers and Senator Pryor on one bill, the Arkansas and Oklahoma land exchange. Senator Pryor is going to be retiring. I would like to pass that bill before he retires. Senator Bradley has worked very, very hard on Sterling Forest, as well as Senator Moynihan, and others; Senator D'Amato. Sterling Forest--we need to pass these bills. The Presidio is maybe the best known of any of these parks, a beautiful area in San Francisco. A lot of work has gone into the Presidio legislation. I know the Senators from California and others are committed to it. The Senator from California would like to have passed the Presidio legislation, and I really want to do that. Senator Heflin has a couple of bills, and other colleagues who will be leaving. Many of these bills--I guess I will still be around, and some of us will be here next year. Maybe we can take care of them at that time. But a lot of our colleagues will be leaving. I see Senator Nunn has a couple of provisions. Most of these are not controversial. I really hope that we can get a comprehensive package before the Senate and pass it. We need to pass it today while the House is still in session. So I would just urge our colleagues. I know the Senator from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, has worked a long time on a long list of projects. I hope that we can get these through. So I just ask for bipartisan cooperation. This is not a partisan bill. It is a bill that those of us on the Energy Committee have worked on all year. Maybe it is not a very good way to legislate when you end up having a bill like this come toward the end of the session. But there have been holds on this bill for months. Anyway, I just urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to be cooperative to see if we can't pass the Presidio bill and the land exchanges. There are a lot of positive things. I saw, I think, over a dozen projects in California. A lot of these are environmentally very sensitive and important. I know there are eight in Colorado that likewise are important; a couple in Arizona; Alaska has several. There are a bunch of projects in here that I think will improve the Park System in the country that will have strong bipartisan support. If we can ever get this bill to a vote my guess is that it will pass if not unanimously very close to unanimously. So I hope that we could do that, send it to the House, and hopefully get it on the President's desk before the 104th Congress adjourns sine die. Mr. FORD addressed the Chair.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I thank you. I thank my colleague from Kentucky for his assistance on passing these items.

Mr. NICKLES

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

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 628, Senate bill 2130.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution appear at this point in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Senate Resolution 304, submitted earlier today by Senator Lott.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be agreed to, the bill be deemed read a third time and passed, the amendment to the title be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill appear at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, Senator Simpson has a substitute amendment at the desk. I ask for its immediate consideration.