Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we have reviewed this amendment, and we have no objection to it. I ask for its immediate adoption.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague's amendment. We have worked with him and his staff on this amendment. We have no objections and urge its adoption.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I might mention, this modification is just changing paragraph and page in the amendment that has already been agreed upon.

Mr. NICKLES. The Senator has an excellent point. Although our substitute provides that the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs makes the determinations of what will qualify as ``significant rules,'' it appears clear on its face that in this case, the measurement of the economic impact of the regulation would be the cost savings to LOOP, not the dollar amount by which its liability limit is reduced, and therefore in my opinion, it probably would not be considered a significant rule by OIRA for purposes of this legislation.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may modify amendment No. 415, which was previously agreed to.

Mr. NICKLES

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 414, as Modified

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague from Michigan. We have no objection to this amendment. This amendment precludes judicial review of determinations, findings, actions, or omissions with respect to this act. However, judicial review of regulations not disproved by Congress is not affected by this act. Of course, it is expected that the courts will give affect to any disapproval of the regulation. Moreover, instructions to the courts contained in the act, such as section 3(g) regarding inferences not to be drawn from this inaction are neither determinations, findings, actions or omissions, within the meaning of the amendment; and therefore courts are expected to accept such direction from the Congress. Therefore, we have no objection to this amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I send to the desk technical amendments. This changes a couple of letters and numerals. They are technical corrections to amendment No. 413 that were made earlier.

Mr. NICKLES. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 413, As Modified

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we have reviewed this amendment. I compliment my friends and colleagues, Senator Pryor from Arkansas and Senator Stevens, and I compliment Senator Stevens for his leadership. I think it is a good amendment. It further clarifies that what we are doing in this bill in no way would have any harmful impact whatsoever on hunting and fishing and delay those activities in any way whatsoever. I urge its adoption.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, we have no objection to this amendment on this side and urge its adoption.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I wish to congratulate and compliment my friend and colleague from New Mexico, Senator Domenici, for his amendment. I think it is an amendment which improves this bill. It basically says the Federal agency, when they promulgate the rule, shall make it available to each House of Congress. That was in our bill. But he also says it needs to be made available to the Comptroller General. This is for them to analyze it, for them to make sure that the cost-benefit analysis has been made, that they are complying with the unfunded mandates legislation. I just compliment the Senator. I think this improves it. I think this enables Congress to be able to rely on GAO and the Comptroller General to make sure that some of these regulations are not excessive in cost. So, this is a compliment to the bill. I also want to thank my friend and colleague, Senator Reid, for his help on this, as well as Senator Levin and Senator Glenn, as we were negotiating on this amendment and actually combining this amendment with an amendment that Senator Levin and also Senator Bond were working on. So, we have had several Senators trying to make some improvements in this section. I think this has made our sides to agree to the amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I wish to thank my friends and colleagues from Michigan and Ohio, as well as Senator Reid and Senator Bond. All four Senators have been involved in this issue in trying to make sure that we protect minority rights, and that is what this amendment does. I think it is an improvement. We have no objection on this side, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I might mention to our colleagues that we have made significant progress in the last couple of hours in negotiations on a few amendments. I appreciate the cooperation of Senator Reid, and also Senator Levin, Senator Glenn, and Senator Domenici, who have had some amendments, and we are working those out. Hopefully, we will be able to agree to some of those. I might mention to my colleagues, I discussed this with the majority leader, and he very much would like to pass this bill tonight. It is our expectation to finish this bill tonight, partly because we need to go to the supplemental appropriations or the rescissions bill that was reported out of the Appropriations Committee last Friday. That may take some time. So the majority leader has let it be known that he plans to go to that bill tomorrow. So we need to finish this bill. cooperative in working with us in trying to come to a resolution of some of the items in dispute on this package. I am optimistic that we will be successful. I am ready to consider an amendment by the Senator from Michigan, and I yield the floor. Mr. LEVIN addressed the Chair.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the Harkin amendment numbered 411 occur today at 2:15.

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, I compliment my friend and colleague, Senator Harkin from Iowa, for this amendment. I am sympathetic to it and I will support it. I might tell my colleagues we do not expect to vote now, and probably we will ask for the vote. We will check and see on the Democrat side if it is OK to vote at 12 noon. If not, we will announce the vote shortly. I am sympathetic for a lot of reasons. Certainly it is an injustice when we have two American citizens who are working for a company, McDonnell, to be taken hostage and be sentenced for 8 years for mistakenly crossing the border. I am sympathetic for another reason, because I found out the hard way. We had an Oklahoman that also was taken captive and held in Iraq for some time in 1993, Ken Beaty, an Oklahoman from Mustang, OK. He worked for an oil company. He was jailed for 205 days, I tell my colleague, in April 1993 through November 1993. He is 45 years old. Eventually we were successful. My colleague, Senator Boren, Members might recall, went to Iraq to obtain his release. I hope we will have even a speedier resolution for these two individuals. Certainly it is an outrage that this type of a sentence was given for an innocent trespass. Eight years is certainly outrageous. I concur with my colleague. The Senate should speak out in this amendment. I have no objection, and I suspect we will be voting on it around 12 o'clock.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senators Reid, Bond, and Hutchison, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.