Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) is absent because of a death in the family.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. 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 the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, today I am pleased to introduce legislation with Senator Inhofe that will bring a long-overdue Native American Cultural Center to Oklahoma. For many years there has been a desire among Oklahomans to develop a facility to chronicle the history of the 39 tribes that currently reside in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is fortunate to have the second largest Native American population in the country. Senator Inhofe and I are introducing legislation today that will do just that. The Cultural Center will celebrate the influential role that Native Americans played in our country's history. The Center will also provide a common ground to meet and discuss the issues and concerns that continue to plague our Indian communities. The Cultural Center is a partnership with the Oklahoma Historical Society to become a member of the Smithsonian Affiliations Program. It is important to note that the Center will assist in communicating the history and culture of all Native Americans, not just Oklahomans. This project is strongly supported in Oklahoma. In fact, two-thirds of the funds for the Center will come from the State of Oklahoma and private donations, a maximum of one-third coming from the Federal Government. I look forward to the opening of a state-of-the-art Native American Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma. I want to thank Senator Inhofe for his hard work and I ask the support of my colleagues for this important project.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Thompson) is necessarily absent. I further announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) is absent because of a death in the family.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) is absent because of a death in family.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) is absent because of a death in the family.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) is absent because of a death in the family.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Gregg) is necessarily absent. I further announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) is absent because of a death in the family.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) is absent because of a death in the family.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Helms) and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Lott) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

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

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain) and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I have noted with interest the comments of Senators Daschle and Reid regarding unfinished legislative work before the recess. What is also unfinished business before the recess is nominations. Over the past week, Senator Reid and I have had a series of continued conversations regarding nominations, and we will continue to talk in good faith to make progress on nominations. But our unfinished work here in the Senate is not just legislative in nature. It is necessary that we work hard to clear a sizable number of nominations before the recess, to give the President the public servants he needs to staff his administration, make it run, have it work, and see it accountable to the American people. I look forward to seeing the Senate head towards the recess with work on both the legislative and executive calendars. I yield the floor.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Bond), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Burns), the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Enzi), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Frist), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Roberts), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Stevens), and the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Thomas), are necessarily absent. I further announce that if present and voting the Senator from Montana (Mr. Burns), would vote ``yea.''

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Bond), the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Enzi), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Stevens), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Frist), and the Senator from Montana (Mr. Burns) are necessarily absent. I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions) would vote ``nay.''

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Bond), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Burns), the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Enzi), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Frist), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Stevens), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Roberts), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Santorum), are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I am appreciative of the cooperation of our colleagues and also of the quality of the debate. I think we have had an interesting debate. I compliment the participants. I will just make a couple of comments. I am reading this amendment and listening to some of the debate yesterday, and looking at this amendment, it says: Provided, That notwithstanding any other provision of the Act-- Talking about the Murray amendment that is included in the Transportation bill-- nothing in this Act shall be applied in a manner that the President finds to be in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. I know I heard people say yesterday the Murray amendment, the underlying legislation that is in the appropriations bill, is compliant with NAFTA, it is compliant with our treaty, a treaty we have already signed. If that is the case, I think the proponents should adopt this amendment. I wish they would. I would think they would accept it. It would further clarify that we are going to keep our word in the treaty. A treaty is making a commitment on behalf of the United States with other countries. We should keep that. If we are going to rewrite the treaty on this appropriations bill, we have a problem. I think we have a couple of problems because clearly this is legislation on an appropriations bill and we made rules that we were not going to do that. Now it turns out the rules are only sort of applicable. In other words, you can legislate--if you are in the committee and you legislate in committee, it is OK, but you cannot legislate on the floor. Maybe we need to probably address that, and we probably will at a later date. But now I look at the legislation, and I have heard some people say that the legislation that came out of committee violates NAFTA. The proponents say no, it doesn't. Here is language that says nothing in this act should be applied in a manner that the President finds to be in violation of the NAFTA. This is further clarification that we are not going to violate NAFTA. That makes sense. If we are going to rewrite treaties on appropriations bills, something is wrong. What about the Foreign Relations Committee? What about the Commerce Committee and committees that have jurisdiction over NAFTA? What about consulting the NAFTA partners? I have heard they are upset about the language that is coming out of the committee and that came out of the House. I urge the proponents of the Murray amendment to adopt this language. I think it would further clarify. Maybe it would make a lot of this problem go away. This might make this bill entirely acceptable on all parts. This could be the solution. I have heard people say nothing in the underlying bill violates NAFTA. Then let's accept this amendment. I believe we could have final passage on this bill today, and we could move on towards other legislative agenda items that all of us would like to do, including some nominations.

Mr. NICKLES. Yes.

Mr. NICKLES. I have no objection to the Senator speaking. I wish to speak for 5 minutes. If he wishes to, he can ask consent.

Mr. NICKLES. I would love to see that happen. I do not know if the other proponents will consult other people; maybe we can make that an offer. I would love to see that happen. I think adoption of this language further clarifying that we are not doing anything to violate NAFTA would help make this bill much more presentable and much more acceptable--both to the administration and our trading partners in Mexico and in Canada. I urge my colleagues not to support a tabling motion. Let's pass this amendment and this bill. Let's go to conference.

Mr. NICKLES. Yes.

Mr. NICKLES. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 5 minutes on this amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Today.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I very much appreciate Senator Gramm's comments, and also Senator Reid's suggestion. I think this may help us break this bottleneck. I think too many people are too dug in to kind of look and say how we can fix this problem which we got into by legislating on an appropriations bill and possibly rewriting treaties. That is wrong, at least in this Senator's opinion. This language clarifies that we are not going to violate the treaty. Let's pass this amendment and this bill, and let's go to other legislative agenda items. I yield the floor.