Arlen Specter

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. And vote, but not necessarily today.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I would direct this question to the Senator from Nevada. He says let the majority leader determine when the vote should be set. I would agree with that. But suppose the majority leader says we ought to take the Harkin amendment vote after we take the votes on the other amendments?

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Senator from Nevada has articulated some wisdom this morning in his comments about pride. I think of the statement ``pride goeth before a fall.'' I think we can retain our pride and also get this worked out.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, let me add, I personally don't object to voting today, but there are a lot of people on this side of the aisle who do as a matter of protocol and principle. That is why I am going to leave the Chamber in a few minutes and, along with the President pro tempore, who is the chairman of the full committee, discuss the matter with the majority leader. But as I understand the position of the Senator from Nevada and his side of the aisle, it is that they insist on the vote today. Am I incorrect about that?

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the last stacked vote in this sequence, Senator Dodd be recognized to offer an amendment relating to Head Start; there be 10 minutes equally divided for debate in relation to the amendment; further, that following the debate, the Senate then proceed to a vote in relation to the Dodd amendment, with no amendment in order to the amendment prior to that vote.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I raise a point of order under section 504 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2004 that the amendment exceeds discretionary spending limits in this section and, therefore, is not in order; that is, as to the Byrd amendment on which we are about to vote.

Mr. SPECTER. Agreed to.

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

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I believe the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program is a very important one. I wish we had additional funding so we could accept the amendment offered by the Senator from New York, who seeks to add $400 million to this program. There have been very substantial increases in the program. In 1999, the program was set at approximately $1.4 billion and that has increased to the current appropriation of $2.041 billion. Overall, on HIV/AIDS, in the Labor-HHS bill, we have in excess of $14 billion. The entire bill, which we have, has an allocation $137.6 billion. I fought to have a larger allocation, but this is the maximum appropriation we can make within the budget resolution and within our allocation, as much as I would like to see even more resources directed toward HIV/AIDS. For those reasons, Mr. President, because it does exceed the budget, I raise a point of order under the Budget Act.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, we have an additional $4 billion from other Departments. I ask unanimous consent that a chart be printed in the Record.

Mr. SPECTER. I do.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, inquiry: Do I now have 5 minutes to respond to the Durbin amendment?

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, that arrangement is satisfactory. I want to be sure we do not go to the vote on Senator Byrd's amendment before we give Senator Durbin a chance to offer his amendment with a brief reply, if necessary, on this side. I reiterate, perhaps supplement, what has been said that we are going to be looking for at least six more amendments to debate tonight. We will be discussing with the Members during the votes their intentions, with an effort on all sides to pare down the list to the maximum extent possible. I yield the floor.

Mr. SPECTER. Fine.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I believe in short order we will be able to work out an additional portion of the unanimous consent for the vote on the Head Start amendment.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader and the Democratic leader for their statements. I am prepared to move ahead with the vote on the Byrd amendment. We have Senator Durbin waiting to offer an amendment.

Mr. SPECTER. We will sequence that prospectively fourth in line for another 10-minute vote. The expectation is there will be a short time for debate, expected to be 10 minutes equally divided.

Mr. SPECTER. We can work that through in just a few moments.

Mr. SPECTER. We can.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, in our sequencing, we now turn to the Senator from Nebraska; how long does the Senator intend to speak?

Mr. SPECTER. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. For the information of all Senators, tomorrow the Senate will resume consideration of this bill, and we have already specified the amendments which are going to occur. Following those votes, the Senate will continue to work on the bill. The majority leader has stated his intention to complete the bill tomorrow. There are a number of pending amendments. The chairman and ranking member will be here throughout the day to work through the amendments. Senators can expect rollcall votes.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senate report No. 108-113 be star printed with the changes at the desk.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I thank the assistant Democratic leader. I think it has been a productive day--starting at 5 o'clock. I am happy to have had the votes. It breaks the logjam. We had quite a number of amendments offered this evening. I think the stage has been set to move with dispatch tomorrow. The assistant Democratic leader has made the suggestion about early votes, which I think is a good idea. Very little remains on both sides. There is always great temptation to proceed with alacrity once the light at the end of the tunnel signifies no additional votes, at which point the railways and airlines become congested with 100 passengers. So we now have that incentive to move ahead with dispatch tomorrow to complete the bill. I think it will be a signal accomplishment to get it done.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.