Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Senator is correct in terms of the process. We still have a lot more than six amendments. We have a whole list of amendments, depending on what amendments are raised on that side. All I am asking for is balance and fairness in terms of what we allowed the other side to do in handling their amendments until now. If that means we have to go to regular order, I am prepared to call for regular order. If that is the case, I am saddened to hear my friend from Nevada say a gentlemen's agreement was made on the basis that the Democratic side of the aisle is allowed to call up amendments whenever they want and for how long they want but they want time agreements and assurances on our side. That isn't the agreement we made. That is not the gentlemen's agreement which I understand we made. If the gentlemen's agreement is broken and we do not finish by tomorrow, we should know that right now. If that is the case, then I can assure the Senate that we will be back in session Saturday and we will be here Sunday. We are going to finish this bill this week. That word I took as a word of a Senator. All leadership agreed that we would finish this bill tomorrow to the best of our ability. I am still relying on that word. Mr. President, I suggest we proceed with Senator Inouye.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have three amendments that have been cleared by both sides: Amendment No. 1869, as modified; amendment No. 1870; and amendment No. 1857, as modified. I send them to the desk and ask that they be considered en bloc.

Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Chair.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I understand we can get an agreement that we would postpone the vote on the Nickles amendment until we consider the Bayh amendment. By a previous order, that is the next business. I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the Nickles amendment take place following the debate on the Bayh amendment, and the Bayh amendment follow that.

Mr. STEVENS. Yes, we are preparing it, but that will be the understanding so Members will know there will not be a vote here until sometime, at least I would say, 8:30 or 9 o'clock.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the time would be equally divided between now and 9 o'clock on the Bayh amendment. Is that the proposal?

Mr. STEVENS. I am sorry, I do not have an additional 5 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. I yield the Senator 1 minute.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I yield the Senator from Virginia 5 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. STEVENS. How much time remains on our side?

Mr. STEVENS. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Colorado.

Mr. STEVENS. I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Kentucky.

Mr. STEVENS. I yield the remainder of our time to the leader.

Mr. STEVENS. Have the yeas and nays been ordered?

Mr. STEVENS. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. Is it 1 minute a side or 2 minutes a side? I thought I had a standing order there would be 2 minutes before every vote.

Mr. STEVENS. I am sorry. I ask unanimous consent that it be 2 minutes on each side.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I yield 1 minute to the Senator from New Mexico and 1 minute to the Senator from Arizona.

Mr. STEVENS. I move to reconsider the vote and move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 1867

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am compelled to object because I think there are some people who have left the building already. I inquired whether it was going to be a 10-minute vote. I asked the Parliamentarian if we had agreed, and then I told them we had not. I urge the leader to leave it the normal 15 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, there will be no further votes tonight. What we plan to do now is ask Members who still have amendments to be considered to consult with us. We are prepared to accept some of them. We will have an early session of the Senate tomorrow starting at 9. We will start voting on the amendments that are still pending that have not been resolved tonight. There are still a couple of amendments that Members wish to offer tomorrow, but first we will vote on the pending amendments. So all Senators should be on notice there will be votes starting immediately in the morning. After the first vote, I shall ask that the amendments be 10 minutes each so that there will be a series of probably 19 to 20 amendments, as I count them right now, that could well be voted on before we will then take up the several amendments, two to three amendments, that Members wish to debate.

Mr. STEVENS. I do yield.