Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this will be a 10-minute vote; is that correct?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, there are 15 minutes on the motion of the Senator from Alabama to strike. He will have 7\1/2\ minutes, and the other 7\1/2\ minutes will be under my control. First, I would like to see if the distinguished Democratic whip would like to make some comments. I do have a motion to make.

Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Chair.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to ask for the yeas and nays on the military construction bill which will later be before the Senate.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I do ask for the yeas and nays on the military construction bill.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I regret deeply the necessity to move to table the motion of the Senator from Alabama. There has been a serious mistake in this program, and these young people were notified they would be enrolled in August and September. The statements made on both sides are absolutely correct. Both sides have a point; that is, this should not have happened. But it did happen, and we felt compelled to keep the commitment to those people who were told they would be enrolled and to put up the money so they will be enrolled for the school year that starts in September. I do hope the Senate understands we will do everything possible to prevent this from happening again. I commend the Senator from Maryland and the Senator from Missouri for their diligence in finding out what happened and for bringing this to our attention, but there is no other way than to keep the commitment we have made and to see to it that AmeriCorps does continue to enroll these people. The enrollment for next year, as I understand it, will be at the authorized level of 50,000. I think that is the problem, to make certain that does not happen again.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to table the amendment. I believe the yeas and nays have been ordered; is that correct?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to ask for the yeas and nays at this time on the bill itself.

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

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

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Will the majority leader yield for a question? Could we get an agreement now that the amendments that are to be presented to the legislative branch bill be presented tonight, the debate finish tonight, and we will vote tomorrow on them--not have any rollcall votes tonight but have all the amendments be brought before us tonight and the arguments start and we will schedule the votes for tomorrow morning? I know there are several Members who have talked to me and they have other events. This is sort of surprise. We are trying to get the bill finished by tomorrow. If the leader would agree, we would get consent that all amendments must be filed and we will debate them tonight-- however late it takes--and vote on them tomorrow.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we are awaiting the Senator from Nevada. Let me state for the Senate that it would be my intention to move to close debate and consideration of any further amendments to title I and title II following the statements of the two managers of the bill. We have no notice of any amendments by any Member wishing to offer to title I or title II. Title III is the portion of the bill that contains the supplemental provisions and that will be open to debate. We will later ask consent that all amendments and all motions to title III be offered tonight and debated tonight with the votes to occur on any matters which will be brought to a vote tomorrow morning. That is not the agreement yet but that is the agreement we will seek. I yield the floor.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, if the distinguished Senator from Nevada would allow us, we just put out the hotline on both sides. I want to make sure no one has objections until we get final consent.

Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Senator. I know the Senator from Nevada has an amendment I join in offering. I remarked today at the hearing that we had in the Appropriations Committee on the Interior appropriations bill, 2.2 million acres of my State burned last year. We have a series of very devastating fires going already. One of the worst problems we have is the infestation of insects in trees that now have been dead for a couple of years. If a fire starts in those areas now, we will have a catastrophe of unknown size. I join the Senator from Nevada in offering an amendment to provide additional funds to deal with fire prevention as well as the firefighting amendments we have in the bill already. I yield to the Senator from Nevada.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this is for the Corps of Engineers flood control and coastal emergencies fund. It will be available immediately upon the signature of the President. This bill does have a clause that makes funds in this bill, title III, immediately available to the President for disbursing.

Mr. STEVENS. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I shall in a moment make a motion to table the Senator's motion to strike. I want to make sure, before the Senator leaves, that we have an understanding that after having made that motion to table, I shall move to set that motion aside until tomorrow morning, at which time I will ask for 10 minutes equally divided on my motion to table, to be divided in the usual form, which would mean that the Senator from Alabama would have half that time.

Mr. STEVENS. I do not make that motion yet because the Senator from Maryland wishes to speak.

Mr. STEVENS. There would be 5 minutes. I am opposed, so I would be in control of 5 minutes, and I would be sure to allow the Senator from Maryland to have a portion. I would think Senator Bond might have a portion. I would have a minute, and you each would have 2 minutes. You can speak at length tonight. Does the Senator wish more than that time tomorrow morning?

Mr. STEVENS. We will assure the Senator has 3 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. We will do that.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I now move to table the motion to strike filed by the Senator from Alabama. I ask unanimous consent that my motion be temporarily set aside and that the Senate resume consideration of my motion on Friday at a time to be determined by the majority leader after consultation with the Democratic leader. I further ask unanimous consent that there then be 15 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form with not less than 3 minutes of that time being available to the Senator from Maryland and that there be no other amendments in order. I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to table.