Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I send the modification to the desk. It changes the word ``shall'' to ``may.''

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have been asked, notwithstanding the actions taken so far, to ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 191 be reconsidered--brought back to the desk in order that one word might be changed.

Mr. STEVENS. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. I was pleased to be able to make the Senator's amendment a part of the manager's package. The Senator's understanding is correct. This $10 million will go to the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy to fund programs to combat methamphetamine production and trafficking.

Mr. STEVENS. I know of no objection to these items. They have been cleared on both sides. I ask unanimous consent that these amendments be agree to en bloc.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I turn now to the amendments we have agreed to accept within the jurisdiction of the State, Justice, Commerce Subcommittee. I have at the desk the following package: Amendment No. 46 by Senators Wyden and Smith; No. 72 by Senator Leahy; No. 100 by Senator Grassley; Nos. 159 and 160 for myself; No. 191 for Senators Breaux and Landrieu; No. 233 for Senators Corzine and Clinton; and amendment No. 107 for Senator Kennedy. I send a modification to the desk of amendment No. 191 and ask that it be substituted for the amendment in this package.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. STEVENS. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent they be agreed to en bloc.

Mr. STEVENS. Senator Byrd's? I will pull that out of the package, then.

Mr. STEVENS. I will call that up now. I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be considered en bloc: No. 165 and 166 offered by Senator Byrd; No. 23 offered by Senators Grassley and Baucus; No. 70 offered by Senator Frist; No. 96 offered by Senator Voinovich; No. 113 offered by Senator Kohl; No. 190 for Senators Boxer and Dorgan; and No. 174 offered by Senator Akaka. They all come under the heading of the Legislative Appropriations bill.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, if I could have the attention of the Senate, the managers have now reviewed the 245 amendments that were filed by the deadline on the omnibus bill. At this juncture, we continue to work to clear as many of these amendments as we can. To facilitate the Senate's consideration of these amendments, we will now present them grouped by the subcommittee with jurisdiction over each amendment. We intend to proceed in the following order this afternoon as we complete the review of each section. The first section we will consider, and I will bring it to the desk in a moment, will be the Legislative Branch-Treasury bill; the second, Commerce, Justice, State; the third, Foreign Operations; the fourth, Labor-Health and Human Services; the fifth, Transportation-HUD-VA; sixth, Defense-Energy and Water; seventh, Agriculture; and the eighth, Interior. There are also separate groups of amendments that require modification to be adopted. We are going to handle them in a separate group. The managers intend to call up amendments by number in each group and ask for adoption en bloc. Any Senator, of course, is entitled to object to these amendments and needs to be on the floor so we can proceed to debate and vote on amendments that may be objected to. These have been cleared on both sides of our Appropriations Committee by the subcommittee staffs, by myself, and I believe the manager on the other side. If we can adopt this process, it is still possible to finish today. We do not know on this side yet how many amendments we may wish to have a vote upon. I think this process may identify some of those. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. STEVENS. If we do not dispose of it, it will be the first vote when we come back at 5 o'clock.

Mr. STEVENS. The Senator is right. I thought it was worked out. During this vote, we will try our best to work it out.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Nevada have a minute also.

Mr. STEVENS. This is the last of the stacked votes. After this vote is over, we will start the process of bringing before the Senate the amendments we have on both sides agreed to accept in groups. We expect that will take an hour or so to accomplish. As I understand it, between 4 and 5 there will be a briefing. We have asked for no votes during that time. I think Members know if their amendment is going to be accepted. If there is anyone on either side who intends to ask for a vote on an amendment, I urge them to notify either me or the Senator from Nevada, and we will then, hopefully, have a process to get those amendments voted upon before 6 o'clock.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 minute while I explain the process.

Mr. STEVENS. May we have order? The Senator has time.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, what is the next amendment? Amendment No. 230

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

Mr. STEVENS. I am trying to finish this bill tonight. We are trying to get this bill into conference with the House and to settle the 11 bills that were not passed last year, for whatever reason they were not passed. This, with all due respect to the Senator from New York, is a Finance Committee amendment. It would require the Ways and Means and Finance Committees to meet, separate from us, in conference. It is not something that belongs on this bill. This is an appropriations bill. For years we had points of order that would take these out of our consideration, but I urge the Senate not to do this. There are a whole series of other amendments coming up just like this one that deal with other subjects from other committees. They are legislative amendments. We are going to finish this tonight by saying we are passing an appropriations bill or we are going to sit here and debate other legislative items that should go to Finance or Energy or other committees all night. I urge that the Senate vote no on this motion. I hope we will table the other ones because we will have a series of them unless people listen to us. Let us get out of here tonight. I might add one little thing. In my lifetime, we have never met before the State of the Union Message. Do you know why? Because Presidents in the past were just like this one--trying to figure out what should be in the State of the Union Message and what should be in the budget. This President can't decide what should be in the State of the Union Message because we haven't yet finished last year's budget. I hope we can go home tonight.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have the authority of the leader to yield 1 minute to me on this amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Senate will now consider Senator Clinton's amendment numbered 89, with 2 minutes on each side. I ask that Senator Nickles take the time on our side. I remind the Senate that all votes now will be 10 minutes for the rest of the afternoon, and 10 minutes means 10 minutes. If we are to finish this evening, we cannot go on and on and on with these amendments. Ten minutes means 10 minutes.