Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Stewart Holmes, a fellow on Senator Cochran's staff, be granted the privilege of the floor during consideration of this defense appropriations bill.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Campbell be included as a cosponsor of amendment No. 3431 previously been adopted.

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

Mr. STEVENS. I ask for the adoption of the sense-of-the-Senate amendment of the Senator from Texas.

Mr. STEVENS. The Senator has indicated he is prepared to not object to this amendment. There being no objection to the sense-of-the-Senate amendment on Bosnia of the Senator from Texas, I ask it be laid before the Senate for action. Is it the pending business?

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I urge the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask the Senator's indulgence. We have to finally clear this amendment. There is some confusion, I might say to my friend from Vermont, because our indication was that there was a position from the Department which opposed the amendment. The Senator's information is the Department supports the amendment. We intend to take it to conference and confer with the Department and then confer with the Senator with regard to the final disposition of it.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, Senator Robb now has a sense of the Senate with regard to the Italy incident, which we are prepared to take. I yield to the Senator to present and explain his amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Is Mr. Harkin here? Mr. President, I am in error on the Leahy amendment on JSAT. That is still on the list. It has not been removed. Amendment No. 3476

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, may I inquire of the Senator from Florida, Mr. Graham--is he here?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we have agreed to take this amendment. It is now a sense-of-the-Senate amendment and requires a report concerning the Italy incident. I ask for its immediate consideration. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. If there be no further debate, without objection, the amendment is agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask that the text of the amendment be placed before both parties on the appropriate table. I move to table the amendment of the Senator from Illinois and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, at this time the Senator from Illinois is left. I say to my good friend, be my guest for the extra 1\1/2\ minutes. Amendment No. 3465

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, there is a technical correction to amendment No. 3392. It was earlier adopted. Its citation needs to be corrected. I ask unanimous consent that it be corrected.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this amendment be set aside to be considered along with the other managers' package at the conclusion of the vote. And I ask unanimous consent that that shall be at 8 o'clock.

Mr. STEVENS. The managers of the bill are prepared to go to third reading, unless a Senator appears to debate an amendment. I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask that it extend only until 5 minutes of the hour of 8 o'clock.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I just conferred with Mr. Cortese, the staff director. I am told that we have but one other Senator who has indicated an intention to debate an amendment tonight. We are working now on the remainder of the second managers' package which we should be able to present to the Senate in about 10 to 15 minutes. I ask the cloakrooms to send out notice to Senators that after presentation of that second managers' amendment, I shall move to go to third reading, unless Senators who have amendments on this list come forth to debate them. We have a very serious situation tomorrow morning. Many Senators told me they want to go to the second funeral of our deceased friend, the officer who was killed in the line of duty. That means we cannot commence voting until 1 o'clock. We have accepted a great many of these amendments and are prepared to accept them. If Senators want to know whether that is the case, I urge them to come and review the managers' package. I will not indicate the name of the Senator who we think wants to debate the amendment, because he may not want to debate it. If no one comes after the motion to table the Durbin amendment to present an amendment, I shall move to go to third reading. It is a debatable motion, and we may have some debate on that. I recall my good friend from West Virginia taught me how to do that, Mr. President. So we are going to proceed along that line. I ask my friend from Hawaii if he knows of any amendments or any matter to take up at this time.

Mr. STEVENS. I suggest the absence of a quorum, the time to be charged to our side.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, it is my understanding when the Senator returns to the floor, Senator Byrd will speak. I state to the Senate, there is substantial opposition to this amendment. I am one who voted against the War Powers Act, but I think this goes too far. It is an amendment that should be considered by the Armed Services Committee and not debated at the last minute on an appropriations bill. In the old days, we had a point of order against legislation on an appropriations bill. This is purely legislation on an appropriations bill. That point of order is not available to us now, but the concept is still there, and that is what we are trying to establish once again--the concept that we limit this to relevant amendments to the provisions of this bill that regard spending of money for our defense in the fiscal year 1999. This is a provision that is ongoing for years. It is not related to this bill. It is not a matter that was before the Senate Appropriations Committee in any way, and it should be part of the Armed Services' consideration. There was an Armed Services bill brought before us before. It would have been perfectly proper to have that brought up at that time in connection with the Armed Services' bill. But I do not think it is proper to bring it up in this bill. For that reason, as I said before, when the time for Senator Byrd has expired, I intend to move to table the amendment. But, as I indicated to him, I offer him the full amount of time that was allocated to this side to present his statement, plus what is left to the Senator from Illinois. Mr. DURBIN addressed the Chair.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I say to the Senator, I have talked with Senator Byrd. We are perfectly prepared to have him continue to take time. Under a unanimous consent agreement, at 8 o'clock we have Senators coming back to vote, and hopefully we can vote at approximately that time. I don't know how long my good friend is going to speak, but I will limit the amount of time spent in opposition. We will just make the motion to table when the time comes. We do not want to extend it now. We are going to have to be here until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning as it is, so I object to any further change in this time agreement, and I urge my good friend from West Virginia to make his statement. He knows we will accommodate him with such time as he needs. But let's not change the time agreement yet.

Mr. STEVENS. What? I object. Just a second.

Mr. STEVENS. And further debate; obviously, there is no limitation if the amendment is not tabled.

Mr. STEVENS. And I add to that, there will be no second-degree amendments to this motion prior to the motion to table; after the motion to table, it is open.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am willing to suggest to the Senator that we divide the time equally between now and 8 p.m., at which time it would be my intention to move to table the Senator's amendment.