Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Cochran, I send an amendment to the desk.

Mr. STEVENS. I thought I had an answer. The answer I received is not correct?

Mr. STEVENS. If we could have order, I would like to tell Senators what will happen now. Let me make a parliamentary inquiry. How much time is left under cloture, Mr. President?

Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Chair. Amendment No. 236 (Purpose: To make a technical correction to Amendment No. 234)

Mr. STEVENS. The amendment has been cleared on both sides. It pertains to giving States the option to issue food stamp benefits to certain individuals currently ineligible because of welfare reform. It has been cleared on both sides. I urge its adoption.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the current occupant of the chair, Senator Gorton, be added as an original cosponsor of this amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Murray, I send an amendment to the desk.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 134

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this is an amendment from the senior Senator from Illinois relating to a bridge in Vermilion County. This amendment has been cleared on both sides. It is acceptable. I urge its adoption.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. STEVENS. I send an amendment to the desk

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator's amendment be temporarily set aside and that amendment No. 100 be called up for immediate consideration.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, will the Senator mind if I use some of the time available to me for some routine matters here?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, may I inquire of the Senator from Texas, are there additional people who are going to speak on behalf of the Senator's amendment?

Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield before he starts?

Mr. STEVENS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 118 (Purpose: To ensure full funding of disaster assistance without adding to the Federal debt)

Mr. STEVENS. We have an hour equally divided. So that will mean the rollcall vote will start at 4:55.

Mr. STEVENS. I do ask unanimous consent that the Reid amendment come before the Senate.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask for the regular order.

Mr. STEVENS. We are proceeding now to get a consent agreement. To my knowledge, I report to the Senate we have agreements on all but two amendments I know of that will come up. Let me state that we will proceed with the ESA amendment, the Reid amendment, now. There is an agreement to dispose of that. Then we will go to the amendment of Senator Gramm of Texas, No. 118. And after that we have several small amendments, about 10 minutes to a side. I would predict we will have a vote in about an hour and 10 to 20 minutes. And that will be on the amendment of the Senator from Texas [Mr. Gramm]. I now ask unanimous consent that when the Senate now takes up the pending business, which is the Reid amendment--that is correct, is it not?

Mr. STEVENS. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I announce that after this vote is completed, we will announce the schedule for the remainder of the afternoon to the extent we have some agreements already. We do have some very good agreements for the Senate to consider. Following this amendment, it will be my intention to move to the pending amendment, which is the Reid amendment. There will be a process to take that to a very rapid conclusion. We are pleased to announce there is an agreement on the endangered species amendment. Mr. President, my one comment at this time would be that Members should keep in mind that we are finishing today, but the House has not acted yet. There will be a procedure so that when the House sends over its bill, we will automatically substitute our bill for that bill and go to conference with the House as soon as possible. But I do want to thank Senators for what they have done so far. We are, I think, moving on schedule. We do have agreements on at least five amendments that are ready to be considered by the Senate, as far as timeframes, for the balance of the amendments. And there is one left to be determined how long that will take. At this time I move to table the Byrd amendment. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I do seek the floor, but I will be happy to yield to the Senator from Vermont for 1 minute.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have again the floor now. There are to my knowledge two remaining speakers, the Senator from Arizona and the Senator from West Virginia, [Mr. Byrd]. The two of them started this process last night. They did so well I do not want to try to interfere and put limits. So I yield the floor. Mr. McCAIN addressed the Chair.