Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I am prepared to accept the amendment of the Senator and ask for a vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield further, Mr. President? The Senator's amendment mandates the Secretary to make this available from the moneys that the Senator has mentioned. The Secretary has current authority to do it. It is discretionary. The effect of his amendment is to mandate that, of the moneys that are there, at least $45 million shall be available immediately for the disaster victims. I believe that the fund itself is for general population assistance for LIHEAP projects. If the Senator will take out the reference to the specific States, what it means is that the $45 million is reserved for the purposes he seeks and, if there is additional money in there, for others. But we think this reserving money ought to be for victims of all disasters covered by the bill.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, as Senator Wellstone has indicated, the effect of this amendment will be to dedicate a portion of the moneys that are available to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make LIHEAP-type assistance available to victims of flooding and other natural disasters covered by the bill. It is moneys that are there and could be made available. This mandates making it available. We believe under the circumstances that that is a proper thing to do. For this side, I am willing to accept the amendment. Mr. President, I ask Senator Byrd if he is willing to accept the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask the Senator modify his amendment in accordance with our agreement by deleting the references to the States. Has he done that?

Mr. STEVENS. As modified, it then reads ``natural disasters for the fiscal year 1997,'' is that correct?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Department of Transportation has provide us a technical correction to some language that is in the nonemergency title of the bill. The correction in no way changes the scope or intent of our committee action and it has been cleared, now, on both sides. I offer it, to bring about the technical correction that has been sought by the administration through the Department of Transportation. I send the amendment to the desk.

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask for immediate consideration of the amendment.

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

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield for a moment for a housekeeping matter?

Mr. STEVENS

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. I apologize to the Chair. I had a discussion about further proceedings. Which amendment did the Senator call up?

Mr. STEVENS. Thank you, very much. I now have a copy of it. It is my understanding that the Senator from South Carolina is not going to object to this at this time. I will not oppose the amendment either. But I do want to say that, as a result of the amendment of the Senator from South Carolina, there have been a series of pharmaceutical groups that contacted us concerning the inequities of the long delay in the processing of Federal permits for the pharmaceuticals in this country. I believe this is a matter that should be taken care of in the legislative proposal, but, if it is not, we will address it further this year in the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. I am informed that 110 amendments have been filed to this bill. We have assigned task forces from the staffs of the various subcommittees to review those amendments. Mr. President, we will notify Members if we find amendments we would object to. But I ask all Members to notify us when they would like to call up their amendments. It is the leadership's hope that this bill will be finished by tomorrow evening. Obviously, with 110 amendments, it is going to be a long night. But I would appreciate it if we could have some idea of when those amendments would be called up. I am hopeful they will be called up soon. Amendment No. 143 (Purpose: To provide for dredging and snagging and clearing of the Truckee and San Joaquin Rivers and the dredging of shoaling on the Chena River)

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask the clerk to lay before the Senate amendment No. 143.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this is a direct use of funds that are already available. There is no budgetary impact on it. It deals with issues that the corps has informed us it needs authority for in three States. It has been cleared on both sides. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I want to state that this amendment is by the Senator from Nevada that I called up. So it is not my amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to, and I move that that motion be laid on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. STEVENS. I seek to inquire whether the Senator would be willing to enter into a time agreement on his motion to strike?

Mr. STEVENS. I am sure there are others interested in speaking. We have 110 amendments pending, so I will try to seek a time agreement on each amendment. I will defer this for a few moments until others involved are here. I would like to enter into a time agreement to vote on this amendment no later than 5:30, if possible.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we will contact Members to talk about that.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I regret that we can't seem to get much going here. The administration now has the Endangered Species Act amendment under review, the amendment pertaining to the sense of the Senate is under review, and the amendment pertaining to S. 2477 is under review. I would like to find out what is going on down there in that three-ring circus so we might get this bill going. I understand the Senator wants an hour and a half, but we will have a cloture motion tomorrow, apparently. It will be this Senator's recommendation, if we can't get this bill going, let's go out and then come back tomorrow and vote cloture. I was told I am trying to hold up this bill. I was told that last week. We have been on the floor here for 2 days. I am perfectly willing to go ahead with amendments--amendments even to strike provisions we put in the bill. We are not holding up this bill. If we need a cloture motion to limit all debate, then I say the Senate should vote cloture tomorrow and do that. I am not addressing this to my good friend from Nevada. I understand what he is doing. There is a substantial possibility that it may be worked out with the administration. But I am not sure the administration has the urgency we seem to want to have for this bill. Mr. President, my recommendation to the leader is that if we don't get going here this afternoon, let's go out at 5 o'clock and come back tomorrow and get cloture. Then I know amendments will be voted on in orderly sequence. If we don't get cloture, we will understand, and the people from the disaster area will understand who wants the bill and who doesn't. I am very disturbed about this delay, as a matter of fact.