Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Very well.

Mr. STEVENS. Does Senator Boxer wish her time?

Mr. STEVENS. I yield to Senator Boxer.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I send to the desk amendment No. 1845, as modified, the one Senator Boxer just described, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. STEVENS. It is the one the Senator sent to us.

Mr. STEVENS. That is what we seek to do.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, is amendment No. 1825 before the Senate now?

Mr. STEVENS. We have held this until last because of the budget problem involved. This takes $1.3 billion from the amount that has already been allocated to the VA/HUD Subcommittee that causes considerable consternation as to what we are going to do with it in the future. We all admit that is the problem. We all know there is a severe problem for veterans to deal with medical care, and we look forward to working with the Senators from Missouri and Maryland to work out this problem. To the best of my knowledge, we now have one remaining amendment to be debated, and that is the amendment of Senator Brownback. I ask that amendment 1825 be adopted.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, $600 million from Iraqi reconstruction funds? The Senate has just acted along with the House to cut approximately $1.6 billion. This amendment also prohibits funds appropriated in this act from being used for solid waste management, housing, and other items. Some of the solid waste management involves contaminated materials, materials with unexpended ordnance, all sorts of hazards. We have already reduced this amount, as I said, by $1.6 billion. Any further reduction, as far as I am concerned, would further weaken the assistance we are trying to give the Iraqi people in order to bring our people home. I move to table this amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. Do I have any time left?

Mr. STEVENS. No objection.

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. The Senator from Florida has 2 minutes. After that 2 minutes, there will be a vote on final passage. After the vote, there will be some speeches concerning the bill. This next vote will be the final vote on this bill.

Mr. STEVENS. I am aware of the House amendment. I appreciate your interests in this area and will work with my colleagues in conference to support funding for women's programs in Afghanistan.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I take the opportunity to express my appreciation to the Appropriations Committee staff for the many hours and days they worked on this bill. Their commitment and professionalism is critical to the bill. I have the list of the names of the majority and minority staff who worked so hard on this bill and I ask it be printed in the Record in recognition of their efforts.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Democratic leader is correct. The conference will meet and the minority will be full participants in the conference.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we are going to work out some time limit on this amendment or I am going to move to table. As a matter of fact, right now I believe we have 45 or more amendments remaining. We have an agreement of the Senate, a handshake agreement for a change. It was not a unanimous consent agreement. It was just a handshake between everyone on the floor that we will finish this bill by tomorrow. We are not going to finish this if we have people speaking at length on every amendment. Now, I have been informed we have 58 amendments remaining. This is the first one. I ask the Senator, what is a reasonable limitation on the Senator's comments?

Mr. STEVENS. Twenty minutes for the Senator from California, 20 minutes for the Senator from Illinois, 20 minutes for the Senator from Iowa, and 20 minutes for the Senator from Massachusetts, and I assume the Senator from West Virginia wants recognition again. That is more than an hour on 1 out of 58 amendments. I think that is excessive. I am willing to change it to 15 minutes for each Senator. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Durbin, Senator Harkin, Senator Kennedy, Senator Boxer, and Senator Byrd be recognized not to exceed 15 minutes before I retain the floor to make a motion to table.

Mr. STEVENS. I still have the floor.

Mr. STEVENS. Let me try this. I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to yield the floor to Senator Boxer to make such remarks as she wishes to make, and when she is finished her remarks, I regain the floor.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have a management problem. I ask unanimous consent that the vote on this amendment not occur before 3 o'clock.

Mr. STEVENS. I yield the floor.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, both sides have cleared for approval four amendments that I ask be considered en bloc. The first is amendment No. 1832 by Senator Feingold. The second is amendment No. 1853. The other two have not been filed. I send the amendments to the desk on behalf of Senator Hollings and Senator Durbin, and I ask unanimous consent that these four amendments be considered en bloc. They are primarily technical in nature.

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, 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.