[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 54 (Friday, May 6, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 6, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     CONGRESSIONAL GIFTS REFORM ACT

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will now resume consideration of S. 1935, which the clerk will 
report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1935) to prohibit lobbyists and their clients 
     from providing to legislative branch officials certain gifts, 
     meals, entertainment, reimbursements, or loans, and to place 
     limits on and require disclosure by lobbyists of certain 
     expenditures.

  The Senate resumed consideration of the bill.
  Pending:

       Exon amendment No. 1682, to express the sense of the Senate 
     that any Member who voted to reduce the pay of Members of the 
     Senate should return to the U.S. Treasury any pay that would 
     not have been received had the amendment been enacted into 
     law.


                           amendment no. 1682

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I understand the Exon amendment is the 
pending business; is that correct?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. EXON. Since we did not have an opportunity last evening for the 
reading of the amendment, I request at this time the Senate hear the 
clerk read the Exon sense-of-the-Senate amendment.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The clerk will report the amendment.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       At the appropriate place add the following:
       It is sense of the Senate that any Member who voted May 5, 
     1994, to amend S. 1935 to reduce the pay of Members of the 
     Senate by 15%, should return to the U.S. Treasury the full 
     amount of any pay that would not have been received had the 
     amendment been enacted into law and that such Members should 
     provide evidence to the public on an annual basis that they 
     have done so.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, the amendment that has just been read was an 
amendment that I offered last evening. There was, as the Senate knows, 
considerable discussion following that with Members on both sides of 
the aisle. The majority leader tried very hard to put together a 
package to unravel a rather difficult situation with regard to the 
scheduling of Senate business.
  One of the things that came up during that discussion, at great 
length, was the Exon amendment and how we should proceed. It was the 
view of this Senator and several Members who were cosponsors of the 
sense-of-the-Senate resolution as introduced, that we should proceed 
with discussion, debate and a vote on last evening--or more correctly 
sometime this morning, very early, because I believe we had wandered on 
beyond midnight during these deliberations and discussions.
  The reason I offered this amendment was to attempt to gain a degree 
of consistency in the Senate. It was not intended as an amendment to 
particularly embarrass any of my colleagues. However, during the 
discussion, during the deliberations, several Senators came to me--
including the majority leader--and said pressing forward on the Exon 
amendment at that time would cause a great deal of difficulty to many 
of my colleagues because they were not present at that time, early this 
morning, and further said even if, as originally suggested, we put this 
over until Wednesday, it could cause a very great deal of difficulty 
and would have prevented the rather complicated unanimous-consent 
agreement that was finally agreed to last night or early this morning--
whatever the timeframe was. I do not remember for certain.
  I will simply say, Mr. President, that I thought the amendment that 
has just been read was simply an opportunity for those who voted for a 
15 percent cut in their pay, to give them the opportunity, with the 
suggestion in the sense-of-the-Senate resolution, to do exactly what 
they desired to do, evidently, by their votes, even though the 
amendment did fail.
  The reputation this Senator has in the Senate, I think, is clearly 
one not designed around recriminations, not built upon trying to place 
my colleagues on either side of the aisle in a difficult position.
  I simply say that it is my intention to withdraw that amendment, at 
the request of several Senators. I believe that if it were brought to a 
vote, it would very likely receive overwhelming approval.
  But the idea is to getting ahead with the business at hand around 
here, to address ourselves to the very many, many complicated issues 
that were contained in the unanimous consent agreement, and others, 
such as health care, on which we are now facing somewhat of a short 
time fuse.
  Therefore, Mr. President, in order to expedite the proceedings of the 
Senate, and at the request and suggestion of the majority leader, I 
have agreed to withdraw the amendment.
  I just wanted to take this brief period of time to explain my reasons 
for offering it. It simply was that one of the things I think we all 
should do in the body is to try and be a little more consistent, at 
least during short-term periods, in the U.S. Senate. That was the 
reason for the amendment.
  But as I have explained, I recognize the circumstances that the 
majority leader faces and, therefore, to expedite matters and not 
string this out any more than is already necessary, I withdraw the 
sense-of-the-Senate amendment that I sent to the desk during the 
previous session of the Senate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator has that right. Without 
objection, the amendment is withdrawn.
  So the amendment (No. 1682) was withdrawn.

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