[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S998-S1000]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             CLOTURE MOTION

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, having said that, I send a cloture motion to 
the desk.
  Let me say before I send it to the desk, it is obvious to me what is 
happening here is nothing is happening. We had amendment after 
amendment on congressional coverage, on which we wasted all of last 
week, and part of last week on unfunded mandates.
  We are told there are 40, 50, 60 amendments. I am not certain how 
many are germane. This is an issue supported by the Governors, 
supported 
[[Page S999]] by the mayors, supported by the county commissioners, 
supported by people all across America--Republicans and Democrats--and 
supported by the President of the United States.
  It is pretty obvious we are not going to be able to move it quickly 
in the Senate because people are using the rules to frustrate efforts. 
That is the way it works. I do not fault that. I think we may have done 
that in the past a time or two.
  This is something where there is broad bipartisan support. We would 
like to complete it this week. If we can get cloture, we may be able to 
complete it this week.
  So I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:
                             Cloture Motion

       We the undersigned Senators in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on S. 1, the 
     unfunded mandates bill:
         Bob Dole, Dirk Kempthorne, Don Nickles, Connie Mack, 
           Trent Lott, Thad Cochran, Alfonse D'Amato, Al Simpson, 
           Strom Thurmond, Pete Domenici, Ted Stevens, Bill Cohen, 
           Christopher S. Bond, Frank Murkowski, Jesse Helms, 
           Spencer Abraham, Bob Smith, Larry E. Craig, Mike 
           DeWine, and Bill Frist.

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, will the leader yield?
  Mr. DOLE. I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. BYRD. May I say to my friend, I was not aware until just now, in 
listening to the distinguished leader's comments, that there was any 
necessity for a cloture motion to be entered. I did not realize that 
there was a filibuster occurring.
  Mr. DOLE. I began to realize it, if I may say to my friend. I can 
just see maybe the beginning of one.
  Mr. BYRD. I thought progress was being made on the bill. It seems to 
me that the Senate was working its will.
  Mr. DOLE. If the Senator will yield, I might say to my good friend 
from West Virginia, I have indicated to the Democratic leader that if 
we can reach some agreement--I do not disagree with the Senator from 
West Virginia totally. I will withdraw the motion if we can agree on 
limited amendments so we at least have some finite number of 
amendments, hopefully germane amendments. But not having that, and 
looking at the fact that my colleagues on the other side would like to 
have a retreat on Friday of this week, I would like to be 
accommodating, but I do not know how we can accommodate that request 
unless we make some progress on what is a bill that enjoys strong 
bipartisan support.
  Mr. BYRD. Is there a list of amendments? I have not seen any list. I 
heard there might be a list of amendments, so I suggested that I have 
three. I may not call up any of them. So I thought we were making 
progress.
  Mr. DOLE. It may be progress, depending on how it is defined. I have 
not checked Webster's lately. But it would be slow progress if it is 
progress. But it is my hope we can put a list together, with staff 
working on each side, and submit a copy of that to the Democratic 
leader and also the Senator from West Virginia, and others who have an 
interest, and see if we can reach some agreement on a list of 
amendments. If it is going to be 40, 50, or 60, probably half are 
nongermane. I hope in the interest of expediency, we will have support 
for the vote of cloture, which would eliminate all the nongermane 
amendments.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, this kind of underlines everything I was 
saying earlier today and last Friday and Thursday. What is all this big 
hurry? Here we are, this is the 17th of January, and why can we not be 
legislators and take time to understand what is in a bill? I was 
seeking to have the committees provide committee reports, and it was 
mainly for that reason that I took the floor and complained that the 
minority in both committees had been denied that opportunity to have 
reports in which they could file views, individual views and minority 
views. Now that has been accomplished.
  I say, therefore, that the distinguished leader has done, what he has 
every right to do--he is the leader and he has introduced a cloture 
motion. But it seems to me that the Senate is now beginning to work its 
will, now that it has had access to the committee reports, and I do not 
know what all the rush is. What is there that is coming behind this 
measure?
  Mr. DOLE. I think the Senator from West Virginia may have some 
inkling. There may be--I would not suggest that, but I know, knowing 
the Senator from West Virginia is a master of the game, and I say that 
in a complimentary way--he knows that a balanced budget amendment may 
be somewhere on the horizon. And I assume that the further away the 
better for the Senator from West Virginia. And one way to keep it at a 
distance is not to rush through anything else that may be on the Senate 
floor.
  I am not suggesting that might motivate the Senator from West 
Virginia, but it is something that has occurred to me a few times, and 
I had the same problem on this side of the aisle.
  Mr. BYRD. But it is my understanding that the balanced budget 
amendment has not yet been reported out of the Judiciary Committee.
  Mr. DOLE. But we hope it may be by the time we complete action on 
this bill. We will be coming in later tomorrow morning to accommodate 
the Judiciary Committee. And we may adjourn in the afternoon to 
accommodate the Judiciary Committee.
  Mr. BYRD. Well, as I said earlier, I may vote for this unfunded 
mandates bill. I probably will. I do not know yet. I still want to 
study it some, and may offer an amendment or so. But I am a little bit 
surprised that the leader is implying that a filibuster has been going 
on.
  Mr. DOLE. I say to my friend, I do not think there is a filibuster in 
the real sense. We have not had a real filibuster, as the Senator said 
the other day, around here for years. I think I would know a real one 
if one occurred.
  It seemed to me, with the broad support we have for this unfunded 
mandates bill, it is not only filed because of what the leader may 
consider delay, but also to avoid a lot of nongermane amendments. We 
went through that turkey shoot last week and the week before.
  So it seems to me that one way to talk about unfunded mandates and 
germane amendments to unfunded mandates is to get cloture and 30 or 40 
of those amendments will disappear. We can have the debate the Senator 
from West Virginia wants. If necessary, I would be willing to see--we 
can extend the 30 hours by consent. I am not trying to shut anything 
off, but I would like to eliminate some of these nongermane amendments.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, if the majority leader will yield, of course 
the majority leader knows as well as I do that there is no rule on 
germaneness in the Senate except with respect, in a small way, to 
appropriations bills. But this cloture motion just underlines what I 
said earlier, that there is an effort to ram this bill through, an 
effort to steamroll it through.
  It seems to me that a good legislator would seek to know what is in a 
bill. I am just trying to play the part of what I think a good 
legislator ought to do. A good legislator ought to try to understand 
what is in a bill. And we have been deprived, to a degree, of knowing 
earlier what was in this bill; having the benefit of a committee report 
as an explanation of what is in the bill. We were deprived of that, not 
through my fault, not through anybody's fault on this side of the 
aisle, but actually against the wishes of certain Senators on this side 
of the aisle who are on those committees.
  A good legislator, it seems to me, would want to know what is in a 
bill. He would want access to a committee report. I have been in 
legislative bodies now going on my 49th year and I have found it 
beneficial to have committee reports. I think the American people want 
their legislators to know what is in a bill. We owe that to the 
American people.
  So the distinguished majority leader has the right to offer a cloture 
motion. He is the leader. If he thinks that there is a slowdown here 
and if he thinks that necessity requires that we have a cloture vote on 
this bill and then limit it to nongermane amendments, that is his 
right. Senators from time to time offer cloture motions when there is 
no filibuster. Their sole objective is to create a situation in which 
there will not be nongermane amendments.
   [[Page S1000]] Our friend Russell Long used to do that from time to 
time when he was managing a Finance Committee bill on the floor. He 
would offer a cloture motion, not for the purpose of shutting off 
debate so much but more so for the purpose of ruling out nongermane 
amendments. So the distinguished Republican leader has a point there 
and that may be his goal.
  But let me just say, lest the Record be left to appear that there is 
a filibuster going on here, we have been making progress. We will 
continue to make progress. But it just underscores my concerns that the 
idea here is to ram things through. Do not take the time to study the 
bill. Do not take the time to understand what is in the bill. Just get 
the bill passed.

       How poor are they that have not patience!
       What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

  Mr. President, I will yield the floor. I hope we will have an 
opportunity before the cloture vote to offer other amendments and I 
hope the leader will not put us on any other measure until we finish 
this one, so we will really have 2 days in which to discuss the bill 
and offer amendments.
  I thank the leader for yielding. I yield the floor.
  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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