[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 64 (Thursday, April 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5301-S5303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT
The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, last night, the majority leader and I
announced that we had a tentative agreement with regard to the pending
legislation. We had hoped that as a result of our negotiations, which
have been conducted in good faith on both sides, it would lead,
hopefully, to an opportunity to come to some closure in the not-too-
distant future on this important matter.
Unfortunately, as a result of differences on both sides of the aisle
with regard to the agreement, amendments are likely which would
significantly alter the result of the negotiations that have been
ongoing.
As a result, the real prospect that the agreement could be
successfully concluded in debate on the floor this afternoon becomes
increasingly unlikely. I am disappointed because I feel it was an
effort made on the part of many Senators--Republicans and Democrats--to
bridge our differences to accomplish what we all want.
The amendment that I have had pending has now been pending for a
week. Unfortunately, we have not had the opportunity during these
negotiations to vote on it or on any other Democratic amendment. We
have been hopeful that over the course of the last several days, we
could have come to some conclusion about the agreement or about at
least a time limit relating to the amendments, and come to some
conclusion this week in one way or the other. That now does not look
possible.
But the fact is, because we have not been given an opportunity to
have votes on these amendments, we will come to the cloture vote this
afternoon not having had one vote on one Democratic amendment. As a
result, I urge my colleagues to protect our right to offer these
amendments. I urge my colleagues to recall how important it is that the
amendments that we have offered over the course of the last couple of
weeks dealing directly with the concerns that have been raised on this
floor now for more than 7 days, that we have the opportunity to have
good debates about those issues prior to the time we come to closure on
this vote.
As I have said on several occasions, we really have three goals here:
The first goal is to ensure the Federal Emergency Management
Administration is adequately funded.
The second goal is to ensure that we provide the necessary deficit
reduction that this rescissions package will allow, and we are now at a
point of $15 billion in the total deficit reduction package.
And the third goal was one that all of us on this side of the aisle
feel especially strongly about.
That is, if we are going to do it, we should do it right. If we are
going to do it, we should ensure that we do not eat the seed corn. We
should ensure that as we remember our priorities, we remember our kids
and working families who are struggling to ensure that they can be
productive citizens in this country.
Those are the three goals. Our whole effort, the amendment that we
have pending, is designed to accomplish those three goals. Without that
amendment, unfortunately, all we do is accomplish the first two goals.
We provide adequate funding for FEMA. We provide for necessary deficit
reduction, but we do it at the expense of kids. We do it at the expense
of people who are counting on these investments so they can be the
productive, working people that they want to be.
That is what this debate was about. So this cloture vote is very
important. It is a cloture vote that will allow Members the opportunity
to accomplish all three goals. Without defeating cloture we will not
have that protection.
I want to emphasize as loudly and as plainly as I possibly can, our
desire is not to hold up this bill. Our hope is that we do not have to
hold up this bill. Our hope is that before we leave here, Democrats and
Republicans can come to time agreements on amendments. We will have up-
or-down votes on the amendments that are proposed on this side and do
so in a way that will allow Members to get our business accomplished.
We will finish, we will have final passage, and we can all go home
satisfied, however the votes may fall. We only hope we will be given
the opportunity to have up-or-down votes on these issues because that
is critical to the degree of enthusiasm, the degree of support that we
ultimately will have for the bill itself.
I think it is very clear that for a lot of different reasons, we have
not been given a right today to offer those amendments, and it is
equally as clear that, unless we block cloture this afternoon, we will
not have that right after 2 o'clock today.
So, Mr. President, I come to the floor to express regret. In good
faith we have not been able to accomplish what I sincerely had hoped we
could accomplish. Having said that, we now must accomplish what our
original intent was, which was try to protect all three goals as we
move toward final passage of this legislation.
I urge my colleagues to weigh carefully their decision on this
cloture motion. I hope that we can defeat it, not in the interest of
extending debate, not in the interest of prolonging this issue any
longer than we have to, but in the interest of accomplishing the three
goals and protecting our rights to offer amendments and improve
legislation as these occasions arise.
So, Mr. President, to accommodate my colleagues who have amendments
to the bill, it is important at this point, from a parliamentary
procedure motion only, to withdraw my amendment to allow others to
offer the amendments that they will so offer. I will certainly come
back at a later time and describe, as we intend to, the importance of
the amendments that will make in the composite what our amendment was
originally designed to do as it was laid down last Friday. We will do
that at a date or at a time later, perhaps today.
Amendment No. 445 Withdrawn
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, at this time I withdraw my amendment.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader has that right. Amendment
No. 445 is withdrawn.
The amendment (No. 445) was withdrawn.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. As a result, the second-degree amendment No.
446, which was pending thereto, falls.
[[Page S5302]] Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, may I ask the Chair if we
are in morning business at this time?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pending business is H.R. 1158.
Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may speak as
in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.
(The remarks of Mr. Pryor pertaining to the introduction of S. 687
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills
and Joint Resolutions.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I just rise to really express my great
disappointment that, after working for over a week, no agreement has
been reached on this legislation. Now we will be going to a cloture
vote at 2 o'clock. I certainly hope that cloture will be invoked. I
remind my colleagues if that is done, we still will have lots of time
to debate--30 hours, I believe. Germane amendments would still be in
order. I think most of the key amendments that colleagues on that side
of the aisle have been interested in would be germane.
But as it stands right now, I believe there are some 72 amendments on
one side pending and a number on the other side. We still have 100
amendments at the desk. Many of them are obviously not germane and
really nobody ever intended for them to actually be voted on, I
suspect.
But after a week of negotiations, we basically came up emptyhanded. I
know there was a lot of good-faith effort. I thought a reasonable
agreement had been worked out between the Daschle amendment and the
Dole amendment that was pending, with an understanding there would
still be a few amendments that would be offered on both sides--two,
three, four, five, whatever--but that we would find a way to bring it
to conclusion.
Here we are Thursday afternoon. Presumably, we are going to go out
tonight or tomorrow or Saturday or sometime for the Easter recess
period. I just have to raise this specter. Are we now going to just let
this die off, go off into the night with no results? No Department of
Defense supplemental appropriations? No Jordan aid? No rescissions
package? Is this the total white flag of our effort to begin to
seriously deal with the needs for supplemental appropriations,
commitments that have already been made and paid for in the Department
of Defense, in disaster aid? And the first opening effort, the first
shot to begin to deal with the deficit? Are we not going to be able to
do any of that? Just collapse in a puddle of nothingness here in the
Senate?
I cannot believe my colleagues would want to allow this to happen. We
need to find a way to begin to make some savings. This bill provides
some savings. The distinguished Democratic leader just said he would
like to see this bill passed. The President has said he would like to
see this legislation passed. We want it passed. Everybody wants it, but
we do not seem to be able to get it.
I really think we need to work----
Mr. KENNEDY. Will the Senator yield on that point?
Mr. LOTT. To be able to find an agreement to bring all these issues
to conclusion, one that I think would be basically satisfactory to both
sides. Sure, we disagree on how we should get there. But maybe we
should have just started voting, taking up issues and voting on them a
week ago. But there was a feeling that we could reach an agreement, and
that negotiating started I think last Thursday, and here we are a week
later, emptyhanded.
So I really urge my colleagues here this afternoon to vote for this
cloture motion so we can limit the list of amendments to somewhat of a
reasonable number, at least germane amendments, and begin to get some
limit on the time so we can bring all these issues to a conclusion.
That is all we are asking for. That is all we were seeking yesterday.
I think it would certainly serve us well if we would invoke cloture
here and then go forward.
Failing that, let us see if we cannot enter into some time
agreements, some understanding about the limit of amendments. There has
been no reduction really in the number of amendments that are pending
out there. So I will be glad to yield to the Senator from
Massachusetts, if he would like for me to yield. We are going to have
to vote here in a minute.
Does the Senator want me to yield? I yield to the Senator from
Arkansas.
Mr. PRYOR. Does the Senator from Mississippi yield for a question?
Mr. LOTT. Sure.
Mr. PRYOR. I cannot figure out for the life of me who over here is
slowing down the defense supplemental appropriations bill. Could you
name anyone who is slowing down that particular bill over here?
Mr. LOTT. They are all related, if I might respond to the Senator.
Mr. PRYOR. We have been overly anxious to get that bill out and get
it sent to the President. We are anxious to get this bill acted upon.
All last week, we were involved basically with an amendment offered by
a Republican Senator, our friend Senator D'Amato, from New York,
relative to Mexican aid. We have been trying our very best to start
voting on some amendments offered on this side, and we have yet to have
been afforded that opportunity.
Mr. LOTT. I will respond to the Senator, there has been an effort
going on to try to work out a process where we could vote on the
related amendments, a number of amendments, and bring it all to a
conclusion. We have not had the Mexican amendment really before us for
quite some time. That was set aside last week so we could move on to
other issues. We are about 3 degrees down the line past that amendment.
But in an effort to move this legislation, I think an agreement had
been worked out that would have dealt with that and a number of other
issues so we could bring it all to a vote. But they are related. All of
these are related. We have to decide what we are going to do with the
Jordan aid, where is it going to go? Of course, it is on this bill but
it is not on the DOD appropriations bill, as I understand it, right
now. So we are trying to get all these to positions where we can
complete all this legislation.
Several Senators addressed the Chair.
Mr. SANTORUM. Will the Senator yield? I just wanted to follow up on a
comment you made, which is the----
Mr. FORD. May I say to the Senator that you go through the Chair.
Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, of the 72----
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi has the floor.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I yield for a comment to the Senator from
Pennsylvania; for a question to the Senator from Pennsylvania.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, is it not true, I ask the Senator from
Mississippi, that 41 of the 72 Democratic amendments would be germane
after this cloture vote? So 41 of the amendments that have been filed--
41 is hardly a paltry sum--would be germane after this cloture vote
would have been acted upon?
Mr. LOTT. I might respond, Mr. President, that is my understanding. I
think most all of the portions of the pending Daschle amendment, with
maybe one exception, could be offered under this cloture vote.
Mr. SANTORUM. My second question would be, of the Daschle amendment
add-backs that we have debated here for several days, is it not also
the Senator's understanding that every single one of those add-backs
would be eligible to be added back after cloture, with the exception of
the Goals 2000 provision which is neither in the House nor the Senate
bill?
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I might respond, I have not looked at every
one of them on that list to make sure or find out if that would be
true, but I understand there is--maybe the Goals 2000 would be the only
one not open to be offered after the cloture vote.
Mr. SANTORUM. I thank the Senator for yielding.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I yield the floor, in view of the time, for
the cloture vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). The Senator from Kentucky.
Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I hear all this blame put on us. In the last
2 years, all the blame has been the other way. I wish some of the
leadership on the other side would give me an hour
[[Page S5303]] so they could explain to me how they provided for
gridlock in the last session so I would be better at gridlock this
session.
You are now 6 days late on the budget. In the last 2 years, we have
had the budget on time. It was due April 1. It is due out here, by both
Houses, on April 15. We hear all this moaning and groaning and
crocodile tears as it relates to we will not do that; we want to start
saving; we want to start saving--but we have a budget that is due to
put us on the track to 2002 and you are 5 days late, and we are not
going to get it probably until May.
I say to my friend, let us get a budget out here. Let us really start
doing things.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if I could proceed for 1 moment--1 minute?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I still hope we can work this out. We were
about that close, or closer. The Democratic leader and the Republican
leader worked throughout the day with other Senators on both sides. We
thought we had an agreement.
We thought we had an agreement. I still hope it is possible to get
the agreement. If that happens, we could finish our work very quickly
today and there would be no votes tomorrow or Saturday. But if not,
then I do not think we have any other choice other than to try to
complete this bill tonight with or without cloture.
So I still think there is a genesis of an agreement here. I would say
to the White House, I hope that you will help us reach an agreement,
because, until there is an agreement, there will not be any defense
supplemental taken up in this body.
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