[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 75 (Monday, May 8, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          COMMONSENSE PRODUCT LIABIL- ITY AND LEGAL REFORM ACT

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, again, I want to emphasize what this vote 
is about. It is, of course, about product liability, but it is also the 
role of the Senate in the legislative process.
  The House has passed a bill that contains vast differences from what 
is proposed in the substitute and what is proposed in the substitute to 
the substitute.
  If we do not take advantage of our rules and do not exercise the role 
that is intended for the Senate to be a deliberative body, and if we 
vote cloture, there is no question what will happen is it will go back 
to the House and I do not think there is much question as to what will 
happen.
  The Speaker of the House will control the conference, and this is 
going to be a bill regardless of what fixes may have been attempted in 
the Senate, the version that is going to come out of the conference is 
going to be the version of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
It comes back here and people say, ``Well, you can exercise your rules 
and you can have extended debate at that time.'' But we all know what 
happens on conferences. Their reports come back, people are anxious to 
get away, and they are arranged at a time to come up where you are in a 
situation, and we end up, with very rare exceptions, approving 
conference reports.
  So I say to my colleagues, this is a vote not only on product 
liability but is a vote on the role of the Senate on this bill and 
other bills that may be coming down in the future.
  So I urge my colleagues to vote against cloture. It is very important 
that they bear in mind the fact that whatever is being proposed here 
does not mean that that is going to be the final version. The final 
version, I think, in the judgment of anybody who can see beyond the 
immediate scene and can see around the corner will be that it will be 
in conference and it will come out as a Gingrich version of this bill.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. GORTON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I simply want to announce to the friends 
and supporters of this bill that this will not be a meaningful cloture 
vote. In the haste to draft the Gorton-Rockefeller amendment, a couple 
of drafting errors were made that can only be removed at this point by 
unanimous consent. Unanimous consent, as the body knows, was not 
granted.
  Second, because the Gorton-Rockefeller amendment is in the nature of 
a substitute, had cloture been granted and had the Gorton-Rockefeller 
amendment been adopted, which it would have been, it would have cut off 
all other postcloture amendments from the opponents to the bill and 
that, too, could only have been waived by unanimous consent.
  So I say to Members who have worked on this compromise, they can vote 
for or against cloture at will. I do not expect cloture to be invoked. 
I cannot under these circumstances vote for cloture myself. The bill by 
tomorrow morning will be in proper form, both for its own passage and 
to allow postcloture amendments. Tomorrow morning's cloture vote will 
be the significant one on this bill and not the vote that is being 
taken this evening.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________