[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 28, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9260-S9261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT

  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I have been conferring throughout the day 
with the distinguished Democratic leader, Senator Daschle. I think we 
have an arrangement that will satisfy most of our colleagues on both 
the budget and regulatory reform and the program for the remainder of 
the week.
  So I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to the 
consideration of Calendar No. 118, S. 343, the regulatory reform bill, 
and we have 1 hour of debate on S. 343 commencing as soon as we obtain 
the consent.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I will not 
object, but simply to clarify what I understand to be the 
circumstances.
  Senator Dole, the majority leader, and I have been talking about the 
opportunity for Senators to discuss the issue of regulatory reform and 
to do it in the context of S. 343 for the next hour. Then it would be 
our assumption that we could go back to it again sometime tomorrow and 
discuss it further. But it is also our understanding that there will 
not be any amendments offered during this time, to accommodate the 
effort that is now underway on both sides in good faith off the floor 
to try to continue to work through some of the disagreements that may 
continue to exist with regard to the draft that Senator Dole and 
Senator Johnston and others have been working on.
  It is with that understanding that I think this would be a very good 
approach and would offer no objection at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me thank the distinguished Democratic 
leader.
  There has been some progress. There have been a number of meetings. I 
am not certain whether either one of us can stand here and predict that 
everything is going to be worked out. I would guess the odds are that 
probably not everything is worked out. But we had a bipartisan press 
conference today. We think there is an opportunity here for a 
bipartisan improvement. We may reach a point where we have to say, OK, 
we will offer amendments and have the debate, up or down, and then 
proceed with the bill in that fashion.
  Mr. DASCHLE. If I could just clarify the majority leader's 
understanding as I have stated it, is that correct?
  Mr. DOLE. That is correct.
  I ask unanimous consent that between now and 5 p.m. we debate S. 343, 
and that the time be equally divided and then we go back to the budget 
resolution, and all time consumed this evening be subtracted from the 
statutory time limitation on the budget resolution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. DOLE. So, for the information of all Senators, there will be no 
further votes today. When the Senate completes its business this 
evening it will stand in recess until 9 a.m. on Thursday June 29, 1995; 
following the prayer, the leaders' time will be reserved, and there 
will be a period for the transaction of routine morning business not to 
extend beyond the hour of 10:30 a.m.
  As I understand, there will be a Democratic caucus in the morning at 
9:30. So, I think there are requests for morning business. Then perhaps 
following that caucus the two leaders would have further conversation. 
Hopefully, we could proceed again for a period of time on S. 343, 
regulatory reform.
  Then also, depending on the House action on the budget conference 
report, we could eat up more time than the 10 hours. We now have 6 
hours remaining on the budget, as I understand it.
  So there will be no more votes tonight. We will try to accommodate 
many of our colleagues who must travel long distances and who would 
like to depart tomorrow evening. It is our hope that we could work that 
out. There may be a rescissions package. I understand it is still in 
negotiation with the White House, with Senator 

[[Page S9261]]
Hatfield and Senator Byrd on this side and their House counterparts. If 
that can be done, I hope we can get an agreement on the Senate side 
that we do it by consent. Otherwise, it would be open to amendment and 
we would be here for days. But I believe that if the White House, the 
President, and bipartisan leaders on appropriations can agree on a 
package, perhaps we could obtain consent to do that. If we had to do 
that Friday morning, perhaps we could do it without a vote.
  Mr. DASCHLE. That would be my hope as well. We have a lot of Senators 
we are trying to accommodate. This is an important effort. It has been 
under way now for a couple of weeks. We are so close, it would be nice 
to finish it and be convinced that it is our best product. Indeed, I 
think it would be.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the foregoing requests are 
agreed to.

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