[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S17361]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST-- H.R. 2127

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2127, the Labor-HHS 
appropriations bill, and that the language on page 21, lines 3 to 10, 
relating to striker replacement, be stricken; that all other committee 
amendments be agreed to en bloc; that the bill be read a third time and 
passed; and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with 
the above occurring without intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I object to that at this point.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I will not take much time. I knew that 
would be objected to. I just want to say we had hot lined this on our 
side and hot lined it on the Republican side.
  I just want the Record to show that there are no objections to this 
unanimous consent request on the Democratic side.
  I will also state for the Record, I repeat from the Record of 
September 29, 1995, in a colloquy among this Senator, Senator Specter 
and Senator Dole, the majority leader, when we tried to bring up the 
Labor-HHS appropriations bill.
  Senator Dole, the Senate majority leader, said and I quote from the 
Record of September 29, 1995:

       I agree with the Senator from Pennsylvania and the Senator 
     from Iowa that we ought to pass that bill on a voice vote. We 
     cannot get cloture. There are two votes, 54-46 party line 
     votes.

  And he is referring here to the striker replacement votes.

       So my view is we ought to do it, pass it and find out what 
     happens after the veto in the next round.

  Mr. President, I just want to point out that these riders that we 
have on the Labor-HHS bill can be dropped. For example, this week the 
Republicans have dropped their effort to attach the Istook antilobbying 
rider to the Treasury-Postal conference agreement, thereby clearing the 
bill for congressional approval.
  They agreed to a compromise to the abortion rider on the defense 
appropriations conference agreement, also clearing it for approval in 
both Houses. And they dropped all 17 House-approved EPA riders on the 
HUD-VA conference agreement.
  So this unanimous-consent request that I propounded--and I also want 
to state, Mr. President, that I had checked with the chairman of the 
Appropriations subcommittee, Senator Specter. I am the ranking member 
on that. I used to be chairman and he was ranking member. I checked 
with him earlier. He is in favor of this unanimous-consent request, and 
I asked if I could have his permission to so state that for the Record, 
and he said yes.
  Again, Mr. President, I want to point out, on this side of the aisle, 
we have no objections to bringing up Labor-HHS and simply passing it on 
a voice vote if these riders are dropped, just as I pointed out riders 
were dropped from other bills, clearing them for action.
  With that I thank the Senator from Mississippi.

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