[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 212 (Saturday, December 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S19317]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. DOLE. There will be a period for morning business until 10:30 
a.m. with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each. We are 
continuing budget negotiations today. As I said yesterday, I think we 
have made some progress, and we will continue again, beginning at 11 
a.m. There is hope that the Senate can pass legislation today that 
would deem all Government employees essential, thereby sending 
everybody back to work. If that legislation can be worked out, it would 
be the intention of the leadership to pass that bill by 
unanimous consent.

  I am also advised the House may take action on that bill today and 
send it to the Senate, so that would require us to take some action. In 
addition to that, they may add to that the Middle East Peace 
Facilitation Act, plus the expedited procedure would also be in the 
House bill.
  Also today, before we go over until tomorrow, we hope to pass the 
military COLA increase contained in the DOD authorization bill and 
vetoed by the President. We may include in that other provisions that 
need to be attended to in the next few days, so there will be a further 
announcement on that. Again, I hope we can do that by unanimous 
consent. I do not know of any objection to the military COLA increase 
contained in the DOD authorization bill.
  I will not make any unanimous-consent requests at this time, but I 
will probably later in the day, and I will advise the distinguished 
Democratic leader, Senator Daschle, so there will not be any surprises.
  Again, let me indicate I hope we can work out some expedited 
procedure. If we are going to get an agreement where all the party 
leaders are involved--Democrats, Republicans, and the President--it 
seems to me that we ought to be able to agree on some procedure in the 
Senate so we can pass the 7-year balanced budget once we agree to it. 
Otherwise, we could be in debate here for weeks and weeks and weeks 
because of Senate rules. That is all that is holding up all these 
Federal workers going back to work. We are prepared to pass that bill 
immediately. Federal employees can go back to work and be guaranteed 
their pay. To me, that would be a big step in the right direction.
  I hope we can resolve this before the day is finished. We will be 
discussing it, I am certain, with Senator Daschle and others throughout 
the day.
  I understand that the Senator from North Dakota, Senator Dorgan, 
wishes to speak, and following his remarks, unless there are any other 
requests, I move we stand in recess subject to call of the Chair.

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