[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 14 (Thursday, February 1, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE FARM BILL

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, will the majority leader yield for a 
question?
  The majority leader may have already covered this. I am concerned 
about this. I am vitally interested in the farm bill. I have no 
objection whatever going to the telecommunications bill. But if at some 
point this afternoon some sort of a compromise is reached, I hope that 
we will not have any difficulty setting the telecommunications bill 
aside and then get back to the farm bill and, hopefully, dispose of it 
this evening.
  Mr. DOLE. We would like to dispose of it this evening. We are hoping 
there can be an agreement and that we have 80 votes on cloture--not 61 
or 59, or whatever. I know some Members have to depart fairly soon. We 
are trying to accommodate everyone. It is difficult to do. But I think 
they are meeting as we speak in a bipartisan group.

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, if the leader will yield, his staff, mine, 
Senator Lugar's, and Senator Daschle's are meeting. I think we are 
going to have very soon a package on the farm bill before us, at least 
the original package most of us can vote for and, obviously, subject to 
amendment after that. But the desire, I think, of the principals--those 
of us on both sides of the aisle who are handling this--is to get 
something that we can compress in time, if at all possible, and protect 
the legitimate interests reflected not only geographically but 
politically.
  Mr. BUMPERS. My concern, Mr. President, to the majority leader was, I 
wish we could incorporate into the unanimous-consent request that the 
majority leader will have a right to automatically set the 
telecommunications bill aside. I do not want somebody to object to that 
and get us bogged down here so that we cannot get back to the farm 
bill.
  Mr. DOLE. I will assure the Senator I am interested, too, just as the 
Senator from Arkansas is. If we get bogged down on this, we could set 
it aside. We have regular order to bring it back.

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