[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 18 (Friday, February 9, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1172-S1174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE SENATE SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to clarify the record somewhat 
and respond to some of the comments that have been made today and 
earlier this week by the distinguished Senator from Ohio, Senator 
Glenn, about our schedule.
  First, I think it should be noted that the first month of the 
calendar year 1996 has been a very productive month legislatively for 
the Senate. We have had some extraordinary activity. We may not have 
been in session as many days as has been the case in some years gone 
by, but in terms of actual production, we have produced some of the 
biggest, most important pieces of legislation in history during the 
last month. I would like to just read off the list. Certainly not all 
Senators agreed with how these pieces of legislation were dealt with, 
but they were very important pieces of legislation and in most cases 
passed overwhelmingly.
  For instance, we have already passed S. 1260, which is a fair housing 
bill, out of the Banking Committee. A lot of work went into it. It did 
pass by unanimous consent, but that was because it was an important 
bill with broad, bipartisan support.
  We passed, in January, the Defense authorization conference report 
for this fiscal year. That was brought about by the fact that the 
President had vetoed the first Defense authorization bill. Some 
modifications were made. I did not agree with all of them. I know the 
Senator in the chair did not agree with all of them. But we did come to 
an agreement on a second conference report, and it passed 
overwhelmingly and has gone to the President for his signature.
  The START II Treaty was passed after discussion by the Senate. We 
passed a continuing resolution that kept the Government operating while 
the President and the Congress can continue to work on trying to come 
to some agreement on appropriations bills that have not yet been 
passed. We took action on legislation raising the debt limit so that 
there would be no question that Social Security checks would go out to 
our senior citizens the 1st of March. We passed the Telecommunications 
Act of 1996, probably the biggest jobs creation bill that has passed 
this decade, legislation that took months--in fact years--to come to 
fruition. There have been 10 years of effort to get telecommunications 
reform legislation passed by the Congress. We had not changed the 
telecommunications laws substantially since 1934. So we deregulated, we 
opened up all of the various areas of telecommunications for 
competition. It will mean lower prices, and more services and 
information for people. There is going to be a tremendous revolution 
because the Government is taking down the barriers it put up. This is a 
new era of competition, a new time of choice of services and products 
for people. The bill passed 91 to 5. Forty-eight hours before it passed 
most people would have bet you that we would not get it passed at all. 
Well, it was signed into law just yesterday by the President of the 
United States.
  Through tremendous efforts by the distinguished majority leader, 
Senator Dole, we were able to come to an agreement this week on a farm 
bill, a farm bill that passed the Senate with 64 votes; a bipartisan 
vote. I think we had 49 Members of the majority and 15 or so Members of 
the minority that voted for this bill, a bill that had been tangled up 
for months. It was included in the budget reconciliation package that 
the President vetoed. So we had to take action on a farm bill before 
our farmers actually went into the fields to start plantings.
  In the South, in my State of Mississippi the farmers are getting 
close--within the next 2 weeks--to start to plant. And they had no idea 
what they could expect for the farm legislation and what they could 
expect for this year.
  So we got that bill through the Senate. So there has been a lot of 
action by the Senate this year. And to answer those who come to the 
floor and say, ``What is the Congress doing?''--I have just given a 
very impressive list. I would put that list up against any list from 
just about any January over the past 20 years in which I have been in 
the Congress. 

[[Page S1173]]

  Just today we are at work. We are having major speeches here on the 
floor of the Senate. And there is an effort underway right now to get 
agreement on two important bills out of the Environment and Public 
Works Committee. We are trying to get an agreement on the District of 
Columbia appropriations conference report. In fact, we will take action 
to make sure that we have cloture, if it is necessary, so that we can 
take up that District of Columbia conference report as soon as we come 
back. In fact, we will have a vote on February 27 at 2:15 on that 
conference report. And committee meetings are working.
  You cannot just pop legislation out to the floor. There have to be 
subcommittee hearings, full committee hearings, there needs to be 
markup, we need to have investigations, and we need to have oversight. 
This is the time of the year when in fact the committees should be the 
most active. The Budget Committee is getting ready to try to see how we 
can deal with the next fiscal year budget. The Banking Committee is 
having hearings. The Judiciary Committee is having hearings. This is 
when you do the preparation for the legislative process that will 
really start moving forward in March and April. So there is a lot that 
is going on legislatively in the Senate.

  Now, it has been suggested that we should not be out, that the 
schedule for the remainder of February is a charade, that there was not 
a recorded vote on whether we should be in pro forma session.
  I have to remind my colleagues in the minority that there was an 
agreement reached between the leaders on the schedule. The majority 
leader, Senator Dole, and the minority leader, Senator Daschle, after a 
lot of conversation, worked out a schedule that was agreed to. On 
specific days there would be only pro forma sessions, on other days 
there would be opportunity for agreements to be entered into, for 
speeches to be made on important issues by the Senators. This was 
agreed to. It was not a charade. It was not snuck through. A lot of 
people were consulted.
  So we are going to be in session. We are going to be having 
activities. We are going to be trying to reach agreements.
  Then it was suggested by the Senator from Ohio that we have 
appropriations bills that have not passed the Congress for the present 
fiscal year when we should have done them last year. That is true. But 
let us look at why they have not been passed.
  First of all, everybody around here complains that we have not 
finished legislation on health and human services and education. They 
are right. We have not. Do you know why? Because the Democrats in the 
Senate have refused to allow us to even bring it up for debate. They 
have threatened to filibuster the motion to proceed. In common 
language, this means they will not even let us bring it up without 
talking it to death.
  Why has that been done? They object to a provision with regard to 
striker replacement. That was brought about by the fact that the 
President, unconstitutionally in my opinion, by Executive order tried 
to accomplish what the courts and the Congress have refused to do. He 
says that when there are protracted strikes, employers cannot replace 
strikers to keep their business alive. It has been taken to court, and 
a Federal court has already ruled that was an improper action by the 
President. Now it is going to go on appeal probably all the way to the 
Supreme Court. But I feel pretty confident that the President's action 
is going to be stricken down as unconstitutional.
  Yet the Democrats have refused to allow us to bring this bill up to 
provide appropriations for the important Departments of Health and 
Human Services and Education because we have a provision in there that 
says basically what the President did was wrong. Now, the Federal 
courts agree with us.
  That is the truth of why this legislation has not been brought up. 
Except for the objections on the minority side of the aisle, the 
Democrats, we would have passed that legislation through and got it 
into conference and sent it to the President weeks--in fact, months--
ago. So how we can hear whining from the Democratic side of the aisle 
about why these departments have not been funded is pretty astounding 
to me when you look at the facts.
  Now, with regard to these other departments that have not been 
funded: State, Justice, Interior, Commerce, EPA, we have passed the 
legislation. The President vetoed those bills. And when you look at why 
he vetoed them, there is the real charade. He vetoed the interior bill 
because of some policy decisions that are very debatable to begin with 
and are minor as compared to the overall Interior Department 
appropriations bill.
  Also, I think it is very clear that the distinguished chairman of the 
Interior Subcommittee of Appropriations, the Senator from Washington, 
Senator Gorton, and the Congressman from the House, Ralph Regula from 
Ohio, have worked very hard with the Secretary of the Interior, 
Secretary Babbitt, to get an agreement to move this bill. In fact, they 
almost had an agreement. And then the word came back that the White 
House had said, ``Do not negotiate any more with these congressional 
Members. We are not going to agree to what they want.''
  Well, you know, there are three coequal branches of Government. We 
have to get legislation passed through the Congress and then the 
President, yes, has to sign it for it to be enacted. But when he says 
do not talk to them anymore, what are we to do? And then they have the 
temerity to complain that these departments are not funded.
  Let me tell you this. There a lot of Americans who really have 
questions about just how much or if some of these departments should be 
funded. There are a lot of us who think that the Energy Department 
could probably be eliminated. Most people are not aware that a majority 
of the budget for the Energy Department is defense related. It is not 
even separate, not even applicable to the Energy Department. It is 
defense related. And the Commerce Department. The various agencies and 
divisions of the Commerce Department could be carried out as 
independent agencies or in other departments. We could save millions, 
millions of dollars. We might even cut down on some of the travel that 
we have seen from the Secretaries of Commerce and Energy.
  I must also point out that historically the tradition has been in 
February around the Presidents Day recess Congresses have always taken 
a few days to be with their constituents. I think it is a good idea for 
Congressmen and Senators to get out of this city, go home, listen to 
their constituents. That is an important part of the legislative 
process to hear what your constituents have to say, to listen to the 
farmers, to listen to the fishermen, to listen to the business men and 
women, to listen to the parents express their concern about crime and 
drugs and the poor quality of education in America, to hear from 
American people who even though we continue to spend more and more 
billions of dollars for Federal aid to education the quality of 
education continues to slide. Why is that? I bet we could find some 
answers if we listened to the people at home. So for us to be off a few 
days around Presidents Day, the Lincoln Day recess period, is very 
traditional. Everybody in the House and Senate understands that. And so 
hopefully the Senators and the Congressmen are going to be back home. I 
am going to my State. I am going to meet with my constituents. I am 
going to talk to civic clubs, going to speak to the State Grand Masters 
Banquet; I am going to speak to industrial groups. That is a very, very 
important part of our job.
  So I just wanted to respond to some of the allegations about how 
there has been some secret agreement to have just pro forma sessions 
and morning business days. It was worked out very carefully between the 
joint leadership. I would like to see us pass all those appropriations 
bills, but the problem begins here, and it begins in the minority 
because they will not let us even bring up the Labor, HHS and Education 
bill.
  I would like to also say, though, that I do agree with Senator Glenn 
and others that we still need to try to get an agreement on the budget 
between the President and the Congress. I am one of those incurable 
optimists who still believes it will be done, and it should be done. I 
think we were helped this week by the bipartisan agreement from the 
Governors with regard to Medicare and welfare. I do not like all of 
what they came up with, but I think they gave us 

[[Page S1174]]
a roadmap of how we can deal with the welfare issue and the need for 
welfare reform and changes in Medicaid, hopefully, that would save us 
some money.
  That is one of the problems that worries me about what they 
suggested. I do not think you get welfare reform if you end up with a 
bill that costs more than the present welfare system. What kind of 
welfare reform is that? But they came up with some helpful suggestions. 
I think the budget negotiators have made real progress. I believe that 
we could get a budget agreement that would lead us to a balanced budget 
in 7 years using honest numbers that would significantly cut back on 
the amount of increase in spending in nondefense discretionary, that 
would give us some Medicaid, welfare, Medicare reform, and that would 
give some tax relief to the American people. I think we are going to 
make a mistake if we do not take some action soon to give a little 
boost to the economy, a little incentive for growth in the economy. The 
economy is showing tattered edges. We may not have a growth this year 
in the economy of even as much as 1.5 percent, which is very low and 
very weak. If we would cut the capital gains rate, it would have a 
tremendous impact on the economy. There would be growth and the 
creation of jobs. We need that legislation.
  So I hope that when we come back February 26, Congress will give 
serious effort once again, our negotiators will give serious efforts to 
meeting with administration officials and see if we can come to an 
agreement. But an important part of that is going to be Medicare. Other 
than Social Security in the 1970's, I have never seen an issue that has 
been more demagoged than Medicare in the year 1995. Misinformation, 
misleading information, accusations that are absolutely not true about 
what the Republicans have tried to do to save, preserve, and protect 
Medicare.
  We have warned that there is a solvency problem. We must take action 
now to make sure that Medicare is not only there for my 82-year-old 
mother but it will be there for us and for our children and 
grandchildren.

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