[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 26 (Thursday, February 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1406-S1407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair directs the clerk to read the motion 
to invoke cloture.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the conference 
     report to accompany H.R. 2546, the D.C. Appropriations bill.
         Bob Dole, James M. Jeffords, Trent Lott, Rick Santorum, 
           Alfonse D'Amato, Dan Coats, Mark Hatfield, Bill Frist, 
           John McCain, Larry Pressler, Kay Bailey Hutchison, 
           Olympia Snowe, Al Simpson, Conrad Burns, Spencer 
           Abraham, Orrin G. Hatch.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate 
that debate shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays have been ordered under rule XXII.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, on this vote I have a pair with the 
distinguished Senator from Kansas, Senator Dole, who is necessarily 
occupied in campaigning in South Carolina, where 

[[Page S1407]]
he should be. If he were present and voting, he would vote ``yea.'' If 
I were permitted to vote, I would vote ``nay.'' Therefore, I withhold 
my vote. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. LOTT. I announce that the Senator from Kansas [Mr. Dole], the 
Senator from Indiana [Mr. Lugar], and the Senator from Arizona [Mr. 
McCain] are necessarily absent.
  Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. Bradley] 
and the Senator from Hawaii [Mr. Inouye] are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
who desire to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 52, nays 42, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 21 Leg.]

                                YEAS--52

     Abraham
     Ashcroft
     Bennett
     Bond
     Breaux
     Brown
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Coats
     Cochran
     Cohen
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     DeWine
     Domenici
     Faircloth
     Frist
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Helms
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kempthorne
     Kyl
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Mack
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Pressler
     Roth
     Santorum
     Shelby
     Simpson
     Smith
     Snowe
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner

                                NAYS--42

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Chafee
     Conrad
     Daschle
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Glenn
     Graham
     Harkin
     Heflin
     Hollings
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Nunn
     Pell
     Pryor
     Reid
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Simon
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                 PRESENT AND GIVING A LIVE PAIR, AS--1

                            Specter, against

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Bradley
     Dole
     Inouye
     Lugar
     McCain
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote the yeas are 52, the nays are 42. 
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in 
the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I know some of my colleagues here wish 
to make a few remarks. I hope that everyone over the coming days, 
before we face this issue again, whether it is on another vote to 
invoke cloture or whether it is on another vote --I think it is wise 
for all of us to take a look at what must be done if we are going to 
reach a consensus on many issues in this body.
  As I have tried to let my colleagues know, we worked long and hard, 
90 days, on reaching a compromise with the House. The House is very dug 
in on this issue. We had to make incredibly difficult changes that they 
would agree to to bring us to a position where I thought we had a bill 
that could pass the Congress and win support in a highly Democratic 
city, a highly unionized city, with a very Democratic mayor. I thought 
that they would agree with the compromise that we reached.
  It seems difficult for me to perceive or understand as to why this 
body would disagree with that compromise. If we cannot find a consensus 
on this issue, what is going to happen when we get to the three major 
appropriations bills that we still have not dealt with? Are we somehow 
going to be able to reach a consensus among the House and this body and 
the White House? We also have other issues with respect to welfare, 
Medicaid, and all the other issues that are in addition to the 
appropriations bills, which to me are so much more difficult. If we 
cannot reach a consensus on this bill, I do not know what the hope is 
for the future.
  I have been in the Congress now for 22 years. During that length of 
time, I have been on many committees under many different circumstances 
with respect to which party controls the committees. Many, many 
difficult issues have been faced during that period of time, and just 
by virtue of the committees I have been on, I have been in the center 
of those.
  I mentioned ``in the center'', for instance, because if one takes a 
look at the recent ratings, I am the most liberal Republican Senator 
but I am more conservative than many Democratic Senators. So where does 
that put me? It puts me right in the middle. Over the course of time I 
have found myself in that position and have been able to assist in 
working out the compromises by my ability to see both sides of the 
issue.
  In fact, Mr. President, I will reminisce for just a moment. I 
remember at a critical moment during the Reagan administration we were 
dealing with a controversial bill, an employment training bill. I was 
serving in the House, and I got a call from one of the Members of this 
body who said, ``Jim, we know how hard you worked on this bill, but 
when we go to the White House, would you tell them how bad it is, 
because if you tell them how bad it is, I think they will accept it?''
  So I went down to the White House and I made a pitch by saying, ``Oh, 
my God, it goes too far this way and goes too far that way.'' I got a 
phone call back from that Senator commending me and offering me an 
Academy Award for my performance. And we reached a consensus. That is 
how far I would go. Yes, I would have liked to have seen it different, 
but I was willing to make the compromises that were important to get 
that bill through.
  We have to learn how to do that here. I hope in the interim, before 
we take another vote, that everyone will take a look at what the real 
issues are here.
  So many of the statements that were made would be true if this was a 
national proposal to deal with vouchers or even if it was a D.C. 
proposal to have a mandated voucher program for the city. But it is not 
that.
  So I urge my colleagues in this interim time, if we cannot reach 
consensus here, where will we ever do it? If we do not do it with the 
House, which has come a long way, in my mind, in reaching consensus 
here--they had dug their heels in--we run the risk of losing all the 
educational reform that is in the bill, all of which is incredibly 
necessary for the District. We may even lose the ability to provide 
them with the $254 million in additional Federal funds which they are 
entitled to under this agreement.
  So I urge my colleagues to take a close look before we vote again, 
whenever that may be.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. LOTT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Campbell). The Senator from Mississippi 
[Mr. Lott] is recognized.

                          ____________________