[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.
____________________