[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 59 (Thursday, May 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4649-S4650]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, the Senate will have a period for morning 
business only tomorrow, and no rollcall votes will occur during 
Friday's session of the Senate.
  Following morning business, the Senate will recess until 12 noon on 
Monday, May 6th. Following morning business on Monday, I ask unanimous 
consent that the Senate turn to the consideration of Calendar No. 380, 
H.R. 2937, regarding White House Travel Office.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, it is 
my hope that the Senate could dispose of the White House Travel Office 
bill by the close of business on Monday. I did not hear the debate 
between the Senator from Arkansas and the Senator from Iowa, but, 
hopefully, if there are problems, we can work those problems out. We 
hope there are not any nongermane amendments. We will see what happens. 
Perhaps we could find that out before or maybe on Monday because I may 
fill up what we call the amendment tree--I prefer not to do that--in 
order to keep the Senate germane to the pending issue.
  There will be no rollcall votes during Monday's session of the 
Senate, and the Senate may be asked to consider any other legislative 
matters that may be cleared for action.
  I know there are a number of nominations on the calendar. I have 
never been one to try to hold up nominations, but I would just say to 
the White House they have had nominations--Republican nominees have 
been down there for 6 to 8 months--that have not been sent to the 
appropriate committees. It seems to me there ought to be some 
reciprocity here. If they continue at the White House to say, ``We are 
not going to send Republican nominees out,'' we do not find it very 
difficult to say, ``Why should we clear nominations the White House 
wants?''--whether judicial nominations or any others.
  So I hope we could have some understanding because I have never been 
one, regardless of who is in the White House, to try to hold up 
nominations. These nominees have families and obligations but so do the 
families we have sent down months and months and months ago. They are 
still waiting for some word from the White House. They cannot have it 
both ways.
  I also hope that we could still work out some agreement--we made a 
tentative suggestion to our colleagues on the other side with reference 
to the minimum wage. I will ask Senator Lott to try to meet again early 
next week with Senator Daschle or his designee to see if we can work 
out some time to take up that matter, either as a part of something 
else, which I will not speculate what it might be, or have separate 
votes, parallel votes on our proposal and a Democratic proposal, 
because we would like to proceed with the legislation and not have 
nongermane amendments at every turn. It took us 8 days to complete an 
immigration bill that probably should have taken 3 days, and I hope 
that we can catch up. We need to catch up so we can hopefully enjoy a 
recess or a few days off the end of this month. We have

[[Page S4650]]

a number of bills we think should be completed prior to that time.

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