[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5507-S5508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senate will immediately resume 
consideration of Senate Concurrent Resolution 57, the concurrent budget 
resolution, and will begin a series of consecutive rollcall votes on or 
in relation to the pending amendments.
  Under agreement reached last night, the first series of votes will 
continue until 1 p.m. today. There will be no votes, as agreed to, 
between the hours of 1 and 2. However, the Senate will proceed with 
another series of legislative votes beginning at 2 o'clock today.
  Senators are asked to remain in or around the Senate Chamber 
throughout these voting sequences in order to facilitate the 
disposition of amendments as quickly as possible. The first vote in 
both series will be 15 minutes in length, but all remaining votes will 
be limited to 10 minutes each. The Senate will complete action on the 
budget resolution during today's session--hopefully, by late afternoon.
  I think we have already considered some 34 amendments. We still have, 
I guess, 10 or 12 votes that are likely and probably about 4 hours 
would be required to complete that.
  So, if the Members would stay close to the floor and we work hard, I 
know the managers would appreciate it, and we can get this work done 
before late this afternoon.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. EXON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Shelby). The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. EXON. While the acting majority leader is here, I would like to 
clarify a point or two, if I might.
  First, I think most of us agree that there has been no one who is 
more cooperative in moving this thing forward than the ranking member 
of the Budget Committee.
  When I left the floor last night before we adjourned, there had been 
a firm announcement that--I thought it was a firm announcement--that we 
would come in at 10 o'clock this morning, which fit in very well with 
this Senator's schedule, and I think the schedule of the Senate as a 
whole. I did not know until after the Senate had adjourned, nor was I 
contacted, about moving the time from 10 o'clock, as stated by the 
chairman of the committee to the whole Senate half an hour before that.
  I would simply say that I wish we would follow the customary 
procedure. I think it is normal to check with the ranking member before 
you change times after it has been agreed to.
  Following up on that, I must say that I understood that we could not 
work

[[Page S5508]]

Tuesday night and we could not work Wednesday night, as we had planned 
to do, because of functions. Now we have lost, I think, 2 hours this 
morning that we could have used constructively.
  I would simply say that at 4 o'clock this afternoon, for the 
information of the whole Senate, there will be a memorial service for 
the late, great Cece Zorinsky, the wife of the late great Senator from 
Nebraska, Senator Edward Zorinsky, in Senate Dirksen G-50, generally 
called the Senate auditorium. This Senator will make that affair 
whether I have to miss votes and abandon my responsibilities here.
  But I would just inquire at this time, following that memorial 
service, we have some time between 5 and 6, I believe--and I want to 
attend that--the salute to Senator Dole, which I think has been 
arranged by the acting majority leader and the minority leader, Tom 
Daschle. I would just like to inquire. I see the chairman of committee 
is here, also. We have an awful lot of interruptions, and I do not want 
to add to them. The only interruption I am suggesting is that one that 
I intend to carry out that I committed to a long, long time ago.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could just respond briefly, the Senator 
has enumerated some of the problems we have been trying to deal with, 
and we will try to accommodate as many Senators as we can. We have 
very, very legitimate things to do. We had the memorial, as you know, 
for Admiral Boorda. We wanted to do that, and we certainly appreciate 
the Senator's feeling about Cece Zorinsky. That is what has been 
involved. We are just trying to accommodate everybody's schedule. I am 
finding out more and more. It gets pretty complicated.
  Your point is well taken. We will continue to try to work with 
everybody, particularly the managers of the bill. We had some 
complications, and we did check with the leader. I realize it was late 
last night, but, again, we are just trying to help everybody.
  Mr. EXON. You checked with the leader?
  Mr. LOTT. Yes, sir. I believe we did.
  Mr. EXON. I would simply say for the public that you checked with the 
Democratic leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Yes.
  Mr. EXON. The Democrat leader would have properly talked to me. He 
did not. I will talk to him about that.
  Mr. LOTT. In his defense, we did it at the last minute, and maybe 
there just was not enough time or he could not find out. I do not know. 
But, again, we are just trying to accommodate everybody.
  You and the chairman have done a great job trying to move this. It 
has been slow, but there have been a lot of interruptions that we just 
could not avoid. We want to keep the heat on today so that we can get 
through, hopefully, by 4 o'clock. If we could get started voting here 
right quick, maybe we could make it by 4 o'clock or 4:15 p.m. I would 
like to help you do that.
  Mr. EXON. Let us seek the miracle.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield just for the 
briefest of questions, I do not want to delay things, I say to Senator 
Domenici, but could the Senator indicate to us, if we finish these 
blocks of votes on this issue, what is anticipated on the Senate 
schedule beyond this issue?
  Mr. LOTT. Beyond the budget resolution?
  Mr. DORGAN. Yes.
  Mr. LOTT. We are working on that. We will be communicating with the 
Democratic leadership. Senator Dole will be here later this afternoon. 
We are looking at several items that could be done. We hope we can get 
those worked out and do them in a way so that they would not involve 
votes this afternoon. But the leader will be back. He will be here 
shortly, and he will comment on that.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.

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