[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 75 (Friday, May 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--WELFARE REFORM

  Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
turn to the immediate consideration of the bill, which I now send to 
the desk re welfare, and it be considered under the following time 
restraints: 1 hour on the bill to be equally divided in the usual form; 
no amendments or motions in order; and that following the conclusion or 
yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to third reading and final 
passage to occur, all without further action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, reserving the right to object. The last 
time the Senate considered welfare reform, as you know and the majority 
leader recognizes, it took over 10 days. We had 200 amendments offered. 
The Senate conducted 42 rollcall votes in relation to that particular 
bill--all of this on a piece of legislation with close to 700 pages. I 
do not know if everybody had the opportunity to see the catalog effect 
that that bill has as you carry it to the desk. But this is the 
conference report from that bill. It is 693 pages long. There were a 
lot of amendments. Ultimately, as the leader recalls, there was a 
pretty broad bipartisan support for the bill, after all that work was 
done.
  So I do not know that we might be able to agree to what he has 
suggested now.
  But in light of what he has suggested, I ask unanimous consent that 
the majority leader amend his request to provide that the Senate turn 
to the consideration of the welfare bill as the first order of business 
on Monday, June 3, and that the motion to proceed to the missile 
defense bill be delayed until the completion of the welfare bill, so 
that we might finish it while he is still here.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the leader modify his request?
  Mr. DOLE. Madam President, I object to that. But I indicate that we 
have talked about minimum wage, we have talked about welfare reform, 
and we have talked about repeal of the gas tax, which we hoped to have 
done before the Memorial Day recess in order to save millions of 
Americans a lot of money. We did not quite get it done.
  I am perfectly willing, if we can work out some agreement. My point 
is that the President says he likes this bill. He said, ``Send that 
bill down here and I will sign it.'' He is going to have a week to look 
at it--the Memorial Day recess. It will be printed, and it will be 
available. I believe the Democratic leader will find that there are 
even more generous provisions in the bill that passed this body by a 
vote of 87 to 12, and it would have been 88 to 12 except Senator 
Hatfield from Oregon was ill that day.

  So we have tried in this bill to accommodate many of the concerns the 
Governors raised, from both parties. We believe it is a good bill. The 
President said it is a good bill. At least that is what he said 
Wednesday in Wisconsin. I am just trying to accommodate his wishes. But 
I cannot agree with all of the other matters pending.
  We may decide on the missile defense, if we can work out some broad 
agreement to put it back on the calendar. I think we could dispose of 
the other three next week--the week we are back, the last week I will 
be in the U.S. Senate. It would certainly be agreeable with me.
  So I will try to work with the distinguished Democratic leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the majority leader's 
request?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Regrettably, we object at this time.

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