[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 82 (Thursday, June 6, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5904-S5906]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUESTS--H.R. 3103 AND S. 1028

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I seek recognition to propound a unanimous-
consent request momentarily. I know the distinguished Democratic leader 
is

[[Page S5905]]

here to respond. But I would like to just make some comments about why 
we are doing this now and what we hope for.
  First of all, this is with regard to the health insurance reform 
legislation that passed the Senate by a vote of 100 to 0 on May 23, 2 
full weeks ago today, and yet we have not been able to appoint 
conferees. Now, we all know that conference activities have been 
underway. There has been communication from both sides of the aisle, on 
both sides of the Capitol, and I had the impression yesterday morning 
that great progress had been made, that maybe we were close to an 
agreement on what would be in the conference report that would come out 
with regard to health insurance reform.
  But as a matter of fact, apparently that agreement has not been 
reached. I understand that perhaps the Senator from Massachusetts has 
had a press conference within the last couple of hours being very 
critical of what has transpired with regard to this issue, particularly 
as it applies to the medical savings accounts.
  Conferences are where people give and take. Quite often you get part 
of what you wanted, not all of what you wanted, but I had the 
impression that concessions had been made or indicated from the Senate 
that were positive and from the House and that we were very close to an 
agreement, and yet it does not seem to have occurred. Yet we still have 
not been able to get an agreement to actually have conferees appointed.
  I do not understand that. I thought that once you pass a bill, you 
communicate across the aisle and you appoint conferees, go to 
conference, and they do the job. What has been suggested by the 
distinguished majority leader is we have conferees appointed, 
appropriate ones after consultation with the Democratic leadership, 
from the Education and Labor Committee and from the Finance Committee, 
all those general matters within the jurisdiction of the Finance 
Committee, and also from the Judiciary Committee since in the House 
they were going to have Judiciary Committee conferees with regard to 
medical malpractice.

  If we could surely agree on conferees and get the real conference 
underway, I think everybody would like to see this issue agreed upon 
and resolved here in the next few days, hopefully.
  So I ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, that notwithstanding the 
receipt of the message from the House regarding the appointment of 
conferees with respect to H.R. 3103, the Senate insist on its amendment 
to H.R. 3103, the Senate agree to a conference with the House, and the 
Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate.
  Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object, I share the view 
expressed by the distinguished majority whip. There is no reason why we 
cannot resolve this matter. It was passed 100 to 0 on a bipartisan 
basis. Unanimously, this Senate said this legislation should be passed.
  Mr. President, that was over a month ago now. There is no reason why 
in a month's time we could not have negotiated successfully the 
differences with the House. That is all this has been about, finding a 
way with which to resolve our differences.
  Now, I might tell the distinguished majority whip that it has been of 
increasing concern to us that as these negotiations are going on, 
Democrats have been excluded from the real conferencing and the 
negotiations as they have gone on, and we do not understand why that 
would have to be, why we cannot have bipartisan cooperation and 
consideration of the problems that we are facing in both versions of 
the bill.
  To be locked out, in our view, is unacceptable. We also recognize--
and I know that the distinguished majority whip recognizes as well--
that as you negotiate a conference with representatives for that 
conference, there has to be some accommodation on both sides of the 
aisle with regard to the numerical representation as well as the 
committee representation. He knows very well that in this case that has 
not been done. So we have not been able to come to some resolution with 
regard to this representation in the conference and so have been 
relegated to these negotiations that have been ongoing.
  We were told as late as yesterday that progress was being made, and 
it was for that reason I withheld offering a unanimous-consent 
agreement that I, frankly, believe we ought to put on record. There is 
no reason why we cannot restate the unanimity which we feel about this 
legislation.
  So having reserved the right to object, I ask unanimous consent that 
the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 1028, the 
Kassebaum-Kennedy health care portability bill, the language of which 
was passed by the Senate on April 23 by a unanimous vote, that the bill 
be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid 
on the table.
  Mr. LOTT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. LOTT. I object to that request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. LOTT. If I could respond before Senator Daschle has 
an opportunity to respond to my unanimous consent, I have two points.

  First, I want the record to be clear that a vote actually did occur 
on April 23, not May 23, so it has been well over a month since that 
action occurred.
  As to having Democrats involved in the negotiations, I believe that 
they have been involved in talking back and forth, but the reason why 
they have not been formally involved is because we have not been able 
to get an agreement to appoint conferees. That is the way it works. You 
appoint conferees and the conferees meet, Republicans, Democrats, 
House, Senate. That is the way to get an active, direct, normal, formal 
conference underway. Let us appoint conferees. Let them meet this 
afternoon and pass this thing out and then we can move it forward. We 
would love to have Senator Kennedy, Senator Pell, Senator Moynihan, 
Senator Biden, or a different mix of Democrats on behalf of the Senate 
in a formal conference meeting with the House, and that is why we are 
trying to seek this unanimous-consent request at this time.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, again----
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair understands that objection was heard 
to the unanimous-consent request of the minority leader. Unanimous 
consent was not agreed to on the request of the Senator from 
Mississippi.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, again reserving the right to object, I 
yielded for purposes of response on the part of the distinguished 
majority whip. But let me simply say that, unfortunately, it used to be 
the case that Republicans and Democrats got together formally and 
resolved their differences in conference agreements. I would only cite 
as the most recent illustration of how that is no longer the case the 
budget agreement. To my knowledge, not one meeting was held where 
Democrats were included in that conference, not one. So I hope we can 
get back to the time when Democrats and Republicans can formally sit 
down and work through all of these differences. That, in part, is what 
this is all about. We want to get an agreement. We will continue to 
offer the original language to whatever legislation may be offered in 
our determination to get resolution of this issue. But we certainly 
cannot agree under these circumstances to the request propounded by the 
majority at this time, so I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair is unclear. Does the minority leader 
object?
  Mr. DASCHLE. I indicated I did object.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could respond to correct one thing that 
the Senator said. As a matter of fact, no agreement has been reached on 
the budget resolution conference report, and, in fact, I believe there 
was a meeting of the conferees at 3 o'clock on Tuesday of this week. I 
assume there will be other meetings of the conferees. I am not a 
conferee on that budget conference, but I do know that they met, I 
believe, for about an hour or hour and a half on Tuesday of this week. 
We hope they will meet again soon and get an agreement because we would 
like very much, as I know the Senator, the Democratic leader, would, to 
have that budget resolution conference report so we can get on with 
appropriations bills.

[[Page S5906]]

 We hope to have it at the earliest opportunity next week, if not get 
an agreement today.
  I yield the floor. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. GRAMM addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.

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