[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 102 (Thursday, July 11, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7743-S7744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 1997


                             CLOTURE MOTION

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I send to the desk a motion to invoke 
cloture on the passage of the pending bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The bill 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 S. 1894, the 
     Defense Appropriations bill.
         Trent Lott, Ted Stevens, Larry E. Craig, Fred Thompson, 
           Dan Coats, Charles Grassley, Richard G. Lugar, Don 
           Nickles, Mark O. Hatfield, Craig Thomas, Slade Gorton, 
           Spencer Abraham, Frank H. Murkowski, Conrad R. Burns, 
           Dirk Kempthorne, Hank Brown.

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I simply say to my friend from Nevada 
that we can either proceed with the Defense bill and finish it today, 
or if he wishes to try to filibuster this bill, if he will not agree to 
a time agreement, it is my recommendation to the leader that we recess 
until Monday and have the votes on the cloture. That means we will take 
up the nuclear waste bill first and when we get cloture on that, we 
will vote on it, and when we are finished with that, we will finish the 
Defense appropriation bill.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished managers of this 
very important legislation: Senator Stevens, who is the chairman of the 
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and Senator Inouye, the great 
Senator from Hawaii. They always do a magnificent job on this 
legislation. It is legislation that is very, very important to the 
defense of our country and carrying out our commitments here in this 
country and around the world. We have troops in Bosnia right now that 
have a very important role they are trying to carry out. The President 
is committed to that. They need the funds that are necessary to do 
their job wherever they are in the world, where sailors are steaming 
today. They are looking to us to provide the funds. There are very 
important funds in this legislation for every state that our military 
men and women are serving in, and we need to get this done. We have 7 
weeks left in this year. We have 12 appropriations bills to get done, 
including this one. We must get that done or we cannot go home. We must 
get started, and we can complete this bill, I think, very quickly.
  Now, what has happened--I understand the concern by the Senators from 
Nevada about the nuclear waste issue. By forcing my hand to do these 
cloture motions, it has speeded up the time in which this issue will 
come to a head. I had planned on not filing a cloture motion on the 
nuclear waste issue until Friday and the vote would have occurred on 
Tuesday, but now it really is bringing it up sooner than it would have 
otherwise.
  Mr. President, this is an urgent, important issue for our country. 
There is dangerous, radioactive nuclear waste stored in cooling pools 
all over this country from Vermont to Minnesota to Idaho to South 
Carolina. This has been an issue for 10 years which the Congress and 
the governments, the administrations, Republican and Democrat, have not 
sufficiently addressed. Countries like Sweden, France, Britain, and 
Japan have stepped up to this issue of how we deal with the temporary 
and permanent storage of nuclear waste, but in America we have not been 
able to bring ourselves to do it.
  At the same time, the ratepayers have paid millions, in fact, 
billions of dollars to move toward a time when we would have a 
permanent storage site for nuclear waste. Do we wish it would go away? 
Of course. We cannot wish it away. It is there. Something must be done. 
This nuclear waste legislation is probably the most important 
environmental legislation this Congress or any Congress will consider.
  (Mr. INHOFE assumed the chair.)
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we cannot stick our heads in the sand. If we 
do, we will probably be radioactive. We have to step up to this issue. 
This is a bipartisan bill. This is a bill that Senator Murkowski has 
worked very hard on, as have Senator Craig of Idaho and Senator Bennett 
Johnston. We cannot just ignore it. Do I want to bring it up now at a 
time when we are trying to work together to move Presidential

[[Page S7744]]

nominations, judicial appointments, appropriations bills? No. But I do 
not have a choice. As majority leader, when I have bipartisan senior 
leaders of the Congress come to me and say we have a fundamental 
national issue that must be addressed, I cannot ignore it.
  Does it eat up time? Yes. We blew 4 or 5 hours yesterday. We could 
have finished this bill last night or this morning. Are we balled up 
here now? Yes. Do I want that? No. But can we ignore our 
responsibility? Absolutely not.
  Now, let me say again, I am sympathetic to how the Senators from 
Nevada feel. I know they cannot accept this without a fight. But I ask 
the distinguished Senator from Nevada to allow us to do our work on the 
Department of Defense appropriations bill, give us an opportunity to 
work with him and find any opportunity that we can to be fair and work 
with him. But we cannot ignore this problem any further. So, again, I 
wanted to make those points. I think they are very important. I hope 
that we can work something out. I will be glad to work with the 
Democratic leader. I know the Democratic leader wants to proceed on the 
Department of Defense appropriations bill. He has assured me of that 
personally. I know he has given the managers, Senator Inouye and 
Senator Stevens, that commitment and assurance. So I hope we can find a 
way to face up to this issue and also to allow the Senate to get its 
work done.
  We are now locked in a rolling filibuster on every issue, which is 
totally gridlocking the U.S. Senate. That is wrong. It is wrong for 
America. We cannot get the appropriations bills done. We cannot get the 
taxpayers' bill of rights done. We cannot get the White House Travel 
Office bill for Billy Dale done. We cannot get the gaming commission 
issue up. I do not support all of these bills, but we have an 
obligation to allow the Senate to do its work. That is not happening. I 
hope we can find a way to do it on this bill today.
  I yield the floor.


                       Unanimous-Consent Request

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, notwithstanding 
rule XXII, that the cloture vote with respect to the pending bill, the 
DOD appropriations bill, occur at 1 p.m., and I might say that we are 
prepared to let the Senator from Nevada talk and have all the time 
between now and 1 p.m.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. REID addressed the Chair.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have not yielded the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska has the floor.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, will the Senator from Alaska yield?
  Mr. STEVENS. Yes.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, what was the consent that was asked for and 
objected to?
  Mr. STEVENS. I sought to accelerate the time to vote on the Defense 
appropriations bill. If we could bring that to a vote at 1 o'clock, I 
feel certain we will get cloture, and we would have 30 hours for debate 
on this bill. I believe that would expire before the time to vote on 
the nuclear waste bill, which, under other circumstances, will come 
first on Monday.
  I am prepared to state that I think we can finish the bill today or 
tomorrow. It might mean that we would stay in session tonight to do so. 
But I would like to get this bill through. I think that there is no 
greater issue facing the country today than the amount and level of 
support for our armed services and the people in Bosnia. I think the 
uncertainty involved here is going to lead to some real problems.
  I hope that maybe we might have a chance to have a recess and let us 
just try to discuss this with the Senator from Nevada and others and 
see if we can get to this bill. There is no question in my mind that we 
are going to vote on this bill one way or the other. If cloture is the 
only way to get to it, we will have to do that.
  Mr. LOTT. If the Senator will yield, Mr. President, I would like to 
further inquire, if I could, with the indulgence of the Senator from 
Alaska, with him retaining control of the floor. What are the wishes of 
the Senator from Nevada? Does he wish to just talk for a period of 
time? Can we accommodate him in some way? I do not want to cut him off, 
but I know that he has to be also aware of the desires of the 98 other 
Senators in trying to get the work done of the Senate on the Department 
of Defense appropriations bill. Would the Senator like to talk for an 
hour? What are his intentions?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friends, Senator Inouye, Senator Stevens, and 
the majority leader that I understand the importance of this bill. I am 
a member of the committee. I think we have had the good fortune of 
having the other military appropriations bill, military construction, 
passed. I am very happy about that. I received the support of Senators 
Stevens and Inouye on that. That bill pales in the comparison to this 
bill, and I understand that.
  But I respectfully say to my friend, the majority leader, that I 
disagree that S. 1936 is the most important environmental issue facing 
this Congress. I say, respectfully, to my friend that if the majority 
feels this is the most important environmental issue, no wonder the 
American public is upset at some of the environmental stands taken by 
this Congress.
  Now, I say to my friends, I support this bill. I speak in favor of 
this bill. I believe, as outlined by Senators Inouye and Stevens, that 
we do not have an obligation--in fact, we have a contrary obligation--
to go along with what the White House suggests as to levels of military 
spending. We are a separate, just-as-important, equal branch of 
Government. Therefore, I support this bill.
  But I also have obligations to the people of the State of Nevada and 
of this country to have every opportunity that I can to speak about S. 
1936, which the President is going to veto. That is one of the points I 
tried to make yesterday. Hopefully, I did it well. I think we are 
wasting a lot of time here, when the President says he is going to veto 
the bill anyway. So I will be happy to cooperate in any way that I can. 
It is my understanding, as someone told me, that there might be some 
need for a recess.
  Even though I do not speak very loud most of the time, I have the 
opportunity and the right as a Senator to follow the rules. That is all 
I am asking to do. I am not asking that any special privilege be 
extended to this Senator. But as those Senators in this Chamber know, I 
feel very strongly about S. 1936. I think it is a waste of our time. I 
would like to take every possible opportunity to speak on this.

  Mr. LOTT. Would the Senator from Nevada be willing to bring this bill 
up right now?
  Mr. REID. I would not.
  Mr. LOTT. I have just one reaction, if I can ask the Senator from 
Alaska to continue to yield to me. First of all, I would be amazed if 
the President of the United States would veto this bill after it has 
gone through the House and the Senate, supported by Senators from the 
diverse States I named, all the way from Minnesota, Idaho, Vermont, New 
Hampshire, my own State, and perhaps others. But, if the Congress gets 
to the point where, just because of the mere threat from the President 
of a veto, we do not act, we might as well go ahead and leave now for 
the year because he is talking about vetoing every bill that is moving. 
I do not think we can use that as a basis of not acting on important 
legislation.

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