[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7848-S7850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  VOTE

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate 
that debate on the motion to proceed to S. 1936, the Nuclear Waste 
Policy Act, shall be brought to a close? The yeas and nays are 
required. The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. 
Cochran] is absent due to a death in the family.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote.
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 65, nays 34, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 193 Leg.]

                                YEAS--65

     Abraham
     Ashcroft
     Bennett
     Bond
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Brown
     Burns
     Chafee
     Cohen
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     DeWine
     Domenici
     Faircloth
     Frahm
     Frist
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Heflin
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kempthorne
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Moseley-Braun
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nickles
     Nunn
     Pressler
     Robb
     Roth
     Santorum
     Shelby
     Simon
     Simpson
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner
     Wellstone

                                NAYS--34

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Coats
     Conrad
     Daschle
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Glenn
     Graham
     Harkin
     Inouye
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Lieberman
     Mikulski
     Moynihan
     Pell
     Pryor
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Cochran
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 65, the nays were 
34.
  Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in 
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. KEMPTHORNE. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. LOTT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.


                           Order of Procedure

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, so that we will be aware of what we are 
trying to do, the Senator from Pennsylvania wishes to speak on another 
matter for 5 minutes. Then, after he concludes, it is my intent, at 
least for a time, to put in a quorum so that we will have an 
opportunity to talk to all the Senators involved in this issue and the 
Democratic leader and see if we can come to an agreement.
  We want to accommodate Senators on both sides of this particular 
issue. We want to find a way to move as early as possible to the 
Department of Defense appropriations bill. It is my intent to move 
forward with both of these issues in the best way we can. We would like 
to talk to the Senators from Nevada to see what their wishes are and to 
Senator Murkowski and the Senator from Idaho. We will do that, and we 
will let the Senate know exactly what is agreed to when we come to a 
conclusion.
  I want to put the Senate on notice that I would like for us also to 
see if we cannot work out the stalking bill so that we can get a 
unanimous consent agreement on that. I would like to see if we can get 
an agreement on the gambling commission so that we would have an 
understanding on how to proceed on that. We might have a couple of 
judges that we can get a clearance on today. We would also like to see 
if we cannot go to conference on the health insurance reform package. 
So I will be talking to Senators on both sides of the aisle on a number 
of issues to see if we can get an agreement as to how and when we might 
bring them up. For right now, we will talk to Senators on how to 
proceed on nuclear waste.
  I yield to the Senator from Pennsylvania.

[[Page S7849]]



 SENATOR SPECTER'S SPEECH TO THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I sought recognition to comment briefly 
on a speech I gave yesterday to the International Brotherhood of 
Teamsters.
  It was even more difficult to speak on the floor of the Philadelphia 
Convention Center yesterday at the meeting of the International 
Brotherhood of Teamsters than it is to speak sometimes on the Senate 
floor, having had substantial experience speaking without order. It was 
a new experience for me. It was a different experience. I want to 
comment about the International Brotherhood of Teamsters meeting 
yesterday, which was disrupted by a demonstration. There was a very 
hotly contested political election going on in the Teamsters Union.
  When the convention was convened at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the 
chair was unable to obtain order, and I finally spoke over the din of 
that crowd, and made the basic point that when there is a dispute, 
wherever that dispute exists in America and the resolution of the 
dispute is subject to democratic processes, I said that the matter 
ought to be decided by ballots and by an exchange of free speech, 
without demonstrations interrupting other speeches. I made the very 
basic point that, even in Russia, where there was recently an election, 
the contesting parties had more of an opportunity to exercise freedom 
of speech and to have the matters heard in an orderly and systematic 
way.
  During the course of the speech that I gave, a large number of the 
delegates moved down to one section in front near the podium. During 
the course of the presentation, the large group moved down to one 
section of the hall and continued the demonstration. I made the very 
basic point that that was not a credit to the Teamsters, it was not a 
credit to the labor movement, and it was not a credit to America to 
continue that kind of a demonstration. I said that it did not help the 
individual whose cause the demonstrators were trying to articulate.
  It seemed to me then, and it seems to me now, that the leader of that 
group had an obligation, when his partisans were demonstrating in that 
manner, to appear and do his utmost to bring them to order so that the 
convention could proceed. The point that I had intended to make--and I 
said at the convention yesterday that I was returning to Washington on 
the 4 o'clock Metroliner and would make the speech on the Senate floor, 
but we were not in session yesterday--was to congratulate the Teamsters 
Union for being willing to look at the political process without being 
tied to one political party or another, but to make judgments and 
decisions based upon the merits and based upon the facts.
  The example of the British Empire was, I think, a very good one. 
Speaking about the British Empire, the point was made that, in Britain, 
they maintained a consistency of interest, but not necessarily a 
consistency of allies. The Teamsters have demonstrated a significant 
degree of political independence with supporting political candidates 
on both sides of the political aisle, supporting President Nixon, 
supporting President Johnson, supporting President Reagan, supporting 
President Clinton. My point was to commend them for their kind of 
political independence, and especially where there seems to be a 
declaration of war of a sort between labor and the Republican Party 
which I think is bad for everybody--bad for the parties who are 
participants in the war. And it is really bad for America that there is 
not more independence and more analysis of the individual merits as 
opposed to blind political loyalty. The words of John Kennedy, 
President Kennedy, have been quoted with some frequency when he said 
that ``sometimes a party asks too much.''

  My point in speaking yesterday--and I now make these comments on the 
floor of the Senate--is to congratulate the Teamsters in the past for 
their political independence. It is my hope that as that political 
convention moves forward in Philadelphia today that there will be order 
there so that there can be an exchange of political ideas. Whether the 
election is one for a President of the United States or the president 
of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the orderly way to 
proceed is to hear everyone out, and then to make a judgment and a 
decision at the ballot box which the Teamsters will be afforded.
  It is no secret that the Teamsters have had a troubled past in the 
course of the past four decades. The Senate McClellan committee 
conducted a very extensive investigation years ago in the 1950's. When 
I was an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia I got the first 
convictions of Teamsters for conspiracy to commit fraud in local 107 of 
the Philadelphia Teamsters Union. All the defendants were convicted. 
Six of them, and all went to jail. That local was cleaned out but 
profited from the mistakes of the past, and the International Teamsters 
is currently under trusteeship.
  So that it is more important perhaps than in any other single 
instance when the Teamsters convention convenes that there will be 
order, decorum, and due process so that those who are invited to speak 
can exercise the constitutional right to freedom of speech, and that 
there will be an appropriate way to resolve the differences there at 
the ballot box instead of with demonstrations.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of my speech 
yesterday at the Teamsters convention in Philadelphia be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 Remarks of the Honorable Arlen Specter

       Ladies and gentlemen, I will try to say a few words over 
     the din of noise.
       In America we have a democracy.
       (Applause)
       In America we decide our controversies by voting and not by 
     shouting.
       (Applause and shouting)
       This demonstration does not bring credit to the Teamsters. 
     This demonstration does not bring credit to the American 
     labor movement.
       (Booing from the Convention floor.)
       This demonstration does not bring credit to those who back 
     Mr. Hoffa.
       (Applause and shouting)
       Right now the eyes and ears of America are on this hall. 
     Right now the eyes and ears of America want to see if the 
     Teamsters Union can have a civilized meeting and a civilized 
     election, and this demonstration does not do credit to that 
     process.
       (Applause and shouting)
       They just had an election in Russia. They just had an 
     election in Russia, and in the Duma, the Russian parliament, 
     you did not see this kind of a repudiation of a democracy and 
     you did not see this kind of demonstration against freedom of 
     speech.
       (Applause and shouting)
       Right now the Congress of the United States--right now the 
     Congress of the United States and the United States Senate, 
     of which I am a member, is trying to decide what to do for 
     the American working man and the American working woman. And 
     when they see what is happening in this hall, that is not a 
     credit to the American labor movement. That is not a credit 
     to democracy, and it does not do credit to those who support 
     Mr. Hoffa.
       (Applause and shouting)
       There is important business to be transacted at this 
     Convention. You men and women have come from all over the 
     United States to transact business of the International 
     Brotherhood of Teamsters. And what is happening by that small 
     group is a black mark on the Teamsters and a black mark on 
     the American labor movement.
       (Applause and shouting)
       If there cause is right and if their cause is just, let us 
     hear what they have to say.
       (Applause and shouting)
       They are setting back the labor movement and they are 
     setting back the Teamsters and they're setting back Mr. Hoffa 
     by this kind of unruly, undemocratic behavior.
       (Applause and shouting)
       I'm going to be on the 4:00 train back to Washington, 
     D.C.--
       (Applause and shouting)
       And my report to my colleagues in the Senate will not be 
     too good. Let me once again--let me once again ask this group 
     of demonstrators to stand aside and to wait for their turn to 
     speak and to wait for their turn to vote.
       (Applause and shouting)
       Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very significant speech to 
     make to this Convention. What I intend to do is to be on the 
     4:00 train to Washington and to make that speech on the floor 
     of the Senate. You can catch me on C-Span.
       When I leave this podium, I'm going to walk right out of 
     this hall through that group of demonstrators.
       (Applause)

  Mr. SPECTER. I thank the Chair.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

[[Page S7850]]

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Campbell). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________