[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 117 (Friday, August 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9483-S9484]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         THE SENATE'S SCHEDULE

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, let me just say that while I did not 
hear all of the discussion this morning, I heard about it. I only say 
that we are prepared this afternoon to work with the majority leader to 
pass the conference report on minimum wage, to pass the conference 
report on health care, with the understanding that the last-minute, 
nonauthorized addition of a provision dealing with a certain drug 
patent would be removed from the conference report, and to pass the 
conference report on safe drinking water. We would be prepared to do 
that, along with the CFTC nominations, and the item on the Executive 
Calendar dealing with the nominee for the district judgeship in 
Minnesota.
  So that is a good deal of work this afternoon. I see that the 
majority leader is here. We had the opportunity to discuss this matter 
earlier, and I look forward to resolving the matters I have just 
mentioned with him. We are prepared to enter into a colloquy at this 
time. I yield the floor for that purpose.
  Mr. LOTT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I apologize to the minority leader for not 
being here. I got waylaid by the Secretary of Defense, who is anxious 
about some nominations, particularly the Chief of Naval Operations. I 
talked

[[Page S9484]]

with him on that and some other matters. As I understand it from our 
discussion, we would be prepared to move the nomination of the judge, 
the CFTC nominees--two of those--and then go to the health insurance 
conference report.
  Mr. DASCHLE. If the distinguished majority leader will yield, as I 
understand it, our staffs have discussed the matter and the way in 
which it would come up. There would be a correcting resolution that 
would be offered, and we would consider that, and it is my 
understanding that we would then hold the bill until the House has 
passed the correcting resolution. But in that time we could take up the 
other legislation as well.
  Mr. LOTT. I think there may be a problem with that, but I would like 
to discuss that some more in a moment.
  After that--after we work through however we are going to handle the 
health insurance conference report and get a time agreement, I 
presume--and some Senators want to be heard on that, like Senator 
Domenici and Senator Wellstone, and Senator Specter has an interest 
there, too--then we would go to the safe drinking water conference 
report, and small business tax relief, which includes the minimum wage 
conference report.
  I think we do need to talk further about how to handle the health 
insurance conference report with regard to the Con. Res.
  I would like to ask specifically about the military nominations. I 
understand there is a lengthy list of generals, colonels, majors, 
whatever, but most importantly, the Chief of Naval Operations. I 
understand there is a real need for that to be filled.
  Mr. NUNN. And the space command general, also.
  Mr. LOTT. I would be glad to yield to the Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. NUNN. I was going to inquire about the nominations. I see the 
chairman of the Armed Services Committee on the floor. I know we would 
both want to inquire about whether we would have the chance to pass the 
defense authorization conference report, passed by the House last 
evening, which I believe the Senator from South Carolina believes we 
can pass within an hour, maybe a shorter time than that.
  Mr. THURMOND. Madam President, the House passed the defense 
authorization bill yesterday in one hour. I think we can pass it here 
in one hour. All I ask is that my colleagues not object to bringing it 
up. This is a matter of deep concern to the whole Nation, to those in 
the service, and to the defense of our country.
  We need to take this bill up and pass it. It has a lot of things in 
it that need to be acted upon. We also have some military nominations, 
uniform people. There is no reason in the world to hold them up. These 
are nonpartisan matters. They don't affect anybody personally, but they 
affect the whole Nation. I hope we can get this bill up, pass it 
briefly, and send it on to the President.

  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, does the Senator wish to respond on the 
possibility of getting these nominations considered this afternoon?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Well, Mr. President, I would be happy to respond. We 
want very much to be able to clear the calendar of all nominations. We 
would like very much to deal with all of the military nominees and 
promotions. They are nonpolitical. The majority leader has pledged that 
for the entire month of July he would like to deal with the 
nonpolitical nominations on the judiciary as well. I am sure we can 
work out an arrangement whereby the military and judiciary--all the 
nonpolitical nominations--can be dealt with. I look forward to working 
with him and both of you to see that that happens this afternoon.
  It is also my hope that we can deal with a number of conference 
reports. Our desire is to try to accelerate these considerations. An 
hour would work very fine with us. If we can work out an arrangement 
where that can be done, I look forward to taking that up today.
  Mr. THURMOND. Since defense is a nonpartisan matter, and Senator 
Nunn, the ranking member of the committee, favors going ahead, and I as 
chairman favor going ahead, and it is purely nonpartisan--that is the 
way we handle defense, and that is the way it should be handled--why 
not take it up and pass it? We can get through with it in an hour.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I agree.
  Mr. THURMOND. Do you object to bringing it up? Don't put it in the 
category of other things. Keep defense as a nonpartisan matter. That is 
what we are trying to assure that ought to be done.
  Mr. DASCHLE. That is right. We want to keep it nonpartisan.
  Mr. THURMOND. Everything is not nonpartisan. This affects the whole 
Nation. This affects the defense of this country.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I understand, and the chairman knows that better than 
anyone does. He has worked admirably to get to the point where 
consideration of the conference report could be taken up this afternoon 
in a nonpartisan way. Both the ranking member and the chairman have 
done an excellent job. But I must say we have worked together all month 
long on a whole range of bills. A lot of what we have done this month 
he has cooperated on. We have cooperated in a nonpartisan way in 
getting the defense bill to this point.
  Mr. THURMOND. Please do not put defense in the group of these other 
things. This is nonpartisan. This is for the good of the whole Nation. 
Everybody feels defense is nonpartisan. Why not bring it up now? We 
could pass it in 1 hour.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, if the distinguished chairman of the 
committee will allow me, we will continue to work on that. I am very 
much committed to getting the defense authorization conference report 
considered. It should be done. I want to have it done. I cannot allow 
it to be tied to political judges.
  I cannot help but smile when my distinguished colleague and good 
friend, the minority leader, refers to judges as nonpolitical. Give me 
a break. But we have worked together through thick and thin for the 
last month. We will keep doing that.
  So let me try this for now. Perhaps we could go ahead and do the 
judge, the CFTC, and go ahead and go to the safe drinking water 
conference report, because everybody is for that. We can get started. 
And we will talk about these other two during that time.

                          ____________________