[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 4, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9777-S9778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. For the information of all Senators, this morning the 
Senate will resume consideration of the VA-HUD appropriations bill. 
There is a pending committee amendment which I understand will need a 
short-time limitation for debate prior to a vote. I hope we will reach 
a consent agreement shortly with respect to that amendment so that all 
Members can be notified as to when the first rollcall vote can be 
expected.
  Additionally, I ask for the cooperation of all Senators who have 
amendments to this measure, to be available during the day so that we 
may dispose of those amendments and complete action on the VA-HUD 
appropriations bill during today's session. Also, the Senate may 
consider a resolution regarding the current situation in Iraq. 
Therefore, Senators should be prepared for rollcall votes throughout 
the day. As a reminder, the Senate will recess between the hours of 
12:30 and 2:15 for the weekly policy conferences to meet.
  Mr. President, I do wish to commend the distinguished Senator from 
Maryland for her work yesterday. I know she and the chairman of the 
subcommittee, the Senator from Missouri [Mr. Bond], did some 
preliminary statements and disposed of some work that could be 
accomplished, and that is very positive. I appreciate their time.
  I think it is only fair and respectful of the two leaders of this 
subcommittee that the Members come over here and offer their amendments 
and let us do our work. I hope that the two Senators who have worked so 
hard on this good legislation do not have to stand here and look at 
each other without some action taking place. As pleasant as that may 
be, I know instead they would like to be dealing with Senators who have 
legitimate amendments that may be offered.
  I understand there are three or four serious amendments that have to 
be offered and debated and probably voted on. Some others hopefully can 
be worked out. But we must keep our eye on the ball. The thing that we 
have to get done this week and for the next couple of weeks is these 
appropriations bills. It is the Senate's responsibility. Right after 
this bill, we will go in short order to Interior appropriations and 
then Treasury-Postal Service next week, and hopefully then I guess the 
Commerce-State-Justice appropriations bill, and finally Labor-HHS.
  It is my intent, with the cooperation of the Democratic leader and 
all of our colleagues, to get through all of these appropriations bills 
in an expeditious manner. In order to do that, we are not going to be 
able to bring up a lot of other bills that do not have very tight time 
agreements, maybe not even if they do have time agreements. Until we 
complete these appropriations bills, I am going to do everything I can 
to limit the distractions, including issues that may cause us to start 
tangling with each other unnecessarily, so that we can hopefully have a 
spirit of cooperation and dedication in getting this work done.
  I want to reiterate what I read in my opening statement. We did not 
get a response until 6:30 Monday afternoon in terms of some language 
perhaps that we could work out on the Iraqi situation. The appropriate 
Senators now are involved. Staff members are working. We hope we can 
get something worked out. We cannot give 2, 3, 4 hours to a resolution 
of this nature. Hopefully, we can come to something that is agreed to 
and bipartisan, and we can just have a vote that would be unanimous and 
move forward. But I am working in good faith to try to accomplish that.

  I want to plead again to Senators. Come on over and do the work. 
These two Senators were jerked around considerably before the recess 
because they were ready to go, and we indicated that we were going to 
go to their bill before the August recess. We did not get to it. But 
now we are here, and they are doing good work. Let us give them our 
cooperation and get this bill done.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Ms. MIKULSKI addressed the Chair.

[[Page S9778]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). The Senator from Maryland.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. I thank the majority leader for his very kind words 
about the way we have tried to move the bill. We, too, urge our 
colleagues to come over, particularly those who now have an amendment 
that they wish to bring to the floor. We were open for business 
yesterday, did 4 hours of very good, yeoman work. I think both sides of 
the aisle want to move the bill. We would like to concentrate on the 
major amendments, space station and veterans health care, and if others 
would just come over and discuss them with us, we believe we can iron 
some of them out and move ahead.
  I thank the leader.

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