[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10617-S10618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will immediately 
begin consideration of the conference report to accompany the energy 
and water appropriations bill. Following the debate, at 11 o'clock the 
Senate will then resume consideration of the Interior appropriations 
bill, with the Bumpers amendment regarding grazing fees pending. The 
Senate will recess for the party conference lunches between the hour of 
12:30 and 2:15 p.m. At 2:15, there will be an additional 20 minutes for 
debate on the Bumpers amendment and, following that debate, the Senate 
will proceed to two consecutive votes, first on or in relation to the 
Bumpers amendment to be followed immediately by a vote on adoption of 
the energy and water appropriations conference report.
  Following those votes, the Senate will resume consideration of the 
Interior appropriations bill and additional votes can be expected on 
amendments to that bill this afternoon. It is hoped, with the 
cooperation of our colleagues, the Senate can complete action on the 
Interior appropriations bill this evening, hopefully.
  Again, Senators can expect busy sessions this week and should plan 
accordingly. It will be almost impossible to complete our Senate 
business in the time we have allocated if Members expect no rollcall 
votes in the evenings because of prior commitments. Last week I had 
requests: That we not have votes during the day on Monday or on Monday 
night; please do not have one on Tuesday morning; could we not have one 
on Wednesday night; how about on Thursday? I was thinking maybe we 
could just stack all the votes at 10 o'clock on Wednesday.
  I would like to accommodate all Senators, and many of these requests 
are very legitimate. Sometimes they are based on very important 
commitments or illness or all kinds of things. But I think, during the 
next few days, as we try to come to the conclusion of this session, 
Senators need to be very hesitant to request such delays in votes.
  I remind all Senators that, if they insist on offering nongermane 
amendments to these appropriations measures, it will only delay 
disposition of the important spending bills as we approach the end of 
the fiscal year.
  Also, we are going to work very hard this afternoon and tomorrow and 
Thursday to see if we cannot take up some other issues. Always we try 
to work on conference reports when they are available, particularly if 
they are appropriations conference reports. We are working to see if we 
can get some clear understanding on time and very tight limit on 
amendments, if any, on the Federal Aviation Administration 
authorization. We need to get that done before we leave. I would like 
to see if we cannot get that done tonight, with the debate occurring 
after we complete debate or action on the Interior appropriations. We 
might take up the FAA authorization, say at 6 or 7, and let all the 
debate time go on tonight with vote or votes on that occurring first 
thing in the morning.
  Tomorrow I would like to see if maybe we can do the Magnuson 
fisheries bill. We have a lot of work done on that. We need to get it 
done before we leave. Again, maybe we could work on the debate during 
tomorrow night, with votes occurring on Thursday morning.
  We are also going to see what sort of time would be desired if we 
took up the maritime bill.
  So, my thinking is during the day, for the most part we will stay on 
the appropriations bills, either Interior appropriations or the energy 
and water conference report, as we are doing this morning, and then at 
night we will try to take up some of these authorizations that have 
been agreed to or we

[[Page S10618]]

are trying to get agreement on. That way we can make good progress 
during the week.
  I want to emphasize something I said about nongermane amendments. We 
have good managers of this bill. This is an important bill. Yes, it has 
some controversial features in many and various areas, but you have the 
chairman of the committee, Senator Slade Gorton, who has been doing 
very good work, and the ranking member from West Virginia, Senator 
Byrd, who are certainly two of the best managers we have. I urge my 
colleagues do not come in with a lot of nongermane amendments. Last 
week we saw over 10 amendments offered, most of them nongermane.
  I have been playing it straight. I am trying to see that we get our 
work done. But, if we wind up seeing this is just a political game, 
then we will not be able to get this legislation done. And we will not 
tolerate it. Then we will get into a total political mode. We should do 
the business of the people and then we can go out and campaign for 
reelection based on political issues that we think need to be debated. 
We should not do it here on the floor of the Senate with nongermane 
amendments. I hope that will not happen this week as it did last week, 
which caused us to have to take down the Treasury-Post Office 
appropriations bill. Apparently we will not be able to get it back up. 
So we will just have to put that bill in the continuing resolution, 
which I hope we can get an agreement on sometime by the end of the week 
and vote on in some form next week.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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