[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11815-S11816]
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 omnibus appropriations bill. There will be 
debate only on that matter until 2 p.m. today. Rollcall votes could 
occur any time after 2 p.m., on or in relation to the omnibus 
appropriations bill, or other items cleared for action.
  The Senate may also be asked to turn to consideration of the 
conference reports accompanying the Defense appropriations bill, the 
FAA reauthorization bill, or a parks bill. This is a different parks 
bill from the one that has been pending in the Senate now for several 
days, but it did pass the House by an overwhelming margin, I think with 
only seven votes against it.
  A late-night session is possible in order to complete action on the 
omnibus appropriations bill, which must be signed by the President by 
midnight tonight in order to fund various parts of the Government for 
the new fiscal year, which begins tomorrow.
  Let me say, Mr. President, again, that I am very pleased we were able 
to 
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[[Page S11816]]


reach agreement on this omnibus appropriations bill. It is before us. 
It is large. But it has been reviewed by the House. In fact, the House 
voted to pass the omnibus appropriations bill by a vote of 370 to 37, 
an overwhelming vote of approval. I listened to the debate well into 
the night on Saturday night. In fact, I stayed up until I saw the final 
vote, at about 10:30. They went into a lot of detail on what is in the 
bill. I was somewhat surprised and impressed by the way that it was 
presented, the information that was given to the House Members, and by 
the extremely bipartisan and very gentle debate that occurred.
  Congressmen who had been fighting each other vigorously for the last 
2 years were praising each other and saying what a good job had been 
done. Any time you have a bill this large, I am sure there are some 
mistakes included. I am sure that any one of us can find a lot of 
things that we do not like about it. But it has been passed, now, by 
the House. The President has endorsed it in writing. His letter of 
endorsement is in the Record. I placed it there last Saturday.
  Now it is incumbent upon the Senate to do our job. It is all in our 
hands. We must act on this before late tonight so it will have time to 
be put together and delivered to the President. We have a number of 
Senators who have questions they want to raise about it, perhaps. The 
conference--the Democrats will meet at 12, the Republicans will be 
meeting at 2. We will talk it through. It is going to take a lot of 
cooperation--and sacrifice, as a matter of fact, in some cases, to get 
work completed.
  There are other issues pending. Obviously, we need to get the FAA 
reauthorization done. I am committed to doing that. There appear to be 
some Senators who are willing to have a scorched earth policy, which 
would work against the Federal Aviation Administration, airport safety 
in America, against their individual States, and over a very small 
provision which is actually a fix in the law that was inadvertently 
caused.
  We need to find way to work this out. We are trying to do it, again 
in a bipartisan way. I know Senator Daschle would like to do that. I 
know there are Senators like Senator Pryor and Fritz Hollings on that 
side, Senator McCain, and, obviously, Senator Stevens, and so where 
there is a will there will surely be a way. We will try to work that 
out.

  The parks bill is a major preservation piece of legislation. Some of 
the parks that were controversial or were strongly opposed by the 
administration were taken out. But the chairman of the committee in the 
House, Congressman Young of Alaska, spoke very strongly for it. Some of 
the provisions that are desperately desired are in here, such as the 
Presidio, Tallgrass project--a whole number of others are included in 
this bill. So I hope we will find a way to get through it and get 
passage of this parks legislation.
  If we can leave tonight having passed the omnibus appropriations 
bill, the Defense appropriations bill, a parks bill, and the FAA 
reauthorization, we could go out truly on a very high note.
  I know our colleagues who are leaving, like the Senator from Alabama, 
who I am pleased to see back with us here this morning, are prepared to 
speak, as well as other Senators who are retiring after many, many 
years of great service--they would feel very good. It would give us a 
little time to thank them one last time before they leave this Chamber.

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