[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Today there will be a period for morning business until 12 
o'clock noon, with Senators to speak for up to 5 minutes each, with the 
following exceptions: Senator Grassley for 60 minutes--and I see he is 
here and prepared to proceed--Senator Feinstein for 30 minutes, and 
Senator Daschle 30 minutes.
  At 12 noon today, following morning business, the Senate will proceed 
to executive session to consider the nomination of Madeleine Albright 
to be Secretary of State. Under the order that has been agreed to, 
there will be 2 hours and 10 minutes for debate on the nomination, with 
the vote to occur at the conclusion or yielding back of the debate 
time.
  So I presume that will be around 10 minutes after 2 or so. It is my 
hope that some of that debate time will be yielded back so the Senate 
may vote on the nomination early enough to accommodate our colleagues 
who wish to attend the wake of former Senator Paul Tsongas.
  Following the vote on the Albright nomination, I expect an additional 
period of morning business to allow Senators to introduce legislation 
they have been working on or perhaps to make comments on bills that 
were introduced yesterday.
  Finally, I will announce that, if available later this week, the 
Senate may consider the nomination of our former colleague, Senator 
Bill Cohen, to be Secretary of Defense. We are not sure exactly how 
that will proceed. The committee is scheduled to have a hearing today. 
We are looking at the possibility of whether or not it could be taken 
up either later today or, if not today, then late tomorrow after our 
delegation returns from Massachusetts.
  I had indicated to the President our desire to cooperate with him in 
getting his foreign policy and defense Cabinet nominees in place as 
soon as possible. So I would really like to see us get that done this 
week. I know there will be support for that on both sides of the aisle.
  Therefore, additional rollcall votes may occur today or this week and 
Members will be notified accordingly. I think at this point there does 
not appear to be a necessity for us to have votes on Friday, although I 
am not making that commitment yet. Just be prepared to have more votes 
possibly today and tomorrow, on Thursday.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.

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