[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 14 (Thursday, February 6, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1078-S1079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the recess be 
delayed in order for Senator Graham of Florida and Senator Sessions of 
Alabama and Senator Grams of Minnesota

[[Page S1079]]

to speak, and following their remarks the Senate stand in recess under 
the previous order.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I have a 
little speech I would like to make on a nongermane matter. It will take 
me maybe 15 minutes.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I amend the request for the Senators that I 
mentioned, Senators Graham of Florida, Grams of Mininesota, Senator 
Sessions, and the Senator from West Virginia to be able to speak, and 
that we stand in recess under the previous order after those speeches.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished majority leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. I further ask unanimous consent that when the Senate 
reconvenes at 4 p.m. today--and it looks like there may actually, in 
view of the speeches to be given there, not be much of a recess at all, 
but at approximately 4 p.m. Senator Durbin will be recognized to offer 
an amendment to the pending constitutional amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. For the information of all Senators, the Senator from 
Illinois [Mr. Durbin] will offer this amendment when the Senate 
reconvenes after our conference. He will then debate his amendment 
throughout the remainder of today's session as long as he needs. It is 
my understanding that Senator Durbin will be willing then to vote in 
relation to his amendment on Monday, February 10, at 5 p.m.
  I wish to say that we had been hoping maybe we did not need to have 
that vote, but in view of the fact that we are not scheduled to be in 
session next Friday and the funeral services are scheduled for Thursday 
for Ambassador Harriman, we do need to get as much work done as we can 
on Monday. So we will look toward having this vote at 5 o'clock on 
Monday and then votes early Tuesday morning, and continue on through 
the remainder of the week to accomplish as much as we can in terms of 
taking up amendments on the constitutional amendment and also 
confirmations that we hope to be able to move. We think we will have a 
couple more perhaps that we will be able to vote on in the next week.
  So with that in mind, I would like to announce there will be no 
further votes today and the next rollcall vote is expected to occur at 
approximately 5 p.m. on Monday, February 10.
  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, will the majority leader yield for a 
question?
  Mr. LOTT. I will be pleased to yield to the Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. FORD. It appears that some of the nominees may not get out until 
Wednesday or so of next week without any problems but just because of 
when the next committee meeting will occur. Is it the majority leader's 
intention that if they get out, say, unanimously, without any 
opposition, and have very little opposition, if any, here, we might 
waive the time and go ahead and try to vote before we leave here next 
week?
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, as we have done on other nominees we have 
voted on, it would be our intent to do that. We want to get as many of 
them done as we can next week. We hope that perhaps we will reach a 
point where we can vote on the U.N. Ambassador's position, and we think 
there may be another one ready.
  Mr. FORD. Secretary of Energy.
  Mr. LOTT. All right. So if any of those will be cleared, we will try 
to get those up Thursday.
  Mr. FORD. The only reason I asked, there will be kind of a time 
crunch, and I wanted others to understand we might get the committees 
to move their hearings up a day.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senate will be in session on Friday of 
this week for debate on the pending balanced budget constitutional 
amendment. However, no votes will occur during Friday's session. It is 
my understanding that Senator Wellstone will be in position on Monday 
to offer two amendments to the balanced budget issue. It will be my 
intent to schedule those votes to occur after the weekly luncheons on 
Tuesday, February 11, somewhere between 2:15 and 3 o'clock.
  I thank all Senators for their cooperation.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.

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