[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5557-S5558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      UNANIMOUS-CONSENT AGREEMENTS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I am prepared to ask for some unanimous-
consent agreements here momentarily. I believe that the Democratic 
leader will be here. In the meantime, I thought I might just give the 
Senators some idea of what the time could be for the balance of the 
afternoon and then some thought about next week.
  If we get the agreement we have here before us entered into and 
agreed to, we would begin debate, I believe, then at about quarter 
until 4 on the supplemental appropriations, with a vote occurring 1 
hour from then. So that vote could occur around quarter of 5. We are 
looking at the possibility of, of course, getting agreement for 
committees to keep working, because we have a number of committees that 
are in very crucial markups--the Armed Services Committee, the Foreign 
Relations Committee, and the Finance Committee is meeting in a walk-
through, although it is not a markup.

[[Page S5558]]

  We are also looking at the prospect of calling up again the birth 
defects bill, which has broad bipartisan support, and we believe we 
could get a limited time agreement on that. We are contacting the 
principal sponsors, Senator Bond and perhaps others who are interested 
in that, and we could take that up somewhere around 5 o'clock and 
hopefully complete that early in the evening or late this afternoon, 
because we think we are only going to talk about 30 minutes to an hour, 
perhaps with the possibility of a recorded vote that could come, I 
presume, about 6 o'clock.
  With regard to the consent agreement that we are about to ask for 
here, we would begin as soon as we get the agreement on the 
supplemental appropriations bill. Basically, it is the bill that the 
House is now considering, or is about to consider. It may be before the 
Rules Committee and will be going to the floor of the House shortly 
after that.
  We would ask unanimous consent that our agreement only apply if the 
text has been received from the House and is identical to the bill that 
we are sending to the desk for the Record.
  We also have worked out a process to consider the very important 
issue that we feel very strongly about, and that is the Government 
Shutdown Prevention Act. And we are going to ask for consent that would 
allow for a process for it to be brought up, full debate with one 
relevant amendment for each leader. I think it is a fair way to 
consider this issue, and the Democratic leader has indicated he thinks 
that would be the way to proceed.
  With regard to the census issue, I understand that they have worked 
out some language on census with the administration, which is in the 
document that they are going to be taking up. I do not know the details 
of the agreement, but I understand that language is in there, for the 
information of all Senators.
  Would the Senator like to comment before I enter the UC request?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished majority 
leader. I think we have made great progress today. I have had the 
opportunity to look at all of the details of both the supplemental and 
the amendments, and I advise my colleagues that I am enthusiastic about 
the arrangement and would want to agree with the unanimous-consent 
request. I appreciate very much the great willingness on the part of 
the majority leader to work with us to accommodate our concerns, and we 
are ready to move ahead with the agreement.

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