[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 108 (Monday, July 28, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8161-S8162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, it is 
my hope that the Senate will be able to make a great deal of progress 
this week. We have a number of votes that already have been agreed to 
and we have several bills that we may be able to consider before the 
week is out.
  Today it had been my understanding that we would be able to begin 
consideration of S. 830, the Food and Drug Administration reform bill. 
I understand that there would be an objection to proceeding to that 
measure at this time. I certainly regret that. I don't understand why 
that is the case. I had been told on Friday that, after a lot of 
laborious negotiations, agreement had been reached.
  Certainly we need to pass this legislation. There are very few 
organizations in this city that are more in need of reform than the FDA 
which, for years, has been bureaucratic; it has been dilatory; it has 
delayed access for the American people to medical procedures that 
clearly should have been approved earlier, that are available in other 
countries, including Great Britain; they delayed approval of drugs that 
could mean a great deal of comfort to Americans. At the same time, they 
have been over trying to push into other areas where they really have 
no business. So, to say the least, I have a very low regard for the 
FDA, and they are long overdue for reform.
  This legislation has been pending in the Senate both last year and 
this year. The chairman of the committee of education and labor has 
reported that bill out. Negotiations have been underway with a number 
of Senators, including Senator Mack, Senator Frist, Senator Kennedy, 
and I presume Senator Durbin, and I thought that all had come to 
resolution. But it appears now that we will not be able to go forward 
with it at this time. But we will continue to look for an opportunity 
to get that done this week.

  As all Senators are aware, this is the last week of legislative 
business prior to the August adjournment for our State work periods. 
There are a number of important issues that will be considered this 
week, including the conference reports on the budget, Balanced Budget 
Act of 1997, and the Tax Relief Act. I get a lot of inquiries about 
that, will we do it or not? Have we reached an agreement with the 
administration or not?
  Negotiations continue; they continued throughout the weekend. There 
were communications on Friday, meetings on Saturday, a number of 
communications back and forth between the Congress and the 
administration all through the day yesterday, all the way up until 
about 9:15 or 9:30 last night, and there are negotiations underway now 
with the exchange of paperwork as to exactly what these issues may 
mean. Some of them are pretty complicated, in terms of the formulas 
that will be used--how do you define a benefits package where the 
States and the Governors and the legislators have the maximum 
flexibility in providing the services for the needs of the children in 
their respective States? But I would have to say, I think we are very 
close. I continue to be relatively optimistic.
  I must say, this agreement on both the spending bill and the tax 
relief

[[Page S8162]]

package is worth having. I hope we will continue to try to come to a 
conclusion today, if at all possible.
  We will be completing work also this week on the Commerce, State, 
Justice appropriations bill as well as the Department of Transportation 
appropriations bill.
  Previous agreement was entered into also last week to complete action 
on S. 39, the tuna-dolphin bill, early this week. So we expect that 
sometime in the next 2 days we will have a 30-minute time for debate 
and possibly a recorded vote, but a vote of some sort on the compromise 
that was worked out on that issue last Friday.
  At 5 p.m. this afternoon, the Senate will begin consideration of the 
Transportation appropriations bill. We hope to get most of the work 
done on that appropriations bill tonight, done tonight. There will be 
no rollcall votes today.
  Tomorrow morning the Senate will be scheduled to have a series of 
votes, or we were scheduled to have a series of votes with debate 
beginning at 8:30 and votes occurring, I believe, beginning at 9:30, on 
the Commerce, State, Justice appropriations bill, but we understand 
that there is a memorial service for Justice Brennan that will be held 
on Tuesday morning, so it may be necessary to delay these votes and, as 
always, Members will be notified exactly when that will be. There will 
be some stacked votes, I don't know right now whether it's 2, 3, or 4, 
with relation to Commerce, State, Justice. But it will be later in the 
morning or in the early afternoon, so we can accommodate Senators who 
would like to attend the memorial service. Then we can complete action 
on the bill.
  I had hoped we would have agreement on the spending and on the tax 
relief bill early enough that we could actually get started on it on 
Tuesday morning. It looks like we will not be able to do that, but we 
still want to get the final votes on the State, Justice, Commerce 
appropriations bill as soon as we can and be prepared to move swiftly 
to the budget agreements once they are reached.

  I thank all Senators for their cooperation. I know this will be, 
again, a hectic week. But I believe we can complete 2 more 
appropriations bills which will put us at 10, leaving only 3 that we 
would have to work on when we return in September. That is an 
incredible pace, and I am very pleased with the cooperation that we 
have had in getting that done. I hope we can continue that. We also, 
again, hope to complete action on two or three other bills; most 
important, the budget agreements. When that is completed, of course, we 
would then have an opportunity to turn to the Executive Calendar also.
  Mr. President, I would like to hear from the distinguished Senator 
from Vermont as to what is the state of negotiations regarding the Food 
and Drug Administration reform package. I know he has worked very hard 
on it. We hope to get that done this week. I would be glad to hear his 
impressions of how we are going to do that.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I would be happy to enlighten the body 
as to where we stand. It is my understanding we have an agreement. 
However, it appears an objection will be raised if we try to move 
forward at this time. So, I would just alert everyone that I believe we 
have an agreement and that we will be able to move forward this week.
  There are, as is always the case when you go to bring a measure 
forward, people who decide suddenly they want to be involved in the 
process. We will try to accommodate them. I know there are several 
Members who are out of the country right now and will be back later 
today. So, I don't intend to call up the FDA Act at this time, but I 
will, with the indulgence of the President, move forward, I suppose as 
in morning business, and discuss where we are on the bill.

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