[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 115 (Thursday, September 4, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8817-S8818]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following 
be the only amendments remaining in order to the Labor-HHS 
appropriations bill, other than the pending amendments, and they be 
subject to relevant second-degree amendments, and that all first-degree 
amendments must be offered prior to the close of business on Monday, 
September 8, other than the amendments designated as managers' 
amendments.
  I further ask unanimous consent that following the disposition of the 
amendments, the bill be advanced to third reading, and a vote occur on 
passage of S. 1061, and the bill remain at the desk. I further ask 
unanimous consent that once the Senate receives the House companion 
bill, the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration, and all after 
the enacting clause be stricken, the text of S. 1061 be inserted, the 
House bill be advanced to third reading, and passed, all without 
further action or debate.
  I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate insist on its 
amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing 
votes, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees.
  I further state for the membership that any votes ordered with 
respect to the Labor-HHS bill on Friday and Monday, September 8, be 
postponed to occur at 5 p.m. on Monday, with one vote at that time, on 
a case-by-case basis. Thereafter, we will begin votes on Tuesday 
morning at 9:30.
  I further ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to S. 830 
following the passage of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill--that is the 
Food and Drug Administration reform bill--but not earlier than 4 p.m. 
on Tuesday, September 9, to give the Senate plenty of time to continue 
to work on any agreements that they could come together on, and the 
cloture vote scheduled for Friday be vitiated.
  That is the unanimous-consent request that I think is fair for all 
concerned. I urge that it be accepted.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. KENNEDY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I want to 
just point out that the person that sets the schedule is the majority 
leader. If the majority leader files the cloture motion on a Wednesday, 
we end up having the cloture vote on a Friday. That is what the 
majority leader has done. It was his decision. He has every right to. 
And that is what we have as the regular order that is before the 
Senate.
  But effectively what the majority leader now is doing is asking a 
consent to vitiate what the regular order would be in terms of the 
cloture motion. I do not question that we are short on the votes and 
that there will be an overwhelming vote in favor of moving toward the 
bill. But the regular order is, as filed by the majority leader on 
Wednesday, for a cloture vote on Friday. He knew what he was doing. He 
knew what he was doing.
  He was the one that set the vote for Friday. And so I find it 
somewhat difficult to accept easily the fact that somehow the burden 
ought to be on other Members because the Senator now does not want to 
move ahead and have the vote on Friday. He was the one that established 
that process and procedure and set in motion those procedures. And for 
the reasons that I have outlined earlier with regard to

[[Page S8818]]

particularly the preemption with regard to the cosmetics, and the 
protection of the consumers on those issues, which I think is a 
travesty in protecting the American families, and primarily the 
American women, I am going to object to the elimination and vitiation 
of the cloture motion.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. LOTT. In view of what I just heard the Senator say--he is right, 
that is the regular order. Of course, it is common practice, if you 
work things out you vitiate the necessity for a cloture vote. But, yes, 
I knew exactly what I was doing. And what I was doing was trying to 
carry out the will of the Senate, and not allow one Senator to any 
further delay the discussion of the merits of FDA reform.

  In view of what the Senator said, I revise my unanimous-consent 
request to comply with what I thought I heard the Senator saying, the 
same unanimous-consent request all the way down the line, except that 
we would have the cloture vote in the morning at 9:45.
  Would there be objection to that?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. KENNEDY. I personally do not believe I would object to it, I say 
to the Senator. I do not know whether the amendments that have been 
included--I have not seen the list. I have had some amendments.
  Mr. LOTT. It has been cleared----
  Mr. KENNEDY. I have been given assurance by the staff--Mr. President, 
I object temporarily until I have a chance to talk to the minority 
leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I object until I have a chance to talk to him.
  Mr. LOTT. In an effort to try to get a reasonable agreement worked 
out here--I believe our list has been cleared on both sides. I think 
the Senator from Iowa has had a chance to review it. In the interest of 
trying to get something worked out here, I would be prepared to take a 
5-minute quorum call so we can look over the list and discuss it. If we 
cannot get that worked out, then I would begin the process of taking up 
the two judges and voting here in a few minutes.
  So in view of the Senator's comments, and the idea that maybe we 
could get an agreement, I would at this point----
  Mr. LEAHY. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. LOTT. Yes. By the way, this unanimous-consent request was worked 
out over a period of hours. I think it has been cleared on both sides 
by all Senators with the exception of one. Senator Daschle was 
intimately involved in it. And some of the things in the UC were at his 
request, including that we only have one vote at 5 o'clock on Monday. 
So, I mean, everybody cleared it except Senator Kennedy.
  Mr. FORD. Would the majority leader yield?
  Mr. LOTT. I would be glad to.
  Mr. FORD. Is there any doubt that we will have two votes as it 
relates to judges following whatever occurs on your unanimous consent 
request? I think that we need to alert your side and ours.
  Mr. LOTT. That was not in the UC.
  Mr. FORD. You mentioned you were going to have one.
  Mr. LOTT. That is my intent. If we do not have any cooperation on 
other matters, we would vote.
  Mr. LEAHY. If the leader would yield for a question.
  Mr. LOTT. Yes.
  Mr. LEAHY. Might, while you are trying to work this out, have one of 
those votes on the judges? We have to do them at some point anyway. Go 
ahead and do it.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, so that everybody will know we are on the 
verge of having a vote, I think it is in the interest of all of us to 
take 5 minutes, look at the list, and everybody could be called to 
notify them we are fixing to begin voting. And if the Senator was not 
here, we plan to vote on two judges tonight, and hope to get two more 
perhaps Monday or so.
  Mr. FORD. There will be a rollcall vote on this?
  Mr. LOTT. I have been requested to get rollcall votes.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. While both sides continue to check the amendment list and 
see if we can get an agreement on the UC, let's start our first 
recorded vote, that will be out of the way, and perhaps we can get a 
final agreement.
  Mr. FORD. If the majority leader will yield, it is my hope that 
everyone has been notified that we are going to vote. I hope we would 
not start until such time as we feel like both sides have been 
notified.
  This side is all right.

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