[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 146 (Monday, October 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11230-S11231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--FEDERAL RESERVE NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following 
Federal Reserve nominations on the Executive Calendar: Calendar No. 305 
and Calendar No. 306.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I might 
inquire of the distinguished majority leader, what were the Executive 
Calendar numbers?
  Mr. LOTT. I asked unanimous consent that we proceed to executive 
session to consider the Federal Reserve nominations on the Executive 
Calendar. I know the Senator from Iowa has been discussing these 
nominees already this afternoon, and I am advised that he is going to 
oppose a time agreement to get a vote on these nominations, so I was 
going to make note of the fact that my intention is to set the votes on 
these nominations for later today.
  If it is not possible, if there is objection to that, then I would 
have to say it would appear to me that these nominees could not get 
confirmed this session. We have a number of nominations we are trying 
to get cleared on both sides of the aisle.
  I had indicated to Senator Daschle we would try to move these 
nominees. We also have similar holds on the FCC nominees. But if we 
can't get those cleared in the next couple of days, it would be my 
intent to try to move those to a vote in the same manner tomorrow. So I 
am trying to emphasize that. I think these are important nominees. It 
would seem to me we need to have nominees to the Federal Reserve Board 
confirmed. These are the President's choices and his recommendations. 
This is, obviously, a very critical board. While I might agree with the 
Senator about some of his reservations and disagree with some of the 
actions they take and a number of things that have occurred over the 
years, I do think that unless there is a major objection to one or both 
of these nominees on the qualifications basis or experience or 
something of that nature, I feel an obligation to try to move them 
forward.
  Mr. HARKIN. If the majority leader will yield.
  Mr. LOTT. Sure.
  Mr. HARKIN. I respond by saying I appreciate the position the 
majority leader is in. Quite frankly, I think that the occasion of 
considering a couple of nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of 
Governors should be a time of some debate and some discussion on the 
Senate floor as to the Fed policy and to the direction the Fed has 
taken.
  Again, I do not need to remind the majority leader of this. He knows 
full well there seems to be so many people who think the Federal 
Reserve is some great Federal agency that is not beholding to the 
Congress. I keep pointing out it is a creature of Congress. It is not a 
constitutional entity. It is a creature of Congress and by law we have 
the right and I think the constitutional obligation to oversee the 
Federal Reserve, obviously to pass judgment, to advise and consent on 
nominations but also to give guidance and direction as to what their 
policy ought to be. And I think that these nominees deserve to have 
some discussion and debate.
  I would say in all honesty to my friend from Mississippi, there are 
on this side other Senators who I know want to engage in this 
discussion and debate who cannot be here today. I am here. And I am 
willing to talk--well, I have my notebook here, if the majority leader 
would like to see it. I have a few hours I could talk.
  Mr. LOTT. It doesn't look very thick.
  Mr. HARKIN. It is pretty thick. I have a lot that I can say about 
them.
  Mr. LOTT. If the Senator will yield.
  Mr. HARKIN. Yes.
  Mr. LOTT. I know he could talk at great length on this and other 
subjects, and there may be other Senators who would like to talk on 
them who are not here today. Quite frankly, I am not impressed that 
they are not here. We are in the final 2 or 3 weeks of the session, and 
when Senators say they can't be here on Monday and they can't be here 
on Friday, it sure makes it awful hard to do the people's business. But 
the Senator is within his right; certainly these are important 
nominees, but I believe that on these nominees as well as the FCC 
nominees and hopefully maybe even others, if the holds are continued on 
them, I need to call them up.

  If there is objection, as apparently the Senator from Iowa intends, I 
just want to make it clear why they are being objected to and who is 
objecting to them and we will move on. But I do want to make it clear 
to one and all that in view of the lateness of the hour in the session, 
the odds of being able to spend a great deal of time or to get these 
nominees called up again is not very likely because we have a number of 
urgent matters that are pending that we are going to have to take up 
this week and next week.
  And so I just wanted to put that on the Record so that the Senators 
here will know this is probably not a temporary delay; this is probably 
a delay until next year.
  Mr. HARKIN. If the leader will yield further, if last week is any 
prelude to this week, I think we are going to have large gaps of time 
this week on the Senate floor. There will be time for people to come 
out and discuss extraneous and various things. As I said, I know there 
are some other Senators who have expressed to me a desire to engage in 
some discussion. I do not know how long but some discussion. And I 
think the leader would agree this is important enough that we ought to 
discuss it anyway. I know he is not impressed that they are not here 
today. I understand that. But I am hopefully operating within my right 
to engage in a discussion on these nominees. I would, of course, object 
to them being brought up en bloc. I do not desire to thwart these 
nominations. However, I do want them brought up separately and singly 
as individual nominees and to be able to use some time this week to 
talk about them.
  I would be prepared to do that at great length today. I am here, and 
I am in pretty good physical shape so I am ready to discuss them at 
length today, if he would like to do that, as is his right, but I would 
also be willing to see what we could do during the remainder of the 
week to engage in some discussion, and I will do that. If there are 
gaps this week, I will come to the floor and talk about it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield further on his 
reservation, if there are some gaps, we could have more talk about 
these nominees or other nominees later on this week. There may not be 
the large gaps that there might appear because we do have a number of 
appropriations conference reports that we think are going to be ready 
this week, plus the DC appropriations issue we believe we can resolve, 
although it will take a little time, 2 or 3 hours on that, plus Senator 
Byrd and Senator Stevens have indicated they would like to have the 
line-item veto disapproval which could take 10 hours.
  And that does not count regular bills. We have to do something about 
the Amtrak strike this week, one way or the other. So I think we are 
going to have a good bit of time that will be used. But I know the 
Senator will be glad to talk when the time comes, and I appreciate his 
comments.

[[Page S11231]]

  I renew my request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. HARKIN. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.

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