[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 29, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S11321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          EDUCATION SAVINGS ACT FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, regarding the Coverdell A-plus education 
bill, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now turn to H.R. 2646, 
the Coverdell education bill.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. We have no 
opposition to moving to the bill, but, obviously, how the bill is 
considered will be of some interest to us. I know that the leader has 
indicated he would like to go to the bill and, as I understand it, 
there may be a cloture vote as early as Friday on the bill itself.
  Obviously, we still have not been able to resolve our problems 
relating to campaign finance reform and, in part because of that and 
also because this is a tax bill and not subject to reconciliation 
constraints under which we have worked with other tax bills, Democratic 
Senators, I know, and perhaps some Republicans would appreciate the 
opportunity to offer amendments. We have an array of amendments on this 
particular bill that we would like to offer and, of course, perhaps 
most prominently of all, the non-tax-related matters for which there 
would be an interest in having a good debate is the campaign finance 
reform bill.
  Hopefully, by Friday, we can resolve that matter. But even if we do, 
the issue would still stand that we would need to be able to offer some 
amendments. So I am hopeful that we can arrange a way in which that can 
be accommodated. Subject to how the bill is pending on Friday, we would 
be subject to another cloture vote for which there would be a 
significant degree of opposition--hopefully unanimous on our side--so 
long as the campaign finance reform issue and this tax matter has not 
been resolved. But we certainly will work with the leader to work 
through these matters, and we have no objection to bringing the bill up 
today.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I have a unanimous-consent request pending.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report.

       A bill (H.R. 2646) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 
     1986 to allow tax-free expenditures from education individual 
     retirement accounts for elementary and secondary school 
     expenses, to increase the maximum annual amount of 
     contributions to such accounts, and for other purposes.

  The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.

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