[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 5, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11753-S11754]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, we 
will now have a period of morning business until the hour of 6 p.m. 
with Senators to be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
  Mr. DORGAN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. NICKLES. Yes.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator from Oklahoma 
could inform us of the unanimous-consent request that affects business 
on the floor of the Senate tomorrow. My understanding is the pending 
unanimous consent request deals with the DOD authorization bill. The 
reason I ask the question is I am interested in learning when we will 
come back to the regular order, which will be the fast-track 
consideration of the fast-track proposal.
  Mr. NICKLES. To respond to my colleague, the Senate has already 
agreed to a unanimous-consent request that would call for the DOD 
authorization bill to be voted on tomorrow at some time, at 2 p.m. I 
think the order calls for 4 hours of debate. We will go on it at 10, 
and vote at 2.
  That is on the DOD conference report.
  Beyond that, I am not prepared to tell my colleague what--I know the 
House is planning on voting on the fast-track authorization on Friday. 
There is some discussion that since that is a House bill and we are 
working on the Senate bill, we might entertain taking up the House bill 
when it passes so we wouldn't be working on two different bills.
  Mr. DORGAN. If the Senator will yield further, my understanding is 
the

[[Page S11754]]

motion to proceed prevailed by the most recent vote, and the result is 
now the regular order of the Senate would be the fast-track 
legislation. The Senator asked unanimous consent to go to morning 
business. I didn't object to that. We also have a unanimous consent for 
tomorrow's proceedings dealing with DOD authorization. At that point, 
does the Senator expect to go back to the legislation pending, or can 
the Senator inform us whether he will be propounding additional 
unanimous-consent requests with respect to Senate business?
  Mr. NICKLES. To respond to my friend and colleague, I think the next 
order, after we pass the DOD authorization bill, would be to take up 
the District of Columbia appropriations conference report, or 
appropriations bill. In addition to that, we may well be taking up 
Amtrak reform legislation, which has also been working its way through, 
not exactly on a fast track, but it has been working its way through, 
and hopefully we can get it done as well.
  Mr. DORGAN. When does the Senator expect us to get back to the fast-
track legislation?
  Mr. NICKLES. That remains to be seen. That is really Senator Lott's 
call. It may well be Thursday. It may well be Friday. It may well be 
after the House would take it up.
  Mr. DORGAN. Further inquiry. I will appreciate the Senator's 
response.
  As I understand it, conference reports are privileged matters.
  Mr. NICKLES. That is correct.
  Mr. DORGAN. They can be brought to the floor of the Senate at any 
time. Amtrak and other intervening legislation will require unanimous 
consent, is that correct?
  Mr. NICKLES. I would have to ask the Presiding Officer on Amtrak. My 
colleague is correct on the conference reports on appropriations bills. 
Yes, they could.
  We have four appropriations bills that we are trying to get through. 
It happens to be that we are at a deadline by November 7, so our 
highest priority is try to complete the various authorization bills.
  Mr. DORGAN. If I might just inquire further, the reason I ask the 
question is that because we are on the legislation dealing with fast 
track, there are a number of Senators who will be wanting to offer 
amendments. It will not be a pleasant experience to learn that we move 
to other things and then come back to fast track with some 
understanding there is no time for amendments. I am just inquiring to 
try to determine what the expectation of the leadership is with respect 
to the fast-track legislation.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, would the acting leader yield for a minute?
  Mr. NICKLES. First, let me respond to my colleague, Senator Dorgan. I 
hear what the Senator is saying. I know that the Senator has some 
amendments he wishes to offer on fast track. I know that we wish to 
pass fast track. We also wish to pass Amtrak reform and we also wish to 
pass all the appropriations bills, and we only have a couple of days. 
So we are going to try to accommodate everybody's requests. But the 
highest priority I believe will be to pass the appropriations 
conference reports as soon as possible. I believe the D.C. bill will be 
the first one up. That is not a conference report. It is a bill. But I 
think we have an agreement on D.C., so we will get that one 
accomplished. Hopefully then we will have three other conference 
reports we will be able to do in the next day or two, and we will have, 
I am sure, some additional time for my colleague to spend on fast track 
as well.
  Mr. KERRY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Faircloth). The Chair recognizes the 
distinguished Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, if I might share with my friend from North 
Dakota information with respect to at least Amtrak. We have an 
agreement now reached with respect to Amtrak. The language is now in 
print, and I believe it is being hotlined on both sides.
  So with respect to the Amtrak effort in terms of any interruption, we 
would anticipate that going through here in a minimal amount of time. I 
am not sure how much the chairman of the committee, Senator McCain, 
wants, but I would not imagine it will take more than half an hour or 
so. And so I do not think that will interrupt the course of business 
with respect to fast track in any significant way.
  Mr. DORGAN. If the Senator will yield, an agreement on Amtrak would 
be welcome news I think to all Members of the Senate, and it would not 
be my intention to try to obstruct that. I am simply trying to 
determine when we might get back to fast track so that we might 
entertain amendments.

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