[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12217-S12219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, before I talk about today's schedule, I do 
want to commend a number of Senators who have been doing yeomen's work 
over the past 2 days. Even though we haven't had a lot of recorded 
votes, we have been making good progress. I remind the Senate that we 
did come to an agreement after actually at least 3 years of going back 
and forth on a bipartisan Amtrak bill, which passed on Friday on a 
voice vote. That now will be in conference, and I think there is even a 
chance that we could get an agreement on that conference report before 
we go out. If we don't, it will be something we should reach early 
agreement on in conference when we come back after the first of the 
year.
  Also, the Senate did agree to pass a fix with regard to ISTEA, or the 
highway infrastructure bill, which is now before the House for their 
consideration.

                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                
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[[Page S12218]]

  The Senate yesterday passed by an overwhelming vote of 91 to 4 the 
very large and important Labor, Health and Human Services, and 
Education appropriations bill conference report, and just last night we 
reached an agreement after a lot of good work by a lot of Senators, 
including Senator Chafee, Senator Rockefeller, Senator Roth, Senator 
Grassley, Senator Craig, who really did the great work in bringing the 
divergent parties together, Senator DeWine and others, on the foster 
care-adoption issue. I think this will be, frankly, one of the things 
that we will be most proud of when this year is concluded. We did that 
last night. Once, again, after a lot of hard work and good cooperation, 
that passed last night on a voice vote.
  Today, continued effort will be made to get an agreement in 
conference for the Food and Drug Administration reform bill. Probably 
12 or 14 times we reached agreement and closed the conference, all to 
find that something was misplaced along the way or the agreement was 
not what others had thought it would be, and so it is still alive. I 
talked again to interested Senators this morning, and they will be 
working on it today. This, again, is something we need to do before we 
leave. So there is a lot happening in terms of Senators meeting; in the 
case of FDA reform, the House and Senate Members meeting on the 
conference report. I am looking forward to that agreement being 
reached.
  Later on today, there is a good possibility that we will consider an 
omnibus appropriations bill to be offered by the chairman and the 
ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. We do not now have a 
fixed time agreement, and there is no certainty whether or not there 
will be a rollcall vote or when that would be. There is still some 
discussion going on with regard to that bill. But in any event, once a 
decision is made on that legislation, if a rollcall vote is required, 
Senators will be notified 1 hour prior to that first vote.
  We are also continuing to work to see if we can get an agreement to 
move the District of Columbia appropriations bill through the Senate on 
a voice vote and through the House, so it can go down separately for 
the President's consideration to sign or veto it or to line-item veto 
the scholarship portion of it, which I think would be a big mistake. 
That still could come up either on a voice vote or perhaps a recorded 
vote would be required on that, as well as the omnibus appropriations 
bill.
  In addition, the Senate could expect to consider other Legislative or 
Executive Calendar items. The Executive Calendar now is down to just a 
very few nominations. Several of them are being held at this time 
because of holds on other nominations. Today is the day when Senators 
need to consider if, in fact, they want to hold these nominations up 
for the remainder of the year and over into next year. We have worked 
very assiduously with interested Senators on both sides of the aisle. 
The administration tried to clear as many of these as possible, and we 
will do so again today.

  The House of Representatives is, at this point, scheduled to consider 
the fast-track legislation late this afternoon or early evening. I have 
spoken to House leaders. There is no certainty at this time as to when 
that vote will occur. It looks to me like it will certainly be late 
afternoon or into the night. Therefore, the Senate can do nothing more 
really on fast track other than await the action in the House. If they 
should not pass the bill, then it would be my intent, and I believe it 
would be agreed to by leaders on both sides of the aisle, not to go 
further in the Senate with fast track. If it passes, then we have to 
make an assessment as to how we can bring it to a conclusion in the 
Senate. That could be tonight, it could be Monday, or it could be 
something else, which I don't even want to mention at this point.
  We also have the three remaining appropriations bills--Commerce, 
State, Justice; District of Columbia; and foreign operations. All of 
those still have an item or two that are in contention. We don't know 
whether we will move on the omnibus appropriations bill or whether the 
House will decide to go ahead and act on the bills separately and send 
them to us. But we will be working throughout the day to try to 
ascertain when we will get those appropriations bills and in what form.
  I think then the bottom line is, we do not expect a recorded vote any 
time soon. Senators will be notified 1 hour in advance should a 
recorded vote be required this afternoon. All Senators should be aware, 
and they need to keep their schedules clear, so that we can perhaps 
still have an opportunity to conclude this year's session today or 
tonight.
  I now ask that there be a period for the transaction of morning 
business----
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, before he does that, will the majority 
leader yield?
  Mr. LOTT. I withhold, and I will be glad to yield, Mr. President, to 
the Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, my friend from Mississippi has raised the 
issue of the appropriations bills. Senators, as he knows, have been 
working very, very hard on that--the distinguished chairman of the 
committee, Mr. Stevens, the distinguished ranking member, Mr. Byrd, and 
those of us who are either ranking or chairmen of the appropriate 
subcommittees that are involved, in this case three key ones.
  Mr. President, I note, as we have discussed privately, that there 
will not be a perfect piece of appropriations legislation, I say to my 
friend from Mississippi, from anyone's point of view. It is not 
precisely what he would write if he were to write it solely by himself; 
it is not precisely what I would write if I wrote it solely by myself, 
and we could say that with the other 98 men and women in this body.
  At some point, when you are down to the last few hours of the 
session, we have to allow the committee system and the leadership 
system to work, where senior Members, especially of appropriations, 
where senior Members in both parties, in both bodies have to come 
together and reach an agreement, realizing that not every single Member 
on the left or on the right is going to like it. But you have to trust 
at some point some question of seniority in putting this together.
  I didn't care much for the seniority system when I came here 23 years 
ago, but having studied it for 23 years, I understand it so much better 
now. I say to my friend, the majority leader, and I think he would 
agree with me, that in the last few days of the session, especially 
with appropriations, you are not going to get a bill that is going to 
please every single Member 100 percent, but we have to get something 
done because at some point you have to fish or cut bait.
  I just mention that because I know the distinguished majority leader 
has been working as hard on this as anybody else to get us to this 
point.
  Mr. LOTT. I have used those exact words, I might say, ``fish or cut 
bait.''

  I will note again, we made tremendous progress in the past week on 
appropriations bills and other issues. I mentioned Amtrak, the highway 
bill, FDA, adoption and foster care, and I believe even on 
appropriations bills basically everything has been worked out but one 
issue. Obviously, we concluded an acceptable compromise on the Labor-
HHS appropriations conference report involving the testing language.
  I believe we have an agreement worked out with regard to the census 
language that would be incorporated in the Commerce, State, Justice 
appropriations bill.
  I believe the two remaining issues for the year boil down to this: 
Can the House get the votes for fast track, since the Senate has 
already spoken overwhelmingly with votes of 68 and 67 for cloture 
motions to limit the debate so we can get to final passage, and the 
other one is the foreign operations bill, which includes a number of 
very important issues. Obviously, it involves the funds for our foreign 
operations; it involves the agreement with regard to how much would be 
paid for the U.N. arrearages; it involves the State Department 
authorization and reform and reorganization bill; it involves funds for 
the International Monetary Fund. But the one issue that is holding it 
all up, basically, boils down to whether or not the taxpayers' dollars 
will be used to promote and encourage foreign governments to encourage 
abortions. The bill that I thought we had agreed to provided a waiver 
where the President could waive that, but it would affect the funds.
  It has gotten down to a very narrow issue. You are right, we are not 
going

[[Page S12219]]

to come to an agreement that every Senator will agree to, but I think 
we are close enough on that issue that we ought to be able to reach 
agreement and bring the foreign operations appropriations conference 
report to a conclusion. And if we can get that agreement and fast 
track, we will have completed the year on a very high note and one that 
the American people, I think, will be proud of and of which we could be 
proud.
  The taxpayers of the United States have had a pretty good year. We 
would like to end up with agreements on these important issues. 
Certainly, it won't be perfect, as the Senator has said, but we have 
tried compromise after compromise after compromise. So far, none of 
them have taken hold. But I have faith that on Sunday, we will find a 
way to do that. Certainly, I do think that senior Members and leaders 
have to step up to these challenges and get the job done.

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