[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 30 (Wednesday, March 18, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2171-S2172]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           Motion to Proceed

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to executive session to consider the NATO treaty.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I object.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me, if 
I could, respond briefly to a couple of points made by the majority 
leader.
  First of all, I have no reservations about his desire to double-track 
this legislation. Obviously, I think double-tracking makes sense. But 
he should not live under any misconception that somehow that is going 
to accelerate consideration of the education debate. We will have our 
day. We will have our opportunity to offer these amendments. Those 
amendments only have to be filed if cloture is invoked. And I hope my 
Democratic colleagues and many Republican colleagues understand the 
importance of having a good debate. Whether it is this week or next 
week or some other week, we are going to have that debate. We will have 
these amendments offered. We will have them considered. We are going to 
have it out. We will have a good discussion, as we should, in the 
Senate.
  This is not the House of Representatives. We are not working under 
closed rules and all of the constraints under which the House has 
continued to perform its duties. That is the beauty of this body. And 
we are going to see that respect for the rules of the institution is 
upheld.
  It is certainly the majority leader's right in that regard. I wasn't 
suggesting, in an earlier point I made about the number of days we 
spent on cloning, that we should not spend them. I of days we spent on 
cloning, that we should not spend them. I just felt that it might be a 
little more productive to spend them in committee, where this belonged, 
rather than to rush to the floor with a solution before we had an 
opportunity to think through what the solution might be. So I thought 
it really was wasted time. I may be the only one in that regard. But 
eventually we will come back with something that makes sense. This 
didn't make sense. And I am hopeful that ultimately we will come to a 
solution.

  But we did spend 4 days. That was the point. We spent 4 days on 
something thrown together to respond, in my view, very haphazardly to a 
very serious problem. If we can spend 4 days on that, it would seem to 
me we can spend a good while talking very constructively about one of 
the most important issues facing this country and our agenda in the 
Senate.
  So I have no objection. I appreciate very much the opportunity to 
express myself.
  Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the pending request?
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The majority leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, just two final observations with regard to 
Senator Daschle's comments. I feel very strongly about this Coverdell 
A+ bill. I think it is going to be helpful for children in America. My 
mother was a schoolteacher. I went to public schools all my life. I 
worked in placement and financial aid. I think it is high time we give 
parents and grandparents and people who care about kids in elementary 
and secondary education an opportunity to save for those kids and help 
them get an education. That is one of the reasons why I think education 
is not as good as it ought to be in elementary and secondary.
  So I am determined we are going to get this bill up. We are going to 
consider it without a lot of extraneous matters. And I do want to 
observe that, as majority leader, I do still think the majority sets 
the agenda. I get to call up the bills, not somebody else. It has been 
developed over a period of many years that majority leaders call bills 
up, and I am not going to be dictated to by others who have a different 
agenda.
  You can say you are going to do this and you are going to do that. If 
you want to have a fight over it, we will meet and fight on this one, 
because I am standing with children in elementary and secondary 
education in America. And I might also just say now I am willing to do 
what is right for our country. I have stood at this point and taken 
some tough stands when I thought it was important that it be 
bipartisan, nonpartisan, for our country. And I won't even repeat them, 
because I received a lot of flak. But right now I have Senators saying, 
don't go to NATO enlargement, delay it, delay it until after the Easter 
recess, delay it until June; do it never.
  I do not think that is right. I am willing to cooperate and work on 
some

[[Page S2172]]

of these issues that must be bipartisan. But in return, from this 
administration and from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I am 
going to look for a little help and a little cooperation on issues that 
I think are important also.
  So I hope that we can find a way to do that, and I believe we will. 
But it does take cooperation as we get through these difficult shoals 
on education, on NATO enlargement, on the budget for the year, on the 
emergency funding, the supplemental appropriations bill for Bosnia, the 
Persian Gulf, for disasters, and maybe even for IMF. Some of these 
issues I don't even agree with, but I feel an obligation to call them 
up.

  So since there has been an objection, I now move that the Senate----
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader has the floor.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move that the Senate proceed to executive 
session to consider the NATO treaty.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Do I hear an objection?
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe----
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I object.
  Mr. LOTT. We made a motion to proceed to executive session to 
consider the NATO treaty. I believe the question will be on the motion, 
Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been suggested at 
this time. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. 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. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we will not object to the rollcall vote 
as proposed in the motion offered by the majority leader. Let me just 
say, after consultation with a number of my colleagues, I think it is 
clear that many of us yesterday voted on the motion to proceed with an 
expectation we would be able to go to the bill. I voted that way and 
encouraged my Democratic colleagues to vote that way, even though, as 
the leader indicated, because of unrelated questions, not related to 
education, more related to judicial nominations, some of our colleagues 
understandably voted in frustration about their inability to move 
through the judicial process and the confirmation of judges as was 
expressed by my colleagues yesterday.

  Our desire, our hope, is that we can move ahead with this bill. Our 
hope is that we can offer amendments. As I have noted, we would be 
willing to take time agreements on most, if not all, of them. I would 
be willing to work into an agreement with the leader on that matter on 
these amendments. Unfortunately, we will not have that opportunity if 
we go to the NATO resolution.
  So while we will certainly comply with the vote and have the vote at 
this moment, it is not my desire to support it and I would hope my 
Democratic colleagues would not either.
  I yield the floor, and I thank the majority leader for his 
consideration.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is now on agreeing to the motion 
put forth by the majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The yeas and nays are requested.
  Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient 
second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to 
proceed. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the 
roll.
  Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye) is 
necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 55, nays 44, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 36 Leg.]

                                YEAS--55

     Abraham
     Allard
     Ashcroft
     Bennett
     Bond
     Brownback
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     DeWine
     Domenici
     Enzi
     Faircloth
     Frist
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Helms
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Kempthorne
     Kyl
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Roberts
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner

                                NAYS--44

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Byrd
     Cleland
     Conrad
     Daschle
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Glenn
     Graham
     Harkin
     Hollings
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Reed
     Reid
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Torricelli
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--1


       
     Inouye
       
  The motion was agreed to.

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