[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 36 (Thursday, March 26, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2690-S2691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators--I think 
they already know this by now--this last vote was the final vote of the 
evening. A rollcall vote now will occur at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning on a 
judicial nomination. We are having it at that early

[[Page S2691]]

hour so that we can accommodate some Senators who have commitments, and 
also so that we can turn relatively quickly tomorrow to the opening 
debate on the budget resolution. Senator Domenici and Senator 
Lautenberg, the managers of the legislation, will be available, and 
they will begin the debate. And we hope to use at least 6 hours of that 
time tomorrow.
  Following that vote at 9 o'clock on Friday morning, the Senate will 
begin the budget resolution, which has 50 hours of time under the 
statute. We will return to further debate on it on Monday and have a 
considerable amount of time for debate then.
  I think by the close of business tomorrow we will have had a 
productive week. I thought we could finish things earlier. It took 
about 3 days longer than I thought on the supplemental, but we have 
gotten the supplemental down to final action by the Senate. And we 
could not pass it with the final vote anyway until the House acts. So 
sometime Tuesday then, assuming the House acts, we would expect to 
complete the final action on the supplemental appropriations bill.
  We have, I think, made progress on the Coverdell education savings 
account bill. And we will get that issue resolved as to how we take it 
up one way or the other by or before Tuesday morning. In addition to 
that, we will have taken up some nominations, and we will have had 
about 6 hours of time on the budget resolution, as well as the vote on 
Mexico decertification.
  Now, there still remains an awful lot to do to get through the budget 
resolution. It is quite an experience. We hope to have a more orderly 
process this time so that we can avoid the final night ``vote-rama'' 
where we have 10, 20, 30 votes or more in a row. But that will take a 
lot of cooperation from Senators. And certainly it will take direction 
from the managers of the bill.
  It appears at this time, because of the agreement that has been 
worked out on the budget resolution, that we will not have a recorded 
vote on Monday at 5:30 as had been earlier anticipated. I want to check 
further with both sides of the aisle to make sure that that is agreed 
to and is acceptable. I think it is important we tell Members as early 
as possible, but it will give us then more uninterrupted time to work 
on the budget resolution.
  Again, as a reminder to all Members, the next vote will occur 
tomorrow at 9 a.m.

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