[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 59 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4639-S4640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, on Monday a good deal of work was done and 
the predicate was laid for a number of bills to be considered this 
week. We will begin the morning with morning business until 10 a.m. I 
observe that there are at least a couple of Senators who wish to take 
advantage of that.
  Following morning business, Senator D'Amato will be recognized to 
introduce a bill regarding patient care for breast cancer. It is hoped 
that a short time agreement can be reached with the D'Amato bill.
  At 11 a.m., under a previous order the Senate will proceed to the 
consideration of the agriculture research conference report. The time 
until 12:10 will be divided among several Members for debate on that 
conference report. Following that debate, the Senate will proceed to 
the consideration of the National Science Foundation reauthorization 
bill, again under a short time agreement. A rollcall vote will occur on 
passage of that bill, the National Science Foundation reauthorization, 
at approximately 12:15 or so. Therefore Members should be aware that 
the first vote of today's session will occur at 12:15. Then the Senate 
will recess after that vote for the weekly policy caucuses.
  When the Senate reconvenes at 2:15, Senator Gramm of Texas will be 
recognized to move to recommit the agriculture research conference 
report. There will be 1 hour of debate equally divided on the motion. 
At the conclusion of that debate, the Senate will proceed to vote on or 
in relation to the motion. Following the vote, it is hoped that a short 
time agreement can be reached with respect to the agriculture research 
conference report. Any of several high-tech bills or other legislative 
or executive items also may be taken up today, if they can be cleared.
  I did have a good conversation late on Monday afternoon with Senator 
Daschle. I believe we are going to be able to clear at least three of 
those high-tech bills. All of them are broadly supported and I believe 
will have an overwhelming vote once we get to a vote. I won't list them 
now, but we will make some further announcement on that later on today.
  Finally, as a reminder to all Members, a cloture vote will occur on 
Wednesday on the motion to proceed to the missile defense bill. Senator 
Cochran handled this debate on the floor on Monday. He has done 
excellent work on this bill. This is something we should do for the 
defense of our country. The American people, I find, when I go around 
and talk about missile defense, are shocked to learn that we don't have 
a National Missile Defense System in place. So this bill is very 
important, I believe. I appreciate the work that has been done by my 
colleague from Mississippi.
  The next 2 weeks obviously will be extremely busy as Members attempt 
to complete action on several important pieces of legislation. There 
are a number of conferences that we hope to have completed and voted on 
before the Memorial Day recess, including the ISTEA II, the highway 
transportation bill, the education conference report, the IRS reform 
and restructuring conference report. We also have a vote already agreed 
to with regard to Russia-Iran missile technology transfer, which is a 
continuing concern. Progress is not being made sufficiently, and I do 
expect that there will be a vote on this before the end of the next 
week.

  There are a number of other very important bills now that Members are 
getting cleared through committees or that Members are seeking to have 
voted on. We will try to schedule as many of those as we can. 
Obviously, we will need the cooperation of all Members as we try to get 
through this process before the end of the May recess for Memorial Day.
  I again emphasize we do have probably three high-tech bills that we 
have cleared: we have the agriculture conference report, we have the 
missile defense bill that Senator Cochran has been working on, and the 
National Science Foundation reauthorization bill. And we are going to 
try to clear some Executive Calendar nominations, too.
  So, again, thank you for your cooperation. These are all very 
important

[[Page S4640]]

bills for the American people and I hope we can continue the good 
progress that we have made over the last 3 weeks. When you look back at 
what we have been able to get through the Senate, in terms of 
education, the NATO treaty enlargement, and also last week the IRS 
reform--if we can have another week and complete the week with the DOD 
Department of Defense authorization bill I think we can feel very good 
about what we have accomplished over the last month.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hutchinson). The Senator from Mississippi.

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