[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 112 (Monday, August 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9671-S9672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it is good to see you again, looking in good 
form. I welcome back all our Members and staff. I hope everyone had a 
peaceful and restful August recess.
  Now we will begin the final stretch of the legislative session of the 
105th Congress, as we work to complete action on appropriations bills 
and a number of other important pieces of legislation.
  I think our goal should continue to be to keep our commitment to the 
budget agreement of last year, stick to the caps we agreed to, preserve 
the surplus, and see what we can do to return taxes to the people who 
have worked and earned those taxes.
  We have a number of other issues, obviously, that are very 
important--agriculture issues, education, bankruptcy reform. So we have 
a lot of work to do--missile defense, the defense of our country. I am 
very concerned, as I have said in writing to the President and my 
communications to the Pentagon. I am very worried that we are seeing a 
deterioration of the morale and the readiness of our military. Of 
course, there are many foreign policy issues that we will need to 
address--and all of this in only about 5 weeks or so.
  As a part of that, of course, this week we will take up the foreign 
operations appropriations bill. We expect to be on that issue Tuesday 
and Wednesday. We would like to finish it up Wednesday night if at all 
possible. We will have to count on the Members to work with us in 
trying to get identification of amendments that will be offered.
  I hope Senators will reduce the number of amendments that they are 
offering on these appropriations bills. In July, it seemed as if every 
appropriations bill had 100 amendments. It was difficult, on both sides 
of the aisle, to work through all those amendments. I hope we will have 
a limited number of amendments and can complete that work.
  For today, we will be in a period of morning business until 1 p.m. 
Following that, we will turn to the consideration of any legislative or 
Executive Calendar items that can be cleared for action.
  As a reminder to Members, there will be no rollcall votes today, but 
throughout the August recess I continued to hear from Senators, saying, 
``How about it, are we really going to work that first week in 
September?'' The answer is absolutely yes. We are going to be working 
seriously Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We will begin by 
having our first vote at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, on the adoption of the 
conference report to accompany the military construction appropriations 
bill. We expect Tuesday afternoon or Tuesday night, perhaps Wednesday 
morning, to have a vote on the low level waste disposal issue. And we 
expect votes on amendments with regard

[[Page S9672]]

to the foreign operations appropriations bill. We could have votes on 
cloture or clotures before the week is over, and we could, of course, 
have votes if they are called for with regard to Executive Calendar 
items.
  I want to assure Senators, not only will we be having votes; I am 
going to make sure we have votes, probably more than normal, just to 
bring the point home clearly that Senator Daschle and I have kept our 
word to Senators this year. We told Senators in January this is when we 
will be in, having votes, and this is when we will be out. So far we 
have kept our word to the day on every one of those, both when we would 
be in and when we would be out.
  So this is going to be a busy week. I know it takes a little time to 
get up and running again after you have been gone for a few days or a 
few weeks, but it is important that we make progress this week. Of 
course, next week we will not be in session on Monday because that is 
Labor Day.
  I believe that is all I would have to say at this time, Mr. 
President. I look forward to meeting with leadership on both sides of 
the aisle this afternoon or tomorrow, and I will be talking to Senators 
about the need to be here and debate amendments and to have legislation 
prepared to be brought up for them. I do want to say that I expect to 
file a cloture motion on missile defense sometime soon, and I do expect 
to file a cloture motion, probably on Friday, with regard to bankruptcy 
reform.
  So those are two issues that will at least begin to be considered 
this week, even though we may not be able to complete them until next 
week.
  I yield the floor. Mr. President, I observe the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagel). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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