[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 8, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9949-S9950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, last week, the Senate made good progress, 
and I want to express my appreciation for the cooperation. We did pass 
the military construction appropriations conference report, the first 
appropriations conference report of the year. We also completed action 
on two other appropriations bills, the foreign operations 
appropriations bill and the Treasury-Postal Service. In addition to 
that, we completed action on the Texas Compact legislation and got 
started on debate on bankruptcy reform. So I think we made good use of 
our time. There were also some very interesting hearings that occurred 
last week. I hope we can continue that pace this week.
  We will have a period of morning business until 12:30 today. 
Following morning business, the Senate will recess until 2:15 to allow 
for the weekly party caucuses to meet. When we reconvene after the 
party caucuses, it is my intention for the Senate to begin 
consideration of the Interior appropriations bill. That will be the 
11th appropriations bill to be considered for the year, leaving only 
D.C. appropriations and the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations 
bill. We have not quite a month, but we only have the three remaining 
bills to get done. With a little cooperation, we can complete them. 
Hopefully, we will begin to see two or three conference reports cleared 
each week for the balance of this month.
  Members are encouraged to come to the floor and offer amendments if 
they have amendments on the Interior appropriations bill so that we can 
have debate and votes and make substantial progress on it. We would 
expect to have rollcall votes this afternoon and into the evening, 
perhaps, on the Interior bill amendments or any legislative or 
executive items that may be cleared.
  Also, as a reminder to all Members, there will be two cloture votes 
on Wednesday. The first will be on national missile defense. We voted 
on this a few months ago. Cloture failed by just one vote. I believe, 
in view of what has been happening around the world--the uncertainty in 
Russia, the actions by North Korea, and the problem in Iraq--for us not 
to have a national missile defense, to not have a plan, to not have 
commitment, is indefensible. I would not want to be on record as not 
supporting this. The American people expect it of us. If we don't act 
now, the year 2010 will come and we still will not have a missile 
defense. With a lot of dangerous people, chances of rogue or accidental 
launch is there. We should not take it for granted.
  After we vote on cloture and hopefully complete action on the 
national missile defense bill, we will then turn

[[Page S9950]]

to the Consumer Bankruptcy Protection Act. We hope we will get cloture 
on that. Because of objections from Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts, 
we had to file cloture on a motion to proceed. If we get cloture on 
that, then we would move immediately to cloture on the bill itself, if 
necessary. But I hope we get cloture on the motion to proceed. Then we 
can work out a way to consider this legislation and Senators would have 
a chance or chances to offer amendments, if they would like to.
  This could be a busy week. It could be a productive week. We also 
will probably file cloture sometime this week, perhaps Wednesday, on 
the child custody bill, but we will make that decision as we see how 
the week is proceeding and progressing. We will make that call probably 
Wednesday.
  I yield the floor.

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