[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 119 (Thursday, September 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10203-S10204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      DOING THE SENATE'S BUSINESS--THE NEED FOR A TWO-TRACK SYSTEM

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the Majority Leader has told us that 
there is no time left in this session to work on legislation which can 
improve the quality of life for most Americans. But there is time. As 
the Minority Leader has noted several times, there is time every 
evening after the day's work is completed when we can work a second 
shift.
  The so-called ``two-track'' system has not been an uncommon practice 
in the Senate. More than a dozen times in the last 13 years, this body 
has worked well into the evening on legislation separate from that 
which it worked on during the day in an effort to get the job done. I 
ask unanimous consent that the 14 excerpts from floor speeches which 
refer to this practice be printed in the Record. These are examples 
initiated by Republicans and Democrats, majority and minority.
  We have the opportunity to pass legislation which will make a 
positive impact on the lives of millions of Americans. We should not 
let this chance pass us by.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [144 Cong Rec S 5400, *S5400; May 22, 1998]

       Mr. Lott. I do want to emphasize, the nuclear waste issue 
     we intend to double track. That is one where we can take an 
     action and then come off of that and go, then, to other 
     legislation, the tobacco legislation. And it will take a 
     period of days to get through the process we have to go on, 
     on nuclear waste. But that is not intended to take the place 
     of either the tobacco bill or the Department of Defense 
     authorization bill. It will be double tracking as we go 
     forward.

[141 Cong Rec S 12676, *S12677; Sept. 6, 1995 (Legislative day of Sept. 
                               5, 1995)]

       Mr. Dole. I think we have now completed action on seven 
     appropriations bills. There are no other appropriations bills 
     now ready for consideration. We may try a two-track system--I 
     will discuss that with the Democratic leader--so we can keep 
     abreast of the House on appropriations bills and have all 
     appropriations bills in the President's hands by October 1.
       So it may mean some late, late, late evenings. But we will 
     try to accommodate major concerns that many Senators have 
     from time to time.

 [141 Cong Rec S 5303, *S5303; April 6, 1995 (Legislative day of April 
                                  5)]

       Mr. Daschle. What I hope we might be able to do, perhaps, 
     is to maybe run two tracks, get some debate and offer some of 
     these amendments. We could maybe work out some short time 
     agreements and have a good debate, rather than just putting 
     the Senate in a quorum call, and then work simultaneously to 
     see if [*S5304] we might not be able to address some of these 
     concerns.

 [135 Cong Rec S 13040, *S13040; October 12, 1989 (Legislative day of 
                               Sept. 18)]

       Mr. Mitchell. That is precisely my intention; that if we 
     reach 2 p.m. Wednesday without having completed action on the 
     flag amendment, we will return to that following the 
     presentation of arguments by the impeachment managers and 
     Judge Hastings and his counsel on Wednesday, back to it on 
     Thursday and continue on a double track, so to speak, until 
     such time as we do complete action on that.

[134 Cong Rec S 5258, *S5258; April 29, 1988 (Legislative day of April 
                                  28)]

       Mr. Byrd. So, at least until next Wednesday, I will say 
     that the Senate will be on other very important business, the 
     DOD authorization bill. If that bill is not finished by the 
     conclusion of business on Tuesday, and by that time it 
     appears that the Senate is ready to go forward on the treaty, 
     then Senator Nunn has indicated a willingness to either set 
     the DOD authorization bill aside and take it up following the 
     action on the treaty or, as I suggested to Senator Dole, 
     Senator Nunn, Senator Boren, and Senator Pell, perhaps for a 
     day or two we could proceed on a two-track basis, get work 
     started on the treaty, and finish the work on the DOD 
     authorization bill. We can make that decision as of next 
     Wednesday.

[134 Cong Rec S 2818, *S2833; March 23, 1988 (Legislative day of March 
                                  21)]

       Mr. Simpson. Mr. President, there has been discussion in 
     the past, and it was certainly the majority leader's duty to 
     move legislation, when it was felt several times that there 
     would be a filibuster unless the majority leader felt it 
     necessary to file a motion for cloture on the first day that 
     the bill came up. This is not a criticism. That happened 
     several times. We did our business. When that came up, we had 
     a double track. We handled the immigration bill and we 
     handled the oversight legislation on intelligence. We did our 
     business. There was nothing inappropriate about that. But 
     finally there were those who said we are unable to put in 
     nongermane amendments.

              [134 Cong Rec S 1678, *S1679; March 2, 1988]

       Mr. Simpson. Mr. President, I would inform the majority 
     leader that I think the aspect of the cloture vote does impel 
     us to do our work, and we are going to do that. I think it 
     would be good if the majority leader and I visited about what 
     we visited about last night. I think perhaps we might be in a 
     position to utilize the services of the new committee, the ad 
     hoc committee, for the referral of a sense-of-the-Senate 
     resolution which could be discussed today, and I would like 
     to visit with the majority leader about that. We have been 
     asked to appoint one new member. I am ready to do that. That 
     group would then deal with the rules issues that we 
     discussed. Then we could go on a double track for the 
     intelligence authorization and then get to Price-Anderson and 
     be dealing with it and have it as the pending item of 
     business when we return, because it is a very important piece 
     of legislation.

                  [133 Cong Rec S 8426; June 23, 1987]

       Mr. Byrd. Mr. President, later this afternoon I hope to 
     offer the omnibus trade bill. I would like to get it before 
     the Senate later today for opening statements. On tomorrow, 
     then, following the conference report on the budget action, 
     the Senate would return, probably, to the trade legislation. 
     I remind all Senators that I indicated last week that we will 
     be operating on at least a two-track system here for the next 
     few days. The campaign finance reform bill will still be 
     around. The trade legislation will be up. We will have to 
     take action on the conference report on the budget.

                  [133 Cong Rec S 8493; June 23, 1987]

       Mr. Byrd. The Senate will operate on a two-track system, 
     under the consent order that was entered. It gives the 
     majority leader at any time the consent to go to the trade 
     legislation--the omnibus bill, or the bill that was reported 
     out of the Finance Committee. I have chosen to proceed with 
     the omnibus approach. That was the approach that was 
     discussed for months, and committee chairmen have acted 
     accordingly. They have been dutiful in reporting out the 
     legislation.
       So, beginning on tomorrow, there will be longer days and 
     shorter nights, in contrast to the natural seasons of the 
     year.

                  [133 Cong Rec S 8363; June 19, 1987]

       Mr. Byrd. So by the middle of next week, certainly, I 
     expect us to be on the trade legislation. We will have a two-
     track system. We will work on trade during the early part of 
     the day up into the midafternoon or a little later than 
     midafternoon. Then we will go to campaign financing reform. I 
     would like to retain the flexibility to switch that mode, but 
     that is my present plan, to go with trade first, then 
     campaign financing reform. We can shift that, of course.

[131 Cong Rec S 14042; October 24, 1985 (Legislative day of October 24, 
                                 1985)]

       Mr. Heflin. Mr. President, if the majority leader will 
     yield, is it the majority leader's intention to stay with the 
     farm bill until it is disposed of or to lay it aside, double 
     track it with other measures? I do not mean to ask for a hard 
     and fast answer. But is it the overall intention to dispose 
     of the farm bill on a priority basis over other pending 
     legislation which we have half done or partially done.
       Mr. Dole. The Senator is correct. It might be, if we can 
     reach an agreement on reconciliation, we might have to 
     interrupt discussion of the farm bill, say, Wednesday or 
     Thursday of next week, and it could result if we cannot get 
     an agreement, we could have 100 and some votes under the 
     reconciliation process, but I do believe that with that one 
     caveat, and again there is always a possibility that the 
     textile amendment should come off reconciliation, there might 
     be some agreement to offer it to some other bill, but the 
     general intention is to finish the farm bill, and I know it 
     is very important to farmers just as it was in July when we 
     tried to bring it up.

 [131 Cong Rec S 13169; October 10, 1985 (Legislative day of Sept. 30, 
                                 1985)]

       Mr. Dole. Mr. President, as I have indicated, we will have 
     a pro forma session tomorrow, convening at 9:30 a.m.
       On Tuesday, October 15, 1985, the Senate will convene at 10 
     a.m. Under the standing order, the two leaders will be 
     recognized for 10 minutes each. There is a special order in 
     favor of the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. Proxmire] for 15 
     minutes. That will be followed by morning business, not to 
     extend beyond the hour of 11 a.m.
       Mr. President, following morning business, the Senate will 
     turn to any appropriations bills which have been cleared. No 
     votes will occur during the Tuesday session.
       Mr. President, if we can work it out between the majority 
     leader and the minority leader, I hope we can double track 
     with appropriations bills in the morning and reconciliation 
     in the afternoon. We have gotten behind, not just because of 
     the debt limit but other internal controversies over 
     appropriations bills.

[[Page S10204]]

                  [131 Cong Rec S 9060; July 8, 1985]

       Mr. Dole. We will double track, if necessary, to complete 
     the farm bill that week. We will consider the immigration 
     bill, if it is ready for floor consideration, and if we can 
     work out some agreement, that will not take the entire week. 
     In fact, I hope none of these will take the entire week. In 
     addition to that, hopefully the budget resolution will have 
     been resolved. We have a number of nominations that we hope 
     to dispose of by agreement. If not, we hope to move on some 
     of those nominations because there are a number of very 
     important nominations. It is my understanding that the 
     administration is quite concerned, and hopes that we can 
     approve all of the nominations quickly. But as you can see, 
     July is not too heavy of a schedule. [Laughter.] I hope we 
     can work out some other things in the interim. That ought to 
     be a piece of cake.

 [131 Cong Rec S 8201; June 17, 1985 (Legislative day of June 3, 1985)]

       Mr. Dole. . . . but if that should come up, hopefully we 
     could double-track there for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. 
     I would guess that on Friday we would not be in extremely 
     late that afternoon, but I will attempt to advise the 
     distinguished minority leader prior to the 12 o'clock policy 
     meeting that we have tomorrow.

                          ____________________