[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 44 (Friday, March 19, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2995-S2996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1999

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.


                            Amendment No. 81

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, on behalf of the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee, I now call for the regular order with respect 
to amendment No. 81.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the pending amendment.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison) proposes an 
     amendment numbered 81.


                           Amendment No. 124

 (Purpose: Prohibiting the use of funds for military operations in the 
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) unless Congress 
     enacts specific authorization in law for the conduct of those 
                              operations)

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk to the 
pending Hutchison amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report that amendment.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Lott) proposes an 
     amendment numbered 124 to the amendment No. 81.

  The amendment is as follows:

       Strike all after the word Sec.    and insert the following:
       Findings.--
       The Senate Finds That--
       (1) United States national security interests in Kosovo do 
     not rise to a level that warrants military operations by the 
     United States; and
       (2) Kosovo is a province in the Federal Republic of 
     Yugoslavia, a sovereign state:

     SEC.   . RESTRICTION ON USE OF FUNDS FOR MILITARY OPERATIONS 
                   IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (SERBIA 
                   AND MONTENEGRO).

       (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), none 
     of the funds available to the Department of Defense 
     (including prior appropriations) may be used for the purpose 
     of conducting military operations by the Armed Forces of the 
     United States in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia 
     and Montenegro) unless Congress first enacts a law containing 
     specific authorization for the conduct of those operations.
       (b) Exceptions.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to--
       (1) any intelligence or intelligence-related activity or 
     surveillance or the provision of logistical support; or
       (2) any measure necessary to defend the Armed Forces of the 
     United States against an immediate threat.

                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk to the 
pending second-degree amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.

[[Page S2996]]

  The bill clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the Lott 
     amendment No. 124 prohibiting the use of funds for military 
     operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia:
           Trent Lott, Paul Coverdell, Bob Smith of New Hampshire, 
             Jeff Sessions, Don Nickles, Charles E. Grassley, Sam 
             Brownback, Tim Hutchinson, Michael B. Enzi, Bill 
             Frist, Frank Murkowski, Jim Inhofe, Conrad Burns, 
             Mitch McConnell, Ted Stevens, and Jim Bunning.

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the purpose of the procedure that I just 
undertook was to make sure we had an opportunity today and on Monday to 
begin to debate the issue surrounding Kosovo and to decide what the 
Senate's role should be and what action we will take. This may not be 
the amendment we wind up considering in the end, but to make sure that 
we have this opportunity for this debate, I thought it was essential we 
go ahead and take this action now.
  I have been working with the minority leader for the last 2 days in 
an effort to try to reach an agreement with respect to the situation in 
Kosovo, as to how we could consider it and when that would be. 
Unfortunately, because of the evolving circumstances and because of the 
briefings that occurred on Thursday and again today, we have not been 
able to best decide how to proceed.
  Therefore, I did call up the Hutchinson amendment, which primarily 
had to do with the things that would have to occur, information we 
would have to receive from the President before the deployment of 
ground troops in Kosovo. I then sent to the desk an amendment to that 
which said, basically, that military action could not be undertaken 
without the Senate having considered this issue. That is basically the 
Smith of New Hampshire proposal.
  Again, I reiterate, so we can lock in the guarantee that we will have 
an opportunity to discuss this, a cloture motion was filed, but 
hopefully it won't be necessary to have this vote occur on cloture. We 
will need to continue to talk about how to proceed, how long we will 
need, what a vote would be, or to make the decision not to go forward 
with it would also be an option. I will continue to work with Senators 
on both sides of the aisle who wish to be heard on this to try to come 
to a conclusion about how we want to have this vote.
  We also have the situation where next week the budget resolution will 
be taken up on Tuesday afternoon, and we have 50 hours of debate on 
that. It is our intent to complete action on that before we leave so 
that we can, for the first time in a long time, meet the April 15 
deadline in having a budget resolution agreed to. We have a lot of work 
to do. I want to try to set this up.


                      Unanimous-Consent Agreement

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be 30 
minutes equally divided, for debate only, on Tuesday, March 23, 
beginning at 11:45, and a cloture vote occur at 12:15 on Tuesday, and 
the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I ask the 
majority leader whether or not, given the fact it does not now appear 
that we will have votes on Monday and Senators will just be coming 
back, we could schedule the vote for 2:15, immediately following the 
caucus, so that we would have the opportunity to discuss this matter in 
caucus and decide what course of action we may take; 2:15, I think, 
would probably accommodate many Senators who might not otherwise have 
the opportunity.
  Mr. LOTT. If the Senator would yield, I think that is a reasonable 
request. My only purpose in trying to get it to begin and be completed 
before the policy luncheon is so we could go right to the budget 
resolution right after lunch. I think to just have the vote right after 
lunch at 2:15 and then go to the budget resolution is a reasonable 
request. We will have Monday in which Senators can begin to express 
themselves. Senator Byrd and I just had a little colloquy. We will have 
more Members, I hope, available, as we go forward, and Senators are 
already calling to indicate they would like to be heard even this 
afternoon or Monday, to discuss this. We will have the opportunity 
Tuesday morning.
  I want to say, again, we may decide to vitiate all of this. We are 
just not ready to go forward. If that is the case, then we will do so.
  I will modify my request to say that--I would like to have the time 
still equally divided before the luncheon--the vote occur at 2:15 
instead of 12:15.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. I thank Senator Daschle for his cooperation. I thank 
Senator Cleland. I thought it was just going to be a couple of minutes. 
You have been very patient. Thank you for yielding this time.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. In yesterday's Record, it did not reflect that I was 
an original cosponsor of the Roberts-Brownback amendments regarding gas 
producers that was adopted. I want to inform my colleagues that I was 
an original cosponsor and I understand the permanent Record will 
reflect that fact.
  Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I rise today to thank the bill managers for 
accommodating me--and more importantly the elderly and disabled 
residents of the St. Paul Public Housing Agency--by accepting an 
amendment I was prepared to offer which is intended to right a wrong 
which has been imposed by the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD) upon elderly and disabled public housing residents in 
St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as nearly 50 other cities in America. As 
you may be aware, the Service Coordinator Program administered by HUD 
has succeeded where many Federal programs have failed. It has enabled 
some of our nation's most vulnerable citizens--the elderly and 
disabled--to live independently in public housing with dignity. Mr. 
President, most elderly and disabled public housing residents are not 
helpless individuals, but rather are people who simply need a little 
assistance doing the day to day tasks we all take for granted. However, 
without someone to help with these tasks, many of these people may be 
forced to move into more expensive assisted living or nursing 
facilities. The Service Coordinator Program provides basic support 
services to these residents to enable them to live independently.
  Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, HUD has again proven its 
incompetence by bungling a recent round of funding of this popular and 
highly successful program. In a June 1998, funding announcement, HUD 
stated that the $6.5 million available for public housing agency 
service coordinators would be allocated through a lottery, but HUD also 
noted that expiring three year grants would be funded first before the 
general lottery. Unfortunately, the $6.5 million HUD set-aside was well 
short of the $9.9 million in applications received and rather that 
funding all renewals at a prorated level, HUD quietly selected some 
applicants through a lottery and rejected others.
  Although this may simply seem like an inconvenient administrative 
glitch, to the residents of the St. Paul public housing agency which 
have thrived under this program, it is devastating. That is because St. 
Paul PHA was one of the fifty or so PHAs which were passed over by HUD. 
As a result of HUD's blunder, the St. Paul public housing agency will 
have to release three of their service coordinators within the next 
month, resulting in the disruption of countless elderly and disabled 
residents' lives.
  In order to correct this problem, my amendment transfers $3.4 million 
from the Department of Housing and Urban Development administrative 
expenses account to fully fund the applications which HUD rejected due 
to their miscalculation. I believe this amendment appropriately keeps 
our promise to the elderly and disabled public housing residents with 
the burden being borne by the agency which created the problem.

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