[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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