[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 117 (Friday, September 10, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10718-S10720]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--MESSAGE ACCOMPANYING S. 1437

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Chair lay before 
the Senate a message from the House to accompany S. 1437, the FAA 
reauthorization. I further ask consent the Senate disagree to the 
amendments of the House, agree to the request for a conference with the 
House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of 
the Senate.
  Before the question is put, I do want to say the FAA reauthorization 
is a very important piece of legislation, obviously. It never seems to 
be easy getting it through the Congress. I remember in 1996 it was the 
last bill that we

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passed of the session, and it took an extra week of the session to get 
it through. Now we find, after a lot of work involving issues all the 
way from safety and improvements in airports and questions of slots at 
various airports--New York, Chicago, as well as what to do with Reagan 
National Airport--the Senate has developed what I think is a good bill. 
The House has passed a bill, but it has provisions in it that are of 
great concern to the chairman of the committee in the Senate and the 
chairman of the Budget Committee. So there are, once again, 
complications.
  Because of the need to stay on the appropriations bills and fulfill 
our commitments, it is very difficult to schedule a lengthy debate on 
FAA reauthorization. I have spoken to Senator Daschle and said: Is 
there some way we can work out an agreement to perhaps bring it up in a 
short period of time so we get it done, even in the midst of all the 
appropriations bills? The other option is to go straight to conference 
with the bill the Senate Commerce Committee reported and the bill the 
House has reported. That is what this would attempt to do so we could 
move on with the process.
  That effort was made during the latter part of July. We thought we 
had it cleared a couple of times, and then we ran into objections. I do 
have a list of proposed conferees who would come both from the Commerce 
Committee and from another committee that is interested in this, the 
Transportation Appropriations Committee, I believe, Senator Shelby; and 
Budget, Senators Domenici and Grassley, and of course their 
counterparts from the Democratic side.
  I make that unanimous consent request at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I shall 
object on behalf of Senator Daschle, the Democratic leader. But before 
doing so, I would like to point out the Senate passed S. 1467, which is 
a 60-day extension of the airport grant program. We have dealt with 
this issue of the reauthorization act for some long while.
  In fact, in the Commerce Committee on which I and the majority leader 
both serve, we have passed S. 82. It has been waiting to be brought to 
the floor of the Senate for debate. The process that is described by 
Senator Lott would, in effect, prohibit Senators from debating this 
issue on the floor of the Senate. Because the House passes an omnibus 
bill and attaches it to the 60-day extension, the Senate does not have 
the opportunity to debate. It means people who have amendments they 
would like to offer, perhaps, to the bill that we wrote in the Commerce 
Committee will not have that opportunity. This will then be decided in 
conference. That is not appropriate and not something we could agree 
to.
  But I do want to say, and I expect the majority leader probably 
disagrees, this process has been abysmal. We have a system in this 
country with radical expansion of the number of people flying. The FAA 
is an organization that desperately needs some assistance and some 
predictability and consistency with a reauthorization they can count 
on. We should have done this long ago. Passing 60-day extensions 
doesn't serve anybody's interest.
  Several days on the floor of the Senate would resolve this from the 
standpoint of the larger reauthorization bill and move this process 
forward. I will be forced to object to the unanimous consent request 
for those reasons, the request offered by the majority leader. I do so 
object, and then I would like to offer a unanimous consent request on a 
different way to accomplish the same result. But I object to the 
unanimous consent request by the majority leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. DORGAN. If I might ask the majority leader for the opportunity to 
offer a unanimous consent request?
  I ask consent the Senate disagree to the House amendments so the 
message on this bill can be returned to the House this afternoon. That 
would enable the House to recede from its amendment and send S. 1467, 
the short-term extension bill the Senate passed on August 2, to the 
President immediately for his signature. This would ensure this process 
would continue, local airports would be able to receive the estimated 
$290 million in funds due through the end of this fiscal year, and do 
that until the Senate has had an opportunity to consider the FAA 
reauthorization bill. We should do that. Senators have that right. It 
ought to be a priority. I hope we can accomplish that. I make this in 
the form of a unanimous consent request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would have to object at this time. 
However, I find some interest in the offer. But I would need to consult 
with the chairman and the ranking member and make sure all Senators are 
aware of that. I have a number of Senators who have put me on notice, 
on both sides of the aisle, that before we agree to a further, or some 
other, agreement or unanimous consent, they would want to be notified. 
I know Senator Fitzgerald of Illinois was one of those. I believe one 
of the New York Senators had notified me to that effect also. So we 
would need to clear it with a number of people.
  I personally think the 60-day extension is the way to go and that is 
why I supported the 60-day extension before we went out. We had not 
been able to resolve the scheduling problems or resolve the substance 
of the issues, and while we were doing that, I thought the responsible 
thing to do was the 60-day extension, and I will continue to advance 
the need for that. Unfortunately, the House didn't agree with that and 
they took our 60-day extension and attached their bill to it and sent 
it back, which, in effect, meant that we did not have the extension 
because this was the final couple of days of the July recess.

  There are disagreements on how to resolve the FAA reauthorization. I 
noted we had a similar disagreement over a very narrow point back in 
1996 and the whole session was delayed an extra week because Senator 
Kennedy had a point that he was concerned about. But we got it done, 
and I am determined we are going to get it done this time.
  I must say to the Senator, if I could create an extra 10 days in a 
month, I would probably do that because it is very hard to accommodate 
what we must do and accommodate agreements that are reached so we can 
have not 1 week but 2 weeks of debate on a juvenile justice bill. We 
find many of our bills are taking longer because Senators offer 100 
amendments or a whole variety of things.
  I am determined to get this done and I will continue to work with the 
chairmen and the ranking members on both sides of the aisle, in both 
Houses, and I will be pursuing the 60-day extension. I will get back to 
the Democratic leadership about how we proceed with that.
  Again, I note I did talk to Senator Daschle about trying to come up 
with an agreement on a process where we could deal with this, even with 
the limited time we have before us.
  Mr. DORGAN. May I make just one comment?
  Mr. LOTT. Further reserving the right to object, I yield to the 
Senator.
  Mr. DORGAN. I observe on March 8 the Commerce Committee took action 
on S. 82, which is the reauthorization of the FAA. So we have had a 
substantial amount of time elapse. I think the Senator from Mississippi 
agrees with me that the number of people using the aviation system in 
this country has expanded dramatically. The capacity is being 
substantially taxed in many ways, and we really do need to pass a 
reauthorization bill. It is critically important that we get at this 
business. I respect the difficulty of time that a majority leader has 
to deal with, but this is a big issue, the issue of safety and 
protecting the system by which we have an aviation transportation 
system in our country, one that we are very proud of but one that 
desperately is waiting for and needs a reauthorization bill passed by 
the Senate. We ought to have the opportunity to debate that in the 
Senate, get to conference, and we ought to make this a priority.
  Mr. LOTT. Further reserving the right to object, if Senators will 
show up, we can have work on Mondays and Fridays. If we do not have 
objection to having a full day's work, such as this

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coming Monday, we can get more done. But I should note also, 
transportation in general is important. Roads and ports and harbors, 
Amtrak, railroads, airlines--it is all important.
  Yet, just yesterday, the Democrats insisted on blocking a maneuver to 
get to consideration of the Transportation appropriations bill. They 
threatened to filibuster because they did not like one provision in the 
Transportation appropriations bill that will benefit two States, that 
affects two States. Therefore, we could not invoke cloture on the 
Transportation appropriations bill.
  I agree, air safety is important but so is road safety. My father was 
killed on an unsafe, narrow, two-lane highway. I get very excited and 
determined when it comes to transportation, whether it is an 
appropriations bill or transportation in general, and FAA 
reauthorization. I hope we can find a way to work together to move both 
these bills. I am committed to that.
  I object.
  I will move to the next request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.

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