[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 150 (Friday, October 29, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13529-S13530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AFRICAN GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT--Continued
Mr. LOTT. I call for regular order with regard to the trade bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the pending business.
The legislative assistant read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 434) to authorize a new trade and investment
policy for sub-Sahara Africa.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, having witnessed the vote earlier today, I
am very concerned about our ability to complete action on the African
and Caribbean Basin Initiative free trade legislation. This is
important legislation. I believe it is good for the United States. It
will be good for Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa. This bill
is supported by Senators on both sides of the aisle and by the
President.
I understand that maybe some Senator or Senators have gotten the
idea, since we did not get cloture today, that was the end of it and
this bill would just be set aside permanently. We are still very
hopeful we can find a way to get this job done. We have a problem in
that it takes a lot of time to get through the cloture motions and
complete it, but I have not given up yet.
I am going to file cloture on the pending substitute, and if cloture
is not invoked on Tuesday, we will have to move on to other issues. I
emphasize I am filing two cloture motions, so we can hopefully get
cloture on the substitute and on the bill itself and allow us to get to
the substance, have amendments that are important, and bring it to a
conclusion.
As a part of all this, I emphasize that Senator Daschle and I are
working on an apparently unrelated issue but one that is related in
fact, and that is an agreement as to how we can handle the bankruptcy
bill and allow amendments, amendments that relate to bankruptcy, the
credit cards issue, but also would have a number of agreed-to,
nonrelevant amendments that would be in order.
I hope we can get that worked out. We are getting very close. That
would relieve some of the pressure in opposition, and if we can get
both bills done, it will be a monumental achievement, if we can go out
this session having done the free trade bill for the Caribbean Basin
Initiative and Africa and a bankruptcy bill that allows votes on which
the Senate has indicated it wants to vote.
Cloture Motion
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the pending
substitute to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The legislative assistant 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 substitute
amendment to Calendar No. 215, H.R. 434, an act to authorize
a new trade and investment policy for sub-Sahara Africa:
Trent Lott, Bill Roth, Mike DeWine, Rod Grams, Mitch
McConnell, Judd Gregg, Larry E. Craig, Chuck Hagel,
Chuck Grassley, Pete Domenici, Don Nickles, Connie
Mack, Paul Coverdell, Phil Gramm, R.F. Bennett, Richard
G. Lugar.
cloture motion
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I send a second cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The legislative assistant 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 Calendar No.
215, H.R. 434, an act to authorize a new trade and investment
policy for sub-Sahara Africa:
Trent Lott, Bill Roth, Mike DeWine, Rod Grams, Mitch
McConnell, Judd Gregg, Larry E. Craig, Chuck Hagel,
Chuck Grassley, Pete Domenici, Don Nickles, Connie
Mack, Paul Coverdell, Phil Gramm, R.F. Bennett, Richard
G. Lugar.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, these cloture votes will occur on Tuesday,
November 2. I will notify Members of the exact time after I have had an
opportunity to consult with the Democratic leader about the appropriate
time for that.
In the meantime, I ask unanimous consent that both quorums which are
mandatory under rule XXII be waived and the previously scheduled vote
regarding the D.C./Labor-HHS legislation occur notwithstanding rule
XXII.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, if I may
ask the majority leader, he is announcing there will not be any votes
on Monday; is that correct?
Mr. LOTT. If we get these agreements worked out and in order to
accommodate the time that has been requested for the D.C./Labor-HHS
appropriations bill, then there will not be any recorded votes on
Monday. The next recorded vote will be, I presume, at 10 o'clock on
Tuesday, which is the D.C./Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, and
then hopefully sometime in short order after that, we go to votes on
the two cloture motions.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, if I may further reserve the right to
object--and I will not object, obviously--I wonder if the majority
leader is able to tell me something at this time? I have given him a
proposal on bankruptcy--we have cleared it on our side--having to do
with the nonrelevant amendments and then the clarification of relevant
amendments to the bankruptcy bill. Has the majority leader been able to
determine whether that is acceptable and whether he has been able to
clear it on his side?
Mr. LOTT. I believe it is going to be acceptable. I have not cleared
it completely on our side. I just had an opportunity to read over it in
the form on which our staffs worked. I see a couple of little problems
that are really clerical in terms of how the three amendments would be
handled. The way I read it, it looks as if there could be as many as 12
amendments, but really what we are talking about is 3 and 3, side by
side. Once that is clarified, unless there is something else I see that
is a problem, I think we can get this done.
Mr. DASCHLE. So the majority leader is saying there would be three
Republican nonrelevant amendments.
Mr. LOTT. Right.
Mr. DASCHLE. Has the Republican caucus made that decision as to what
are the relevant amendments?
Mr. LOTT. Obviously, I have to know what the three are on the other
side. I know one would have to do with education, one of them would be
the counterpart to minimum wage, and I am not now sure of the third
one. Obviously, before we do get a final agreement on this, we will get
that information to you. If there is a problem, obviously, we will have
to work through that. I do not think it will be a problem. We will
definitely get that to you; hopefully this afternoon, if the Senator is
going to be around a little while. We are working on it, and I think we
are very close.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, assuming we then would be in a position
to get agreement on moving to bankruptcy, would it be the intention of
the majority leader to move to bankruptcy on Tuesday?
Mr. LOTT. It was my thinking that--I believe the way this is set up--
we would complete trade and then we would go to bankruptcy when we
complete the trade bill.
We are also hoping we can get some way to consider the nuclear waste
bill, but it is my plan and my hope--we will have to get agreement,
obviously, to do all these--to complete the trade bill and do
bankruptcy and try to do the nuclear waste bill before we go out.
Obviously, we have some hoops through which we have to jump in order to
achieve that.
It is my thinking at this time we will complete the trade bill if we
get the cloture. We can enter into a UC on bankruptcy before we do
that. We will talk to you about that, exactly when
[[Page S13530]]
we need to do it, and we can go to bankruptcy before we go out. My
intent would be to go to it next, after consultation with both sides.
Mr. DASCHLE. I appreciate the indulgence of the majority leader and
his answers to my questions. I have one other question relating to the
trade bills.
Obviously, we have attempted to discuss how to proceed for some time.
I have made an offer to the majority leader that he has been kind
enough to consider; that is, he and I would table amendments that were
not relevant to trade but certainly allow for at least a period of time
so Senators can offer these amendments, with the idea that they will be
debated and tabled shortly after the time they are offered, I am
certainly prepared to renew that offer to the majority leader. As he
knows, he has made the situation, again, one which would require a
procedural vote on cloture rather than a substantive vote on cloture,
thereby, again, undermining our ability to finish the bill.
I wonder if the majority leader has given any more thought to this
suggestion that he and I table these amendments and then move to final
passage on trade, as I think we could have done even this week.
Mr. LOTT. In response to his question, I was in the hopes that if we
could get agreement on the bankruptcy bill and the unrelated amendments
that would be made in order under the agreement, that would help
resolve the problem.
The difficulty is, in going through this process where we would in
fact both vote to table, first of all, there is a lot of opportunity
for mischief in terms of what amendments are offered, objections to
time agreements, and how long would it take. That is one thing that
worries me. If we do not get cloture and we go through a series of
amendments where we have to vote to table them, I worry about the image
of us voting to table, even if we could explain it procedurally. But if
you vote to table fast track or vote to table agricultural sanctions or
you vote to table some of these other things, I would prefer that the
Senate not be recorded as having defeated or tabling some of these
issues.
But the further problem is, if we go through and hold a number of
these on this bill, how do we get it done in somewhat of a foreseeable
period of time and then be able to get to bankruptcy? I am also worried
about what in fact happens if we move to table or try to table or not
table. I think the Senator has been right in saying that is where
leadership has to weigh in and we have to make sure we get it done.
I think one of the issues that would have been the greatest problem
would have been minimum wage, but I believe we are going to address the
minimum wage on bankruptcy, therefore relieving the pressure, the need
to put it on this particular bill.
So that is what we are up against. I have learned around here you
never say never. I am just worried about being able to get this job
done. Also, I have not been able to clear on our side an arrangement
that would go through a repeated number of votes on trade. We have had
this discussion privately. I think it is appropriate that we have it
publicly, too.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, just in further clarification, I am
wondering--there are really two issues. The majority leader has
appropriately articulated one of the concerns he has with regard to
finishing the bill. Cloture will do that, if cloture is invoked.
I am wondering if the majority leader would entertain tearing the
tree down to allow Senators to offer amendments during the time the
legislation is pending, thereby at least giving Senators the right to
offer amendments, because he would still have the assurance, of course,
that the bill--if cloture is invoked--would ripen and would ultimately
terminate debate, but he then would cease to make the issue a
procedural one. Then it would be one upon substance, which I think
would be advantageous for both the majority leader and many of us who
work with the administration to see this legislation pass.
Mr. LOTT. Are you talking about doing it during the period of time
when we may be discussing, as on Monday, the Labor-HHS bill? Are you
talking about postcloture? Also, what do we do in terms of getting time
agreements if the Senator from South Carolina objects to that? Maybe we
will just have to--that is a lot of ifs--what if, what if. We will have
to work through that. It would take a lot of delicacy in trying to get
it to a conclusion. But that is my concern.
Are you talking about trying to do it Monday, or are you talking
about trying to do it during the day Tuesday or Wednesday? And how do
we, in terms of time--even postcloture, a lot of amendments are in
order.
Mr. DASCHLE. The majority leader points out a very important problem.
If we invoke cloture, there are many important relevant amendments,
that I think he and I would probably both support, that are not going
to be in order on this legislation. I do not know how we are going to
deal with that. I doubt he would be able to get unanimous consent to be
able to offer it. I know amendments having to do with Africa, in
particular, are in peril if cloture is invoked. So we have compounded
the problem both from a relevancy point of view as well as from this
procedural problem that we are attempting to work through.
You asked the question, When would this occur? I guess I am thinking,
under the current circumstances, there would not be any time for it to
occur because the vote on cloture would occur as early as Tuesday
because that is when the cloture motion ripens. I would be willing to
work with the majority leader on an acceptable schedule for such
amendments and the filing of cloture were he willing to work to
accommodate at least some amendments and the opportunity to deal with
this relevancy question that I think, regardless of the circumstances,
he would deal with.
Mr. LOTT. An interesting sidelight, if the Senator will yield.
Mr. DASCHLE. Yes.
Mr. LOTT. Postcloture, for instance, there might be some amendments
with regard to African trade. I wonder if there might be some way we
could get an agreement. I worry about it getting agreed to, because I
am not sure the Senator from South Carolina would agree to it, where
some of those amendments, while they are not germane, would not be in
order postcloture, they certainly relate to what we are trying to do. I
would certainly like to have some way found for amendments such as
that, if they exist. I could think of a couple I have heard of that
ought to be offered.
I will be glad to work with the Senator to try to find a way to see
if we can at least do that and get it cleared. But we do have a problem
with objections. We can see if we can get it agreed to, and we can try
to get it agreed to, if we can get something worked out that we can
offer. Then if it is objected to, we just have to deal with that.
Mr. DASCHLE. I know there are other colleagues who are waiting to do
other business. I think we might talk more privately about this and
proceed. But I look forward to working with the majority leader to see
if we can find a way to deal with it.
Mr. LOTT. Thank you.
Mr. MURKOWSKI. If the leader would yield?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. LOTT. There was no objection to that last request?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There was no objection to the last request.
Mr. LOTT. I do have one more request I know the Senator from Alaska
is interested in. If the Senator would like to make that request----
Mr. MURKOWSKI. Please proceed.
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