[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 18 (Thursday, February 24, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S777-S778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SENATE PROCEDURE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I want to carry on a little bit regarding 
the colloquy we have had on the floor during the day about the need for 
us to proceed as the Senate has always worked in the 200-plus years of 
this Republic. I asked staff during this intermission time to pull for 
me at random a bill we worked on when we were in the majority. They 
chose a bill that doesn't have a really sexy title but which is very 
important; it is called the Enterprise Zone Tax Incentives Act. On that 
piece of legislation, there were 109 amendments filed. This bill was 
taken up on September 25, 1992.
  We completed this bill 3 or 4 days later and it was passed. The 
Enterprise Zone Tax Incentive Act dealt with scholarship tax, dental 
schools, tractors--many things that really weren't relevant or germane 
to this particular piece of legislation. But we dealt with it. We 
allowed the minority to offer whatever amendments they wanted, and we 
proceeded with the legislation. That is what we need to do. That is 
what the Senate is all about. I hope everybody will understand we are 
not asking to break some new territory, new ground, or do something 
that was never done before. We simply want to say that once in a while 
we need a piece of legislation to which we can offer amendments.
  Now, we are very happy to be discussing education. I believe it is 
the most important issue facing the country today, and my pet project 
on which I have worked for a number of years with the Senator from New 
Mexico, Mr. Bingaman, is high school dropouts. Three-thousand kids a 
day--500,000 children each year--drop out of school in America.
  That is something we need to work on. That is only one aspect of 
education that is important. We know about school construction. We know 
about smaller class sizes. There are lots of things we need to do in 
education. There are other important things we need to work on. I think 
we should have a debate about Social Security. I think we have to do 
something right away about Medicare and the attachment of prescription 
drug benefits. Which is very important to our seniors.
  In the 35 years since Medicare came into being, we now have people's 
lives being saved as a result of people being able to get prescription 
drugs. Senior citizens have an average of 18 different prescriptions 
filled during a period of a year. That is the average. Some have more 
than that. We need to do something about prescription drug benefits.
  Certainly we need to do something to have reasonable gun control. All 
we are asking is that you are not able to buy weapons at gun shows 
without a background check. With pawnshops, the same should apply, as 
it applies every place else where you buy a gun in stores.
  We think we should do something updating the minimum wage. We think 
there are so many issues that deserve our attention, notwithstanding 
the terrible health care delivery system we have in this country. Over 
40 million people have no health insurance. Every year it is going up 
1.5 million.
  We need to pass a comprehensive Patients' Bill of Rights. The lucky 
people are those with insurance, but even they aren't being treated 
fairly.
  Referring again to the Enterprise Zone Tax Incentive Act, H.R. 11, in 
September of 1992, we spent less than 4 days on this piece of 
legislation. We dealt with 109 amendments and passed a bill.
  If we had gone to work on this education bill on Monday, the bill 
would have been completed today. But the way things are happening, we 
are not working the will of the Senate, and we are not working the will 
of the people of this country. I think we need to do that as quickly as 
possible.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, will the Senator from Nevada yield for 
a quick question?
  Mr. REID. Yes.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. He can answer them in a relatively brief fashion, I 
think.
  First of all, is it not true that when his party was the majority 
party in the Senate the minority party would come out with many 
amendments to a piece of legislation and sometimes we would have 100 
amendments?
  I want to get to the definition of what ``relevant'' means so people 
following this will know what that definition is.
  Is it not true that we would have many amendments and we would 
basically debate these amendments and then after several days of hard 
work, even if we had to work 14 hours a day, we would go forward and 
pass that legislation? That is one of the ways you

[[Page S778]]

represent people back home. If there is a compelling issue, you offer 
an amendment to a piece of legislation and you hope to pass it.
  I remember the amendment on mental health parity that I offered with 
Senator Domenici. It was an amendment on housing on the veterans 
appropriations bill.
  Will the Senator from Nevada not agree with me that is the way the 
Senate has always conducted its business?
  Mr. REID. The answer is yes. They have the right to offer amendments. 
Sometimes they offer an amendment and debate it.
  I see my friend, who I came to Congress with in 1982, from Florida, 
the senior Senator from Florida. I have been talking about this H.R. 
11. On that particular piece of legislation, the Senator from Florida 
offered five amendments.
  The Senator from Florida had some good reasons to offer every one of 
these amendments. For example, you would ask: Why did he offer an 
amendment dealing with tractors to the Enterprise Zone Tax Incentive 
Act? I don't know. I am sure he had a good reason for doing so. They 
had a right to offer the amendments, and they offered them.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, on this particular piece of legislation 
that Senator Coverdell introduced, which we have been debating, will 
the Senator from Nevada not agree with me that the kind of amendment, 
for example, I wanted to offer to this legislation dealing with the 
hunger of children, dealing with the poverty of children, dealing with 
how to deal with the violence in children's lives in their homes would 
not be considered to be by the definition of ``relevant'' relevant? Yet 
it affects education and children's lives. There have been hardly any 
opportunities over the whole last year to come out on the floor with 
amendments to different pieces of legislation. Is that not true? So it 
gets to the point where you can't even represent people back in the 
State as a Senator.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I believe there are times when we should 
enter into unanimous consent agreements to move legislation. We have 
been willing to do that. We have done that time after time in an effort 
to complete things that are important.
  As I said earlier, I say to my friend from Minnesota, we need 
opportunities. It should be all the time, but I will settle for 
opportunities once in awhile to have a bill on which we can offer 
amendments. We might want to offer an amendment dealing with tractors. 
I should be able to do that.

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