[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 97 (Monday, July 24, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7462-S7463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF BUSINESS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I realize there are some 6 minutes left 
under the time agreement for the Democratic leadership to be able to 
have comments during the first hour; and then we will have an hour 
under the control of Senator Thomas. But I will use my leader time now 
so we will not take the remaining 6 minutes of the Democratic time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, with regard to the week's schedule, we had 
hoped we would be making progress now on the energy and water 
appropriations bill. But a disagreement developed on Friday afternoon, 
and we are continuing to see if we can work through that. I have spoken 
to Senator Domenici, the chairman of the energy and water 
appropriations subcommittee, about trying to find a way to proceed.
  It is very important legislation for our country. It does involve 
appropriations for the Energy Department, the very important nuclear 
weapons labs, as well as water projects all over this country in which 
Members and States and various groups are very interested. So I hope we 
can find a way to proceed on that.
  It has been held up, basically, by a disagreement over how to handle 
the water levels on the Missouri River, affecting the States of North 
Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, and perhaps others downstream. It is 
not easy to reconcile or to come to an agreement because there are very 
strong feelings about it, and it is very important to local areas. I 
know Senator Domenici is ready to proceed. He will be over later to 
make some comments about the importance of this legislation.

  We also hope to take up the Treasury-Postal Service appropriations 
bill this week. It should not be that controversial. I understand there 
may be some amendments to it; It may take some time, but that is 
understandable. That is fine. We could do that and still

[[Page S7463]]

conclude that legislation probably in a day or so.
  We had hoped that during the pendency of the week we could also go to 
the Commerce-State-Justice appropriations bill. We had hoped to do all 
three of them, or at least two of the three, and make some progress on 
Commerce-State-Justice.
  We also would like to proceed to the intelligence authorization bill. 
As is always the case, after the Armed Services Defense authorization 
bill for the year is done, we, in relatively short order, then go to 
the intelligence authorization. I do not need to talk about the 
importance of the intelligence authorization bill and what it means to 
the security of our country, but we have not been able to work out 
exactly how to proceed on that either.
  Then on Wednesday, we had indicated we would go to the China PNTR 
issue. Indications had been that there would be resistance to moving 
forward on the motion to proceed, and I would have to file cloture on 
that, with that cloture motion then ripening on Friday. So we would go 
ahead and go to that and get over the first hurdle in being able to 
complete the China trade legislation when we come back in September.
  We had hoped to go to the Executive Calendar and get some nominations 
completed this week and also consider some additional judges that might 
be reported from the Judiciary Committee during the week.
  All of that right now is in abeyance. We have not been able to get an 
agreement on how to proceed at this time. I think that is unfortunate 
because we do have 4, 4\1/2\ days this week in which we need to make 
real progress on appropriations bills and other issues, as well as the 
China trade legislation.
  If we cannot get an agreement here in the next couple of hours or so, 
then I will have to try to proceed to one of the appropriations bills 
and the intelligence authorization bill, and perhaps even file cloture 
on them. Both of those will then ripen on Wednesday. Of course, if 
cloture is obtained, then we will be on those bills, which will then 
get tangled up in the China permanent normal trade relations issue. So 
this is not a good way to proceed, but that may be our only 
alternative.
  But I have talked to Senator Daschle this morning. I have talked to 
Senator Hatch. We will continue to work with Senators on both sides of 
the aisle to see if we can find a way to make some good progress this 
week, because this is the last week before the August recess, and it 
will have an effect on what we are able to do in September.

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