[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 117 (Wednesday, September 27, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S9376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a 
period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted 
to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The assistant minority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the majority leader leaves the floor, 
I know that he and the minority leader have had the opportunity to 
speak this afternoon. I haven't had an opportunity to speak since that 
took place.
  For purposes of informing Members, could the leader give us some idea 
of what we can expect. We know that tomorrow is pretty well filled up. 
We have 7 hours set aside for the continuing resolution, but there is 
some progress being made on various bills. Energy and water, they are 
reading that now. Hopefully, that might be filed tonight.
  Mr. LOTT. I might say, Mr. President, I know the Senator from Nevada 
helped with some of the completion efforts on that energy and water 
appropriations bill. We should have it ready, hopefully, to be 
considered tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then the first part of next week.
  I yield further for his questions and then I have some answers for 
him.
  Mr. REID. On the H-1B, we are ready to vote on it. We have tried to 
have a vote on the Latino and Immigrant Fairness Act. There was one 
this afternoon that this Senator considers a vote on that amendment. 
Perhaps we are arriving at a point where we can start moving some of 
these things because I know we are going to get out of here next 
Thursday or Friday.
  Mr. LOTT. That sounds like an excellent suggestion to me, Mr. 
President.
  If I could respond, of course, the Senator is correct when he noted 
that we have, I believe, 7 hours of time that will be consumed, if it 
is all used, to discuss the continuing resolution. And, of course, we 
would have a vote at the end of that time. Obviously, Senator Reid and 
others have made their points on the immigration issue. The H-1B issue, 
hopefully, we could come to agreement to have a vote scheduled on that. 
And I would like to work with the minority in determining what time 
they would find agreeable to have that vote. Perhaps we could do that 
tomorrow. I am fixing to ask consent that we consider the D.C. 
appropriations bill, which would give us a time agreement on that, if 
we could get that.

  On the appropriations bills, it is like all appropriations 
conferences. They are never closed until they are closed. There are one 
or two issues that are very important that are still pending on a 
number of them. Interior appropriations, I believe, is very close to 
closure. There is still discussion going on with regard to so-called 
lands legacy funding and the CARA conservation bill.
  The Agriculture appropriations bill is very close to conclusion. Once 
again, we have a couple of issues that have to be dealt with in 
finality. One of them is how do you deal with the sanctions question. A 
lot of people are making suggestions and, hopefully, a compromise can 
be reached that satisfies the great majority of the Senate and the 
House, Republicans and Democrats.
  We think we are very close on the HUD-VA appropriations bill. The 
information I get is the administration is signaling that they think 
that could be an acceptable bill. There might be some issues that would 
be considered being added to that, not necessarily appropriations 
bills.
  The Transportation appropriations bill, I believe, is for the most 
part done, with one remaining issue that is very difficult to resolve. 
But I know the Senator from New Jersey has a very passionate feeling 
about that. I understand that. So there are at least four or five 
appropriations bills that are pretty close to being wrapped up in terms 
of the dollar amounts. There is about one policy issue left on each one 
of them.
  We hope to have two or three of those done, perhaps in the House of 
Representatives tomorrow, and then as quickly as we could get to them 
after that, we would want to do that.
  I might say, I am expecting that we will be in session obviously on 
Monday. We do have the Jewish holiday to honor on Friday, September 29. 
But we will expect to be here on Monday, October 2, and could be having 
votes on these conferences that Monday.
  I want to give Senators as much notice as we can, although we have 
indicated for quite some time that that first week in the new fiscal 
year, obviously we will have to be prepared to be in session the whole 
week and into the night, if necessary.
  Those are the issues we now have identified. There are a number of 
other issues that are being worked on. The Finance Committee has been 
doing some work on the railroad retirement bill and on the community 
renewal legislation, two issues in which I know there is a lot of 
interest on both sides of the Capitol. I will give the Senator that 
list, and, hopefully, we can begin to work together to move a number of 
these. I believe I sense that opportunity now, when maybe it hadn't 
been quite ready for that earlier.

                          ____________________