[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2535-S2536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today the Senate will immediately resume 
consideration of the campaign finance reform legislation. An amendment 
regarding self-financed campaigns is expected to be offered, with up to 
3 hours of debate in order. It is also expected that some debate time 
will be yielded back and that a vote will occur sometime around noon 
today--certainly before the weekly party luncheons. We will be in 
recess from approximately 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly 
conferences to meet. Amendments are expected to be offered throughout 
the day and therefore votes on amendments are expected to occur 
approximately every 3 hours.
  I am concerned about the very inauspicious beginning that the Senate 
had on this legislation yesterday. I had described it as a jump ball, 
where everybody would have a free and fair opportunity to offer 
amendments and have debate but there would be votes on those amendments 
after 3 hours. I expected we would have a vote sometime between 5:30 
and 6:30, as we did yesterday, and there would be debate on the next 
amendment last night and we would be ready for a vote now. That is not 
the case because of the spectacle that occurred at the end of the vote 
yesterday.
  I thought it did not go well, and I thought the Senate looked very 
close to being silly on our first amendment on this very important 
issue. I was stunned, quite frankly; on an amendment as broadly 
supported as I know the amendment is, to give candidates that are 
running against superwealthy candidates some way to be able to compete, 
I can't help but believe that when we get a direct vote on that issue, 
it will pass overwhelmingly. My assumption was that it got tangled up 
just because it was the first vote and there was a desire to show that 
one side or the other was going to win. I was very disappointed in 
that.
  I am also concerned, with the agreement that was reached, in all 
fairness, on both sides, that we would have amendments and regular 
votes every 3 hours, we had already slipped 3 hours on that. And also I 
hope, once again, that objections to Senators amending their own 
amendments will not be heard. The tradition around here is that we 
allow colleagues to amend their own amendments. I think that is when 
the confusion began yesterday in a very disappointing beginning.
  But Senators on both sides worked last night and worked this morning, 
and I understand an agreement has been reached as to the amendment that 
will be offered in a few minutes. After that is offered, we will come 
back and have another amendment on this side of the aisle and Senator 
McConnell and others will have an opportunity.
  I yield to the Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I tell the majority leader that we have an 
amendment. I don't believe it will take all 3 hours because it was 
debated last night. We have an agreement which is being written up now. 
So I believe that

[[Page S2536]]

we could, within a fairly brief period of time, have a vote on it and 
move on to another amendment from the Republican side, thereby sort of 
catching up from yesterday.
  I mention also that we were supposed to start at noon yesterday, but 
we didn't start until 1. I don't know whose decision that was. That is 
not important. We can catch up this morning. We met this morning and we 
are getting the final details, which we needed to do. This is a very 
complex, extremely complex issue.

  The challenges of a millionaire declaring his or her candidacy in 
Wyoming are significantly different from doing that in the State of 
California. We tried to accommodate it and, frankly, we have. Those 
issues were still unresolved last night when the vote was attempted, 
and all of us were confident that we could work out the differences, 
bring up an agreement, which will be brought up in the name of Senator 
Domenici and Senator DeWine and Senator Durbin, and we can have a 
relatively brief period of debate and vote on it and then move to 
another amendment by Senator McConnell, or whoever he designates.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me say to Senator McCain--and then I 
will yield to Senator Reid--I appreciate the fact that something has 
been worked out which appears to be fair to all sides. And since we 
already debated it for a time yesterday, it won't be necessary to 
rehash all of that. Maybe we can make up for some of the lost time.
  The clear understanding, when the Senator from Arizona and I 
discussed this issue, was that we would try to keep it on a steady 
schedule and get amendments offered and voted on every 3 hours, or less 
if possible.
  I yield to Senator Reid.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we are hopeful that the first vote is not 
indicative of what the future is going to hold. I hope that will be the 
downside of the work on this important piece of legislation. I think 
yesterday was well spent. There were relatively very few quorum calls, 
maybe just for brief moments, and I think we were able to accomplish a 
lot last night and this morning. I also say that during this next day 
or two, there are a number of Members who wish to give statements about 
the bill itself. They can do this during the time these amendments are 
pending. Some of them want to take the full 3 hours. I have already 
told Senator McCain that I am not too certain that we need to 
alternate. We don't have many amendments over here. So I publicly 
advise those on the other side of the aisle who want to offer 
amendments, they should get them ready because we are not going to have 
a lot to offer.
  Mr. LOTT. If I may respond to the last suggestion, that would be 
fine. However, we want to make sure that, if we don't alternate, at the 
end we don't have amendments show up that would be offered, one behind 
the other, on the other side. I know that is not the Senator's 
intention. That is one of the reasons why we alternate, so that one 
side or the other won't have a block of amendments at the end of the 
process.
  Mr. REID. I appreciate the Senator yielding. There are three 
Republican amendments. There would be one Democratic amendment, and we 
would go back to the Republican side. That is how we should do it.

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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