[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 16, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4969-S4970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of 
morning business until 10 a.m. At 10 this morning, the Senate will 
resume consideration of S. 1, the education bill. Senators should 
expect rollcalls throughout the day with respect to amendments to the 
education bill.
  Also, as a reminder, the tax reconciliation bill was reported out of 
the Finance Committee last night. It is expected that the Senate will 
begin consideration of that measure on Thursday. The majority leader 
hopes that significant progress can be made on the bill on Thursday 
with the expectation of completing the reconciliation bill on Monday.
  In addition, the majority leader is expecting that the Senate will 
complete action on the education bill next week prior to the Memorial 
Day recess. I thank my colleagues for their attention.
  I just mention that both of these bills, the reconciliation bill and 
the education bill, are two of the more important issues we will be 
taking up this entire session. It is our intention to complete both of 
them by the end of next week. That will take a lot of cooperation and 
attentiveness by all Members. I encourage Members if they have their 
amendments to bring them forward. Let us not spend a lot of time on 
them, complete the amendments on the education bill and on the 
reconciliation bill so we can give some good news to taxpayers and to 
everyone who is interested in improving education.
  Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for their attention.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before my colleague leaves the floor, we on 
this side understand the importance of the education bill. We are doing 
our best to work through it. I think we have made good progress. We 
have had some short days which has interfered a little bit, but I think 
we are down to the end of that and we should be able to wrap it up next 
week. I would say to my friend--and I hope the majority understands 
this--we understand the importance of reconciliation. The American 
people deserve a tax cut. They are going to get one. The only thing I 
would add is that we have to make sure we are able to read the 
documents; we have a little bit of time to look at

[[Page S4970]]

them. My suggestion, to avoid problems that some would call dilatory, 
others would call necessity, would be that we take this matter up as 
early on Monday morning as possible and finish it on Tuesday. Maybe we 
could even finish it Monday night with a long day. I hope we are not 
forced to do this bill by not having an opportunity to look at it. As 
you know, with the budget, we had some problems because we didn't have 
a chance to see it. Our problems over here were very minimal. On the 
House side, they had a lot of problems because they tried to jam that 
bill through.
  So I say to my friend that I hope we have time to look at it. We 
understand there is a timeframe that we must work under. We have 20 
hours. In addition to that, we have the break coming up. The leaders on 
the majority side want to finish this most important legislation prior 
to that time. I accept that. All I am saying is let us have enough time 
that we can tell people over here, with some degree of certainty, how 
big it is; that they will have an opportunity to look at parts they are 
interested in and have the staff review the whole bill.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I appreciate my friend and colleague's 
suggestion. I will just mention a couple of things. One, the bill that 
passed the Finance Committee last night passed by a vote of 14-6, a 
bipartisan bill by every definition. The bill that passed last night in 
the Finance Committee is the same one introduced by Chairman Grassley 
and ranking member Baucus last Friday. It hasn't really changed. The 
information from the Joint Tax Committee is available. The analysis of 
the bill is available. The bill itself has now been reported, but it 
hasn't changed. We did not change one provision. Not one amendment was 
adopted, so people don't have to worry about all the things that are 
different. It is a pretty simple bill. The rate reductions are pretty 
simple. They are there. They are not quite as good as I think they 
should be. I will be happy to explain the entire bill; I can do that. 
But the rate reductions are very timid, in my opinion. It takes 7 years 
to get the rate reductions enacted--6 years, I guess--2007 before they 
are finally enacted, with only a 1 point reduction for all the rates 
beginning in 2002. But we do have an immediate 10-percent rate.
  So, anyway, those things are there. It is pretty easily understood. I 
hope we go to the bill tomorrow and have as much time as necessary on 
Thursday, on Friday, and a final vote on Monday with Senators able to 
offer amendments and to consider them.
  The only thing that is complicated is that when you see the bill it 
will be thicker because the IRA pension provision that passed with over 
400 votes in the House was included and that is very extensive, with 
multiple provisions, several little pieces involved, some of it 
somewhat complicated, but it does have overwhelming support in both the 
House and the Senate. So that will cause the bill to be thicker. You 
take that provision out, or leave that provision alone, and the rest of 
the bill is not all that complicated.
  I urge our colleagues to talk to other members of the Finance 
Committee. We will get information out today. I hope we begin 
consideration on it tomorrow and finish it no later than Monday so we 
can have a chance to have a conference with our colleagues in the House 
and actually pass it prior to adjourning for the Memorial Day break. 
That means we have a lot of work to do both on the education bill and 
on the tax bill in the next week and a half. I think these next 9 days 
will be very productive for the American taxpayer and for the American 
public. I appreciate my colleague's question.

  Mr. REID. If the assistant majority leader will yield, he is a member 
of the Finance Committee and has been working on this issue for a long 
period of time, along with 19 other Senators. Some of us are not on the 
committee and we do not have the knowledge of the tax provisions in 
that bill that many of you do. I think the Senator has done a good job 
of outlining how some of the facts are now available to us. I think 
that is a good suggestion and we can go to work on that, but even that 
having been done, I hope the majority will understand some of the 
feelings of the people over on this side who are not familiar with the 
legislation. We want to make sure we do not get into some kind of vote-
athon at the end of the process, that we not be faced with that.
  We will do our best to work, as we try to do all the time, with the 
majority, but I want to indicate that there are people over here 
concerned that they have not had the opportunity to know what is in the 
bill and have not had a chance to see the bill. We hope people will be 
understanding of some Members on this side.
  Mr. NICKLES. I appreciate my colleague's suggestion. I will work to 
make sure everyone has available from the Finance Committee a short 
description of the bill so at least they will understand the major 
details of it.
  With that, Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be dispensed with.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, after speaking with the Republican and 
Democratic sides, I understand there is room for 10 minutes for any 
Senator to proceed in morning business, and/or if I need to go over 
that 10 minutes, my Republican colleague indicated I may have some 
time. I will proceed and hopefully finish in 10 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware is 
recognized.
  Mr. BIDEN. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Biden and Mr. Reid pertaining to the introduction 
of S. 899 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on 
Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BIDEN. I suggest the absence of a quorum
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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