[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 6, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S5905]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. DASCHLE. For the information of all Senators, the Senate will 
convene on Thursday, June 7, at 9:30 a.m. and resume consideration of 
the ESEA bill with a rollcall vote in relation to the Nelson-Carnahan 
amendment at approximately 11:30. Additional rollcall votes are 
expected throughout the day on Thursday.
  Mr. REID. Will the distinguished majority leader yield for a 
question.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I am happy to yield to the Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. It is my understanding the majority leader is going to have 
a 20-minute time limit on the casting of votes in the Senate. Is that a 
fair statement?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, this has been a constant lament of both 
Senator Lott and myself. He has attempted to address it on occasion. I 
have always been supportive of the effort, to try to be as managerial 
with these votes as we can be. He and I have talked about it as 
recently as just prior to the break.
  My intent, in answer to the Senator from Nevada, is to do all that we 
can to terminate the vote at the end of 20 minutes. I think that is 
ample time. If we are going to be efficient in the use of our time, we 
cannot allow these votes to drag on. This has been a source of 
increasing concern to me personally. So we will do our utmost--in fact, 
I will ask that the votes be terminated at the end of 20 minutes.
  I hope Senators can be made aware that will be the policy and we will 
implement it. If there is an emergency, we can accommodate that. But I 
also will attempt to impose some discipline with regard to the votes. 
We will attempt to implement that beginning tomorrow. I put all 
Senators on notice in that regard.
  Let me also say I have discussed the schedule with Senator Lott with 
regard to both Friday and Monday. I know that there were a number of 
Senators who indicated they had conflicts of some consequence on 
Friday. Because, as I understand it, some consideration had already 
been given to those conflicts, I want to respect the decisions made 
with respect to that consideration. And so in keeping with my 
understanding of the conversations the Republican leader had with some 
of our colleagues, there will be no votes on Friday.
  It is my intention, however, to be in session on Monday and to at 
least have one, if not more, votes beginning at 5:30. So there will be 
votes on Monday; no votes on Friday.
  I hope we could respect the agreement Senator Lott and I had with 
regard to votes on Fridays and Mondays through the month of June. We 
laid out a calendar that we expected both of our caucuses to 
appreciate. I am not going to divert from that. I will respect the days 
that were committed to with regard to concerns raised about schedule 
with our colleagues. But I will also insist, on those days that are not 
on that list, that we have votes Fridays and Mondays.
  We have to finish the elementary and secondary education bill next 
week. We will stay for whatever length of time it takes to finish our 
work. We have been on it now for several weeks. Senator Lott has been 
accommodating in his effort to address the issues of schedule raised by 
colleagues, but I think next week we must culminate our work with a 
completion of the bill and a vote on final passage.
  So that will be the schedule next week. Votes on Monday, votes 
throughout the week, with an expectation that we will not complete the 
week until the bill has been finished. We will have additional comment 
about the schedule on Monday at a later date.
  I yield the floor.

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