[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 163 (Thursday, November 29, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12138-S12140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    COMPREHENSIVE RETIREMENT SECURITY AND PENSION REFORM ACT OF 2001

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I move to proceed to the railroad 
retirement bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, if the Senator will yield, I believe we 
have no further requests for time on the motion to proceed. We are 
ready to vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If there is no further debate, the question is 
on agreeing to the motion to proceed.
  The motion was agreed to.
  Mr. REID. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that 
motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 10) to provide for pension reform, and for 
     other purposes.

  The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the pending 
substitute amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is no pending substitute. There is no 
pending amendment.


                           Amendment No. 2170

(Purpose: To modernize the financing of the railroad retirement system 
   and to provide enhanced benefits to employees and beneficiaries.)

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I have an amendment at the desk and ask 
for its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from South Dakota [Mr. Daschle], for Mr. Hatch, 
     for himself and Mr. Baucus, proposes an amendment numbered 
     2170.

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent reading of the 
amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The text of the amendment is printed in the Record under 
``Amendments Submitted.'')
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I now ask for the yeas and nays on the 
pending substitute amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.


                Amendment No. 2171 To Amendment No. 2170

(Purpose: To enhance energy conservation, research and development, and 
  to provide for security and diversity in the energy supply for the 
                American people, and for other purposes)

  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask 
for its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Mississippi (Mr. LOTT), for himself, Mr. 
     Murkowski, and Mr. Brownback, proposes an amendment numbered 
     2171 to amendment No. 2170.

  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent reading of the 
amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The text of the amendment is printed in the Record under 
``Amendments Submitted.'')
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the 
amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the pending Lott 
     amendment:
         Trent Lott, Frank Murkowski, Robert Bennett, Phil Gramm, 
           Sam Brownback, Don Nickles, Pat Roberts, Mike Crapo, 
           Larry Craig, Jon Kyl, Chuck Grassley, Pete Domenici, 
           Mitch McConnell, Judd Gregg, Conrad Burns, Craig 
           Thomas.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the Daschle for 
     Hatch and Baucus substitute amendment

[[Page S12139]]

     No. 2170 for Calendar No. 69, H.R. 10, an act to provide for 
     pension reform and for other purposes:
         Paul Wellstone, Richard Durbin, Byron Dorgan, Harry Reid, 
           Jon Corzine, Hillary Clinton, Blanche Lincoln, Jack 
           Reed, Jean Carnahan, Mark Dayton, Carl Levin, Tim 
           Johnson, Bill Nelson, Charles Schumer, Ron Wyden, 
           Debbie Stabenow, Barbara Mikulski, and Tom Daschle.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on Calendar No. 
     69, H.R. 10, an act to provide for pension reform and for 
     other purposes.
         Paul Wellstone, Richard J. Durbin, Byron L. Dorgan, Harry 
           Reid, Jon Corzine, Hillary Clinton, Blanche L. Lincoln, 
           Jack Reed, Tom Carper, Tim Johnson, Daniel Inouye, 
           Christopher Dodd, Ron Wyden, Jeff Bingaman, Joseph 
           Lieberman, John Breaux, Paul Sarbanes.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, just for explanation to all Senators, 
we have now moved to proceed to the railroad retirement bill. The 
distinguished Republican leader has offered an amendment for which 
there will be a cloture vote at 5 o'clock on Monday. Following that 
vote on cloture, there will be a vote on cloture on the bill at 
approximately 5:30 on Monday as well. So under the current arrangement, 
there will be two votes on Monday at about 5 o'clock.
  There will be, hopefully, a very good debate tomorrow on the Lott 
amendment. There can be debate tonight on the amendment or on the bill. 
But I hope Senators will use the time that is now allotted for the 
debate to express themselves and to participate in whatever debate may 
be required. But those cloture votes will occur at 5 o'clock. And there 
will be no other votes until that time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, if the distinguished majority leader will 
yield to respond to an inquiry, I thought also we would have a vote on 
the Transportation appropriations conference report at some point in 
the sequence on Monday.
  Mr. DASCHLE. That is correct. The Senator is right. I appreciate his 
reminding me. If the Senate has been presented with the papers on the 
Transportation conference report by Monday, it is our intention to have 
a vote on the Transportation conference report as well.
  I am told the House is planning to act tomorrow. I know there has 
been a little bit of a debate. I don't know if that has been resolved. 
But if the papers arrive, it is our intent--and I had announced it 
earlier--to bring up the conference report on Transportation as well.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, if I could be heard with regard to the 
situation as it now exists for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
actually, what has transpired over the past few minutes procedurally is 
that Senator Daschle has offered the railroad retirement substitute to 
a House bill.
  That had to be done to get us on the railroad retirement subject 
itself. Then, as is in order, I offered an amendment to the substitute. 
So that will be the issue that can be debated, along with the railroad 
retirement bill, if Senators so desire.
  Let me talk about the content of the amendment that was filed on my 
behalf as well as Senator Murkowski and Senator Brownback and others.
  Regardless of the merits of the railroad retirement bill, I had hoped 
that the Senate would stay focused on appropriations conference 
reports, the defense appropriations bill, and the stimulus package that 
would create economic growth and jobs creation in this country. I am 
pleased that now an effort is under way to get a conference negotiation 
going on the stimulus package. That movement yesterday afternoon 
affected the decision that was made earlier today not to fight the 
motion to proceed on the railroad retirement bill.
  My question is, why we are moving to bills that are not an emergency, 
not related to appropriations and the stimulus package or even the 
reinsurance issue? It seems to me we should focus on those urgent and 
emergency issues that need to be addressed as a result of the events of 
September 11 and since then, before we go out for the holiday season, 
for the Christmas period.
  That has not been the case. Now we are on the railroad retirement 
issue. There are other issues we believe urgent and need to be 
addressed and should be addressed. That is why this amendment is the 
Murkowski energy bill, basically H.R. 4, the House-passed bill, that we 
believe and have been believing since June needed to be brought up in 
the Senate. We need a national energy policy. That needs to be broad-
based. It needs to address the need for additional production of oil 
and natural gas. Clean coal technology needs to be moved forward, the 
use of nuclear power, alternative fuels, transmission line problems, as 
well as conservation, which is a very important part of this package.
  We see right now circumstances that really bother me. We are 
dependent on OPEC oil, Russian oil, and Iraqi oil, approaching now well 
over 50 percent of our energy needs. It is imported oil, and that is 
extremely dangerous. Just last week we saw where the OPEC countries 
were lobbying others, including Russia, to cut their production so that 
the prices could be driven back up. Unbelievably, or perhaps 
gratefully, we see that the Russians resisted that and said, no, we are 
going to continue with our production.
  Apparently now they have come to some sort of agreement and I guess 
there will be some reduced production and prices will go up some. But 
we are on a yo-yo. This past June and the June before that, we saw 
prices shoot up on gasoline inexplicably and probably unjustifiably in 
some instances. So we don't have a national energy policy. We were told 
we would do it later. Then there were the September events and October 
had other things we were working on. Now we are told we will get to it 
in January or February.
  Every day we lose puts us at risk one more day. We should have a full 
debate about a national energy policy. We are going to have it. This 
amendment is offered to the underlying bill because this is an issue 
that needs to be voted on by the Senate. We are going to see who 
believes energy is something we need to do or whether there is a 
potential threat there.
  This is not only a national security issue; it is an economic issue. 
If you want to help the railroads with some of their problems, let's 
have a reliable energy policy. Let's reduce the cost of what they take 
to run the industry if you want to help farmers in America. Let's deal 
with the cost of the energy they need all the way from producing 
ammonia to diesel. So this is an economic issue.

  Remember this: If the OPEC countries decided to cut us off, we would 
be on our knees economically in less than 30 days. America doesn't 
depend on anybody else in the world for anything else for our existence 
but energy. We can not have that. The simple solution, is to have the 
debate. Let's have the vote.
  By the way, this doesn't displace the railroad retirement bill. It 
would be added to it, and so we would have an opportunity to pass a 
railroad retirement bill, presumably one that might be amended 
substantively as we go forward, with an energy package.
  The second part of the amendment I offered also puts a 6-month 
moratorium on cloning. It doesn't say we won't have it for therapeutic 
research. It doesn't say what we will do. It says ``time out here.'' We 
have a lot of serious questions that we need to ask and have answered 
and think about what we want to do. So it is the energy bill and the 6-
month moratorium on cloning. This should make for a good debate. It is 
long overdue.

[[Page S12140]]

  In the case of energy, in the case of cloning, if we don't do it now, 
we won't be able to do anything until February or March, and this issue 
will march forward with uncertainty and concern. Senator Brownback has 
been advancing the need for us to take some action to have the 
moratorium. The House acted months ago, overwhelmingly, in a bipartisan 
manner. We will have the opportunity to do the same here.
  I urge my colleagues to take time tonight and tomorrow and Monday. 
Let's talk about these two issues. We should not invoke cloture on this 
amendment. We should have a vote. We should not stop the debate. We 
should have a vote on the substance itself, and then we could move to 
the underlying bill and could get it done.
  Instead of taking shots at each other, we could actually address 
three big issues in one swoop. That is why I offered the amendment. It 
is also to serve notice that if we keep going off track on what we need 
to do to get out of here, other issues will be brought up.
  This is the Senate. Wonderful place that it is, no one person and no 
one party dictates what we can do. Marvelously, any Senator can offer 
any amendment on any subject he or she wishes at any time. Lots of 
times it takes 60 votes, but that is the way it works. Therefore, we 
will have an opportunity now to have a full debate on energy and on 
cloning as well as railroad retirement.
  I thank the Chair and my colleagues for the opportunity to briefly 
describe what we are doing. I am sure Senator Murkowski and members of 
the Energy Committee will be here to describe what is in this energy 
package. Senator Brownback is waiting to describe the details of his 
moratorium.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cantwell). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________