[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 19, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2017-S2018]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, today the Senate will resume consideration 
of H.R. 2356, the Campaign Finance Reform Act. Cloture was filed 
yesterday. Therefore, Senators have until 12:30 today to file first-
degree amendments. Unless agreement is reached on final passage of 
campaign finance, the Senate will vote on cloture tomorrow morning.
  While negotiations continue on campaign finance, we expect to resume 
consideration of the energy reform bill. I see Senator Feingold. We 
will be happy if there are statements he or others wish to make on that 
legislation. But as I have indicated, unless there is some movement in 
the way of some amendments, we will try to get back to the energy 
reform bill.
  Senator Feinstein is here to move forward on the matter on which she 
and Senator Gramm have been working for about a week now.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, will the Senator from Nevada yield?
  Mr. REID. I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. LOTT. I know there have been a lot of negotiations back and forth 
on getting agreement on how to proceed on campaign finance reform. I 
was under the impression that perhaps an agreement was close.
  Mr. REID. That is my understanding.
  Mr. LOTT. Do you have information on that, and when do you expect we 
would try to enter into an agreement? Because obviously that affects 
the schedule of how we proceed on other issues, the energy bill in 
particular.
  Mr. REID. Senator Daschle has authorized me to say that whenever 
there is agreement, he will move forward on it immediately. The fact 
is, there just has not been one yet, to my knowledge.

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, if I could speak just for a moment--and 
I thank the minority leader--just to make it clear, the cloture motion 
has been filed. It will ripen tomorrow. Regardless of the other 
discussions and negotiations, our understanding is that will go 
forward. There are, however, negotiations going on with regard to some 
technical aspects, and we hope that can be worked out.
  I want to be clear because sometimes it seems as if, in these 
conversations, people think the two are linked and nothing will move 
forward. The campaign finance bill is going forward and it will be 
voted on tomorrow, as a cloture vote, unless there is some agreement. 
But, yes, as the minority leader has suggested, there are some 
conversations and discussions going on that we hope will be fruitful.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend from Wisconsin, that is what I did say 
earlier. We have the votes scheduled tomorrow, and I ask Senators to 
file amendments, if they have them, by 12:30 today. It is my 
understanding, I say to both the Republican leader and

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the Senator from Wisconsin, that any agreement that is being talked 
about will call for a vote tomorrow anyway. That is my understanding.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. That is correct.
  Mr. REID. I think we can look forward to a cloture vote tomorrow on 
this bill, regardless of what happens.
  I hope there will be some progress on the energy bill. In addition to 
the work of Senator Feinstein, we also have the alternative fuels 
problem we wish to have resolved. I hope Senator Kyl will come over as 
soon as possible today to offer his amendment. That would pretty much 
do for the alternative fuels problems we have with this legislation.
  So it is contemplated there will be rollcall votes in relation to the 
energy bill throughout the day.
  The Senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. today for our weekly 
party conferences. I appreciate everyone's courtesy, waiting while I 
made this brief announcement. I do hope, though, that everyone 
understands we are going to try to move forward on the legislation we 
have before us, campaign finance reform, and it is my understanding we 
can only get to the energy bill today after having moved off campaign 
finance reform. Is that true?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. That is correct.

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