[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 68 (Thursday, May 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4760-S4761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ANDEAN TRADE PREFERENCE EXPANSION ACT--Continued


                           Amendment No. 3447

  Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I thank my friend and colleague from 
Nevada.
  We are considering a lot of amendments. I know the chairman of the 
Finance Committee has been working through amendments. We have been 
working through amendments as well, and we are going to get into a 
situation where we have a lot of votes. For the information of our 
colleagues and particularly our colleague and friend from West 
Virginia, Senator Byrd, who has three or four amendments, one of which 
is second degreed by our friend and colleague from South Carolina, 
Senator Hollings.
  Senator Byrd's amendment in the first degree deals with a 
congressional oversight group that changes in composition.
  Right now, the oversight for trade is in the Finance Committee. I 
happen to serve on the Finance Committee, so I was interested in the 
composition of the congressional oversight group. It talks about the 
oversight from the House. I notice in the House group, it consists of 
the majority leader and minority leader, and eight additional members 
would be appointed by the Speaker of the House, four each from the 
minority and majority. It also says none of the eight members appointed 
under this paragraph will be members of the Committee on Ways and 
Means.
  Then it says the membership in the Senate congressional oversight 
group shall be comprised of the following Members of the Senate: 
President pro tempore of the Senate, Senator Byrd; minority leader and 
majority leader; eight additional Members appointed by the President 
pro tempore of the Senate, four members from the majority after 
consulting with the majority leader, and four members from the minority 
party after consulting with the minority leader of the Senate.
  Then it also says that none of the eight members appointed under this 
paragraph may be members of the Committee on Finance.
  I am a member of the Finance Committee, and I do not want to have 
that jurisdiction taken away from the Finance Committee. So I am going 
to oppose this amendment. At some point, I am going to move to table 
the amendment. I would not want to table the amendment of the Senator 
from West Virginia without notifying him and giving him a chance to 
debate. Maybe he has debated it and I missed that debate, but I was not 
aware until a few moments ago of the impact of this new oversight 
committee, which would exclude members of the Finance Committee, which 
has jurisdiction over trade.
  I would think Democrats and Republicans who serve on the Finance 
Committee would not like to find out that an area over which they have 
jurisdiction and over which they have some responsibility, on which 
they have had hearings, would be excluded from this oversight 
committee.
  That is my purpose of speaking now. It is not for total debate but to 
let my colleague from West Virginia know that at some point, not 
immediately--as a matter of fact, it will be after the 2:30 briefing by 
the FBI Director--a motion will be made to table the underlying Byrd 
amendment dealing with the oversight group. I wanted my colleague to be 
aware of that.

[[Page S4761]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.

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