[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5338-S5339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2:15 p.m. 
today, the Senate proceed to a period for morning business until 3:15 
p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; that 
at 3:15 p.m., the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 8 under 
the parameters of the unanimous consent agreement of April 23, 2002.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. LOTT. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. LOTT. And I will not object, although I have an inquiry I need to 
make and I will probably ask consent as a result of that.
  We need to go to the Defense authorization bill. That should be our 
first issue before anything else. I have made the points that we have 
not done a budget resolution and there is nothing more important than 
the defense of our country and that we need to go to the Defense 
authorization bill.
  I know there was an agreement entered into on this death tax issue, 
and I think we should go to it as soon as possible. But I inquire about 
what is the plan with regard to the Defense authorization bill. I note 
that S. 2514, the Defense authorization bill, is on the calendar and 
was reported May 15.
  Under my reservation, can I get some information about what is the 
plan with regard to the Defense authorization bill?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, as the distinguished Republican leader 
and I discussed a few minutes ago, the plan is certainly to take up the 
Defense authorization bill prior to the time we leave for the July 4 
recess. That has always been my intention. I have indicated that on 
several occasions to the Republican leader and to others, and that 
certainly is my intention again today. We know it will take some time. 
Senators have expressed an interest in offering some amendments to the 
bill, and they are in some cases not quite ready yet to go to the bill 
as they are examining amendment options.
  In the meantime, we want to also fulfill our obligation to Senators 
on the estate tax. We made that commitment some time ago, and we are 
hoping to do that. We are also talking to the Senator from Kansas, the 
Senator from California, and others about the cloning-stem cell 
research debate. We are hoping we can get a unanimous consent agreement 
to do that on Friday of this week and Monday.

[[Page S5339]]

  In addition to that, we are working on terrorism insurance, and we 
are hoping to get its passage before we leave. I would like to get a 
unanimous consent agreement on that matter.
  Senator Lott mentioned we were not able to get the budget language 
resolved. Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues objected to doing 
that last week during the debate on the supplemental, so we were 
precluded from doing that last week, but we will continue to work to 
find a way, hopefully without the objections of our Republican 
colleagues, on the budget as well.
  I will reiterate my commitment to the distinguished Republican leader 
that the Defense authorization bill is legislation we will finish prior 
to the time we leave for the July 4 recess.
  Mr. LOTT. Under my reservation, I note there is a great deal of 
difference between going to the budget resolution and having full 
consideration, and agreeing to a number and enforcement numbers on 
supplemental appropriations. I am prepared to try to help find a 
solution, to have some limits and some enforcement mechanisms, but 
obviously the way it has been done for the past 25 years is to have a 
budget resolution. I do think it is the right thing to do, to go to 
this death tax issue, and I do want us to continue to work on that.
  We are going to get an agreement on how to proceed to the cloning 
issue because I made that commitment some time ago, as did Senator 
Daschle, to Members on both sides of the issue and on both sides of the 
aisle. I think we are very close.
  I ask to be added to this unanimous consent agreement that following 
the disposition of this death tax issue, H.R. 8, the next order of 
business be the Defense authorization bill, which is S. 2514.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, of course we will object to that. Let 
me reiterate, because the Senator has noted his desire as well to deal 
with cloning, to deal with terrorism insurance, to deal with a number 
of other issues, that I know he will be prepared to cooperate in 
scheduling. We have to take this a step at a time. We may not be ready 
to deal with Defense tomorrow, but we are going to be ready to deal 
with it before the end of this work period. So we will continue to do 
that.
  I look forward to working with him to find that date when we can 
accomplish all we need to accomplish in a very short period of time.
  Mr. LOTT. With that assurance then, I withdraw my further 
reservation, but I again express my concern that if we wait too late on 
bringing up the Defense authorization bill, being able to complete it 
before the recess could be a problem. We need to get it done so we can 
go to the Defense appropriations bill and the military construction 
appropriations bill.

  In view of the objection and the assurances, I withdraw my 
reservation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the unanimous consent 
request?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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