[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 48 (Wednesday, April 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3870-S3871]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CONSIDERATION OF FSC/ETI

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I wanted to come to the floor to respond, 
if I could, to the comments made by the distinguished majority leader. 
He made a very good statement about the importance of the FSC/ETI bill. 
I do not know whether there is unanimous support for FSC/ETI, but I do 
know there is strong support for it. It passed by a large margin out of 
the Finance Committee, and I think there is a great deal of interest in 
passing it on the Senate floor. So this is not a question whatsoever 
about support for the bill.
  We have been on the bill now for 7 days. This is the seventh day. We 
have actually had a vote on one amendment having to do with 
outsourcing--7 days, one vote. I am absolutely convinced if we had 
spent these 7 days working through the list of amendments--and I have 
the list in front of me--we would have finished this bill by now.
  In fact, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the list of 
amendments be printed in the Record.
   There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

  S. 1637, FSC/ETI Bill (2nd List)--Updated 1 p.m., Monday, March 29, 
                                  2004

        Bayh: (1) China trade laws; and (2) manufacturing.
        Breaux/Feinstein: (1) Re-patriation.
        Cantwell: (1) UI.
        Corzine: (1) Trade barriers; (2) COBRA; and (3) trade 
     enforcement.
       Daschle: (1) Job creation package.
        Dayton: (1) Strike all international provisions; (2) 
     capturing tax credit; (3) housing; and (4) check the box.
        Dorgan/Mikulski: (1) Runaway plants.
        Feingold: (1) Buy America provisions.
        Graham: (1) Strike international manufacturing and replace 
     with job credit; (2) repeal of international title; and (3) 
     relevant.
        Harkin: (1) Overtime.
        Harkin/Wyden: (1) No tax deduction for outsourcing.
        Hollings: (1) Strike all international provisions.
        Kennedy: (1) Family opportunity act; (2) strike some 
     international provisions; and (3) notification (with 
     Daschle).
        Lautenberg: (1) Foreign subsidiaries doing business with 
     terrorist nations.
        Levin: (1) Tax shelters.
        Miller: (1) Green bond.
        Murray/Durbin: (1) Malpractice insurance tax credit.
        Pryor: (1) IRA.
        Reid/Dorgan/Coleman: (1) Production tax credit.
        Schumer: (1) NY; and (2) China.
        Stabenow: (1) Tax benefits for domestic production.
        Wyden/Rockefeller: (1) TAA for services and health care.

  Mr. DASCHLE. I have indicated to Senator Frist that I feel strongly 
about the importance of working with him to try to finish deliberations 
on this bill. Instead, what we have gotten from some on the other side 
is just a lot of posturing.
  This was the original bill: 378 pages. Well, they denied the 
Democrats the opportunity to vote on one amendment and came back with 
the second version; this has 567 pages. They denied the opportunity, 
once again, to offer Democratic amendments, but now they have 969 pages 
of new amendments. So what they are telling us this morning is that 
this amendment is OK, but Senate Democrats cannot offer any of their 
amendments that are relevant, that are certainly appropriate, but that 
would fall under cloture today.
  I have urged my colleagues to reduce the number of amendments that 
they had intended to offer, and virtually every one of them has 
obliged. We started out with about 75 amendments. It came down to 40 
amendments. Now it is down to around 25 amendments. If we had a finite 
list, I am sure we could work those down even more as we debated these 
amendments.
  So I am troubled and, frankly, somewhat frustrated. Senator Frist, 
since he has been majority leader, has had a very good managerial 
style, where he has come to the floor, he has allowed Democrats to 
offer their amendments, and we have worked through bill after bill, 
including a very complicated highway bill in a very short period of 
time. Well, this is not in keeping with that practice, and it is 
troubling to me.
  About a week ago, I also indicated we would be prepared to finish the 
welfare bill this week if we could work through the amendments, and 
that was not possible either.
  I hope people understand this has nothing to do with support of the 
bill. This has to do with support of having an opportunity to do what 
this Senate is supposedly known for, which is to have a vigorous debate 
in what is called the most deliberative body. Having one amendment in 7 
days is not my idea of thoughtful deliberation. We have been hung up on 
procedure and hung up on issues that have nothing to do with the FSC/
ETI bill as it relates

[[Page S3871]]

to stopping--I would say obstructing--Democrats from offering these 
amendments.
  I am hopeful that once we get beyond this cloture vote, we can lay 
the bill down and we can work through these amendments. I will work 
with the majority leader to ensure we have adequate cooperation on this 
side, as I have offered from the very beginning.

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