[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 135 (Saturday, November 20, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11739-S11740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I know the last several hours have been 
difficult hours. A lot of people have been wondering exactly what is 
going on with the Omnibus bill, which people expect to vote on later 
tonight, which we will be voting on shortly. We will lay out the 
unanimous consent request in a few moments.
  The language we have been talking about over the last 2, 2\1/2\ 
hours--I will refer to it as the Istook language--everybody agrees 
should not be in the underlying Omnibus bill. It was brought to 
people's attention when staff had looked at it late this afternoon, and 
everybody agrees it should not be in there.
  The challenge we have had, from a procedural standpoint, is that the 
House has passed the Omnibus bill with that in it. Now we are to 
address it, and both Members of the House, including the Speaker, whom 
I have talked to directly, and our colleagues say it should not be 
there.
  Procedurally, how do we accomplish that? Once we pass this bill, it 
would become the law of the land. It should not be there, but it would 
be there for a period of time. The potential for abuse would exist.
  Mutually, we have agreed the only way to eliminate that is to send a 
correcting enrollment resolution back to the House of Representatives. 
The problem is they are not there. What we will do shortly--it will be 
in the UC--is we will pass that resolution, send it to the House. The 
House will receive that most likely on Wednesday. We also tonight will 
pass a continuing resolution, which we will comment on shortly, to 
allow business to continue tonight; and we will address the Omnibus and 
will vote on the Omnibus bill tonight and hopefully pass that bill. 
That bill will be sent to the desk, and it will be held there until the 
House acts, which will likely be Wednesday. At that point, and not 
until that point, this bill will actually be sent to the House or 
actually become law. Thus, there will be no window where this clause, 
this Istook language, will be law. It will not pass until it has been 
corrected in the bill, taken out of the underlying Omnibus bill.

[[Page S11740]]

  Procedurally, it means we will pass the continuing resolution 
tonight. We will have to do a modification of the adjournment 
resolution, but we will have one rollcall vote on the Omnibus. There 
will be a period of time of 30 minutes for debate prior to voting on 
that bill, and there will be a rollcall vote tonight. That is the first 
explanation.
  I will turn to the Democratic leader to make it a little simpler than 
that and to comment on what we have agreed to.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I think the majority leader has described 
the situation accurately, and I believe it is the best way in which to 
resolve what has been a very understandable concern on the part of so 
many Members on both sides of the aisle. I thank the distinguished 
Senator from North Dakota for first flagging this question and the 
issue and calling it to our attention, and all of those who have 
offered ways in which we might resolve the problem tonight.

  The solution has four parts. First, we will pass the continuing 
resolution that will accommodate the time that will be required for us 
to resolve this matter.
  The second will be that we will pass the conference report and, as 
the majority leader has noted, we will hold it at the desk.
  The third is that we will pass a resolution that will allow the 
correction in the conference report, an enrolling resolution. That will 
be part of this process.
  Fourth is that the House will take up the matter on Wednesday. We 
will hold it at the desk until that matter has been resolved, and then 
send it to the President once this work has been completed.
  This is, by far, the safest and easiest and, in some ways, the most 
confident way in which to address this question. I think, having 
addressed it in these four parts, we can all be satisfied that we will 
have accomplished what we set out to do, which is fix the error and 
pass the legislation.
  Many on our side may want to express themselves after we vote on it. 
People have expressed concern about other parts of the bill and, 
throughout the day, our colleagues have expressed themselves on the 
conference report in ways outside of this particular problem. But I 
think, procedurally, this is the right way to approach the matter.
  I think, ultimately, it accommodates the concerns people have had on 
both sides of the aisle. I hope we can reach agreement tonight to allow 
this process to go forward.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Will the majority leader yield for a question?
  Mr. FRIST. Yes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. What if the House doesn't act on it? What assurance do 
we have? Does the majority leader have assurance that the House will 
act on Wednesday?
  Mr. FRIST. We expect them to act. They said they will act. This bill 
will be held at the desk. If they don't act, this bill will not be sent 
over. That is part of the unanimous consent request.
  Mr. KENNEDY. So it is the understanding of the majority leader that 
they will act on Wednesday. After that takes place, the ordinary 
procedure will be followed in terms of the enrollment and sending it to 
the President?
  Mr. FRIST. That is correct.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am relieved at what has been worked out 
here, because this will prevent this provision from ever becoming law. 
This provision never should become law. It would open up the 
possibility and potential for abuse. I want to repeat for the record 
that I have no doubt Senator Stevens would never have used this 
provision for an untoward purpose. I feel the same way about Chairman 
Young. The problem was this would have become the law of the land. 
There will be future chairmen of the Appropriations Committee. I think 
we all know enough about human nature that if there is potential for 
abuse, abuse is likely to occur. This is a place where we could have 
had very serious abuse, with the opening up of people's tax records and 
the use of those records to punish people, or to help people, or to do 
other nefarious things that should never be permitted in this country. 
So I am relieved this will not ever become law.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as the Democratic leader suggested, we 
realize a number of people want to make further comments. The unanimous 
consent request we will propound shortly will allow for 30 minutes of 
debate. Other people have expressed an interest, after the vote, in 
being able to offer their views, which we encourage. That way, we can 
go ahead with our unanimous consent request after 30 minutes for 
debate, to be equally divided, and proceed with a rollcall vote.

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