[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15070-15072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           ORDER OF BUSINESS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we are working with the managers of various 
pieces of legislation to determine the best way to proceed. Senator 
Daschle and I have been discussing how to proceed. We have had a very 
busy time over the past 8 days. We have had a lot of votes. We have 
completed a lot of work: The Department of Defense authorization bill--
actually, we completed that with debate at night--the Interior 
appropriations bill today, the death tax elimination legislation last 
Friday, and the marriage tax penalty today.
  The question is how to proceed at this point. We hope we can complete 
action on the foreign operations appropriations bill so it can go to 
conference, as we did yesterday on the legislative appropriations bill.
  Our colleagues will recall, we did take that up but didn't complete 
it. We need to get that done so that can go to conference and the House 
and Senate conferees can begin working with the administration to get 
that important legislation passed. I know they have interest in it. We 
do, too.
  We are also committed to getting four appropriations bills done 
before we go out for the August recess: Agriculture, which is, I 
believe, ready to proceed. The managers are in the area. Senator 
Cochran and Senator Kohl are in the area; The energy and water 
appropriations bill is ready to go when we complete Agriculture; 
Treasury-Postal Service will be ready next week, and Commerce-State-
Justice.
  That would be 11 appropriations bills. That would still leave the 
HUD-VA appropriations bill and the DC appropriations bill. But for a 
variety of reasons, we probably could not get those two done until some 
time in September, maybe even the middle of September anyway.
  Now, there are other issues in which Senators are interested. We have 
been discussing ways to proceed to them, or if we could proceed to 
them. We had discussed the possibility of going to the NCAA gaming 
issue. I discussed that with some of the advocates on this side of the 
aisle at noon today. I understand, in fact, we may not be able to 
proceed to that because we have to clear it with a lot of different 
Senators. But we will continue to look to see if we can find a way to 
have that legislation considered.
  Senator Daschle will want to comment on a number of these things, and 
maybe ask questions, too.
  We still have pending the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We 
put about a week or more into that legislation. A lot of amendments 
have been offered and voted on. There is a feeling, I hope, on both 
sides of the aisle that we would still like to actually complete that 
legislation.
  I would like to consider working on it and at some point proceed the 
way we did on the Defense authorization bill so we actually get it 
completed. I am going to talk more with Senator Daschle about that. He 
will want to consult, I am sure, with the ranking member on his side. I 
will want to consult with the chairman on our side, Senator Jeffords, 
and Senator Craig, and others who are involved in that.
  I continue to urge the Judiciary Committee to make progress on 
judicial nominations. There are a number of nominations that have had 
hearings, nominations that are ready for a vote, and other nominations 
that have been pending for quite some time that should be considered.
  I have discussed this matter regularly with Senator Hatch, including 
last Friday afternoon and, again, just briefly yesterday. I cannot make 
the Judiciary Committee vote. I cannot tell them who to vote on, but I 
can urge them to continue to work on those nominations that can be 
cleared and can be reported to the Senate.
  I have been assured by the chairman that they are going to have a 
markup and report out some judges on Wednesday of this week or--I 
thought it was Wednesday. Has it been moved to Thursday? I thought it 
was 10 o'clock on Wednesday. But they are going to report out judges 
this week and have at least one more hearing before the August recess. 
They expect to report out another group of judges next week. In that 
group will be not only district

[[Page 15071]]

judges but circuit judges. So I want to make that record clear.
  With regard to the issue a lot of Senators are interested in, the 
China permanent normal trade relations issue, we have to finish the 
appropriations bills. But we are discussing now a procedure, which we 
can discuss, that would allow us to go ahead and proceed to it, take 
some action on it next week but recognize that because of the time that 
could be required in having to debate and file cloture on a motion to 
proceed, and other cloture motions that might be necessary, we would 
not be able to complete it and do the appropriations bills next week.
  Also, I continue to have a desire to find a way for the Thompson-
Torricelli issue to be considered, either freestanding or as an 
amendment. So we need to get that resolved before we actually move to 
proceed to the China PNTR bill.
  But I can see, again, the possibility of doing some work on that 
freestanding at night or doing it as an amendment, or, of course, he 
may reserve his right and may, in fact, believe he has to actually 
offer it when we go to China PNTR.
  So what I am proposing here--and I would like Senator Daschle to 
comment on it--is that we go ahead and complete action on the foreign 
operations appropriations bill, send it to conference; that we go to 
the Agriculture appropriations bill; that we then take up the other 
appropriations bills in this group --energy and water, Treasury-Postal 
Service, and CJS--but that we work to see if we can proceed at night, 
perhaps on Thursday, perhaps next Monday, on the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act. I need to consult with Senators that have been 
involved in that from the committee--the chairman and others I 
mentioned--and Senator Daschle needs to do the same thing.
  If we could get an understanding that we would work on all these, we 
would also entertain the idea of proceeding to the China PNTR 
legislation next Wednesday. I believe, as it now stands, I would have 
to file a cloture motion on that. That cloture, then, would ripen on 
Friday; I believe that would be the 28th of July, which would be the 
Friday that we would hope to go out for the August recess. That would 
be the final action, unless 30 hours had to be run off of it at that 
time. Then we would go back to that when we come back after the August 
recess in September. The positive effects of that would be that we 
would show clearly we intend to go to this legislation.
  We are going to work together to get these appropriations bills done. 
We are going to go to China PNTR. We are going to get over the first 
hurdle, recognizing that there are several other hurdles that could 
require quite a bit of time to complete.
  But those are sort of the parameters of what Senator Daschle and I 
and others have been talking about.
  I say to Senator Daschle, why don't I yield the floor so you can make 
comments on that and/or ask any questions.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, may I ask a brief question.
  The majority leader discussed with me earlier, off the floor, about 
the possibility of bringing up the NCAA prohibition of betting on 
college sports. This bill was passed overwhelmingly through the 
committee after hearings. Every college coach in America is committed 
to this proposition that betting on college sports should stop.
  I would allege there would be a vote of 98-2 in this Senate, if it 
came to a vote. It is something I think we could get done. I think we 
could get it done quickly. Every college coach in America, the most 
respected men and women in America, are saying that these young people 
are tempted by this gambling and by this betting.
  It was a unanimous recommendation of the National Gaming Impact Study 
Commission. I hope that the majority leader and the Senator from South 
Dakota would enter into a time agreement so we could get this done and 
stop what every college coach in America is saying is an outstanding 
evil and temptation that needs to be removed from these young Americans 
who have been basically put in their charge.
  I hope the majority leader will consider, in consultation with the 
Democratic leader, that we bring this bill up, get it passed, and get 
it on the President's desk.
  Mr. LOTT. If I could respond to Senator McCain's comments, as I 
indicated to him at lunch, I was prepared and am prepared to move to 
proceed to that issue. I understand perhaps there may be objection to 
proceeding. I had hoped maybe we could get an agreement to go ahead and 
proceed. But we can call it up, and if there is objection, there is 
objection. We will have to deal with it at that point.
  Of course, one option is to file cloture to try to overcome that 
objection. But we would have to factor in the time that would take and 
how that would play in all these other issues we are trying to balance.
  Senator Daschle and I thought maybe we could go to it, but we have an 
obligation. Just like I had to talk to Senator McCain, I need to talk 
to Senator Brownback. He has Senators he needs to talk to. I believe--I 
do not want to speak for him--he indicated he thought perhaps there 
would be an objection to proceeding. We did not think that was the case 
as early as 11 o'clock today. We will continue to work with the Senator 
because I am committed to working with him and Senator Brownback to 
find a way for this issue to come up and be considered. If we can ever 
get it to a vote, I think the Senator is right; it is going to pass 
overwhelmingly.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I associate myself with the remarks of 
the majority leader in regard to the NCAA bill. I think there is broad 
support for it. But I also recognize that every Senator is within his 
or her rights to object and to prolong consideration of any bill for 
whatever length of time the rules might allow.
  We have colleagues on this side of the aisle who have indicated to me 
that is their intention. I know we have to take that into account as we 
schedule legislation for the balance of this work period. I will 
certainly work with the distinguished chair of the Commerce Committee 
and the majority leader to find a time, either through an amendment or 
through a freestanding bill, to bring it up.
  Senator Lott has articulated very clearly the discussions he and I 
have had over the last hour or so. He has expressed the desire to me--
not only to me, to the Senate on several occasions--that we finish at 
least 11 appropriations bills. I have indicated my hope that we could 
accommodate that kind of schedule, even though we recognize the 
disruptions in the schedule, even tomorrow, necessary disruptions. I 
think it is accomplishable. I would like to work with him to attempt to 
try to resolve these matters. I have indicated to him that a number of 
colleagues on this side of the aisle have indicated to me that in order 
for us to do that there would be a need to address a number of other 
issues.
  The majority leader has identified each of those issues and responded 
just as we discussed. It is my understanding that there will be a 
markup in the Judiciary Committee on future judicial nominations. I 
hope, as the majority leader has indicated, it will include both 
circuit and district judges. It is my understanding that is likely to 
occur. He has also now indicated that we will get another batch of them 
done next week and that a mix of circuit and district judges is also 
anticipated. I am very pleased with that information and commend him 
for his efforts to move this process along. He has operated in 
extraordinarily good faith in working with me to try to move these 
nominations along. I know it is not easy. It is very difficult. But he 
has certainly been a major factor in getting us to this point.
  We have again indicated the desire, as we have on several occasions, 
to bring up PNTR, at least through a motion to proceed beginning next 
Wednesday. I subscribe to his suggestion or his proposal that would 
allow us to vote on cloture on the motion to proceed on Friday. We 
would then have 30 hours of debate. Senators who wish to discuss the 
matter beyond the vote or perhaps preceding the vote would certainly be

[[Page 15072]]

entitled to do so. We could have the vote either on Friday or 
immediately after we come back. That would accommodate at least 
overcoming one major hurdle. I applaud him for approaching the issue in 
that way.
  Third, we have discussed on several occasions on the floor our hope 
and desire that we can use the dual track that worked very successfully 
in accommodating Senators' needs to address a number of issues but also 
in finishing legislation, as we did with the Defense authorization 
bill. There came a point when we had exhausted the amendment process 
and rightfully brought the issue to closure. I hope, as Senator Lott 
has noted, that we might be able to do that with ESEA as well. It is 
important for us to resume this dual track. I am very pleased with the 
majority leader's commitment to continue a dual-track process over the 
course of the next couple of weeks. We have the opportunity to get a 
lot of work done--work on appropriations bills, work on judges, work on 
PNTR, and work on ESEA--as a dual-track vehicle with which we can work 
to offer other amendments. I am pleased with our discussions and hope 
we can proceed with that understanding.
  I, again, thank the majority leader for his willingness to work with 
us and accommodate all of these important matters.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Smith of Oregon). The Senator from 
Montana.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I compliment both leaders. This is 
incredibly complex, all of the scheduling. We have had lots of 
conversations. Every Senator in this body has had conversations with 
both of them, and I know they are trying to do their very best to work 
all this out. Not getting into any specific item, I am appreciative of 
the tone and nature of the conversation I have just heard and of the 
items mentioned. As one Senator, I wanted to tell them how much I 
appreciate their working together to get these things up along the 
lines they have outlined.
  Mr. LEVIN. Will the majority leader yield?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I am glad to yield to the Senator from 
Michigan.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I add my thanks to the two leaders for 
their efforts. We watch them with admiration as they seek to work 
through these multiple challenges. We have had many discussions 
concerning one of the items about which they talked. I just couldn't 
sit here without adding my gratitude to both of them.
  Mr. LOTT. I thank the Senator.
  Let me note, for instance, the types of things we do need to 
accommodate. The Senate tomorrow will want to accommodate Senators 
wishing to attend the services for Senator Pastore, a great Senator 
from the State of Rhode Island. A delegation will be attending those 
services tomorrow morning. We will continue to work, but we will 
withhold the votes or stack the votes, if any are required, until the 
afternoon at 2 or 2:30. I don't know exactly what time it would be, but 
I know Senator Cochran would want to do that. That is the kind of 
situation we have to try to accommodate. We can't always dictate how we 
will proceed because we want to do this in memory of a Senator who 
served in this body for many years.
  We will continue to act in good faith to try to make sure Senators' 
wishes are known and accommodated. We may not be able to get them all 
worked out. As to the NCAA gaming, I thought maybe we could move to 
proceed to that without objection, but there may be a legitimate one. I 
had promised a couple of Senators we would make sure they knew of that.
  I will also need to talk to Senators about the best night that we 
could do some work on ESEA. Senator Daschle will want to do the same in 
view of that.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, if the majority leader will withhold, I 
suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. I understand there may be some clarification that needs to 
be completed before we can proceed to the appropriations bill for 
Agriculture.

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