[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15790]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that after 
conclusion of the 6:00 p.m. vote or votes, if any, on Monday, the 
Senate proceed to the intelligence authorization bill, S. 2507, and 
following the reporting by the clerk, Senator Thompson be recognized to 
offer an amendment.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, can the 
majority leader give me his latest report with regard to the hearing in 
the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday?
  Mr. LOTT. I have been in contact through senior staff, the top staff 
of Senator Hatch, with a suggestion of how we could proceed on that and 
get that information back to Senator Daschle. I did that, I guess, 
about an hour ago. I have not gotten a response back from them yet. But 
if I don't get one pretty quick, I will pursue another call to see if 
we can work that out.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will be constrained to object at this 
time, with the hope and expectation that we can get a much larger and 
more comprehensive unanimous consent agreement later in the afternoon. 
So I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me say again, of course, judicial 
nominations are important to the country on both sides of the aisle. I 
guess in the Senate everything is related to everything else. But who 
the hearings are on in Judiciary doesn't directly affect this bill. We 
need to get the intelligence authorization bill done.
  Once again, this is important to the national security of our 
country. There had been some objections to it, but we have worked 
through those, and it took a lot of give and take and cooperation on 
both sides because there were objections on both sides of the aisle. We 
have cleared that.
  Regarding the amendment I pointed out of Senator Thompson, I have 
been looking for any number of ways to have this very important matter 
of nuclear weapon proliferation by China reviewed. Senator Thompson has 
been very helpful and willing to withhold, or to consider any number of 
options as to how that would be considered. It seems to me that if we 
can get the intelligence authorization bill up, that would be an 
appropriate place for this issue to be considered, so that we can move 
to the PNTR for China issue on Wednesday. We are going to do that 
anyway. But I would like to have been able to deal with Senator 
Thompson's very meritorious amendment, either freestanding or as an 
amendment before we go to the China PNTR issue because I think he is 
going to be constrained to offer it as an amendment to the bill. That 
would be difficult because if it should be approved, of course, it 
would have to go on the bill and it would go back to conference and the 
House would have to consider it again. Perhaps, there will be enough 
votes to defeat it, but I, for one, do not feel constrained to vote 
against an issue of this significance. I think it is a legitimate 
argument that this is a national security and nuclear proliferation 
issue that should maybe be considered separate from the trade issue, 
but it is related to how we are going to deal with China in the future.
  So, again, Senator Daschle objected with the recognition that we are 
working on another angle or issue. We will try to get that worked out, 
and then we will try again later this afternoon on this issue. Rather 
than me controlling the floor for the debate, I think it would be best 
at this point if perhaps I would yield the floor, and perhaps Senator 
Thompson and Senator Hollings, who are very interested in this issue, 
could speak on their own time.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagel). The Democratic leader is 
recognized.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, let me say this to the majority leader 
before he leaves the floor. He and I have spent more time than we 
probably care to calculate over the last couple of days trying to work 
through what is obviously a very complicated and difficult period. I 
have appreciated his good nature as we have done this, his patience, 
his tolerance. He is smiling now, which is encouraging to me. I am 
going to keep smiling, too. I hope we can accommodate this unanimous 
consent request for the intelligence authorization. As Senator Lott, I 
recognize that it is important, and I hope we can address it.
  I also hope we can address the additional appropriations bills. There 
is no reason we can't. We can find a compromise if there is a will, and 
I am sure there is. But we also want to see the list of what we expect 
will probably be the final list of judicial nominees to be considered 
for hearings in the Judiciary Committee this year. I am anxious to talk 
with him and work with him on that issue. All of this is interrelated, 
as he said, and because of that, we take it slowly. So far, we have 
been able to take it successfully.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee is recognized.




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