[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         THE CONFERENCE PROCESS

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I want to follow on with the comments of 
my good friend from Iowa, Senator Grassley, and praise him for pointing 
out that the conference system is becoming bankrupt.
  Way too often conferees put in measures and take out measures that 
have nothing to do with the underlying bill that goes to conference. It 
is becoming so bad that I think sometime--my hope is in the next 
Congress--the Senator from Iowa, myself, and others should meet with 
our leadership to prevent this from continually happening. It bankrupts 
the process. It also causes more Americans to become even more 
concerned about the political process. We, as Senators, cannot go home 
and say what is or is not happening. Rather, we have to go home and 
report just what the Senator from Iowa reported--that somehow, by magic 
or by mystery, things sort of appear and disappear. It does not make us 
feel good as Senators because we like to know what is occurring. It 
certainly doesn't help our constituents feel any better about the 
process because they hope we know what is happening. More than that, 
they hope we are fighting for their case. But if we don't know the 
contents of the conference process, we don't know how something gets 
put in or taken out, and we look foolish. It is a major abrogation of 
our responsibility as a Senate to the American people for whom we work. 
They are, after all, our employers. At times, the Senate is too 
secretive.
  It reminds me of an incident I was involved in when I first came to 
the House more than 20-some years ago. At that time, I was a freshman 
House Member. I had a few free minutes one afternoon--about an hour or 
two. I thought that I would go to the conference on the tax bill; I 
might learn something. I thought I would go to the conference and learn 
a little about tax law and the conference process.
  I called around to try to figure out where the conference was 
meeting. Nobody would tell me. At that time, Mike Mansfield from 
Montana was the majority leader of the Senate. I thought I could call 
Senator Mansfield's office; certainly they could tell me where the 
conference was meeting. They did. They told me. It was in the big 
hearing room over in the Longworth Building. There was a policeman 
standing at the door leading to the executive room. I knew what was 
going on. He challenged me. I said I was a Member. I intended to reply 
that I was a member of the conference, but, rationalizing, I said I was 
a Member of Congress, and he waved me in.
  I walked back into the executive room. There were Senate Members in 
the hearing room on one side of the table with conferees, and Russell 
Long was at the table with House conferees. Russell Long was talking 
about when he was a kid in Louisiana. It was great listening to it. 
There was a sea of executive branch people. In the hearing room with 
Treasury Secretary Simon was a sea of Treasury employees.
  I took an out-of-the-way spot. I found a chair over on the side, and 
I sat down out of the way to watch. After about 10 minutes, Congressman 
Jim Burke from Massachusetts shuffled over to me--an elderly man. He 
came to me and said: I am sorry. I have to ask you to leave. Leave? 
Why? He said it was just the rules. I said respectfully that I would 
like to know what rule was requiring me to leave. He said, well, it is 
the Senate rules. So I said, well, I appreciate that. As a House 
Member, I wanted to know which Senate rule it was that prohibited my 
attendance as a Member of Congress watching this conference. He said, 
well, it is just the Senate rule.
  I thought for a while. I thought: That is wrong; it is not right. I 
am not going to make a big fuss about it right here; I will later. I am 
going to leave because he asked me to leave, but I will see what I can 
do about it. It is the rule.
  For example, Congressman Bill Green couldn't be there either. Bill 
Green was then a Congressman and the member of the House Ways and Means 
Committee in the House who authored a provision to delete the depletion 
allowance that was in the House bill. Even he could not attend, the 
rule then being nobody could attend a conference except conferees--
nobody else. But there were more people from the executive branch. They 
were there, along with Treasury Secretary Simon.
  I came over to the House floor. I mentioned this to Congressman Mikva 
from Illinois. He said: Max, you are entirely right. That is wrong. I 
have been fighting that rule for years.
  A few of us stood up on the House floor that afternoon and explained 
how we thought it was wrong. In the next session of Congress, the rules 
were changed. Afterwards, all conferences were totally open to the 
public.
  I know some Members of Congress don't like that. They do not like the 
sun shining in conferences. But that was the rule. We started it back 
then. I think it is in the public interest. It is a good rule.
  It seems things have changed slowly; conferences should not be 
secret. They are bipartisan. Both political parties attend, but often 
the minority party is shut out. One wonders what is happening. The real 
danger is, if and when the Democrats are in the majority, the Democrats 
are going to be tempted to do the same thing. It is wrong. Neither side 
should do that. They should be much more open and much more closely 
should enforce that rule, and matters not pertaining to the conference 
should not be included in the conference report. It is something we 
have to stand up and enforce for the good of the Senate and for the 
good of the country; otherwise, there will be chaos, or anarchy, or a 
dictatorship--whatever it is.
  Based upon the comments of my good friend, I am very inclined to work 
with him next year to see if we can do something about that. I think 
there are many others in the Senate who share the same view. It has 
gotten out of hand.
  I thank the Senator from Iowa for the statement.

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