[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16956]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, first, I would like to welcome all of my 
colleagues and our staff back from the August period when we had time 
to be with our families and our friends and our constituents. We are 
inspired by the Chaplain's prayer and ready, I am sure, for a lot of 
good work. As I have visited with some of my colleagues already, I see 
that they look mighty rested and ready for a busy legislative period, 
and I think they are probably going to need to be. We still have to 
complete action on five appropriations measures, as well as conference 
reports as they become available.
  In addition, there are a number of other legislative matters we hope 
to finish as we move toward the adjournment period of the Congress. We 
have some bills we hope to take up freestanding in the Senate, and, of 
course, we have some conference reports other than appropriations bills 
on which we will be working. So we have a lot of work we are going to 
need to consider.
  Today, the Senate will have a period of morning business prior to the 
12:30 p.m. recess for weekly party conferences and meetings. When the 
Senate reconvenes at 2:15 p.m., it will begin postcloture debate on the 
motion to proceed to the China PNTR legislation. Those Senators who 
wish to make statements are encouraged to notify the bill managers. 
Hopefully, a lot of Senators who wish to speak on the China trade issue 
will take advantage of the time today, and we will go to as late as 
possibly 6 p.m., although we may be prepared to go a little bit earlier 
than that if our colleagues have made their statements and we can get 
agreement to do that. But at least at 6 p.m. the Senate will begin 
consideration of the energy and water appropriations bill with 
amendments in order.
  As a reminder, we will be considering these two bills on a dual track 
throughout the week with the motion to proceed to the China trade bill 
being considered during the day and the appropriations bill or bills 
being considered at night. So votes could still occur if we move toward 
the time when we could need to have a vote today, but certainly during 
the day on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and possibly Friday morning we 
will be having votes on the appropriations amendments that are offered 
at night or on China PNTR when amendments become available.
  So there will be long days, but we will do our best to keep Senators 
advised after communicating with the leadership on both sides of the 
aisle what the schedule will be. I hope we can make good progress and 
complete this appropriations bill and move to another one later on this 
week or early next week.

                          ____________________