[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19701-19702]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           AMENDMENT VEHICLE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the majority leader leaves, I think 
what we have heard today has been comforting, except for one thing. I 
wish we had a vehicle here before us that we could amend. I think we 
have a number of amendments we would like to offer to this legislation. 
The leader decided not to do that. I hope in the next few days we can 
work on some of the issues that we believe are so important, which we 
have talked about on many occasions, such as minimum wage, Patients' 
Bill of Rights, prescription drugs, and education. We understand where 
we are in a parliamentary situation now that we can't offer any 
amendments. We look forward to the next week being very productive and 
our being able to move forward on some of this very important 
legislation.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in response, I believe the Senate has voted 
one or more times on all of the issues that Senator Reid mentioned. It 
is my full expectation that before this session is over a minimum wage 
bill, coupled with a small business tax relief package that we will 
have to work through the final details on, will be incorporated in some 
other bill or moved in one way or another and sent to the President. I 
fully expect that it will be accomplished.
  I think maybe the Senator knows there is a Patients' Bill of Rights 
conference that is still meeting. I think there are meetings, even 
today, to see if we can come to an agreement to get a bill that truly 
protects patients, but not just become a bill that provides more 
opportunities for my brother-in-law to sue people. So I am hopeful on a 
combination there. In fact, I discussed that with the President 
directly and said we would still like to see if we couldn't have some 
sort of a sit-down meeting and a broad, bipartisan, bicameral, ``bi-
branch'' of the Government discussion and get an end result. I am still 
hopeful that can occur.
  On education, obviously, when we get to the Labor-HHS-Education 
appropriations conference report, it is going

[[Page 19702]]

to have funds for education in it--more funds than was requested by the 
administration or was in our budget resolution. We will have to come to 
some agreement about how we help local school districts in terms of 
flexibility, accountability, school construction, and if the best way 
to be helpful is a bond or some other program. All of that is under 
discussion now, and it is occurring between the House and Senate and 
the administration.
  So certainly I understand that there is a desire to perhaps offer 
other amendments. I am sure the Senator can understand my feeling that 
we have already voted on all of those issues, and repeated votes don't 
necessarily render a result. I think what we need to do in this final 
period of the session is get agreements and work together.
  I had a meeting with Senator Daschle. We talked about a bill that has 
broad bipartisan support--actually, a couple of bills. We looked at 
whether we can consider them on the floor, or if there is another way 
we can get a result that would be satisfactory to the largest number of 
Senators without having an extended cloture process, such as we had on 
H-1B.
  I have indicated I would like for us to see if we can find a way to 
do the railroad retirement bill. But if I bring that up, it probably 
would have to go through a lot of hurdles, and there is opposition to 
some aspects of it. Instead of trying to find a way to have a fight, I 
am trying to find a way to get an agreement and get it done.
  I certainly understand Senator Reid's position. He has been 
persistent in that effort, and he has done it without rancor. I 
appreciate that. As we go into these final few days of the session, 
hopefully we can keep the channels of communication open and see what 
we can do to facilitate a conclusion with which most Senators can be 
satisfied.
  Mr. REID. Finally, the majority leader raised the minimum wage issue. 
I believe we can do something on a bipartisan basis. The three Senators 
on the floor presently--two Democrats and one Republican--know that one 
of the tax incentives we have to give small business is a meals tax 
deduction. We cut that back significantly and it has hurt restaurant 
businesses all over America. For Mississippi, having a heavy resort 
industry, along with Atlantic City and Nevada, I think that is 
something we can do on a bipartisan basis.
  I hope we can get the minimum wage issue before us and have decent 
tax breaks that aren't budget busters and move forward on that.
  On the Patients' Bill of Rights, for example, sadly, the structure of 
the Senate has changed by one. We believe we are entitled to another 
vote, and that failed by one vote previously. That is an issue we can 
debate later in some other forum. We have talked enough today on H-1B 
and matters related thereto. I can say that I am comforted by the fact 
that we were able to get an early vote on the motion to suspend the 
rules. I hope that will satisfy everybody because it was an up-or-down 
vote on the Latino and Immigrant Fairness Act.
  I hope we can set that matter aside and schedule an early vote on H-
1B.
  Mr. LOTT. I would be glad to work with Senator Reid and our 
colleagues to see if we can find a time to do that tomorrow. I ask our 
staff to see if we can work through that agreement.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I understand that I have 15 minutes 
based on the unanimous consent agreement that we just concluded.

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