[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20771-20772]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 4986

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, notwithstanding 
rule XXII, that the Senate turn to the consideration of Calendar No. 
817, H.R. 4986, relating to foreign sales corporations, and that 
following the reporting of the bill by the clerk, the committee 
amendments be agreed to, with no other amendments or motions in order, 
and the bill be immediately advanced to third reading and passage 
occur, all without any intervening action or debate.
  I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate then insist on its 
amendment, request a conference with the House, and the Chair be 
authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, who would be 
Senators Roth, Lott, and Moynihan.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, we have been doing 
everything we can to move along the appropriations process. We did that 
on the energy and water appropriations bill. We are doing that on the 
Interior appropriations bill. I want the Record to be clear, as the 
leader knows, we are not holding up the Interior bill.
  Mr. LOTT. Absolutely. We had some reservations on both sides of the 
aisle last night. The reservations on Senator Reid's side of the aisle 
were worked out. The problem now is, as I stated,

[[Page 20772]]

that Senator Fitzgerald has a problem. The Senator from Nevada has 
worked on his part of the problem on which, by the way, I agreed with 
him. I believe we have gotten the language we need, so it is not 
necessary for that objection to be filed.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I further say under my reservation, we are 
also standing by ready to work on Transportation and hopefully 
Agriculture. It would be very nice if we could complete this work which 
is, as the leader knows, overdue.
  The point is, I want the Record spread with the simple fact that I am 
going to object to Calendar No. 817. It is an unusual thing we have to 
object. We want to move things along as quickly as possible, as 
indicated by the statement I just made. But as to H.R. 4986, I object. 
I say to the leader, there are people who are looking at this, and we 
hope it can be cleared at an early date.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I may comment, as Senator Reid mentioned, 
we hope to move to the Transportation and Agriculture appropriations 
conference reports. I had hoped one or both of those would be ready 
today. I believe they are both close to completion. In fact, I am sure 
the Transportation appropriations conference report is completed, and 
we should have it, hopefully, early in the morning. Agriculture has 
been more difficult for obvious reasons: Getting an exact reliable 
number on what is needed for disasters, but also dealing with issues 
such as the drug reimportation question and the sanctions issue. They 
are going to attempt to close that conference this afternoon. We hope 
to have a vote and be ready for action on tomorrow.
  With regard to this particular bill, the foreign sales corporation, I 
understand there are some reservations, but hopefully we can find a way 
to consider it.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Would the majority leader yield for a question?
  Mr. LOTT. I do not believe I have the floor, I say to the Senator, 
but I am sure that Senator Reid would yield to the Senator.
  Mr. REID. I am happy to yield to my friend from New York who is so 
interested in this legislation, and who has talked to me about it so 
many times.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. You say ``reservations.'' Sir, if there are any 
reservations about the legislation as such, I would hope they would 
bring them to the attention of Senator Roth, myself, and others, and 
the administration.
  This is absolutely must do legislation. If we do not do it, we put 
ourselves at risk of a probable certain outcome--a trade war with 
Europe. In fact, it would astonish us and injure us, and we will wonder 
what happened. And nothing need have happened.
  It was found that our tax arrangements for foreign sales corporations 
were in violation of WTO rules. Fine. We said we will produce a 
different measure that is compliant. The American industry is very 
happy. We have the bill. All we need to do is pass it. The deadline was 
October 1. It has been extended to November 1. If we do not do this, we 
will be remembered as a Congress that did not, and not favorably, sir.
  I thank you for bringing it up. I regret there are reservations, but 
they have nothing to do, that I know of, with the essence of this 
measure.
  Mr. REID. I would say to my friend, I think the statement that the 
Senator has made should be within earshot of everyone. If there is a 
problem--and somewhat technical in the minds of some--they should come 
forward.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. I will stay here all afternoon and evening.
  Mr. REID. I am sure the Senator can explain it well. So I invite 
Senators to do that.
  Mr. LOTT. I would like to make clear, if there is a technical 
amendment, or if there is a germane amendment, we could certainly get 
an agreement to make that in order.
  What bothers me is that earlier on there had been indications that 
there were unrelated amendments that would ball the Senate up and this 
bill into protracted debate. What bothers me even more is, as we get 
closer, hopefully, to the end of the session, the thinking, I guess, 
would be, well, we will just drop this into something. The opportunity 
for mischief at that point is endless because if one Senator shows up 
and objects, we could lose it.
  So I know Senator Reid will be working on this. But this is something 
that is important to our country. I assume that the White House also 
would like to get this done. We need to continue to focus very closely 
on this piece of legislation.

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