[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 20793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 20793]]

             ON DELAYS IN SENATE CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 5107

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, all Democrats have cleared for final 
passage H.R. 5107, the Work for Hire and Copyright Corrections Act of 
2000. I hope that the Senate will take up H.R. 5107 without further 
unnecessary delay. Representatives Berman and Coble deserve credit, 
along with the interested parties, for working out a consensus solution 
in their work for hire copyright legislation. I do not know why the 
Senate has not confirmed their work and accorded their bill consent for 
final passage. Why the Republican majority has not taken up this 
measure since the middle of last week is another unexplained mystery.
  As has been true with our bipartisan bill to provide bulletproof vest 
grants to law enforcement, S. 2014, and its House-passed counterpart, 
H.R. 4033, all Democrats have cleared these matters for Senate action. 
As has been true for some time with the Violence Against Women Act of 
2000, S. 2787, all Democrats have cleared these matters for Senate 
action. The same is true with respect to S. 1796, the Justice for 
Victims of Terrorism Act, all Democrats have cleared these matters for 
Senate action. There are so many bills cleared by the Senate Democrats 
being held hostage without explanation by the Republican majority, it 
is hard to know where to begin and where to end. Here is this last week 
of the session the Senate could be making progress on a number of items 
but we remained stymied.
  I regret that Congress did not complete its necessary work on the 
required appropriations bills before the beginning of the new fiscal 
year. We are again requiring the Government to exist from continuing 
resolution to continuing resolution. Along with the American people, I 
hope that we will complete our work before too much longer.

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