[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22800]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                                PROGRAM

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the 
Senate will not be in session on Monday. On Tuesday, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the conference report on this Agriculture 
appropriations bill--very important legislation. The debate will be 
limited to Tuesday's session and approximately 2 hours on Wednesday 
morning, with the vote scheduled to occur at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday on 
the Agriculture appropriations bill.
  For the remainder of the week, the Senate is expected to complete all 
action necessary for sine die adjournment. I pause for applause. That 
is certainly what we should do. It is possible we can do it. We were 
able to get a good deal accomplished this week. It took a lot of work 
on both sides of the aisle. We were able to get a package of five bills 
done, which included, of course, the sex trafficking issue as well as 
Aimee's law and the Violence Against Women Act. We were able to pass 
four appropriations bills and complete action on the Defense 
authorization bill and begin debate on the Agriculture appropriations 
bill.
  Next week we will have to deal with the foreign operations conference 
report final passage in some form; the Commerce-State-Justice 
appropriations bill; the Labor-HHS and Education appropriations 
conference report, and there are several tax provisions that need to be 
considered, including the FSC issue that we have been trying to get 
cleared, a bill that came out of the Finance Committee to make sure the 
United States complies with WTO requirements. We need to get that 
completed as well as several other items that have broad support in the 
House and in the Senate and the administration.
  So there are four categories that we will need to act on next week. I 
have been having conversations and meetings this morning with Members 
of both sides of the aisle and with the administration to try to help 
facilitate that.
  I notice Senator Conrad reacted positively to ``both sides of the 
aisle.''
  I think it is clearly possible to complete our work by next Friday. I 
had hoped we could do it by Saturday, the 14th, but the unfortunate 
death of our friend and colleague, Congressman Vento from Minnesota, 
occurred and, therefore, Members are in Minnesota this morning for the 
funeral service. Clearly, we can get our work done next week, and we 
certainly will try to. Senators should expect votes throughout the day 
Wednesday and Thursday and into Friday, if it is necessary.
  I yield to the Senator from North Dakota for a question or comment.

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