[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1488-1489]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              AFFORDABLE EDUCATION ACT OF 1999--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
continue with the consideration of S. 1134.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, as I indicated earlier today, I will attempt 
again now to see if we can work out an agreement as to how to proceed 
on the education savings account issue. I am prepared to continue 
working to try to work something out. I think it is perfectly 
legitimate--in fact, essential--that Senators be able to express 
themselves on education matters as a whole and specifically as it 
relates to this bill.
  I think education amendments or education-related tax amendments that 
relate to this bill are very much in order. I support that all the way. 
But if it goes beyond that, then you get off into all kinds of other 
issues, and we will have an opportunity for that before this year is 
over. We have a long way to go. But I hope we can get serious 
consideration, good debate and amendments, on this education savings 
account bill and then move forward to other issues.
  I am continuing to be hopeful that we can get an agreement to proceed 
on the Export Administration Act which does have bipartisan support. 
But we are working with the key members of the Armed Services 
Committee, the Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Intelligence 
Committee to make sure legitimate concerns are addressed about national 
security, intelligence, and how the concurrence process works between 
Commerce and State and Defense. We still are hopeful we can get an 
agreement worked out for that.
  For now, I renew my request and ask unanimous consent that all 
amendments be relevant to the subject matter of education or related to 
education taxes on the education savings account bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

[[Page 1489]]


  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have been able to consider every piece of 
legislation so far this year in this session of Congress under 
unanimous consent agreements.
  This is the first amendable vehicle that Members have had to try to 
amend this year. There is no attempt by the minority to filibuster, to 
delay this bill in any manner. Members on our side simply want the bill 
considered in the regular order, open to amendment.
  Like the majority leader, I had the good fortune of serving in the 
House of Representatives. I loved my job in the House of 
Representatives, but there we worked under different rules. We had a 
Rules Committee. Before any bill came to the House floor--in fact, the 
majority leader served on the Rules Committee--there had to be a rule 
on that bill as to how long the debate would take, how many amendments 
would be offered, and how long for each amendment. Those are not the 
rules that have governed the Senate for 200-plus years, and they should 
not be the rules that govern the Senate today.
  We have clearly heard what the majority leader said today, that other 
things we may want to bring up will be scheduled at a later time. But 
we are not part of that scheduling process. There are issues we believe 
are necessary now in this country to be the subject of legislation. The 
only way we can do that is through the amendment process. We believe 
the minority should be entitled to offer amendments of their choosing. 
There is no germaneness requirement, nor is there any necessity that 
there be a rules committee such as in the House of Representatives. 
Just because a Member's amendment may not be relevant does not mean it 
is not important and it is not something about which we should be able 
to talk.
  I say to the majority leader, we object. I would hope he would 
reconsider and allow this matter to proceed in the regular order so 
amendments can be offered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. I object.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I do truly regret this objection. But as I 
have indicated before, we will keep working to see if we can find a way 
to get an agreement to proceed.
  I say to my colleagues, and to the American people, what is a more 
important issue than education? In most polls, the people indicate the 
issue they really are concerned about the most--or certainly in the top 
three--is education. Also, the indications across the board have been 
that people support the idea of having an opportunity to save for their 
children's education, not only for higher education but in some 
respects even more importantly K through the 12th grade. This would 
allow parents to set aside up to $2,000 per year per child of their own 
money for their own children's education needs.
  I emphasize, what we are trying to work out does not restrict 
amendments on education, or education tax issues. Senators who have 
ideas about education--local control of education, or other ways we can 
help the children's education--boy, I can think of a lot of amendments 
that would be applicable here.
  What I do not think we should do in an education debate is get into a 
whole raft of other important issues--maybe foreign trade issues, maybe 
just foreign policy issues, maybe trade amendments, maybe defense 
amendments, gun amendments--a whole myriad of amendments that Senators 
could come up with that they would want to put on this bill, perhaps 
because it is the first bill.
  Under Senate rules, Senators will have the opportunity to offer 
whatever amendments they may be working on as we go through the year. 
It is just that I think sometimes we get into a position where we start 
offering the same amendments over and over again. What I am trying to 
do is get a process to get us to focus on education, have a good 
debate, have amendments, and when that is over, pass this legislation 
that, again, has bipartisan support.
  There is broad support for the education savings account idea. But I 
will continue to work with Senators on both sides of the aisle. I think 
I am offering a reasonable request. I hope we can get something worked 
out between now and next Tuesday as to how to proceed.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. LOTT. However, in order to be prepared to try to get an 
indication of where Senators are--are Senators for savings education 
accounts or not?--I do send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The senior assistant bill clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on Calendar No. 
     124, S. 1134, The Affordable Education Act of 1999:
         Trent Lott, William V. Roth, Jr., Paul Coverdell, Slade 
           Gorton, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Rod Grams, Pete Domenici, 
           Gordon Smith, Conrad R. Burns, Don Nickles, Mike Crapo, 
           Sam Brownback, Frank H. Murkowski, Rick Santorum, Judd 
           Gregg, Tim Hutchinson.

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this cloture vote then will occur on 
Tuesday, unless we get something worked out where we could vitiate that 
agreement, as we did 3 weeks ago on the bankruptcy reform legislation. 
We had a cloture motion, we saw good faith on both sides, we got an 
agreement worked out, and we vitiated that vote.
  In the meantime, I ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under 
rule XXII be waived and the cloture vote occur at 2:15 on Tuesday.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, would the leader consider having that vote 
at 2:30 instead of at 2:15? We have a request for that.
  Mr. LOTT. I amend my request to put it at 2:30 on Tuesday.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, I say sincerely to the 
majority leader and to the majority that we should be given the 
opportunity to go forward on this bill. We are very anxious to move 
forward. We believe there is a lot to be done in education. We 
certainly want to do that, but we want to proceed under the regular 
rules of the Senate. That does not seem to be asking too much. We are 
not going to object to the waiver of the quorum and those kinds of 
things, but I will say, if we are not able to work something out before 
Tuesday at 2:30, I will recommend to all Democratic Senators, all the 
minority, that we vote against invoking cloture on this issue. That 
would be too bad.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in light of the agreement, there will be no 
further votes today. We do have a number of Senators who have requested 
time during morning business, and I will have a unanimous consent on 
that momentarily.
  The Senate will be in session on Monday debating this very important 
issue, education, and education for our children at the 4th-grade 
level, the 8th-grade level, and the 10th-grade level, and the merits of 
being able to save a little of your own money for your own children's 
education. I find it hard to believe that every Democrat is going to 
walk down and vote against going forward on education savings 
accounts--I think that is going to be hard to explain--because they 
want to offer an unrelated, nongermane amendment. But if the Democrats 
are prepared to do that, then we will just have to deal with that. The 
next rollcall vote, however, will occur then at 2:30 on Tuesday.

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