[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2067-2068]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            SENATE PROCEDURE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the majority leader leaves the floor, 
I would like to direct a couple of comments to him. I hope the majority 
leader saw what happened last week. After some work, we had a bill 
before the Senate that was almost open. The education savings bill 
allowed all amendments dealing with taxation, amendments dealing with 
education, and we threw in a few other amendments as part of the 
unanimous consent agreement. I might add, I think what happened last 
week was exemplary as how the Senate should operate.
  There were no quorum calls, or if there were some, they were 
momentary in nature. When an amendment was offered, it was debated; 
there were no dilatory tactics. Even though the minority did not like 
the bill that was before the Senate, I think we proceeded, showing our 
good faith that we can work on legislation and move things along. In 
fact, regarding the one amendment we added, the Wellstone amendment we 
had a time agreement on it, and I think that amendment was the one of 
several amendments that was agreed to. There may have been only one 
other.
  The point I am making to the majority leader is I hope the majority 
would allow more business to come before the Senate in the same manner 
because I think, while it wasn't necessary to show our good faith, the 
minority showed we can move legislation and move it quite rapidly. That 
bill had scores of amendments, more Democratic amendments than 
Republican amendments, but I repeat: We moved that bill well, and I 
think we showed how the Senate should really operate.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I noted late 
Thursday night that I was very much impressed and pleased with the way 
that legislation went through the Senate and that we were able to get 
to conclusion. I made a particular note of the fine work the Senator 
from Nevada did, helping keep Members focused on the issue at hand, the 
issue before us, and also reducing the number of amendments and helping 
make it possible for us to complete that bill on Thursday night.
  I have to say the Senator, since he has been elected as the whip, 
assistant Democratic leader, has made a difference in our ability to 
complete important legislation. I think that was an example of how we 
can proceed. That was a good bill that had bipartisan support. I know a 
lot in the minority did not like it but several in the minority did 
vote for it because it wound up getting 61 votes, which means even if 
it got every Republican--and I didn't check to see if every one voted 
for it, but probably at least a half dozen Democrats also voted for it.
  It is a good example of how we can proceed. Amendments were agreed to 
that were related to education, related to tax policy on education, and 
a couple of amendments such as the Wellstone amendment were not 
directly related, but Senators had something they wanted to offer. We 
were given an opportunity to take a look at the Wellstone amendment and 
basically said, sure, we can agree to that. But it did not become just 
flypaper to attach every amendment Senators could come up with. We did 
not get off into a lot of extraneous debate. Most of the week was spent 
focused on education and education tax policy, and that is the way we 
would like it to proceed.
  It seemed to me the week before last that we were not going to be 
able to proceed, and we were going to have to go to cloture, which I 
always prefer not to do. I prefer to go forward without long debate and 
delay by amendments. But if I am given the impression, or told, in 
effect, we are going to offer all kinds of extraneous amendments, I 
have to look for some way to bring it to conclusion and get a final 
vote. That is why I filed cloture the end of the week, the previous 
week.
  Then, on Monday morning, Senator Daschle called and said he thought 
that basically the parameters of the unanimous consent request we had 
offered were fair, but there were some Senators who still thought they 
had other issues they would like addressed. But he thought maybe we 
could work on it that morning--I believe it was Monday morning; it may 
have been Tuesday morning--but we could work through it and get a fair 
agreement. As a matter of fact, by noon that day we had done so.
  So I hope this will be the procedure we can use in the future. We may 
have the opportunity to see if we can do that even this very week 
because I have been urging and pushing Senators to come to an agreement 
on how to proceed on the Export Administration Act. This is something 
we need to do. This is something people who are in the export business 
want to get clarified. We have not had an export law on the books since 
the one that was passed in 1979. My goodness, in this area of export of 
technology, for instance, it changes weekly, let alone annually. We 
clearly need to do this. I think the concept of this bill is something 
the administration generally supports. It came out of committee 
unanimously.
  There are some legitimate concerns from members of the Armed Services 
Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Government Affairs 
Committee, and the Intelligence Committee about how do we deal with 
national security issues; how can we carve out national security 
issues; how can we make sure it is not a unilateral decision made by 
the Commerce Department; and how are the State Department and Defense 
Department going to be involved.
  But a lot of work is being done on that. I am hoping we can go 
forward on that bill Tuesday or Wednesday of this week and find a way 
to complete it. But we will not be able to do it unless we find 
cooperation on both sides of the aisle, and I hope maybe the education 
bill can be an example we can follow. It may even be easier in this 
case because I think there is actually broader bipartisan support.
  So I appreciate what Senator Reid had to say. I agree with it. I hope 
that is the example we can use as we go forward this year. We have a 
lot of work. In spite of distractions, in spite of elections, we still 
have work to do for the American people. It is important we find a way 
to do that for the best interests of our country.
  I thank Senator Reid for his contribution in that effort.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to the leader, I think we should be 
given even more leeway. I think we can get a lot more done. I don't 
think, on legislation, there would be the disaster that the leader 
believes. But I think we

[[Page 2068]]

have made some progress, and I look forward to seeing if we can make 
more progress. The export administration bill, as the leader said, is a 
bill that has wide bipartisan support, and we should move forward on 
this, even though we have some people concerned about it. That is what 
the process is all about. They should come down and talk about their 
concerns, vote on it, and move it on. If there were ever a high-tech 
issue this congressional session, it is this bill. So the high-tech 
industry can remain competitive and keep that business we so value in 
the United States, we have to pass this bill or very quickly the 
business will be going offshore.
  I thank the leader very much, and I look forward to continued 
progress on legislation to help the country.

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