[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5704]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          CRIME VICTIMS RIGHTS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now 
turn to S.J. Res. 3, regarding the rights of crime victims.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. LEAHY. Reserving the right to object.
  Mr. President, I notice that the adjournment order has already been 
adopted. Respectfully, I do not believe that there is any intention of 
completing this matter today, tomorrow, or even next week. We have just 
barely filed a committee report.
  This is a constitutional amendment. I think we ought, at least, to 
make sure Senators know that this is going to be the next matter coming 
up and that they have a chance to consider the report and the proposal. 
A constitutional amendment should not be rushed through this way, with 
all due respect. So I will object.
  I will be happy to work with the distinguished majority leader, who 
has the added problems of having to make sure that the Senate does its 
work at the appropriate time. I will be happy to work with him on 
schedules and everything else on this, but because it is a 
constitutional amendment, I think we should treat it with more care and 
not just zing it off like this. We should have a real debate. I am not 
going to stop it from coming forward. I only want to make sure that 
everyone knows about it, that everyone has a chance to debate it and 
that everyone has the opportunity to offer amendments.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.

                          ____________________