[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5705]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              THE GAS TAX

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the majority leader leaves, I say 
respectfully that we appreciate his efforts to try to move legislation 
along. But I just want to make sure the record is clear. We were 
generous in offering the majority the opportunity to review our 
amendments. There is no requirement, of course, that we do so.
  I also say to the leader that I think if we had started the marriage 
penalty legislation Monday or Tuesday of this week, we would be 
finished with it by now.
  There may have been a lot of amendments offered, but the way we used 
to do things around here, we had lots and lots of amendments. In fact, 
there were a number of occasions when we had well over 100 amendments 
without any restriction of who offered them or what the subject matter 
was. And we completed the legislation.
  I believe and predict if we go right to work on the marriage penalty 
legislation on the Tuesday when we return, we will complete it within 2 
or 3 days, at the very most; maybe even in 2 days.
  I think the majority leader should allow us--I say this not in a 
pejorative way; we don't need to be allowed in the true sense of the 
word--to have the Senate work its will the way we have done it for a 
couple hundred years. I think he would be surprised at how much 
legislation we could move.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it is my hope that over the next week or 
early the next week, I will be able to propose a list of amendments. I 
suggest that would be kind of in the realm of what we can agree to.
  We have been looking at these various amendments. Some of them are 
clearly not going to be acceptable, and they probably could be easily 
tabled. Even though they are not relevant, some of them are 
meritorious. Our concern is, they have not been considered by the 
appropriate committee, whether it is Finance, or Agriculture. We are 
hesitant to have a vote on these and try to get Members to vote against 
them when, in fact, they may eventually want to be for them in a 
different forum.
  I have an idea of how we might be able to work something out on this. 
I will have a suggestion on that before we come back a week from 
Tuesday.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to my friend I very much appreciate 
that. But I remind the Senator that the underlying bill skipped the 
committee process and came directly to the floor. I believe we should 
do as much as we can in the committee process. But the bill before us 
didn't get a vote in committee.
  Mr. LOTT. The marriage tax penalty bill was considered by the Finance 
Committee, and we had amendments, including an alternative that was 
offered and seriously considered. The Moynihan alternative amendment 
has a lot of credibility to it.
  Mr. REID. I apologize to the Senator. Maybe he didn't understand me. 
I didn't speak properly. What I should have said is, the legislation we 
spent a lot of time on this week--namely, the gas tax proposal--avoided 
the committee process.
  Mr. LOTT. You are right on that one, and it didn't pass either.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________