[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8755-8756]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. LOTT. In executive session, I ask unanimous consent that at 11:30 
a.m., Tuesday, May 23, the Senate proceed to executive session to 
consider Executive Calendar No. 436, the nomination of Bradley Smith to 
be a member of the FEC. I further ask consent that debate be limited on 
the nomination as follows: Senator McConnell, 2 hours; Senator Dodd, or 
his designee, 2 hours; Senator Wellstone, 2 hours; Senator McCain, 2 
hours; Senator Feingold, 2 hours.
  I further ask consent that following the use or yielding back of 
time, the nomination be laid aside, with a vote to occur on the 
confirmation of the nomination during Wednesday's session of the Senate 
at a time to be determined by the two leaders, with 20 minutes for 
closing remarks, equally divided, just prior to the vote. If we need a 
few more minutes than that, we will work with the interested parties to 
see if that can be achieved.
  I also ask consent that immediately following that vote, the Senate 
proceed to a confirmation vote on the nomination of Danny McDonald, 
Calendar No. 435.
  I further ask consent that also on Tuesday, May 23, the Senate then 
proceed to the nomination of Timothy Dyk to be a U.S. circuit judge, 
Calendar No. 291, and the debate be limited to the following: Senator 
Sessions, 30 minutes; Senator Hatch, 15 minutes; and Senator Leahy, 15 
minutes.
  I further ask consent that on Tuesday, the Senate proceed to Calendar 
No. 498, the nomination of Gerard Lynch, and there be 40 minutes of 
debate, equally divided, between the opponents and proponents. I also 
ask consent that all debate time on the nominations be consumed or 
considered yielded back during Tuesday's session of the Senate.
  I further ask consent that the vote occur on or in relation to the 
Dyk nomination third in the voting sequence on Wednesday, to be 
followed by votes on Executive Calendar No. 498, No. 519, and No. 520.
  I ask unanimous consent that immediately following those votes, the 
Senate immediately proceed to the consideration of the following 
nominations on the Executive Calendar:
  Nos. 206, 334, 424, 433, 434, 437, 438, 439, 440, 441, 442, 443, 444, 
445, 446, 447, 448, 449, 452, 453, 455, 456, 457, 458, 459, 460, 461, 
462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 467, 468, 469, 472, 476, 477, 478, 479, 480, 
481, 482, 483, 496, 497, 499, 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 518, 
521, 522, 523, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk.
  I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed, 
the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements 
relating to the nominations be printed at the appropriate place in the 
Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, 
and the Senate then return to legislative session.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?

[[Page 8756]]


  Mr. McCAIN. I object.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
  Mr. LOTT. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. I amend the unanimous consent request which stated there 
would be 20 minutes for closing remarks, equally divided, just prior to 
the vote. I amend that to say, 20 minutes for closing remarks, equally 
divided, plus an additional 10 minutes for Senator McCain and 10 
minutes for Senator Feingold.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object, let me just say that 
there are 19 nominations still pending on the calendar if we are able 
to adopt this unanimous consent request today. Some of those 
nominations have been on the calendar for well over a year. I think it 
is the view of virtually every member of the caucus on our side that to 
hold nominations that long is cruel. It is wrong. It should not be 
tolerated. We are in a position to clear all nominations, including 
those 19.
  I ask whether the majority leader might be able to clear those as 
well?
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I will respond. I know that at least one 
appointment is waiting on a companion appointment from the 
administration, where you have a Democratic nominee for a commission or 
a board, and we usually try to move them together. That is one case. 
Then we have seven IRS members who can be cleared if--I understand 
there is opposition to at least one of those from the Democratic side.
  But my goal in working to get this large package done is so we can 
continue to work to get companion nominations and move more 
nominations. I discussed this with Senator Daschle yesterday. It is not 
easy, but we hope to continue to work together to get the nominations 
in a position where they can be cleared, or where we have debate time 
and a vote and arrange for that to occur. We will keep working on it. 
It has been reduced by some 70 or more nominations if this entire 
package is completed, and if all of them--well, it will either be voted 
on and approved or defeated, leaving only 19. So that is a major step 
toward getting nominations confirmed.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object, and I will not, 
obviously, I hope the majority leader will work with us to work through 
these 19 names. As I say, some of them have put their lives on hold now 
for over a year. It is just intolerable to them, and it should be 
intolerable to us that we would accept that kind of a practice. I will 
work with the majority leader and, hopefully, resolve these outstanding 
problems. I will not object to this request.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I simply 
thank both the leaders for their patience in working out this very 
difficult agreement. I appreciate the majority leader extending us time 
prior to the vote to summarize our arguments.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire is 
recognized.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, are we now in morning business?

                          ____________________