[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 714-715]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of 
morning business until 2 p.m., with the two leaders or their designees 
in control of that time. Following morning business, the Senate will 
begin consideration of Gale Norton's nomination to be Secretary of the 
Interior. Under the previous order that was entered into last week, 
there will be up to 4 hours of debate on the Norton nomination during 
today's session. Tomorrow the Senate will complete debate on the Norton 
nomination as well as consider the nominations of Governor Whitman to 
be the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and Elaine Chao to 
be Secretary of Labor. Those confirmation votes are scheduled to occur 
at 2:45 p.m. tomorrow. Following those votes, the Senate will begin 
consideration of the nomination of John Ashcroft to be Attorney 
General. A vote on that nomination is expected prior to the Senate 
adjourning this week.
  I should say that while the vote in the Judiciary Committee on 
Senator Ashcroft was delayed until this week, I believe there will be a 
vote on it either Tuesday or Wednesday morning. I hope we can begin the 
debate on his nomination as early as tomorrow afternoon and continue, 
if necessary, into the night and Wednesday and into the night and into 
Thursday--all if necessary.
  I had a brief conversation with Senator Daschle this morning about 
the schedule for the next month or so, but we did not get into a deep 
discussion about exactly how to proceed after the votes that are now 
scheduled at 2:45 tomorrow afternoon. We expect to meet later on today, 
and as we get an agreement of how we can proceed, certainly we will 
notify our Members to that effect.
  I do want to say also, I firmly believe that Senators should have 
every opportunity to question the nominees to the President's Cabinet, 
and to make statements on the floor if they choose so there can be a 
full reading of the record and a discussion of their record. But I also 
think it is important that we do come to a conclusion and reach a vote.
  There has been good cooperation on both sides of the aisle, and from 
committees, over the past month when they were chaired by Democrats and 
last week as it continued under Republican leadership. We will have 
completed all the nominations but one by tomorrow afternoon. I hope we 
can move to that nomination expeditiously also.
  Again, I am sure we will have a full debate, but I think after a 
reasonable period of time we should come to a vote so the Justice 
Department can have an Attorney General in place and can begin to do 
the very important job that he will have to carry forward.
  I thank my colleagues for their attention and look forward to the 
debate this week and working with the leadership on the schedule.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, if the distinguished Senator will yield for 
a comment?
  Mr. LOTT. I will be glad to yield.
  Mr. LEAHY. On the nomination of Senator Ashcroft to be Attorney 
General, I understand the White House actually sent the nomination up 
this morning. But even though they had not sent it until today, to try 
to accommodate the new President, we held hearings prior to the 
inauguration of the new President. I think we had an equal number of 
witnesses on both sides. There may have been one more for Senator 
Ashcroft than against, but anyway, it was completed during that time. 
Answers that were submitted came in this weekend.
  I know the distinguished chairman of the committee, Senator Hatch, is 
out of the country, but I am perfectly willing, certainly on this side, 
to go forward with the committee vote on him as soon as he comes in, 
especially now that the papers have come up from the White House today. 
I notified the President's office this morning--speaking about Senator 
Ashcroft--I will not take part in any filibuster, nor do I expect there 
to be any filibuster on this nomination. I assure the distinguished 
majority leader we moved as rapidly as we could. We now actually have 
the nomination and the schedule is now in the hands of my friend from 
Mississippi.
  Mr. LOTT. I thank the Senator from Vermont for that information. I 
think it is appropriate we actually receive the nomination before we 
vote--a little small detail but that has been taken care of.

[[Page 715]]


  Mr. LEAHY. It always helps.
  Mr. LOTT. I will be talking further to your leadership about how we 
schedule it this week, and I look forward to getting it completed as 
soon as possible.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.

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