[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13429-13430]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           ORDER OF BUSINESS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, it is nearly 6:30 and we have not had an 
opportunity to make much progress on the energy and water 
appropriations bill. I am a little disappointed. I had hoped that we 
could move at least to the adoption of a few of the amendments that I 
know are pending. I am hopeful that we can get an agreement on a finite 
list tomorrow morning. The Republican leader has indicated that might 
be a possibility tomorrow morning.
  We have colleagues on both sides of the aisle who, I know, have 
amendments, and I hope they can come to the floor as quickly as 
possible and begin offering them. I will say to those who may feel the 
need to drag this out that we have to get this work done. If we can't 
get it done between now and Thursday night, of course, we will have no 
recourse but to continue for a reasonably full day on Friday--Friday 
morning and at least a part of Friday afternoon.
  I will also say that these appropriations bills I know are important 
to the administration, important to the Congress, and I hope nobody 
makes any definite date for their plans for the August recess. We are 
going to finish this work, and if we have to bump into the August 
recess some to complete it, we will do that. Each day we delay now 
possibly entails additional days at the end of the July work period 
that we will have to use in order to accommodate the work. We will not 
allow this work to go over until September. We will stay here. That is 
not meant to be anything other than an observation of the reality of 
our responsibilities here.
  So I just caution everybody not to let these days go by thinking that 
somehow it is time that we can make up down the road. We are going to 
have to make it up before we leave for the August break.
  So I hope we can make this a productive week. My hope is that we can 
complete our work on the energy and water bill in a reasonably prudent 
period of time, and then we will move on to the Graham nomination, 
which I know is important to the administration, as well as other 
nominations.
  I am hopeful, as well, that we will take up the legislative branch 
appropriations and Transportation. It would be my expectation that we 
can make a lot of progress on those bills as well. Senators have to 
come to the floor to offer amendments. I thank my colleague, the 
chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water, for his effort in 
getting us to this point. I know he shares my interest in working for 
whatever length of time is necessary.
  I think I will announce at this point that there will be no more 
rollcall votes tonight. But it is with the expectation that we can get 
a finite list of amendments, and we could be in late tomorrow. We will 
take amendments, and if we have to do it, we will do other work. We 
will stay in to accommodate the need to get a lot of additional matters 
done before the end of the week. So there will be no more votes 
tonight. There will be a number of votes tomorrow.
  I yield to the Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. I say to the majority leader, I know he has an important 
statement to give. I wanted to make this observation. These are not 
Senate bills alone. The President of the United States needs these 
bills to operate the Government. He needs these bills, as we do. I 
think if there were ever a time when we needed to work together, it is 
now. We have a Democratic majority in the Senate, a Republican majority 
in the House, and a Republican President. These bills are our joint 
responsibility. If anybody thinks they are being clever by stalling, 
they are only hurting George W. Bush, not us. He runs the Government of 
this country. Would the Senator agree with me in that regard?
  Mr. DASCHLE. The Senator is absolutely right. Just today, I have had, 
I don't know the number but I would say countless discussions with my 
colleagues about other legislative items that ought to come up, and all 
with good reason.
  There are a number of authorizations and legislative issues that 
deserve the consideration of the Senate. What we have said is that we 
want to work as the Senator suggests, in a very constructive way, in an 
effort to try to accommodate the priorities of the administration, as 
well as the Congress, in achieving what we know we have to in passing 
these appropriations bills. It is important to get the work done, and 
it is important to spend the time on the Senate floor to ensure that 
happens. We have not had a very productive couple of hours, but I am 
confident that tomorrow will be a much more productive day.
  Mr. REID. If I can say one more thing, the majority leader and the 
minority leader and the two managers of this bill, Senator Domenici and 
I, had a conference earlier in the day. Senator Domenici said he 
thought we could finish the bill tomorrow. He is one of the real pros 
here, very experienced. He knows this bill as well as anyone. So I take 
the Senator at his word, as I do everything he tells me.
  I say to the majority leader, tomorrow it would seem to me that we 
not only have to finish this bill but also we have the Graham 
nomination that we have to finish tomorrow. Because the majority leader 
told me this previously--and everybody should understand this--we could 
be working well into tomorrow night, real late, to finish the assigned 
time we have on the Graham amendment. Is that a fact?
  Mr. DASCHLE. The Senator is correct. If I didn't say it as clearly as 
I needed to, let me repeat it. We will have a full day tomorrow. We 
will be,

[[Page 13430]]

hopefully, completing our work on energy and water and taking up the 
Graham nomination. My hope is that we can complete both of those 
tomorrow. We will stay late and make some decision late in the day 
about how much time may be required. But there is no reason to believe 
that we cannot finish energy and water and the Graham nomination before 
the end of the day tomorrow.
  So Senators should be prepared to work late tomorrow in order to 
accommodate those two very important priorities--again, not just to us 
but certainly to the administration. The administration has made it 
very clear that this Graham nomination is important, and they have a 
right to assert that. We will attempt to accommodate their desire to 
complete the work on that confirmation before the end of the day 
tomorrow.

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