[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16523-16524]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       EXPORT ADMINISTRATION ACT

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, with respect to S. 149, which is before 
the Senate, it is our anticipation that upon returning from the joint 
meeting and going back into session at noon, we would be able then to 
move expeditiously. There are a couple of amendments that I presume 
Senator Thompson and Senator Kyl will offer. We have had an opportunity 
to review those amendments. We think they strengthen the bill. We are 
prepared to accept those amendments.
  There is a question of the blue ribbon commission on which an 
agreement has not been reached. I do not know whether Senator Shelby, 
who authored that amendment, will proceed to offer it or not. If he 
does, we will have to take it up and, of course, be open to amendment. 
We hope to be able to resolve that issue rather quickly. We have a 
managers' amendment to be adopted. And then we anticipate going to 
final passage.
  So that is the sequence that we envision. We think that could be done 
in short order. I don't think that it will really take a lot of time to 
do all of this, maybe an hour at most, and we could get this bill 
completed and off the floor. I say to the majority whip, we would be 
able then to move on to other legislation in the early afternoon. But 
that is my expectation of how we will proceed.
  I want to acknowledge and thank Senator Thompson, Senator Kyl, and 
Senator Enzi--Senator Gramm was involved in the discussion that Senator 
Enzi had with the other two Senators--for moving this matter along.
  Mr. THOMPSON. Will the Senator yield.
  Mr. SARBANES. Certainly.
  Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, I think the Senator very well states the 
status of the situation and what has occurred. We have been discussing 
these matters as late as 30 minutes ago. I do anticipate that we will 
have two short amendments that have been

[[Page 16524]]

discussed and we will be able to agree upon which will improve the 
bill. As a part of our understanding, there will be two letters from 
both advocates and opponents of this legislation to the White House on 
a couple matters that we believe are very important but that should 
first be addressed by the White House, such as the deemed export rule, 
which is a very complex matter that we believe should properly be 
handled by Executive order. So with those two amendments and those two 
letters, I think we are in a state of agreement with regard thereto.
  The only other matter, as Senator Sarbanes indicated, is the question 
of the commission. I anticipate that we will certainly know by 12 
o'clock what the situation on that will be. We will either have a vote 
on that or not. But if we do, I would anticipate that would be the only 
rollcall vote that we would have, and we would be able to proceed 
forthwith to final passage.
  Mr. ENZI. Will the Senator yield.
  Mr. SARBANES. Certainly.
  Mr. ENZI. I would add my thanks and appreciation for all the hard 
work, particularly of Senator Thompson and Senator Kyl and their staffs 
and Senator Gramm and his staff. The meetings and the work on this did 
go late into the evening last night and began this morning so we could 
have as little interruption and expedition of the business that needs 
to be done by the Senate. Their cooperation, their attention to detail, 
and their willingness to discuss throughout the whole process the last 
3 years we have been working on it is very much appreciated, 
particularly the hours they and their staff put in last evening and 
early this morning.
  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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