[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18695]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 18695]]

                  UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 2506

  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to 
Calendar No. 147, H.R. 2506, the foreign operations appropriations 
bill.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from South Carolina.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I 
admonish the body that we are ready to go forward and, as the 
distinguished assistant majority leader points out, we ought to be 
using the time available to conduct other business, if we cannot go 
forward with the airline security bill. I have been talking with 
Senator McCain to coordinate this effort. While the managers' amendment 
is yet to be finalized, we have other amendments. It seems to me we 
could get some kind of agreement with respect to relevant amendments 
and consider these measures. It would not be time wasted.
  This procedure of moving to another bill puts airport security in 
limbo. We are not having votes tomorrow or Monday, and certainly not on 
the weekend.
  Reagan National is up and running again, and we have shuttles going 
to New York and Boston and otherwise, but the holdup in ensuring the 
security of our airports is now on the part of the Senate.
  Mr. REID. I say to the chairman of the Commerce Committee, who has 
worked so hard on this issue and is our leader on this issue, the 
Senator is right. Once we get agreement to be able to proceed to this 
bill, which we wanted to do yesterday, of course, we could do that. In 
the meantime, whether it is an hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours, whatever 
Senator Leahy could do would be time well spent.
  Once there is any agreement that has been reached by the Senator from 
South Carolina with the minority, we would be happy to immediately move 
off of that.
  The point we are making, I say to my friend from South Carolina, 
there is no need we be in morning business all day. We have things to 
do. The Senator can be assured that once there is any agreement on this 
vital legislation, airport security, we will get off of this. I have 
spoken with Senator Leahy. He agrees. The Senator does not have to 
worry; We want to keep full focus on this legislation.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. I thank the distinguished leader.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Mr. THOMAS. I object to the unanimous consent request.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I am very disappointed. We need to move 
forward on this legislation. We had an objection yesterday on airport 
security. Now we have one on this appropriations bill. We have worked 
so well these past 3 weeks together. We need to continue. That is the 
reason I went through the list of work we are doing on the judges. We 
are working as hard as we can. We have been consulting with the 
majority leader and assistant minority leader on how to move forward. 
We are doing our level best to do that.
  I am very disappointed there has been an objection by the minority to 
moving forward on an unfinished appropriations bill. It is too bad. I 
would, of course, ask we go to the Agriculture appropriations bill, but 
there would be the same objection, so that is a waste of the Senate's 
time. That is too bad.
  The President has reached out to the majority in the Senate. We have 
done our best to work with the President. I am very disappointed. I am 
confident the President would like us to move forward on these 
appropriations bills. I think the President himself knows how hard we 
are working on these nominations. As I said, if you compare what we 
have done to the early years of the Clinton administration, we are 
doing just fine.
  Madam President, this is not payback time for the fact that we didn't 
get many of our judges approved. This is not payback time. We are 
working through the process as quickly as we can. These judges have 
been nominated in an appropriate fashion. A lot of them were late 
getting here, but we are moving through them as quickly as we can. I 
think it is unfortunate we cannot move forward on these appropriations 
bills.

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