[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19482-19483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  Mr. DASCHLE. I, too, compliment the distinguished chair, the ranking 
member, the subcommittee chair, and the ranking member for their 
outstanding work in getting us to this point.
  A few days ago people would have been very skeptical about any 
prediction that this bill would have been passed 100-0, but it has been 
passed in large measure because of their leadership, and we are 
grateful.
  The next vote, as I think our colleagues are aware, is the resolution 
on the day of remembrance.
  I notify Senators there are three additional votes. There will be a 
vote on the National Day of Remembrance. There will be two additional 
rollcall votes on two judges.
  I ask unanimous consent that the third and fourth vote in this next 
sequence be limited to 10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, it is my hope and expectation we will 
take up the counterterrorism legislation tonight following these votes. 
It is my hope we could finish the work tonight. If we cannot, of 
course, we will finish the work tomorrow morning. If there is the 
possibility we could finish it tonight, it would be my desire not to 
have any votes tomorrow. So we will leave that to Senators who wish to 
speak and wish to debate the bill, but we will go to counterterrorism 
immediately following the votes to which we have just referred.
  We have a lot of work yet to do tonight, and I urge Senators to stay 
close to the Chamber.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, with regard to the schedule, I support what 
Senator Daschle is trying to do. I think we have done the right thing 
by moving the aviation security bill. We will have an opportunity to 
work on it further in conference, for those who do have concerns, but 
we have to say to the American people--in fact, we have to be assured 
we can tell the American people we have addressed this aviation 
security question as soon as possible. Next week hopefully we will be 
able to get into conference and produce a bill.
  It is very important that as soon as possible we move this 
counterterrorism legislation. Good work has been done in the Senate. We 
have pointed the way in this effort, and so I hope our colleagues will 
work to complete the bill as soon as possible. I hope all of the 
general debate time will not necessarily be used, although it is up to 
4 hours. We also have as many as four amendments in order under the 
agreement that was reached. I hope we can get through that at a 
reasonable hour and complete the work tonight, but if it becomes 
evident it is going to take 4 or 5 hours to do this, then we will have 
to have the votes in the morning.
  Even then, I presume the votes would begin at a relatively early 
hour, 9 or 9:30 a.m. Certainly Senator Daschle will announce that. 
Whether there are two or three votes, whatever it would be, we will be 
completed after that.
  Having said that, at the end of this week, if we complete action on 
these two bills, I think we will have done a great deal to move toward 
restoring the confidence of the American people. I am proud of the 
progress I am seeing made.

[[Page 19483]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. SARBANES. I understand it is the intention, then, of the 
leadership to complete the counterterrorism bill this evening; is that 
correct?
  Mr. DASCHLE. If the Senator will yield, I will phrase it by saying it 
is my hope to finish it. We know what the time parameters are. We have 
already agreed to that. If we are compelled to go through all of the 
votes and it gets to be too late, we may have to move it into tomorrow. 
So I am not going to say definitively tonight at this moment we will 
finish our work on the counterterrorism bill, but that would be my 
hope.
  Mr. SARBANES. As I understand it, if we can complete work on the 
counterterrorism bill this evening, then we will not be in tomorrow, or 
at least we will not be transacting business that requires votes 
tomorrow. Is that correct?
  Mr. DASCHLE. That is correct. We would not have votes tomorrow. We 
would have completed our work. I assume we could be in for morning 
business to accommodate Senators who may wish to speak, but it is my 
intention not to have any rollcall votes tomorrow.
  Mr. SARBANES. I thank the leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. I express the hope our leadership on both sides of the 
aisle can help to press hard to get the remaining appropriations bills 
completed and sent to the President singly and not as an omnibus bill. 
The Appropriations Committee in the Senate today reported out the D.C. 
appropriations bill and the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. This makes 
12 of the 13 appropriations bills that the Appropriations Committee in 
the Senate has reported out.
  The House, I understand, is working on the Defense appropriations 
bill and will soon act on it and will shortly send over the conference 
report on the Department of the Interior.
  We will have to have another CR. That will be coming along probably 
today. In any event, our committee and our chairmen and ranking members 
on all the subcommittees have worked diligently and hard, and I hope 
the leadership will help us to bring pressure on both sides of the 
Capitol to move these appropriations conferences. The staffs have done 
the preliminary work, a good bit of it in many instances.
  It is absolutely necessary we show the American people that this 
Congress can do its work, is doing its work, but it is going to take 
some effort on the part of all of us, I say to the distinguished 
minority leader and the majority leader, to bring these remaining 
conference reports to the floor. We shouldn't have to have another 
continuing resolution after this next one. We ought to complete these 
appropriations bills in the remaining days of this month.
  Let's go home, for Heavens' sake, and see our families and 
constituents and not delay further. I don't think it is intentional, 
but it amounts to delay.
  I thank both leaders for the efforts they made. We have some work yet 
to be done. We can do it.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. BYRD. Yes.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I say to the distinguished Chairman, I share his 
determination to complete our work on the appropriations bills. He and 
I have had many private conversations, and if I recall, even 
considerations on the floor.
  I informed him and our colleagues on Monday there will be a vote on 
an appropriations bill, either the Interior conference report or on 
cloture on the motion to proceed to foreign operations. I share his 
determination to continue to plow through these bills and to accomplish 
as much as we can in the next 2 weeks.
  As I understand it, the next continuing resolution will be for 1 
week. If that is the case, we have 2 weeks within which to complete our 
work so as not to pass yet another continuing resolution. We have a lot 
to do. I appreciate very much his willingness to call attention again 
to that fact tonight.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank the distinguished majority leader. We must show the 
American people that we can pass these bills. We owe it to ourselves, 
we owe it to the country, we owe it to the President of the United 
States to send him individual appropriations bills, no omnibus bill. 
Let him have his opportunity to sign or veto the bills as he sees fit.
  Mr. LOTT. If I might say briefly--I don't want to drag this out--
obviously we need to be able to move our appropriations bills.
  I must say, of course, how quickly we do that depends on several 
things: One, how many controversial issues are in these bills when they 
come out of the committee. I don't know what happened, for instance, on 
the D.C. appropriations bill, but it had difficult and time-consuming 
issues in it. There may not be now.
  The other thing is several of the bills, including Labor-HHS, often 
take a week or two; Defense quite often takes 3 or 4 days. Part of it 
depends on the willingness of Senators to withhold controversial 
amendments to move the process along. We have been doing that 
magnificently over the past month. Hopefully, we can do that even with 
appropriations bills--even though these are big bills, important bills, 
and Senators may want to be heard and offer amendments.
  We also have to continue to work together on other issues that become 
problematic, such as getting judicial confirmations moving because 
there is a need for that, too.
  Senator Daschle and I are working on this on all fronts. I talked to 
Senator Stevens about it. I want to get the appropriations bills 
completed. It will take a lot of cooperation. We are prepared to give 
it that cooperation and time.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank both leaders.

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