[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 11678-11679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 3009

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair lay 
before the Senate a message from the House with respect to H.R. 3009; 
that the Senate disagree to the House amendment, agree to the request 
for a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two 
Houses; and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on behalf 
of the Senate: three on behalf of the majority and two on behalf of the 
minority.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. LOTT. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we have had a number of discussions with 
respect to how many conferees the Senate would want to have involved in 
this very important conference that will deal with trade issues on 
which we spent a great deal of time in the Senate, including the Andean 
trade authority, as well as the overall large trade assistance bill and 
the Trade Promotion Act--three very important pieces included in this 
one bill.
  As we look at this, I think this is going to be one of the most 
important conferences we are going to deal with this year.
  The House has a small number of conferees to the underlying bill, but 
they have a number of conferees to different sections to the bill. I 
suspect there is a total number of House conferees involved that would 
probably run in the 18 range.
  We have members of the Finance Committee who worked very hard on this 
important legislation, and I had hoped that we could get an 8-to-7 or 
7-to-6 ratio, or at minimum 6 to 5 to accommodate members of the 
Finance Committee who are on the subcommittee of jurisdiction and who 
have put a lot of work into this. I have even tried to say: OK, maybe 
we can make it work at 5 to 4, but we have not been able to get that 
worked out.

[[Page 11679]]

  I think for the Senate to be limited to only five conferees on a bill 
of this magnitude and as complicated as this is, and as many people who 
worked so hard on it, that it would not be an acceptable arrangement at 
this time. So I have to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection has been heard.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am disappointed, but I certainly 
understand.

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