[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15033]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       AMENDMENT TO RULE XVI OF THE STANDING RULES OF THE SENATE

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, everyone should understand the scope of 
the proposed resolution of the Senator from Arizona. I have before me 
some books. The books with white covers are requests I received as 
chairman of the Appropriations Committee on one bill last January, when 
we talked about the defense portion of what we call the omnibus bill.
  The Chair will recall we had 11 bills that had to be put together. 
This is the portion pertaining just to the foreign assistance 
subcommittee dealing with matters of foreign assistance. Every one of 
those pages is a letter from a Member of the Senate asking our 
committee to change a portion of the appropriations bill for the 
specific subcommittee received from the administration. The President 
sends us a budget, and the budget is broken into 13 separate bills. 
These represent the requests received from Senators to change just 2 of 
those 11 bills.
  Senator McCain's proposal would, in effect, say if any one of these 
requests were granted, it would be subject to a point of order and it 
would take 60 votes to allow that amendment to stay in the bill.
  In other words, a Senator could make a motion after the Senate or the 
committee had agreed to one of these requests, and that motion would be 
to take it out. It would take 60 votes to sustain it. I think the 
Constitution assures a majority can pass any amendment. This is a 
procedure that is unheard of in terms of parliamentary procedure and 
one I want the Senate to know if it possibly comes up on the floor, I 
think we shall demonstrate what a good old-fashioned filibuster is all 
about. I thank the Chair.

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