Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order, notwithstanding the passage of H.J. Res. 2, in the engrossment of the joint resolution, Senate amendments Nos. 139, 166, 172, and 186 be further modified with the changes at the desk.

Mr. President, as a brief explanation for the necessity for these modifications, in the case of amendment No. 139, the instruction line needed to be corrected. For amendment No. 166, in the version the Senate adopted, two pages were missing. With respect to amendment No. 172, there is a word change. And, finally, with respect to amendment No. 186, language which was supposed to be stricken was not in the version adopted by the Senate. These modifications are solely to correct these inadvertent errors.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet on Tuesday, January 28, 2003, at 2:30 p.m., in SR-253, to consider the State of the United States Olympic Committee.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, January 28, 2003, at 10:00 a.m., to hear testimony on the Nomination of John W. Snow to be Secretary of the United States Treasury.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the

Senate on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 at 2:30 p.m. to hold a Business Meeting.

Agenda

The Committee will consider and vote on the following agenda items-- Committee Organizational Matters: (1) Committee Rules for the 108th Congress and (2) Subcommittee Jurisdiction and Membership for the 108th Congress.

Will the Senator yield for a moment?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 1 minute on each side prior to the votes on the three amendments this morning.

I thank the Chair.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, in the interest of fairness, although I do agree with my friend from Missouri, I ask unanimous consent that the sponsor of the amendment, Senator Feingold, have 5 minutes when he appears.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I see Senator Feingold is on the floor. I did make arrangements for Senator Feingold to have an extra 5 minutes, and I call that to his attention. Senator Bond has just spoken on the Feingold amendment. There are 5 minutes for Senator Feingold to speak, if he wishes to do so.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I agree we should set this order. We are still working on it. We hope we will have a chance to have an amendment on one side and then the other. I will come later and try to intersperse these with amendments from our side of the aisle when they are identified.

Mr. President, I will have to reserve, I think, on one or more of those. There may be a second-degree amendment. I don't have any problem with the order, but I will come back.

That is fair. We will set the order and agree on the time; and if there is an amendment, if there is any identified, at the present time, Senators are willing to set the order with that understanding.

Yes.

Very well, I don't have any problem with that. But I do want to reserve the right to schedule amendments from this side in between if Senators wish to offer amendments in this period of time.

For the information of Senators, as I indicated last evening, we will have a series of amendments that we will offer in small groupings very soon. I believe we will have some amendments identified on our side of the aisle as soon as this first vote will begin. It is my understanding that the vote on Senator Feingold's amendment will commence at 11.

Is the Senator ready to start now?

That was my request.

We ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the next vote be 10 minutes in length.

I ask unanimous consent time for the vote on the Mikulski amendment be limited to 10 minutes.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I have no objection.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, the next amendment in order is Senator Murray's amendment. There is a minute on each side, if the Senator wishes to use it. I wish to state now we will accept this amendment and it will be included in the across-the-board cut as an offset. Because of an amendment that was adopted yesterday, we now have leeway in that ceiling that we self-imposed, and we can take the amendment of the Senator from Washington. I believe her amendment has the approval of the House also. Many of us want to vote for it. We are prepared to accept the amendment.

Let her offer it, please.

I understand the Senator from Rhode Island has a colloquy?

May I announce there will be no votes for a little while now. We have worked out we will have another series in a few minutes. Right now we would like to have the colloquy out of the way.

I urge we adopt the Murray amendment.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

I inquire how much time the Senator from Rhode Island and the Senator from West Virginia wish for their colloquy?

Ten minutes total?

I ask unanimous consent the Senator from Rhode Island and the Senator from West Virginia be recognized for not to exceed 10 minutes total.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time on the Kennedy amendment be 30 minutes equally divided.

My request was that the time on the Kennedy amendment be 30 minutes equally divided.

I also ask unanimous consent that the time on any amendment be limited to 30 minutes unless specifically requested otherwise by myself or the distinguished minority whip.

Mr. President, I renew that request.

The unanimous consent request is that the time on any amendment be limited to 30 minutes unless specifically requested otherwise by myself or the minority whip.

I can't agree on the Cantwell amendment. We can agree on the others.

Mr. President, this is an important program. As a matter of fact, the amendment I have offered provides $130 million more than the minority bill in the last Congress for these same programs. In addition, the amendment I have offered, the omnibus amendment, provides over $3.1 billion for minority health, education, and training initiatives which was not in the bill that was prepared in the last Congress when the leadership was on the other side of the aisle.

This $3.1 billion is an increase of $144.3 million over the level of fiscal year 2002, which is the operating level now.

Has the Senator's time expired?

Would the Senator consider reserving his 2 minutes and have 2 minutes reserved on this side, and let's put this off? I know many people have left the building now for lunch. I would like to see this vote started at 1:15. At that time the Senator would have 2 minutes, and I would have 2 minutes before that vote. Is the Senator agreeable to that?

It would be my hope, I say to the distinguished Democratic whip, that we would have a series of amendments stacked and start the votes at 1:15. A series of tabling motions, as a matter of fact, would occur at 1:15.

I don't have any objection to that. I think the third one will end when I make the motion to table.

Two McCains.

Clinton and two McCains, and we will have the vote take place at the end of the last of those.

Is that agreeable with the Senator from Massachusetts?

I have not yet made the motion to table because we have 2 minutes on a side. I will make it later. Is Senator Clinton prepared to proceed now?

We will put off the McCain amendment until the Senator has offered the amendment.

Amendment No. 89

(Purpose: To improve health care under the medicare and medicaid

programs)

Will the Senator yield?

Will the Senator entertain a time agreement now?

All right. Thank you.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote be moved to 1:45.

I move to table the Senator's amendment and ask for the yeas and nays on that tabling motion. And I ask unanimous consent that vote take place following the vote on Senator Clinton's amendment.

Mr. President, Senator McCain has another amendment. It is my understanding that the parties have agreed to a 20-minute time agreement equally divided.

I yield the remainder of our time.

Mr. President, we are going to proceed to a vote on four amendments soon. There is an agreement for 2 minutes on each side before Kennedy amendment No. 123.

I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes before the Clinton amendment No. 89, which will follow the Kennedy amendment. And then on the McCain amendment No. 214, I have already made a motion to table that amendment. The yeas and nays are in order. I move to table the McCain amendment No. 230, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the Kennedy amendment, the votes on all three succeeding amendments be limited to 10 minutes each.

No.

It is my hope that she will be able to modify the amendment. We are trying to work that out. I have not asked for the yeas and nays on the Clinton amendment yet.

We are saying 10 minutes. I think the Senate will see what 10 minutes means this afternoon. If we are going to finish, we must stick to that. So there will not be voting beyond 10 minutes.

Senator Kennedy has 2 minutes.

Mr. President, I hope my good friend from Massachusetts will agree that this amendment would provide an additional $584 million for various programs, and the amendment I offered provides $130 million more than the bill that was before the Senate last year when it was managed by the Democratic Party.

My amendment also, I stated, provides $3.1 billion for a minority health, education, and training initiative which was not in the July bill that was before us. This is an increase of $144.3 million over the 2002 level. That is the current level of funding for these programs.

Mr. President, I move to table this amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, the Senate will now consider Senator Clinton's amendment numbered 89, with 2 minutes on each side. I ask that Senator Nickles take the time on our side.

I remind the Senate that all votes now will be 10 minutes for the rest of the afternoon, and 10 minutes means 10 minutes. If we are to finish this evening, we cannot go on and on and on with these amendments. Ten minutes means 10 minutes.

Mr. President, I have the authority of the leader to yield 1 minute to me on this amendment.

I am trying to finish this bill tonight. We are trying to get this bill into conference with the House and to settle the 11 bills that were not passed last year, for whatever reason they were not passed.

This, with all due respect to the Senator from New York, is a Finance Committee amendment. It would require the Ways and Means and Finance Committees to meet, separate from us, in conference. It is not something that belongs on this bill. This is an appropriations bill. For years we had points of order that would take these out of our consideration, but I urge the Senate not to do this. There are a whole series of other amendments coming up just like this one that deal with other subjects from other committees. They are legislative amendments.

We are going to finish this tonight by saying we are passing an appropriations bill or we are going to sit here and debate other legislative items that should go to Finance or Energy or other committees all night.

I urge that the Senate vote no on this motion. I hope we will table the other ones because we will have a series of them unless people listen to us. Let us get out of here tonight.

I might add one little thing. In my lifetime, we have never met before the State of the Union Message. Do you know why? Because Presidents in the past were just like this one--trying to figure out what should be in the State of the Union Message and what should be in the budget. This President can't decide what should be in the State of the Union Message because we haven't yet finished last year's budget. I hope we can go home tonight.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, what is the next amendment?

Amendment No. 230

May we have order? The Senator has time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 minute while I explain the process.

This is the last of the stacked votes. After this vote is over, we will start the process of bringing before the Senate the amendments we have on both sides agreed to accept in groups. We expect that will take an hour or so to accomplish. As I understand it, between 4 and 5 there will be a briefing. We have asked for no votes during that time.

I think Members know if their amendment is going to be accepted. If there is anyone on either side who intends to ask for a vote on an amendment, I urge them to notify either me or the Senator from Nevada, and we will then, hopefully, have a process to get those amendments voted upon before 6 o'clock.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Nevada have a minute also.

The Senator is right. I thought it was worked out. During this vote, we will try our best to work it out.

If we do not dispose of it, it will be the first vote when we come back at 5 o'clock.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, if I could have the attention of the Senate, the managers have now reviewed the 245 amendments that were filed by the deadline on the omnibus bill. At this juncture, we continue to work to clear as many of these amendments as we can.

To facilitate the Senate's consideration of these amendments, we will now present them grouped by the subcommittee with jurisdiction over each amendment. We intend to proceed in the following order this afternoon as we complete the review of each section.

The first section we will consider, and I will bring it to the desk in a moment, will be the Legislative Branch-Treasury bill; the second, Commerce, Justice, State; the third, Foreign Operations; the fourth, Labor-Health and Human Services; the fifth, Transportation-HUD-VA; sixth, Defense-Energy and Water; seventh, Agriculture; and the eighth, Interior.

There are also separate groups of amendments that require modification to be adopted. We are going to handle them in a separate group.

The managers intend to call up amendments by number in each group and ask for adoption en bloc. Any Senator, of course, is entitled to object to these amendments and needs to be on the floor so we can proceed to debate and vote on amendments that may be objected to. These have been cleared on both sides of our Appropriations Committee by the subcommittee staffs, by myself, and I believe the manager on the other side.

If we can adopt this process, it is still possible to finish today. We do not know on this side yet how many amendments we may wish to have a vote upon. I think this process may identify some of those.

I yield the floor.

I will call that up now. I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be considered en bloc: No. 165 and 166 offered by Senator Byrd; No. 23 offered by Senators Grassley and Baucus; No. 70 offered by Senator Frist; No. 96 offered by Senator Voinovich; No. 113 offered by Senator Kohl; No. 190 for Senators Boxer and Dorgan; and No. 174 offered by Senator Akaka. They all come under the heading of the Legislative Appropriations bill.

Senator Byrd's? I will pull that out of the package, then.

I ask unanimous consent they be agreed to en bloc.

I move to reconsider the vote.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I turn now to the amendments we have agreed to accept within the jurisdiction of the State, Justice, Commerce Subcommittee. I have at the desk the following package: Amendment No. 46 by Senators Wyden and Smith; No. 72 by Senator Leahy; No. 100 by Senator Grassley; Nos. 159 and 160 for myself; No. 191 for Senators Breaux and Landrieu; No. 233 for Senators Corzine and Clinton; and amendment No. 107 for Senator Kennedy.

I send a modification to the desk of amendment No. 191 and ask that it be substituted for the amendment in this package.

I know of no objection to these items. They have been cleared on both sides. I ask unanimous consent that these amendments be agree to en bloc.

I was pleased to be able to make the Senator's amendment a part of the manager's package. The Senator's understanding is correct. This $10 million will go to the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy to fund programs to combat methamphetamine production and trafficking.

I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I have been asked, notwithstanding the actions taken so far, to ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 191 be reconsidered--brought back to the desk in order that one word might be changed.

I send the modification to the desk. It changes the word ``shall'' to ``may.''

I ask unanimous consent that the modification I made to amendment No. 191 be adopted.

I urge passage of that amendment.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of our time on that amendment and ask unanimous consent that it be set aside temporarily so Senator Cantwell might present her amendment.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that amendment be set aside, the time reserved as it is now, pending another amendment to be offered and debated.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Does the Senator from Wyoming wish to speak on the Cantwell amendment?

Mr. President, how much time remains on the Cantwell amendment?

I yield the Senator from Wyoming such time as he wishes.

Mr. President, on the Cantwell amendment, what is the time situation?

Does Ms. Cantwell have any time remaining?

I yield back the remainder of our time. I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

I ask unanimous consent that amendment be set aside until a time agreed upon by the two managers after 5 o'clock.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I have on the desk a group of amendments that come under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee. I ask unanimous consent that we now consider, en bloc, amendment No. 98 by Senators McConnell and Leahy; amendment No. 99 by Senators McConnell and Leahy; and amendment No. 162 by Senators Fitzgerald, Dole, and Clinton. I further ask that they be agreed to en bloc.

Mr. President, we have another group of amendments before the Senate: Amendment No. 35 by Senator Kennedy; amendment No. 52 by Senator Grassley; amendment No. 58 by Senators Collins and Bond; amendment No. 87 by Senators McConnell, Boxer, and Ensign; and amendment No. 220 by Senator Specter. I ask unanimous consent that they be considered and agreed to en bloc.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I have a group of amendments at the desk now that pertain to the Transportation and VA-HUD Subcommittee: Amendment No. 26 by Senator Lott; amendment No. 48 by Senator Sarbanes; amendment No. 92 by Senator Feinstein; amendment No. 69 by Senator Clinton; and amendment No. 224 by Senators Bond and Mikulski.

I ask unanimous consent that those amendments be considered and agreed to en bloc.

I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I present another group of amendments to the desk. They are: Wyden amendment No. 59; Craig amendment No. 34; Bunning and Bingaman amendment No. 37; Bunning amendment No. 38; Domenici amendment No. 42; Sarbanes amendment No. 49; Reid amendment No. 84; Levin and others amendment No. 128; Domenici and Bingaman amendment No. 161; and Voinovich amendment No. 206.

I ask unanimous consent that these amendments be considered and agreed to en bloc.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I have another series of amendments. These are the amendments we stopped. Senator Wyden's amendment No. 59, Senator Bunning's amendment, with Senator Bingaman, amendment No. 37, Senator Bunning's amendment No. 38, Senator Domenici's amendment No. 42, Senator Sarbanes' amendment No. 49, Senator Reid's amendment No. 84, Senator Levin's, and others, amendment No. 128. I read them before. I am leaving out the second amendment. That is why I am reading them through again. Domenici and Bingaman amendment No. 161, and Senator Voinovich, No. 206.

There are nine amendments. Does the clerk agree? Amendment No. 34 is set aside temporarily. It is not in the package.

Amendments Nos. 49, 128, 65, and 139, As Modified

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that where the word ``shall'' appears in amendments Nos. 49, 128, 65, and 139, it be changed to ``may.''

Mr. President, I want to make sure the clerk heard my modifications. I do not remember the clerk acknowledging the words were changed per my request.

Mr. President, I acknowledge my error. We have two of those in the next block. The amendments have been changed, as I requested, and they now have been adopted.

I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: Was amendment No. 161 included in the last group?

I thank the Chair.

Amendment No. 74

Mr. President, I send amendment No. 74 to the desk, which I introduce on behalf of the distinguished majority leader, to reinforce the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security in applying criteria to designate college- and university-based centers for homeland security research.

This is one item standing alone.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

I ask for adoption of the amendment.

I move to reconsider the vote.

Except for 34?

I thank the Senator. We have one item we have to check.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I have no objection to 2 minutes for the Senator.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Louisiana. I am prepared to ask that amendment be agreed to.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, what is the regular order?

Following that, there are two other amendments that would be the pending business?

Mr. President, it would be my intention to attempt to adopt the Bingaman amendment without a recorded vote. We will see how that happens. May we proceed with the Cantwell vote now?

Amendment No. 108

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I ask that we bring up Bingaman amendment No. 138. We previously discussed this amendment. Does the Senator wish to say anything?

I ask for agreement on the amendment.

I move to reconsider the vote.

The third amendment was the amendment of Senator Mikulski. I inquire if there is a modification at the desk?

Let me ask unanimous consent that we proceed to Senator Mikulski's amendment and that it be in order to offer, if a second- degree amendment is agreed to, it be in order for her to offer a further second-degree perfecting amendment, and that there be 20 minutes equally divided between Senators Thomas and Mikulski prior to a vote in relation to this amendment.

I am afraid I didn't read the whole unanimous consent.

I ask that that unanimous consent request be withdrawn and I be permitted to offer a different one.

I ask unanimous consent that the order----

I ask unanimous consent that the order with respect to the Mikulski amendment be vitiated and that Senator Thomas be recognized to offer a perfecting second-degree amendment regarding public-private competition; provided further that there be a 20-minute period for debate equally divided between Senators Thomas and Mikulski prior to a vote in relation to the second-degree amendment. I further ask that following that debate time, the Senate proceed to a vote in relation to the Thomas amendment. I further ask consent that if the second-degree amendment is agreed to, Senator Mikulski be recognized in order to offer a further second-degree perfecting amendment, provided there be 20 minutes for debate equally divided between Senators Thomas and Mikulski prior to the vote in relation to that amendment; finally, if the Thomas second-degree amendment is not agreed to, the Senate proceed immediately to vote in relation to the Mikulski first-degree amendment and, notwithstanding the drafting of the Mikulski amendment, if it were adopted, the first-degree amendment would be subject to further amendment.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

As what?

OK.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I wish to present to the Senate a series of amendments that have been modified since they have been introduced. After that, the Senator from New Jersey has an amendment to offer on which there will be a 15-minute time limitation equally divided. I ask unanimous consent that there be 15 minutes equally divided on the amendment of the Senator from New Jersey with no other amendments in order.

After the Senator's amendment is presented, we will have a vote in relation to that. I will probably move to table it. We, then, will have a series of amendments from the agriculture subcommittee and from the interior subcommittee that have been worked out. Following that, Senator Stabenow wishes to offer a sense-of-the-Senate resolution and speak briefly.

We will then go to third reading. We have, I believe, two Members who wish to speak briefly before third reading. If Senators will stay with us, we will probably have about 45 minutes to an hour of time ahead of us.

Does the Senator from Nevada have any comment about that?

I think I misspoke. I think Senator Stabenow wishes to have a sense-of-the-Senate regarding conferees. Am I correct?

I have not said that. The Senator has that right. But I am offering modified amendments before we take up the Senator's amendment.

Mr. President, I now offer a series of amendments, and after I name them I will ask that they be considered en bloc: Amendment No. 112 offered by Senator Bunning and Senator Santorum--these are modifications at the desk that have been cleared on both sides-- amendment No. 6 by Senator Coleman; amendment No. 83 by Senator Reid; amendment No. 85 by Senator Reid; amendment No. 131 by Senators Harkin, Durbin, and Landrieu; amendment No. 136 by Senator Mikulski and others; amendment No. 144 by Senator Santorum; amendment No. 156 by Senator Domenici; amendment No. 172 by Senators Landrieu and Snowe; amendment No. 150 by Senator Murkowski and myself; amendment No. 199 by Senators Durbin and Hutchison; amendment No. 186, which is a sense-of-the-Senate resolution by Senator Bond; amendment No. 142 by Senator Reid; amendment No. 178 by Senator Nelson of Florida; amendment No. 57 by Senator McCain--that is the Korea sense-of-the-Senate resolution-- amendment No. 167 by Senator Byrd; amendment No. 166 by Senator Byrd-- that is the China commission--and amendment No. 188 by Senator Dodd.

To my knowledge, we have no objections to any of those.

No. 112 was cleared. We showed that to you. It was the one modified by your subcommittee.

It was.

Will the Senator make the statement after we adopt this package?

I still have the floor, Mr. President.

We have not been able to clear that one yet. It is not in this package. We have another series in a package. There is another package coming later.

We will confer with the Senator.

I now ask unanimous consent that the series of amendments that I have referred to be modified in accordance with the submissions that are at the desk.

Modified in accordance with the way we presented them to the desk. I, first, want to modify them.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent they be considered en bloc.

I ask, then, that No. 112 be taken out of this package.

It will be at the desk, and we will consider it later.

I ask unanimous consent that these amendments be considered en bloc and agreed to en bloc.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, Senator Lautenberg has 5 minutes on his amendment on the Superfund.

Very well.

Amendment No. 112, As Modified

Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 112.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, I ask for the immediate adoption of the modified amendment.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we have not seen the modification.

I remove that objection.

I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Amendments Nos. 10, 28, 47, 65, As Modified; 88, 110, 139, As Modified;

155, 201, 218, 151, 50, 34, 126, 158, En Bloc

Mr. President, if I may have the attention of the Senate, I have two more amendments that have been cleared. I will make a request after I recite the amendments.

Amendment No. 10, Senator Nelson of Florida; amendment No. 28, Senator Kennedy; amendment No. 47, Senator Feinstein; amendment No. 65, as modified, Senator Kyl; amendment No. 88, Senator Warner; amendment No. 110, Senators Boxer and Feinstein; amendment No. 139, as modified, Senators Graham, Nelson, and Voinovich; amendment No. 155, Senator Domenici; amendment No. 201, Senator Feingold; amendment No. 218, Senator Hatch; amendment No. 151, Senator Murkowski and myself; amendment No. 50, Senator Sarbanes; amendment No. 34, Senator Craig; amendment No. 126, Senators Bingaman and Domenici; and amendment No. 158, Senators Bingaman and Domenici.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that these amendments be considered en bloc.

Is that agreeable?

I urge they be adopted en bloc.

I move to reconsider the vote.

I have another list. I will similarly make a request that they be considered en bloc: Amendment No. 33, Senator Craig and Senator Durbin; amendment No. 102, Senator Leahy. It should be modified so that ``shall'' reads ``may.'' I ask for that modification now.

Amendment No. 205, Senator McConnell; amendment No. 236, Senator Harkin; amendment No. 243, Senator Edwards. Further, at the desk are modifications for amendment No. 135, Senator Talent; amendment No. 116, Senator Leahy; amendment No. 226, Senator Kohl; amendment No. 163, Senator Fitzgerald and Senator Harkin. I ask that those amendments be so modified according to the items at the desk.

On amendment No. 187, there is a substitute at the desk. On behalf of Senator Leahy, I ask that the substitute be considered as part of this package in lieu of the original version of this amendment.

Amendment No. 62, as modified, Senator McConnell; amendment No. 238, Senator Dodd; and amendment No. 129, Senator Kerry and Senator Snowe. Mr. President, amendment No. 62 is a modification. I did not read that. I ask that that original amendment be modified according to the papers that are at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that these amendments be considered en bloc.

I ask that they be adopted en bloc.

I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

amendment no. 226, as modified

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when we reach third reading, Senators Kyl, McCain, Dayton, and Stabenow be recognized for 5 minutes.

The Senator is correct, but we do not have the modifications yet at the desk.

I inquire of the Senators mentioned if those four Senators will be willing to speak after final passage.

I ask unanimous consent that Senators Kyl, McCain, Dayton, and Stabenow each have their time after final passage and that Senator Coleman be added for 5 minutes.

Senator Stabenow may proceed now.

Mr. President, Senator Stabenow seeks 5 minutes on a matter of the sense of the Senate regarding instructions to conferees.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senator be recognized for 5 minutes at this time and I regain control of the floor after that.

The request is that the other Senators speak after final passage. Two Senators have a plane to catch to go on a very important mission for the Senate and they need to leave.

Mr. President, this amendment is a sense-of-the-Senate resolution concerning instruction to conferees, and I am pleased to consider the Senator's suggestion. I ask that the sense-of-the-Senate amendment be agreed to.

Mr. President, there are two remaining amendments. No. 207 is at the desk as well as No. 143, as modified. This is the modification for No. 143. I send it to the desk.

I ask that the amendments be adopted en bloc.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion on to lay on the table was agreed to.

Senator Grassley, I appreciate your concern about the Byrne Grant Program. I agree with you completely. I will commit to you that when the conference report comes back here for a final vote, we will have the Bryne Formula Grants in there at the House level of $500 million. I appreciate your understanding and help on this important matter.

hydrogen economy

Mr. President, I also agree that the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project is critical to protecting the citizens of southeast Louisiana and wish to engage in a colloquy with my distinguished colleagues from Louisiana.

Mr. President, I will work with my distinguished colleagues from Louisiana, my ranking member, and the entire Senate in our continued deliberation of the appropriations legislation so that the construction of the vital SELA project can continue.

Provo Airport Control Tower Funding

Mr. President, third reading.

Mr. President, I yield to the majority leader.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Specter be added as an original cosponsor of Senate amendment No. 167. It was our error.

Will the majority leader yield for a brief statement?

I address the majority leader. We have gone over the amendments. Quite a few of them are technical in nature and legislative in nature. We have members of our staff in the appropriations room downstairs, room 128, prepared to discuss any amendment that a Member wishes to try to work out with the committee and have it adopted without votes. I believe there are quite a few in that category we could accept. All of the amendments are being checked with the committees of legislative jurisdiction where they are legislative in nature and they do not affect the bill from a financial point of view.

I hope Members would tell us if they sincerely wish to press their amendments. There are a great many that are very redundant. We will have to choose as to which amendment the individual Senator wishes to bring forward. If we are to finish this bill and be able to get it to the House for conference, when the House comes back, this means a lot of long hours.

I say at the outset, there are 129 amendments that our committee would oppose. If a Member wishes to know which we will oppose, we are happy to tell them. I urge the majority and minority to help us by determining the amendments that Members absolutely insist they will raise so we can get a schedule and start working our way through these amendments. It will take the cooperation of every Member.

Keep in mind, these are bills that should have been passed last year. Amendments should not be the vehicle for legislation that would arise in this 2-year period of the new Congress. I hope everyone will join in tabling amendments that are legislative in nature, that should be raised later in the session. To hold up this bill at this time is very unfair to the thousands of people out there waiting to know whether they will have funding at the level of 2003, as intended by the President and by the Congress, instead of continuing at the level of the 2002 appropriations which, after all, were devised in the late part of 2001. We are dealing with people who have been waiting for 2 years now to have different types of funding.

I hope we can get this bill done this week. I hope we have that will to get it done.

I object. I am going to object to all requests for extension of time.

Madam President, for the information of Senators, we now have an amendment to be offered by Senator Nelson of Florida. I am going to ask, in a minute, that we have a minute on each side to explain this amendment. After that, Senator McCain has an amendment he wishes to debate. We believe we will be able to accept that amendment. Senators Durbin and DeWine have another amendment, and we believe we will accept that one. Following that is the Specter amendment, which will take an hour on each side. After that, we have other amendments that are going to be offered. We are going to try to get an agreement in just a few minutes that the next vote will not be before 7:45, something like that.

What amendment?

We do not have an agreement yet. We expect to have an agreement of 1 hour total, 30 minutes each side, but we do not have that agreement yet.

But we do expect to get that agreement soon.

I would like to get an understanding that the next vote, after the Nelson vote, will not occur before 7:45.

That is so we can work this out and try to get an idea what we can do. Perhaps we can get the amendments so we can argue them tonight and vote on them tomorrow morning, but we will not know until 7:45.

I congratulate my friend. He has always done very good work in this regard. The Senator from Nevada does a good job.

I want to announce that tomorrow morning I hope to be able to call up amendments four or five at a time in a block that we have intended to agree to, but if people want to object, they can at that time. We will have to pull them up and have a vote. But we think we have an agreement on a whole series of amendments.

I would say potentially there are 70 amendments that are technical in language and have de minimis amounts of money on small projects in States that we can adopt in a process tomorrow morning on a consent basis, if we can work that out. But tonight I hope to have, if we can do it, at least a couple amendments argued so we can vote on them either tonight, after 7:45, or vote tomorrow morning.

Yes.

It is a two-way street, Madam President. I agree 100 percent. We do intend to follow that procedure.

I would be happy to yield to my colleague from the South.

The projection is the Specter amendment would be voted on at 7:45.

Amendment No. 97

Madam President, I now ask unanimous consent that there be a period of 1 minute on each side so the distinguished Senator from Florida can explain his amendment, and I will take the time on this side.

Madam President, I regret deeply that I am faced with this dilemma. There is $1.850 billion in Public Law 480 in the amendment I have offered. That is $335 million above the 2002 level. That money has not been allocated yet, and it is entirely available to allocate to the cause to which the Senator from Florida seeks to send relief.

I understand his position, but we have already increased this amount in the bill. It is a sizable increase. I urge the Senate to realize that and to support my motion to table.

Mr. President, I move to table the Senator's amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

For the information of Senators, we are now going to take up Senator Specter's amendment. I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the Specter amendment commence at 20 minutes after 6. That will be the last vote tonight.

We are going to debate it now. Senator Specter wants 25 minutes, and we will take the remainder of that time and vote at 6:20.

The amendment has been filed. It is the Specter amendment on the airline.

That is on or in relation to his amendment at 6:20.

Yes, that is part of the request.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Durbin be allowed to call up an amendment which we will accept and then Senator McCain call up an amendment which we will accept. We are working on a unanimous consent request and, if it is accepted, there will be no more votes tonight. We have not quite gotten that straight yet. We cannot announce that yet. As soon as we get this unanimous consent request adopted, we will be able to make that announcement.

For the time being, does the Senator have a time limit on his amendment?

Five minutes on the Durbin amendment. How much time on the McCain amendment?

Each?

Ten each.

Fifteen minutes for Senator Durbin and Senator DeWine, and 20 minutes for Senator McCain and Senator Kyl--10 minutes each for Senator Kyl and Senator McCain. Is that agreeable?

After which we will accept the amendments.

And that no amendments be in order to these amendments. I ask there be no amendments in order.

Mr. President, we are prepared to accept the amendment, and I ask it be adopted.

I am sorry, I thought the Senator had already spoken. I withhold my motion.

Mr. President, I urge the adoption of the amendment offered by the Senators from Arizona.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

No. I thank the Senator from Nevada for his great work on this amendment.

Yes. I have a unanimous consent request to offer as soon as the Senator from Connecticut is finished.

We do plan to offer a unanimous consent request that would bring up amendment No. 217. Is that what the Senator is referring to?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Dodd and Gregg amendments be withdrawn. Would you like to have that adopted first?

I ask unanimous consent the pending Dodd and Gregg amendments be withdrawn. Further, that Senator Dodd be recognized to call up amendment No. 217, that the amendment be modified with the changes that I, Senator Gregg, and Senator Dodd have agreed to, and will send to the desk, that the amendment be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. After that, I will ask the Senate proceed to other amendments.

Does the Senator from Connecticut wish to be heard at this time?

Does the Senator from Connecticut withhold?

I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate then proceed to the consideration of the following amendments in the following order and that the designated times in relation to the amendments be equally divided in the usual form:

Senator Feingold, amendment No. 200, 30 minutes;

Senator Mikulski, amendment No. 61, 20 minutes;

Senator Murray, amendment No. 30, 20 minutes.

I further ask consent that following debate on each amendment, the amendment be temporarily set aside and a vote occur in relation to each amendment on Thursday at a time determined by the leader, with no second-degree amendments in order to any amendments prior to the vote.

Mr. President, I amend that request to 20 minutes instead of 30.

It is my intention to ask that the Senator from Connecticut be recognized for whatever time he needs.

Mr. President, may we have the consent agreement agreed to?

Mr. President, I ask that the Senator from Connecticut be recognized.

Amendment No. 217, As Modified

Mr. President, it is my privilege to announce that. I was going to do that after the Senator from Connecticut was finished. I assume he is not going to want any further votes. I announce in behalf of the majority leader that there will be no further votes this evening. The next vote will occur tomorrow at probably around 11 o'clock.

Mr. President, has the amendment been agreed to?

Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Madam President, I ask for regular order on amendment No. 27, the LIHEAP amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment.

For the information of the Senate, this is the LIHEAP amendment. The statements concerning the amendment will be after--

Madam President, that would be in order. I have no problem with that. I ask for 1 minute on each side to explain this amendment.

We are prepared to accept this amendment, but I think the sponsors wish a vote.

Will the Chair please announce what the program is.

Amendment No. 32

Mr. President, before that starts, I think we should wait for the participants. I wish to announce, assuming the Senator from New York and I can work out an understanding, there may not be a second vote. Members should be aware, there may not be the second vote. The first vote will take place as scheduled.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, this is the time when we ask both sides of the aisle to trust us. We took out a program we know is going to go back into this bill and put additional money in another place because we know the House will help us put it back in. This will help save another portion of this bill that we support.

We have done this for years. The other side has done it, too. We know what the House wants. The House wants this back in. We want to convince them the other money we have in here also is good.

I urge the Senate to give us the flexibility to deal with this bill in conference the way it is outlined. It is a very flexible bill. There are 11 bills in 1 amendment. I guarantee it will survive.

I pledge it will survive, but also what will survive is another $2 billion we need for another program. This is part of that program. So on the basis of trust, I ask my colleagues to trust us.

I move to table this amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

If the Senator wishes a minute, I ask unanimous consent that he would have an additional minute.

All right. Thirty seconds.

I agree it does not, but this money is going back in under the negotiations strategy we outlined. I guarantee it is going back in, but give us some leeway to deal with this bill. It is an enormous bill.

Again, I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Regular order. A voice vote.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I move to table, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Amendment No. 31, as modified

Mr. President, the Senator from New York offered the next amendment on which the yeas and nays have been ordered. As I promised last night as we wound up, we have reviewed Senator Schumer's amendment, and he has drafted a modified amendment which he will offer and which we will accept.

I want to call to the attention of Senators that there are some of these

amendments that can be worked out, if we have a chance to work them out. We want to work with both sides of the aisle to try to accommodate the desires of Senators with regard to these 11 bills in one amendment.

I yield to my friend from New York.

Mr. President, we are prepared to accept this amendment. What it does is it dedicates moneys that are already in the bill to the consideration of the process of developing the system of detecting items in cargo vans as they come into our country. It is a very vital subject, and we are pleased to work with the Senator from New York.

I urge its adoption.

I yield back the remainder of our time.

I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SCHUMER. I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, it is my understanding the Senator from West Virginia will offer an amendment. I would like to inquire from my good friend if we could put a time limit on this amendment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we have an hour on the amendment; 45 minutes for the Senator from West Virginia, 15 minutes for our side.

Is this the one on the across-the-board cuts?

Does the Senator wish to have no second-degree amendments?

We agree, no second-degree amendments and an up-or-down vote.

Mr. President, I understand the position of the Senator from West Virginia. However, I wish to state the policy of this amendment that I have offered is that it does not go below the level of the 2002 appropriations that are the basis for the continuing resolution is in effect now.

I took the position if we went below the funding level that is out there now based on the 2002 level of appropriated funds, Members would say: Wait a minute, we are better off to continue on the 2002 level. The Senator's statement about what was cut are cuts from the proposal we brought before, and I joined him in bringing that before the Congress last year.

We are not cutting any veterans. We are not cutting out anyone who is receiving care now. We are cutting out the increase that would have been available under the bills that were pending before the Congress last year.

As a practical matter, there may be some items where the programs had been ramped up because of a supplemental. We are working on the basis of the appropriated level of funds for 2002. In some instances, the continuing resolution does ramp up a little bit, as we found out with regard to an item that was before us last night in the amendment we dealt with just before we went home.

I do believe the Senator's amendment, as I understand it, strikes the offsets. We are back at the question of whether the Senate wants to discipline itself. We had no budget resolution last year. That was not the fault of any action of the Appropriations Committee under the chairmanship of the Senator from West Virginia or myself. We had no budget resolution. Had we had a budget resolution, we would have had a level of discipline, and that is the ceiling that had been established by the budget resolution.

The President sent a budget to the Congress, and it was limited to $750.5 billion. We have before us a proposal that limits that to $751.3 billion because the President submitted a subsequent request and amended his budget for the fire program of $825 million.

Lacking any other basis for a level of discipline, after the election, Senator Byrd and I, Congressman Young, and Congressman Obey got together and agreed we would hold the level of the President's $750.5 billion if we could get the bills done at that time. We did not get them done, and when we came back, the President asked me to join him and asked if I would continue the quest for a limit at that level of $750.5 billion. He agreed at that time to give us the $825 million for the fire program.

The offsets listed in title VI, which Senator Byrd would strike, are offsets that are necessary to achieve basically two things: One is the full funding for the amount that can be spent of the election reform bill in the 7\1/2\ to 8 months that are remaining, a bill that is absolutely necessary to be funded and put into place if we are to avoid, or at least try to avoid the problems of the election in the year 2000. This would modernize the election system throughout the country. This was a bipartisan bill that was passed, and this is its funding.

Secondly, the tremendous drought disaster areas of the country demand help. We faced a problem of how to deal with that, so we added the monies for drought and disaster to this bill and we offset it by an across-the-board cut in all programs.

That, again, is dealing with the basic problems of the country in a way that we will take these to conference, and we hope to come out of the conference with a bill approved by the House, that the President will sign, that will not exceed the $751.3 billion level but will take care of these and hopefully keep the two basic programs, drought disaster and election reform, and hopefully stay within the level we have agreed to try to achieve, and that is the $751.3 billion.

Our goal is to cover these, and we intend to cover them within the bill without across-the-board cuts. I do not know if we can get there. We know the House disagrees with a series of things that the Senate added. The Senate still has basic items above the President's budget request in most instances. So the House may want us to come down on a series of those. We are going to conference, and for the first time we will deal, through the full committee process, with 11 of the 13 bills, an enormous undertaking.

The only way we can get the two critical items to conference, in order to stay within our stated goal and demonstrate that we are going to stay within that goal to limit our expenditure to $751.3 billion, we provide for an across-the-board cut. I personally think it is going to end up somewhere around 1 percent by the time we are finished.

If there is not a 1-percent slush in every item in this budget, then I really have not been here 34 years, going on 35. These bills are estimates, and we are reducing estimates by 1 percent in order to take to the President the final bill at the level he sees fit to set. I think it is a legitimate objective.

Again, if we were not in the process of dealing with the post-9/11 situation, if we were not in the process of building up to try to protect the interests of our country abroad and our allies in terms of Iraq, if we were not dealing with the problems in Korea, if we did not have the problems we have abroad--they are all military in nature--we probably would not have this problem because we have already passed the two bills, the military construction bill and the Defense appropriations bill.

Even in this bill we have given the President an additional amount of money for intelligence and activities with relationship to the problems I have mentioned, and we have emphasized the protection in training and equipment for our men and women who are in uniform. There is no question about that. That has strained the national budget, and it has led the President of the United States to urge us to hold this level to $751.3 billion.

I urge the Senate to defeat the Senator's amendment. I know across the Senate, if this becomes final, people are going to say this is going to be down, that is going to be down, and that is true. There are going to be some accounts that are not as high as we would like to have them, and as I would like to have them, but there is going to be a budget the President will sign, and we can go on to the work of 2004.

We are trying to get behind us the problems of the last Congress. I really

feel very uncomfortable about the fact that we are trying to pass 11 bills that should have been passed by the last Congress, and I have been trying to do it in a way that no one says who shot John or why would we not pass them. In my opinion, one of the main reasons is we did not have a budget resolution. We did not have a budget resolution for a lot of reasons.

In any event, we do not have one now, and the only way I know to get this bill to conference is to insist upon maintaining the discipline that is required to show we are going to get a bill to the President that he will sign.

I reserve the remainder of my time.

Will the Senator yield on my time?

Yes.

Where does the Senator get those figures? The FBI received $3.49 billion in fiscal year 2002 and this bill has $3.92 billion. Beyond that we provided $158 million in the FBI joint task force. Not one FBI agent will be fired. We will not increase, but not one will be fired. Where does the Senator get those figures?

I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from Oklahoma.

Mr. President, fear is a terrible quotient in the political spectrum. And the fear that an across-the-board cut might reduce the level of spending today, spending under the 2002 appropriations level, is a great one.

But I can state to the Senate without equivocation, not one FBI agent will be cut, not one will be lost. We have an increase, again, of nearly $500 million in the overall FBI level--rounded off a little bit. We have another increase of $158 million for the Joint Terrorism Task Force. An across-the-board cut to those two increases, $436.5 million for the FBI and $158.5 for the Joint Terrorism Task Force, is about $80 million. That still represents an increase for those two programs. An across-the-board cut would not reduce the FBI at all--there would be no reduction. The Department of Justice would still receive an increase of well over a billion dollars after the across-the-board cut.

I have respect for my friend with regard to facing the problem of an across-the-board cut. It is an indiscriminate cut and that is why I don't like it. It goes across the board and says take from each account so much money in order to achieve putting all the items you want to take to conference into conference. But remember, it is a mechanism to get to conference.

I could eliminate all of the across-the-board cuts if I took out all of the add-ons from that side of the aisle, or take out all the add-ons from this side of the aisle, the Members' requests. If the Senate wants me to do it, I will put them in the Record. They total a considerable amount more than 2 percent of the budget.

Under the circumstances, to accuse me of some strange tactic by having an across-the-board cut to accommodate those requests, take them to the conference with the House and see how much the House will allow us to add, for these Members to add, I think is a little duplicitous.

So before I am accused of cutting the FBI or cutting milk for babies or something such as that, keep in mind, if it keeps up, I will not put them in. We could take every one of them out with just one single amendment. If the Senate wants to do that, we wouldn't have any across- the-board cut at all. Take the Members' accounts out of this bill and there will be no across-the-board cut.

I suggest the defeat of the amendment of the Senator from West Virginia.

(At the request of Mr. Daschle, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. President, the Senator is entitled to his last minute.

Let me tell the Senator about NIH. In fiscal year 2002, we had $23.45 billion. In this bill, we have $27.15 billion. That is an increase of almost $4 billion. An across-the-board cut takes out about $300 million. It does not reduce anything.

In my chairmanship----

I am not yielding. In my chairmanship, when I was chairman before, we doubled NIH. I am proud of that. We have not reduced that level. We have increased it.

No Senator on this side need fear we are cutting one FBI agent, taking one dollar away from the existing level of NIH, or taking one dollar away from anything. The guideline, again, was we kept the level of 2002 in every account.

That is a continuing resolution. To reduce the level that they are traveling on now would be wrong. We are increasing every one by passing those three bills. That is why we want to pass them.

Look at them. You can go down these Departments. Every one of them gets some kind of increase because of the fact we are going from 2002 to 2003. An across-the-board cut takes less than 2 percent out of all of them, if we have to do that when we come out of conference. We don't believe we will have to.

I really respect my friend from West Virginia. But I am carrying the President's torch, which is ``remember the deficits.'' People on this side reminded us of the deficits every day this last week. The President said: Remember the deficits. Get a guideline. Take my number for a guideline. I said: We will do that. We will take your number, we will take it to conference, and we will hold it coming out of conference and you will have a bill you can sign.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote in relation to the McCain amendment occur at 1:30 today, with the time equally divided in the usual form and with no amendments in order prior to the vote; further, that prior to the vote, Senator Landrieu be recognized as in morning business for up to 5 minutes; further, that following this vote, Senator Biden be recognized to speak for up to 20 minutes and Senator Brownback, for up to 5 minutes.

Yes, we do expect further votes this afternoon. We have the prospect of a Dodd amendment and a further amendment by the Senator from Arizona. So we have the prospect of continuing votes on through the afternoon.

Madam President, there is a time agreement in effect.

I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Madam President, what is the regular order now?

Madam President, under the agreement he has 20 minutes to speak. Following that, for the information of the Senate, Senator Brownback has 5 minutes.

Yes.

Madam President, the Senator from Delaware has given us a chance to think. This is a good time to think. So we are happy to give him 20 minutes right now.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Friday, January 17, 2003 at 9 a.m. to consider the nomination of the Honorable Tom Ridge to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Friday, January 17, 2003 at approximately 12:30 p.m. for a business meeting to consider the nomination of the Honorable Tom Ridge to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:30 a.m., Friday, January 17. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of H.J. Res. 2, as under the order.

Mr. President, tomorrow morning the Senate will resume consideration of this appropriations bill. At 9:30, there will be two consecutive votes on the pending amendments. The first is in relation to the Harkin amendment on Byrne grants, and the second is in relation to the Schumer amendment regarding port security.

Senators should be advised that additional amendments and, therefore, additional votes are expected during tomorrow's session. The Senate will remain in session and a late night is contemplated in order to make substantial progress. If the Senate is unable to finish the bill during tomorrow's session, the Members may expect to return on Tuesday and remain in session until the bill is completed.