[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 126 (Friday, September 13, 1996)] [Senate] [Pages S10511-S10512] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] SCHEDULE Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will begin consideration of H.R. 3662, the Interior appropriations bill. As announced last night, there will be no rollcall votes today to accommodate Members who have a special holiday today. However, I hope that Members will have amendments to the Interior bill, that they will come over and offer them, and that they will be germane. These will only be debated during today's session. But if votes are required then we will stack those votes on Tuesday morning. It is also possible that the Senate will consider S. 39, the Magnuson fisheries bill, as under a previous consent agreement. We reached the point last night where we could not go any further with the Treasury- Postal appropriations bill. We would like to get the Magnuson bill up. We did not have time at that time of the night to consult with all the various Senators who are interested in that. We will be doing that this morning if we can get an agreement this morning, or perhaps even for Monday morning. We will make every effort to move this legislation that has been cobbled together with a lot of difficulty. But I think it is ready for us to take up now. Following legislative business today, there will be a period for morning business to accommodate a number of requests from both sides of the aisle, after which we will adjourn over until Monday. During Monday's session the Senate will continue with the consideration of the Interior appropriations bill. Again, no rollcall votes will be held so that Members who are celebrating the Jewish holiday will be able to get back to town. It is possible the Senate will consider the Federal Aviation Administration authorization measure. The Democratic leader and I talked about that last night. We believe we are about ready to go. We keep being told by the managers that they have it all agreed to. But when we look at the agreement, it still looks pretty long. So we have to look at that. We will try very hard to see if we can get that done. Senators should be prepared for rollcalls to begin on Tuesday as early as 9:30. But it will depend on what we have pending, and a lot of other considerations. But we will have stacked votes early sometime on Tuesday morning. I anticipate busy sessions of the Senate all of next week as we attempt to complete our business before sine die. I am glad we are going to the Interior appropriations bill now. We have two managers who have worked together beautifully; certainly two of the most [[Page S10512]] experienced legislators that we have, the Senator from West Virginia, Senator Byrd, and the Senator from Washington, Senator Gorton. They do great work. But they have a bill that has some issues that will be controversial and should be debated. And they should be. But I hope that Senators will cooperate better on this bill with the managers and with leadership on both sides of the aisle than what we saw this week on the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill. That was a big disappointment and a very poor exhibition by the Senate. We spent 25 hours 38 minutes on a bill, basically an appropriations bill that is relatively small and should not have been controversial. The problem was there were over 100 amendments offered, most of them nongermane. In a couple of instances the managers withheld going to a vote so that Senators could come over and speak on their amendment and the Senators never showed up. That is disrespectful of the process, the managers, and the institution. We should not do that. I have tried to keep the focus on getting our work done. The best thing for us to do now, or any other time of the year, is just do what needs to be done under the rules of the Senate and for the American people. I have been playing it straight. I have been trying to discourage amendments that could be considered political or blow this place up. But I reached the conclusion last night that that might not be possible. We spent all day yesterday, we spent the last 10 hours on that bill basically with partisan political positioning amendments being offered for TV spots. I refuse as majority leader to: first, accept amendments that should not be accepted on a continuous basis; second, to ask responsible Senators to walk the plank on obviously blatant political amendments one after another. I mean my attitude is, OK, a little bit of that. You do a little yourselves, and we do a little ourselves. You score your points, and we score our points. Let us move on, and do the business. It was obvious to me by late last night that the Senate was not being serious and that this was politics. I have in my hand exhibit A, the proof of what was being done on the Treasury-Postal Service appropriations bill. Here is the political plan for the Democrats for this year. They have their parts, and in their components under these three main titles, there is an issue here, like health care. Then they have the amendments they have planned to offer in that area. I mean it is just pure politics. I am not going to play that game. We are not going to have it on Interior. If the Senators start playing blatant politics on the Interior bill, it will meet the same fate that Treasury-Postal Service did. I am not going to have that. I do not think Senator Byrd or Senator Gorton will allow it. I urge them for every amendment of that type that is offered to move to table it right away. I also want to serve notice that, if there are going to be blatant political amendments put out here, we will have a second degree to every one of them. It will ball this institution up. That is not right. These Senators have done good work, important work, on a bill that America wants and needs. Let us do our business. Let us do it in a bipartisan and as nonpolitical way as possible realizing this is a political institution. If we do, it will reflect well on all of us. We will all benefit politically. I yield the floor, Mr. President. ____________________