Congressional Documents
[Page: S2171]
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the NATO treaty.
Mr. WELLSTONE. I object.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me, if I could, respond briefly to a couple of points made by the majority leader.
First of all, I have no reservations about his desire to double-track this legislation. Obviously, I think double-tracking makes sense. But he should not live under any misconception that somehow that is going to accelerate consideration of the education debate. We will have our day. We will have our opportunity to offer these amendments. Those amendments only have to be filed if cloture is invoked. And I hope my Democratic colleagues and many Republican colleagues understand the importance of having a good debate. Whether it is this week or next week or some other week, we are going to have that debate. We will have these amendments offered. We will have them considered. We are going to have it out. We will have a good discussion, as we should, in the Senate.
This is not the House of Representatives. We are not working under closed rules and all of the constraints under which the House has continued to perform its duties. That is the beauty of this body. And we are going to see that respect for the rules of the institution is upheld.
It is certainly the majority leader's right in that regard. I wasn't suggesting, in an earlier point I made about the number of days we spent on cloning, that we should not spend them. I
of days we spent on cloning, that we should not spend them. I just felt that it might be a little more productive to spend them in committee, where this belonged, rather than to rush to the floor with a solution before we had an opportunity to think through what the solution might be. So I thought it really was wasted time. I may be the only one in that regard. But eventually we will come back with something that makes sense. This didn't make sense. And I am hopeful that ultimately we will come to a solution.
But we did spend 4 days. That was the point. We spent 4 days on something thrown together to respond, in my view, very haphazardly to a very serious problem. If we can spend 4 days on that, it would seem to me we can spend a good while talking very constructively about one of the most important issues facing this country and our agenda in the Senate.
So I have no objection. I appreciate very much the opportunity to express myself.
Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the pending request?
Mr. WELLSTONE. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The majority leader.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, just two final observations with regard to Senator Daschle's comments. I feel very strongly about this Coverdell A+ bill. I think it is going to be helpful for children in America. My mother was a schoolteacher. I went to public schools all my life. I worked in placement and financial aid. I think it is high time we give parents and grandparents and people who care about kids in elementary and secondary education an opportunity to save for those kids and help them get an education. That is one of the reasons why I think education is not as good as it ought to be in elementary and secondary.
So I am determined we are going to get this bill up. We are going to consider it without a lot of extraneous matters. And I do want to observe that, as majority leader, I do still think the majority sets the agenda. I get to call up the bills, not somebody else. It has been developed over a period of many years that majority leaders call bills up, and I am not going to be dictated to by others who have a different agenda.
You can say you are going to do this and you are going to do that. If you want to have a fight over it, we will meet and fight on this one, because I am standing with children in elementary and secondary education in America. And I might also just say now I am willing to do what is right for our country. I have stood at this point and taken some tough stands when I thought it was important that it be bipartisan, nonpartisan, for our country. And I won't even repeat them, because I received a lot of flak. But right now I have Senators saying, don't go to NATO enlargement, delay it, delay it until after the Easter recess, delay it until June; do it never.
I do not think that is right. I am willing to cooperate and work on some of these issues that must be bipartisan. But in return, from this administration and from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I am going to look for a little help and a little cooperation on issues that I think are important also.
So I hope that we can find a way to do that, and I believe we will. But it does take cooperation as we get through these
difficult shoals on education, on NATO enlargement, on the budget for the year, on the emergency funding, the supplemental appropriations bill for Bosnia, the Persian Gulf, for disasters, and maybe even for IMF. Some of these issues I don't even agree with, but I feel an obligation to call them up.
So since there has been an objection, I now move that the Senate----
[Page: S2172]
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader has the floor.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the NATO treaty.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Do I hear an objection?
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I believe----
Mr. WELLSTONE. I object.
Mr. LOTT. We made a motion to proceed to executive session to consider the NATO treaty. I believe the question will be on the motion, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been suggested at this time. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we will not object to the rollcall vote as proposed in the motion offered by the majority leader. Let me just say, after consultation with a number of my
colleagues, I think it is clear that many of us yesterday voted on the motion to proceed with an expectation we would be able to go to the bill. I voted that way and encouraged my Democratic colleagues to vote that way, even though, as the leader indicated, because of unrelated questions, not related to education, more related to judicial nominations, some of our colleagues understandably voted in frustration about their inability to move through the judicial process and the confirmation of judges as was expressed by my colleagues yesterday.
Our desire, our hope, is that we can move ahead with this bill. Our hope is that we can offer amendments. As I have noted, we would be willing to take time agreements on most, if not all, of them. I would be willing to work into an agreement with the leader on that matter on these amendments. Unfortunately, we will not have that opportunity if we go to the NATO resolution.
So while we will certainly comply with the vote and have the vote at this moment, it is not my desire to support it and I would hope my Democratic colleagues would not either.
I yield the floor, and I thank the majority leader for his consideration.
Mr. WELLSTONE. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is now on agreeing to the motion put forth by the majority leader.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The yeas and nays are requested.
Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to proceed. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye) is necessarily absent.
The result was announced--yeas 55, nays 44, as follows:
The motion was agreed to.