The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SENATE PROCEDURE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S1160-S1161 on March 6, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SENATE PROCEDURE
Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the majority leader leaves the floor, I would like to direct a couple of comments to him. I hope the majority leader saw what happened last week. After some work, we had a bill before the Senate that was almost open. The education savings bill allowed all amendments dealing with taxation, amendments dealing with education, and we threw in a few other amendments as part of the unanimous consent agreement. I might add, I think what happened last week was exemplary as how the Senate should operate.
There were no quorum calls, or if there were some, they were momentary in nature. When an amendment was offered, it was debated; there were no dilatory tactics. Even though the minority did not like the bill that was before the Senate, I think we proceeded, showing our good faith that we can work on legislation and move things along. In fact, regarding the one amendment we added, the Wellstone amendment we had a time agreement on it, and I think that amendment was the one of several amendments that was agreed to. There may have been only one other.
The point I am making to the majority leader is I hope the majority would allow more business to come before the Senate in the same manner because I think, while it wasn't necessary to show our good faith, the minority showed we can move legislation and move it quite rapidly. That bill had scores of amendments, more Democratic amendments than Republican amendments, but I repeat: We moved that bill well, and I think we showed how the Senate should really operate.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I noted late Thursday night that I was very much impressed and pleased with the way that legislation went through the Senate and that we were able to get to conclusion. I made a particular note of the fine work the Senator from Nevada did, helping keep Members focused on the issue at hand, the issue before us, and also reducing the number of amendments and helping make it possible for us to complete that bill on Thursday night.
I have to say the Senator, since he has been elected as the whip, assistant Democratic leader, has made a difference in our ability to complete important legislation. I think that was an example of how we can proceed. That was a good bill that had bipartisan support. I know a lot in the minority did not like it but several in the minority did vote for it because it wound up getting 61 votes, which means even if it got every Republican--and I didn't check to see if every one voted for it, but probably at least a half dozen Democrats also voted for it.
It is a good example of how we can proceed. Amendments were agreed to that were related to education, related to tax policy on education, and a couple of amendments such as the Wellstone amendment were not directly related, but Senators had something they wanted to offer. We were given an opportunity to take a look at the Wellstone amendment and basically said, sure, we can agree to that. But it did not become just flypaper to attach every amendment Senators could come up with. We did not get off into a lot of extraneous debate. Most of the week was spent focused on education and education tax policy, and that is the way we would like it to proceed.
It seemed to me the week before last that we were not going to be able to proceed, and we were going to have to go to cloture, which I always prefer not to do. I prefer to go forward without long debate and delay by amendments. But if I am given the impression, or told, in effect, we are going to offer all kinds of extraneous amendments, I have to look for some way to bring it to conclusion and get a final vote. That is why I filed cloture the end of the week, the previous week.
Then, on Monday morning, Senator Daschle called and said he thought that basically the parameters of the unanimous consent request we had offered were fair, but there were some Senators who still thought they had other issues they would like addressed. But he thought maybe we could work on it that morning--I believe it was Monday morning; it may have been Tuesday morning--but we could work through it and get a fair agreement. As a matter of fact, by noon that day we had done so.
So I hope this will be the procedure we can use in the future. We may have the opportunity to see if we can do that even this very week because I have been urging and pushing Senators to come to an agreement on how to proceed on the Export Administration Act. This is something we need to do. This is something people who are in the export business want to get clarified. We have not had an export law on the books since the one that was passed in 1979. My goodness, in this area of export of technology, for instance, it changes weekly, let alone annually. We clearly need to do this. I think the concept of this bill is something the administration generally supports. It came out of committee unanimously.
There are some legitimate concerns from members of the Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Government Affairs Committee, and the Intelligence Committee about how do we deal with national security issues; how can we carve out national security issues; how can we make sure it is not a unilateral decision made by the Commerce Department; and how are the State Department and Defense Department going to be involved.
But a lot of work is being done on that. I am hoping we can go forward on that bill Tuesday or Wednesday of this week and find a way to complete it. But we will not be able to do it unless we find cooperation on both sides of the aisle, and I hope maybe the education bill can be an example we can follow. It may even be easier in this case because I think there is actually broader bipartisan support.
So I appreciate what Senator Reid had to say. I agree with it. I hope that is the example we can use as we go forward this year. We have a lot of work. In spite of distractions, in spite of elections, we still have work to do for the American people. It is important we find a way to do that for the best interests of our country.
I thank Senator Reid for his contribution in that effort.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to the leader, I think we should be given even more leeway. I think we can get a lot more done. I don't think, on legislation, there would be the disaster that the leader believes. But I think we have made some progress, and I look forward to seeing if we can make more progress. The export administration bill, as the leader said, is a bill that has wide bipartisan support, and we should move forward on this, even though we have some people concerned about it. That is what the process is all about. They should come down and talk about their concerns, vote on it, and move it on. If there were ever a high-tech issue this congressional session, it is this bill. So the high-tech industry can remain competitive and keep that business we so value in the United States, we have to pass this bill or very quickly the business will be going offshore.
I thank the leader very much, and I look forward to continued progress on legislation to help the country.
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