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Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, what is the pending business if we were to go to the pending business?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. S. 625.
Mr. KENNEDY. The bankruptcy legislation?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pending business would have been S. 625, which is the bankruptcy bill.
Mr. KENNEDY. Further reserving the right to object, if that legislation were before the Senate, would it be in order for me to offer the minimum wage as an amendment--if it were pending?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Amendments are in order, if it were pending.
Mr. KENNEDY. But, as I understand it, the leader now has indicated, by consent request, that we go to morning business, is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
Mr. KENNEDY. Further reserving the right to object, can the leader give us any idea when we will be back on the pending legislation, the bankruptcy legislation? Or when we will have an opportunity to address the issue of the minimum wage?
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield?
Mr. KENNEDY. Yes.
Mr. LOTT. I would like to get to the bankruptcy reform legislation. I think that is important. We need to have this reform. The system is not working well now, and there is broad support, I think on both sides of the aisle, for bankruptcy reform. I think we could move to the bill if we could have a full debate on bankruptcy and relevant amendments to that. We could probably even work out an agreement that would include consideration of the small businessman's and small businesswoman's needs, and minimum wage needs. But I do not think it is fair the bankruptcy reform legislation, which should be considered in and of and by itself, should become an out-basket for every amendment to be offered on every subject that has already, in many instances, been considered this year, and that it become a Christmas tree for all kinds of unrelated amendments.
That is why I moved to a cloture vote because I wanted to get up bankruptcy reform. I would like to go to that. I will be glad to work out some sort of agreement as to how that bill will be considered. But I do not think we have the time right now, with the appropriations bills we have to complete before the end of the fiscal year. Hopefully, the last one, the 13th one, will be up--it will be up on Wednesday. We will be on that bill until we complete it. Hopefully, we will complete it by midnight on Thursday night, which would be the 13th bill. It would be only about the third time in the last 15 or 20 years we will have passed all appropriations bills through the Senate by the end of the fiscal year.
So that has been our focus. We have been focusing on the appropriations bills. We will have a conference report in the morning we will need to vote on, the Energy and Water appropriations bill. We will continue to move those bills and the conference reports through. When we get through with that process, then we will look back to what the legislative schedule is going to be. I hope we can come to agreement on how that would be considered.
Mr. KENNEDY. Just further reserving the right to object, of course, we did not give a clear indication whether we would have the opportunity to vote on an increase in the minimum wage. We have seen Members vote for an increase in their own pay, their salaries, for some $4,400. We have doubled the President's salary. We voted for an increase for the military, which I strongly support, and also for Government employees.
I wonder when we will be able to enter into some kind of agreement on the minimum wage. I do not think it will take a great deal of time. We will be glad to do it of an evening, if it would be more convenient for the leadership, working out the schedule. But we have not had the opportunity for the Senate to express its will. We would like to at least get some indication
from the leader as to when we might be able to do this, since the days are moving along and still many workers, who are working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year, have not participated in the very substantial economic progress and are looking to the Senate to see whether we will address this issue.
Can the leader help us at all, in terms of indicating when we might have some chance to address that?
Mr. LOTT. I can't at this time because we must focus on the appropriations bills through the remainder of this week. I will need to discuss this with Senator DASCHLE and Senator KENNEDY and see if we can come up with a way we can handle that issue without it opening up the door to all kinds of other issues that, in many instances, for instance, we may have already considered in the Senate.
Having said that, whatever we do, I want to make sure we do it in such a way that entry-level workers, people who do come into restaurants and other small businesses, don't wind up losing their jobs. That is important to them. Also, that we do not wind up doing it in such a way that small businessmen and small businesswomen cannot continue to stay in business.
So I think we have to find a way to offset the costs, particularly for small businessmen and small businesswomen who are working on a very small margin of profit. I know I have heard from some. I remember one lady in particular, outside of Atlanta--I think maybe in Marietta--who had a sweet shop. She basically said: If you do this again without some sort of offsets, I cannot make up the difference anymore myself.
So we have to make sure it is a balanced approach when we do consider this and however we consider it.
However, the answer to your question is any time you and Senator DASCHLE want to sit down and seriously discuss a way to get this done, I will be ready to do it, once we get through the appropriations process, which will be done, hopefully, at the end of this week.
Mr. KENNEDY. I have no objection.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
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The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
END