From: yzhou@void.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Joe Y. Zhou)
Subject: The 102nd Congress delayed adjournment
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 02:14:16 GMT


>This is what I saw in clari.news.gov.international a while ago. It seems that
>'the session may run into Saturday or even Monday.'.

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>       WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The 102nd Congress delayed adjournment, until
>possibly next week, as the Senate faced time-consuming filibusters
>Tuesday on energy, water and tax bills that kept the chamber in a round-
>the-clock session.
>        The filibusters shattered plans by congressional leaders to quit for
>the year Tuesday, although the House, its agenda finished, went into a
>holding pattern, waiting for the Senate to complete action on the
>remaining bills.
>        In a session-ending news conference, House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-
>Wash., and Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell of Maine, both said
>the record of the Congress was one of ``substantial achievement,'' but
>said it could have been better if President Bush had cooperated.
>        ``This very substantial record has been achieved despite the fact''
>that Bush vetoed 36 bills, Foley said.
>        The record is ``one of substantial accomplishemnt, but with much more
>that could have been done but for the president's unwise and excessive
>use of the veto power,'' Mitchell said.
>        Mitchell said they ``look forward with great enthusiasm'' to the next
>Congress with ``a new president, and a new outlook that will turn this
>country around.''
>        Asked about gridlock, Foley said, ``the only gridlock that has
>existed in this Congress has been the gridlock brought upon by the
>president himself, for which he is solely and entirely responsible''
>with his vetoes.
>        House Republican leader Robert Michel of Illinois disagreed, saying
>the session was ``long on politics and short on legislation. The list of
>major legislation is meager at best.''
>        He said the session began with Congress at its best, debating the
>Gulf War resolution, but ``then proceeded to show Congress at its worst,
>rocked by scandal, internal struggle and partisan wrangling.''
>        He charged that the Democratic leadership deliberately provoked
>Bush's vetoes.
>        Senate Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas said the Democratic
>majority ``achieved their primary objective, which was bashing President
>Bush for almost the last 18 months. That didn't help make much
>legislation, but it did make a lot of headlines.''
>        A grim-faced Mitchell said the spate of filibusters would have no
>effect on the Senate's agenda but acknowledged that the session may run
>into Saturday or even Monday.
>        The three bills under siege were:
>        --A $27 billion bill of tax incentives that would also create 50
>enterprise zones in the nation's poorest urban and rural areas to lure
>business with a combination of tax breaks.
>        --A bill that would revamp U.S. energy policy for the first time in a
>decade with the prospect of lesser dependence on imported oil and a
>stress on energy conservation, nuclear power and development of new
>technologies.
>        --An omnibus bill dealing with reclamation projects, including a
>change in the contracting procedures and water pricing requirements for
>the Central Valley project in California and for the completion of the
>Central Utah project.
>        The House approved all three measures Monday and early Tuesday,
>although the tax bill just barely squeezed by 208-202.
>        Mitchell has said he would file motions to cut off all three
>filibusters. But the arcane rules of the Senate and the interruption of
>a high Jewish Holy Day will prevent voting until Thursday.
>        Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., a conservative who is up for re-
>election, started the string of filibusters by grabbing the floor at
>9:30 p.m. Monday. He did not finish speaking until 1 p.m. Tuesday,
>slowed down and visibly weary.
>        D'Amato, saying he had expected ``a little more character'' from
>colleagues and members of the House, told the Senate, ``If I have to
>stay on the floor all night, and all day tomorrow and do whatever I have
>to, I am prepared to do it.''
>        ``My people are not going to be sold out for cheap partisan politics,
>and that's the way I see this situation.'' he said.
>        D'Amato was incensed that Senate-House negotiators dropped a
>provision in the tax bill that would protect 875 employees at the Smith
>Corona plant in Courtland, N.Y.
>        After D'Amato closed, Sen. John Seymour, R-Calif., started the
>delaying tactics against the California water bill. But Seymour, an
>appointed senator considered in deep trouble as he campaigns for
>election in his own right, let the clerk do the talking for him.
>        Seymour sat idly by while the clerk read the entire 375-page text of
>the reclamation bill, a process that took hours.
>        As predicted, the energy bill was approved by the House 363-30 Monday
>and sent to the Senate to face its fillibuster.
>        Nevada senators have threatened to block the bill because the it
>contains a provision that could advance plans for a nuclear waste site
>at the Yucca Flats, 100 miles from Las Vegas. A vote on cutting off the
>filibuster was scheduled Thursday.
>        The two Nevada Democratic senators, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan,
>sent a letter to Bush, noting that the energy bill creates ``at least
>$4.5 billion in additional tax burden to the public.
>        ``It would be difficult to reconcile your recent statements with
>opposition to increased tax burdens and the signing of this legislation
>into law,'' they said. ``''We urge you to immediately indicate to the
>Senate that you are opposed to these additional taxes and that if the
>legislation is passed with their inclusion you will veto the bill.``

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