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 01:29:45 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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