May 8, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S6255

Mr. HOLLINGS. We have no objection.

Mr. DOLE. So, Mr. President, the

yeas and nays are automatic on the

cloture vote. Let me ask for the yeas

and nays on the V–E Day resolution.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a

sufficient second?

There is a sufficient second.

UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEThe yeas and nays were ordered.

MENT—NOMINATION OF JOHN M.

fDEUTCH, TO BE DIRECTOR OF

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

Mr. DOLE. Finally, Mr. President, as

in executive session, I ask unanimous

consent that immediately following

the cloture vote and the vote on the V–

E Day resolution, notwithstanding rule

XXII, the Senate go into executive session to consider the nomination of

John Deutch, to be Director of the CIA,

and that it be considered under the following time agreement: 2 hours equally

divided between the chairman and vice

chairman of the Intelligence Committee, or their designees; that following

the conclusion, or yielding back of

time, the nomination be set aside; and

that the Senate then return to legislative session, with the vote to occur on

the nomination at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 9, 1995.

I believe this has been cleared on

both sides. We will have debate this

afternoon and vote tomorrow morning.

I know the President very much wants

to have this nomination addressed. We

are prepared to do that.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me suggest the absence of a quorum unless

someone would like to speak. There are

8 minutes before the cloture vote occurs. I suggest the absence of a

quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The

clerk will call the roll.

The legislative clerk proceeded to

call the roll.

Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, I ask

unanimous consent that the order for

the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

COMMONSENSE PRODUCT LIABILITY AND LEGAL REFORM ACT

fThe Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.

Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, again, I

want to emphasize what this vote is

about. It is, of course, about product liability, but it is also the role of the

Senate in the legislative process.

The House has passed a bill that contains vast differences from what is proposed in the substitute and what is proposed in the substitute to the substitute.

If we do not take advantage of our

rules and do not exercise the role that

is intended for the Senate to be a deliberative body, and if we vote cloture,

there is no question what will happen

is it will go back to the House and I do

not think there is much question as to

what will happen.

The Speaker of the House will control the conference, and this is going to

be a bill regardless of what fixes may

have been attempted in the Senate, the

version that is going to come out of the

conference is going to be the version of

the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It comes back here and people

say, ‘‘Well, you can exercise your rules

and you can have extended debate at

that time.’’ But we all know what happens on conferences. Their reports

come back, people are anxious to get

away, and they are arranged at a time

to come up where you are in a situation, and we end up, with very rare exceptions, approving conference reports.

So I say to my colleagues, this is a

vote not only on product liability but

is a vote on the role of the Senate on

this bill and other bills that may be

coming down in the future.

So I urge my colleagues to vote

against cloture. It is very important

that they bear in mind the fact that

whatever is being proposed here does

not mean that that is going to be the

final version. The final version, I

think, in the judgment of anybody who

can see beyond the immediate scene

and can see around the corner will be

that it will be in conference and it will

come out as a Gingrich version of this

bill.

I yield the floor.

Mr. GORTON addressed the Chair.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I simply

want to announce to the friends and

supporters of this bill that this will not

be a meaningful cloture vote. In the

haste to draft the Gorton-Rockefeller

amendment, a couple of drafting errors

were made that can only be removed at

this point by unanimous consent.

Unanimous consent, as the body

knows, was not granted.

Second, because the Gorton-Rockefeller amendment is in the nature of a

substitute, had cloture been granted

and had the Gorton-Rockefeller amendment been adopted, which it would

have been, it would have cut off all

other postcloture amendments from

the opponents to the bill and that, too,

could only have been waived by unanimous consent.

So I say to Members who have

worked on this compromise, they can

vote for or against cloture at will. I do

not expect cloture to be invoked. I cannot under these circumstances vote for

cloture myself. The bill by tomorrow

morning will be in proper form, both

for its own passage and to allow

postcloture amendments. Tomorrow

morning’s cloture vote will be the significant one on this bill and not the

vote that is being taken this evening.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence

of a quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The

clerk will call the roll.

The legislative clerk proceeded to

call the roll.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask

unanimous consent that the order for

the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The hour

CLOTURE MOTION

fof 4:20 p.m. having arrived, under the

previous order, the clerk will report

the motion to invoke cloture.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

CLOTURE MOTION

We the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provision of rule XXII of the

Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby

move to bring to a close debate on a substitute amendment to H.R. 956, the product

liability bill:

Slade Gorton, Dan Coats, Richard G.

Lugar, John Ashcroft, Rod Grams, Kay

Bailey Hutchison, Judd Gregg, Strom

Thurmond, Jay Rockefeller, Trent

Lott, Rick Santorum, Larry E. Craig,

Bob Smith, Don Nickles, R.F. Bennett,

John McCain, Connie Mack.

VOTE ON MOTION TO INVOKE CLOTURE

The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent the quorum call has

been waived.

The question is: Is it the sense of the

Senate that debate on amendment No.

690 to H.R. 956, the product liability

bill, shall be brought to a close?

The yeas and nays have been required.

The clerk will call the roll.

The legislative clerk called the roll.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii [Mr. AKAKA], the Senator from Iowa [Mr. HARKIN], the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. KENNEDY], and the Senator from Nebraska

[Mr. KERREY] are necessarly absent.

I further announce that the Senator

from Rhode Island [Mr. PELL] is absent

on official business.

I further announce that, if present

and voting, the Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. PELL] would vote ‘‘yea.’’

I further announce that, if present

and voting, the Senator from Hawaii

[Mr. AKAKA] would vote ‘‘nay.’’

Mr. LOTT. I announce that the Senator from Utah [Mr. BENNETT], the

Senator from Colorado [Mr. CAMPBELL], and the Senator from Virginia

[Mr. WARNER] are necessarily absent.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there

any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote?

The yeas and nays resulted—yeas 43,

nays 49, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 153 Leg.]

YEAS—43

Abraham

Ashcroft

Bond

Brown

Burns

Chafee

Coats

Coverdell

Craig

DeWine

Dole

Domenici

Exon

Faircloth

Frist

Gramm

Grams

Grassley

Gregg

Hatch

Hatfield

Helms

Hutchison

Inhofe

Jeffords

Kassebaum

Kempthorne

Kyl

Lieberman

Lott

Lugar

Mack

McCain

McConnell

Murkowski

Nickles