Trent Lott: “I want to reiterate again, first of all, Mr. President, under the proposal that I have suggested of a substitute…”

“I want to reiterate again, first of all, Mr. President, under the proposal that I have suggested of a substitute amendment, any or all of these proposals could have been offered. We even thought about the possibility of having some agreed-to limited number of amendments that were educationally related. But Senator Daschle indicated, I believe, that he didn't think that was the way that he would like to proceed. With regard to postcloture, assuming cloture is invoked, it depends on, I guess, how the amendment is offered. There certainly would be a debate on the contents of this package. That does include the school construction bond issue for public schools. And it is conceivable that germane amendments could be offered to that to strike it. But, if you tried to strike it and add a new program under the rules, I presume that would not be possible under the cloture arrangement. Again, with regard to other issues, including the Boxer amendment that the Senator described, in postcloture that probably would not be eligible. But I emphasize again. We could have worked, or could work, out an agreement where a limited number of amendments, or a substitute, could be considered. With regard to the California issue, I want to emphasize that Senator Feinstein was very interested in getting the language included--that could be helpful in any State, but particularly in States like Florida and California--and in providing additional new public school construction.”