Bob Dole: “I hope, too. The reason for the cloture motion is to make certain we do finish the bill. If we cannot get cloture, we…”

“I hope, too. The reason for the cloture motion is to make certain we do finish the bill. If we cannot get cloture, we will not finish the bill on Tuesday. It is my hope we can finish the bill on Tuesday. Let me again indicate to all my colleagues who are at the majority leader. The August recess is not far away--at least the starting date is not far away. We have a certain number, I think a number of legitimate things we should do before that recess begins. It may not begin on the 4th of August. It may not begin until the 12th or the 15th, or in that area. That is not a threat, just what may happen. I put in the Record yesterday a proposed schedule which I believe is reasonable, but it depends on finishing this bill and then moving to the next bill, and appropriation bills. We hope to do six appropriation bills before the August recess. We have three major authorization bills: DOD authorization bill, foreign operations, State Department authorization. That will take some time. There will be a lot of amendments. Six appropriation bills, plus welfare reform, plus Bosnia, plus lobbying and gift reform, plus the Ryan White bill. That is the reason the cloture was filed. Hopefully, if we cannot work it out, we will have a cloture vote on Tuesday, which I hope would be successful. Then we would at least have the end in sight. Obviously, if we are making progress, and we are going to finish the bill Tuesday in any event, I would be happy to withdraw the cloture motion.”