The PRESIDING OFFICER Sample Clauses

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the request to set aside the cloture vote and to come back at 6 o’clock on this issue? Without objec- tion, it is so ordered.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. The motion was agreed to.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: House message to accompany H.R. 1892, a bill to amend title 4, United States Code, to provide for the flying of the flag at half-staff in the event of the death of a first responder in the line of duty.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from South Dakota has 11 min- utes. The Senator from South Carolina has 14 minutes. ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇. I yield 4 minutes to the Senator from Montana.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (H.R. 4558) to extend the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to the consideration of the bill.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Montana is recognized. ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇. Mr. President, I thank my chairman and the Chair. First of all, I rise today to join my colleague in pledging my support for this piece of legislation, the Tele- communications Act of 1995. Let me first start out talking about the leader- ship that Senator ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ has shown on this particular piece of legislation. As you know, we have gotten the re- form of telecommunications further than it has come since I have been in this body. In 1989, we started working on telecommunications in the reform, the deregulation of it, to do one thing, and that was to push new technologies into areas where we desperately needed those new technologies, because all one has to do is to look around and say we are going to do things differently when it comes to educating our kids, we are going to do things differently when we talk about telemedicine. I can remember almost 5 years ago I joined with then-Senator ▇▇▇▇ to intro- duce a series of telecommunications in- frastructure bills. I remember that day. I think the ranking member of the Commerce Committee was chairman at that time. I can remember that situa- tion. We both strongly believed at that time in the need to unleash the digital revolution through the substitution of competition for excessive regulation. The bill basically achieves that basic goal, and because of this, it will accel- erate by decades the deployment of ad- vanced telecommunications infrastruc- ture. This is not to say, Mr. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, that the conference report is perfect or the best it could possibly be. In some places I would like to change it. But, you know, you do not get everything you want, but at least you want every- thing that you got. I think basically that is the position we are in. We can- not let the best become the enemy of the good. It is time that we take what we can get now and move forward with this piece of legislation. Under this bill, the nature of regula- tion will change. Instead of regulating the profits of telephone companies, regulation will now focus on ensuring that competition can take root in all

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (S. 302) for the relief of ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇-▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill. ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇. I ask unanimous con- sent the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any state- ments related to the bill be printed in the RECORD. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The bill (S. 302) was read the third time and passed, as follows: S. 302

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Board shall by majority vote appoint the presiding Officer for meetings of the Board.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Arizona declines to yield fur- ther to the Senator from Delaware? ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇▇. I decline to yield. ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇. I am not seeking rec- ognition. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Virginia has the floor. ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇▇. I will try and summa- rize. Mr. President, how much time do I have? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator still has 11 minutes of the original 15 minutes remaining. ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇▇. As a courtesy to the managers and the whip, I will not use all that time, but I would like to just finish our colloquy. Because I thought we were making a point, at least I felt very strongly, the President gave the assurances. And you said the way to settle this—and you wanted it for the House, the letter was sufficient for the House—why wouldn’t this letter con- tinue to be sufficient for the Senate? If it is sufficient for one body, it is suffi- cient for the other body. That is my point. ▇▇. ▇▇▇▇▇. Would the Senator like me to answer? I will try to do it quick- ly.