*EPF404 07/27/00
Senator Lott Files Motion for Cloture Vote on China PNTR Bill
(Would limit time Senate could spend on H.R. 4444) (790)
By Steve La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (Republican of Mississippi) has moved the Senate one step closer to voting on H.R. 4444, the bill that would grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status.

Lott filed a motion for cloture July 26 for H.R. 4444, thus setting up a possible vote on the bill shortly after the Senate returns from its August recess.

According to the Senate's rules, cloture is the only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster.

Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.

Senator Max Baucus (Democrat of Montana) has said that three-fourths of the Senate supports granting China PNTR.

However, the proposed legislation also has some strong opponents who, by skillfully using the Senate's rules, could either delay or tie up H.R. 4444 as the legislative calendar runs down unless the cloture motion passes.

While supporters of the bill have said they want the trade bill to be considered solely on its merits, Senators Fred Thompson (Republican of Tennessee) and Robert Torricelli (Democrat of New Jersey) have sought to bring up the issue of China's role in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

To that effect, the two senators introduced the China Nonproliferation Act on May 25, which, they said, could be offered either as parallel legislation or as an amendment to the legislation that would grant China PNTR status.

Similarly, critics of China's labor policies and human rights record have said they might offer amendments to H.R. 4444.

One of the most prominent Senate critics of the Beijing regime, Senator Jesse Helms (Republican of North Carolina), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has said the Senate would hold a "robust" debate about China's record on human rights, weapons proliferation, labor practices, and nuclear threats to the United States and Taiwan.

"In the end, China's tyrants may -- or may not -- get the [normalized trade] package Mr. Clinton has prepared for them," Helms said in a statement after the House passed H.R. 4444 May 24 by a vote of 237-197.

The House of Representatives passed the bill only after a very divisive and hard-fought debate that split both the Democratic and Republican parties.

If the Senate were to pass an amendment to the China PNTR bill, the House and the Senate would have to appoint a committee to reconcile the two versions of the bill. If the committee members were able to reconcile the two versions, that bill would then have to be submitted again to the House and Senate for another vote before going to the President for his signature.

Given the short time left in the legislative calendar, any amendment could be fatal to PNTR legislation in the 106th Congress.

Besides the threat of a successful amendment, supporters of H.R. 4444 hope to avoid another method of delay in the Senate -- the filibuster, whereby a senator or group of senators attempts to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, offering numerous procedural motions, or taking other actions aimed at obstructing passage of a bill.

A successful vote to invoke cloture would forestall an effective filibuster. According to the Senate's Rule XXII:

"After no more than thirty hours of consideration of the measure, motion, or other matter on which cloture has been invoked, the Senate shall proceed, without any further debate on any question, to vote on the final disposition thereof to the exclusion of all amendments not then actually pending before the Senate at that time and to the exclusion of all motions, except a motion to table, or to reconsider and one quorum call on demand to establish the presence of a quorum (and motions required to establish a quorum) immediately before the final vote begins."

While the cloture vote could take place July 27, according to the Majority Leader's legislative calendar, further action on the bill granting China PNTR would have to wait until after the end of the August recess.

The Senate's last working day before the recess is July 28. The Senate's August recess lasts through September 4.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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