Media Stakeout With Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell; Senator Trent Lott; Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: FISA, Lobbying, SCHIP Legislation

Statement

Media Stakeout With Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell; Senator Trent Lott; Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: FISA, Lobbying, SCHIP Legislation

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SEN. MCCONNELL: Good afternoon, everyone. There are three issues that in all likelihood we'll wrap up this week.

First, we do have a briefing from the DNI, McConnell -- Admiral McConnell at 5:30 this afternoon. We hope that we'll be able to get some kind of FISA legislation before the week's out. In addition to that, as the majority leader has indicated, the House has acted on the lobbying bill. We expect it to come over later today. My assumption is that he will call it up, since it's not a conference report, fill up the tree and file cloture, and that cloture vote will occur on Thursday.

In the meantime, SCHIP is on the floor. We think there'll be a number of amendments on our side, and we think before the week's out we'll come to a conclusion on SCHIP. So it looks to me like that's the agenda for the week. On SCHIP, I don't know -- Senator Lott, you're deeply involved in that. Do you want to make a few observations?

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SEN. MCCONNELL: We'll take a couple questions if there are any.

Q Senator McConnell, you mentioned the -- filling up the tree on this ethics bill. Do you have any objections to the methodology that -- (off mike)?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, as I've said to you all before, it had been my preference to go to conference. There was one member of my Republican conference that didn't want to do that because he was uncertain that the earmark language would be appropriate, so we were unable to get to conference. As a result of that, none of our people were involved in the final product, and it would have been my preference to have had a seat at the table and be involved in the final product. But in a sense, we made it difficult on ourselves because one of our members prevented us from going to conference.

So this was procedurally not my favorite way to handle it, but this is an option available to the majority. They've taken that option, and we'll be voting on the bill later this week.

Q Did you have any words with Senator DeMint or Senator Coburn to not raise an objection to bringing the bill up?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Look, I'm not going to talk about private conversations with my members. I have said that I felt we were better off being at conference where Republicans would have had a seat the table than not being there at all and having no influence on the outcome.

Q Senator McConnell, are you going to do as your host counterpart, Leader Boehner, has done and ask -- he asked two of his members to recuse themselves from committee assignments after coming under federal investigation. Will you do the same with Senator Stevens?

SEN. MCCONNELL: I understand that the majority leader in response to that question indicated that he thought it was an ongoing investigation and would not comment on it at this point. We -- Senator Stevens has four decades of service in the United States Senate. He is, as we all know, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, and I'll certainly be discussing the matter with my conference, but I don't have any announcements today to make with regard to that.

SEN. LOTT: I want to add -- I just want to add one point. There is concern in our conference and by a number of people that the earmark language that did come back in this package that we'll have later on this week that creates some problems and that there's not adequate language in there in terms of making sure that earmarks are properly disclosed. So there is that real concern about the product that will be -- (off mike).

Q Senator, because the majority leader decides whether is an earmark is --

SEN. LOTT: The majority leader or the chairman of the committee, whereas I think the alternative would have been for, you know, would have been for the parliamentarian to certify that the full list has been disclosed. Some, you know, third party -- or the parliamentarian, I believe, is the one that everybody thought would make that determination.

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. LOTT: Let me wait, and I'll make a statement on that later.

Q Senator McConnell, will you vote for it?

SEN. MCCONNELL: We're going to be talking about -- excuse me -- we're going to be talking about this issue for the next couple of days in our conference. We just got the bill recently, and the people are looking at it and trying to understand what's in it. So I'm not prepared to make an announcement on that today.

Q (Off mike) --

SEN. MCCONNELL: No, I think there's at least one of my members that would prefer that it not be done that way, so I think we'll have a cloture vote on Thursday on it.

Q Did Senator Stevens address the conference today?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Hmm?

Q Did Senator Stevens address the conference regarding the investigation on the raid at the lunch today?

SEN. MCCONNELL: I can't hear you.

Q Did Senator Stevens address the luncheon today regarding the raid on his house?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Oh, the conference Tuesday is a private meeting, and I don't comment on what our members say in there.

Q Senator McConnell --

Q Senator, Ted Stevens has said that his colleagues in the Senate -- it's like a family and everybody's rallying behind him. Do you think the American people think that's appropriate when a senator is being -- having his home raided by the FBI for his fellow senators to be rallying around him (trivial ?)?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Yeah, I don't have anything to add on the Stevens matter beyond what I said earlier.

Q Senator, on SCHIP, quite a few Republicans have expressed support for the bipartisan bill that's on the floor right now. How confident are you that you would be able to sustain President Bush's promised veto on that?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, there are going to be several amendments offered. We're just beginning the process today, and we'll have to see what it looks like as we move along. Some amendments may be approved, some may be rejected; we'll just have to see what it looks like at the end of the trail.

Okay, thanks.

Q Thanks, Senator.

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