[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 64 (Thursday, April 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5298-S5300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the majority leader.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, we had hoped that we might have an agreement 
reached on the rescissions bill. But apparently that will not be 
possible. So there will be a cloture vote at 2 o'clock. We will file 
cloture again today for a vote on Saturday because we intend to finish 
this bill before we leave for the Easter recess; spring recess.
  I would hope that our colleagues on the other side would understand 
that we, this Senator and the Democratic leader, worked in good faith 
most of yesterday into the evening until 9 or 10 o'clock. So did other 
Members on our side of the aisle, the Senator from Pennsylvania, and 
both Senators from Arizona. And we believe we gave up a great deal to 
get an agreement. I thought there was an agreement until I read it in 
the morning paper.
  So I was surprised when I later learned that our colleagues on the 
other side did not agree to the agreement we thought we had agreed to.
  Having said that, I hope we can invoke cloture. If we do that, a lot 
of these amendments will disappear. I do not know how we can deal with 
100-and-some amendments that are out there. But if cloture is obtained, 
that will shorten the process a great deal.
  I do not know where the hot buttons are on the other side. I maybe 
know of one or two of them. But it seems to me many of the so-called 
``cuts'' were in effect funny money and many of the add-ons are not 
going to be spent either. But if both sides felt they had a good 
position, I fail to understand what may have derailed the whole 
process.
  But there will be a cloture vote at 2 o'clock. The second-degree 
amendments must have been filed by 1 o'clock. So it is too late to file 
second-degree amendments.
  It is still my hope that Senator Daschle and I can bring everybody 
together here. I think we are pretty much together on this side. What 
we want is an agreement with no amendments. We do not want an agreement 
and then have everybody say we have 10 amendments here and 10 
amendments there. If you have an agreement, you have an agreement. 
Right now we do not have an agreement.
  So I just urge my colleagues to be patient, to take two aspirins, 
take a nap, whatever. If we finish this today, we 
[[Page S5299]] will finish some conference reports, and hopefully we 
will be in session tomorrow but no votes. If we do not finish today, we 
will be in session tomorrow with votes and we will be in session on 
Saturday with votes.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Will the majority leader yield for a question?
  Mr. DOLE. Certainly. I yield.
  Mr. BUMPERS. The announced consent agreement has not been propounded 
yet has it?
  Mr. DOLE. Only with respect to the adoption of the Jordan amendment.
  Mr. BUMPERS. How many amendments do you anticipate would be allowed 
under an agreement?
  Mr. DOLE. We thought we had narrowed it down to about four on each 
side. We thought some of those were acceptable. Some who had problems 
with the CPB, said, ``Well, give us $20 million somewhere else in 
spending restraints.'' So they have to be ``this or nothing.''
  I think, as has been the attitude certainly of the Democratic leader, 
Senator Daschle, as we both know, it can still come together, and I 
hope it would because we could finish late afternoon and that would be 
probably the last vote until we come back from recess.
  Mr. BUMPERS. I thank the leader.
  Mr. SANTORUM addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thompson). The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Thank you, Mr. President.
  Mr. President, I am incredibly disappointed at the outcome of this 
negotiation. I had hoped that the good-faith effort of the majority 
leader who stayed here late last night and worked on this bill late, 
and diligently, and I think more than bent over backward to accommodate 
leadership on the Democratic side to help them restore some of the 
money that they felt was so desperately needed for programs that they 
have long fostered and supported in this institution.
  We have been working with the majority leader, several members of the 
freshmen class, Senator Kyl from Arizona, Senator Ashcroft from 
Missouri, Senator McCain from Arizona, and myself have been working to 
try to craft an amendment that recognizes the concerns of the minority 
and at the same time preserve some of the objections that we had to the 
bill. Frankly, we thought we were pretty generous.
  The minority leader came in and asked in the original amendment, the 
amendment that was pending, for almost $1.3 billion in more spending, 
more spending on almost all social programs; just more social program 
spending. These were not, just so you understand, the bill that came to 
the floor of the House--the Hatfield substitute was not--had increases 
in these programs. Every one of these programs that the minority leader 
asked for already had an increase from last year. They already had an 
increase, and in many cases huge amounts of increases. But they cut 
back a little bit on the rate of the increase with the Hatfield 
substitute.
  The Democratic leader did not like that. So he jacked it back up. OK. 
We said, fine. You want to jack up some programs and put them back to 
the level that they were before, which was a dramatic increase over 
where we were last year, you think those are the most important, we 
understand the sensitivity you have, we are willing to work on that.
  As Senator Dole, and other freshmen, came forward with an amendment, 
we said we believe we should offset these expenditures not with money 
from a year or two down the road--which is what the minority leader, 
the Democratic leader--they pulled back money out that was funny money 
from years down the road. You want to spend money this year, let us 
take money out this year. That is the way we should do things around 
here, not spend more money this year and find funny money down the road 
to pay for it.
 We have been doing that a long time around here. Let us get serious.

  And so we got serious. We made a serious compromise. And we thought 
we had a serious compromise agreement that would have accomplished 
three major things. No. 1, it would have given the minority leader, 
Senator Daschle, and folks on his side almost all of what they wanted 
in this increase in social spending--almost. Instead of $1.3 billion, 
we give $800 million in more spending--$800 million in more spending on 
many programs that are not exactly well received on this side of the 
aisle, like the AmeriCorps Program. We gave them an increase in the 
AmeriCorps Program from what the Appropriations Committee had 
suggested. We allowed an increase of $100 million in a program that in 
our amendment we wanted to cut by $200 million.
  So from where we started, we gave them a $300 million increase. That 
was not good enough. We gave them all the money they wanted in WIC, 
school-to-work, child care, Head Start, $60 million of the $67 million 
they wanted for Goals 2000, title I, impact aid, safe and drug-free 
schools, Indian housing, housing modernization, community development 
banks--every social program, all the way down, they got almost all of 
what they wanted. We took some of their cuts. Some of the things they 
used in the original Daschle amendment to pay for this bill we 
accepted, we accepted as ways to pay for this.
  And we said, OK, in exchange for not getting all that you wanted, we 
will not take all that we wanted. We will get rid of a lot of the 
proposed reductions that we wanted. And we put on the table some pretty 
minor things, folks--reducing the foreign operations, foreign aid by 
$25 million--$25 million; libraries by $10 million--and by the way, the 
libraries money was the President's rescission; that is the President's 
suggestion to us to take this money out, said it was not needed--
Federal administrative travel, something that they agreed to, that they 
suggested we increase, we increased to a cut of $225 million. By the 
way, that is out of a $107 billion budget we are taking out $225 
million for Federal travel, hardly something that the public is 
concerned about, that we are not traveling enough around here; water 
infrastructure; and, oh, the sticking point. We took out of their 
sacred little cow $21 million of $312 million. We took $21 million out 
of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
  In the end, we would have had savings of $1.6 billion. They had 
additional spending of $800 million which would get us a net deficit 
reduction out of this amendment of $800 million. So we both win. They 
get $800 million more spending, we get $800 million in deficit 
reduction, so everybody sort of stands even.
  I always thought that is what compromises were all about. And so I am 
hopeful that in the next 45 minutes, the other members of the 
Democratic caucus who seem to be holding up this compromise take a look 
at this and realize it is in the best interests of this body and this 
Congress and this country to move forward with this compromise piece of 
legislation and get this enacted.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a paper entitled 
``Possible Compromise'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:
                          Possible Compromise

                         [Dollars in millions]

                                                                   Cost
Add-Backs:
  Women, Infants, Children........................................$35.0
  School to Work...................................................25.0
  Child Care........................................................8.4
  Head Start.......................................................42.0
  Goals: 2000......................................................60.0
  Title I Education................................................72.5
  Impact Aid.......................................................16.3
  Safe and Drug-free Schools......................................100.0
  Indian Housing...................................................80.0
  Housing Modernization...........................................220.0
  Americorps......................................................105.0
  Community Development Banks......................................36.0
                                                               ________

      Total.......................................................800.2
                                                               ========

                                                                Savings
Offset:
  Foreign Operations..............................................$25.0
  HUD Section 8 Project Reserves..................................500.0
  Airport Improvement.............................................700.0
  Libraries........................................................10.0
  Federal Admin. and Travel.......................................225.0
  Water Infrastructure.............................................62.0
  IRS..............................................................50.0
  Corp. for Public Broadcasting.................................\1\21.6
                                                               ________

      Total......................................................1597.0
Deficit Reduction.................................................796.8
Addendum: Items in Dole amendment used in Defense Conference:
    Foreign Ops...................................................$40.0
    Legal services.................................................15.0

\1\$3.4 million in 1997.
  Mr. SANTORUM. I yield the floor.
                [[Page S5300]] APOLOGY FOR RADIO REMARKS

  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, two mornings ago I gave a radio interview 
on the Imus talk show program.
  I am here on the Senate floor to give a statement as it relates to 
that episode.
  It was a sorry episode.
  Mr. President, as an Italian-American, I have a special 
responsibility to be sensitive to ethnic stereotyping. I fully 
recognize the insensitivity of my remarks about Judge Ito. My remarks 
were totally wrong and inappropriate. I know better. What I did was a 
poor attempt at humor. I am deeply sorry for the pain I have caused 
Judge Ito and others. I offer my sincere apologies.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as if 
in morning business for 7 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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