[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5510-S5512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the concurrent 
resolution.
  Mr. DOMENICI addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. We do not need the quorum call because Senator Thompson 
is ready.
  Mr. THOMPSON addressed the Chair.
  Mr. EXON. I withhold my request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator withholds his request for a quorum 
call.
  The Senator from Tennessee is seeking recognition?


                           Amendment No. 3981

  Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, I call up amendment 3981.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment is now before the Senate.
  (The text of the amendment No. 3981 was printed in the Record of May 
20, 1996.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, this amendment reserves the Presidential 
election campaign fund checkoff system as it is today. The budget 
resolution instructions direct the Finance Committee to terminate the 
current checkoff system which funds the Presidential campaign fund. In 
its place, the Finance Committee is directed to allow taxpayers to make 
a voluntary contribution to the fund out of their tax refund, should 
they have one.
  This provision in the budget resolution will effectively terminate 
this post-Watergate reform. It is a system that has worked better than 
any of the rest of our campaign finance system, which is of great 
concern to many people. I do not think it is wise to single out the 
system and the part of it that is working the best and do away with it.

  It has been scandal free. It has made for a more level playing field. 
Three out of the last four challengers to incumbent Presidents have 
won.
  The next question is, what do we replace it with if, in fact, this is 
the demise of the current system? Do we go back to pre-Watergate?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  Mr. THOMPSON. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, how much time do I have?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky has 30 seconds.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I will take the same 30 seconds Senator Thompson had.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I yield time in opposition, and we will be generous 
with the 30 seconds.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. A long 30 seconds.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this is a vote about whether you want 
to take roughly $300 million over a 4-year period out of financing 
political conventions and political campaigns for President of the 
United States and apply it to the deficit. The beauty of this proposal 
of the Budget Committee is that it does not end the Presidential 
checkoff at all. I personally would like to end it. I think it is a 
terrible idea to have taxpayer funding of elections. But the proposal 
of the Budget Committee does not do that. All it says is, when you 
check off on your tax return every April 15, you really pay for it. It 
is only $3, and I am confident that those who believe that taxpayer 
funding of political campaigns is a good idea will be more than happy 
to contribute $3 to this fund.
  Under the current system the participation in the checkoff has gone 
from 29 percent down to 13 percent, and that is when it does not even 
cost the person checking off any money. This is just truth in 
advertising. If you check off, you pay for it.
  I close by saying it saves $300 million, adds that to deficit 
reduction, and allows people to really pay for the voluntary checkoff.
  I hope the Thompson amendment will be defeated.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Does the Senator want the yeas and nays on this? 
Senator Thompson will accept a voice vote.
  Mr. THOMPSON. I will accept a voice vote.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Yes.
  Mr. THOMPSON. With the provision I could ask for a rollcall vote 
subsequently.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I think you have the right to a rollcall vote in any 
event after a voice vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That will be before the Chair announces the 
result.
  Mr. DOMENICI. If he does it before the Chair announces the result.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  All in favor say aye. All those opposed, no.
  The ayes appear to have it.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I call for the yeas and nays.
  What was the ruling of the Chair? The ayes have it? I withdraw my 
request.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. EXON. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. First of all, I have to announce the result.
  The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it.
  The amendment is agreed to.
  The amendment (No. 3981) was agreed to.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I apologize, Mr. President, I thought you had already 
ruled.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the motion to lay on the 
table is agreed to.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.


                           Amendment No. 4014

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, the yeas and nays have been ordered on 
this amendment already.
  This amendment, I say to my colleagues, is one with which you are all 
familiar. It is called the defense firewalls. What it says is, no 
matter how many epidemics, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, no matter how 
much of anything you have in this country, you may not take a dollar 
from the defense budget with less than 60 votes to put it over in 
something that is of a much more dire need.
  In 1991, and 1992, we had defense firewalls. We took them down in 
1993 and 1994. Nothing untoward happened. I am just offended what this 
does. It says that no matter what happens that defense may not be 
touched. No matter how bloated the defense budget may be, it says you 
cannot take a penny out of defense for any other purpose, no matter 
what the emergency is.
  We are saying we do not trust the Senate; we do not trust the Senate 
with a 51-vote majority. If you want to take something out of defense, 
you have to get 60 votes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator from Arkansas has 
expired.
  Mr. DOMENICI addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, since the Senator says this offends him, 
I

[[Page S5511]]

might say, one man's offense is another man's exhilaration. I think the 
firewalls are the best thing we have ever done for the defense of our 
country. I think we ought to vote the amendment down.
  Clearly, it is not as the Senator said. The Senate votes on whether 
it wants the defense budget. After you voted it, you cannot take away 
from it when you have pressure for domestic spending. That is the 
issue. For typhoons and disasters, it is another issue. The Budget Act 
clearly says you can break the budget for those kinds of items. If you 
have natural disasters, it does not mean you can take the money from 
the men and women in the military.
  I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to 
lay on the table amendment No. 4014. The yeas and nays have been 
ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. I announce that the Senator from Kansas [Mr. Dole] and the 
Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. Santorum] are necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 57, nays 41, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 147 Leg.]

                                YEAS--57

     Abraham
     Ashcroft
     Bennett
     Bond
     Brown
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Coats
     Cochran
     Cohen
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     DeWine
     Domenici
     Faircloth
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Heflin
     Helms
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Kassebaum
     Kempthorne
     Kyl
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Nunn
     Pressler
     Robb
     Roth
     Shelby
     Simpson
     Smith
     Snowe
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner

                                NAYS--41

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Byrd
     Conrad
     Daschle
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Feingold
     Harkin
     Hatfield
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Johnston
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Pell
     Pryor
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Simon
     Specter
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Dole
     Santorum
       
  The motion to lay on the table the amendment (No. 4014) was agreed 
to.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I 
move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           amendment no. 4015

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate began voting on 
amendments to the budget resolution at 9 a.m. and for the next 8\1/2\ 
hours, we cast 27 votes and voice-voted 7 other amendments. Out of the 
34 amendments considered, 28 amendments--83 percent--were sense-of-the-
Senate amendments. And 7 of the 27 rollcall votes--more than one out of 
four votes were unanimous 100-0.
  Mr. President, these amendments are not binding; they do not shift a 
single dollar from one program to another. They merely allow both 
Republicans and Democrats to engage in strategies of gamesmanship which 
deceive the American people about our legislative business.
  Enough is enough.
  My amendment simply states that it shall not be in order for the 
Senate to consider sense-of-the-Senate resolutions during debate on the 
budget resolution.
  I think we have reached the point where all of us would agree we have 
to abandon these unending, and meaningless, sense-of-the-Senate 
resolutions or at least require Senators to state on the floor and tell 
the American public that these amendments have no binding effect.
  End this charade on the American public and vote to eliminate these 
amendments on budget resolutions.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, the Murkowski amendment would create a new 
point of order that would deprive the minority of its right to amend 
with the sense-of-the-Senate language. Under the amendment, the 
majority could report out any sense-of-the-Senate language it wanted, 
but no Senator could offer a sense-of-the-Senate amendment to change 
that language or add to it.
  Mr. President, I yield back the balance of my time. I raise a point 
of order that the pending amendment is not germane and it violates 
section 305(b) of the Congressional Budget Act.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I move to waive section 305(b) of the 
Budget Act for the consideration of the Murkowski amendment 4015.
  Parliamentary inquiry. Do I get an opportunity to speak on my motion?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Thirty seconds.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Fellow Senators, I seldom move to violate the Budget 
Act, but it does say if you can get 60 votes you can do it. I believe 
the time has come to send a signal that we ought not have 40, 50, 60 
sense-of-the-Senate resolutions on a Budget Act. That is what this will 
do. This will say we are not going to have them in the future. It 
treats everybody the same. We will just not have that kind of a 
spectacle on the floor.
  Mr. EXON. I have 30 seconds. Mr. President, as I understand the 
procedure, it would require 60 votes to do what the Senator from New 
Mexico has just requested.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. To waive the Budget Act requires 60 votes.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I want to report to all Senators about 
the ongoing episode of my statement yesterday about the dinner last 
night and my wife's position. So you will all know, my wife arrives, 
she wanted to be there very much and she brought a purse. In the purse 
was a bar of Dial soap. She suggested that maybe I should wash my mouth 
out with Dial soap. I have done that. I hope I have set everything 
straight. I misstated my wife's position, but it was all in fun, and 
she did the Dial soap for fun, too.
  Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a 
sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to 
waive the Budget Act. The yeas and nays have been ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. I announce that the Senator from Kansas [Mr. Dole] and the 
Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. Santorum] are necessarily absent.
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 57, nays 41, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 148 Leg.]

                                YEAS--57

     Abraham
     Ashcroft
     Bennett
     Bond
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Coats
     Cochran
     Cohen
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     DeWine
     Faircloth
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kempthorne
     Kyl
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Nunn
     Pressler
     Reid
     Robb
     Roth
     Shelby
     Simpson
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner

                                NAYS--41

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Brown
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Conrad
     Daschle
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Graham
     Harkin
     Heflin
     Inouye
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Pell
     Pryor
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Simon
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Dole
     Santorum
       
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I ask for the regular order.
  Mr. President, I ask for the regular order.
  Mr. President, I ask for the regular order.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. We will proceed.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I ask for the regular order.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any Senators still wishing to vote?
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I change my vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''

[[Page S5512]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the ayes are 57, the nays are 
41. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn, not having 
voted in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote 
by which the motion to waive the budget act for the consideration of 
the Murkowski amendment was defeated.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered for future 
consideration. However, the motion having failed to be approved at this 
time, the Chair will rule on the motion--on the point of order. The 
rights of Senators are reserved to move in the future to proceed to the 
motion to reconsider.
  The Chair will rule at this time that the amendment is not germane. 
The point of order is sustained. The amendment falls at this time.

                          ____________________