[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11528-S11529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PRESIDIO PROPERTIES ADMINISTRATION ACT

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I also want to comment, if I could, on the 
objections that we heard earlier today to the omnibus parks bill, 
commonly referred to as the Presidio bill. I might say to the Senator 
from Kentucky, this is not a unanimous- 6Ysent request. I just want to 
make a brief statement.
  Mr. FORD. That is fine.
  Mr. LOTT. I would be glad to yield further.
  Mr. FORD. Go ahead.
  Mr. LOTT. On the Presidio bill there has been objection now from our 
Democratic colleagues to turning to that omnibus bill. We had tried to 
dispense with the reading and recommit the conference report back to 
the conference in order to take care of a provision in there that had 
raised concern, the tax provision. And I thought at one point, I guess 
24 hours ago now, that we were going to be able to get agreement on 
both sides of the aisle to recommit that conference report and take 
care of the problem and then move this very important parks bill 
forward that affects 41 States, contains 126 separate provisions 
relating to parks and public lands.
  This is the most important parks bill we have had in probably 4 
years. It does have a lot of very important areas involved that need to 
be preserved, from battlefield sites to the Sterling Forest site that 
affects the New Jersey and New York area, the tall grass project out in 
Kansas, as well as the Presidio, and some very important projects in 
the State of Alaska. I know the distinguished Presiding Officer 
certainly cares an awful lot about that and the chairman of the 
committee.

  So I do not understand what is going on here. I understand from the 
administration that they have a list of their preferred projects, that 
they say, ``Oh, well, we'll take these and no more.'' Well, probably 
those projects that they say they cannot be included, they are good 
projects, most of them, they are projects from Democrats and 
Republicans.
  There has been a continuing effort to work out something on this. I 
am astounded we are going to leave and not get this done. But we are 
not going to be able to put this whole bill in the continuing 
resolution. If we do not move it separately as an omnibus bill, then we 
will have no parks bill this year.
  There was an effort maybe just to include one or two projects. I 
understand that has been objected to from the administration. I do not 
know where we go from here on this very important legislation but time 
is certainly running out.
  I think it is once again going to be a tragedy, like the FAA 
reauthorization. In an effort to force an effect, a unionization of a 
company, they are going to bring down the whole FAA infrastructure. I 
do not understand that. And now in order to block two or three minor 
projects, we are going to have the whole parks bill go down?
  Here is another thing about that. It is the continuing process of how 
when we meet objections the goalposts move. We were told on the illegal 
immigration, the Gallegly section is the problem. ``We'll veto it over 
that.'' Well, we took it out. They said, ``Wait a minute. We have some 
other problems.'' Same thing on this bill. We were told there were 
certain projects, three or four that were major problems. The chairman 
took them out. Then they said, ``Oh, well. No. We have 50 other 
projects that we have problems with.''
  Mr. President, we have to have, in these final hours of the session, 
good faith, and we have to be prepared to stick with what we say we 
have to have when that is done, and not keep saying then you have to 
have something else. It is a very disappointing way to wind up this 
session.

  I yield to the Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Relative to reviewing the list of 126, it affects 
Senators from Oregon, Utah, Virginia, California, Alaska, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, Maine, Vermont, Idaho, Washington, Missouri, to name a 
few, and in some cases, parks in every State. These are States affected 
by the administration's announcement last night they wanted 46 more 
out. These are the States that are affected. This is after an extended 
hearing process. We reported these out, and we have withdrawn those the 
administration initially listed as objections that they would veto.
  I have personally met with my conferees by telephone relative to 
trying to clear this, and as the leader has pointed out, a technical 
correction in the House has been taken care of. We can pass this. We 
can move it right now if there is no objection. Otherwise, we will have 
to wait for another session, the 105th Congress, to start this process 
that we spent over 2 years on, which benefits virtually every State in 
the Union with very meaningful projects, including the Presidio and 
cleaning up the San Francisco Bay area.
  I urge the leader to continue to work in every manner, because time 
is running out on the biggest and most important parks public land 
package in two decades. We are ready to move forward and pass this 
legislation. If we cannot proceed, it would truly be a shame, because 
on both sides, Democrats and Republicans will not see--

[[Page S11529]]

  Mr. LOTT. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I am happy to yield to the Senator.
  Mr. LOTT. I thought there was going to be a meeting last night 
between key players on both sides of the aisle to meet with the 
administration and see if some compromise could be worked out. I am 
told that meeting never occurred.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. The majority leader is correct. We were ready to have 
the meeting, and we were advised by the White House representative that 
they had no authority and were not familiar with the specifics of the 
bill and they wanted us to submit a bill, items which we would agree to 
take out.
  As chairman of that committee I feel a responsibility, bipartisan, 
both Democrats and Republicans, to try to represent them in a 
conference mode as opposed to arbitrarily taking out their sections to 
accommodate the administration.
  We have, for Senator Heflin, who is retiring, Selma to Montgomery 
Historic Trail designation, the historic black college funding; for 
Senator Simon and Senator Moseley-Braun, the Illinois and Michigan 
canal, Calumet Ecological Park study; for Senator Johnston and Senator 
Breaux, Civil War Center, Louisiana University, the Laura Hudson 
Visitor Center; Senators Kennedy and Kerrey, and retiring Congressman 
Studds, Boston Harbor Islands park establishment, Blackstone heritage 
area, New Bedford establishment.
  I cannot understand why, after all this work, there is still 
objection. I encourage the majority leader to continue to work on, and 
I stand ready to try to meet the objections of my colleagues. I 
understand there is a hold now from the administration, and I think it 
is fair to say we have an obligation, certainly, relative to a process 
here, and as an authorizer, if the White House is going to line-item 
veto everything, we might as well go out of business.
  I encourage the majority leader to continue the effort because we are 
not very far away, and I stand ready to be here all night if necessary, 
come in and meet with any group, to try to address this.
  I thank my colleague.
  Mr. LOTT. I yield to the Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. NICKLES. One, on the parks bill, I want to commend Chairman 
Murkowski and other members on the Energy Committee who worked hard to 
make this happen. This is a large bill, and unfortunately now it has a 
lot of items throughout the year that many of us have been working on 
for a long, long time.
  The Senator from Alaska has been generous enough to withdraw one of 
the bills he felt very strongly about, that was important to his State, 
so we could get it signed. I asked him to do that. I appreciate his 
willingness to do it.
  The Senator from Minnesota dropped an item. Again, we heard it being 
in there meant it would be vetoed, so we dropped two or three of the 
most contentious items. We dropped a project in Utah that, again, other 
people talked about would bring a certain veto.
  Now, all of a sudden--we thought we had really taken away the veto 
objective so we could pass this bill. I committed to the Senator from 
California that I would try to help pass the Presidio bill this year. I 
want to maintain that commitment. I would like to pass this bill.
  I urge my colleagues to work together. This bill has been put 
together in a bipartisan fashion. I have not counted up the number of 
Democrat and the number of Republican bills, but there are a lot on 
both sides of the aisle that impact parks all across the country and 
most of the States across the country. It would really be a shame to 
have that much work and that much time invested in that bill not to see 
it passed this year.
  I compliment my colleague from Alaska and also the majority leader. I 
hope we will find a way to be able to work out the differences and pass 
this bill and get it signed into law before we adjourn the 104th 
Congress.
  Let me make an announcement on behalf of the majority leader. I 
announce there will be no further rollcall votes tonight. The Senate 
obviously will be working tonight, in various conferences, trying to 
work out differences both on the continuing resolution and on the 
immigration and the parks bill. There will be work done tonight but 
there will be no further rollcall votes tonight.
  I announce on behalf of the majority leader the Senate will reconvene 
at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning and we will try to give as much advance 
notice to all Senators prior to any recorded rollcall votes. As of now, 
there has not been one ordered, but Senators should stand on notice 
there may well be a recorded rollcall vote in the event we are able to 
come to an agreement on the continuing resolution, the parks bill or 
the immigration bill.
  I thank my colleague from Kentucky.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I wonder if I may be recognized for 1 minute relative 
to advising my colleagues of the status of the parks omnibus package.

  It is my understanding that the appropriations subcommittee chairman 
has indicated it will not include specific items taken from the park 
omnibus bill and put on the appropriation CR. Now, that is a matter 
outside the control of the Senator from Alaska as chairman of the 
Energy and Natural Resource Committee. I think that has been clearly 
stated, and it has been reinforced by the Speaker of the House.
  What I am encouraging, obviously, is that we proceed with this 
package. I agree, if it is in the interests of my colleagues to put the 
package on the appropriations as an entire package, I have no objection 
to that. Otherwise, the alternative is to proceed as we have, try to 
address the objections from the other side, and get on with it.
  For those who think we will cherry pick it out and put specific 
portions on the appropriations CR and pass it there, that is not going 
to be an available alternative. We will simply lose for this year and 
have to start again. I hope that will not happen.
  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, we are getting into a position where 
everybody seems to think we have to get out. Our salary still goes on. 
We still get paid whether we are here or not. I think we might as well 
stay here and earn our keep. We do not have to get out tomorrow. We do 
not have to get out Monday. We do not have to get out next Friday. We 
can go ahead and pass a continuing resolution and we could stay here 
and pass some bills or we can give a short-term continuing resolution 
for 3 or 4 days and we can work things out.
  But we appear to be pushed up against a wall: you have to get out, 
got to do this, or it is dead. There is no such thing, unless the 
majority leader wants to take us out, and then things are dead.

  I feel like we are being pushed awfully hard here just because 
tomorrow night we want to get out or Monday we want to get out. I 
understand everybody wants to go home and campaign. Let them go home 
and campaign, and the rest of us can stay here and work. That suits me 
fine.

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