[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 1, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12117-S12118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE 1997 OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, although I am thoroughly disappointed in 
the process we endured to reach agreement on the fiscal year 1997 
omnibus appropriations bill, H.R. 4278--I am pleased with the content 
of the bill. It is a huge package, so I am sure we will not know its 
full impact until weeks--possibly months--into this fiscal year. It 
would be difficult to put a package like this together without there 
being some disappointment in the final product. However, as a member of 
the Appropriations Committee, I worked hard to see that many programs 
that are important to Nebraskans and this Nation were addressed.
  Let me highlight some of these programs.


                         Commerce-Justice-State

  I have long supported the National Telecommunication Administration's 
Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program. 
Last year I led the effort on the floor to include $21.5 million for 
TIIAP and I'm pleased to see that amount in fiscal year 1997 funding. 
This is especially important when considering the Senate Commerce-
Justice-State Subcommittee began the process with zero funding for this 
important program. People sometimes ask why we need this program when 
there is so much going on in the telecommunications industry. We need 
it to help our rural areas share fully in the promise of networking and 
telecommunications. We need it to help our nonprofit sector 
participate. We need it to encourage the imaginative and sometime high-
risk demonstrations of what can be done with the technology.
  We have included $174.5 million for the Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention Program and $560 million for the Byrne Memorial 
Grant Program which is important and insightful. If we can stop 
juveniles from turning to crime, I believe we have a chance at 
decreasing the need for courthouses, incarceration, and prison 
construction. The potential benefit is well worth the investment.


                                Interior

  I am pleased to see that the bill includes funding for one of my top 
priorities, Back to the River. This project is a collaborative effort 
to create a recreational, ecological, and cultural corridor along the 
Missouri River in the Omaha/Council Bluffs region. The project 
encompasses 64 river miles and has been ongoing for the last 2 years. 
It has the support of several public and private agencies. The Back to 
the River project will benefit Nebraska and the Nation by providing 
habitat restoration, floodplain management, recreation and river 
access, economic benefits, cultural resources and environmental 
education. The National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service have 
both been involved in this project.

[[Page S12118]]

  The omnibus bill funds the National Endowment for the Humanities at 
the current level, which is higher than either the House or Senate 
number in the original Interior appropriations bill. NEH programs 
provide vital support to scholarship, education, and public programs in 
history, literature, and other aspects of the humanities. Support for 
our State humanities councils is particularly important because it is 
these generally small offices in each State that expand access to the 
humanities and that allows for a focus on local history, local 
literature, and local culture. They serve the very important function 
of helping us understand who and what we are.

  The bill also funds the National Endowment for the Arts at its 
current level. NEA programs support our many performing arts' companies 
throughout the United States and our museums and also help fund the 
State arts councils.
  In both instances I wish we had been able to provide additional 
funding but there will be an opportunity to revisit these programs next 
year.


                               Labor-HHS

  I am pleased about the increase in funding over the House and Senate 
levels for educational technology. I share some of the conferees' 
concerns over the educational technology program and believe that 
increased efforts must be undertaken to insure that technology advances 
learning and curriculum goals and that we understand how technology 
contributes to improved student performance. Over the years, we have 
come to understand that students' learning patterns may vary widely; 
technology offers us the opportunity to consider and to respond to the 
various ways in which an individual learns.
  Of vital importance to Nebraska is the Impact Aid Program. Our 
commitment to militarily impacted and Native American districts is a 
Federal obligation; in fact, by shirking our responsibility to these 
districts, we create yet another unfunded Federal mandate. For fiscal 
year 1997, we were able to increase funding by $37 million over fiscal 
year 1996 to $730 million for Impact Aid districts, including 
additional funding for our heavily impacted, section F districts, such 
as Bellevue.
  Equally important, this year's appropriations bill includes increased 
funding for the title I and Safe and Drug-Free Schools programs, both 
of which have proven to be successful programs here in Nebraska for the 
benefit of our students. Title I for disadvantaged students receives a 
$470 million increase over fiscal year 1996 which brings the total for 
fiscal year 1997 to $7.7 billion. This will enable us to serve nearly a 
half million more children. Safe and Drug Free Schools--a program for 
which I have heard many accolades from Nebraska educators and 
administrators--receives an additional $90 million over 1996 funding, 
for a total of $556 million.
  Increasingly, concern exists among both students and their parents 
regarding escalating college costs. We are providing increased funding 
which will allow 3.8 million students to receive aid while also 
increasing the maximum award level to $2,700, a $230 increase. For 
fiscal year 1997, a total of $7.6 billion will be available for student 
financial assistance--$1.3 billion above the previous year's 
appropriations.
  Job training efforts will also benefit from increased funding levels. 
I am especially pleased to see Summer Youth Employment and Training 
funded at $871 million. This program provides vital funding for youth 
summer jobs.
  I am also pleased to see that the Health Careers Opportunity Program 
was funded at $26.8 million--an increase of nearly $3 million over 
fiscal year 1996. This award goes to medical schools and other medical 
professional training programs that recruit and train minority and 
disadvantaged students.


                            Treasury-Postal

  We were able to include funding, which the House had rescinded, for 
the National Archives for an on-line, interactive data base available 
via the World Wide Web. It provides unprecedented access to the 
National Archives' vast holdings. The National Archives holds a rich 
and priceless resource that, until now, has had limited access for a 
relatively small number of people. I feel strongly that information 
held by government at all levels should become more accessible and 
usable by the average American citizen. The treasures maintained by the 
National Archives should be accessible to all Americans--not just 
researchers who reside near College Park, MD, or those individuals who 
can afford a trip to Washington, DC or those who are fortunate to have 
a Federal archives facility located in their State.
  The increase of methamphetamine use in the Midwest is a serious 
problem. I am pleased to see that this bill includes $8 million to 
designate the Midwest States of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, 
and Kansas as a high-intensity drug trafficking area [HIDTA]. This 
designation will provide added law enforcement resources to these 
Midwest States and will allow law enforcement officials in these states 
to conduct a coordinated tracking and enforcement effort.
  Mr. President, let me restate my disappointment in the process that 
accompanied this spending bill. I firmly believe that every program and 
project that is funded with taxpayer dollars deserves the full scrutiny 
of all Americans, and should not be conducted in back-room 
negotiations. Two of the bills included in this package--those funding 
the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education and 
the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State--were never considered 
on the Senate floor. Further, funding legislation for the Department of 
the Treasury and the Postal Service as well as the Department of 
Interior were partially considered, but never finished.
  Indeed, Members of this body--from both sides of the aisle--were 
denied the opportunity to offer pertinent, important amendments to 
these funding bills or to be heard simply because the process of debate 
and discussion was brought to an abrupt end and replaced with back-room 
negotiations. Mr. President, this is not the way policy should be made.
  Last year we needed to pass several continuing resolutions--temporary 
funding measures--before we finally came to an agreement on spending 
levels for fiscal year 1996. We did not finish our appropriations work 
until April of this year. And that came after having to shut the 
Government down three times, which resulted in the additional 
expenditure of taxpayer dollars.
  When faced with explaining why the Government spends hard-earned 
taxpayer dollars on any program or project, I believe that it must be 
able to pass the coffee shop test. That is to say, it must be 
defendable in a coffee shop in Fremont, North Platte, or O'Neill, NE, 
or any small town in the United States. After all it is their money we 
are spending. So at the very least, we as elected officials owe it to 
the people we represent to openly debate the merits of Government 
spending on the Senate floor.
  I thought the Republican leadership had learned the lesson last year 
that getting our work done as legislators and representatives was the 
most important matter--not individual or political glory. And while 
this year we are not in the same situation of having a temporary 
funding measure--and a Government shutdown has been avoided--things are 
not that much different. I truly believe the American people have been 
shortchanged again.
  Yes, I am glad the task is complete. And I am pleased, for the most 
part, with what I know is included in this funding legislation. But, 
Mr. President, I am concerned that the process--and perhaps this 
institution--has been slightly diminished. Diminished because the 
appearance and the reality is that our duty as legislators--and the 
interests of the American people--took a backseat to the interests of 
campaigning for reelection. During a time when we face an increasingly 
skeptical electorate, we can ill afford to continue this trend.

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