[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 146 (Monday, October 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11217-S11218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE SENATE STANDSTILL

  Mr. THOMAS. I come to the floor to express some feeling of sadness, 
some feeling of impatience, frankly, some feeling of irritation, that 
we are not doing more than we have been doing.
  The last 3 weeks we have come in, we have talked about things, we 
have set them aside, we haven't been able to proceed with the country's 
business. I think that is a shame. We have many things to do. We have 
lots of opportunities to do some things that need to be done, and here 
we are sort of ground to a stop. We are being held up by people who 
insist on having it their own way or no way, their own way or the 
highway. That is not really what we ought to be doing here.
  We have an opportunity to deal, for instance, with Federal funding 
for highways, something that ought to be done, an authorization that 
expired in September, and we need to move forward with it. It has been 
passed by the committee. It is on the floor, but because of objections 
we are still here and not doing a thing. ISTEA expired in September and 
we need to be doing it. The stalling, of course, is basically a result 
of campaign finance. We voted several times not to bring McCain-
Feingold to the floor. That bill did not receive a majority vote.
  Many in this body, including myself, are favorable to doing something 
in campaign finance, but not McCain-Feingold. That is where we are. We 
are being held up for that, I think for a couple of reasons. One is to 
sort of change the image of the hearings that are taking place, to 
switch the hearings from the potential of the allegation of breaking 
the law, to changing

[[Page S11218]]

the law. Those are two different things. But we ought to be talking 
about whether or not there was realism to the idea that foreign funds 
were taken into campaigns. That breaks the law. We ought to be talking 
about the changing or shifting soft money to hard money. That is 
against the law. The allegations of laundering money, that is against 
the law. That is what we are talking about there. Then we ought to be 
talking over here about campaign reform, fine. But McCain-Feingold is 
not one this body is willing to accept.
  As a result of that, we are not doing anything simply because of 
complaints--well, we can't go forward unless I get my way. I think the 
majority leader has done a great job of trying to negotiate something, 
trying to put campaign finance on the menu for next March--that is the 
thing to do--and then come up with a bill that has some support, 
bipartisan support, and we can do something. But that is not where we 
are.
  Think a minute about the agenda that we might be able to pursue, the 
things that people really want to do. One, of course, is ISTEA, the 
funding of highways. Now, some say it doesn't matter, there is enough 
money, there is enough cash-flow, we don't need to do it until next 
year. And there is probably cash-flow to finish the contracts there 
now, to operate, but there is not the kind of money that highway 
departments need to plan for next year, to go ahead and let contracts 
and move forward as we should. We ought to be doing that.
  IRS reform--most people want to do something about the IRS in two 
areas. One, change the way the agency works, and that can be done, to 
make it more friendly. There are proposals out there that most people 
agree with. The other is to start talking about changing the Tax Code 
which underlies the problem, which we need to be doing.
  What are we doing? We just can't move forward with anything because 
you are not doing it the way you want to. Come on, that is not why we 
are were sent here.
  We ought to be doing something to make sure that our balanced budget 
agreement is ready for next year. A balanced budget means more than 
anything else. We need to be doing something, as I mentioned, about the 
Tax Code to make it simpler. Most people agree with that. We can do 
some things, but you can't do them unless you undertake it. You can't 
do it by just stalling.
  We need to do something about educational IRA's to give people an 
opportunity to set aside money for education so they can use it not 
only for higher education but for elementary and secondary. Those 
proposals are out here and are ready to be worked on. Can't do that 
because you don't agree to what we want on McCain-Feingold. Give me a 
break. We have a lot of things we ought to be doing.
  We ought to be talking about ways to have smaller Government, ways to 
bring the private sector into contracting those nongovernmental 
activities in Government that can be done to help small business--the 
main thing small business has talked about in the White House meetings 
for the last 3 years. Can't do that, though, because we don't have it 
our way.
  States rights. We ought to be talking about the proper role of 
Government, individual freedom and responsibilities. Those are the 
things that we are here for.
  Mr. President, I am disappointed that we aren't able to move forward. 
I am disappointed that we are not able to do some useful things while 
we are here. That is why we are here, why we were sent here. I have no 
objection to disagreement. That is part of the system. Certainly not 
everybody is going to agree. In the first place, we have different 
philosophies. That is kind of why we have two parties; we represent 
different philosophies on things. That is perfectly legitimate. 
Whenever anybody has a bill, there are reasons why others don't agree. 
That is why we have a system to vote to decide how they will work out. 
There is no problem with debate, no problem with argument, no problem 
with disagreement. But we need to move beyond that. We need to move 
beyond that and do some of the things that we were sent here to do--and 
there are so many. As people begin to look at next year's election, the 
issues begin to identify themselves, as they should, and we ought to be 
doing something with them. We ought to be doing something with them.
  Mr. President, we will have an opportunity, I guess, this afternoon 
to move forward. Perhaps we can move on. At least we have six more 
appropriations bills to pass to keep the Government operating. We have 
had to extend the time twice because we haven't been able to get to 
them. It would be interesting at some time to have everybody in this 
body write down the 10 issues that they think are most important to 
this country and to set about to do them. Wouldn't that be interesting 
and useful? We can do that.
  Mr. President, I hope that when we come together this afternoon to 
vote, we will also bring together the Interior appropriations bill and 
move forward on that. There will be things we don't agree with. I can 
tell you one I don't agree with procedurally. You will find on the 
appropriations bill--it was put on there--a $400 appropriations dealing 
with endangered species, the jumping mouse. Well, I don't have any 
particular objections to jumping mice, but I do have an objection to 
someone putting it on the appropriations bill when it is in the 
conference committee, has never been talked about in either House, and 
they put it on there and you don't have any chance to do anything about 
it. That's wrong. It's the wrong procedure. We should not do that. But 
I am not going to try to hold the thing up because of that. It ought to 
go forward. So should the other things that are before us here in this 
conference.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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