[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 47 (Friday, April 24, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3597-S3598]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     EXPLANATION OF SELECTED VOTES TO THE SENATE BUDGET RESOLUTION

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, now that the budget resolution has 
been adopted, I wanted to take a few moments to discuss several of the 
more important votes that took place.
  The first of these was the Allard amendment to create a new point of 
order against future budgets that fail to eliminate the federal debt by 
the year 2028. Mr. President, I fully support reducing the size of the 
federal debt, and I am glad the pending resolution cuts the relative 
size of the debt by almost 20 percent over the next five years. On the 
other hand, the Allard amendment may require making payments on debt 
that is not actually due.

[[Page S3598]]

 A significant portion of the debt is held by foreign investors. It 
does not make sense to me to use American taxpayers' dollars to make 
early debt payments to foreign investors like the central banks of 
China, Japan, and Germany. I believe there are several priorities 
facing this Congress beyond reducing the federal debt, including 
reforming the Social Security system and improving our onerous tax 
code, and I do not support amendments that would tie Congress' hands 
with regard to these important reforms.
  Two other amendments that require comment were the Kennedy and Murray 
amendments to increase funding in Function 500, the eduction and 
training function, while making across-the-board cuts to all other 
domestic discretionary accounts. Mr. President, the underlying budget 
resolution accomplishes two priorities with regard to education. First, 
it lives up to the budget agreement signed by both congressional 
leadership and the President just last year. That agreement targeted 
sufficient resources at federal education programs to fully fund the 
priorities of both the President and Congress. Second, this resolution 
adds to those agreed-to levels by increasing funding for important 
programs like IDEA and the Innovative Strategies State Grant program--
programs that work by block-granting federal resources back to the 
states and local governments.
  Mr. President, if we have learned anything regarding effective 
education policy, it is that building an ever larger federal presence 
in historically local- and state-controlled public schools simply 
doesn't work. The Senate budget recognizes this fact, while the Kennedy 
and Murray amendments ignore it. This budget increases federal 
education funding by $2.6 billion over the next five years at the same 
time that many budget areas are being cut. I believe this is a clear 
indication of the priority the Senate places on eduction issues.
  Several other amendments were offered, including the Lautenberg, 
Wellstone, Dorgan, and Feingold amendments, which would have 
established so-called reserve funds for the creation of new mandatory 
spending programs. Mr. President, by definition, these amendments call 
for creating new, uncontrolled federal entitlement programs. Exactly 
what these programs would do, and how they would be funded, is left 
unclear. On the other hand, my position regarding new mandatory 
spending is extremely clear--until Congress takes the necessary steps 
to ensure the future solvency of our existing entitlements, including 
Social Security and Medicare, we should have the discipline to refrain 
from creating new programs which will endanger the solvency of existing 
programs and the federal government. For that reason, I opposed these 
reserve fund amendments.
  The Kempthorne amendment regarding the Endangered Species Act also 
requires comment. Under the budget resolution, funds raised from 
selling surplus BLM lands were to be targeted at programs designed to 
protect endangered species. In my mind, Mr. President, this funding 
mechanism represents a win-win situation for everyone involved in 
protecting this nation's wildlife. First, by selling surplus lands, the 
federal government rids itself of the cost of managing lands for which 
it has no purpose. Second, the proceeds from these lands would go 
towards continued protection of endangered wildlife. During debate, 
Senator Reid raised concerns that tying ESA funding solely to the sale 
of federal lands was not good policy. For this reason, I supported the 
Kempthorne amendment which addressed some of Senator Reid's concerns by 
expanding the possible funding sources for Endangered Species Act 
enforcement.
  Another important vote was the Bumpers amendment to increase the 
royalty on the net return on the profits from mining gold, silver and 
platinum and channeling those funds into IDEA. Mr. President, the 
underlying budget resolution takes a dramatic step towards increasing 
the funding for IDEA. This is a program that I fully support and look 
forward to continued increases in federal participation.
  Nevertheless, I opposed this amendment because I do not believe the 
imposition of new taxes on the mining industry is the proper means of 
reforming our mining law. Hard rock mining is a capital intensive 
industry that has struggled in recent years despite the booming U.S. 
economy. The reason is simple--the costs of extracting these metals 
from U.S. soil is only slightly less than the market value of these 
metals. I believe there are better approaches for reforming our mining 
laws than simply raising taxes, and I look forward to working with 
Senator Bumpers and other Senators to seeing those reforms take place.
  Finally, Mr. President, I wanted to discuss the Domenici amendment 
regarding the recent ruling by the Veterans' Administration General 
Counsel to include some smoking-related illnesses in the qualified list 
of ``service connected'' diseases. Mr. President, I want to help 
veterans and their families, but it is my firm belief that such an 
increase in the federal government's liability should result only from 
an act of Congress, not a judge's ruling, and that Congress should only 
act with all the pertinent facts before it. For these reasons, I 
supported the Domenici amendment to require a year-long study of the 
merits of such claims. This study will enable Congress to avoid the 
current vacuum of knowledge that surrounds this issue and devise the 
best policy for our veterans. If the study supports these claims, then 
I will support expanding the current program to accommodate 
them.

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