[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 29, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11111-S11112]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT--CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4060

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
now proceed to consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 
4060 and that there be 45 minutes for debate, with 30 minutes under the 
control of Senator Graham of Florida, 5 minutes under the control of 
Senator Jeffords, and the remaining 10 minutes equally divided between 
Senator Reid, the minority manager, and myself; further, I ask that 
upon the conclusion or yielding back of the time, the conference report 
be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  Mr. HARKIN. Reserving the right to object, and I won't object, but I 
did want to engage in a brief colloquy here with the distinguished 
chairman of the Budget Committee regarding statements I made earlier on 
the floor that Senator Domenici also made earlier on the floor.
  I did not want to hold up the energy and water bill at all, but I did 
want to make a strong case that the Labor, Health and Human Services 
Appropriations Subcommittee is having some very, very severe problems 
in meeting the basic health and education needs of the country and the 
requirements that other Senators and House Members have imposed on us. 
We simply don't have the outlays necessary to do the job. I asked the 
help of the Budget Committee chairman in this regard.
  At the outset, again, I want to make clear for the record that 
Senator Domenici has been a strong supporter of our subcommittee. I 
know he has worked very hard and very diligently to make sure we do 
have the kind of resources that we need. However, it is clear that we 
have come up short.
  I just wanted to ask the Senator from New Mexico if he could, 
perhaps, enlighten me further as to where we might be on this issue.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Senator Harkin, let me thank you very, very much for 
the consideration you are giving us today in letting this very 
important bill pass.
  I think the Senator knows that while a lot of what I do as chairman 
of the Budget Committee is fun work, a lot of it isn't very much fun. 
That part that isn't very much fun is the issue of who is right on the 
scoring--OMB or CBO. I am charged with the responsibility, if there is 
a difference between them, of going through it, line by line, program 
by program, with my staff, and if there are, indeed, errors that run in 
favor of OMB, which means you would have more money to spend, if they 
are based on policy differences that were not taken into consideration 
when CBO did theirs, we make the adjustment.
  I can report, as staff on your committee knows, we have found $215 
million in outlays where we found policy errors, and they came mostly 
from the IDEA program where they made changes and they were taken into 
consideration regarding the new policy costs, so we are at $215 now.
  I assure the Senator that I am totally aware of the difficulties in 
the bill. I will continue to review the scorekeeping baseline 
assumptions made for your bill by both OMB and CBO and see if there are 
any other adjustments that need to be done to accommodate the concerns 
the Senator has expressed on the floor.
  Mr. HARKIN. I thank the distinguished chairman of the Budget 
Committee for his diligence in looking at this.
  Believe me, I know it is a tough job. I can only imagine being 
chairman of the Budget Committee in these times, working under the 
constraints under which we have to work. I have a lot of sympathy for 
the Senator's position on this.
  As I said in my opening remarks, I know from my past experience in 
dealing with the Senator from New Mexico of his strong support for 
those programs that we have, whether it is IDEA, whether it is drug 
treatment, or NIH research or community health centers. I could go down 
the list. I know the Senator from New Mexico has been a strong 
supporter of these. I am very grateful for his work in diligently 
finding this extra money in terms of finding the policy differences. 
And I appreciate his commitment to

[[Page S11112]]

continue to review these differences and to make other appropriate 
adjustments. Hopefully, as we move along, there will be others. I 
pledge to him that I will work closely with him as we move towards 
completion of the important work on this bill.
  Again, I thank the distinguished Senator for his consideration and 
his efforts in helping us to get to this point. I appreciate it very 
much.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, the regular order says we finish this 
discussion, but we are waiting for one of the Senators to see if they 
really want to speak.
  Mr. DORGAN. The regular order is that I am recognized following the 
unanimous consent request, and I was recognized for an hour. I will not 
take all of that hour. The regular order is that the Chair would 
recognize me.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. The Senator from North 
Dakota is recognized.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, thank you very much. I was happy to allow 
the unanimous consent request to be granted.

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