[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 135 (Wednesday, October 25, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10953-S10954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      DISCRETIONARY SPENDING CAPS

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I wish to make a statement about the 
discretionary spending caps that will be coming before the Senate on 
the foreign assistance appropriations bill. There is a provision on 
that bill which is required to adjust the spending caps because of the 
limitations in the 1997 Budget Act.
  Subsection (a) of the amendment that will be before the Senate 
increases the discretionary cap for budget authority under the Balanced 
Budget Act of 1997 from $541.1 billion to $637 billion, and increases 
the discretionary cap for general purpose outlays under the Balanced 
Budget Act of 1997 from $547.3 billion to $612.7 billion.
  When discretionary highway and mass transit outlays of $32.3 
billion--separate cap categories--are added to this amount, we will 
have allowable discretionary spending of $645 billion under this raised 
cap.
  Subsection (b)(1) includes emergency spending already committed 
during this session under the new cap limits. Emergency spending is 
usually excluded from cap limits. In this instance, we have included 
such spending within the cap limits in order to be assured we will not 
invade the Social Security surplus.
  We have another subsection, (b)(2), that provides for adjustments 
under these caps to continue, as permitted by current law, for 
continuing disability reviews, CDRs: $450 million in budget authority; 
the earned-income tax compliance initiative, EITC, that is $145 million 
in budget authority, and adoption assistance of $20 million in budget 
authority; and for an outlay adjustment of 0.5 percent.
  Subsection (c) provides for a 0.5-percent adjustment for budget 
authority to cover the differences between CBO and OMB scoring methods. 
A similar adjustment was provided last year.
  These caps assure us that we will have the funds available to deal 
with the remaining two bills that are very contentious; the State-
Justice-Commerce bill and the Labor-Health and Human Services bill. For 
each of those bills, we allocated portions of the 302(b) authority that 
was given to our Appropriations Committee under the budget resolution 
for the year 2001. However, after those bills had passed and gone to 
conference, we recovered portions of the 302(b) allocation and 
allocated that to Housing and Urban Development and the energy and 
water bill. The result is that these two bills that are in conference 
now do not have the full funding that would be required to bring them 
back across the floor to the Senate.
  This adjustment to the 2001 discretionary spending caps, as contained 
in the foreign assistance bill that will be before the Senate, I hope 
this afternoon, are necessary in order that those two bills can be 
reallocated funding sufficient to assure that they will be able to be 
considered and passed by the Senate.
  It has been a very difficult year for the Appropriations Committee 
because of the circumstances, because of the differences between the 
President's budget and the congressional budget resolution. There is a 
substantial gap

[[Page S10954]]

between those two documents, and we have done our best to work with 
them. This action that we have taken now to lift the spending caps will 
give us the opportunity to work out the differences with the 
administration. I do believe that should and can be completed today. It 
is my firm hope we will complete action on the other two bills today so 
the House may commence consideration of them tomorrow and that the 
Senate will consider them Friday. That, of course, is going to take a 
lot of understanding and cooperation from all Members of the Senate, 
and I for one urge that take place.
  I have not been home since the first week of August. We, on the 
Appropriations Committee, have been working around the clock on this 
process since the second week of August. It is time this come to an 
end. The disputes and conflicts between the bills, and between the 
administration and the Congress, between the House and Senate, and 
between Members of each body and within each body, are the most 
intensive I have ever seen. But it is time we realize that at the end 
of this week we will be 1 week away from the elections. I do not think 
Congress ought to be in session in the week before the elections, and I 
am going to do my utmost to see that we finish these bills by Friday.
  If that is not possible, the leader will have to decide what we do. 
I, for one, intend to go home Saturday.
  I yield the floor. 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. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, are we in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are in morning business. Senators are to be 
recognized for up to 5 minutes each.
  Mrs. BOXER. I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized for 10 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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