[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 161 (Tuesday, November 27, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12031-S12032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE SENATE AGENDA

  Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, I have listened this morning to the 
conversations on the floor. I think it is appropriate that we have had 
some discussion about what we are going to do in the remaining time 
before us. I hope we can come to a little more of a cooperative 
understanding of what our agenda should be in the next 2 weeks. What 
are the things that are most important? What are the things we ought to 
have as our priorities?
  Obviously, we have to finish the appropriations, and we have only 
sent about half of those to the White House. So that is something we 
must do. Obviously, there is difficulty in trying to complete the work 
on the Defense appropriations.
  It seems to me it is also important that we have a stimulus package. 
However, having been on the Finance Committee and sat through all the 
talk about it, we expanded it far beyond where anyone would suggest 
these were stimulus programs. I suppose you could expect that to 
happen. We are at the end of a session. We are at a time when, because 
of the terrorist attacks, emergencies have arisen that must be 
addressed. But now we find that everyone who has ever had a thought 
about where we ought to be spending more money wants to do it. I think 
we have to be a little more thoughtful about where we are.
  We started out with a budget that we agreed upon. I think it was 
about $660-some billion. Then that was changed at the request of the 
President some time ago to $686 billion. In addition to that, of 
course, we have had another $40 billion, and another $5 billion, and 
agreed to guarantee another $10 billion. So we have spent a great deal 
of money. I think we have ought to give some thought as to what our 
priorities are to be at this point.

  It is my belief we could come up with a stimulus package that would 
deal with the needs of unemployment and some of the medical needs 
there. I think we could do something that is rather limited in terms of 
accelerated depreciation that would cause businesses to create jobs, 
which is what we want to do. We do not need to spend $120 billion 
simply because we have an excuse to spend.
  So I am hopeful that we can get together on a stimulus package. The 
majority leader said this morning the Republicans refuse to meet. That 
is not the case at all. The Republicans are not willing to have the 
Appropriations Committee be part of that meeting because it is a 
Finance Committee responsibility. That is where we ought to be; there 
is no question about that.
  I hope we can take a little time now to say what our priorities 
should be. We need a little vision, just over 2 weeks. It ought not to 
be too difficult to decide what it is that we need to get done and step 
aside from some of these other questions.
  We are talking about a farm bill. I am on the Agriculture Committee 
and

[[Page S12032]]

we have not even scored it. We don't know how much it will cost. Yet we 
are here. We want to get it on the floor. We have not had the farm bill 
before the committee, not even had a chance to look at it, but we were 
asked to mark it up. That is not the best way to deal with the 
important issues there. We can deal with them.
  I am hopeful we will slow down just a moment, decide what it is that 
is most important for the country that we do in the very little time we 
have, and not just absolutely think we ought to be spending every dime 
we can possibly find. That is not necessarily the thing to do at this 
point.
  Hopefully, we will be able to do that. I hope we can do at least 
those two things, the appropriations bills and the stimulus package. 
These other things ought to have a little more thought. We are going to 
be back next year, early. We can put a time certain on those and do 
them at that point.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator withhold his suggestion of 
the absence of a quorum?
  Mr. THOMAS. I withhold the request.

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