[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 45 (Monday, April 22, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2994-S2995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE SENATE AGENDA

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I will speak in morning business. There 
are a couple of issues before us. First of all, I urge that we move 
back as soon as possible--I understand we will at 2 o'clock--to our 
energy bill. Certainly, there is nothing more important before

[[Page S2995]]

us now than the completion of that bill and being able to send it on to 
the President. Certainly, it is not going to have everything in it that 
everybody wanted. That is not a new idea. This is a bill that has been 
on the floor for 5 weeks. But it does have some good things in it. It 
has some basic energy policy materials that we have not had for a very 
long time. It has some of the things the President and Vice President 
had put forth. Unfortunately, some of those it does not.
  I was and am a supporter of ANWR. I think that could be done as a 
multiple-use project. I certainly agree with protecting the 
environment, as the Senator from Nevada was talking about, but I am 
also a great promoter of multiple use. Since 50 percent of my State 
belongs to the Federal Government, we have to be very certain that we 
have a chance to use it. So I hope we move forward with that.
  Upon its completion, I hope we take a look at trade promotion 
authority. There is probably nothing more important to us in terms of 
our economy and us being part of world trade. Billions of dollars move 
around this world every day. Yet for a number of years we have not 
authorized the President to go ahead with negotiations and to bring 
those negotiations back to the Congress, which is what this trade 
authority bill provides.
  We had a meeting this morning, and a press conference, talking about 
the agricultural aspect of foreign trade. Some are concerned about 
certain crops. But the bottom line is about more than a third, nearly 
40 percent, of our agricultural production goes overseas. Our market 
here only consumes about 60 percent of what we produce, and that leaves 
40 percent that has to go somewhere else, to new markets. To do that, 
we need a trade bill. That is where I think we really ought to go.

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