[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 68 (Thursday, May 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S4793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 2551

  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent--this is a 
modification of the earlier request--that the Senate would proceed to 
the House supplemental appropriations bill on Monday, June 3, at a time 
to be determined by the majority leader after consultation with the 
Republican leader so we could get to this bill immediately upon our 
return.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I object, for two reasons. First, it 
seems to me the whole issue is urgency. We are talking about defense 
and homeland security. If there is any urgency to making the commitment 
to getting the work done, it ought to be now, not a week or 10 days 
from now.
  Secondly, we don't know when the House will produce the bill. Perhaps 
the House will complete its work; perhaps it will not. We know we have 
a job to do. As we have done on so many other occasions, we have done 
our work and waited for the House to act. If the House completes its 
work, perhaps that is something we can do. But we are not in a position 
to know what the House is going to do. Obviously, it would be very 
difficult for us to build a consent agreement around House action that 
may or may not take place.
  I do object. I do recognize, as the Senator from Mississippi, the 
distinguished Republican leader, has noted, we will have to reach some 
agreement. If it can't be done now, it will have to be done soon. It is 
disappointing that it cannot be done now.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. I want to mention just an example of why we need to go 
through this legislation. It has just been pointed out to me, here is 
$2 million in this bill, which is entitled ``Supplemental Appropriation 
Act for Further Recovery from and Response to Terrorist Attacks on the 
United States''--that is the title of this legislation----
  Other related agencies, Smithsonian Institution construction, $2 
million: the committee recommends an amount of $2 million within 
construction to initiate the planning and design of an alcohol 
collection storage facility. The Smithsonian holds the largest 
collection of this kind in the world, and at present a large portion of 
it is stored in the National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian 
has requested this amount and the fiscal year 2003 budget estimate 
indicates it is a most important safety and security project.
  Given this information, the committee has advanced the appropriation 
of funds required in planning and design in order to accelerate the 
project.
  All of those bugs that are stored in alcohol in the Smithsonian--when 
we are trying to recover from and respond to the terrorist attacks on 
the United States by moving some alcohol encased bugs from one facility 
to another--this is another example of why in the world we need to 
examine this legislation.
  The Senator from Pennsylvania is going to be recognized. There is a 
provision in this bill that is far more serious than moving bugs stored 
in alcohol for $2 million. That has to do with the aviation program. 
The legislation was passed by this body overwhelmingly because of the 
danger of airlines going bankrupt, and now one major airline at least 
will not be eligible for loans because there is not enough money there 
and we are going to see major airlines in America go bankrupt if we 
don't avoid that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Madam President, I want to pick up on what the Senator 
from Arizona said. He is ranking member on the Commerce Committee. They 
worked diligently on putting together the aviation loan program. One 
airline has access to the program, and that happens to be America West. 
There is another airline that is on the brink of bankruptcy that is 
hemorrhaging money right now, but it has brought in a management team 
to restructure the airline. Part of this restructuring plan is US 
Airways' access to this fund. What is in the appropriations bill will 
deny them access to this fund until the fall of this year, which may be 
too late for them to be able to get the adequate capital to continue 
operation. We may be bankrupting an airline that serves the whole 
northeastern quadrant of the United States for I don't know what 
reason.

  I have no idea why this provision is in here, but we are pulling the 
rug out from under an airline that was probably the airline most 
affected by 9-11. This is the airline with its hub at Reagan National, 
which was shut down and flights were restricted. This is an airline 
that flew out of New York, and it served the area most impacted by 9-
11. And now we have an appropriations bill that is going to probably 
deny them survival. It is the most impacted airline by 9-11 and we have 
a bill here that is supposed to help us recover from 9-11, and it may 
be the death knell of the airline.
  The bottom line is, this bill is not ready for passage. There are 
serious changes that must be made in this legislation for this bill to 
go through the Senate.

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