[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5337-S5338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    INCREASING THE PUBLIC DEBT LIMIT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the clerk will 
report S. 2578 by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2578) to amend title 31 of the United States 
     Code to increase the public debt.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will read the bill for the third 
time.
  The bill was read the third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read for the third time, 
the question is, Shall the bill pass?
  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 
Helms), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Bond), and the Senator from 
Idaho (Mr. Crapo) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 68, nays 29, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 148 Leg.]

                                YEAS--68

     Akaka
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carnahan
     Cleland
     Cochran
     Collins
     Craig
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Feinstein
     Frist
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Nickles
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Voinovich
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                                NAYS--29

     Allard
     Bayh
     Campbell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Clinton
     Conrad
     Corzine
     Dayton
     Dorgan
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Fitzgerald
     Graham
     Gramm
     Harkin
     Hollings
     Inhofe
     Kyl
     Lincoln
     McCain
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
     Stabenow
     Torricelli
     Warner

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Bond
     Crapo
     Helms
  The bill (S. 2578) was passed, as follows:

                                S. 2578

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. INCREASE IN PUBLIC DEBT LIMIT.

       Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States 
     Code, is amended by striking ``$5,950,000,000,000'' and 
     inserting ``$6,400,000,000,000''.

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote and I move 
to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I rise today to offer my support for 
increasing the federal debt ceiling by $450 million. This is a 
difficult issue and I well understand that we need to raise the debt 
ceiling. We have troops conducting military operations overseas. We are 
working here at home to address critical national security needs. But 
if we hadn't acted today, the United States would have been on the 
verge of defaulting on its debt for the first time in history. This is 
unacceptable.
  However, now that we have voted to raise our debt limit, we must 
begin an honest and open debate about why we are having this vote. I 
want to make it crystal clear that I believe we need to extend the 
budget enforcement procedures and establish reasonable discretionary 
spending caps as soon as possible.
  At the beginning of last year, the Congressional Budget Office 
projected a ten-year surplus of $5.6 trillion and the debt ceiling 
seemed to be high enough to last through fiscal year 2008. That all 
changed, however, as the projected big surpluses first started to 
decline last year and then dramatically changed into a $2.7 trillion 
deficit. We know that the current deficit is the result of last year's 
tax cut, the recession, and the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
  One of the most important actions we can take for the nation's future 
economic stability is to pay down the national debt. According to 
Chairman of the Federal Research Board, Alan Greenspan, paying down the 
national debt lowers interest rates and keeps the capital markets and 
investment going. In January, he told the Senate Budget Committee that 
one of the reasons long-term rates have not come down is the sharp 
decrease in the surplus and the diminishing prospects for paying down 
the debt.
  I want to make it clear that the change in our fiscal situation has 
driven estimated federal interest costs higher: CBO has boosted its 
projection of federal interest costs in 2002 through 2011 from just 
over $600 billion a year ago to $1.6 trillion. The dramatic downturn in 
the federal budget will force taxpayers to pay $1.2 trillion more in 
debt payments, money that could have been used to invest in additional 
defense, homeland security, education, and job training.
  Our total budget must be crafted within the need to maintain fiscal 
discipline, and stimulate economic growth through continued federal 
investment in education and job training, while also protecting the 
environment. Furthermore, we need to invest in our nation's economic 
future by making a commitment to public research and development in 
science and technology--maintaining our status as a global leader.
  It is a balance. We must make these investments to secure our 
country. But we must do so within a framework that ensures we don't 
spend beyond our means. If we want our economy to be strong, if we want 
revenues, and if we want to make the right decisions, we need to keep 
paying down the debt.
  Having spent time in the private sector, I can tell you this: No 
private sector organization thinks it can spend its way out of 
programs; nor can we as a country. This is why I supported and 
cosponsored the Gregg-Feingold Budget Enforcement Amendment last week--
and why I will continue to work with my colleagues on extending the 
pay-as-you-go budget enforcement procedures as well as setting up 
reasonable discretionary spending limits.
  Some voted against this debt limit increase today because it had not 
been paired with procedures for a fiscally disciplined framework. I 
certainly empathize with that position. We are in tough times. And 
tough times force us to make tough decisions. Today's vote was one of 
them.
  Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I voted against S. 2578, a bill that 
would increase the public debt limit by $450 billion.
  I support taking action to increase the debt limit, in order to 
protect the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Frankly, we 
have no choice but to raise the limit. The United States must pay its 
bills. What I cannot support, however, is increasing the limit without 
also putting in place procedures for arresting this dramatic downturn 
in our nation's fiscal health.
  I want to provide a little background on how we arrive at this 
juncture. You might remember that a little over a year ago, when the 
Bush administration submitted its first budget, we were told that, even 
with the enactment of the President's proposed tax cut, we would not 
hit the Federal debt limit until 2008. By August, with the tax cut 
enacted, the administration acknowledged it was wrong and that we would 
actually hit the debt limit in 2004. By December, that estimate was 
moved up again, with the Treasury Secretary admitting the debt limit 
would be reached within months and pleading with Congress to raise the 
limit so that the United States wouldn't default on its financial 
obligations.
  And, I should not, the administration didn't just request a small 
debt limit increase. It requested a $750 billion increase, which would 
constitute the second largest one-time increase ever-surpassed only by 
the $915 billion increase

[[Page S5338]]

signed into law by the President's father during his term in office, in 
November 1990.
  That dramatic turnaround in events followed a period of rapidly 
falling deficits in the 1990s and 4 years of surpluses. In total, as a 
result of the fiscal discipline put in place in the 1990s, we paid down 
$400 billion of publicly-held debt and were on the path to eliminate 
our debt in preparation for the retirement of the baby boom generation. 
What a sad turn of events we now face today.
  It is imperative that we find a way out of this mess. Last week, we 
were close in the Senate on adopting a bipartisan deal to restore 
budget discipline and prevent us from digging the hole any deeper. That 
deal would have extended PAYGO and the Budget Act points of orders, and 
set a cap on discretionary spending for 2003. Unfortunately, our 
Republican colleagues blocked its consideration. It seems that many in 
this chamber are still in denial about the dire position we find 
ourselves in today as a result of last year's tax cut, the brutal 
attacks on this nation last September, and the slowdown in the economy.
  Let me state again that the Congress has an obligation to ensure that 
the government avoids default, an event that would have severe 
consequences for our financial markets and for the government's cost of 
borrowing funds. However, I feel just as strongly that we should either 
have passed a much smaller increase--in the range of $100 billion to 
$200 billion--or passed the current bill in conjunction with the 
adoption of bipartisan budget measures that would help us stop the 
fiscal bleeding and return the budget to a path of balance. Simply 
increasing the debt limit does nothing to force the President and this 
Congress to deal with the very real fiscal problems we now face today, 
problems that will only worsen as the baby boomers begin retiring over 
the next decade. I feel we missed a great opportunity today to adopt 
those measures as part of the increase in the public debt limit.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, today the Senate voted to increase the 
debt limit by $450 billion. I agree with many of my colleagues that 
raising the debt limit is the responsible thing to do. We must protect 
the full faith and credit of the United States government and we are 
dangerously close to debt limit. The Department of Treasury has already 
used extraordinary measures to avoid a default. The time for action is 
now.
  However, I also believe that we must put pressure on the Congress and 
the Administration to find solutions to our budget problem. We must 
work together to restore fiscal discipline to the Federal government. 
The bill approved by the Senate would raise the debt limit by $450 
billion which will provide sufficient funds for the government to 
operate through next spring. I opposed this increase. I would have 
supported a smaller increase in the debt limit--$150 billion, for 
example--that would prevent a default but would force an agreement on 
our budget issues this fall. It would have given us leverage to force a 
solution to our budget problems.
  The debt limit must be raised. It is the responsible thing to do. 
However, a smaller increase would have kept the pressure on the 
Congress and the Administration to come to agreement on a long term 
solution to put our fiscal policy back in touch and develop a plan to 
eliminate our budget deficits.
  Mr. HATCH. Madam President, as a longtime proponent of a balanced 
budget amendment to the Constitution, I rise to speak concerning S. 
2578. While we are told that this bill will increase the Nation's debt 
limit, what we really voted on today was whether to keep the statutory 
commitment that Congress has made to the Social Security trust fund.
  Social Security's current surplus is the main reason we need to raise 
the debt limit. Every single dollar of that surplus goes into the 
Social Security trust fund, and by law, every single dollar of the 
trust fund counts as part of the total Federal debt. Social Security is 
expected to run a $160 billion surplus this year, with an even higher 
surplus next year. Ironically, in order to place that surplus in the 
Social Security trust fund, the law requires us to increase the debt 
limit. Only in Washington, DC, can running a surplus increase your 
level of debt.
  Of course, the debt that is included in the Social Security trust 
fund is just money that the Treasury owes to itself. What really 
matters for the Government's budget and for the U.S. economy as a whole 
is the amount of debt held by the general public. Over the last few 
years, as a Republican Congress put the brakes on spending, debt held 
by the public actually fell, lowering the amount of money our 
Government had to spend on interest payments. However, the war on 
terrorism, our current recession, and Congress's recent extravagant 
spending have combined to increase the public debt over the past year. 
While it is important for Congress to meet its statutory 
responsibilities to the Social Security trust fund by increasing the 
debt limit, it is even more important that Congress get its fiscal 
house in order by working to cut discretionary spending and restore the 
economy's health.
  Time to act on the debt limit is running out. In fact, the Secretary 
of the Treasury says that the main reason he has called June 28 the 
``drop-dead'' date for raising the debt limit is because on that day, 
Treasury is scheduled to make a large payment into the Social Security 
trust fund. I am pleased that the Senate voted to raise the debt limit 
today, and we can get a final bill to the President for his signature.
  Finally, now that we have voted on this wartime increase in the debt 
limit, I hope that Congress enacts tough budget caps, strong limits on 
discretionary spending, and productivity-enhancing legislation so we 
can bring our budget back into balance and restore the American economy 
to its full potential.

                          ____________________