[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 121 (Monday, September 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9003-S9004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CHOOSING PRIORITIES

  Mr. THOMAS. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, I wish to take a few minutes to talk about where the 
Senate is and where the Senate is going. Obviously, we are coming to 
the end of the session. I presume the maximum we will be here is 2 
weeks after this week, a total of 3 weeks, unless circumstances change.
  We have, of course, as usual, a lot of legislation that could be 
done. There are a lot of issues about which we have talked this year 
that need to be finalized. All those issues rise to the top at the end 
of a session.
  More importantly, we are faced with the fact that there is limited 
time, and the process takes a good deal of time. Therefore, it is 
necessary, it seems to me, for us to choose priorities and decide what 
we must complete before we go into recess for the election and after 
and, of course, do whatever we can but that those need to be our 
priorities.
  I am one who believes strongly in the fact that one has to make 
priorities, in any group, although this group is not an easy one to 
manage. Decisions need to be made with respect to what we need to do 
and, frankly, finding some limits on how long we can spend on different 
issues.

[[Page S9004]]

  We only have time for a relatively few items to be completed, in my 
opinion. Some of them are more fairly obvious and some are quite 
important. Obviously, we have to complete homeland security. We have 
been on that bill now, I believe, 3 weeks. Hopefully, we will finish it 
very soon. Because of the time, it needs to be completed soon.
  Quite frankly, we find ourselves in a delay, a stalling arrangement 
here that is not where we need to be. Are there differences of views? 
Of course, and they need to be resolved, but that is what the system is 
about, and we need to go on.
  We are going to be faced very soon with a resolution with respect to 
Iraq. In fact, we are working on it now. It is an issue that needs to 
be addressed and addressed quickly. Again, it will take a certain 
amount of time, but we do need to address it, and we need to address it 
on the basis that it is a priority with which we need to deal, however 
one feels about it.
  Defense appropriations: We are going to find ourselves not having 
dealt with more than half the appropriations bills by the time we go 
into recess, but many of them can probably be tided over for several 
months with a continuing resolution, funding the agencies at the level 
they have been in the past year. It is not an unusual occurrence. But 
Defense appropriations, in this instance, is quite different because of 
the circumstances relating to terrorism.
  Defense appropriations need to be completed. More resources obviously 
need to be available to our military so when we ask our military to do 
whatever we ask them to do, they have the best support we can possibly 
give to them.
  The CR needs to be dealt with so we do not have the Government being 
stopped because of no financing. Remember, we did that a number of 
years ago. We cannot let that happen, of course.
  There are lots of issues people will talk about that indeed are 
important, and if we had our way, they could all be done. 
Unfortunately, a lot of those issues have not been brought out of 
committee and to the floor so we can move them forward. I believe 8 out 
of 13 appropriations bills have not been dealt with yet.
  We are going to soon have to deal with a payback for Medicare. I find 
at home--and I am sure everyone else does, too--more physicians are not 
treating Medicare patients because the reimbursement has gone down, and 
it is scheduled to go down more the first of next month. Frankly, this 
would be a relatively easy issue to fix. We know what the percentages 
are, and we could do something about that.
  An issue that I have talked a great deal about and that is more 
difficult--and I do not think we will accomplish but many of us would 
like to--is pharmaceuticals. We need to find a way to make 
pharmaceuticals more available to the elderly particularly. We have 
worked on that a great deal and have not come to a conclusion and will 
not, in my opinion, by the time this session is over.
  We have spent a good deal of time on energy. Certainly, energy is an 
issue that affects not only the economy but it affects terrorism and 
the upheaval in the Middle East where we have let ourselves become 60 
percent dependent on imported energy. We need to change that. We need 
to have a policy. We have not had a policy for some time. We are now in 
the process of developing that policy in a conference committee, and we 
need to get that finished.
  We talked about drought relief. It is on the table. We can do that.
  Unfortunately, we will probably not be able to deal with terrorism 
insurance, which is too bad. It is a good issue because it has to do 
with the economy. It has to do with the resistance to constructing 
buildings, for example, when you cannot have insurance for them.
  There are lots of other issues, such as tort reform and health care 
costs. I think we have to move on those issues. We have to move ahead 
with the budget resolution, which we have not had for the first time in 
a number of years.
  One may say, what is the difference? The difference is not only does 
it help us deal with what we are going to spend, but it has an 
operational aspect to it that says if you spend over what you have 
agreed to for the budget, there have to be 60 votes to pass it, which 
is the kind of resistance we need when we are spending too much money.
  We have already talked about prescription drugs. That is an issue we 
really need to deal with. There are a number of ideas, and we need to 
consider them.
  The permanent tax cut, of course, again, has to do with stimulating 
the economy, and we have talked about that a great deal as something we 
need to do.
  There are also the issues of homeland security and welfare reform. 
Welfare reform is pretty much ready to go in the committee. We are 
going to have to have a temporary passage to keep that in place because 
it expires shortly. These are the things we need to deal with, as well 
as the appropriations bills.

  I urge that we set some priorities, decide what it is we are going to 
do over this time, and set some time goals so we can work at it. Then I 
think we really have to enforce it.
  Today, for example, it will be 5 o'clock on a Monday before we get 
around to voting, and I suspect we will be out again next Friday. The 
time has come when we really need to take the time that is available to 
do what we have to do. That is our challenge, and certainly it is not 
easy.
  It is difficult because we all have different ideas about what issues 
are most important. We have some compelling issues that clearly need to 
be moved on because of the shortage of time. I urge we move that way 
and complete the work that is necessary for it to be done before we 
leave in October.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Arizona.

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