[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 24, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S9093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONCLUSION OF MORNING BUSINESS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time for morning business has expired.
  Mr. BYRD. Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Madam President, one quick comment about being stalled. 
I suggest that in defense of my colleagues in the House--and I try to 
be a defender of them in the Senate--I suspect one of the reasons is 
that we don't have a budget. It is very hard to mark up appropriations 
bills when you don't have an agreement between the two bodies. I think 
that is difficult.
  The fact that the Senate has not passed a budget has put us in a 
situation where we have been unable to get conference reports--or even 
bills passed, in some cases--because of the uncertainty of what those 
numbers are.
  Mr. BYRD. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. SANTORUM. I yield for a question.
  Mr. BYRD. I will try to put a question mark after it. The House has a 
bill. We, on this side, agreed on it, and we had a vote in the Senate 
not too long ago. We got 59 votes; we lack 1 vote, or we would have had 
a budget. I hope we have another opportunity to vote.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Madam President, yes, the House does have a budget, but 
the Senate does not. The Senate's top line number is higher than the 
House's. That is why we go through the budget process, so that we can 
have agreement between the two bodies on the top line number, and we 
can apportion the money accordingly. There is a discrepancy between the 
two bodies. That is what creates the problem for the House in being 
able to move their appropriations bills--that trap into which they may 
be entering.
  That is not the reason I got up to talk. I know the good Senator has 
spent considerable time talking about this, and I respect his opinion. 
I wanted to very politely disagree with some of the conclusions in his 
discussion.

  Mr. BYRD. Madam President, I didn't know the Senator disagreed with 
me.
  Mr. SANTORUM. With the conclusion. My mother always told me to try to 
disagree without being disagreeable. I am trying to do that at this 
time.
  Mr. BYRD. Well, the Senator is talking about mothers now.
  Mr. SANTORUM. I figure I am on solid ground in that regard.
  Mr. BYRD. Maybe.

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