[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 174 (Tuesday, November 25, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15919-S15920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, people have to understand the process here. 
We are being criticized for not agreeing to this omnibus bill.
  I first of all want the Record to be spread with the fact that the 
chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Stevens, has worked 
tirelessly to get this done. He has worked, not a matter of hours or 
days but weeks. I have spoken to him on this legislation at least 50 
times. So my remarks are not in any way to criticize the distinguished 
President pro tempore of the Senate.
  Here it is, November 25, and there have been no final papers filed. 
What does that mean? There is no final draft of the legislation. 
Yesterday was the first day that some selected staff people could look 
at the proposed bill. But even then there were open items. It certainly 
does not speak well of the legislative branch of Government, as to what 
is happening.
  What do I mean by that? The Congress has agreed on these 
appropriations bills. The Congress, the House and the Senate, in 
conference have agreed on these bills. What has been the problem is the 
interference--and I say that word purposely--by the executive branch of 
Government.
  What are some of the outstanding items in this bill that are causing 
problems? We have over here 15 holds on this bill if it ever came to 
me. Regarding the Federal Communications Commission, the House and the 
Senate have agreed. We had two votes in both bodies, overwhelming votes 
that determined what would happen. But the White House is not happy 
with that. They want that changed. They don't want to change it in the 
normal process, by having hearings, et cetera; they want to do it in 
the conference--even

[[Page S15920]]

though there have been two overwhelming votes in both the House and the 
Senate.
  Another deals with outsourcing. There were overwhelming votes in the 
House and Senate dealing with outsourcing, privatizing. The White House 
doesn't like that, so they want it changed.
  There were two overwhelming votes dealing with overtime pay. The 
White House didn't like the votes of the legislative branch of 
Government, so they, by fiat, want to change that.
  Then we have other issues that are troublesome in this bill, not 
necessarily to this Senator but to other Senators. We have situations 
dealing with when the ATF destroys records of the instant check on 
guns. The legislation called for 90 days. It has been shortened to 24 
hours.
  There is a situation that has come up that has overtones of the 
abortion debate. This is dealing with cloning, human cloning. We 
thought it was so simple in the committee that we--people don't want to 
do cloning of human beings, but there is a protracted dispute as to how 
to write that.
  This bill may pass when we come back in January. But we can come back 
next week, the week after--it is not going to happen. It is not going 
to happen, as important as this legislation is. And no one knows the 
importance of it more than the senior Senator from the State of 
Connecticut, Mr. Dodd, who has fought for this legislation, making sure 
that we have fair votes across the country, that we have votes using 
the same pieces of equipment, basically, so we do not have the problems 
we had in the last Presidential election.
  We understand the importance of this legislation, even though it is 
not the right way to do things. We would rather do appropriations 
bills. We accept the omnibus strategy. But here it is, November 25, 1 
more day from the eve of Thanksgiving and we don't have a final draft 
of what they want us to approve, in addition to all of the things that 
have been interfered with by the White House.
  I believe in the Constitution of the United States. Here it is. This 
is the second one. It was given to me by Senator Byrd. I wore the first 
one out. He gave it to me. I treasure the other one, although it is 
worn out. I asked him to give me another one.
  The Constitution, among other things, calls for three separate but 
equal branches of Government. This is not a king's court. This is an 
Executive led by the President and a Congress that has two branches; 
the House and the Senate. Then, of course, we have the courts. The 
President can't just override by dictates what we have done here in a 
legislative body. I know there are crocodile tears being shed by people 
saying: Why can't we do the omnibus?
  These are only some of the reasons. Some people badly want to pass 
this omnibus bill, and the reason is quite clear. My friends have come 
to me and indicated that they agreed to do this in the Energy bill, or 
in this bill we just passed, because they were told they would get 
things in the omnibus. I understand the legislative process. I have no 
qualms about arrangements being made. I believe legislation is the art 
of compromise. That is how we work with different legislation. There is 
nothing wrong with that. It is not illegal or immoral doing that. But 
you have to understand that it will be a difficult time.
  I favor the omnibus. I want to get it done. I have worked very hard 
on the omnibus. The Senator from New Mexico and I added money in our 
energy and water bill. There was no problem at all. We have worked with 
Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens to make sure we were part of the deal. 
We didn't want to interfere with getting a bill. We were told there 
were certain things that needed to come out of our bill and which could 
only come from our part of the omnibus. We agreed to do that.
  But I repeat: If we only had appropriations matters in this bill, 
this thing would whip out of here in a second because the chairmen and 
the ranking members of the appropriations committees are Members of the 
Senate who are appreciated and respected. They know we wouldn't jam 
things into those bills. I speak for all of the other 12 appropriations 
subcommittees on the Democratic side.
  But we don't have that situation. We have a situation that these two 
legislative bodies agreed to overwhelmingly. But the White House won't 
leave them alone. That is why the House hasn't given us a bill because 
the White House won't leave them alone. They keep wanting other things 
stuffed in it.
  When we come back in January, I hope this is the first bill we take 
up. I hope the second bill we take up is the highway bill. I hope we 
get to this bill. It is too bad we are not going to do something for 
the months of December and January. It would be better for the American 
people, and it would be better for my State. But we can't agree to this 
because we have so many problems dealing with FCC and outsourcing. We 
swallow hard and take the across-the-board cuts that Senator Stevens 
said we have to do. That is fine.  There are issues such as dealing 
with guns, abortion, and overtime. People don't have to come and tell 
us what is in this bill. We know what is in this bill. We know how 
important the bill is. Go down 16 blocks from here and tell them to 
leave us alone and let us go back to the constitutional basis of this 
country and have a Congress that does what it wants. If the White House 
doesn't like it, let them veto the bill. But they have no right, in my 
opinion, to start stuffing things in the bill that the House has 
overridden--overtime, FCC, outsourcing, for example.

  I want this omnibus bill to pass. We want the omnibus bill to pass. 
But we are not going to under the constraints we have.
  Remember, it is November 25 and they still haven't filed the papers. 
We are asking for unanimous consent to pass this. A legislator would 
have to have rocks in their head to agree to something they haven't yet 
read.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.

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