[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2643-S2644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 
                            2005--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.


                           Amendment No. 2793

  Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I understand the Dorgan amendment is the 
next amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. ENSIGN. And there is a minute on each side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, the Dorgan amendment raises taxes by $2.2 
billion to increase funding for the COPS Program by $1.1 billion. He 
says $2.2 billion is the tax increase that will be for millionaires, 
but we have said this time after time, you cannot specify to the 
Finance Committee what taxes will be raised.
  The bottom line is, the easiest taxes out there right now that are 
expiring at the end of this year are the $1,000 child tax credit, the 
marriage penalty reduction, and the expansion of the 10-percent tax 
bracket. These are middle-class people, middle to lower income people. 
We don't want to raise taxes on middle to lower income people. We 
encourage Members to vote no on this amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators 
Leahy, Feinstein, Schumer, Kennedy, Sarbanes, Rockefeller, Corzine, 
Stabenow, Harkin, Boxer, Durbin, Kohl, and Dodd be added as cosponsors 
to my amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I offer this amendment on behalf of 
myself, Senator Biden, Senator Daschle, and many others. This would 
restore $1.1 billion to law enforcement grants that have been cut in 
this budget. My colleague, Senator Biden, is the author of the COPS 
Program, the Byrne grant program, and others. I just finished a round 
of meetings dealing with methamphetamine in North Dakota. Most of you 
have had the same experience. Law enforcement officials from across the 
country will tell you these grant programs are critical to their 
ability to continue to fight this methamphetamine scourge and other 
issues. We should restore that funding.
  We do this and pay for it by simply limiting the tax cut for those 
above $1 million a year. Next year they will receive $27 billion in tax 
cuts; that is, those Americans with income of $1 million a year or 
more. Under this amendment, they will only receive $26 billion in tax 
cuts. We will restore the funding for law enforcement across this 
country for the COPS Program, the Byrne grant, and the law enforcement 
grant program.
  I offer this on behalf of myself, on behalf of Senator Biden, Senator 
Daschle, and others.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the 
amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 2793. The clerk will 
call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I announce that the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 
Edwards), the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), and the Senator 
from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) are necessarily absent.
  I also announce that the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Reid) is absent 
attending a funeral.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. (Mr. Chambliss). Are there any other Senators 
in the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 41, nays 55, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 44 Leg.]

                                YEAS--41

     Akaka
     Bayh
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Clinton
     Conrad
     Corzine
     Daschle
     Dayton
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Graham (FL)
     Harkin
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Kennedy
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Stabenow
     Wyden

[[Page S2644]]



                                NAYS--55

     Alexander
     Allard
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Bond
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeWine
     Dole
     Domenici
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Graham (SC)
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Kyl
     Lott
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Nelson (NE)
     Nickles
     Roberts
     Santorum
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Voinovich
     Warner

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Edwards
     Johnson
     Kerry
     Reid
  The amendment (No. 2793) was rejected.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, we 
still have several rollcall votes to make just on this list. Senator 
Conrad and I also are going through the list of other amendments that 
people want us to consider. We urge Senators not to push us to votes on 
these amendments. If we vote on all the amendments, we are going to be 
here not only very late tonight but very late tomorrow night.
  I do not think most of these amendments and the amendments on our 
side require rollcall votes. We are going to work to see if we can 
accept some amendments, and we are going to work to see some amendments 
be dropped. I urge the cooperation of our colleagues.
  We will go now to the Lautenberg amendment, after my colleague makes 
some comments. I urge the clerks, we are going to move these votes. We 
have another six votes. We are going to try to adhere to the time 
limits as closely as possible. All remaining rollcalls will be 10 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am advised that we have eight more votes 
still on this list. There may be some variance between us.
  Mr. NICKLES. Seven.
  Mr. CONRAD. Seven more votes on this list, and then I have in my 
hand, after having gone Member to Member, 34 more amendments on which 
Members are insisting a rollcall vote. Seven votes will take us about 
2\1/2\ hours. Thirty-four more votes would take us another 11 hours, 
and that does not count the votes on the other side. That is 11 hours 
straight of voting in addition to the 2\1/2\ hours now.
  I say to our colleagues, we are masters of our own fate. If everybody 
insists on having rollcall votes on all of their amendments, we will be 
here until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, and then we will be here 
until late tomorrow night. That is where we are at the moment.
  Hopefully, people will relent and agree to try to get amendments 
accepted or dispatch with them.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I believe the Senator from New Jersey has 
an amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.


                           Amendment No. 2703

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I have an amendment to reinstate the 
Superfund tax that was in place for so many years and produced a very 
successful program.
  It has been said that I want to tax people. Don't believe that this 
is a tax-free exchange, as we heard from the Senator from Oklahoma 
before when he accused me of loving taxes. He loves taxes, but he wants 
to put it on the average citizen. He does not want the polluters to 
pay. He said that very directly.
  He raised a question rhetorically, I guess, that asked: Who among 
those who are accused of polluting did not pay their fair share? I will 
tell you one. Halliburton. Halliburton never pays their fair share 
where they can get it and owes the Defense Department $61 million in 
overcharges; Halliburton which manages to put their business offshore 
so they escape taxes.
  Is that the example we want to look at, not whether the people who 
have been paying the taxes, the average working person, will pay two-
tenths of a cent more per gallon?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, it is very important everyone knows this 
is nothing but a huge tax increase on businesses, on industries. Many 
of them are very frail at this time. They have nothing to do with 
pollution. Polluters-pay is happening right now.
  Since the inception of this program, 70 percent of the sites have 
been cleaned up and paid for by people who polluted. Last year, it was 
87 percent. Where there is a polluter that can be found, that polluter 
pays. That system is working.
  If you have to have an $8.5 billion tax increase on various 
businesses--and right now we have businesses going out of business--
then this is your opportunity to do it. This is a huge tax increase, 
$8.5 billion. We do not need it, and it is unfair.
  By the way, we resoundingly defeated this amendment several times 
before. The last vote was 57 to 43. Many Democrats voted with us in 
voting against this tax increase. I encourage them to do the same now.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the 
amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 2703. The clerk will 
call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I announce that the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 
Edwards), the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), and the Senator 
from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) are necessarily absent.
  I also announce that the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Reid) is absent 
attending a funeral.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 44, nays 52, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 45 Leg.]

                                YEAS--43

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Clinton
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corzine
     Daschle
     Dayton
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Graham (FL)
     Harkin
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Kennedy
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     McCain
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Reed
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Snowe
     Stabenow
     Wyden

                                NAYS--52

     Alexander
     Allard
     Allen
     Bennett
     Bond
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chambliss
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeWine
     Dole
     Domenici
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Graham (SC)
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     McConnell
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Pryor
     Roberts
     Santorum
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Specter
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Voinovich
     Warner

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Edwards
     Johnson
     Kerry
     Reid
  The amendment (No. 2703) was rejected.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. BOND. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

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