[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.
____________________