[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D220-D224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                           Thursday, March 11, 2004

[[Page D220]]


                              Daily Digest


HIGHLIGHTS:

      Senate agreed to S. Con. Res. 98, Adjournment Resolution.
      Senate agreed to S. Res. 319, Condemning Terrorist Attacks in 
      Spain.
      Senate agreed to S. Con. Res. 95, Congressional Budget 
      Resolution.
      The House passed H.R. 3717, Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 
      2004.


                                 Senate


Chamber Action
Routine Proceedings, pages S2651-S2753
Measures Introduced: Thirteen bills and four resolutions were 
introduced, as follows: S. 2194-2206, S.J. Res. 29, S. Res. 318-319, 
and S. Con. Res. 98.
  Pages S2716-17
Measures Passed:
  Adjournment Resolution: Senate agreed to S. Con. Res. 98, providing 
for a conditional adjournment or recess of the Senate.
  Page S2710
  Condemning Terrorist Attacks in Spain: By a unanimous vote of 96 yeas 
(Vote No. 43), Senate agreed to S. Res. 319, expressing the sense of 
the Senate with respect to the deadly terrorist attacks against the 
people of Spain that occurred on March 11, 2004.
  Pages S2641-43
  Congressional Budget Resolution: By 51 yeas to 45 nays (Vote No. 58), 
Senate agreed to S. Con. Res. 95, setting forth the congressional 
budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2005 and 
including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2006 
through 2009, after taking action on the following amendments proposed 
thereto:
  Pages S2591-S2641, S2643-99
Adopted:
  Mikulski Amendment No. 2820, to provide a deficit neutral reserve 
fund to provide a tuition tax credit.
Page S2648
  Coleman Amendment No. 2821, to provide $1.9 billion to increase the 
maximum Pell Grant from $4,050 to $4,500 by reducing spending in other 
Federal Government programs, except education programs, by a 
commensurate amount.
Pages S2648-49
  Feinstein/Hollings Amendment No. 2753, to express the sense of the 
Senate regarding funding for port security.
Page S2649
  Murkowski/Campbell Amendment No. 2822, to increase funding for the 
Indian Health Services.
Pages S2651-52
  Inhofe/Bingaman Amendment No. 2823, to return to the original scoring 
of the energy savings performance contract program.
Pages S2655-56
  Nickles (for Conrad) Amendment No. 2831, to express the sense of the 
Senate regarding tribal colleges and universities.
Page S2656
  Nickles (for Bingaman) Amendment No. 2833, to establish a reserve 
fund for expansion of the pediatric vaccine distribution program. 
                                                             Page S2656
  Nickles (for Wyden) Amendment No. 2717, to increase investments in 
implementation of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act to benefit 
national forests, the environment, local communities, and local 
economies.
Page S2656
  Nickles (for Kennedy/Rockefeller) Amendment No. 2699, to prevent 
unspent SCHIP funds from reverting to the Treasury rather than being 
used to provide coverage for low-income children.
Pages S2656-57
  Nickles (for Thomas) Amendment No. 2794, to restore discretionary 
funding levels for crucial rural health programs, such as the rural 
health outreach grant program, the rural hospital flexibility grant 
program, the small hospital improvement program, telehealth, trauma 
programs, and rural AED programs to fiscal year 2004 levels and offset 
this change by reductions in overall government travel expenses. 
                                                             Page S2656
  Nickles (for Pryor) Modified Amendment No. 2810, stating the sense of 
the Senate regarding the

[[Page D221]]

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the weatherization 
assistance program.
Pages S2656-57
  Enzi/Cantwell Amendment No. 2832, to increase funding for the 
Workforce Investment Act (WIA) by $250 million in fiscal year 2005, by 
increasing function 500.
Page S2657
  Conrad (for Clinton) Amendment No. 2780, to establish a reserve fund 
for addressing minority health disparities.
Pages S2657-58
  Crapo Amendment 2784, to increase funding for the Environmental 
Protection Agency for the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water State 
Revolving Funds.
Pages S2659-63
  Nickles (for Lincoln) Amendment No. 2837, to prevent tax increases 
for families who receive child tax credit.
Page S2664
  Nickles (for Grassley) Amendment No. 2838, expressing the sense of 
the Senate for support of funding restoration for agriculture research 
and extension.
Page S2664
  Nickles (for Snowe) Amendment No. 2839, to increase funding for the 
SBA 7(a) loan guarantee, Microloan and other small business programs 
and to offset the cost of that spending through across-the-board cuts 
in function 920.
Page S2664
  Nickles (for Sessions/Cornyn) Amendment No. 2733, to provide full 
funding for NASA's fiscal year 2005 space exploration initiatives. 
                                                             Page S2664
  By 52 yeas to 43 nays (Vote No. 54), Levin/Collins Amendment No. 
2817, to lower crude oil prices resulting from the cancellation of 
planned future deliveries of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and 
using the funding made available to provide $1.7 billion in funding for 
homeland security grants for first responders, firefighter assistance, 
and port security, and to reduce the debt.
Pages S2664-66
  Nickles (for Hagel) Amendment No. 2841, to express the sense of the 
Senate on the need for a United States animal identification program as 
an effective disease surveillance, monitoring, and control tool serving 
the needs of the United States livestock industry and public health. 
                                                             Page S2668
  Nickles (for Santorum) Amendment No. 2842, to reaffirm the United 
States ratio for contributions to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, 
Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Page S2668
  Nickles (for Hatch) Amendment No. 2843, to restore law enforcement 
assistance, and juvenile justice assistance, especially title V, and 
JAB6, to the Department of Justice.
Page S2668
  Nickles (for Dole/Leahy) Amendment No. 2844, to express the sense of 
the Senate concerning child nutrition funding.
Pages S2668-69
  By 72 yeas to 24 nays (Vote No. 56), Specter/Collins Modified 
Amendment No. 2741, to increase discretionary health funding by 
$2,000,000,000.
Pages S2669-71
  Nickles (for Lugar) Amendment No. 2845, to provide for an increase 
and a decrease in funding for certain programs.
Pages S2671-73
  Murkowski Amendment No. 2846, to increase veterans medical care by 
$1,200,000,000.
Pages S2673-74
  Nickles (for Grassley) Amendment No. 2847, to express the sense of 
the Senate regarding compensation for exposure to toxic substances at 
Department of Energy facilities.
Page S2674
  Nickles (for Byrd/Cochran) Amendment No. 2848, to correct the scoring 
for Project Bioshield.
Pages S2674-75
  Nickles (for Dorgan) Amendment No. 2850, to increase budget authority 
and outlays in Function 450 (Community and Regional Development) and 
Function 500 (Education, Training, Employment, and Social Security) to 
establish a New Homestead Venture Capital Fund to make equity and near 
equity investments in start-up and expanding businesses located in high 
out-migration rural counties and to repay up to 50 percent of college 
loans (up to $10,000) for recent graduates who live and work in such 
counties for five years, respectively; and to express the sense of the 
Senate that any revenue measure passed by Congress in the future should 
include tax incentives designed to address the devastating problem of 
chronic out-migration from rural communities in America's Heartland and 
that those tax incentives should be fully offset.
Pages S2676-77
  Nickles (for DeWine/Leahy) Amendment No. 2697, to increase the new 
budget authority in the International Affairs function by $330,000,000 
for fiscal year 2005 to provide adequate funding for the Child Survival 
and Health Program, with a corresponding offset in function 920. 
                                                         Pages S2676-77
  Nickles (for DeWine) Amendment No. 2715, to increase funding to 
facilitate reconstruction in Haiti.
Pages S2676-77
  Nickles (for Lugar) Amendment No. 2785, to express the sense of the 
Senate concerning summer food pilot projects.
Page S2681
  Nickles (for Specter) Amendment No. 2851, to strike section 404. 
                                                             Page S2681
  Nickles (for Collins/Carper) Amendment No. 2852, to provide a deficit 
neutral reserve fund for Postal Service reform.
Page S2681
  Landrieu Amendment No. 2775, to provide for eliminating the Survivor 
Benefit Plan-Social Security offset for military widows and widowers 
while reducing the debt, offset by the elimination of tax benefits

[[Page D222]]

to individuals and corporations that avoid United States taxation by 
establishing a foreign domicile and other tax loopholes and tax 
shelters.
Pages S2658-59, S2682
Rejected:
  By 41 yeas to 53 nays (Vote No. 41), Boxer Amendment No. 2783, to 
create jobs, to discourage the shipping of jobs overseas, and provide 
adjustment assistance for dislocated workers, by changing the tax 
treatment of certain income from runaway plants, and by reducing tax 
breaks for certain individuals.
Pages S2592-S2606, S2640, S2687
  By 41 yeas to 55 nays (Vote No. 42), Sarbanes Amendment No. 2789, to 
fully fund the FIRE and SAFER Acts and reduce tax breaks for certain 
individuals.
Pages S2606-11, S2640-41
  By 41 yeas to 55 nays (Vote No. 44), Dorgan Amendment No. 2793, to 
increase funding for COPS, Byre grants, and Local Law Enforcement Block 
Grants, and reduce tax breaks for certain individuals. 
                                               Pages S2611-20, S2643-44
  By 44 yeas to 52 nays (Vote No. 45), Lautenberg Amendment No. 2703, 
to reduce debt and require the industries responsible for producing 
products that contaminate toxic waste sites and industries who are 
exempt from liability for such contamination, to help pay for the 
cleanup by reinstating the Superfund polluter pays fees, and to reduce 
the deficit.
Pages S2629-30, S2639-40, S2644
  By 32 yeas to 64 nays (Vote No. 46), Harkin Amendment No. 2799, to 
provide for increased resources for medical research, disease control, 
wellness, tobacco cessation and preventative health efforts including 
substance abuse and mental health services, establishing a fund for 
this purpose, offset by an increase in the cigarette tax to $1 and 
proportional increases in other tobacco excise taxes and deficit 
reduction.
Pages S2620-26, S2644-45
  By 43 yeas to 53 nays (Vote No. 47), Lincoln Amendment No. 2803, to 
provide $60 billion over five years for greater health security for 
working Americans and their families through a combination of public 
and private efforts to expand quality, affordable health insurance 
coverage and cut health care costs by eliminating certain tax 
loopholes.
Pages S2645-46
  By 43 yeas to 53 nays (Vote No. 48), Byrd Amendment No. 2804, to 
provide responsible restraints on discretionary funding while providing 
adequate resources for education, veterans, homeland security, and 
other critical domestic priorities and fully offsetting the cost by 
closing corporate tax loopholes, improving tax enforcement and reducing 
tax breaks for certain individuals.
Pages S2626-29, S2646
  By 40 yeas to 57 nays (Vote No. 50), Lieberman Amendment No. 2807, to 
restore cuts and increase funding for homeland security programs and 
reduce the debt by reducing tax breaks for certain individuals. 
                                                  Pages S2631-35, S2647
  By 44 yeas to 53 nays (Vote No.51), Conrad (for Kennedy) Amendment 
No. 2725, to create a reserve fund to finance an increase in the 
maximum Pell Grant that keeps pace with the rate of increase in public 
college tuition, extend Pell Grants to 500,000 new recipients, and 
close certain tax loopholes.
Pages S2635-38, S2647-48
  By 42 yeas to 54 nays (Vote No. 52), Daschle Amendment No. 2774, to 
create a reserve fund to allow for an increase in Indian Health Service 
Clinical Services by $3.44 billion and lower the national debt by 
eliminating certain tax loopholes or reducing tax breaks for 
individuals with incomes in excess of $1 million per year. 
                                                         Pages S2649-52
  By 42 yeas to 54 nays (Vote No. 53), Dodd Amendment No. 2762, to 
create a reserve fund to allow for an increase in the 21st Century 
Community Learning Centers Program by $1 billion and to eliminate 
certain tax loopholes.
Pages S2652-53
  By 42 yeas to 54 nays (Vote No. 57), Lautenberg Amendment No. 2797, 
to strike the provision for raising the debt limit.
Pages S2675-76
  Dayton Amendment No. 2786, to provide full mandatory funding for the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) part B grants over 
five years by reducing tax breaks for the wealthiest taxpayers. 
                                                         Pages S2677-78
  Reed Amendment No. 2790, to create a reserve fund to increase funding 
for college and student financial aid programs, including the Pell 
Grant program, campus-based assistance, Leveraging Educational 
Assistance Partnership, TRIO, GEAR UP, and graduate level programs, and 
lower the national debt by closing certain tax loopholes.
Page S2678
Withdrawn:
  Kyl Amendment No. 2849, to create a reserve fund to permit an 
increase in veteran's medical care that is fully offset with an 
assessment on excessive lawyer fees paid under the tobacco settlement. 
                                                         Pages S2678-81
  Corzine Amendment No. 2777, to eliminate tax breaks for those with 
incomes greater than $1 million and reserve the savings to prevent 
future cuts in Social Security benefits.
Page S2682
  Santorum Amendment No. 2853, to provide for an increase and a 
decrease in funding for certain programs.
Pages S2682-84
  During consideration of this measure today, the Senate also took the 
following action:
  By 43 yeas to 53 nays (Vote No. 49), three-fifths of those Senators 
duly chosen and sworn, not having

[[Page D223]]

voted in the affirmative, Senate rejected the motion to waive section 
305 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, with respect to Bingaman 
Amendment No. 2765, to ensure that legislation is not enacted that 
increases the number of taxpayers affected by the alternative minimum 
tax. Subsequently, the point of order that the amendment was in 
violation of section 305 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, was 
sustained, and the amendment thus falls.
Pages S2630-31, S2646-47
  By 51 yeas to 45 nays (Vote No. 55), three-fifths of those Senators 
duly chosen and sworn, not having voted in the affirmative, Senate 
rejected the motion to waive the point of order that McConnell 
Amendment No. 2840, to prohibit future income tax hikes on upper 
incomes that fail to exempt small businesses that file individual 
income tax returns as partnerships, sole proprietors, or subchapter S 
corporations, was not germane. Subsequently, the point of order was 
sustained and the amendment thus falls.
Pages S2666-68
Executive Reports of Committees: Senate received the following 
executive report of a committee:
  Report to accompany the United Nations Convention on the Law of the 
Sea, with declarations and understandings. (Treaty Doc. 103-39) (Ex. 
Rept. 108-10)
Pages S2712-16
Messages From the President: Senate received the following message from 
the President of the United States:
  Transmitting a report of the continuation of the national emergency 
with respect to Iran that was declared in Executive Order 12957; to the 
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (PM-73)
Page S2710
Appointments:
  National Commission of Small Community Air Service: The Chair, on 
behalf of the Majority Leader pursuant to Public Law 108-176, Section 
411(b)(1)(B), appointed the following individual to serve as a member 
of the National Commission of Small Community Air Service: Mayor Bob 
Corker of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
  Page S2752
Nominations Confirmed: Senate confirmed the following nominations:
  By unanimous vote of 92 yeas (Vote No. 59), Louis Guirola, Jr., of 
Mississippi, to be United States District Judge for the Southern 
District of Mississippi.
Page S2699
  Feliciano Foyo, of Florida, to be a Member of the Advisory Board for 
Cuba Broadcasting for a term expiring August 12, 2004.
  Neil Vincent Wake, of Arizona, to be United States District Judge for 
the District of Arizona.
  Edward E. Kaufman, of Delaware, to be a Member of the Broadcasting 
Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2006. (Reappointment)
  Steven J. Simmons, of Connecticut, to be a Member of the Broadcasting 
Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2006. (Reappointment)
  Glyn T. Davies, of the District of Columbia, a Career Member of the 
Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, for the rank of 
Ambassador during his tenure of service as the Political Director for 
the United States Presidency of the G-8.
  Sanford Gottesman, of Texas, to be a Member of the Board of Directors 
of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for a term expiring 
December 17, 2005.
  Diane M. Ruebling, of California, to be a Member of the Board of 
Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for a term 
expiring December 17, 2005. (Reappointment)
  C. William Swank, of Ohio, to be a Member of the Board of Directors 
of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for a term expiring 
December 17, 2005. (Reappointment)
  Robert Hurley McKinney, of Indiana, to be a Member of the Advisory 
Board for Cuba Broadcasting for a term expiring October 27, 2004.
  Mark J. Warshawsky, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of the 
Treasury.
  Richard S. Williamson, of Illinois, for the rank of Ambassador during 
his tenure of service as Representative of the United States of America 
on the Human Rights Commission of the Economic and Social Council of 
the United Nations.
  Mark B. McClellan, of the District of Columbia, to be Administrator 
of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
  Routine lists in the Coast Guard.
Page S2753
Nominations Received: Senate received the following nominations:
  Tina Westby Jonas, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Defense 
(Comptroller).
  Romolo A. Bernardi, of New York, to be Deputy Secretary of Housing 
and Urban Development.
  Thomas Hill Moore, of Florida, to be a Commissioner of the Consumer 
Product Safety Commission for a term of seven years from
  October 27, 2002. (Reappointment)
  Juan Carlos Zarate, of California, to be an Assistant Secretary of 
the Treasury.
  Lewis W. Lucke, of Texas, to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of 
Swaziland.
  Earle I. Mack, of New York, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Finland.
  Jackson McDonald, of Florida, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Guinea.

[[Page D224]]


  John M. Ordway, of California, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Kazakhstan.
  32 Army nominations in the rank of general.
  5 Marine Corps nominations in the rank of general.
  Routine lists in the Air Force, Navy.
Page S2752
Messages From the House:
  Page S2710
Measures Referred:
  Pages S2710-11
Measures Placed on Calendar:
  Page S2711
Executive Communications:
  Pages S2711-12
Executive Reports of Committees:
  Pages S2712-16
Additional Cosponsors:
  Pages S2717-20
Statements on Introduced
Bills/Resolutions:
  Pages S2720-29
Additional Statements:
  Pages S2709-10
Amendments Submitted:
  Pages S2729-51
Notices of Hearings/Meetings:
  Page S2751
Authority for Committees To Meet:
  Page S2751
Privilege of the Floor:
  Pages S2751-52
Record Votes: Nineteen record votes were taken today. (Total--59) 
   Page S2640, S2641, S2643, S2644, S2645, S2646, S2647, S2648, S2651, 
                         S2653, S2666, S2667-68, S2671, S2675-76, S2699
Adjournment: Senate convened at 9:30 a.m., and adjourned at 1:44 a.m., 
on Friday, March 12, 2004, until 10 a.m., on the same day. (For 
Senate's program, see the remarks of the Majority Leader in today's 
Record on page S2752.)