[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 641-642]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  SENATE REPUBLICAN LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in recent weeks, I have made clear that the 
Senate would proceed, full speed ahead, with the people's business. 
Today's legislative action is an important part of that business.
  Today, by mutual agreement of Members on both sides of the aisle, we 
begin the actual introduction of bills and resolutions. Following 
tradition, Republicans will introduce the first five bills. Senator 
Daschle will then introduce the following five bills.
  Of course, this is an occasion, not just to introduce major 
legislation, but for both parties to explain to the American people the 
principles behind their bills, and the values that shape them. That is 
what I would like to do today.
  Today's Americans want the same things our people have always sought. 
They want a better life for themselves and for their children--better, 
not just in personal economic or financial terms, but also in terms of 
their community. They want a healthier environment, and decent 
neighborhoods where children can play without fear or danger.
  They want to be able to plan for their own future, while ensuring for 
their elders the security they want for themselves.
  They want a just social order. That means a society that rewards 
labor and thrift, punishes those who harm others, and cares for those 
who cannot care for themselves.
  Those goals form the great common ground on which the American people 
stand united. Whatever our many differences and disagreements, we share 
a commitment to opportunity, to security, and to personal 
responsibility.
  Put the three of those together--opportunity, security, and 
responsibility--and you have the formula for freedom.
  Freedom, after all, is the one overarching concept for which our 
country stands. It is what the word ``America'' has meant from the very 
beginning--and not only to those who were blessed enough to live here, 
but also to the millions of people around the world who lived, and 
often died, in the hope that someday they might share in that freedom.
  But freedom is not a negative commodity.
  It is not just the absence of oppression that allows every individual 
to do whatever he or she wants to do. True freedom is a positive force 
that turns responsibility into a creative energy that can empower 
individuals, lift their families, and improve their communities.
  That is why the starting point for the Senate Republican agenda is 
freedom. Not as a slogan, but as the sum total of everything the 
American people, day by day, work for and hope for: broader 
opportunity, enhanced security, and stronger personal responsibility.
  From that starting point come the first five bills of the 106th 
Congress. They address both educational opportunity and economic 
opportunity, because the two are really interdependent. And they deal 
with issues of security--retirement security, community security, and 
national security--as fulfillments of our ideal of freedom.
  Our first bill deals with one of the most pressing concerns of the 
American people: Social Security. We are strongly committed to 
preserving and protecting Social Security for future generations.
  Many in the Senate, like Rick Santorum and Judd Gregg, have shown 
great leadership on this issue. We want this bill to carry the symbolic 
title of S. 1, even though its substance will not be introduced today. 
We will hold the number for a while. That is a highly unusual 
procedure, and I should explain why we are using it in this case.
  Over the last several weeks, I have repeatedly urged the President to 
submit to the Congress and the Nation his own bill to save and 
strengthen Social Security.
  I repeated that plea as recently as this weekend, in a joint letter 
that Speaker Hastert and I gave the White House. In that letter, the 
Speaker and I promised to arrange an unprecedented joint meeting of the 
House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to 
receive and hold hearings on the President's bill.
  I have made clear that, if the President will give us his proposals 
in legislative form, I will introduce his bill here in the Senate. 
Today, I pledge to honor the President's bill by introducing it as S. 
1.
  But first, he must send us his bill. That is the way Presidents do 
business. It is part of presidential leadership. It is part of his job.
  I continue to hope that the job will get done. And as a token of our 
good faith in the Senate, and our willingness to work in a bipartisan 
spirit, to make sure that Social Security is there for both our parents 
and our children, I will withhold introducing of S. 1 and reserve that 
title for the President's bill on Social Security. I hope he will send 
it to us soon.
  The second item on the Republican Senate agenda is education.
  Here we have a dilemma: an overabundance of great ideas. Starting 
today, and in the weeks to follow, Republican Senators will be 
introducing many bills dealing with education. They will all have one 
common goal: To make sure this country has the world's best schools.
  I won't attempt to offer a comprehensive list of those proposals, 
because there are so many of them. One consistent theme is to shift 
decision-making out of Washington and back to parents, teachers, and 
local officials. In short, the folks who know the kids best--and who 
know what our schools need to succeed.
  That's the principle behind Senator Bond's ``Direct Check,'' Senator 
Hutchison's ``Options for Excellence,'' Senator Hutchinson's ``Dollars 
to the Classroom,'' and Senator Gorton's stalwart campaign to renew and 
empower State and local education systems.
  The same princple--that excellence in education begins at the State 
and local level--has shaped what will be one of the most important 
bills of the 106th Congress. It's called Ed-Flex, for Educational 
Flexibility, and it is not a partisan initiative. It has been jointly 
advanced by Senators Frist and Wyden.
  It is strongly supported by all the Nation's Governors. It should be 
something we can consider and pass quickly.
  If we want the 106th Congress to be known as the Education Congress, 
Ed-Flex is a great way to start. Right off the bat, with virtual 
unanimity, we can give the States the leeway they need to use their 
share of federal dollars to meet the needs of students. Around this 
flag, we should all rally.
  A second principle of Republican education reform is consumer choice.
  We believe that what is right and productive in every other sector of 
the economy is equally right--and will be equally productive--in 
schooling. So we renew our commitment to consumer rights and choice in 
education: whether through Senator Coverdell's tax-free education 
savings accounts, or Senator McConnell's expansion of tuition savings 
plans; or through Senator Session's Class Act extending those plans to 
non-government colleges; or through Senator Kyl's plan to provide 
parents financial breaks to supplement their children's educational 
needs; or through the Emergency Scholarships and other lifelines we 
should extend to low-income families.
  A third principle of Republican education reform is equality 
teaching. Senator Mack's bill on teacher testing leads the way in that 
regard, along with our other proposals for teacher training and merit 
pay.

[[Page 642]]

  Those three principles, and the issues to which we apply them, come 
together in the largest education bill that will come before the 106th 
Congress: the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act, universally known as the E.S.E.A.
  In the cafeteria fare of education bills, this one is pizza with the 
works, even the anchovies. Over the last 33 years, we have spent more 
than $120 billion through the ESEA. Its reauthorization during the 
106th Congress will be our opportunity to assess what has gone right, 
or wrong, in that process--and to adjust the ESEA to meet the 
challenges of a changing society in a new century in an unpredictable 
world.
  Senator Jeffords, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor and Pensions, will introduce the reauthorization of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act as the second bill of the 106th 
Congress.
  Our third bill, S. 3, is a tax cut, introduced by Senator Grams, 
Senator Roth, and others. To be precise, a 10-percent reduction in 
personal income tax rates. Hence the bill's title: the Tax Cuts for All 
Americans Act.
  Whatever justification this may need in the Congress, it requires no 
explanation to the American people. They are overworked and overtaxed 
to meet the demands of government. Senate Republicans want them to keep 
more of what they earn.
  We believe it is wrong--morally wrong--to make the American family 
pay more in taxes than it spends on food, clothing, housing, and 
transportation combined. So we propose to reduce their tax burden while 
making government smaller, smarter, and more efficient.
  Our fourth bill, S. 4, is the Soldiers' Bill of Rights, to be 
introduced by Senator Warner and his Republican colleagues on the Armed 
Services Committee. This bill represents the determination of Senate 
Republicans to rebuild America's national security by restoring the 
readiness and morale of our Armed Forces.
  In other words, it is a small symbol of an enormous commitment.
  At the end of the last Congress, the administration proposed to deal 
with military retirement by robbing the military's readiness funds. 
That was a terrible idea. It made no sense to offer our servicemen and 
women a little better retirement while depriving them of the 
wherewithal to defend themselves and their country. So we blocked that 
dishonest ploy, and we promised to address the problems of inadequate 
military pay and retirement early in 1999. Enactment of this bill, S. 
4, will fulfill that commitment.
  I caution, however, that this legislation must be only the beginning 
of a larger effort to reverse the decline our Armed Forces have 
suffered under the current administration. That's going to be a tough 
job, and a long one, both in the appropriations process and in 
authorizing legislation. But we owe it to our country--and we owe it to 
the men and women in uniform--to start that job now, in the 106th 
Congress, so that America can enter a new century with renewed strength 
and security.
  Crucial to that effort will be the actual deployment of a missile 
defense system that will protect this country from attack.
  President Clinton's opposition frustrated our efforts on this in the 
105th Congress. This time around, I hope he will work with us to enact 
Senator Cochran's National Missile Defense Act.
  The fifth bill on our agenda, S. 5, deals with the personal safety of 
the American people. But in this case, the threat to their security 
comes from within.
  The danger is the plague of narcotics. It has become a clear and 
present danger to our families, our neighborhoods, and even to the 
security of our Nation.
  To combat that danger, Senators DeWine, Abraham, Ashcroft, Grassley, 
and Hatch will introduce the Drug Free Century Act. That title says it 
all. Our goal is nothing less than laying the groundwork for the day 
when our country will be free of the curse of drugs. Some will think 
that is too high a goal, and that Senate Republicans are unrealistic in 
pursuing it. We are not unrealistic; we are undaunted.
  For more years than I like to recall, the Federal Government has 
tried to reduce the drug plague. And indeed, there was some success, 
specifically during the Reagan and Bush presidencies.
  But its one thing to trim the claws of the narcotics monster, and 
quite another thing to break its loathsome back.
  That is what we propose to do, step by step, with a bill that deals 
with virtually every aspect of both the domestic and the international 
fight against drugs. It will impact the operations of most of the 
federal government, from the Justice Department to the Pentagon, from 
the State Department to the Coast Guard. It addresses some of the most 
pressing questions on national drug policy, including the sentencing 
differential between powder cocaine and crack.
  Drug traffickers and their allies in certain foreign countries will 
not like this bill, nor will the creeps who peddle drugs to school 
kids. But parents, teachers, and law enforcement officers will cheer 
it. For its passage will be a clear signal, throughout this country and 
around the world, that we are serious about winning the war on drugs.
  Mr. President, these five pieces of legislation--four introduced 
today, and one awaiting a draft from President Clinton--lead the 
Republican agenda for the 106th Congress. But they are not the whole 
story.
  They set the foundation I mentioned earlier--the foundation of 
opportunity, security, responsibility, and freedom--and we are going to 
build on that foundation in many ways.
  Along with the Drug Free Century Act, we will be moving against 
juvenile crime, following the lead of Senator Hatch and his colleagues 
on the Judiciary Committee. And in tandem with the House, we should 
consider legislation that will prevent Federal judges from turning 
loose hardened criminals in violation of their own sentences.
  On another front, we will soon--by March 1 at the latest--receive the 
recommendations of our Bipartisan Medicare Commission, and we hope to 
act on that report.
  Even sooner, I will bring to the Senate floor the first major reform 
of the budget process since it was established in 1974. Our reform 
package will put an end to the threat of Government shutdowns and stop 
the abuses of what is dubiously called ``emergency spending.''
  We hope to schedule early action on a vital piece of legislation, the 
Water Resources Development Act, under the leadership of Senator 
Chafee, chairing our Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  We will move ahead with a Patients' Bill of Rights that will protect 
individuals without undermining the integrity and efficiency of our 
health care system.
  And we will continue to uphold the right to life, by advancing again 
a ban on partial-birth abortions, as proposed by Senator Santorum and 
the Child Custody Protection Act, proposed by Senator Abraham.
  To the legislation I have already outlined must be added a score of 
other matters, from bankruptcy reform and financial services reform to 
export expansion and trade reform, especially with regard to 
agricultural products.
  And we intend to build upon our landmark welfare reforms by 
strengthening families, communities, and religious institutions. We 
should undertake nothing less than the renewal of civil society.
  It will take both compassion and common sense to revitalize those 
areas of our country where the American dream has been no more than a 
slogan. One approach is to foster the public-private partnerships that 
can best address the real needs of our communities and enable them to 
overcome crime, drug abuse, poverty, and educational decay.
  That is an agenda of hope and dignity that acknowledges that the 
solutions to America's problems will ultimately come, not from the 
Congress or the White House, but from the people.
  Granted, the renewal of civil society will be a heroic enterprise, 
but Americans are equal to it. Today, on behalf


of the Republican Members of the Senate, I pledge that we will do our 
part to make the 106th Congress, not so much the finale to the troubles 
and trials of the 20th century, but the threshold to a new American 
era.

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