[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18981-18982]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 18981]]

                   ISSUES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF 1999

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, this is the last week before we go on 
recess. We will be gone approximately a month. We will have an 
opportunity to be home, to talk to our constituents about the issues 
that are here, to talk about what we have done during this calendar 
year, and talk about what we have not done for this year as well. We 
will be back, then, the first part of September. We will have, 
probably, 2 months to continue and to complete our work for this year.
  There are 13 appropriations bills that must be passed to keep the 
Government running. They must be passed by September 30, the end of the 
fiscal year. This is a very difficult task. We are, hopefully, running 
on time. We passed eight bills out of the Senate. However, none has yet 
been sent to the President. So we will have a couple of months to wind 
up the year's work. I cannot tell you how important it is that we do 
complete that work. Of course, the Presiding Officer is the key Senator 
in that regard. He has done a great job.
  We do not want the President to be able to put us in a position again 
of closing down the Government and blaming the Congress. I hope what we 
do is get these bills to him. I think we will do that. I cannot help 
but mention as we think about this a little bit, I hope in Congress we 
take a look at a biennial budget, as we have in many States--for 
instance, my home State of Wyoming. The Congress or the legislature 
would form a budget for a 2-year period of time, which has advantages, 
particularly for the agencies, and we would have the other year for 
oversight, which is equally as important a task for the Congress--to 
oversee the expenditure of those dollars. So I hope we are able to do 
that.
  This has been a tough year. We have had lots of difficulties, 
starting, of course, with the impeachment process, which was difficult. 
I don't know that it slowed us up particularly. On the contrary, we did 
a lot of committee work during the time the impeachment was going on. 
Nevertheless, it was tough. Then came the Colorado Columbine situation, 
of course, the tragedy out there at the school and, with that, the 
great controversy over gun control, which we are likely to see again 
now after the tragedy in Georgia. Then Kosovo was also an issue, of 
course, although Congress really was not as involved. It was pretty 
much the President on his own, committing troops there. Obviously, we 
were going to support them.
  So it has been a difficult year. Despite that, it seems to me we have 
accomplished a great deal. I am a little disappointed that most of the 
accomplishments have been made without the support of the minority. Our 
friends on the other side have, in fact, opposed nearly everything that 
has been done--I think, unfortunately, often more to create an issue 
than to create a solution. That often is the choice we have; you can 
cook up something you can take home to talk about in political 
rhetoric, as opposed to trying to find some solutions.
  But we have accomplished a great deal. Much of the controversy will 
continue, I suppose. There are legitimate differences of view when we 
are on the floor on almost every issue. Generally, the issue is the 
larger issue of whether or not you want more and more Federal 
Government, more and more Federal regulation, more and more taxes--
which is basically Senators on that side of the aisle as opposed to 
this side of the aisle, where we are looking for limited government, 
where we are looking for less regulation, where we are looking for an 
opportunity for people to spend more of their own money.
  So basically, when you get down to it in almost all these issues, if 
you really pare it away, that is the debate. Legitimate? Yes, indeed, 
it is legitimate. I happen to be on the side of being more 
conservative, of thinking we ought to be moving more and more of these 
decisions back to the States and to the counties rather than deciding 
everything, one-size-fits-all, at the Federal level. But these are the 
differences, and they are the basis for most of the things we find in 
conflict. We have had less cooperation from the administration than I 
had hoped we would have, from that side of the aisle. I think the 
President is seeking to change his image so the politics become more 
important than the movement of the congressional budget.
  Let's review some of the highlights. The most recent one, of course, 
is the passage of tax relief, something I think is very legitimate, 
perfectly logical. We went through great debates about it, of course. 
One of the keys, naturally, is that you have to talk about reduction of 
taxes after having done something to save Social Security, having done 
something to strengthen Medicare. That is part of the program. That is 
not the choice.
  We see these polls that are run from time to time. They say: Would 
you rather have Social Security protected or would you rather have tax 
relief? That is not the issue. That is one of the things we worked at. 
All of us are setting aside this surplus that comes from Social 
Security for the preservation of Social Security. These funds which 
will be used to reduce taxes and give some tax relief are beyond that.
  I think one of the best illustrations is the Member who had three 
dollars--three dollar bills. This is basically the surplus we are 
looking at in the next 10 years, $3 trillion, each of these. Two of 
them are being set aside for Social Security. Tax relief constitutes 
about 75 percent of the third one, with the additional amount of the 
third one being set aside for spending and for Medicare. The press has 
not been very helpful, of course, trying to get that understanding. But 
in any event, I think that is a real movement forward.
  The thing one also has to keep in mind is, if there is money lying 
around here, it is going to be spent. It is going to be spent enlarging 
Federal Government. So if you go back to that original thesis, you go 
back to the original notion that you would like to move activities back 
closer to people, you do it that way rather than bringing more and more 
money here that inevitably will be spent increasing the size of 
Government.
  I think we have some hope there. Both Houses have passed some tax 
relief. We will see if we can find a way to put that together, 
hopefully this week. Then it will be up to the President to say whether 
he wants to spend more and more money, wants to spend $1 trillion on 81 
new programs, or let the American people have an opportunity to spend 
some of their own.
  Education? Our position again has been that the decisions that are 
basic to elementary and secondary education ought to be made closest to 
the people. They ought to be made by the States and by the school 
boards. Sure, we have an obligation to provide some financial help, but 
the Ed-Flex program that was passed by this Senate allows those 
decisions to be made more at home.
  I can tell you, the delivery of education is quite different in 
Wyoming or different in Alaska, the State of the Presiding Officer, 
from what it is in New York--and properly so. But to make that work, 
then, the local people have to have that opportunity. We have done that 
with Ed-Flex, and we had some other educational programs.
  I feel fairly strongly about some of the Federal involvement. My wife 
is a teacher. She teaches special ed and spends almost half of her time 
on paperwork because of the kinds of Federal programs that are 
involved. So we are making some movement to change that.
  The military fulfills what is obviously one of the principal, if not 
the principal, obligations of the Federal Government, to provide for 
the safety and protection and defense of this country. Over the last 
number of years, the administration has increasingly reduced the amount 
of resources there.

[[Page 18982]]

At the same time, we had more demands on the military than we had 
before. They are not able to conduct their mission on the amount of 
resources that have been available. I was very disappointed it took a 
congressional committee to press and push and demand from the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff to really get down to whether they are able to carry 
out their mission with the resources they have. The answer was no. So 
we have moved to make some additions to that, in the first step for a 
very long time.
  The other thing is, if you are going to have a voluntary force, you 
have to make it fairly attractive to be in the military, and after 
having trained people to do technical things like flying airplanes or 
servicing airplanes, they have to stay in the service and do that. So 
we need more of that kind of support.
  Social Security? For a very long time no one would talk about Social 
Security. It is the third rail of politics--touch it and you are dead. 
Now, finally, everyone does understand that you have to do something 
different if, indeed, your purpose is to maintain the benefits that are 
now going to beneficiaries and to provide an opportunity for young 
people, who are beginning to work and put their money into the fund, to 
have some anticipation of having benefits for themselves.
  We have to make some changes. The sooner those changes are made the 
less severe they will have to be.
  The President has been talking about saving Social Security for 
several years. He has no plan. He has done nothing except talk about 
it. We now have a plan. There is a bipartisan plan on this floor. There 
has been a lockbox amendment to preserve Social Security funds. It has 
been opposed on the other side of the aisle five times, but we are 
going to move forward on Social Security.
  VA funding: The administration has for several years requested a flat 
budget for VA health care but at the same time has expanded the 
eligibility for people to utilize those facilities. We find, for 
instance, in my State we have two facilities, but they are 
underfinanced and are not providing the kinds of services to which 
veterans are entitled. More money needs to be provided, and we are 
going to do that. The Republican budget this year had an additional 
$1.7 billion for veterans' health. It is something that is very 
important.
  Patients' Bill of Rights: We passed a Patients' Bill of Rights that 
did not involve the Federal Government, did not involve lawyers and the 
courts making the decisions but indeed guaranteed emergency services 
without having to go through some kind of clearance. It guaranteed, if 
you felt as if you were not getting the services, an appeal to a 
physician, not to a lawyer or to a court, and that was passed.
  Medicare: We moved to doing something with Medicare. A bipartisan 
commission was set up and they have a reasonable plan for Medicare, but 
the President asked his folks whom he appointed to serve on that 
commission to vote against it, so it did not come out as a commission 
report and as a commission recommendation. We are going to take that, 
basically, and move forward and do something on Medicare.
  We are moving toward the end. We have some very difficult issues to 
deal with, particularly in appropriations. We have to deal with them. 
We will deal with them. I am hopeful we will also have some kind of a 
relief valve so that if we get through and cannot come to an agreement 
with the President that it goes on as it has and will not let that 
political technique be used again. I hope we find a little less 
resistance from our friends on the other side in terms of finding 
solutions to these problems.
  I also hope--and this is a philosophy, I admit--that as we go forward 
we continue to understand the greatness of this country. And it is a 
great country. If you have had a chance to travel about a bit, you find 
it is the greatest. Each time I have a chance to go somewhere, I come 
back thanking God this is the place in which I live. But it is a great 
country not because of the Federal Government. There is a legitimate 
role for the Federal Government, of course, described, by the way, in 
the Constitution, but the real strength of this country lies in its 
communities and in its individuals who have the freedom to make 
decisions for themselves. They have the freedom to get together and do 
things that are required to be done in their communities to make them 
healthy.
  Admittedly, I come from a State that is unique. Maybe we are the 
lowest populated State now. We are one of the largest States. The 
delivery of services is quite different, whether it be airlines, 
whether it be electricity, whether it be education. We cannot have this 
one-size-fits-all situation.
  Again, I am pleased with what we have done. I say to the Presiding 
Officer that he has had one of the most difficult tasks of leadership 
in the Appropriations Committee and has done a good job.
  I hope we will continue to provide an opportunity for us to come 
together to resolve our problems so that we can continue to have the 
opportunity to serve, to let communities make some of their decisions, 
and we will continue to be the greatest country in the world.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana is recognized.

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