[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Page 27843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



CONFERENCE REPORT FOR THE DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, 
THE JUDICIARY, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL FOR THE FISCAL 
                               YEAR 2000

 Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, on October 20, 1999, the Senate 
passed the conference report for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, 
and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for 
fiscal year 2000. I thank the conferees for their hard work in putting 
forth this legislation which provides federal funding for fighting 
crime, enhancing drug enforcement, and responding to threats of 
terrorism. This bill also addresses the shortcomings of the immigration 
process, funds the operation of the judicial system, facilitates 
commerce throughout the United States, and fulfills the needs of the 
State Department and various other agencies.
  For many years, I have tried to cut wasteful and unnecessary spending 
from the annual appropriations bills--with only limited success, I must 
admit. Nonetheless, I will continue my fight to curb wasteful pork-
barrel spending, and I regret that I must again come forward this year 
to object to the millions of unrequested, low-priority, wasteful 
spending in this conference report. This legislation includes $535 
million in pork-barrel spending. This is an unacceptable amount of 
money to spend on low-priority, unrequested, wasteful projects. 
Congress must curb its appetite for such unbridled spending.
  Pork-barrel spending today not only robs well-deserving programs of 
much needed funds, it also jeopardizes social security reform, 
potential tax cuts, and our fiscal well-being into the next century.
  The multitude of earmarks buried in this proposal will further burden 
the American taxpayers. While the amounts associated with each 
individual earmark may not seem extravagant, taken together, they 
represent a serious diversion of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars to low 
priority programs at the expense of numerous programs that have 
undergone the appropriate merit-based selection process. Congress and 
the American public must be made aware of the magnitude of wasteful 
spending endorsed by this body.
  For the Department of Commerce, there is $400,000 for swordfish 
research. For the Department of Justice, there is $1 million for the 
Nevada National Judicial College. For the Department of State, there is 
$12.5 million for the East-West Center in Hawaii, and for the Small 
Business Administration, there is $200,000 for Rural Enterprises, Inc., 
in Durant, Oklahoma. I have compiled a list on my Senate website of 
these examples and other numerous add-ons and earmarks in the report.
  Mr. President, we must continue to work to cut unnecessary and 
wasteful spending so we can begin to pay down our debt and save 
billions in interest payments. We have an obligation to ensure that 
Congress spends taxpayers' hard-earned dollars prudently to protect our 
balanced budget and to protect the projected budget surpluses. The 
American public cannot understand why we continue to earmark these huge 
amounts of money to locality specific special interests at a time when 
we are trying to cut the cost of government and return more dollars to 
the people.
  Mr. President, it is a sad commentary on the state of politics today 
that the Congress cannot curb its appetite to earmark funds for 
programs that are obviously wasteful, unnecessary, or unfair. 
Unfortunately, however, Members of Congress have demonstrated time and 
again their willingness to fund programs that serve their narrowly 
tailored interest at the expense of the national interest.

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