[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Page 28706]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     HONORING GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I congratulate my colleague for his 
remarks on the bankruptcy bill.
  I think one thing--while it is not necessarily appropriate to 
recognize on the bankruptcy bill--we should recognize is the inability 
of our Federal Government to honor the sanctity of contractual 
commitments. I can think offhand of the agreement that was made by the 
Federal Government some two decades ago to take the high-level nuclear 
waste by the year 1998. The ratepayers paid something in the area of 
$15 billion into that fund for the Federal Government to meet its 
contractual obligation. The pending lawsuits are somewhere between $40 
billion and $80 billion. Obviously, the Federal Government doesn't set 
a very good example.
  This is not necessarily apropos to bankruptcy, but it is apropos to 
the theory that we pay our bills, that we honor the sanctity of our 
contracts. The old saying is, ``Charity begins at home.'' The 
Government should set the example.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in morning business 
for approximately 30 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I thank the Chair.

                          ____________________