[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5966-5967]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         THE BUDGET RESOLUTION

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could take a moment while Senator 
Daschle is present, I thank the managers of this legislation on behalf 
of all the Senate. Being chairman of a committee and ranking member of 
a committee always has its challenges. And when you manage a bill on 
the floor, any of them can present difficulties and take quite some 
time. But probably no bill is any more difficult than the budget 
resolution because you have so many different parts. You are dealing 
with mandatory programs, appropriated accounts, the aggregate numbers, 
and those categories, as well as what you are going to do with regard 
to tax policy. It is not an easy job.
  I must say that Senator Domenici, the chairman of the Budget 
Committee, and Senator Kent Conrad, the ranking Democrat on the 
committee, have done an excellent job. We really appreciate it. It has 
been long hours. But I watched you working last night and again this 
morning, and I am sure there are many Senators who would not have 
believed we would be where we are at this moment--20 minutes to 3--
having completed a bipartisan budget resolution.
  I am sure many of us would make changes and say it is not perfect, 
but in the years I have watched votes on budget resolutions--and they 
now go back over some 25 or 26 years since we first started the budget 
resolution--I only remember two or three times where it was really a 
bipartisan budget resolution. This vote of 65-35 was, I think, a good 
vote, a positive vote, and a good step toward completing our work this 
year on all the different components of this bill. So I congratulate 
you and thank you for your work.
  I say to Senator Daschle, would you like to comment?
  Mr. DASCHLE. If the majority leader will yield, I only add my voice 
to the majority leader's. He has spoken for both of us again in 
complimenting our chair as well as our ranking member.
  This is the first managerial responsibility, under our Budget 
Committee, that our ranking member has had. I must say, he has made us 
all proud and very grateful. He has done an extraordinary job. And his 
staff has been very helpful, as we worked through many of the 
legislative landmines we faced over the course of the last several 
days.
  I would also like to thank our Democratic whip, Senator Reid of 
Nevada, for the outstanding job he did in helping our ranking member 
and working through the many challenges we faced. He, as he always 
does, has been just a tremendous workhorse. Senator Reid deserves our 
thanks and our debt of gratitude as well.
  I thank the majority leader for yielding.
  Mr. LOTT. In conclusion, Mr. President, I would like to join in 
expressing appreciation for Senator Reid. We consider him the utility 
player for both sides. He does wonderful work. We do appreciate it.
  Also, I want to take note that Senator Domenici, as chairman of the 
committee or ranking member, has been involved in every budget 
resolution we have worked on since the law went into effect back in the 
1970s; and he has been the manager on our side 14 times.
  So we have the old pro here, and we have the new ranking member, and 
they both did a great job and worked together quite well. We do 
appreciate it.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I say to my good friend, Senator Kent 
Conrad, it is a pleasure working with you. I extend my congratulations 
for a superb job. It was a very difficult budget from the standpoint of 
both of us. In the last 36 hours, you and Harry Reid have been miracle 
workers. We very much appreciate your willingness to help us get 
through this, and get through quickly, so that our Senators can get on 
with their Easter recess and so that we could do something significant 
before we leave.
  Mr. CONRAD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, first of all, I thank the majority leader 
and the Democratic leader for their kind comments. It has been terrific 
working with them. I also want to highlight the work of the chairman of 
the committee who has done a very fair-handed job of managing the 
Budget Committee. We thank him for his fairness, and we appreciate very 
much the working relationship we have established throughout the year.
  I think our committee was one of the first to reach agreement in this 
power-sharing arrangement. And certainly here on the floor, Senator 
Domenici worked in such a constructive and gracious way. We appreciate 
it very much.
  If I might talk, for just a moment, on the reasons I voted in 
opposition to this budget resolution after these long hours of work. I 
would sum it up in the following ways.
  No. 1, I wanted to do more debt reduction than we ultimately did 
here. I wanted to reserve 70 percent of the forecasted surpluses for 
debt reduction. Unfortunately, we fell well short of that. So my first 
concern with what we passed is there is not sufficient debt reduction.
  My second concern is that after a detailed analysis of all the 
amendments that have passed, we are into the Medicare trust funds in 
the years 2002, 2005, 2006, and 2007, to the tune of $54 billion. As I 
enunciated when I laid down a budget alternative, I do not think we 
should use any of the trust funds of Social Security or Medicare for 
any year. So that would be the second reason I voted in opposition.
  The third reason was that the tax cut we are left with of $1.2 
trillion over the 10 years is simply too large to accommodate the kind 
of additional debt paydown that I believe is in the best interest of 
the country. Instead of paying down the publicly held debt to about 
$500 billion, this budget resolution pays down the publicly held debt 
to about $1.1 trillion. So I would have liked to have seen us pay down 
the publicly held debt by another $600 billion.
  Finally, Mr. President, in the option that I offered our colleagues, 
we reserved $800 billion to strengthen Social Security for the long 
term. This budget will fall far short of that at about $160 billion 
that is available to strengthen Social Security for the long term.
  So for those reasons, I voted in opposition.
  In saying that, I do want to indicate that we improved this budget 
substantially. From what we started with--from what we started with; 
not from my plan, but from what we started with--we reduced the tax 
cut, we increased the amount of publicly held debt paydown, and we 
reserved additional resources for improving education, for a 
prescription drug benefit, for our national defense, and for 
agriculture.
  So those were important improvements. I just would have liked to have 
seen us do somewhat better. I would

[[Page 5967]]

have liked to have seen us put more of an emphasis on debt reduction. 
But we will have other opportunities to make those points and other 
opportunities to vote on those priorities.
  I conclude by thanking all of our colleagues for their patience and 
their graciousness during this period.
  I also want to take this moment to thank the staffs who worked so 
hard during this period because these have been long nights and 
difficult days.
  I want to start with Mary Naylor, my staff director on the Senate 
Budget Committee, who did a superb job under difficult circumstances; 
and Jim Horney, who is also a top staffer, the deputy staff director 
for the Senate Budget Committee; Sue Nelson, who produced chart after 
chart that showed us where we stood at every juncture so we knew 
precisely where we were, which I think helped us make wise decisions; 
Lisa Konwinski, our counsel, who Lisa drafted amendment after 
amendment, not only for me but for our colleagues, and did a superb 
job; Sarah Kuehl, who has primary responsibility in the Social Security 
area; Steve Bailey, our tax counsel; Dakota Rudesill, who handles 
national security issues and national defense; Scott Carlson and Tim 
Galvin, who handle agriculture for the committee; Shelley Amdur, who is 
our education specialist; Jim Esquea and Bonnie Galvin; Chad Stone, our 
economist; Rock Cheung, who helped produce those charts, and I think 
helped us be more successful than we would have otherwise been; and 
certainly Karin Kullman, who joined the staff to help us do outreach to 
groups who were interested in the budget; and, finally, my terrific 
press team, Stu Nagurka and Steve Posner, who had their hands full.
  Goodness knows, I appreciate the work all of you have done. I 
appreciate very much the long hours you have put in and your real 
dedication. You have made me proud. I think you have helped us improve 
the budget for our country.
  I thank the staff on the other side, especially the staff director 
for Senator Domenici, Bill Hoagland, who is a class act. He deserves 
all of our thanks for the professionalism with which he conducts 
himself.
  Mr. President, again, I thank everyone who has made this an 
interesting first experience for me in my position on the Budget 
Committee.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

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