[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 42-44]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          AGENDA FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF THE 107TH CONGRESS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I came to this Chamber just as we opened 
the session to welcome back our colleagues and staff and all of those 
who are so much a part of this great institution. I reiterate that 
welcome again this afternoon. I am sure we all hope this new year and 
this new session will be constructive and productive.
  Much has happened in the weeks since we adjourned. In the war on 
terrorism, President Bush and his national security team continue to do 
a superb job. And our men and women in uniform continue to inspire us 
with their heroism and their success.
  Closer to home, workers in New York continue to clear away the 
wreckage at ground zero. At the Pentagon, rebuilding is already 
underway.
  In Princeton, NJ, a tiny 15-day-old baby girl--the daughter of Scott 
and Lisa Beamer--is living proof that the spirit of the heroes of 
United flight 93 will never die.
  And just yesterday--more than 3 months after the largest bioterrorism 
attack in our Nation's history forced it shut--the Hart Senate Office 
Building finally reopened.
  Those are all reasons to be hopeful about this new year. But there 
are also reasons to be concerned. In all, there are now more than 8.3 
million Americans who want to work but do not have jobs. The collapse 
of Enron has cost thousands of Enron employees their jobs--and their 
retirement savings. Tens of thousands of other Americans who have 
invested part of their retirement savings in pension funds have also 
been hurt by Enron's implosion.
  In South Dakota and all across America, people are working hard to 
raise their children, pay their bills, and maybe, if they are lucky, to 
put something away for the future. Our job this year is to help them, 
by strengthening our national security, our economic security, and the 
security of our democratic institutions.
  As we begin this new session, we face two significant challenges. The 
first is fiscal. Last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated 
the Federal Government would run a $5.6 trillion surplus over the next 
decade. This morning the CBO released new reports showing that $4 
trillion of the projected surplus has disappeared in the space of just 
7 months.
  Instead of surpluses every year from now until 2011, current 
projections indicate that even if you include the Social Security and 
Medicare surpluses, the Government will run deficits at least in the 
years 2002 and 2003. And it will be forced to use $1.2 trillion in 
Social Security and Medicare trust funds over the next decade to pay 
for other essential Government programs. That is before we add one 
penny for the Medicare prescription drug benefit or strengthen our 
military or increase our investments in homeland security, education, 
or other critical priorities. It is also before we add one penny for an 
economic recovery package.
  The second challenge we face is ideological. There are some who 
predict we will accomplish little this year because of our genuine 
differences in philosophy on many issues and because this session is so 
short and the stakes in the November elections are so high. But we do 
not have to accept that prediction. Important issues do not have to be 
insoluble. The new education bill we passed last year is proof of that.
  Six days from today President Bush will deliver his first State of 
the Union Address. Six days after that, he will send the Congress his 
budget proposal. Democrats will give the President's proposals very 
careful and respectful consideration. He deserves every aspect of 
respect and care that we can give his budget.
  Today I would like to say a few words about what we see as our 
priorities for the coming year. And I might say that we look forward to 
working with the President and with our Republican colleagues to find 
principled compromises on each of them.
  The first thing we need to do is finish our work from last year. We 
should start by passing an economic recovery plan that will create jobs 
and get America's economy moving in the right direction again.
  Both the Democratic and Republican economic recovery plans are more 
than 75 percent tax cuts.
  Over the holidays, the Congressional Budget Office analyzed all of 
the major economic recovery proposals and indicated that the least 
helpful would be repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax and 
speeding up the income tax rate reductions passed last summer.
  Earlier this month, in an effort to get the negotiations moving 
again, I proposed two new business tax cuts for every company in 
America that creates new jobs or invests in new equipment and 
technology. But today, I offer another proposal for breaking the 
impasse.
  There are four ideas that appear in every major economic plan--
Democratic and Republican. The first is to extend unemployment benefits 
by 13 weeks. Republicans and Democrats have suggested that.
  The second is to provide tax rebates for workers who did not get a 
rebate the first time. Again, both Republicans and Democrats have 
offered that.
  The third is to provide bonus depreciation to encourage business 
investment. Again, both groups have proposed that.
  And finally, the fourth is to provide fiscal relief for States to 
help them avoid cutting critical services--especially health care--or 
raising taxes during the recession.
  I hope we can at least take up these four measures immediately. If 
there are others for which there can be agreement--perhaps New York 
assistance, perhaps the extenders, perhaps other issues--where we can 
find common ground, I would like to be able to do that. I hope we can 
do it this week.
  I have begun talking with Senator Lott, and he has been extremely 
responsive in his desire to try to find a way to move this legislation 
along. I commend him and thank him for that.
  Later on this afternoon we will offer a unanimous consent request 
that will accommodate Senators' wishes to offer amendments but also, I 
hope, Senators' desires to get something done. So I am hopeful we can 
accomplish that this week.
  I might add, we have a very limited period of time. We have a couple 
of days this week. And because of agreed-to schedules, we only have a 
couple of days next week. And then we have just 2 weeks after that 
before the Founders' Day recess. In that period of time it would be my 
hope we could do the economic recovery, the election reform, the farm 
bill, and an energy bill as well.
  That is a lot to do, but if we can make every day count--beginning 
with this one--I think we can do it. I am hopeful Republicans and 
Democrats can work together to ensure that happens.
  As I said, we also need to finish the farm bill. We do not need 
another year or another month to know we have to build on what has been 
done already.
  Since the Freedom to Farm bill was passed in 1996, farm income has 
dropped 25 percent. USDA now warns that unless we pass a new farm bill 
or more emergency assistance quickly, farm income could drop another 20 
percent this year alone.

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  The farm bill is economic recovery for rural America. So we ask that 
we can work together again on this legislation. Let's work to pass it 
immediately. Let's go to conference. Let's resolve our differences. And 
let's get this legislation on the President's desk.
  As I noted, the President shares the view that Republicans and 
Democrats have advocated with regard to energy. We need a national 
energy plan. The administration has proposed a plan which relies a good 
deal on adding to production. Their view is that we drill on certain 
sensitive lands on which I personally have some objection. The House-
passed version of that plan would add $34 billion in tax relief for 
energy companies.
  What Democrats would do is have a balance between the need for new 
production and what we ought to do with conservation and with 
alternative energy development. Let's reduce America's dependence on 
not just foreign oil but on oil, period. That ought to be part of the 
debate we have on energy.
  There is a lot of work to be done in a very short period of time. I 
hope we can do all of that in the time we have allotted for these very 
important bills.
  We also need to pass terrorism reinsurance. Efforts to solve this 
complex problem last year were impeded by some who sought to use this 
issue to push other extraneous issues. This year we will need to work 
together to assess the real needs of the marketplace and provide real 
solutions--the sooner, the better.
  Our second responsibility is to continue to lay the foundation for 
long-term economic growth. An essential part of that foundation is 
expanded trade. Last month, the Finance Committee passed a bill that 
gives the President expanded trade promotion authority and addresses 
important labor and environmental issues related to trade. The 
committee also passed a bill to expand trade adjustment assistance, 
including assistance for farmers who are displaced by global trade.
  Early this year we will bring to the Senate floor a fast-track bill 
that includes both of these essential components, and I hope we will 
pass it with broad bipartisan support.
  Expanded trade was a key factor in the economic boom of the 1990s. 
Other key factors were fiscal discipline and increased productivity 
made possible by advances in technology. To keep America's 
technological edge, we should take final action on the Export 
Administration Act this year. We should expand broadband Internet 
access and work to make it universal, the same as telephone service, 
this year. We should find a way to make R&D tax credits permanent this 
year, and we should build on the bipartisan success of our new 
education bill passed last year by expanding opportunities to go to 
college or attend a training program and by working toward full funding 
of the Individuals with Disabilities Act so that children with 
disabilities can develop their skills to the fullest potential. After 
all, the minds of our young people are our best hope for long-term 
economic growth.
  Our third responsibility is to increase families' economic security. 
We should raise the minimum wage $1.50 an hour over 2 years so people 
who work full time don't have to live in poverty. In 1996, we changed 
welfare programs to say if you are able-bodied, you should work. Since 
then we have seen dramatic decreases in the State caseloads and 
increases in the number of people moving from welfare to work. For too 
many families, however, moving off welfare has not meant moving out of 
poverty. We need to strengthen welfare reform this year and make sure 
people who move from welfare to work have access to affordable child 
care, transportation, and health care so they can actually make a 
better life for themselves and their children.
  We need to expand affordable health coverage to uninsured Americans. 
We need to pass a real, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights. Insurers 
should not be able to deny medical care once you get sick, and 
certainly they should not be able to deny care or coverage based on the 
results of genetic tests that indicate you might get sick someday.
  President Bush says he opposes genetic discrimination. We hope to 
work with him this year to prohibit both employers and insurers from 
using genetic test results as a basis for discrimination and to prevent 
disclosure of genetic information to banks, employers, and anyone else 
who has no legitimate need for information.
  The collapse of Enron has left thousands of former Enron employees 
suddenly fearful of growing old in poverty. For every Enron worker, 
there are tens of thousands of workers in other companies who worry 
that they could share the same fate. We have a responsibility to look 
at everything from Federal rules governing 401(k) pension plans to 
corporate disclosure requirements under securities laws, to accounting 
reforms and whether the accounting industry's self-regulatory system is 
sufficient.
  We need to learn what happened and then work together to prevent it 
from ever happening again. We must also work together this year to 
protect, not privatize, America's public retirement system, Social 
Security, and Medicare, and to add real prescription drug coverage to 
Medicare. Half measures such as voluntary discount cards that just push 
the costs off on pharmacists and provide little savings to seniors are 
simply not adequate.
  Our fourth responsibility is to strengthen homeland security. On 
September 11 and when the anthrax letter was opened in my office, we 
saw how devastating it can be when terrorists are able to slip through 
the holes in our homeland security. We need to work in a bipartisan 
manner to close those holes as quickly as possible.
  We were puzzled during the debate on economic recovery when some 
insisted that strengthening our homeland defense was not an emergency. 
We are pleased by new reports that indicate the administration has now 
decided to devote real attention and resources to homeland security, 
and we will certainly work with them to do so.
  Our fifth responsibility is to strengthen the security of our basic 
democratic rights and institutions. That includes the right of every 
American to vote and have that vote count. A year ago, we had just come 
through the most difficult Presidential election in our lifetimes. 
Since then, Senators Dodd, McConnell, Bond, Schumer, and Torricelli 
have come up with a bipartisan plan to strengthen our election system. 
I intend to bring their bill up as soon as possible. The American 
people are asking--fairly, I believe--whether our campaign system is 
part of the reason Enron was able to do what it did. Whether that is 
true or not, the mere suspicion that it might be true is damaging to 
our democracy.
  House supporters need only three more signatures on a discharge 
petition to bring the Shays-Meehan bill to the floor. I expect they 
will get those votes and pass a good, comprehensive campaign finance 
reform bill this year. We must change the system now.
  One of the heroes who defied the hijackers on flight 93 was Mark 
Bingman, a gay man. His courage may have helped save this very 
building. This year we should have the courage to pass ENDA, the 
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and prohibit employers from 
discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. We must also pass 
the bipartisan bill expanding the Federal hate crimes law to include 
gender, sexual orientation, and disability, and to provide greater 
protections against crimes motivated by racial and religious bias.
  Scott Beamer will always be remembered for those final brave words: 
``Let's roll.'' His new daughter Morgan, born just 15 days ago, is 
probably the best known of the babies born to fathers who died in the 
September 11 terrorist attacks. But she is not the only one. So far 
there are 17 such babies, including a pair of twins. By summer there 
will be 40 more babies born to fathers who died in the September 11 
attacks. Every day in America, 11,000 babies are born.
  Last year was one of the saddest in our Nation's life. As we begin 
this new session, with its new challenges and new opportunities, let us 
remember those who died on September 11. But

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let us also remember the children they left behind, some of whom they 
never even had the chance to see or hold. Let us also remember the 
other children who are depending on us to pass on to them an America 
that is filled with as much hope, freedom, and possibility as the 
Nation we inherited from our own parents.
  Let us resolve together to find a way to meet the most important of 
all of our responsibilities. I am confident that we can.
  I look forward to working with our Republican leader, as I have 
always done at the outset of a new session of Congress. This year is 
certainly one of those years again.
  I thank my colleagues and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.

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