[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12736-12738]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, no committee in this Senate works harder 
than the Appropriations Committee. We have been working for months on 
the supplemental appropriations bill. We held hearings, months ago now, 
on the supplemental appropriations bill, hearings specifically 
concerning budget requests for homeland security.
  The administration put its feet in cement and its head in the sand 
and adamantly opposed the committee's request, which was in writing, 
and signed by Mr. Stevens and myself, to have Mr. Ridge come up and 
testify so that the Appropriations Committee in the Senate, following a 
practice of 135 years of having witnesses appear in open sessions so 
that the people can hear what they said--the administration did not 
want that, and the President put a muzzle on his Homeland Security 
Director and said, no, he will not come.
  Mr. Stevens and I wrote a joint letter asking for an appointment with 
the President. We wanted to state our case. The President did not 
answer that letter. No. Some underling answered the letter.
  So we had to proceed. We did. We proceeded as best we could. The full 
committee had excellent hearings over a period of 5 days, with 
testimony from firemen, policemen, local health officials, also 
testimony from seven Cabinet Members and the Director of FEMA.
  So we proceeded as best we could. We put together a bill we thought 
was a good bill. Then, however, the President threatened to veto it 
because it had too much money, in his way of looking at it, too much 
money for homeland security. So there was the threat to veto the bill.
  Only this week--perhaps it was Monday--the President, in a speech, 
assailed Congress for ``delay'' in getting this appropriations bill 
downtown, saying the Defense Department is hard up for moneys. So Mr. 
Young, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Mr. Obey, Mr. 
Stevens, and I have been meeting. We met yesterday and we thought we 
had the whole thing pretty much wrapped up and that we could meet this 
morning in full committee and vote the conference report out, and send 
it back to both Houses for their judgments.
  Lo and behold! At 7 o'clock last night, here comes a request from the 
White House to hold up further action. They want to send up a different 
budget.
  So, who is holding up defense? The President, in a public speech, 
lambasts the Congress for not getting this appropriations bill to him 
sooner. We have been wanting to go with the President and get this bill 
on his desk, but he just has not supported the efforts of the 
appropriations members on both sides of the Capitol to move this bill, 
first withholding Mr. Ridge, who is the point man for the 
administration on homeland security, adamantly refusing to let him 
testify; then threatening to veto the bill. This is a difficult bill. 
The staffs work into the night around here on this bill; we try to work 
hard to get the bill down to the President. He assails the Congress for 
not sending the bill to him, saying that if he doesn't have it by a 
certain hour or day, it is going to affect the national defense, going 
to affect the military with personnel reductions and so on.
  So we were prepared today to have a conference. I want all 
appropriations members within the sound of my voice to know that the 
meeting is canceled. Canceled, why? I understand that Mr. Young is 
going to call me to tell me that it is canceled at the request of the 
Speaker of the House, who often acts at the request of the White House, 
I assume.
  Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. BYRD. I don't mean any disrespect to the Speaker. I am just 
saying how this is being put off. Yes, I will, just in a moment, if I 
may.
  I am upset about it. I am the chairman of this Appropriations 
Committee. I have never seen the appropriations process so meddled in 
and delayed by the White House. I know that Mr. Young is doing this at 
the request of the White House. They want to send up a new budget right 
at the last minute, 7 o'clock last night. Mitch Daniels, I understand--
--
  Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. BYRD. I will yield right in the middle of my sentence.
  Mr. STEVENS. I am sorry to do this, Mr. President, but my 
distinguished friend, our chairman, I think is implying that this was 
done at the request of the White House. That is not my information. It 
was a decision of the Speaker because the Office of Management and 
Budget has not delivered to us the information we need to close this 
bill. The Speaker asked, notwithstanding the White House request that 
we get the bill done today, that we wait until we get the information 
from the Office of Management and Budget.
  If the Senator will let me have one other comment, then I will yield 
back. I apologize for interrupting the distinguished President pro 
tempore, chairman of our committee, but the difficulty is this: We have 
faced such an

[[Page 12737]]

enormous demand from the Office of Management and Budget to adhere to a 
line, a top line barrier that the Office of Management and Budget is 
willing to accept, $1.6 billion from the airline bill, airline 
supplemental bill, stabilization bill, that expired.
  We have such a blind mindset down there about top lines that we are 
unwilling to look at reality. The reality is, the Senate and the House 
have worked, and we are almost closed, and now we are waiting for some 
more Enron-type offsets, offsets that are meaningless in order to 
justify this top line mentality with which we are dealing.
  From my point of view, I think we should go see the President. I am 
going to ask to see the President. I have been here 34 years, not 
nearly as long as my friend from West Virginia, but I, too, have never 
gone through a period as I have gone through on this supplemental. This 
is not worthy of the constitutional process at all, and it is time we 
had an understanding of what the role of the Congress is with regard to 
appropriations.
  Right now we face this demand, and because we wanted to get the bill 
out, we did meet with the Office of Management and Budget Director last 
night. Our staffs worked late into the night, and we came to an 
agreement about what we would do. But the Office of Management and 
Budget was to submit rescissions to us or at least changes in their 
budget by 8 a.m. this morning. They are not here.
  But the Senator from West Virginia is absolutely right, part of it is 
a reduction in defense. We fought to increase defense. Some of these 
offsets may make a little sense in this sense; that the supplemental 
was submitted to us in March and there certainly has been a series of 
months pass by that people were not paid to carry out the work that was 
covered by the supplemental. That would be a legitimate offset, if it 
were identified properly.
  We were told last night that there was such a list. When we asked to 
see it, it didn't appear. When we asked for it to appear here by 8, it 
was agreed to, to be here by 8. It didn't appear this morning either, 
hardly worthy of people who are working for the President.
  The only thing on which I cannot agree with my friend from West 
Virginia is that this is the President. The President is ill served by 
what is going on, in my opinion. I hope people understand: This is 
blind adherence to a line that was established--a crazy line, in my 
opinion--without regard to the needs of the country at all, and we are 
asked now to get down on our knees and really thank God for this list 
when it comes. But I have to tell you, my good friend, I am up to here 
with this process. People know I have a short fuse anyway. I hope to 
calm down before I see the President, but I do thank the Senator from 
West Virginia for yielding to me.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from 
Alaska. He is precisely on point. If I have presumed to err in my 
judgment as to what was going on exactly in the process and have cast 
any reflection on the Speaker of the other body, I apologize for doing 
that.
  My colleague is correct: This Office of Management and Budget, as far 
as I am concerned, is just above my ears. Upon what meat doth this our 
little Caesar feed? I am talking about Mitch Daniels, the Director of 
OMB. He is always meddling, always meddling in the Congress, in its 
work and in appropriations. Not only that; he is always lecturing the 
Congress. I have never mentioned his name publicly until now. But I am 
fed up to my ears also.
  The appropriations process is being mangled. It is being maimed. It 
is being murdered at the hands of someone who is not elected by the 
people of this country. What bar of judgment does he stand before?
  I repeat, ``Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed that he is 
become so great?''
  I want to voice my disappointment in the circumstances that have 
brought about a cancellation of this appropriations conference today. 
If I have said something amiss here, which Mr. Stevens felt I might 
have, I certainly apologize for that. But I am just fed up. I am tired. 
I am tired of this mangling of the appropriations process. Here is this 
outfit, blows into town like a tornado and they are going to change the 
tone in Washington. And the tone has been changed. It is to the nth 
degree worse than what it has ever been before. I wish the President 
would step in and stop this interruption, this mangling of the 
appropriations process, this meddling by his Office of Management and 
Budget director, and stop that bigmouth down there from constantly 
meddling in appropriations bills and criticizing the Congress.
  That man, Mitch Daniels, is not elected by anybody. I hate to say 
this about a man. I like him personally, but he just goes too far. I am 
tired of it. We have Members who had planned to leave town, who 
canceled their trips, believing they were going to have this meeting 
this morning and that we would wrap up this appropriations bill and 
send it down to the President.
  I don't want to hear anybody in the administration accusing the 
Congress of delay in passing this bill. It is on their table. Let them 
come into court with clean hands before they attack the Congress.
  I am sorry to my colleagues for taking so much of their time. I am 
sorry profusely, I say, to the members of the Appropriations Committee 
who were here and who made changes in their day's schedule on the 
presumption that we were going to have a conference. I don't know when 
we will have a meeting. I suppose it will be soon.
  I hope those Senators who are attempting to hold up the military 
construction bill, because of the need for moneys to help their States 
and districts in the case of floods and fires and drought, will desist. 
That is what a supplemental is for. We have a supplemental now. Let's 
do something about the drought, the fires, and the floods in this 
supplemental. It is my desire, as chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee, to get all of these appropriations bills passed by the 
beginning of the new fiscal year. We are going to do that. Mr. Stevens 
and I worked hard on this.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  Mr. REID. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The clerk will continue 
calling the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk continued with the call of the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection----
  Mr. REID. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The clerk will continue 
calling the roll.
  The legislative clerk continued with the call of the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  Mr. REID. I object, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The clerk will continue 
calling the roll.
  The legislative clerk continued with the call of the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[[Page 12738]]



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