[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CRITICAL ISSUES

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues and our leadership on 
both sides of the aisle to find a way for us to work together to 
address some of the critical issues facing this country. We have in 
conference now on a highway bill, a transportation bill that is 
important for economic development, for the creation of jobs, and for 
safety. I hope the conference will not become so obsessed with 
achieving the highest possible funding level that we wind up not 
getting a bill. It takes leadership and courage. It also takes being 
willing to accept what you can get, and get a conclusion that is good 
for everybody and move forward.
  We need an energy bill. The very idea that we still do not have a 
national energy policy is indefensible. Yet we continue to labor over 
how do we get an energy bill, what is in the package, and how are we 
going to get back to the floor of the Senate. We need to find a way to 
do that.
  The very idea that there is an effort to block the FSC/ETI JOBS 
growth bill, which involves a ruling by the WTO which has led to 
American products being hit with a penalty in Europe, and that we are 
not going to go to conference until we get some guarantee of what the 
result will be or that one Senator will be able to decide the 
conference report, what have we come to? We should get this bill in 
conference and get a result. Does it need to be changed? Yes. Has it 
become bloated? Absolutely. But if we don't deal with this, American 
products are going to wind up facing a penalty of 12 percent or more 
before we get a chance to address it again. It could go up to 17 
percent. We are not going to deal with the job growth provisions in 
this legislation. We need to find a way to get it done.
  I hope our leaders will find a way to get these conferences going or 
get us into conference and get a result, because we need to get this 
done for the American people. I know it is a political season--
Presidential campaigns, Senate races, and congressional. I still 
maintain, as I always have, that the best politics is results. Get 
things done for the people. There is plenty of credit to go around.
  If we stand here and find a way to question each other's motives and 
block and obstruct and confuse, we are going to pay a price as an 
institution. I worry about that.

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