[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17420-17421]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SENATE AGENDA

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, looking at the agenda for September--others 
set the agenda and I understand that and I will support that--there are 
certain things we must do. We need to confirm Congressman Porter Goss 
to be head of the CIA. We need to look at the 9/11 Commission 
recommendations and see how much of those can be done in a responsible 
way.
  I know there will be some who will resist and will defend the status 
quo or worry about committee turf. But we have a problem. Our 
intelligence operation is not set up properly. We had failures as we 
went into Iraq. We should not try to deny that. We should acknowledge 
it. I commend our men and women in the intelligence community who do a 
great job. They are on the line this day in Afghanistan, Iraq, and even 
here in America. We should recognize that talent. We should be careful 
not to undermine the morale of those organizations. We have learned 
there is a problem with chain of command and how the analytical 
material is checked and double-checked. We know the Intelligence 
Committees in the Congress have not been set up in a way to do proper 
oversight. I can say that from experience, having looked at it from a 
leadership position, but also as a member of the Intelligence Committee 
for the last year and a half. It is not set up properly. Membership 
should be permanent, so that members not only can attend hearings, but 
understand what they are hearing, the dialog, acronyms and people, and 
burrow in and ask the right questions. This is not so that we will go 
native and become captive to the community, but so we will be able to 
ask the right questions. Even the staffing arrangement has to be 
changed.
  We have a limited period of time and, obviously, this requires taking 
up some of that time. I want us to act in this intelligence area, as 
far as how it is set up, in the executive and legislative branches. We 
may not be able to do it all in September, but let's do all we can and 
then we can continue to work on it, provided, of course, we don't let 
the forces of the status quo rise up and prevent the necessary changes 
that I believe are called for. I am a strong advocate of reform across 
the board when it comes to our intelligence community.
  Of course, we have to deal with the appropriations bills in some way. 
I am pleased the leadership decided to call up the Homeland Security 
Appropriations bill. Certainly, other than defense, nothing is more 
important to fund as soon as we can and in the best way we can than 
homeland security. I hope we can get through that process in a 
reasonable period of time, knowing there will be some amendments to be 
offered. We should get that appropriations bill done.
  Beyond that, I am not sure whether we are going to have an omnibus 
appropriations bill or a continuing resolution or for how long funding 
will be continued. That will be left in the hands of others in the 
leadership and even the Appropriations Committee. But I want to talk 
about some other issues that don't always pop up when people are 
talking about what we should do in September.
  Yes, we should deal with the intelligence issue. We should do some 
confirmations--confirm Porter Goss. We should do some judges and 
appropriations. But there are an awful lot of other things that have 
not been done yet that we should complete before we go out. It is going 
to be very unattractive and, in fact, an admission of failure to do our 
job if we don't complete work on some of the bills that are in 
conference--for instance, the highway bill. I hear some talk now that 
we should extend the current highway authorization into next year. Why? 
We need those highway jobs this year.
  There are very few things we can do, if anything, that would create 
more jobs quicker than to pass a highway bill. There are highway 
projects, bridge projects and public transportation projects all across 
this country that can begin immediately and will put thousands of 
people to work. By the way, it would make our roads safer and would 
help with economic development. We are in conference. There have been a 
lot of discussions, but I don't know that we are going to be able to 
get it completed if we don't pick up the pace. If we don't, then I 
think that all involved should feel badly because the American people 
will not be well served if we don't do the highway bill and we put it 
off until after the election or even next year.
  I urge the leadership on that conference committee in the House and 
Senate, Democrat and Republican, to pay attention to this highway bill 
and get it done. It would be a huge achievement for the American people 
if we pass that bill before we go out. I am not incriminating any 
individuals, but I am going to feel very critical of the Senate and the 
Congress if we don't get that highway bill done before we go home 
again.
  I realize maybe it is futile now, but when are we going to get 
serious about energy? For 3 years we have been striving mightily to 
produce an energy bill.

[[Page 17421]]

We get tangled up on one issue or another, such as over whether we 
should drill in Alaska. Now it is over an additive, MTBE. Meanwhile, we 
don't have a national energy policy. When the price of a barrel of oil 
went to $48 and more, as it did, I began to ask why, and what are we 
going to do about it? I know that if we pass an energy bill in the 
morning, it would not immediately affect the price of a barrel of oil 
that much, but it would help our long-term energy security. I think 
this is an issue that is staring us in the eye and we are continuing to 
blink.
  Sooner or later we are going to pay an economic or a national 
security price if we don't stop our dependence on foreign energy, and 
oil specifically. I am very unnerved to think we depend on over 50 
percent of our oil coming from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela, and 
elsewhere. What if they cut us off for whatever reason? What would 
happen and how soon? I am tired of hearing excuses about why we didn't 
do it. I want to know how we are going to get it done. This bill came 
through committee, passed the Senate and the House, came out of 
conference and was passed by the House and came to the Senate, and with 
57 votes we stalled out.
  Here we sit with no clear path to getting an energy bill. A pox on 
all our houses if we don't do something about that. Some people say 
stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. I agree. We should not 
fill the SPR when the price of oil is as high as it is. That is a small 
part of what should be done. We need the whole package. And I want to 
say this: We need more exploration, more oil drilling, more natural gas 
wells, more coal, more hydroelectric power, and we need to perfect 
clean coal technology. We should have incentives for conservation and 
alternative fuels, the whole package, but here again the Congress is 
failing in doing its job by not passing an energy bill. We should do it 
before we go home for the election.
  Another bill I think is urgent that we pass is the so-called 
Jumpstart Our Business Strength, or JOBS, bill. It is a bill that is 
required because the World Trade Organization held that some of our tax 
policies were an unfair subsidization of our manufacturing. The World 
Trade Organization ruled that way. By the way, as a result of that, 
each month the tariff put on American goods by the European Union 
continues to go up 1 percent--it is now 11 percent, headed for 17 
percent--because we supposedly had an export subsidy. That subsidy 
should be eliminated and that money should be moved over into the 
manufacturing area in a way that would help keep American industry in 
America and create jobs.
  How can we not do this? Some people throw up their hands and say we 
cannot get it done in the next month; that the House and Senate bills 
are too big; that the Senate bill has too much in it, and they are too 
different; how will we ever merge them? I don't care. Throw them both 
out the door and come up with a different, smaller bill, one that gets 
the job done in conference, and do it now. The chairmen of the 
committees in the House and the Senate and the ranking members need to 
get this done. I don't see how in the world we can leave this session 
of Congress and not pass that JOBS bill and allow American products to 
be hit with an ever-increasing tariff of 1 percent increase every 
month, going up to 17 percent, and say we will see you later and we 
will get to it next year. I urge my colleagues, especially the 
leadership and chairmen of the committees and the ranking members, to 
find a way to get this bill done.
  Lastly--and I will yield the floor--some people are whispering that 
ugly phrase ``lame duck.'' I have been here 32 years. I have been 
through lame ducks and they are all ugly--to come back after the 
election, when Congress is filled with people who have retired and have 
been defeated, and may have a different vested interest, perhaps.
  Now I admit that on occasion, even though they were ugly, they were 
usually brief and we did something good. We did it during the Clinton 
administration. We did a very important trade bill and, I think, once 
in the late nineties, maybe we came back and did the omnibus 
appropriations bill and then left. But I am worried about the large 
amount of work being considered for a lame duck session this year and 
whether that would be in the best interest of the American people.
  Whatever we cannot get done in terms of appropriations, let's either 
do it in an omnibus bill for the entire fiscal year or do it through a 
continuing resolution until February. But the idea that we are going to 
come back in December and work right up until Christmas and fix what 
needs to be fixed in that period of time to me is a very dubious and, 
frankly, unwise suggestion.
  How can it be stopped? I had somebody in the leadership ask me that: 
Oh my goodness, we have other things we have to do; how can we avoid a 
lame duck session? Real simple, Mr. President. The two leaders in the 
House and the two leaders in the Senate say we are not coming back for 
a lame duck session. It is not in the best interest of the American 
people. Tell the appropriators to do what they have to do, but we are 
not coming back for a lame duck session. If we do not do that and we 
come back here, I dread to see it.
  I welcome my colleagues back. I hope everybody had a nice, restful 
August. I hope we get a lot done in September. I do not expect very 
much because there are a few distractions underway, but we are poised 
on the brink of being able to do some good things. If we could get a 
highway bill, an energy bill, the JOBS bill, we could all go out and 
take credit for it.
  I remind my colleagues of the same thing I said many times over the 
years to leaders, to my good friend from South Dakota--when you produce 
a product, everybody wins. When you don't call up a bill or you don't 
finish a bill, the American people lose, and that is where we are 
poised to go. Which will it be?
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.

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