[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19070-19073]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES 
         APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006--CONFERENCE REPORT--Continued

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I would inquire of the Chair the order of 
business now is the Interior conference report; is that correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I am pleased to bring before the Senate the 
conference report of Interior, Environment and Related Agencies for 
fiscal year 2006 . This bill provides more than $26 billion for the 
Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. 
Forest Service, the Indian Health Service, and a number of other 
agencies that play vital roles in protecting our Nation's natural and 
cultural heritage.
  Conferencing this bill with the House was not an easy matter, to say 
the least. The bill, as a whole, is close to $600 million below the 
fiscal year 2005 level. Our conference allocation was $50 million below 
the Senate's original allocation, and we have had to shoehorn both 
House and Senate priorities into that reduced amount. To hit our 
number, we had to eliminate or reduce a number of items in the Senate 
bill that I would have preferred that we had kept. I suspect the House 
has similar feelings about some of their priorities, but we made these 
choices in as fair a manner as possible, both from the House and Senate 
perspective and the majority and minority perspective.
  Lest I sound too negative, let me be clear that there are some good 
things and important things in this bill. We improved upon the budget 
request in a number of places, such as tribally controlled schools and 
Indian schools and hospitals and the community colleges that are 
located on our several reservations across the country. We have 
increased funding for our national parks. We preserved funding for 
local park programs. As my colleagues know, that was zeroed out. We 
have boosted funding for a number of Forest Service programs that 
received pretty rough treatment from the White House in their budget 
request.
  This bill also provides an additional $1.5 billion for veterans 
health care, funding that is sorely needed to ensure that our veterans 
receive the kind of care they so richly deserve. Given the continued 
sacrifices being made by our men and women fighting in Afghanistan and 
Iraq, it is an honor to have the Interior bill serve as the vehicle for 
this critically important funding.
  Finally, I want to thank my ranking member, Senator Dorgan from North 
Dakota. Not only are we neighbors in our home States, but we are 
neighbors here also and work in cooperation. Without his leadership, we 
could not have completed this bill. He has been a tireless champion for 
the tribally controlled community colleges and Indian health care and a 
number of other programs in this bill. Throughout the conference 
report, there is ample evidence of his hard work and his advocacy.
  Let me also thank the majority and minority staffs of the 
subcommittees. I do not think we thank our staffs enough. They work 
long hours, crunching numbers, getting them to balance, and working to 
figure out where do we take what and put it where. They have been 
working for weeks producing this bill and then just several hours to 
produce this conference report. Conferencing with the other body is no 
easy matter, and I appreciate the staffs' work to get us to this point.
  I urge my colleagues to support the conference report so we can 
devote our attention to other spending bills that await us. We have a 
great deal of work yet to do on appropriations bills, so I am quite 
happy to get this one out of the way.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Montana.

[[Page 19071]]




                               Dru's Law

  Before I comment on this piece of legislation, let me mention that 
last evening we passed a piece of legislation called Dru's Law, that 
deals with sexual predators. I did not say, and I should have last 
evening, that Senator Dayton, Senator Coleman, Senator Conrad, and 
others were cosponsors. But especially, although I mentioned Senator 
Specter, I did not say that Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania played a 
very significant role. I want to make sure the Senate and the American 
people understand that Senator Specter played a very significant role, 
not only being an original cosponsor with me of Dru's Law, but also 
allowing it to pass the Senate last evening. I thank him for his 
wonderful leadership.
  This Interior appropriations bill was a hard bill to get done because 
we have over one half billion dollars less in spending than the 
previous year. If anybody asks is anybody cutting any spending any 
place, you don't have to ask beyond this bill. This bill cuts one half 
billion dollars plus out of what we are spending in the current fiscal 
year. That means we will spend half a billion dollars less in the next 
fiscal year. It is not easy to put a bill together under those 
restraints, but we did it. It is not a perfect bill. Some things in it 
I feel good about, some I feel not so good about. I will talk about 
that in a moment. This bill carries the $1.5 billion appropriation for 
veterans health care. That is very important. We need to keep our 
promise to America's veterans. This country cannot fight wars and ask 
young men and women to serve their country if we do not demonstrate we 
are going to keep our promises. One of those promises is providing 
veterans health care to those who served.
  No one has been more tireless, no one, perhaps, has offered more 
amendments on the floor of the Senate on this subject--relentlessly, 
over time--than my colleague from Washington, Senator Murray.
  I yield 4 minutes to Senator Murray.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington is recognized.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator, the ranking member, 
and chairman of the Interior appropriations bill for their 
accommodation on this.
  The Senate has done the right thing now for American veterans. I 
stand in support of this bill because it does represent a step in the 
right direction for our veterans. Today when we pass the Interior 
appropriations bill, it will include my amendment to fix the VA's 
funding shortfall by providing $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2005. This 
victory is long overdue and I thank Senator Craig, Senator Hutchison, 
Senator Akaka, Senator Feinstein, Senator Burns, and Senator Dorgan for 
their work on this critical issue within this bill.
  I want to make sure, however, that the VA uses this money in the way 
Congress intended. As the author of this amendment, I can tell you 
these dollars have to go to helping our veterans. They cannot be used 
for budget shell games to make the VA look solvent and they should not 
be used for red tape or accounting tricks and they should not be used 
as a rainy day fund. The money we have put in this bill is there to 
help veterans get the medical care they need. It should be used to end 
the hiring freeze, to provide mental health services for our veterans, 
and expand the VA's outpatient clinic initiative.
  I want my colleagues to know I am going to be watching to make sure 
this money is used in the way we have all voted for it to be used. Now 
that we have taken care of the shortfall for fiscal year 2005, we have 
to turn our attention to fiscal year 2006. I want to make sure we do 
not make the same mistakes that left our veterans so vulnerable this 
year.
  I have to say I am very troubled by what I hear coming out of the 
administration so far. With all of our new veterans returning from Iraq 
and Afghanistan every day, this problem is only going to get more 
severe. Veterans funding has not kept up with medical costs. When 
adjusted for inflation, the VA is spending 25 percent less per patient 
than it did in fiscal 2000. That is having a huge impact on our 
patients and on VA health care personnel. In my home State of 
Washington, at the VA's American Lake facility, you can only get an 
appointment now if you are 50 percent or more service-connected 
disabled. In Puget Sound, as of January there was an $11 million 
deficit, forcing our VA hospital to leave positions vacant. The VA has 
dedicated, highly professional employees and they work very hard every 
day to help our veterans. We have to make sure the VA system helps them 
do that and not get in their way.
  Now as we look toward fiscal year 2006, I want to be clear that 
veterans need real funding, not budget games. Congress cannot accept 
gimmicks such as forcing higher fees and copayments on our veterans and 
calling that new revenue. Any plan that increases the burden on our 
veterans is a nonstarter in my book.
  What is needed now is for us to step up and meet our responsibility 
to our men and women in uniform and that requires an infusion of cash 
to stop the bleeding at the VA, and a real investment toward assisting 
our veterans. Now is the time we have to come together and provide the 
needed dollars so our veterans have the quality accessible care they 
need and they deserve.
  The security and integrity of our Nation depends on our willingness 
to keep our promise to our veterans. We have all heard of the military 
reports that recruiting is not meeting its goal, and each day we limit 
veterans' access to care, we are sending the wrong message to the 
troops of tomorrow.
  As I have done before, I want to quote President George Washington, 
who knew that helping veterans helps America's security when he said:

       The willingness with which our young people are likely to 
     serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly 
     proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier 
     wars were treated and appreciated by their country.

  I call on my colleagues to support this bill and work with me to keep 
the full $1.977 billion in emergency supplemental funding for the 
Veterans' Administration for fiscal year 2006. We have to do everything 
to assist the VA with this funding now so we do not face future 
shortfalls. I hope everyone will continue to support that funding in 
the coming year as well.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator yields.
  Who seeks time? The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes, and more if needed, to 
the Senator from Texas, who has been a real champion for veterans 
benefits.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask that I be notified in 5 minutes, 
in case the distinguished chairman of the Interior subcommittee needs 
any extra time.
  First, let me thank the distinguished chairman and ranking member of 
the Interior subcommittee for assuring that their conference report 
came out in a timely way, not only for the Interior funding but 
especially for this veterans' funding which is fiscal year 2005 money, 
meaning it can be spent right away.
  We know there is a deficit at the VA because Secretary Nicholson told 
us there is a deficit. So I do thank Senator Burns and Senator Dorgan 
for coming forward and helping us with this extraordinary measure so 
the Veterans Administration will be able to have full flexibility to 
fill the coffers from which they have been borrowing, and also to go 
forward.
  I also thank those who have worked so hard to get the Veterans 
Administration the money they need. That would certainly be Senator 
Murray, who has just spoken, Senator Feinstein, my ranking member on 
the Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, and Senator Craig, 
who is the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. We have all 
worked together in a bipartisan way because, frankly, Secretary 
Nicholson came forward in a most forthright manner to tell us of the 
problems we had at the Veterans Administration.
  When we first started working on the supplemental appropriation, 
Secretary

[[Page 19072]]

Nicholson thought there was not a deficit in the Veterans 
Administration, that with the model they had always used they had 
plenty to cover until October 1. But in June when Secretary Nicholson 
learned that in fact they did not have enough to fully treat the new 
veterans coming into the system, he stepped right up and said we have a 
deficit and we need to fix it. He came to Congress to ask for the help 
to do that. I think it is admirable that Secretary Nicholson didn't try 
to fudge, he didn't try to sweep it under the rug. He came out.
  He took some heat for it. I saw some Members criticizing him, but I 
have to say I admire him. I think what he did was exactly the right 
thing to do. He is a veteran. He is a decorated veteran. And he is not 
ever going to sweep under the rug a deficit in the Veterans 
Administration. He also is going to spend the money wisely.
  So I thank everyone who helped bring this to the forefront. I have to 
say that OMB Director Josh Bolton also tried to be very helpful, giving 
us an amendment that would raise the limit we could spend on veterans. 
The total for both fiscal years will be approximately $3 billion. The 
total for getting through this problem we have for the fiscal year we 
are in is going to cost about $900 million, they estimate, to get to 
October 1 to finish this fiscal year--almost $1 billion, which we are 
giving them when we vote on this bill today and send it to the 
President.
  But in the 2006 budget, which we are now going to pass in the Senate, 
probably in September--this is the committee I chair--we have what will 
be another $1.5 billion, depending on how much is left of what we are 
passing today that can go into 2006. We believe it will be about half a 
billion dollars, so that the total would be the $1.977 that was 
mentioned earlier for fiscal year 2006. We will monitor this as we go 
into the new fiscal year to assure that the Veterans Administration for 
2006 has the full amount they need.
  I also thank the distinguished chairman and ranking member of the 
full Appropriations Committee. When Senator Feinstein and I went to 
Chairman Cochran and asked him for more money in our original 2006 
budget for the veterans part of the appropriations bill, he immediately 
agreed. He immediately agreed that we would get the money we need.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used 5 minutes.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Thank you, Mr. President. I will take the rest of the 
time.
  Senator Cochran and Senator Byrd stepped right up to the plate to 
assure that the veterans had their first boost of $1.2 billion. Then 
working with Secretary Nicholson and OMB Director Bolton, we now have a 
total of almost $3 billion more in additional funding for the veterans 
in both fiscal years.
  We are going to do right by our veterans. We appreciate that we have 
people with boots on the ground, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan 
today. They are fighting for our freedom. We will never let them down. 
The bill we are passing today, in addition to the Interior part of this 
appropriation, is going to fully fund Veterans for the fiscal year we 
are in and take us with a cushion into the next fiscal year so every 
veterans' clinic that is being built continues to be built, so that 
every veteran who walks in the door is going to get the care to which 
he or she is entitled, to assure that nothing falls through the cracks 
for our veterans. Our President would do nothing less. Our Secretary, 
Secretary Nicholson, will do nothing less. I assure you the Senate will 
do nothing less. We are going to do right by our veterans and the bill 
we are passing today is a start.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, first let me say a special thank you to my 
colleagues from the State of Washington and the State of Texas. They 
have said it well. Again, I am enormously proud our bill has carried 
this $1.5 billion for veterans health care. There is a verse that goes:

       When the night is full of knives, and the lightning is 
     seen, and the drums are heard, the patriots are always there, 
     ready to fight and ready to die, if necessary, for freedom.

  Our soldiers are our patriots and when they come back from duty, duty 
our country called them for, we must keep our promise for veterans 
health care and that is what this $1.5 billion helps to do.
  Let me for a moment talk about the underlying bill again. There are 
some good things and some things I wish were better in this bill. I 
compliment my colleague, Senator Burns from Montana and his staff: 
Bruce Evans, Virginia James, Leif Fonnesbeck, Ryan Thomas, Rebecca 
Benn; and also on this side, Peter Kiefhaber and Rachel Taylor.
  We worked very hard to put a bill together with over $500 million 
less money than in the past year. That was not easy.
  Indian Health Service--I regret to say, we are still underfunded. I 
am told we are funding about 60 percent of the need in Indian Health 
Service. We just must do better in the years ahead. We have 
responsibility for Federal prisoners' health care. We also have trust 
responsibility for the health of American Indians. We spend twice as 
much per person on Federal prisoners' health care than we do in per 
capita spending for American Indians for whom we have trust 
responsibility for health care.
  My colleague described the tribal colleges, and we have together been 
able to increase that funding for tribal colleges. That is a good 
feature in this bill. The reason we have done this is that it is a 
priority to help people step out of poverty and toward opportunity, and 
that comes from the tribal colleges. There are so many stories of 
people whose lives have improved by the ability to access tribal 
colleges.
  We have some other areas in the bill that I wish were better.
  BIA school construction, we need funding increases, not funding cuts, 
and yet the President's budget proposed very significant cuts and we 
were not able to add all of that back. Also building for new hospitals 
and health clinics is down. My hope is that in the next year, we can 
find a way to add back some funding in these critical Indian health 
areas.
  Having said all that, this is a big bill, dealing with so many other 
areas of the Government--EPA, the Forest Service, and so many other 
areas of Government. We have worked in a bipartisan way.
  Let me also say that Senator Byrd wishes consent to speak for 5 
minutes prior to vote on Interior at some point later this morning. I 
talked to the ranking member and also the chairman of the full 
committee.
  Finally, let me say the chairman of the full committee should 
understand that this is the first time in 17 years that we have gotten 
to the Senate floor this early with an Interior appropriations bill. 
The last time Congress passed an Interior appropriations bill this 
early, those pages who serve in the Chamber were not yet born. So I 
think that says something about the leadership of Senator Cochran and 
Senator Byrd, who are the two leaders on the Appropriations Committee, 
and I for one like the notion that we are going to make the trains run 
on time in the appropriations process. It is the right thing to do and 
the right way to do it, and I am very blessed that in the month of 
July, we are in the Chamber passing this conference report. So hats off 
to Senator Cochran and Senator Byrd as well.
  Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor and yield back the 
remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I do not know whether we have any more time 
remaining. The time has been set aside for Senator Byrd. Seeing no one 
to speak on this bill, I will yield back the remainder of my time also.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator want to make a formal 
unanimous consent request for the Senator from West Virginia?
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I thought I had done that, but if I have 
not asked that consent, I so ask.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BURNS. I yield back my time and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.

[[Page 19073]]


  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, will the Senator withhold?
  Mr. BURNS. Yes.

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