Spencer Abraham

Mr. ABRAHAM

Mr. ABRAHAM. The Senator from Michigan, the lead sponsor of this, has very little time left.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, because we had a little bit of confusion in the order of speaking, I propose at this point a unanimous consent agreement which would allow first the Senator from Pennsylvania to speak on our amendment for up to 10 minutes, to be followed by the Senator from Georgia to speak for 5 minutes on the amendment, and then we would go back at that point to the other side. We had thought we would start since we offered the first amendment on this side of the aisle.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Let me say this. We have offered that to the Senate to be considered. One of the cloture votes which was offered was on the House lockbox when they passed it. And once again, on party lines, we came to the well of the Senate and our effort to pass that bill was prevented. All I am saying is we would like to have a final up-or-down vote on this. That is what we are asking for.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, at this point, on behalf of myself and the managers of the bill, I yield up to 15 minutes to the Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. ABRAHAM. I am going take back my time actually, Madam President. I am the only person who has been on the floor tonight who has not spoken. The Senator from Montana had two opportunities to speak. I refrained because we had so many speakers on our side. I would like to summarize. I have a feeling the debate is not over on this topic and we will have other opportunities. I just want to say we brought up the House lockbox on the floor. It was prevented from moving forward. We brought up the tougher version, the Senate version we are offering tonight. We have not had a chance, because of procedural impediments, to vote on it. One proposal I hope might be followed up on is a simple one. Tomorrow maybe neither side should impose procedural impediments, and if one or the other version of this gets a majority of votes in the Senate, then let's move it forward. I suspect that will not happen. I am not going to ask anybody to answer that tonight. But tomorrow I may make a pitch and an appeal to our colleagues to let each side have their vote. If one or the other of these lockboxes gets 51 votes, let's move it forward. Let's give the American people what they want. That is a lockbox to protect Social Security. Madam President, to me that makes sense. To me it certainly is consistent with what voters in our States want, what people who pay payroll taxes want. It is overdue. This Senator will come back, if he has to, time after time, well into the night if we have to, to make this case. But it is a simple one--are we or are we not going to really protect the Social Security dollars, that are sent to Washington, from being spent on anything other than Social Security? I say we should. I think we should use a tough lockbox to make sure that happens. We have a chance tomorrow to vote on these two lockbox proposals. I say, if one of them gets 50 votes, that ought to be good enough, if it is true we all want a lockbox. If it is not true, then we will be back again as we have been over the last 3 months, endeavoring to find a way to finally get the American people that which they want. But, in closing, as we examine this issue, as we consider the next 10 years, if we are really going to have, as current projections indicate, almost $2 trillion in Social Security surpluses, and if we do not do something soon to protect this with a lockbox, those dollars are going to start to be spent. There will be great arguments made for cutting into portions of it this year and the same will happen next year, as has been happening for so many years already. This Senator is doing everything he can to try to make sure those efforts to take money out of the Social Security trust funds for other programs do not happen any longer. All this debate which has gone on for 3 months has done nothing more than delay and keep open the possibility that Social Security money would be spent on other things. I do not believe we should let that happen. I think we should pass a lockbox tomorrow. If somebody gets 50 votes for their proposal, then my recommendation is we should not use any procedural impediments to prevent that proposal from happening. The President says he wants it. Even the House has passed a version, not the one we are offering, but they passed one nonetheless. So let's go forward. If somebody gets 50 percent let's move this issue out of the Senate and on towards final completion. I gather my time is up, and I appreciate the debate that has happened this evening.

Mr. ABRAHAM. How much time remains?

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I yield up to 15 minutes to the Senator from New Mexico.

Mr. ABRAHAM. I believe under the previous order we will now set that amendment aside so that the Senator from Montana may be recognized to offer an amendment.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, under the unanimous consent agreement which was agreed to earlier, I now send an amendment to the desk.

Mr. ABRAHAM. I yield 1 minute.

Mr. ABRAHAM. I ask unanimous consent reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. ABRAHAM. I will not use all that time. First, I thank the manager of the bill, Senator Roth, for his patience and the support tonight in this debate. I thank all the Senators who have spoken on our side, to argue, once again, for the Social Security lockbox. We have been doing this now for almost 3 months. I assure our colleagues will continue to do this as long as we have to. I suspect again tomorrow procedural impediments will be placed in the way of our efforts to try to protect the Social Security surplus, even as everyone in this place makes at least verbal assertions that they want to protect that surplus. But we will keep trying. Whether or not we have 60 votes tomorrow, we are going to continue this battle until it is won. Every single Member of the Senate, I think, hears from their constituents what this Senator hears when I am back in Michigan; an ongoing and ever increasing level of frustration that our seniors, as well as almost anybody who pays money into the Social Security fund, has with the notion that we spend those dollars on anything other than Social Security. We have tried to make this a simple issue from the very beginning. We have tried various forms of this lockbox. We have offered different types of amendments to try to address concerns that have been raised. Each time, procedural roadblocks have been placed in our way. My understanding and expectation is that they will be placed in our way again tomorrow. But the bottom line is that--and I agree with the Senator from Montana--that Republicans do want to cut taxes more than Democrats. There is not much disagreement about that around here. That, I believe, reflects a clear distinction between us. And we Republicans want to protect Social Security with a tough lockbox, the very lockbox that has frequently been criticized tonight because it is so tough. The question is, where is the beef? The answer is in our lockbox. It is so tough that in fact we have been criticized for making it too tough. That is where it is. It is in the teeth we have put in the lockbox. We are going to try again tomorrow. We are going to try tomorrow to pass this lockbox proposal in a form that will absolutely guarantee that Social Security money sent to Washington by people who pay payroll taxes is protected from any spending of any kind. The budget that has been offered by the President is a budget that actually spends over one trillion new dollars of that surplus over the next 10 years. We say those choices, as to how that surplus ought to be spent, should reside in the hands of the people who earned the money and paid the taxes and sent them to Washington. We say take all the Social Security money, protect it in a tough lockbox, and then let's return 25 cents out of every surplus dollar to the men and women in our country who earned those dollars in the first place. As I have tried to indicate tonight, we have endeavored, on six previous occasions, to try to pass this lockbox. In each case procedural impediments have been placed in our way to prevent it from happening. We would just like to have a chance to have an up-or-down vote. If we have 50-plus votes, then we will have a Social Security lockbox. Hopefully we will get that chance.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Missouri.

Mr. ABRAHAM. I yield up to 10 minutes to the Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. ABRAHAM

Mr. ABRAHAM. I thank the Senator from Maine for her remarks, and for the important work she has done to repeal this measure. As the overwhelming vote nearly one year ago illustrates, there is near unanimity in the Senate on this issue, and I salute the Senator from New Hampshire for his outstanding ongoing support, and his willingness to insert provisions addressing this problem into the underlying Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Bill.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Our border policy with Canada has served us well, and is a symbol of the close relationship between our two countries. The border with Canada is the longest continuous open border in the world, and our close friendship should not be clouded by a needless bureaucratic exercise. Moreover, numerous jobs, jobs held by Americans in Michigan and elsewhere, would be lost if Section 110 is implemented. The effect on tourism and on just-in-time deliveries would inhibit the flow of goods and people in a way that would hurt the economics of many states.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Thank you, Senator Gregg, your efforts are deeply appreciated by the American people.

Mr. ABRAHAM. The Senator is correct. Those of us who represent states bordering Canada know well the immense volume of tourism and trade that passes through our states from our neighbor to the North. The implementation of Section 110 would cause gross delays to all those crossing the Northern border from Canada, and ultimately have a disastrous impact on the Northern economy as critical trade and travel routes are slowed. It would also harm states along the Southern border as well.

Mr. ABRAHAM

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, before we proceed, I ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to Sandy Davis, a detailee from the Congressional Budget Office working with the staff of the Budget Committee, during consideration of S. 557.

Mr. ABRAHAM

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, today the Senate will immediately begin debate on cloture to the Social Security lockbox legislation for 1 hour, with a vote to occur at approximately 10:30 a.m. For the information of all Senators, that vote will be the only rollcall vote during today's session of the Senate. Following the vote, Senator Coverdell will be recognized for 1 hour of morning business. Senators Kerrey and Breaux will be in control of the second hour. I thank my colleagues for their attention.

Mr. ABRAHAM

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, how much time does the majority have?

Mr. ABRAHAM. We are not.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I gather the Senator from New Jersey does not choose to yield time at this point.

Mr. ABRAHAM. The Senator from Missouri is yielded whatever time he needs.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Then I yield up to 5 minutes to the Senator from Wyoming.