Max Baucus

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Craig- Rockefeller amendment be added to the list of amendments still in order tonight.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Craig- Rockefeller amendment also be added to the list of amendments still in order. And that will be it.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, the Senate is not in order. We are making a lot of progress tonight, and we will make even greater progress if the Senate stays in order.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask the Senator if he can limit his remarks to 3 minutes, too.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I wonder if we can proceed with the second amendment. It was my understanding the Senator had one amendment and had a time agreement on it. Other Senators have come up, asking for consideration of their amendments. I do not want to inconvenience other Senators.

Mr. BAUCUS. I do not see the Senator from Washington on the floor to finish with her amendment. I ask that her time be reserved so she can offer it at an appropriate time, and the same for the time in opposition. So we can now proceed with the Senator from Illinois.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendments be laid aside so that the Senator from Arkansas, Mrs. Lincoln, may offer an amendment at the very least. If the time has now run and we are going to begin voting, at least she is next in the queue after the amendments that we have already listed.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I believe that there is still time remaining so that Senator Cantwell has an opportunity to speak on her amendment. In the meantime, I ask unanimous consent that the next amendments in order following the Cantwell amendment be the following: an amendment by the Senator from Illinois on FEMA, 30 minutes equally divided; the Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy, on poverty, 30 minutes equally divided; an amendment from the Senator from Rhode Island, Mr. Reed, 20 minutes equally divided; and an amendment by the Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Coburn, on the practice of medicine--there is no time limit at the moment on that one--and that thereafter there be 30 minutes equally divided on the Dorgan amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent to modify the previously adopted amendment No. 2647. I send the modification to the desk and I ask for its adoption.

Mr. BAUCUS. All things considered, Mr. President, I think it proper not to agree to the request at this point because the Senator from Massachusetts already spoke to us about an amendment of his, and that is in the queue. In fairness to other Senators, I don't want to inconvenience other Senators.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, was the last unanimous consent request agreed to?

Mr. BAUCUS. Let's make it 5 and 5.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask my good friend to cut that down significantly. We are oversubscribed in time. It is a zero-sum game. Extra time you take means less time for other Senators later on. I urge you to modify your request to a much lower number, please.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the substitute amendment. Let me first explain that this substitute does not contain everything we had hoped to offer. Some of the items that we cannot consider today, though, are extremely important to American families. They include the Lincoln-Snowe child tax credit fix. The Lincoln- Snowe provisions would ensure that the working poor can continue to receive this valuable credit. Regrettably, the threshold climbs each year. And the minimum wage remains stagnant. So these families receive a smaller refundable child tax credit each passing year. Another package we had hoped to include were a few incentives for military families. These include a provision to ensure that families with someone serving in combat can continue to receive the earned income tax credit. With the heavy strain that the Iraq war continues to put on military families, Congress can surely do more for these families. The substitute today does not address a few items for the Gulf States I had hoped to include. As I have said many times in the past few months, we must address the immediate needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf States. We cannot forget that the recovery in the gulf region is not over. It has hardly begun. People have lost everything and need help to rebuild their lives. That help has not arrived. We have more work to do in this Congress to make sure displaced families have access to health care, unemployment benefits while they search for work, childcare so they can get to work, and foster care services for needy kids. It is irresponsible to leave these people behind and move on to cutting taxes before we have completed our job of providing real relief to those that have been hurt by the storms. But for procedural reasons, we are offering a different substitute. I believe that this substitute is a better approach than the bill before the Senate today. I want to highlight some principles that we pursued in this substitute. And what we are not doing here is as important as what we are. Other than the disaster recovery incentives, we do not add to the deficit. That is an important distinction between our substitute and the bill before the Senate. I know that the majority leadership hopes that spending reconciliation cuts will occur at some point. But even if Congress does enact those highly controversial cuts, the bill before us today would still add to the deficit. This is exactly what Alan Greenspan warned us against last week: deficit-financed tax cuts. How can we face constituents who will see their food stamps or child support services cut? How can we tell them that we had to make those cuts to pay for tax cuts? How could we tell them that Congress cut their benefits for tax cuts that will not even take effect until several years down the road? Another thing that we do not do in this substitute is any extension of tax cuts that don't expire this year. The last 3 years have been the 3 highest deficits in the Nation's history. At some point, we need to do some belt-tightening. In all fairness, I support many of these tax cuts. I have cosponsored and voted for many of them. But we simply need to prioritize this year. We need to do what is urgent first. The bill before us today does not include the capital gains and dividends tax cuts. But we know that it may well appear at some point during this reconciliation process, especially now that the House tax- writers have chosen capital gains and dividends tax cuts to the exclusion of AMT relief. Some cite the $20 billion figure for the 2-year extension of capital gains and dividends cuts. But we are really talking about a $50 billion cost over 10 years. And that is the way that we usually score tax bills. There are some good items in the bill before us today, but I think in order to be a great bill, we must achieve fiscal responsibility. Our substitute not only meets all the budget numbers, it does better. The 2006 loss is below $11 billion, the 5-year loss is $20 billion, and the 10-year figure actually cuts Federal deficit by $6 billion. It comes down to timing, priorities, and fiscal responsibility. I urge my colleagues to support this substitute.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that immediately after the coming vote on the Conrad amendment, the next speakers and amendments be in order as follows: First, Senator Domenici be recognized to speak for 20 minutes; Senator Feinstein will be recognized to offer two amendments on which there will be a total of 30 minutes equally divided on the two amendments; following that time, that Senator Cantwell be recognized for the purpose of offering her amendment with respect to energy price gouging, and there be 60 minutes equally divided.

Mr. BAUCUS. And also that there would be no second-degree amendments and the vote would then occur immediately following the 40 minutes in relation to the Conrad amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we are moving along on the amendment offered by the Senator from North Dakota. I got clearance from the chairman of the committee to ask unanimous consent that there be 40 minutes of debate remaining on the Conrad amendment equally divided, 20 minutes in favor of those who are speaking against the amendment and then 20 minutes to be controlled by the Senator from North Dakota.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, this morning we intend to continue two major amendments from this side of the aisle. The amendment of Senator Conrad from North Dakota proposes a fiscally responsible substitute; the amendment of the Senator from Washington, Ms. Cantwell, is regarding energy price gouging. These are both very important amendments and an important debate. I ask consent the pending amendments be temporarily laid aside so Senator Conrad may offer an amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent to modify Reid amendment No. 2653 with the text I now send to the desk.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I would just like to know how much time has been yielded to the Senator from Utah, as well as how much time is remaining on the amendment offered by the Senator from North Dakota.

Mr. BAUCUS. I thank the Chair. (The remarks of Mr. Hatch are printed in today's Record under ``Morning Business.'')

Mr. BAUCUS. Parliamentary inquiry to the Chair.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum be rescinded.