Kit Bond

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 9:30 a.m. on Friday, September 24. Further, I ask unanimous consent that on Friday, immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of the VA-HUD appropriations bill.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period for morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. The Senator from Pennsylvania is correct. I know how important these projects are to you and veterans in Pennsylvania. While I cannot guarantee an outcome, I will do my best to secure design funds for these projects when we meet with the House in conference on the bill.

Mr. BOND. I thank the senior Senator from Pennsylvania for his kind remarks and for his leadership in urging an additional $1.7 billion for veterans health care. I also commend my friend for his leadership as chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs in urging medicare subvention for veterans and for gaining Senate approval of increased funding for the GI education bill.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I very much appreciate the Senator bringing this to the Senate's attention. I agree that this matter should be resolved swiftly. I would encourage and expect the EPA to, over the next several months, find a way that is fair to all sides. In addition, I would expect that any remedy would ensure that the States maintain control and input in addressing air pollution problems through the SIP process. I would be happy to work with the Senator from Alabama to ensure that EPA is fully responsive to these legitimate problems. veterans' health care

Mr. BOND. I thank the Senator from Hawaii for the question. NSF's core mission indeed includes basic research in the behavioral and social sciences, and, let me make it clear, it is my expectation that NSF will continue its strong investment in these areas. Any efforts to narrow NSF's mission to exclude these sciences or to target them for reduced support would jeopardize the development of the multidisciplinary perspectives that are necessary to solve many of the problems facing the Nation.

Mr. BOND. I yield for a question from the senior Senator from Hawaii.

Mr. BOND. I appreciate the Senator's interest in these new ``shared ride'' programs which a number of agencies are trying to implement. I understand NASA is trying to get this definition clarified, but that process is taking some time. I think we should support NASA's efforts by addressing this issue in conference report language, and I look forward to working with the Senator to address this issue in conference. the national science foundation

Mr. BOND. I appreciate the diligence of the Senator from Oklahoma in his oversight. As the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee, I will also pay close attention to the implementation of this law. reducing space transportation costs

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 at 10:00 a.m. to conduct a hearing on S. 1587, a bill to amend the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 to establish within the Department of the Interior an Office of Special Trustee for Data Cleanup and Internal Control and; S. 1589, to amend the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994. The hearing will be held in room 485, Russell Senate Building.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the Senate will reconvene tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. On Thursday morning, it is expected the Senate will resume consideration of the Interior appropriations bill to complete the last remaining issue on that legislation prior to final passage. In order to resume the oil royalties issue, it may be necessary to have several procedural votes in the morning. All Senators should be prepared for early morning votes on Thursday in order to complete the Interior appropriations bill. Again, those votes are expected to begin shortly after 9:30 a.m. In addition, the Senate will resume consideration of the VA-HUD appropriations bill, with the hope of finishing that legislation as well. Votes will, therefore, occur early tomorrow morning and throughout the day.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess under the previous order.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until the hour of 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, September 23.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Colorado. His active involvement, through his committee and with his staff in helping us deal with these problems, has been of significant benefit. We truly appreciate the close working relationship we have with members on both sides of the authorizing committee. As I indicated before, this is a very difficult set of questions that deal with HUD. They do involve and require the participation and guidance of the authorizing committee. We are most grateful to the Senator from Colorado for all his assistance. Amendment No. 1744 (Purpose: To provide an additional $600,000,000 for the Veterans Health Administration for medical care and to designate such amount as an emergency requirement)

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I think we have seen the legislative equivalent of Newton's second law: For every action, there is a necessary reaction. When our colleagues in the House cut the earth sciences program, it was predictable that with the leadership of Senator Mikulski, that money would be restored. The law works, and I commend Senator Mikulski for being a very effective and persuasive advocate for earth science. I am prepared to offer a committee leadership amendment, but the distinguished chairman of the authorizing committee for housing has other commitments, and I now defer to him to make a statement on the bill, after which I expect the leaders of the committee to join us in offering an important committee amendment.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I am pleased to present the fiscal year 2000 VA-HUD-independent agencies appropriations bill to the Senate. This legislation provides a total of $90.9 billion in budget authority, including $21.3 billion in mandatory budget authority and $82.3 billion in outlays, while covering a variety of Federal interests from veterans, housing, the environment, basic research, to advances in space. This has been a very tough year, as I believe all our colleagues know. We have waited a long time to bring this bill to the consideration of the full Senate. I express my sincerest thanks to my chairman, Senator Stevens, the ranking member of the full committee, Senator Byrd, and to my colleague, the ranking member from Maryland, for their hard work and commitment to ensuring that the VA-HUD appropriations subcommittee has enough funding to meet the minimum needs of our many important programs. However, with 2 weeks before the end of the fiscal year, we are on a forced march to complete Senate action and provide a conference agreement to the Senate for consideration. I believe the bill before the Senate is a good bill under the constraints imposed by budgetary limitations and a fair bill with funds allocated to the most pressing needs we face. Let me emphasize we balanced our funding decisions away from new programs and focused instead on the core primary programs in our bill on which people depend. We listened very carefully to the priorities of our colleagues in this body. While not everyone is happy, nor could they be, we believe the bill is equitable. Clearly, we were not able to provide fully what each Member requested. Let me note that we received some 1,400 requests from Members of this body, but we attempted to meet the priority needs. Before describing what is included in this legislation for each agency, I wish to extend my sincerest thanks to Senator Mikulski, the ranking member of the VA-HUD appropriations subcommittee, for all her hard work and cooperation in putting this bill together. It is not possible, without the good working relationship that we have, to deal with such a complicated bill. Let me add at the beginning, and I will repeat it again, my sincere thanks also to Senator Mikulski's staff, Paul Carliner, Jeannine Schroeder, Sean Smith, as well as my staff, Jon Kamarck, Carrie Apostolou, Cheh Kim, and Joe Norrell. The contributions of the staff to this process have been invaluable. Anybody who has watched the staff work on a major bill knows how much time, effort, energy, pain and suffering is endured at the staff level to bring a bill to the floor. The VA-HUD fiscal year 2000 appropriations bill is crafted to meet our most critical needs for veterans, housing, the environment, basic scientific research, and advances in space. As I noted, total spending in this bill is $69.6 billion in budget authority and $82.3 billion in outlays. This is roughly the same as the President's overall request in the VA-HUD appropriations subcommittee but distributed with some significant differences. Unlike the President's budget, the highest priority in the recommendations before the Senate is VA medical care. In the bill before the Senate, we have increased this amount by $1.1 billion above the President's request. Many Members have heard from veterans for some time about their concerns about the VA budget. They have been hearing their local VA hospital may terminate critical services, increase waiting times for appointments, maybe even shut down altogether. Members have expressed concerns about the need for additional medical care funding. The Vice President recently told our Nation's veterans they wished to provide more money, but so-called Priority 7 veterans were not going to get care any more. We asked VA to do an indepth field survey to find out what the President's budget as originally submitted would mean. We found there would be major cutbacks in services, denial of services for some veterans, closing of facilities, reductions in force totaling as many as 13,000 employees and, what is most important, denial of critically needed care to thousands of veterans. We are absolutely not going to let that happen. It is wrong. Overall, the VA budget totals $43.75 billion, an increase of $1.1 billion more than the President's request. In addition to medical care, funds were added to the veterans State home and State cemetery grant programs to meet the tremendous backlog in these programs and ensure that we meet the needs of our aging veterans, honoring those who are deceased in a dignified and respectful manner. VA's full request for additional funds for the Veterans Benefits Administration includes ensuring much-needed improvements to the processing and delivery of veterans' benefits. We are, as we speak, working to find additional funding for veterans' medical care, and we expect to be able to present an amendment very shortly on that particular matter that we think will further lighten the burdens and stresses placed on the Veterans' Administration and ensure it can continue to provide top quality medical care to those who have put their lives on the line for the peace and security of all and for the freedom of the United States. Moving on to the other major elements in this bill, we have funded the Department of Housing and Urban Development at $27.16 billion, which is some $2.35 billion over last year's level and which should allow HUD to be on very solid ground. Because of the priority needs of our veterans, we had to make tough choices. In HUD's case, that meant not funding HUD's requested 19 new programs and initiatives. Instead, we focused on funding HUD's core programs such as public housing, CDBG, home and drug elimination grants, homeless assistance, and section 202 housing for the elderly. These are the key housing and community development programs that make a critical difference in people's lives. They are programs with a proven track record. Also, unlike last year when we funded 50,000 new incremental vouchers, we do not have the funds to provide incremental section 8 assistance this year. Frankly, against my better judgment, because we do not have funds in our allocation to meet the funding needs of our key programs, I have accepted the administration's budget proposal to defer $4.2 billion of section 8 budget authority for fiscal year 2000 expiring contracts until fiscal year 2001. In other words, the budget authority will be appropriated for the amounts to be expended on section 8 certificates in fiscal year 2001 to the fiscal year 2001 budget. The good news is we were able to continue funding this year. But the bad news means we will have to find $8 billion more in section 8 budget authority in fiscal year 2001 for a total of some $14 billion in budget authority in order to renew all expiring section 8 contracts in fiscal year 2001. Permit me to emphasize and call to your attention several issues of particular importance in this bill. First, I introduced the Save My Home Act of 1999 earlier this year to require HUD to renew expiring below market section 8 contracts at a market rate for elderly and disabled projects, and in circumstances where housing is located in a low-vacancy area such as rural areas or high-cost areas. We have heard from too many States around this country where tenants in section 8 projects have been thrown out because the landlord in a tight market thought higher rents could be obtained at market rate. While this is certainly an understandable move, it deprives the citizens who have depended upon section 8 of the vitally needed services that they must have. So, despite our request, there has not been effective action to deal with those expiring section 8, or the so- called opt-out programs where landlords leave the section 8 program. This bill provides new authority for section 8 enhanced, or sticky vouchers, to ensure that families and housing for which owners do not renew their section 8 contracts will be able to continue to live in their homes with the Federal Government picking up the additional rental cost of the units. We think it is essential to preserve this housing, and we have therefore included $100 million in new section 8 assistance to ensure that there is adequate funding for renewing these section 8 contracts. We believe this strong direction to HUD will ensure that the appropriate steps--and there are other steps that are preferable to sticky vouchers, but we have given them a wide range of tools to use in ensuring those who live in opt-out housing are not deprived of housing. We are disappointed about some of the reactions we have heard to this budget. We believe we are doing our job and doing it responsibly. We have heard objections from HUD. But we are funding HUD's program in a responsible, no-nonsense way. Under this appropriations bill, unlike the course that the administration is on, no one will lose their housing, and in many cases the funding will ensure new low-income housing and home ownership opportunities. We are concerned more and more about HUD's capacity to administer its programs. As I said, HUD has raised a red flag on many issues. We funded the primary programs mostly at the President's level--and a number above that level. I also do not believe that new programs at HUD should be a priority in part because of funding pressures but also because HUD does not have the capacity to administer effectively its programs. And we do not wish to bring in new programs without the benefit of the authorizing committee's approval on it. HUD remains a high-risk agency, as designated by the General Accounting Office--the only agency ever designated on a department-wide basis. I do not believe it needs additional responsibility until it corrects its significant problems. I hope every single Member understands what I am saying because people have reported to me concerns they have had with HUD. We have not been able to approve HUD's request. They need to understand that it is only one of eight major agencies that depend on the VA-HUD subcommittee allocation for their funds, and we have attempted to do our best to assure adequate funding for the core programs that are vitally important. Moving on to other agencies, for EPA, we included a total of $7.3 billion, an increase of about $100 million over the request of the administration. We thought we needed to restore the President's $550 million cut to the clean water State revolving fund. The Clean Water Program and the Safe Drinking Water Program are critical to assure success in restoring and protecting our Nation's water bodies. It is a matter of the environment. It is also a vital matter of public health. As we see problems in this country brought about by hurricanes and floods, everybody realizes that contaminated water supplies is one of the greatest health problems we face. This clean water State revolving fund allows States day in and day out to move forward in assisting local communities to clean up their wastewater to make sure we are not polluting the environment and endangering the health of our citizens. There is still a great deal to do in this area. We have provided as much assistance as we can. EPA has been revising its estimate of the nationwide need for water infrastructure financing upward. It is now about $200 billion. That is why I find it a little difficult to understand why the proposal was to cut this program by 40 percent. We think that is the wrong choice. We reverse the cut. The highest priorities, in my view, in EPA must include State grant programs and those activities geared to addressing the biggest environmental risk we face. We had to cut out some new programs--some critical programs--to protect fully EPA's core programs. In addition, we added funding for grants to States to enhance their environmental data system. That is a critical need and should help improve the integrity of EPA's data system. Moving on to the other agencies, FEMA funding totals $85 million of which $300 million is for disaster relief. While we were unable to accommodate the full budget request, there are additional funds we believe are high priorities added for important initiatives such as antiterrorism training, enhancing the fire training program, and emergency food and shelter grants. Despite the damage caused by Hurricane Floyd, FEMA has adequate reserves on hand--approximately $1 billion at this time--to meet their anticipated obligations in the near future. We are going to be monitoring these needs closely, of course, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure adequate funds are on hand to respond as needed to this and other disasters that inevitably occur. We commend FEMA's efforts in hurricane-ravaged areas. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of these natural disasters, and our thanks go to the very strong response that the people of FEMA, and all of the related emergency agencies--both government and private sector agencies--have been able to provide. Next, moving on to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, this bill fully funds NASA at the President's request of $13.6 billion, including full funding for the international space station and the shuttle. I know NASA was a huge concern for many members of the committee and the Congress as a whole because the House, due to its shortened allocation, was forced to reduce funding by some $900 million. This bill makes a major structural change to the NASA accounts by providing separate funding for the international space station and the space shuttle. We believe this account change is necessary because of NASA's continuing problems in controlling spending on the space station, especially enhanced by Russia's unreliability in meeting its obligations as an international partner to the space station. We have, however, provided transfer authority to allow space station funds to be used to meet any needed safety upgrades for the shuttle. The only other major change in NASA funding is we have reduced the funding for space by $120 million from the President's budget request in part to fund new launch and space transportation technologies designed to reduce the cost of space transportation and to open up commercial opportunities in our universe. Many Members have been interested in this program, and these funds are authorized in both the House and Senate NASA authorization bills. I know the occupant of the Chair has been a very strong advocate for this kind of research and development. For the National Science Foundation, the bill includes over $3.9 billion, which matches the administration's request. The NSF allocation is over $250 million more than last year's enacted level, about a 7- percent increase. The increase in funding continues our commitment and support for our Nation's basic research and education needs. On a personal note, I was very pleased we were able to meet the President's request for NSF because of the tremendous amount of exciting and potentially beneficial work that is being funded through the National Science Foundation. Truly, this is a national priority. I only wish more funds were available to add because this is our scientific future. This is the future for our economy, for the well- being of the people of the United States, and for our continued progress. Some of the major highlights of this allocation include $126 million in additional funds for computer and information science and engineering activities, some $60 million for the important Plant Genome Program, and $50 million for the administration's ``Biocomplexity'' initiative. The bill also includes $423 million for the incorporation for national and community service. This is near last year's level. Let me be clear, funds totaling $80 million were rescinded from the prior year's appropriations for the program which are currently sitting in reserve. The inspector general tells us they are not needed. It is our understanding this rescission will have no programmatic impact, but it is necessary for us to meet the other priorities in our budget. We intend to assure the Corporation continues at the level from last year, and we believe this budget allocation allows us to do so. Mr. President, I am pleased to yield the floor to my colleague and good friend, the Senator from Maryland.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent H.R. 2684 be discharged from the Appropriations Committee and the Senate proceed to its consideration. I further ask that all after page 2, line 9, over to and including line 3 on page 95 be stricken, and the text of S. 1596 be inserted in lieu thereof, that the amendment be considered as original text for the purpose of further amendments, that no points of order be waived, and that any legislative provision added thereby be subject to a point of order under rule XVI. Again, the Senate is now on the HUD-VA appropriations bill. No call for the regular order with respect to the bankruptcy bill is in order. It is my hope substantial progress can be made, that the leadership can agree to an arrangement where all first-degree amendments be submitted to the desk by a reasonable time. I will discuss this further with my counterpart, the Senator from Maryland. I make that unanimous consent request.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I am very pleased to offer this amendment with the leadership of the committee on both sides. Senator Mikulski and I are very pleased to have the support of Senator Stevens, Senator Byrd, and also chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Domenici, to add $600 million for VA medical care. In addition to the committee- reported bill, there will be a total of $1.7 billion above the President's request for veterans' health care; in other words, $19 billion for veterans' health. These funds will enable VA to ensure full care to all 3.5 million veterans being currently cared for by the VA. They will also allow VA to provide care to thousands of additional veterans, significantly reduce waiting times for appointments, and initiate new activities to improve veterans' health. They will also enable the VA, upon enactment of authorizing legislation, to fund emergency care treatment in non-VA facilities for veterans. We do need authorizing assistance for that. According to the GAO, there are still many opportunities to make VA health care more cost effective. These include improved procurement practices, consolidation of certain services, eliminating excess management layers and administration, and shifting more care to outpatient settings. We cannot afford to maintain the status quo at the VA. The GAO recently testified that the VA is wasting $1 million a day on operations and maintenance of buildings and monuments that could better be used on health care for veterans, and 25 percent of the medical care budget is spent on maintaining VA infrastructure, including 4,700 buildings on 22,000 acres. The VA has been moving to community-based care, outpatient-based care. That has been dictated by the needs of the veterans. We are in a position where we must provide the care the veterans need. We have to support the VA in restructuring the entire system, consistent with the health care needs of veterans, rather than devoting ourselves to maintaining buildings in the old regime. Monuments are not what the veterans need in health care; they need good health care. Not only is it the trend in general medicine outpatient-based care, but the veterans population is declining. The VA projects a 36-percent decline by 2020. By adding funds to the VA's budget, we in no way suggest that the VA has done all it can to improve its use of health care dollars. I have been and continue to be a very strong supporter of VA transformation. When the Veterans' Administration started the process, one of the first surgical centers they shut down was in my State. It was tough to explain, but it is, I believe, clear that the veterans get better care when we have appropriate facilities--not keeping open a surgical center, for example, where they do not perform enough surgeries to maintain the proficiency they need to provide top-quality care. The funds we are adding today are for veterans' health, not maintaining buildings, not maintaining excessive management layers. Over the past 5 years, the VA has made dramatic and much-needed changes. We congratulate them on these difficult processes. We want to work with them and continue to assure sound oversight. The system has begun a major transformation that has resulted in more of VA's appropriations going to health care. Today, VA is serving more veterans and the quality of care has improved. In the past 3 years, VA has served an additional one-half million veterans, in part by opening almost 200 new community-based clinics. It is my strong hope that the transformation will continue to go forward and additional funds will improve the quality of VA health care. I might note that Senator Grassley has asked to be a cosponsor of this amendment. I yield to the Senator from Maryland.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, if I may answer my colleague, that is a good question. The committee leadership and the Budget Committee have agreed we should provide this as an emergency authorization now. The allocation will be handled in the conference committee. So we are asking to include this as an emergency. There is no offset in this bill. There will have to be funds provided in the conference. The House had already provided the $1.7 billion additional. They took it out of NASA. We are not going to take it out of NASA. We have the assurance of the bipartisan committee leadership that we will be able to handle this allocation in the conference. So the simple answer at this point is there is no offset.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, we do not believe that the emergency designation will have to be continued past the conference. We believe we can deal with the allocation questions and provide additional moneys so we will be able to drop the emergency designation. It is our hope we can do so should it be necessary. I believe there is sufficient bipartisan support in both bodies to prevail upon the President should we be required to obtain an emergency designation.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from West Virginia for his strong words in support of the VA. He has been a champion of the veterans affairs activities and his role in the authorizing committee is very important. I have been asked by the chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Senator Specter, to be added as a cosponsor. I also ask unanimous consent Senator Murkowski be added as a cosponsor. I ask consent that Senator Mikulski and I be permitted to add cosponsors to this amendment after it is adopted. We sense there is a strong feeling of interest and support for this issue. Before I conclude, let me say we have worked very closely with the General Accounting Office in this area. The GAO has been to every one of the VA's 22 networks over the last few years. They have been closely involved in the VA's transformation. I strongly support continued improvements in the use of VA health care funds. These funds need to be spent on veterans' care, not on monuments. I believe we are ready to accept this amendment on voice vote.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, I hope the leadership will be able to clear an agreement that all first-degree amendments in order to this bill be submitted to the desk by 3 p.m. today. That will help ensure swift passage of this HUD-VA bill. In addition, let me clarify, the call for regular order with respect to the HUD-VA bill only applies to the bankruptcy bill. Therefore, Members can expect a late night this evening in order to make progress on the bill.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Jeffords and Senator Hagel be added as cosponsors.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.