Kit Bond

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. I thank the Senator.

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

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank our distinguished colleague from Minnesota for bringing the plight of this group of veterans before us. He has made a very compelling case for the difficulties they have faced. I believe that the approach he has worked out with the ranking member is a responsible approach. The version I have before me directs the CBO to present the study to the Committee on Veterans Affairs within 30 days and directs the Committee on Veterans Affairs to hold hearings within 60 days. I think that is an appropriate means of moving forward on this issue. I thank him for bringing it to our attention, and we have no objection to accepting the amendment on this side. Ms. MIKULSKI addressed the Chair.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Minnesota, who completed his amendments more quickly than we thought. We have colleagues coming to the floor who are sequenced to follow the Senator from Minnesota. Since Senator Bumpers has not yet reached the floor, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Mikulski be recognized to offer an amendment on her behalf and mine and on behalf of the minority leader. I think that amendment should take less than 10 minutes.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I am delighted to be able to rise in support of the amendment and be a cosponsor with the Senator from Maryland and the Senator from South Dakota. As indicated, it has a modest amount of funding, $25 million, for HUD empowerment zones, $20 million for America Reads and $5 million for FEMA disaster mitigation. The funding is offset with budget authority from section 8 contract amendments, and the outlays are off set from the NASA mission support account, if anybody cares, but it is offset. And we particularly thank Senators Mikulski and Daschle for working together to make this a good bipartisan bill. While the funding for this amendment is modest, I emphasize that it covers a number of important issues, from child literacy to disaster mitigation to the economic development of distressed communities through empowerment zones. While I have some concerns about how programs are set up and authorized, this, I think, is a very constructive way to move the bill forward. Let me address the question of America Reads. We do not yet know the full outlines of the program the President is considering. I hope he will send forth authorizing legislation. That is the best way to do it, I think, is to get legislation establishing the parameters of the program. But let me say how important the objective is. The objective is to get people to read to small children, parents to read to their children. Officials in schools are engaged in teaching reading, but caregivers in day care centers and elsewhere must read to children. As one who has spent a lot of time working on early childhood development--and I have to say that our national award-winning and recognized Missouri Parents as Teachers Program has demonstrated how effective this can be--I believe that reading to children from the youngest age gets their interest, their attention, and their enthusiasm in the written word, and puts them on to a lifetime of reading, which will open up opportunities, knowledge, information, and great joy for their entire lifetime. If there is one thing that is the thread that seems to hold together all of the successful programs of getting children off to a good start, it is reading to them. It is communicating to them from the written word and attracting their attention to the written word as a means of communication. Were we not in the middle of a very, very important process to pass this appropriations measure, I could talk a lot longer about the importance of reading to very young children. Let me just say that reading to young children--there is no finer objective. The money we have appropriated here is a symbol of the importance that we place on this activity. The VA-HUD appropriations bill is a very tight allocation. We have had to have difficult funding choices. I hope that we made good consensus choices for what most Members consider the primary needs and concerns facing the VA-HUD are. I hope, however, that this amendment will keep the dialog moving on a path to enactment. With that, Mr. President, I do not see any other Senators wishing to speak on this amendment, certainly not in opposition to it.

Mr. BOND. I think we are prepared to move to its adoption.

Mr. BOND. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I think the time has come for us to move on to the Bumpers amendment. I will propose a unanimous-consent request that would set the vote for 5:30. We would ask for Senator Bumpers to be allocated 15 minutes in support of his amendment. We would ask for 45 minutes in opposition to the amendment. The ranking member and I have had numerous requests, and we would try to parcel out that 45 minutes as best we can.

Mr. BOND. If the ranking member will yield, I was going to ask if she would speak. I was hoping that we could charge that time off of the hour. In other words, if we start now on the debate, the Senator from Maryland can speak as long as she wishes until somebody else wants to come. Are we prepared to do a unanimous-consent?

Mr. BOND. Well, then, Mr. President, I will withdraw all pending unanimous-consent requests and advise my colleague that I will start my watch now, and when we get people here for a unanimous-consent, I will subtract from 1 hour the number of minutes that we have used in discussion not under the unanimous consent request. I look forward to hearing the comments by my ranking member in support of the space station. Ms. MIKULSKI addressed the Chair.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, in order to sequence these amendments, we had advised the Senator from New York that we could accommodate him. I believe he needs 5 minutes and I need 1 minute, and then we would return to the Senator from Arkansas for his comments and then proceed to a vote after 15 minutes, if we would reserve 30 minutes for this side. With that understanding let me try again on a unanimous consent. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Bumpers amendment be set aside, that the Senator from New York be recognized to offer an amendment for 5 minutes, that I be recognized for 1 minute; that on the disposition of the amendment offered by the Senator from New York, that there be 15 minutes of debate under the control of Senator Bumpers and 30 minutes of debate under the control of myself or Senator Mikulski, and that no amendments be in order to the amendment offered by Senator Bumpers. I further ask that following the conclusion or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote on or in relation to the Bumpers amendment.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New York. I assure him that we will work with him. We are now on the time allotted----

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, we are now on the time allotted for debate on the Bumpers amendment on the space station. We have invited those Members who wish to speak in opposition to come forward. I see the Senator from Arkansas on the floor. I ask if he wishes to utilize some of his time.

Mr. BOND. I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished Senator from Montana.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I know we have had a somewhat confused schedule and there are a number of Senators who have sought recognition and would like to speak on this. I hope that their schedules will permit them to be here. In the meantime, I thought it would be helpful since we have heard various scientists quoted to give just an idea of a few of the benefits of space research. First, in biotechnology, microgravity allows researchers to produce superior protein crystals for drug development and to grow three- dimensional tissues including cancer tumors for research and cartilage for possible transplant, and as a result people like Nobel laureate Herbert Hauptman addressed the biomedical research caucus of Congress on the value of orbital research for biomedicine and said, ``I strongly support space research and the development of the space station.'' Dr. T. L. Nagabhushan, Ph.D., vice president of biotechnology and development for Schering-Plough Research Institute, said I view the space shuttle program as a stepping stone to the ultimate program that will guarantee prolonged efforts in microgravity. Ultimately, our hope is to be able to crystallize proteins in microgravity, conduct all x ray data collection experiments in space and transmit the data to Earth for processing. This can only be done in a space station. Dr. Jeanne L. Becker, assistant professor, department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Florida, said The application of microgravity technology toward the development of tissue models has far-reaching potential for advancing cancer research. Like many of the new and innovative technologies, including gene therapy and immune-based treatment, space-based research must be continued and expanded in order to apply the benefits of this technology to the rapidly advancing area of health sciences. Dr. Milburn Jessup, Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School, said The space program offers a chance to improve our models of cancer and to develop new drugs and treatment as well as to gain knowledge about how cancer spreads. The space program has provided a breakthrough in tools for cancer research. We feel this is the tip of the iceberg of scientific discovery for us and the beginning of a new era in the care of the cancer patient. Mr. President, I could go on and on. We have stacks and stacks of testimony from scientists, scientific organizations, physicians, medical researchers, health care researchers, people who do research in many areas of microgravity and physics and other related areas of science. We could bring all of those statements in. I cite these just as a few specific examples of why the scientific community, and the vast majority of the scientific community, believes that the space station and space research is vitally important. I conclude by referring to biomedical research, saying space research provides unique insights into how the heart and lungs function; the growth and maintenance of muscle and bone; perception cognition, and balance, and the regulation of the body's many systems in the field of regulatory physiology. That is why the American Medical Association has adopted a resolution in support of the international space station. The AMA supports the continuation of NASA and other programs for conducting medical research and other research with potential health care benefits on manned space flights, including the continued development and subsequent operation of the international space station. I thought I would conclude my remarks, Madam President, with a quote from Dr. Michael DeBakey, chancellor and chairman of the department of surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, who said, The space station is not a luxury any more than a medical research center at Baylor College of Medicine is a luxury. He said also, Present technology on the shuttle allows for stays in space of only about 2 weeks. We do not limit medical researchers to only a few hours in the laboratory and expect cures for cancer. We need much longer missions in space, in months to years, to obtain research results that may lead to the development of new knowledge and breakthroughs. Mr. President, these are just a few of the comments that the scientific community has made in support of the space station. Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time. I yield the floor.

Mr. BOND. Madam President, we have had a number of Senators who were most anxious to speak on this. We could not get them in time. I know that Senator Hutchison, Senator Gramm, Senator Sessions, Senator Dodd, and Senator Glenn had all expressed an interest. We have tried to send out appeals to them. We hope that, if they are anxious to speak, they will be here before 5:30. But I say at 5:30 I will be prepared to yield back any time remaining on our side if the Senators have been unable to change their schedules.

Mr. BOND. Madam President, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Texas.

Mr. BOND. Madam President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Texas. She has long been, not only an advocate, but very knowledgeable and a strong supporter of the space station. She has given us many good reasons why we should support the space station. I am pleased, now, to yield 3 minutes to the Senator from Utah.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I have already expressed appreciation to my staff, and particularly my ranking member. I want to make a special mention of my chief of staff, Julie Dammann, whose second child was due today and she stayed with us throughout the whole proceedings and wanted to see the VA-HUD bill delivered first. She has been an invaluable help in all legislative activities and helped us shepherd this through. So, a very special thank you, and best wishes to Julie, to Rolf and their other daughter, Monica. Again, I express my appreciation.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate insist on its amendment and request a conference with the House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, and S. 1034 be placed back on the calendar.

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

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I appreciate the Senator from Ohio raising this issue. I agree with him that the project he has described in Lorain would appear to be well-suited for the EDI program.