Kit Bond

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I believe we have reached agreement on the unanimous-consent request that the vote on the tabling motion, which Senator Smith is about to propound, occur at 2:15. After he makes that motion, then the pending amendment would be set aside, and Senator McCain would be recognized to offer an amendment or amendments. And we would recess at 12:30 and come back in to vote at 2:15. And when that vote is concluded, Senator Bumpers will be recognized to offer his amendment related to the space station. There is no time agreement on that. But debate will begin at 2:30 roughly, 2:30, 2:35, while the Iraqi briefing is going on. Would my colleague care to comment on it?

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I, therefore, propound a unanimous-consent request that when Senator Smith makes his tabling motion, that that will be set aside with a vote to occur on that amendment at 2:15, that when he completes the propounding of that motion, then Senator McCain be recognized to offer his amendment or amendments, further, that upon the completion of the vote on the Smith-Feingold motion, Senator Bumpers be recognized to offer his amendment on the space station.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank the Chair and I thank my colleague from New Hampshire.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I would like to confer with my ranking member to determine whether one of those might be accepted now. I do have a couple of minutes. I would like to comment on this FEMA amendment because this is a very important and very complicated issue.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I think we can take that amendment. I have some further comments on that to accommodate my colleague. I will save those comments.

Mr. BOND. We have a unanimous-consent agreement to proceed to the space station amendment at 2:30. That will require a vote. I ask unanimous consent that a vote on Senator McCain's amendment relating to the VA resource allocation be placed immediately after the vote on the space station amendment. I ask unanimous consent that no second-degree amendments be in order on the McCain amendment on VA resource allocation and that that vote be 10 minutes in length.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, under the previous order, we were supposed to adjourn at 12:30. I ask unanimous consent that I may be permitted an additional 5 minutes to comment on the McCain amendment.

Mr. BOND. I want to address the FEMA amendment because the Senator from Arizona has raised some excellent points, and I believe they are very important points this body ought to address. In fact, the Senator's amendment stems from one of a series of reports I requested of the inspector general last year in an effort to reduce Federal disaster relief costs and improve FEMA operations. The IG has found a weak financial management system at FEMA as well as a number of questionable practices in terms of disaster expenditures. The most recent IG report found some very startling and troubling examples of what could be characterized as an abuse of taxpayer funds. We have already seen the pictures of a golf course where fees as high as $120 per person were charged yet has received $872,000 in public assistance grants following flood damage. Let me make it clear, because this area is very complicated, that the disaster relief that we are talking about is available only to publicly owned facilities. If they are privately owned, there are SBA loans that are available. But the FEMA disaster assistance goes generally with the cost share 25 percent local or State cost share with the Federal Government providing the other 75 percent. We talked about marinas and golf courses, but we could talk about equestrian trails, archery ranges, and other facilities benefiting a very small segment of the population where they receive millions of dollars for tree and shrub replacement. I believe very strongly in trees and shrubs; I plant a lot of them myself, but I seriously question whether that is an essential use of our scarce taxpayer dollars. There is erosion repair, sprinkler systems, and the like. In examples of the facilities the IG looked at which received Federal funds between 1989 and 1995 totaling $286 million, the Federal cost share was between 75 percent and 100 percent. While I strongly support the intentions of the Senator from Arizona, I am delighted that we are going to have an opportunity to work with him and other colleagues because we have asked of the FEMA Director, and he has promised, to report back to Congress by October 1 a comprehensive plan to reduce the amounts spent and to improve controls on disaster relief expenditures. He has promised to respond to the series of IG and GAO reports that I have requested. These reports do detail a number of what I would consider very questionable expenditures. There is a much larger issue, and we must pursue it comprehensively, not only in the position I serve on this subcommittee but I formerly cochaired a task force on disaster relief with the Senator from Ohio, Senator Glenn, and we have in that task force expressed our grave concerns about the escalating costs of FEMA disaster relief. Last year, some of my colleagues may remember, in this subcommittee we had to cut $7 billion in other agency programs, primarily housing, housing programs, in order to pay for the Northridge earthquake, and in tight fiscal times we have to be far more prudent in the kinds of relief we provide for public facilities where they are essentially profitmaking though publicly owned facilities. I can assure my colleague from Arizona that I intend to hold FEMA's feet to the fire in their commitment to submit a plan by October 1. It is essential not only that we but the authorizing committees address this issue. I look forward to working with my colleague from Arizona and others, particularly my colleague from Maryland, who are very much concerned about this issue. If there are no further Senators wishing to speak, I yield back my time.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. BOND

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, how much time remains on each side?

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I invite my colleague from Arkansas, since we are about out of time, to utilize what time he wishes.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Arkansas. I understand that there may not be additional speakers on his side. Is that correct? We have, I believe, under my control only about 15 minutes left. There are five people who have asked for that 15 minutes, including myself, Senator Bennett, Senator Shelby, Senator Heflin, and Senator Burns. I urge those who want to share in that largess to come join us very quickly because we may--and I want to put all Senators on notice--be able to go to a vote earlier than 10 minutes of 6.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, unfortunately, as much as we wish to accommodate speakers, we also have to accommodate the leadership, which wants us to move forward on the bill. We do have a Senator who is ready to go, and I am pleased to allocate 3 minutes to the Senator from Utah, Mr. Bennett.

Mr. BOND. There is 4 minutes for Senator Mikulski and 3 minutes on this side. I believe other speakers have now indicated they will submit their statements and will not give them directly. At this point I will just wrap up. If Senator Mikulski wishes to make any further comments, I will be happy to have her comments. Otherwise, I propose to offer a tabling motion.

Mr. BOND

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

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, next I move that the committee amendment beginning on page 102, line 23, through page 104, line 17, the amendment which would have eliminated two House-passed sections, first, mirroring the current administrative policy to reduce the FHA payment 25 basis points by first-time home buyers and, second, permitting loans by family members to meet FHA downpayment requirements, be tabled.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk to the language proposed to be stricken by the pending committee amendment.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, we have dealt with three of the four provisions of the committee amendments. The fourth one relates to the NASA Bion mission. Colleagues who wish to deal with that are not available. So I now ask unanimous consent that the amendment on page 104, lines 21 through 24, relating to NASA's Bion mission be set aside temporarily.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, this amendment restores another House-passed provision to the FHA single-family mortgage program with an amendment which limits a proposed change in the formula for determining downpayment requirements to a demonstration in the States of Alaska and Hawaii. This perfecting amendment also inserts the text of the language incorporated by reference in the original House-passed provision relating to the delegation of ensuring authority to direct endorsement mortgagees.

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

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I now have several amendments which have been cleared on both sides, I believe. I send them to the desk and ask for their immediate consideration en bloc.

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, let me give Members a brief rundown of the provisions in these en bloc amendments so everybody will know what we are dealing with. The first amendment, which is supported by FEMA and is cosponsored by Senator Byrd, provides an interim extension of FEMA's flood insurance legislation to enable FEMA to continue writing flood insurance policies after September 30, 1996, until the committee of jurisdiction reauthorizes the flood insurance program. Without this extension, FEMA would be forced to stop writing policies on October 1, a problem which I have already dealt with here and which I have stated is of great importance to many States and particularly those like mine which have had significant flood events in them. The second amendment is offered on behalf of Senators Snowe and Cohen. It represents a technical correction to the fiscal 1995 VA-HUD bill pertaining to a project in Bangor, ME. The amendment relates only to the fiscal year 1995 appropriations for the project and allows the funds to be utilized in a manner required by that community. The third, on behalf of Senators Burns and Mikulski, is an amendment which expresses the sense of the Senate regarding imports of reformulated and conventional gasoline. That has been cleared on both sides, and it has been cleared by the Environment and Public Works Committee. Next, in the en bloc amendment, on behalf of Senators Mack, Graham, and Lieberman, an amendment which has been cleared on both sides and has wide support would allow EPA's national estuary program funds to be used for implementing cleanup plans in fiscal year 1997 and prior years. Next, on behalf of Senators Craig, Sarbanes, Moseley-Braun, Kerry, and Murray is an amendment to clarify the $500 million appropriation for low-income housing preservation. Next, on behalf of Senators Kerry and Domenici, the final amendment sets forth an earmark of $50 million for vouchers for displaced and disabled individuals or families currently in buildings being converted to all-elderly. The last amendment which has been requested by the EPA Administrator is technical in nature. It is one which addresses $725 million in funds recently released for the clean water State revolving funds from funds previously appropriated for drinking water State revolving funds. These funds are considered an advance on the fiscal year 1997 appropriation for clean water State revolving funds. The amendment simply ensures that States' clean water funds are not penalized by the 1996 release of funds so late in the fiscal year. It enables States which are not prepared to receive the entire amount of the share of $725 million in clean water State revolving funds in fiscal year 1996 but do receive the balance in fiscal year 1997 to participate in any possible reallotment of fiscal year 1996 funds.

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

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