Conrad Burns

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I guess I have some time remaining. I yield back that time. We are awaiting the arrival of the manager of the Sununu amendment. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BURNS. I move to reconsider the vote.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, we have accepted amendment No. 1046 on both sides. I ask unanimous consent that amendment be agreed to.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, we are ready to move. I would call for the regular order under the previous order.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a series of stacked votes in relation to the amendments in the order they were offered, to be followed by third reading and a vote on passage of the bill as provided under the previous order. I also ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes between each vote.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be set aside and that the Senator from California be recognized.

Mr. BURNS. I ask unanimous consent for that.

Mr. BURNS. I thank the Chair.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I will recap. Our approach is a commonsense approach. It just makes sense and logic that the information we need is only found in the work that we do on the safety of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, all of that. It becomes very important to the agricultural producers, but also it is more important to the safety of our consuming public. It has been a good debate. I yield the remainder of my time.

Mr. BURNS. That is correct.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to the vote in relation to the Boxer amendment.

Mr. BURNS. The Senator has 1 minute prior to the vote on her amendment.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, we have increased Indian Health Service this year quite a lot at $135 million. I agree with my colleague from North Dakota--it does not cover all the bases. It is one of the places we have increased the funds in this year's budget and this year's appropriation. Committees also provided $82 million over the administration request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The increase comes at a time when all other agency budgets in the bill are not growing. In fact, many are declining. The EPA is reduced by $144 million below their current year level. The Forest Service is $648 million below theirs. The National Park Service is $51 million below theirs. I mention these reductions saying we have done everything this committee could do to channel more money into the places needed. We did that with regard to the Indian Health Service. There are seven reservations in my State. We are very much aware of the shortcomings. We have one reservation we are trying to work awfully hard with right now because there is a shortfall in health services. Of course, we are trying to take care of that, protect the integrity of the tribe and also their budgets and their expenditures. We are trying to do that now. We have a real job on our hands as to how we balance the act. Right now, the offset the Senator from North Dakota has proposed is not correct as CBO will not score that. This $1 billion, of course, comes under another category.

Mr. BURNS. I will yield.

Mr. BURNS. We will try the Congressional Budget Office. Of course, there are other things that have entered into this. I have often wondered why they always call it OMB, Office of Management and Budget. I think maybe they call it OB. Nonetheless, we can kick that around. It does not score with the Congressional Budget Office. The pending amendment, 1025, offered by the Senator from North Dakota, increases the discretionary spending in excess of the 302(b) allocation to the Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations. Therefore, I raise a point of order against the amendment pursuant to section 302(f) of the budget.

Mr. BURNS. I ask unanimous consent this vote be set aside and we have this vote immediately after the debate as to 1026, which is the amendment of Senator Sununu to this act.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, the Senator from North Dakota brings up a good point on humanitarian needs. I don't know what the specifics are in the case of the sergeant. I have a strong feeling toward the sergeant. If he has family, and with the service to his country, I am prone to find out why his permission to travel to that country under these circumstances was denied. There must be something out there that we do not know. We have been reluctant in our dealings with Mr. Castro and Cuba. Embargos and this type thing only hurt the people who are the average citizens of a country. I have a feeling for this. However, there is an objection to it. We will have a vote on it. I appreciate the Senator from North Dakota bringing up this circumstance. We should look into it and find out what the circumstance is behind it. There are some more maybe pending that we do not know anything about. Nonetheless, we will vote on this amendment. Mr. President, I have no more comments on this. I reserve the remainder of my time. There was a speaker to come to the floor, and he has not arrived yet, so I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. BURNS

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

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, this about winds up our work. Mr. President, I raise a point of order on the pending amendment.

Mr. BURNS. I concur with the ranking member. I believe this project does have merit, and we will see what we can do for this project as this bill moves to conference. competitive sourcing process

Mr. BURNS. I thank the Senator from New York for her comments about the Northeast States Forestry Research Cooperative. We did provide additional funding to allow Maine to become integrated into the cooperative and I appreciate the Senator's position with respect to her State of New York. I will consider additional funding as the bill moves to conference.

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions meet in executive session during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at 9:50 a.m. in SD-430.