Conrad Burns

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Stevens of Alaska.

Mr. BURNS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4526 To Amendment No. 4472

Mr. BURNS. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. BURNS. I have no objection.

Mr. BURNS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4527 To Amendment No. 4472

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Bennett, I send an amendment to the desk.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, this simply changes the administrative cost cap for the Northern Pacific Research Board, an entity that was created by Congress in the fiscal year 1998 Interior bill to conduct marine research. The amendment has been cleared by both sides.

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. I yield 2 minutes to the senior Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Thomas.

Mr. BURNS. I thank my friend from Minnesota. Senator Byrd will be a little bit late this morning. If the Senator would like to give his statement now, that is perfectly OK with me. I think there will be more speakers on our side. I am supporting the amendment. We will make those points at a later time. I yield the floor.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I understand there are only 58 seconds remaining on the side of the opposition. I still want to protect their right to speak for some time before the vote, and we are now passed the time limit now. If the Senators who want to speak can be allowed at least 5 minutes, then we will go immediately to the vote.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, how much time remains on our side?

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. Objection.

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

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

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Kyl of Arizona.

Mr. BURNS. Madam President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration on behalf of Senator Collins of Maine.

Mr. BURNS. Madam President, this is a technical change in the transportation and contractual authority for Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It has been cleared on both sides. I urge its adoption.

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

Mr. BURNS. This amendment has the approval of both sides of the aisle. I urge its adoption.

Mr. BURNS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

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

Mr. BURNS. Madam President, I congratulate the Senator from Maine for submitting this amendment. What it does is provide for the reallocation of funds for recovery activities of the Atlantic salmon. As you know, we have ongoing recoveries for all kinds of species across the country. Of course, one of the big ones is the Pacific salmon. Now she has offered to pick up and accelerate the programs on the Atlantic salmon. I ask for its adoption.

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, the Senator from West Virginia makes a good point. We always hear about those who want to come and make their statement regarding any piece of legislation. Then we go at breakneck speed and grind to a halt. That seems to be what we have done. Let me just say a few words on behalf of the drought amendment that is before the Senate. We are concerned about the drought as it happened in this area that has been expanded. We have been in a drought situation in Montana for about 5 years. We have been, not only in a situation of summer drought and no summer moisture, but also in the area of low snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, in the areas that feed the irrigation water and stock water and many other amenities that have been provided by that wonderful element. But this year, that drought expanded. It expanded to our neighbors to the south, Colorado and Wyoming, the western Dakotas, and Kansas. Some would say that is almost the breadbasket of this country. I had an opportunity to drive through those drought areas in western Kansas and Colorado and western Nebraska, and I would say the stories I heard and the history we have studied of the great drought of the dirty thirties--if we were using the same farm way of doing business that we did then, we would probably be back in a dust bowl situation in the Midwest. That is how dry it has been--just no rain at all. So this is needed legislation. It is not just legislation that has come as a whim to anybody who lives in the heart of this country. Was all of Montana affected by drought? No. We are a large State. We are 148,000 square miles--not quite as big as Texas, not quite as big as California or Alaska. Nonetheless, if you measure in air miles from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of my State, it is further than from here to Chicago--from Washington, DC, to Chicago. In the northeastern part of the State, we fared pretty well with crops, grass. But as the rangeland has droughted out in the last 5 years, we have seen a decline, also, in the numbers of livestock. That not only affects our farm income but also our tax base. It affects us in many more ways than just the loss of the numbers of cattle or the loss of a crop. So this is needed legislation. We have tried, now, for better than a year and a half to provide relief for those who have been affected by that weather pattern. We have an opportunity here to pass this legislation. The chairman of the subcommittee and the chairman of the full committee is right on when he says we should be moving on this piece of legislation. In fact, it should be off from the Senate tonight, to be honest, probably, if we had the full days to work on it. But everyone knows we move to homeland defense, homeland security, later and we are paralleling these two pieces of legislation. This particular appropriations bill always draws a little bit of attention because it deals with sensitive areas: Our national public lands and our parks. As many people as there are in the world, there are that many opinions as to how we should manage those public lands and those parks. So it brings diverse ideas, different ideas, and many of them come to this floor. However, we have been lacking that debate in the last 2 days, and that causes some concern, I suppose. Nonetheless, we should be moving along. I urge my colleagues, especially those on this side of the aisle, that if they have amendments to offer or want to speak on the issue that is before us now, to do it now. It will not be long before we will be to noon, and at that time we go into morning business and then, after that, homeland security. I stand in support of the chairman of the committee in asking our colleagues to please do that. I know we are working feverishly to clear more amendments. We have already done some of those, and the staff has just done wonderful work in narrowing down our work on the amendments that were offered by Members of the Senate. Seeing no other Senator standing with a request to speak, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BURNS

Mr. BURNS. I have no objection to that.