John Chafee

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Now, Mr. President, we are waiting for those who are going to present the Finance Committee amendment, which I hope will be soon. Pending that, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I say to my distinguished colleague, the ranking member of the committee, that he is exactly right. There are two big amendments out there, but neither of them have anything to do with our committee. One is from the Finance Committee dealing with the tax portions of this legislation, and the other from the Banking Committee dealing with the mass transit portions of this legislation. But both of those are in other committees. So we have been very anxious. The Finance Committee chairman and others have indicated that they are prepared to come to the floor. We started this at 1 p.m., and we keep hoping that they will come. We are losing valuable time, Mr. President. Obviously, both of us and all members of the committee want to finish this legislation. There are several hundred amendments still out there, but I have reason to believe very few of those are actually going to be presented. So, we could really make tremendous progress if we could dispose of those two major amendments--the one from the Banking Committee and the one from the Finance Committee, which we are expecting to have presented momentarily.

Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, this amendment makes several technical clarifying and noncontroversial changes to the underlying legislation.

Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, I now call up amendment No. 1724, which I submitted last Friday.

Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, this is what we might call a repeat offenders amendment. I filed it last Friday so that our Members would have a chance, and their staffs, to look at it and consider it. The amendment would strengthen and clarify the repeat drunk driving offenders section of the bill; that is, the underlying bill. The bill, as currently drafted, requires States to act and support penalties for drunk drivers who have a blood alcohol concentration of .15 or greater. And two things have to occur--the drunk driver is arrested, has a blood alcohol content of .15 or greater, and has been convicted of a second or third or more drunk driving offense within 5 years. This amendment, of which Senator DeWine is the lead sponsor, is cosponsored by Senator Lautenberg, Senator Warner, Senator Chafee, Senator Baucus, and Senator Dorgan. And what it does, it strikes the reference to the .15 blood alcohol concentration and lets the State law on blood alcohol concentration determine what is a ``repeat offender.'' The amendment, therefore, clarifies that a person who is arrested for driving with a blood alcohol concentration level lower than .15, such as .08 or .10, still may be classified as a repeat offender if the State so chooses. So, in essence, Madam President, what this amendment does, instead of our setting it at a Federal level, we let the States set the level for the second or greater offense that has occurred within the 5 years. Mr. BAUCUS addressed the Chair.

Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, this is a package of amendments to the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, so-called TIFIA. These include two types of changes. First, they make technical and noncontroversial changes to the TIFIA subchapter. The majority were recommended by the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve and clarify provisions under this act. Second, this package establishes a fee for those States that use the Federal credit assistance to fund transportation projects under so- called TIFIA. This fee is necessary to offset the revenue loss that the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated will result in the program. It is important to note we have confirmation from the Congressional Budget Office that this fee will address the loss. I am pleased that TIFIA was included in the underlying bill, S. 1173, as it will assist the Nation in funding the gap between transportation resources and needs.

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

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I have to be cautious about allying myself with those comments since my State gets something out of the transit legislation. It is very important. We have one transit system within our State. So I am very anxious to see that transit measure passed--the so- called ``banking amendment.'' So, I do not want to foreclose anybody. But I urge the managers of that legislation, as well as others who have amendments which they might want to present, to come on over. The store is open for business. Now is the time.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Will the majority leader yield?

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, we are here ready to do business on the so-called ISTEA II legislation. There are a host of amendments out there which we would like to have brought up; either present them, or consideration to see if we can accept them, work out something, or, if not, go to votes. But we are here to do business. The store is open. I very much hope that those who have amendments will bring them over. I must say, Mr. President, if people who say they have amendments do not bring amendments over, I lose sympathy for them if later on they say they have amendments and they want time and so forth. Now is the time when nothing else is interfering with the action. So I urge my colleagues who are listening to please bring their amendments over so that we can deal with them. Seeing nobody on the floor who wishes to present an amendment, Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Privilege of the Floor

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

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

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

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

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I have an amendment here on behalf of Senator DeWine. It is a repeat offenders amendment. This amendment would strengthen and clarify the repeat drunk-driving offenders section of the bill. The bill, as currently drafted, requires States to enact and support penalties for drunk drivers, who have a blood alcohol concentration of .15 or greater, and who have been convicted of a second or subsequent drunk-driving offense within 5 years. The DeWine-Lautenberg amendment strikes the reference to .15 blood alcohol concentration and allows the State law on blood alcohol concentration to determine what is a repeat offender. The amendment, therefore, clarifies that a person who is arrested for driving with a blood alcohol concentration level lower than .15 still may be classified as a repeat offender. Mr. President, I know there is a good deal of concern amongst our colleagues about these drunk-driving amendments and the penalties that occur. I will not seek to have this agreed to now. I will only file it. It will be my intention to call this amendment up Monday, thus, giving those who might have concerns an opportunity to review it. I think when they review it, they will find that it gives more power to the States than the underlying bill does. Nonetheless, because of the deep interest in this matter, I think it well for it to lie over.

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

Mr. CHAFEE. This amendment is agreeable to this side.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. I will.

Mr. CHAFEE. No. I want to report that we have not received complaints. Indeed, as I pointed out, my State has gone beyond the 10 percent. We are up to 12.1 percent. It is impressive how many States have gone considerably beyond. Our neighboring State, Connecticut, is at 15.7 percent. The suggestion that these are onerous restrictions that cause chaos amongst the States in dealing with these preferences just plain isn't true.

Mr. CHAFEE. Yes: it is. We have made it clear to the Secretary that while one can never predict with 100 percent certainty what language may pass constitutional muster, the Committee expects the Secretary and his legal staff to do their utmost to make sure that the new regulations closely follow the guidance set forth by the Court in Adarand.