John Chafee

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I just referred to the fact that we would be dropping section 28 from the bill in accordance with an agreement with Senator Moynihan and others. I now send to the desk an amendment to accomplish that, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, the Senator from New York, Senator Moynihan, has long been a driving force in attempting to have the Environmental Protection Agency set its priorities based on good science. He is the author of a bill to accomplish this. That bill was the basis for section 28 in the legislation that we are considering today. Although we have agreed to drop section 28 from this bill, I want to assure the Senator from New York that we will continue to work with him and other interested Senators on this matter. Personally, I have agreed with Senator Moynihan that because he was generous enough and gracious enough to agree to the dropping of section 28, that as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee I will present to the committee section 28 as a freestanding bill. We have agreed we will have a hearing on this, and I will seek to have legislation approved by the committee as quickly as possible. In addition, Senator Johnston has some views on this matter, and we would invite him to testify at that hearing. My goal would be to hold a hearing in the next few weeks, and my hope is we could proceed to report a new freestanding bill shortly thereafter. Mr. President, earlier I presented an amendment on behalf of Senator Domenici in connection with providing assistance to those villages located on the United States-Mexican border known as colonias. I ask unanimous consent that Senators Kyl and Feinstein be added as original cosponsors to Senator Domenici's amendment.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senators Domenici, Kempthorne, Baucus, and Reid, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask that Senator Gorton also be added as cosponsor of S. 1316 and the managers' amendment thereto.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I have a request from Senator Snowe that she be added as a cosponsor of S. 1316 and as a cosponsor of the managers' amendment to S. 1316.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, the first item was brought to our attention by the Presiding Officer, Senator Gorton, and Senator Murray. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires filtration for most drinking water systems that are served by surface water. But some cities have made extraordinary efforts to protect their watersheds from development that might contribute to contamination. One such city is Seattle, WA. That city owns virtually all of the land around its reservoir. This amendment recognizes the efforts made by the city of Seattle and allows Seattle, in cooperation with the State of Washington, to employ treatment approaches in lieu of filtration that will be more cost effective. So, Mr. President, I send on behalf of myself and both Senators from Washington a printed amendment, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, we have two items that have been cleared, and that can now be adopted. Amendment No. 3071 (Purpose: To authorize additional criteria for alternatives to filtration)

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. The Senator is correct. Let me add that the concept of providing grants to regional centers that the Senator refers to is primarily intended to ensure that such centers are distributed throughout our Nation. It is not intended to limit the scope of assistance these centers can provide.

Mr. CHAFEE. If the Senator will yield, Mr. President, that is correct.

Mr. CHAFEE. I agree with the statement of the Senator from Idaho. small public water systems technology centers

Mr. CHAFEE. The Maine Senators' understanding of section 13(b) is correct. This section does apply to the surface water treatment rule as well as other Federal drinking water regulations. I very much recognize the problems that small disadvantaged towns are facing in complying with some of the expensive requirements of the act, and we hope that section 13(b) and other sections of S. 1316 will address these problems.

Mr. CHAFEE. I would be pleased to participate in a colloquy with the Senators from Maine.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. That will be fine.

Mr. CHAFEE. I was going to suggest 20, 30 minutes.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, what I suggest is that we have those discussions now. I know the Senator from Texas is ready to go. There is a gap here, and I do not know how long the Senator would like. Mr. GRAMM addressed the Chair.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I want to thank the distinguished Senator from Louisiana for his thoughts on this. What we are doing now is seeking out and we are going to discuss this with the principal proponent of section 28. It is possible that we can do what the Senator from Louisiana suggests. The Senator from Louisiana has some proposals that, in effect, deal with regulatory reform in section 5, as I understand it. My question is, would he be prepared to drop those provisions? As I understand, he has another amendment that deals with section 5. What I would like to do is, frankly, get all references to regulatory reform out of this bill. We could discuss it now, or we could meet and have a quorum call. I know the Senator from Texas has comments on another subject. But I would like to discuss with the Senator from Louisiana what I previously suggested, namely dropping the section 5 proposals he has suggested.

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

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

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, as I understand it, this sets the time limit of 2003?

Mr. CHAFEE. That would be fine. If we could make that modification, and if the Senator would submit that, then that would be accepted. Then we would proceed to accept his amendment. Amendment No. 3070 (Purpose: To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to make grants to the State of Alaska to improve sanitation in rural and Native villages)

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, as I understand the modification, it is to set a time limit on the authorization, am I correct, to the year 2003, and thus be in conformity with the rest of the legislation? [[Page S 17731]]