Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, this is a well-motivated amendment, but I think it is fatally flawed. The cure here is to make it harder to do a budget. If we are serious about reducing deficits and debt, I think all of us would want to do everything we can to encourage a budget resolution because it contains the fundamental disciplines to prevent deficits and debt from growing larger. So I would say to my colleagues, while I understand the sentiment, and share in it, I think we all have to be concerned about burgeoning debt. To make it harder to get a budget resolution, actually, I think undermines the effort to establish fiscal discipline because you lose all of the disciplines that are provided for in a budget resolution, all of the special points of order, the supermajority votes that are required to increase spending beyond what the budget resolution provides. So I urge my colleagues to vote no on the Alexander amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, freezing domestic spending is a mistake at a time of sharp economic downturn. You would be freezing education spending, freezing health care and transportation and freezing law enforcement. Beyond that, the Senator sought earlier to freeze veterans, and then he had an amendment to add back $1 billion for veterans. The problem is, the additional spending for veterans in the chairman's mark is $5.5 billion. If you want to cut veterans $4.5 billion from the chairman's mark, vote for the Sessions amendment. If you want to keep veterans whole, vote no.

Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Chair.

Mr. CONRAD. No objection.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I thank the Senators who agreed to allow us to take their amendments by voice vote. I thank them for their courtesy to their colleagues. Senator Casey, Senator Kerry, Senator Isakson, and Senator Shaheen set a very good example for our colleagues and we appreciate it.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, Senator Ensign is next. Amendment No. 804

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I hope we do not do that because if we start adding time on both sides--

Mr. CONRAD. Because of the unusual nature of this, go ahead.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I intend to vote for the Ensign amendment. I don't think any of us want to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000 a year, and so I intend to vote for the Ensign amendment. On the question of threatening the special status of the budget resolution, the Parliamentarian made clear this morning in a series of questions that if we brought this matter back from conference, that would threaten the privileged nature of a budget resolution. That would be a very serious matter. But in the Senate, I intend to support the Ensign amendment. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, colleagues should know that the Parliamentarian has told us that if this amendment comes back from the conference committee, it would endanger the special privilege of a budget resolution. With that said, I intend to vote for it here in the Senate. I encourage colleagues to vote for it, if they are so inclined.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that to the end of the list of amendments to be considered in this tranche, we add the Kyl amendment No. 793. That is according to the commitments we had made to colleagues that that would be added to this tranche.

Mr. CONRAD. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, this is actually a proposal that Senator Gregg and I have made. But this is at variance from our earlier agreement. Let me explain why. We talked about a membership of 16, 8 Democrats and 8 Republicans. But that is when the Republicans controlled the White House; Democrats controlled the House and the Senate. Now Democrats have more numbers in the House and the Senate and control the White House. Yet the requirement of this task force is that the bipartisan task force, to report, has to have majority approval of each participating party. That gives our friends who are in the minority an unfair ability to influence the outcome. That does not recognize the political reality of the Senate controlled by Democrats, the House controlled by Democrats, the White House controlled by Democrats. Absolutely it should be bipartisan. But it should not be something that weights both parties the same. I urge my colleagues to vote no.

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

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I urge colleagues to vote against this amendment. At this time of extraordinary uncertainty, multiyear caps are especially unwise. Beyond that, we have a 1-year cap. This is a budget that will be revisited next year. A 1-year cap makes sense. Multiyear caps at a time of this uncertainty would be most unwise. I urge colleagues to vote no.

Mr. CONRAD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 836

Mr. CONRAD. Without objection.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the next amendment that is in order is the Whitehouse-Boxer amendment. Senator Whitehouse.

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 735

Mr. CONRAD. Senator Johanns has time in support.

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes consideration of the budget resolution on Thursday, April 2, there be 90 minutes remaining for debate, equally divided between the chair and ranking member or their designees, with 40 minutes of that time for debate with respect to the McCain substitute amendment, with 20 minutes deducted from each manager, with the time for debate on the McCain amendment equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that for the remainder of today's session, no sense-of- the-Senate amendments be in order to the budget resolution; that for the remainder of this evening, members be permitted to debate amendments they expect to offer during Thursday's session; that on Thursday, with respect to a vote sequence of amendments, the sequence would be established with the chair and ranking members concurring on any order; that during any sequence of votes established, there be 2 minutes of debate prior to a vote, equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that after the first vote in any sequence, the remaining votes would be 10 minutes in duration.

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, in the morning, after the McCain amendment is disposed of, Senator Sanders would be the first to be able to offer an amendment on our side. For the information of Senators, tomorrow will be the so-called vote- arama. That means Senators need to be ready to answer votes every 10 minutes, and we will try to move expeditiously and with dispatch. We thank all Senators for their cooperation today, and I think next up is Senator McCain.