Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, in many ways this may be one of the most important amendments we offer on our side. I say that because if I look across the horizon at the challenges facing America, energy dependence would be right at the top of the list. In his State of the Union Message, the President said: [W]e have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. I think the President has that exactly right. We can see in this chart that imports now account for 60 percent of total U.S. consumption; that is, of the oil that we are consuming, 60 percent of it is imported. That creates a vulnerability for America. This dependence on imported energy is dramatically adding to our record trade deficit; $266 billion of the trade deficit over the last year is due to imported petroleum products. We ran a trade deficit during that period of about $700 billion. More than a third of it is due to our reliance on foreign energy. That represents over a third of the total trade deficit. The President made very strong statements in the State of the Union about the need to reduce our dependence, reduce our vulnerability. But if you look at his budget, you see something quite different: the clean coal power initiative, cut 90 percent; weatherization assistance grants to improve conservation of energy in homes reduced almost a third; electricity delivery and reliability, cut 23 percent; fossil energy R&D, cut 21 percent. Mr. President, several weeks ago, President Bush had a small group of Senators to the White House to talk about energy. I told him I was going to be introducing legislation that would provide substantial incentives to do what Brazil did. It is very instructive to look back over the last 30 years. Thirty years ago, Brazil was 80 percent dependent on foreign energy. They reduced that to less than 10 percent today. If we look at our story, it is just the flip. Back in the 1970s, we were 35 percent dependent upon foreign energy; today it is 60 percent. I think the question presents itself: What did Brazil do? Brazil very aggressively promoted biodiesel, ethanol, and flexible fuel vehicles. In fact, the vast majority of their vehicle fleet in Brazil are now flex fuel vehicles. They have very aggressively promoted ethanol and biodiesel. We should do the same. Those are the key components of the energy plan I will be presenting to our colleagues--aggressive promotion of biodiesel and ethanol, alternative fuel vehicles, wind energy, and coal-to-liquid fuel technology and energy efficiency in conservation. Mr. President, my energy reserve fund creates a deficit-neutral reserve fund for bold and balanced energy legislation that reduces our Nation's dependence upon foreign sources of energy, expands the production and use of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles, promotes renewable energy development, encourages responsible development of oil and natural gas resources right here in America, and rewards conservation and efficiency. Mr. President, this is a deficit-neutral reserve fund. Only if we find a way to pay for this initiative will it be able to go forward. My own view is that this is such a high priority for our country and raised, I think, to national attention by the President in his State of the Union, but we don't have a budget to match bold words. We need bold initiatives to match bold words, to really do something to reduce our dependence. It makes us vulnerable. It is weakening our economy. I said to the President: What a difference it could make. Would it not be wonderful if the President could wake up and instead of turning to the Middle East for oil, he could look to the Midwest of our own country where we could help grow our way out of this crisis by growing the feedstock that could produce biodiesel and ethanol, soybeans, corn, and canola? We are about to build in North Dakota the biggest biodiesel plant in North America. That is going to help us wean ourselves from this ongoing dependence upon foreign energy. I hope very much my colleagues will support this amendment. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, Senator Burr will be offering an amendment at the same time as mine. What he is offering is a reserve fund that is deficit neutral but has no money attached to it. But later in the process, if funding were provided, that reserve fund would provide a receptacle. That is an empty vessel. There is nothing there. It has value. I will support Senator Burr's amendment. It has value because at least there is a receptacle, at least there is a vessel, at least there is a way of taking funds that might be provided for later. But I want colleagues to know there is no new funding provided for in the Burr amendment. The only amendment being offered here that is going to have additional resources to meet a possible pandemic is this one. So I hope colleagues think very carefully before they cast this vote. With that, Mr. President, I note that Senator Lieberman is in the Chamber. He is next up to offer an amendment on homeland security. Senator Lieberman, of course, is the ranking member of the authorizing committee. He is, I think all would acknowledge on this floor, a leading voice on the question of homeland security. Mr. President, I ask the Senator, how much time would he require?

Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Senator from Rhode Island for his amendment. I thank him also for his courtesy and graciousness. The situation we have is, I have very few minutes left this morning. We don't have another Senator. I have asked other Senators to come to the floor. While we are waiting, I will do my final amendment. I send an amendment to the desk.

Mr. CONRAD. Well, could the Senator do it in 10 minutes?

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I ask that Senator Bayh be added as a cosponsor to my avian flu amendment No. 3133.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Colorado. This is an important amendment, certainly an important amendment to Western States such as ours that all too often are shortchanged in terms of what they get in lieu of taxes where the Federal Government owns vast tracts of land and then is not a good neighbor, doesn't pay its fair share of the tab. I thank the Senator from Colorado for his excellent amendment.

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

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

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, can I alert colleagues again? We have colleagues who are missing votes. They are missing votes because of the time deadline. We have had Democrats missing votes and we have had Republicans missing votes. We don't want you to miss votes. We want you to make votes but at the same time we have to stay on schedule.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield time to the Senator.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we don't have on our list the amendment of the Senator from Pennsylvania. I am told that is OK. That has been cleared on both sides.

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, it is also our understanding that Senator Grassley would not offer his amendment that was the matching amendment to the Lincoln amendment that has now been withdrawn.

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we have made significant progress in reducing the number of amendments. This is the good news--really dramatic progress. The bad news is, with the amendments that are still pending we will be here until 2 o'clock in the morning. It is in the hands of Members of this body. If everybody sticks to their guns and insists on their amendments, we are going to be here until 2 o'clock in the morning. I ask colleagues to please show some forbearance. We have other vehicles that are coming--the appropriations bills--and other opportunities to make Members' views known.

Mr. CONRAD. No. It would be 4 minutes for each of the Senators.

Mr. CONRAD. Very well.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President I call up an amendment at the desk. It is a substitute on the energy amendment I offered earlier. I ask unanimous consent to modify my previous amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I yield the time on this side to the Senator from Montana.

Mr. CONRAD. Could we do 4 minutes? Because we have a bit of a time constraint, could we do 4 minutes?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am prepared to withdraw my amendment No. 3148 and Senator Hagel is also prepared to have his amendment No. 3127 withdrawn. We are also prepared to withdraw Lincoln amendment No. 3047. We have managed to work out an understanding on all of these matters, so I ask unanimous consent to have those amendments withdrawn.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, may I ask the Senator from New Hampshire for 2 minutes so I might offer an amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield the time to the ranking member on the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus.

Mr. CONRAD. Might we put in a quorum call? We have a little bit of a glitch.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be dispensed with.