Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Rhode Island for his amendment.

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, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

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

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Oh, yes. Borrow and spend--that is what this budget represents. Mr. President and colleagues, as shown on this chart, this is what is going to happen to the debt under this budget. It is up, up, and away. A vote for this budget is a vote for more debt, higher interest rates, a weaker economy, the export of American jobs, the selling off of America, piece by piece. Colleagues, we could do a whole lot better than this. I urge my colleagues to vote no.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we are prepared to go to final passage. We cannot do that without first thanking people. This has been a marathon, and people--many people--have worked around the clock to get us to this position. Let me thank a colleague because we would not be finishing at 7:15 without the extraordinary work of Senator Patty Murray. Thank you, Patty. She convinced literally dozens of our colleagues to drop amendments tonight; otherwise, we would have been here until 2 o'clock in the morning. So special thanks to her. And thanks to my staff director, Mary Naylor; and John Righter, my deputy staff director; Lisa Konwinski, my counsel; and, most of all, my chart master, Kobye Noel. And thanks to the staff of Senator Gregg: Scott Gudes and Denzel McGuire, outstanding professionals. Of course, my personal thanks to the chairman of the committee, who has been so decent to deal with, and so honorable to deal with. On our side, Mr. Chairman, we thank you for your courtesies. With that, let me conclude on the budget itself.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, first, I want to indicate that we may have one matter to conclude before we end.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, this amendment reduces the international account by $4 million. That is what it does. We have no assurance that it will actually take money from the Human Rights Council, although that is the intention of the Senator. The fact is, it reduces the international account by $4 million and increases the 750 account by a like amount. I yield the remainder of my time to the Senator from Maryland.

Mr. CONRAD

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

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

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

Mr. CONRAD. No objection.

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. 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 yield the time on this side to the Senator from Montana.

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask the Parliamentarian if he could give us a breakdown on the time remaining between now and 1:30.

Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Chair. I ask the Parliamentarian to give us an update on the time.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, this is truly a sweeping amendment. I hope colleagues are listening. This amendment seeks to lock in the current level of discretionary spending, not just for this year but permanently. I hope colleagues are listening. This seeks to lock in the current level of spending for homeland security, for veterans health, for NIH, not just for 1 year but permanently because it would take 67 votes to increase it. I hope my colleagues will reject this amendment. This is an amendment which goes against every democratic impulse of this body.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I move to lay that motion on the table.

Mr. CONRAD. No, we are not. We have people looking at that amendment. Could we go to Senator Domenici's amendment?

Mr. CONRAD

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we are very close to being able to move toward final passage, but we still have a number of amendments to dispose of. If we can just have the patience of the body for a few more minutes, we can dispose of these final amendments and move toward final passage. First of all, I think it is important to thank colleagues--dozens of colleagues--who have given their amendments in the last hour--we appreciate it very much--and others who were able to work with us to get their amendments agreed to as the chairman has just reviewed. The next amendment is Senator Ensign. We ask colleagues to give the Senator from Nevada their attention.