Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendments be dispensed with.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am aware that some of my colleagues are concerned about budgeting sufficient funding for Amtrak. I would like to point out that this budget does not specifically provide sufficient funding for the continuing operations of Amtrak, our Nation's intercity passenger rail carrier. The President's budget this year proposes $900 million for Amtrak, an amount generally and widely considered to be insufficient to safely operate the railroad; it would likely have to be shut down. Amtrak officials have stated that $1.798 billion would sufficiently fund their operations and capital needs in fiscal year 2005. This amount would help Amtrak return to a good state-of-repair, and let them provide safe, reliable service. Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Ranking Member Hollings has shown great leadership as a supporter of passenger rail service in our country, and I want him and others to know that we are not endorsing the President's budget request for Amtrak.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, before we conclude, I again thank the chairman of the Budget Committee. I also thank his excellent staff: Hazen Marshall, Stacey Hughes, and Beth Felder, who worked closely with us through these difficult days. I say to our side, I urge you to vote no on this budget resolution. It adds $2.86 trillion to the national debt. I do not see any cutting of the deficit in half in 3 years or 4 years or 5 years under this budget resolution. Instead, I see it adding to the deficit each and every year by an additional $177 billion. I urge my colleagues to vote no.

Mr. CONRAD

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we are very close now to starting to vote. Again, I ask our colleagues who have amendments in the queue to come so that they could make their final argument before the vote with 1 minute to each side. I think that would be reasonable.

Mr. CONRAD. Will the Senator withhold? Amendment No. 2725

Mr. CONRAD. The Senator had been previously yielded 4 minutes off the resolution.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Kennedy.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield 3 minutes off the resolution to the Senator from Connecticut.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I join the chairman in saying we need to move to votes as quickly as possible and we need to be disciplined in how much time we spend on those votes. I think it is in the interest of all of us to proceed expeditiously. I do not share the chairman's characterization of these amendments. These amendments, in a limited number of high-priority areas, are doing two things. They are adding resources but paying for them, and not only paying for them but in addition providing deficit reduction. Remember, the budget resolution before us will add nearly $3 trillion to the national debt over just the next 5 years. So the amendments on our side to restore some of the cuts in funding to the COPS Program to put police on the street, to restore funding for the firefighters who are the ones we expect to respond to any bioterror threat, to provide a program to expand job opportunities in this country, to provide expansion of health care opportunities for people in our country--each one of these amendments is completely paid for. In addition to that, we have provided for deficit reduction so at the end of the day our Nation is burdened with less deficits and less debt. In our amendments we have turned in some cases to closing egregious tax loopholes, tax scams that are unfair to all taxpayers of our country. Others of our amendments are paid for by turning to those privileged few who earn over $1 million a year and we have asked them to just slightly reduce their tax cuts. Remember, in 2005 the cost of the tax cuts going to those who earn over $1 million a year, the cost of their tax cuts for that 1 year alone will be $27 billion. For those who earn over $337,000 a year, the top 1 percent, the total cost of their tax cuts for that 1 year is $45 billion. We don't think it is unreasonable to take a tiny fraction of those tax cuts and use them to improve the education of our children, to restore the cuts that have been made to the COPS Program that has put 150,000 police on the street, to slightly reduce the tax cuts of those earning over $1 million a year to restore the cuts to firefighters or to expand health care coverage in this country when we have over 40 million people who do not have health care coverage, or to slightly increase Pell grants so we are providing expanded educational opportunities in a way that will make our country more competitive in this global economic environment. We think those are the priorities of the American people, to reduce these deficits, to reduce this buildup of debt, and to restore the cuts in certain high-priority areas: law enforcement, police on the street, firefighters, education for our kids. Those are the priorities of the American people. Those are the priorities of American families. We offered those amendments on our side. Mr. President, I yield the floor to the Senator from Connecticut, if he is seeking time?

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

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the Senator from Connecticut is next in our queue. I am wondering if we might enter into a time agreement on the amendment of the Senator from Connecticut. I would suggest 20 minutes equally divided. We provided that amendment to the other side.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we have not seen the amendment and we cannot agree to any amendments going to the desk that have not been presented to the ranking member and chairman, those managing the bill. I am constrained to object until we see the amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the Senator makes a very good point. I think I speak for everybody when I say our hearts and minds are with the people of Spain after the terrible tragedy they suffered. We will seek to find a way to express our condolences to the people of Spain before we complete our work before the break. I thank the Senator for bringing that matter to our attention.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield 5 minutes off the resolution to the Senator from West Virginia. For the information of the chairman, the Senator has agreed to talk about an amendment but not offer it. That is why we are asking at this time that he be given 5 minutes to discuss his concern.

Mr. CONRAD. Senator Nickles can yield back all of his time and that means we functionally have 2 hours left on our side. That is the reality. No. 2, we have 50 amendments pending on our side. That is after we started with 98. We have reduced it to 50. I have never done this before, but I am going to do it this time. At some point in the very near future, I am going to start voting against amendments offered on either side that spend more money. I don't think, in light of the massive deficits and debt that we have, even if the amendments are paid for, we should be offering dozens of amendments, other than those of extremely high priority. We have had amendments thus far today that have been of an extremely high priority. I don't believe it is in the interest of this country or of this body to have dozens and dozens of amendments, even if they are paid for, that add to the spending base, given the level of deficits and debt that we have. I have been approached by many members on our side who have asked me to deliver this message. I do so at this time. We have lined up, in addition to the amendment from Senator Harkin and Senator Feinstein, one from Senator Byrd, an amendment from Senator Lieberman, an amendment from Senator Lincoln, and there may be a few more I am not yet aware of. But I hope that the message goes out loudly and clearly that we are going to show restraint and dramatically reduce the number of pending amendments. Fifty amendments would take us 17 hours of voting. We still haven't gotten to the point of beginning the voting. Please, colleagues, I ask you to show some restraint. There is no need for us to come out here and offer 50 amendments. This is the time. I hope the phone starts ringing off the hook in the cloakroom from colleagues who say they have 8 amendments to offer and they call back and say, I will reduce that to the one that is really a priority. Please, let us not go through another vote-a-rama that takes 17 hours. Please let's not do that. I yield the floor.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the Senator from West Virginia is seeking time. How much time would the Senator want?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, how much time does the Senator from Massachusetts need?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, is the Senator from Connecticut seeking additional time for wrap-up?

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I say to the Senator from California, I would be happy to yield time off the resolution to the Senator from Michigan so it would not come out of her time.

Mr. CONRAD. I am happy to yield 5 minutes off the resolution to the Senator from New Jersey.

Mr. CONRAD. I could yield 10 minutes off the resolution to the Senator from Michigan. How much time does the Senator from New Jersey seek?

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we think this is an excellent amendment that will enhance port security. We know we have a problem with port security. The Senator has come up with a creative contribution. We urge our colleagues on both sides to accept this amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the next amendment is an amendment by Senator Daschle on the Indian Health Service. Amendment No. 2774