Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. We are not charging time against the amendment then.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: How is the time being charged?

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Momentarily, we will be considering an amendment with respect to the defense budget for the year. That is being worked out now, and Senator Warner will be here momentarily. Perhaps he is almost ready. I wish to express the opinion that I do not think it is wise to cut the Commander in Chief's defense request when we are at war. I don't think that is the right policy. I don't think it sends the right signal. I personally believe the increase ought to be paid for. But I think we ought to increase the defense request to what the Commander in Chief has recommended when we are at war. With that, I see Senator Warner, so I will stop until he has made his presentation, and then we will have a further opportunity to discuss the pending amendment.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Might I just take 30 seconds off the resolution?

Mr. CONRAD. May I say to my colleagues, I have not heard a single Senator who is opposed to extending the middle-class tax cuts. I have not heard a single Senator who is opposed. There is no need for this reconciliation instruction for the purposes of tax reduction. The fact is, this budget resolution does not assure the money will be used for that purpose. We all know the Senate budget resolution cannot compel the Finance Committee to make any specific decision. Again, I would just say to my colleagues, I don't know of a single Senator who is opposed to extending the middle-class tax cuts.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I give the Senator 2 minutes off the resolution.

Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Senator. I yield 5\1/2\ minutes off the resolution and the minute and a half that we have in addition for a total of 7 minutes to the Senator from Montana, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

Mr. CONRAD. How much time?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, let me say we don't need the reconciliation process to extend the middle-class tax cut the chairman has referenced. I support and I will work to get votes to extend the $1,000 childcare credit, to extend the marriage penalty relief, and to extend the 10-percent bracket. I am absolutely confident that we can get the votes to do that outside of reconciliation. What is wrong here is to use reconciliation for tax cuts. Reconciliation, which is a fast-track process in the Senate that limits our right to debate, that limits our right to amend, is used for something other than deficit reduction. The only reason Senators agreed to give up their basic rights was because we were in a crisis that required deficit reduction. This is adding to the deficit--not reducing it. The chairman said this budget before us has a record amount of deficit reduction. This budget before us has a record amount of debt increase. This budget before us will increase the debt of the United States by $2.86 trillion over the next 5 years. The former Budget Committee chairman, Senator Domenici, said this about reconciliation: Frankly, as chairman of the Budget Committee, I am aware of how beneficial reconciliation can be to deficit reduction. But I am also totally aware of what can happen when we choose to use this kind of process to basically get around the Rules of the Senate as to limiting debate. Clearly, unlimited debate is the prerogative of the Senate. That is greatly modified under this process. I have grown to understand that this institution, while it has a lot of shortcomings, has some qualities that are rather exceptional. One of those is the fact that it is an extremely free institution, that we are free to offer amendments, that we are free to take as much time as this U.S. Senate will let us to debate and have those issues thoroughly understood both here and across the country. Finally, the simple fact is, the reconciliation instruction in this budget resolution doesn't assure that those tax cuts--the middle-class tax cuts--will be the ones that are, in fact, brought back to us by the Finance Committee. We all know the budget resolution does not make the specific decisions of how the revenue is raised by the Finance Committee. The chairman of the committee has said over and over in the Senate, we do not control the specifics of what the Finance Committee does. All this reconciliation instruction does is give $80 billion to the Finance Committee. They can use it for any tax-cutting purpose. Again, we can have an extension of the middle-class tax cuts, $1,000 child credit, and 10-percent bracket, the marriage penalty relief without the blunderbuss of reconciliation.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, Senator Byrd is now in the Chamber. While he is going to his desk to present his amendment, I wish to take this moment to urge our colleagues to get their amendments to us so we can review them, so we can eliminate duplication, so we can schedule them efficiently. If Senators have an amendment they kind of like but really would not need to offer, please withhold. We already have 58 amendments noticed. That is 19 hours of voting. It is going to take discipline if we want to conclude the business on the budget resolution by Friday, which is our common goal. I thank the Chair.

Mr. CONRAD. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Louisiana off of our time.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, does Senator Graham wish to retain a minute of his time?

Mr. CONRAD. How much time does the Senator need?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, with the indulgence of the Senator, might I repeat the request. I think we might have it worked out so we can enter into a time agreement on the next two amendments, if the chairman would be willing to repeat the request.

Mr. CONRAD. I am happy to enter into an agreement of 45 minutes equally divided on the Graham amendment and an hour equally divided on the Byrd amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, might I add my voice to the voice of the chairman. We are rushing toward another vote-arama. We have 58 amendments noticed on this side already. Some of them are duplicative. On some of them, one Senator is offering many more than one amendment. I am asking our colleagues to please let us exercise discipline. Let us reduce the number of amendments. I propose to my colleague that we consider entering into a time agreement at least on these next few amendments. If we could agree, for example, on 30 minutes or 40 minutes equally divided on the next amendment, and then an hour equally divided on an amendment on reconciliation, then an hour on an amendment at the designation of the chairman, and then an hour equally divided on pay- go, and stack the votes, we could then have a series of three votes at about 5:45 which might accommodate some. I know there are plans for this evening by some. At least we could get a series of important votes concluded.

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, let me just say the amendment of the Senator from Washington does nothing to raise taxes on middle-class taxpayers, on wealthy taxpayers, on anybody but people who are engaged in tax scams and tax dodges, because her proposal is to close tax loopholes to the tune of $17 billion. As we look in the budget, there is a relatively modest amount of money being raised to close tax loopholes. We know there are tens of billions of dollars, according to the administration, in potential tax loopholes that could be closed. In addition, let me say to my colleagues I met with the revenue commissioner 2 weeks ago, who tells me the tax gap--the difference between what is owed and what is being paid--was $255 billion for 2001 alone. Let me repeat that. The tax gap--the difference between what is owed and what is being paid--is $255 billion for 2001 alone. There is plenty of money to be raised in tax loophole closings and the end of tax scams and the end of the tax gap to fully fund the amendment of the Senator from Washington and the middle-class tax relief all of us want to see continue.

Mr. CONRAD. We have the spectacle of certain wealthy individuals and major corporations renouncing their U.S. citizenship to avoid U.S. taxes. Closing down that loophole saves $3 billion. Now, if anybody wants to vote against closing loopholes, let them vote against the amendment of the Senator from Washington. She is closing those loopholes in order to fund our kids' education. That is exactly what we ought to do. I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we have heard a lot of talk that the amendment of the Senator from Washington raises taxes. Well, it does not raise taxes on anybody except those who are engaged in the abuse of tax loopholes. Because that is what the amendment of the Senator from Washington provides: that tax loopholes are closed in the amount of $8.6 billion. All this talk about middle-class tax relief has nothing to do with this amendment--nothing. She is not talking about, in any way, affecting the 10-percent bracket or the childcare credit, or any of the other middle-class provisions--not at all. The Senator from Wyoming indicated this is going to increase taxes on people, on small businesspeople, on middle-class taxpayers. It is not. It is aimed at tax loopholes. Let's talk about the type of tax loopholes that one might consider. There is now, across the land, a scam going on of enormous proportion. New York has sold their subway system to a group of private investors, and then they turn around to lease it back, and the private investors get to depreciate the New York City subway system. New Jersey sold off their sewer system to private investors, which then depreciate the sewer system and then get away with a dramatic reduction in their taxes. These are scams. The administration, to its credit, has said we ought to close these loopholes. They think it will raise $33 billion. The amendment of the Senator from Washington is $8.6 billion to keep the promise of No Child Left Behind--no tax increase, an end to scams. It does not end there. The Joint Tax Committee did a thorough analysis of the Enron scandal and found a series of abuses that could be closed which would save billions of dollars in closing tax loopholes--no tax increase but stopping the scams. And it does not end there. We have the spectacle of certain companies and certain wealthy Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship--Mr. President, I ask for 30 seconds more, if I could.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask the Senator, could I have 2 minutes off the amendment?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Washington for offering this amendment. She offered it in the committee. This is one of the most important amendments we will vote on during the consideration of the budget resolution. The Senator from Washington has been a strong leader on education issues. If we are going to have a competitive country for the future, if we are going to do something about this job loss that is occurring, we have to have the best educated, best trained workforce in the world. That is the message the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board has sent to Congress and to the United States. Senator Murray is saying, we ought to put our money where our mouth is, that we ought to keep the promise of No Child Left Behind, not just send all the requirements out to the States but send the money along with it that was promised in order to provide the resources necessary to make these promises a reality. I again thank the Senator from Washington for her leadership. Several Senators addressed the Chair.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. I think that is important, just so the Senator is here and prepared to move forward with her amendment. It is also important to say, Madam President, that we won several important victories today and that we anticipate a string of additional victories tomorrow that will allow us to conclude our work at an even earlier point. On a serious note, I thank the chairman and his staff for working cooperatively throughout the day. We are very hopeful that we will be able to end this sometime Friday morning, everybody having had a chance to debate and offer important amendments. That does not mean they need to offer every amendment. We hope Senators will show restraint. We hope Senators will eliminate duplication so that we can hold down the number of votes in vote-a-rama.