Larry Craig

Mr. CRAIG

Mr. CRAIG. First, let me apologize to you that a phone call was not made. I meant it with all due respect. I did not misuse your name nor misquote you. Certainly, speaking on the floor in the Senate in an open, public forum is not speaking behind your back. That I do not do and I will not do.

Mr. CRAIG. OK.

Mr. CRAIG. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. CRAIG. By October 1.

Mr. CRAIG. What I quoted was the Congressional Almanac--the CQ Almanac--that said since 1977 only twice, in 1994 and in 1998, has the Congress passed all 13 appropriations bills in time for the President to sign them into law before the October 1 deadline.

Mr. CRAIG. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. CRAIG. I have made statistical statements. When I prepared this today, I double-checked them, to make sure I was accurate, with the Congressional Quarterly Almanac so the Record would be replete. If I am not accurate, or if I have misspoken in some of these statements, again, I stand to be corrected. I was simply comparing the years of 1986, a Republican-controlled Senate, and 1987, a Democrat-controlled Senate, when you were the majority leader--recognizing that in both of those years major budget battles ensued and we bundled tremendously in those years individual appropriations bills--in fact, in a considerably worse way than we are actually doing this year. I thought that was a reasonable thing to discuss on the floor.

Mr. CRAIG. Will the Senator yield one last time?

Mr. CRAIG. That is most appropriate.

Mr. CRAIG. In no way do I intend to speak behind your back. It is an important issue that you and I are concerned about. I think it was important to demonstrate what the real record of performance here is in the Senate under both Democrat and Republican leadership--how difficult it is to bring about the final processes of the appropriations. You and I would probably agree that maybe we need to look at the process because it hasn't worked very well. We have not been able to complete our work in a timely fashion, and it does take bipartisan cooperation. I have been frustrated in the last couple of weeks by quotes such as the one on this chart, which would suggest if the other side does absolutely nothing, somehow we would cave. Last week appeared--I know you had a different argument, and I agreed with you--not to debate an appropriations bill on the floor separate from another. That is not good for the process, not good for the legitimacy of getting our work done. But it did seem to purport and confirm the quote on this chart. Again, if I have in some way wronged you, I apologize openly before the Senate. But you and I both know that that which we say on the record is public domain. But I did not offer you the courtesy of calling you, and for that I apologize.

Mr. CRAIG. You know how much I respect you, Senator Byrd.

Mr. CRAIG. I thank the Senator for yielding.

Mr. CRAIG. If we are attempting to complete our work on a bill-by- bill basis and we extend our time to do that with a clean CR, simply extending the processes of Government and the financing of Government for another week or two while we debate individual bills--that is what I am suggesting. If we are going to incorporate other bills, appropriations bills, in the CR, I am not objecting to amendments. I am saying that if we are going to deal with them individually on the floor, as you and I would wish we could and should, then the CR that extends us the time to do so, in my opinion, should be clean in going to the President so he will not argue or attempt to veto something because we would stick an amendment on it with which he might disagree.

Mr. CRAIG. If the Senator will yield just one last time?

Mr. CRAIG. I thank the Senator for yielding. You see, we do agree on some things but we also disagree on others. There we have a point of disagreement.

Mr. CRAIG. Oh.

Mr. CRAIG. Yes. We are not in disagreement.

Mr. CRAIG. No, that is not the point. If the Senator will yield, we are not in disagreement. We are not yet to the CR point. If we get there, I have not yet heard any leader on either side suggest that we not amend it. We hope they could be clean. We hope they could go to the President clean, without amendments. But if we are going to incorporate in them entire appropriations bills that have not yet been debated--and that was my point here with bringing that up; they were in CRs but they were not brought to the floor individually and debated. There was an opportunity--you are not suggesting, you are saying--and it is true--that there was an opportunity at some point in the process for them to be amended.

Mr. CRAIG. I have one last question because you have got your ledger there, which is very valuable, making sure that statements are accurate, because I focused on 1987, the year of your majority leadership. We talked about the bills. I think we confirmed one thing. The Congressional Quarterly Almanac also goes on to say that foreign ops, Agriculture, and Defense were never voted on on the floor and never debated, that they were incorporated in the omnibus bill. So, in fact, the practice you and I are frustrated by was incorporated that year into that large 13-bill omnibus process; is that accurate?

Mr. CRAIG. Those records comport with what I have said. I wanted to make sure I was not inaccurate. My concern is that we will have not completed our work on the floor by the deadline unless we can gain the kind of cooperative effort to move these pieces of legislation. And by your observation, I was accurate in the sense that five were debated and passed or voted on after the October deadline of 1987.

Mr. CRAIG. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. CRAIG. I don't recall what President Reagan did or did not want. I know what the record shows he got. I guess the question I ask the Senator from West Virginia, from October 1 to until December 22, did the Senate debate and pass out the remainder of the appropriations bills that had not been completed by October 1, which would have been a total of six, I believe, if the Congressional Quarterly Almanac is correct, and we only worked up seven prior to the deadline?

Mr. CRAIG. If the Senator will yield.

Mr. CRAIG. Will the Senator yield again?

Mr. CRAIG

Mr. CRAIG. Yes.