Pete Domenici

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. I ask for the yeas and nays on the Domenici amendment.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, essentially the Domenici amendment says this program, which has never been voted on by Congress, which has been put into regulation by order of the counsel for the Veterans Administration, which will cost ultimately $40 billion, we are saying let us wait 1 year and have the GAO, the Veterans Administration, and the OMB study it and report to us and to the President. The President has denied this program's efficacy, because of concern about the kinds of benefits and whether they are relevant to service in the military, 2 years in a row. We ought to take a little bit of time before we get involved in a $10-billion-a year program. I will give you one example. A veteran who smoked 3 years before he went into the service, 4 years in the service, and 40 years thereafter his surviving spouse might very well collect a widow's benefit and other benefits under this particular program.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask everyone on our side to vote in favor of this amendment. Then I want everybody to know that the subject matter will be the Domenici amendment. I will have a minute then, but I will use the remaining 30 seconds to tell you what I think we ought to do. This is potentially a $40 billion program. Congress never voted on it. The President has denied it twice and taken it out of his budget. We believe the best thing to do is to have one more solid look at it by the GAO, OMB, and the VA. They ought to report to us and the President before we engage in a $10 billion-a-year program which is built around the notion that if you ever smoked in the military and then you got out and smoked for 40 more years, you are to collect benefits from the military because you started smoking in the military. That is the essence of this debate.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I have moved to table. I would like to withdraw my motion to table so the vote can be an up- or-down vote. I ask unanimous consent to be able to do that.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. DOMENICI. I move to table the Specter amendment and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, fellow Senators, we have $1.5 billion next year for NIH. We have added $1.5 billion to NIH in this budget; $15.5 billion over 5 years. The amendment would add another $2 billion. That would cut defense $1.1 million, environment $88 million, agriculture $17 million, veterans $76 million, justice $86 million, and so on. I believe we have done enough with the $1.5 billion increase and $15 billion over five years. We should not now add $2 billion more and propose that we restrain every department of Government, including the Defense Department, for half the cuts. I yield any time I have remaining.

Mr. DOMENICI. I make the point of order it is not germane.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, without this counting as part of my 1 minute, if I could remind the Senators of where we are now. We have seven amendments stacked with reference to the previous order. Then we will start the 1-minute amendments, and on our side we have about 10. I am not sure how many are on the Democrat side, but we will work with those 10 and see if we can put those down. They are mostly sense-of- the-Senate amendments. For now, we are in a position to take up about six more. The time is supposed to be 10 minutes on the votes. I know that is difficult. For all additional time we take, we will be here later and later tonight in order to get it finished. This is a 10- minute vote on the Lautenberg amendment. Now, let me say this is the Democrat amendment offered in committee. In the committee, it did not even receive all of the Democratic Senators' support. If you want to spend more money, like $88 billion more, vote for this. If you want to vote to put the moneys that we get from the tobacco settlement on Medicare instead of six new programs, vote for theirs. If you want to spend new money on at least eight more domestic programs, vote for theirs. We have provided increases in NIH, education, the environment, and the criminal justice. We think that is a good priority. Have I raised a point of order on this amendment?

Mr. DOMENICI. I ask unanimous consent that we temporarily lay aside the Specter amendment and go to the amendment of Senator Lautenberg.

Mr. DOMENICI. Has all time been yielded back?

Mr. DOMENICI. That is the consent. There is consent that these six amendments be debated and that they then be voted on in order. Of that group, Senator Kyl's has not yet been debated.

Mr. DOMENICI. We are not finished with our pool of amendments. We still have Senator Kyl to offer his, and then we will have the entire package voted on one after the other.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I don't know why we proceeded to the vote. We did not intend to go to a vote. We are going to stack the votes and have a series of votes.

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

Mr. DOMENICI. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, this puts us right back where we were at the beginning. What I would like to do is remind the Senate that we will have an opportunity to vote on the Domenici substitute which calls for the 1-year study, and that does have the General Accounting Office in it also, for those who are wondering whether it is just the Veterans' Administration and the OMB. In addition, if we table this Rockefeller amendment, we will vote next on the Domenici amendment which will give us this 1-year study to make sure that we are doing the right thing. I yield back the remainder of my time, and I move, at the appropriate time, to table the amendment. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DOMENICI. I yield myself 2. Mr. President, this amendment is very simple, and I think it is a fair amendment. This amendment says that for the next year this program will be held in abeyance. And during that year, the Veterans' Administration, the General Accounting Office, and the Office of Management and Budget will meet, analyze, and make recommendations to the President of the United States and to the Congress of the United States. I believe that enough has been said here on the floor, enough is there by virtue of the President of the United States deciding what he has decided for 2 consecutive years, that we really ought to make sure we receive the best information about what is the right and fair and honorable thing to do. I do not believe that anybody expects we should pay a widow's allowance, and for cancer, for a veteran who spent 2 years in the military and smoked, or for a veteran who spent 4 years in the military and smoked, and then smoked for 40 years thereafter. I believe we need some clarification and some real details on this, because this is a very large expenditure of money and it should not be denied to veterans if, in fact, there is a reasonably causal relationship between a veteran's service and the illness from which a veteran died. If there is a reasonable causal relationship and it does encompass as many as might claim under this, then we ought to have this group of people spend at least a year, or whatever time it takes, and report to us on the effects of the General Counsel's interpretation of a general statute with relationship to nicotine. I yield the remainder of my time to the distinguished Senator from Idaho.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I yield myself 3 minutes, and then I yield 3 minutes to Senator Craig.

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

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I send a second-degree amendment to the desk and ask it be reported.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I have never been so certain that my eloquence had that much to do with matters, as to whether I spoke first or last, but normally I have been speaking last here as the floor manager when we are opposing an amendment. But I will not follow that now. I will speak now and let the Senator close. I don't have much additional to say. Frankly, I think it is a mistake, however, to categorize the money that the President saved in the budget by saying he was putting this program off. I think it is a mistake to categorize it that it all went for highways. The truth of the matter is, it goes to discretionary spending for programs across the board, which include highways. Frankly, what is going to happen is, the programs of this country all go to the Appropriations Committee; if there is not enough money for highways, then they are apt to fund highways and cut NIH, or anything else, if they would like. It is going to be a matter of what is the highest priority. So it seems to me we are talking about a program that the President of the United States for 2 consecutive years has said should not take effect, has provided no money to let it take effect. That, at least, is very questionable, whether the general counsel ruled or not. Congress never voted. And we believe some additional time ought to be taken on this matter. Whatever time I have I yield back at this point.

Mr. DOMENICI. I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from West Virginia.

Mr. DOMENICI. Let me ask the Senator if he would like a couple of minutes so he can give Senator Specter a couple minutes.

Mr. DOMENICI. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Idaho on my time in opposition to the distinguished Senator.