Pete Domenici

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, can I have 30 seconds?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator can make a 1- minute argument against it and then a minute on his.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I say to Senator Byrd, first, I appreciate the kind remarks he made about the Senator from New Mexico, but on a budget resolution, we are dealt what we are dealt. It just happens that a Parliamentarian had ruled that all these sense-of-the- Senate amendments are in order on a budget resolution. The Senator from West Virginia knows as well as I know that many of them are not going to do anything, but if a Senator wants to offer them, not as legislation or law--they will not be that, no matter what we do; even if we kept every one in conference, they would not be law. We have worked our best to let every Senator who had an amendment who wanted a vote--the Senator raised the issue of why don't we vote on these. I make the point that every Senator who had an amendment and wanted a vote got a vote. I do not think you had any of the sense of the Senates here, but every Senator whose amendment I read agreed that they did not need a rollcall vote. It is not like they want a vote. They do not want a vote. They want to do it this way.

Mr. DOMENICI. We have no objection. We could accept it.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, this is a simple amendment. It says that the Senate, if it votes for the Domenici substitute, is saying to the Appropriations Committee, within that $100 billion or more you are going to have to spend on labor, health, and human services, the highest priority shall be given to the National Institutes of Health. That is what this amendment says. If that isn't enough of an instruction, saying how we feel, I don't know how we can do it. But we don't have to increase the overall spending by the amount requested by the distinguished Senator. We can just say find it within this 14- percent increase that is going to his subcommittee to be spent on labor, health, and human services in this country. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, that is an incorrect statement. The NIH can go up the amount the Senator desires if he and his subcommittee, which will be receiving a 14-percent increase under the allocation we have made--and I would not be surprised if this got more than a 14- percent increase by the time allocations are completed. In other words, the subcommittee with NIH in it is already going up about 14 percent. NIH is going up to a huge sum of $19 billion. But the Senator who chairs the committee can decide he wants to spend more than $19 billion. He will have to look at that myriad of programs--you know, $100 billion in that subcommittee --and decide whether he can find money to increase NIH even more. We increased it $1.1 billion in this budget. That is our recommendation. Frankly, all we are doing here is spending more money. It really doesn't have anything to do with NIH. It is raising the amount of money available to be spent on domestic programs.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, may we have order?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, the Senator probably agrees the popular election created a better Senate.

Mr. DOMENICI. So I ask that this better Senate help us get rid of some of these amendments that are irrelevant.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, with the full understanding that the Senator from New Mexico is taking this amendment-laden resolution to conference and that it may come back much skinnier and thinner, I agree to accept the amendment.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. DOMENICI. I thank the Senator.

Mr. DOMENICI. Might I ask the Senator, I believe this is a sense-of- the-Senate amendment; is that correct?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the yeas and nays be vitiated.

Mr. DOMENICI. I asked unanimous consent, as I stated originally, that all of these amendments I have listed and explained be in order; that they be made the pending business; that they be agreed to, en bloc; that the motion to table and the motions to reconsider be agreed to, en bloc; and that any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOMENICI. There has been no rollcall vote requested on this amendment.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, we add $23 billion to education in this budget. I don't think we need a reserve fund. This amendment violates the Budget Act because it is not germane to the budget. Therefore, I make a point of order in that regard.

Mr. DOMENICI. Has that been accepted on the Senator's side? It is all right with us. We will add it to the list.

Mr. DOMENICI. We have Senator Fitzgerald.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, it is almost comical that this is called a Medicare lockbox because it has nothing to do with Medicare. The Social Security lockbox at the Social Security trust fund actually puts those away. This amendment never references the Medicare trust fund. It says we are to run on-budget surpluses equal to a third of the Congressional Budget Office surpluses, using the most recent baseline projections. I don't think we ought to do that. We have priorities set up in the budget. It violates the Budget Act. I make a point of order that it is not germane to provisions of the Budget Act. I therefore raise that point of order.

Mr. DOMENICI. Does the Senator remember what it is about?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, they have modified the amendment so that it is no longer objectionable on our side. We accept it without a rollcall vote.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, might I list, without asking unanimous consent, what we currently plan as the next 10 amendments. The amendments, in the following order, are presently expected to be the order they are considered in the Senate: Ashcroft amendment No. 3032, on Medicare lockbox; Lautenberg amendment No. 2957 on Democrat alternative; Jeffords amendment No. 2984 on aid to education; Edwards amendment No. 3001 on aid to CDBG and provides for some hurricane considerations; Specter amendment No. 2994 on aid to education; Schumer-Durbin amendment No. 2954 on law enforcement; Smith amendment No. 3028 on the census; Kennedy amendment No. 2951 on the minimum wage; Stevens amendment No. 3003 on child reserve fund; and Landrieu amendment No. 2979 on SOS military threat. As I understand it, Senator Ashcroft is next, Mr. President.