Pete Domenici

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, June 17, 1999 at 2 p.m. to hold a closed hearing on intelligence matters.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be granted permission to conduct a hearing on Thursday, June 17, 9:30 a.m., Hearing Room (SD- 406), to receive testimony on S. 533, the Interstate Transportation of Municipal Solid Waste Control Act of 1999; and S. 872, the Municipal Solid Waste Interstate Transportation and Local Authority Act of 1999.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet on Thursday, June 17, 1999, at 9:30 a.m. on the following nominations: Johnnie E. Shavers--Inspector General/DOC, Cheryl Shavers--Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology, Kelly H. Carnes-- Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy, Albert S. Jacquez--Administrator/St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, Mary Sheila Gall--Commissioner/CPSC, Ann Brown--Chairman/CPSC and various noncontroversial Coast Guard promotions.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, June 17, 1999, to conduct a hearing on ``Export Administration Act Reauthorization: Emerging Technologies.''

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, the Finance Committee requests unanimous consent to conduct a hearing on Thursday, June 17, 1999 beginning at 2:00 p.m. in room 215 Dirksen.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. I have finished my remarks, I say to the Senator.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I thought I had reserved under my UC request my right to speak, but I was mistaken. As we called on other people, I did not repeat my request. There is no unanimous consent agreement recognizing me. I understand the Senator from Arizona wants to offer an amendment, so I yield the floor.

Mr. DOMENICI. Yes.

Mr. DOMENICI. Go ahead of me. I have already spoken once. Let's change the order.

Mr. DOMENICI. Reserving the right to object, how long does the Senator intend to speak?

Mr. DOMENICI. I need to get consent on behalf of the leader. It will take 30 seconds. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendments be agreed to en bloc and that the bill, as thus amended, be considered as original text for the purpose of further amendment, provided further that no points of order will have been waived.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?

Mr. DOMENICI. I yield the floor. Mr. SPECTER addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOMENICI. With these two guarantees in it.

Mr. DOMENICI. We are talking about what is next, what is fair, what is the follow-on to what we did, remembering all the time that whatever arguments are made, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill.

Mr. DOMENICI. I am not suggesting the leader or anybody said there would be no amendments.

Mr. DOMENICI. I am not saying we had a commitment that it would pass. That is our job, with the help of Senators.

Mr. DOMENICI. That is why we are here, and that is why you are saying: Why do we have to have so many votes on items that are not germane to this bill? This is completing a job that was started in the Senate and it broke off in the conference in the interest of a bigger problem--to wit, adequate funding of defense--but we had a commitment we would get a vote.

Mr. DOMENICI. So we said, OK, we will do that, but we ought to have a vote someday.

Mr. DOMENICI. It was a big, powerful, tough supplemental, and urgent.

Mr. DOMENICI. The urgent supplemental that passed the Senate, and the supplemental that included the Byrd-Domenici guarantee program, was not a frivolous supplemental.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, before the Senator yields, could I have a little exchange so we could make the case that is very important, the case that the Senator just made?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, in the interest of time, I will explain only one amendment, and I will let my colleagues pick up the others. If they want to repeat what I have said, fine. Essentially, many Senators on this side have complained that this was an emergency measure, and that one way of looking at an emergency measure was that this bill might use some of the Social Security surplus. The emergency clause has been stricken. It is not in there anymore. As a consequence, this money is spent out of the regular allocation: Truth in budgeting, as you call it. It does not come out of the trust fund because it is paid for like any other program. If you are wondering how much for this year's appropriation, it is $19 million. So we have to find $19 million within the $1.8 billion budget of the United States. So we don't have to take any money out of Social Security. That is the only point I want to make. We fixed three other things other Senators were concerned about. I will let Senator Nickles or Senator Gramm explain those. I don't need the remainder of my time. Whatever I have left, I yield back. Mr. NICKLES addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, could we have a minute or two to explain that amendment?

Mr. DOMENICI. Then it is over there in conference. We have a right to keep it there.