Pete Domenici

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, we have no further debate on the amendment. We are going to accept it. I will make a little comment about what happened to the budget from the President of the United States as it pertains to this bill. First of all, the President of the United States, in the budget he submitted to the U.S. Congress, is responsible for the fact that we don't have enough money to do the renewables that the distinguished Senator from Vermont comes to the floor and adds money for. The President of the United States took the water projects of this country--and these are not pet projects, these are the ports that have to be dredged in our country, dams that have to be built for flood protection, just a whole litany of them everywhere--he cut them $1.3 billion. Frankly, all I can see in that kind of a cut is that he expected us to put the money back because we could not have kept the Corps of Engineers together with their projects out across our land. We could not have kept a viable program. Mr. President, $1.3 billion is a dramatic cut from what was needed for funding at the acceptable rate that the projects were in last year--not new ones. That money makes up the same pot of money from whence comes all of the DOE's nondefense research projects and all the water projects. So we start off with that one pot of money, short $1.3 billion, and the President picked and chose what he would like to increase. As a matter of fact, he increased certain water projects that he has been for and forgot about the water projects that the rest of the Congress has been for, including very important projects. Now, in order to get around that, we had to find money from places that he had dramatically increased. Even at that, we only funded those projects at between 60 and 70 percent, meaning it will cost us more money in the long run, the projects will be delayed, and some of them are very big, important projects for commerce such as ports that are to be dredged, with facilities to be built. It wasn't, when we put this bill together, that with some kind of gusto we set about to dramatically reduce the programs that are the subject matter before the Senate right now. It was that we had an obligation to fund that fund at 60 or 70 percent. That is all we could do for the myriad of water projects across this land which have a tremendous economic impact and which save much property and save much life when they are completed. Now, that puts in the position we are when we come to the floor here. Everybody understands that we are not going to have it much easier in conference, although thanks to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee a little more money was allocated to this committee than the President's budget because of the water project dilemma that I have just described. Now, that is the essence of why this bill has difficulty. It is not even funded in many areas as high as it was last year. Certainly, the water projects don't have sufficient resources to stay on the course that was there. That was the best course, the optimum course, in terms of efficiency and getting the projects done so that we would save lives and save property at the earliest time. Having said that, with no objection from the ranking member on the other side, we will accept this amendment and do our very best in conference to see that solar energy and the items mentioned in the amendment, that the funding is increased from what we had in our bill.

Mr. DOMENICI. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, in stark contrast to the last 3\1/2\ weeks, this bill is moving along very rapidly. I announce to the Senate that we can, indeed, finish this bill by midafternoon. The amendments that we are aware of that have come either through the minority, through my good friend, Senator Reid, or through our side, are being worked on and we don't think there is a rollcall vote necessary on any of those. There is one amendment that the distinguished Senator from Indiana, the junior Senator from Indiana, intends to offer. It is not related exactly, to this bill, but he indicates that he will be here about 2 o'clock. In the meantime, we are going to try to work on the amendments we have and see if we can put a package together and accept them. That will be all we will have until 2 o'clock, unless some Senator has some amendment of which we are unaware. I really want to make sure that everybody knows I have checked with the leader. He knows of no other business on this bill, and he wants to finish this afternoon. By 2 o'clock I hope we can have the Indiana Senator call up his amendment. Again, I indicate that is the last amendment we know about.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I raise a point of order that the pending Daschle amendment violates section 302(f) of the Budget Act and that it would cause the Energy and Water Subcommittee to exceed its 302(b) allocation. Mr. REID addressed the Chair. motion to waive the budget act

Mr. DOMENICI. Have the yeas and nays been ordered?

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

Mr. DOMENICI. Would you not do that for a moment?

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, essentially this amendment moves the dollar amount for the flux reactor in your State and Senator Murray's State from one account to another. In the process, because of the outlays of one portion versus the other, the budget authority had to be reduced by $4 million. It has been adjusted accordingly, and we have no objection.

Mr. DOMENICI. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. DOMENICI

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

Mr. DOMENICI. The Senator is correct.

Mr. DOMENICI. I would be pleased to join the senior Senator from Arkansas in a colloquy.

Mr. DOMENICI. I agree with the Senator from Vermont and believe there is a real need to address remote power problems in cold weather areas. I support using some of the funds in the Remote Power Initiative for the purposes you described.

Mr. DOMENICI. That is correct. Funding is available under this bill for the Department of Energy under the Biofuels Energy Systems account that could be used to study the feasibility of the Plumas County project.

Mr. DOMENICI. The Senator is correct.

Mr. DOMENICI. The Senator is correct.

Mr. DOMENICI. I agree Senator Burns, affordable power rates for irrigation districts are vital to all those living in the western United States.

Mr. DOMENICI. I understand that the situation now facing many of these farmers and ranchers is dire. You make a very compelling argument against raising rates and production costs for an industry that is already facing disaster.

Mr. DOMENICI. I completely agree with my colleague. We are united in our support for the oil and gas industry in New Mexico. The bill that I have brought forward today provides full funding for the ACTI program at the President's requested level. The program is one of a series of technological partnerships between the DOE national laboratories and industry which are producing real value to the U.S. economy. I plan to maintain this strong support for ACTI and other technology partnerships at DOE as this bill moves forward to enactment.

Mr. DOMENICI. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Michigan have up to 10 minutes for the purpose he just stated, and then, after that time has expired, we return to the pending business.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator from Michigan wants to state the purpose for going into morning business. Does he want 5 minutes as if in morning business, or 10 minutes?

Mr. DOMENICI. I think if you want to work on that language --and I understand Senator Lautenberg is going to have to express his views; and he will be here momentarily. I wonder, I say to the Senator, if you might agree with me that Senator Allard from Colorado, who wants to speak to the bill--he is not going to offer an amendment--could speak for up to 10 minutes while you are working on this.

Mr. DOMENICI. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. DOMENICI. Might I ask the Senator from New York, and the Senator from Indiana, are they going to try to iron out the differences that have been alluded to?