Pete Domenici

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Was the motion just made?

Mr. DOMENICI. I move to waive the point of order subject to appropriate provisions of the Budget Act.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I have 2 minutes; is that correct?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the conference report.

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

Mr. DOMENICI. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President.

Mr. DOMENICI. What is the issue before the Senate?

Mr. DOMENICI. I understand the distinguished Senator from Wisconsin desires to make a point of order.

Mr. DOMENICI. One minute. First, this is almost not a point of order. It is $40 million a year. That is because we had $2 billion in direct spending, $2 billion in this whole bill. What we did, when we ended up doing all of the estimating, it was 2.2. So anybody who thinks this point of order is a real budget point of order, it is a nothing point of order. Many times the budget process takes $50 million and rolls it because they are trying to make things meet, and here we are having a point of order making it sound like a bunch--$40 million. The last comment is this bill reduces the deficit because the tax writing committee came in $6 billion under. We are $200 million a year over. Do the arithmetic. The bill reduces the deficit; it doesn't raise it. I think this is the very reason the waiver provisions in the Budget Act were provided, for mistakes like these in estimating. That is why we have a waiver section. Members should vote in favor of the Domenici motion to waive. I yield the floor.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, I rise today before we leave on this recess to tell the Senate and those interested in how we do the people's business, what a successful 6 months we have had in the Senate. I have been here a long time. I believe this first 6 months has been like a great marathon runner. We started off slow and crossed the finish line a winner. About 4 hours ago, we passed the first comprehensive Energy bill in about 14 years. We have been trying for 6 years, and now it is done. The Senate did that in a bipartisan way, and we worked with the House and got a great policy for our Nation. A few moments ago, we passed a comprehensive Transportation bill for all of our States and our people, and regardless of what is said about it, in meticulous detail it is a terrific jobs package and infrastructure building bill for America. In addition, I submit that we have also accomplished some things we never were able to do: we enacted a bankruptcy reform act. I know people wonder why that is important, but we will not talk about why. Let's just say credit is the lifeblood of our Nation. If something is wrong with the credit system, you have to fix it. We have been waiting around to fix the bankruptcy law, which is an integral part of the credit system, for at least 5 years. We passed the bill about three times in the Senate and, yes, in this particular 6 months, we did that. We sent it to the House and it is a law. The budget resolution, I did them for years--let's be honest, for 31 years. This new Senator produced, under our leader's leadership, the fifth fastest budget resolution, and he got it in on time. The emergency supplemental was as big as many appropriations bills, gigantic--for Iraq, the tsunami, and we provided real help for the borders of our country. Five-hundred new Border Patrol people were in that bill, along with other things. We included, since then, in an Interior appropriations bill, which also passed, veterans funding of $1.5 billion. Let me go on with the list. After the emergency supplemental, we did six judges who had been filibustered for months upon months. We did CAFTA. That is the last of a long list of American free-trade agreements. This one, for a change, went our way. It was taking off tariffs that were imposed mostly on us, instead of the other way around. Now, 5 of the 12 appropriations bills have passed. All of the appropriations bills have been reported out of committee, except one. I didn't check the history, but I think that is close to a record. We confirmed the Secretaries of State, Justice and Homeland Security. We confirmed the Director of National Intelligence. That is the equivalent of another Cabinet seat. We also passed the Legislative Branch appropriations bill. We did, a while ago, a very important piece of legislation, gun liability reform. People wonder what that has to do with--as we say out in the country-- the price of eggs. I will tell you, it is important legislation, too. It conformed liability, as far as the liability of those who manufacture, which is growing out of proportion to our regular negligence laws, and put that under some kind of reasonable control as far as the liability of manufacturers, those who build firearms. If these gun manufacturers went out of business, we would have had to get guns produced overseas, and that would not have been good. The reason I did this kind of litany of successes is that it didn't just happen. It didn't fall down from the sky. It happened because we have real leadership. I believe it is because of our majority leader, Bill Frist, and Mitch McConnell, our whip. I give them extreme credit. I also say that much of this has been bipartisan--at least I can speak for myself. We would not have had an Energy bill without bipartisan leadership. Part of the year we didn't have it, let's be honest. We had the minority trying to move the other way on almost everything. I must say the new minority leader said he was going to try to move in a way to help get things done. I think this list, to some extent, indicates that is occurring. Before we leave, I think it is always good to remind ourselves of what we have done so we can take home a recollection, kind of a roadmap of accomplishments. I might have left something out because I just did this this afternoon. It took about 30 minutes, so it is no masterpiece, but I think it is pretty accurate. I yield the floor.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, on behalf of the leader, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 3512, which was received from the House.

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, are we in morning business?

Mr. DOMENICI. I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to speak for 5 minutes.

Mr. DOMENICI. Yes.

Mr. DOMENICI. I think it is a matter of whether the Senate confers. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following my 5 minutes, the junior Senator from Tennessee be given 4 minutes to speak.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. That is correct.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Obama be given 2 minutes and it not be included in the majority time.

Mr. DOMENICI. I would be happy to yield to the gentleman for that purpose.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I agree with my colleague--Senator Bingaman--that FERC, if it determines that certain foreign transactions are covered by the language of section 1289, should provide expedited review and approval to the acquisition of a foreign utility by a holding company that has no retail customers in the United States and other transactions that raise no significant U.S. consumer issues. These types of transactions don't require FERC's scrutiny in order to ensure that American consumers are adequately protected.

Mr. DOMENICI. I ask unanimous consent that a list of staff men and women who helped put this conference together be printed in the Record. I commend them.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, this bill will produce more jobs for our country, more secure jobs, and we will be using cleaner energy in the future. This will happen across America, and it will happen in the State of Wisconsin. Also, I would like to say to everyone here, our electrical system will be safer and more sound. We may very well have nuclear powerplants built anew for the first time in years. Renewable energy will be advanced and enhanced dramatically. Some do not believe ethanol will be a significant contributor to less dependence on foreign oil. They are mistaken. We will, within the next 7 or 8 years, make a major contribution to jobs, stability of the agricultural community, and the production of ethanol as a substitute for gasoline. In addition, we will enhance our supply of natural gas, thus stabilizing the price, which is one of the most significant things for America's future. If we cannot do that and the reverse happens, we will export hundreds of thousands of jobs. While everyone thinks that the only problem is gasoline, the problem is far bigger than gasoline prices tomorrow morning; it is what will be the state of energy 5 and 10 years from now in the United States. I can tell my colleagues, we will be safer, we will have more jobs, we will have an electric system that is safe and sound. We will have diversity of energy sources and supplies built in our country, spending our money, creating jobs, and much more. Frankly, it is very easy to criticize a bill of this magnitude, and it is very easy to say we did not solve everything. I close by saying there is criticism that we did not do anything to alleviate our great dependence on crude oil. I think we did. Hybrid cars are accentuated and pushed ahead by tax credits. I just explained ethanol. But if anybody thinks right now we can pass in the Congress a bill to substantially change the American way of using automobiles, I ask them to stand up, and we will put it on the Senate floor next week and see if they can do it. We cannot order Americans to buy smaller cars, little tiny cars, and we cannot order them to stop buying cars. That will happen. It is going to happen, and we are going to have more efficient ones clearly in short order in this country, but we cannot do everything in this bill. We have done a great deal. My compliments to Senator Bingaman. I am glad this was a totally bipartisan bill, totally open in every respect. I think we have proved that on a major, contentious bill, we can have open, above-board, total participation by any Senator who wants to participate. In conference, the same with the press of having all of the amendments and everything we do so they can do what they would like with the American people and yet get an agreed-upon bill. That is a pretty good accomplishment on the part of Senator Bingaman, myself, as the leaders in the Senate, and Congressman Barton and Congressman Dingell in the House. I yield the floor and thank the Senate for permitting me to produce this bill.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the Interior conference report.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I yield back any remaining time on the Interior conference report.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, have the yeas and nays been ordered?