J. Exon

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. I yield the 10 minutes on our side to be controlled by the Senator from New Jersey. Mr. BRADLEY addressed the Chair.

Mr. EXON. I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Montana.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum and the time be equally charged.

Mr. EXON. I yield 12 minutes to the Senator from West Virginia.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, I move to waive section 305 of the act for the purpose of the pending Exon amendment. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. EXON. Off of my time. The Senator has made an interesting proposition. I would say to him that with all of the reservations that I have, if he will accept this amendment, he will at least get one vote on this side and, I think, considerably more. That may be a partial answer to his question, and I am acting in very good faith.

Mr. EXON. If the Senator will yield--

Mr. EXON. I will be very brief. I simply want to say that I have listened once again to my good friend and colleague from the State of New Mexico, my chairman. We do not happen to agree on this matter, but we happen to agree on many, many things. Time and time again, I have heard that those of us who realize that these programs are taking a considerable hit are being accused of being spenders if we do not try to alleviate some of the unfairness that I see in the Republican budget. When this debate first started, I complimented my talented friend from New Mexico for the courageous job he has done. Time and time again, I have said that we in the amendments that we offered in the committee, and the amendments we have offered on the floor, have not done anything to reach the goal that the Senator from New Mexico is espousing. We are simply asking, do we honestly feel that we should make some changes in the approaches on certain programs? I do not believe it is fair to say, nor do I think the American people are particularly concerned because their main worry is balancing the budget and keeping it balanced and to quit borrowing more money, which is crippling America with the interest we are paying on that borrowing. Suffice to say that we really believe that we can work with the Republicans, with Senator Domenici, if they would just listen to some of our pleas. I really think that the people of America would be most satisfied if we realistically face the challenge that we have to balance the budget and reduce the deficit. That is primarily the only thing that most of them are looking for. With that, I yield the remainder of my time and urge support of the amendment.

Mr. EXON. How much time do I have remaining?

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I believe the arguments can be made pro and con and have been made pro and con on this amendment. Very simply in the time remaining--I will consider yielding back after making these closing statements. Once again, we are not attempting to change the date that we would balance the budget as prescribed in the Republican budget, we are not adding to the deficit, we are not adding to the national debt. We have been staying, as we have through all of these amendments--all of these amendments--within the parameters laid down, the overall figures of the Budget Committee. What we are simply saying is that rather than provide a kitty, if you will, in the Senate budget, which is clearly earmarked for tax cuts and is so established by the chairman of the committee in this resolution, an earmark of $170 billion dollars which could come, according to CBO, if we balance the budget by the year 2002, to simply take a portion of that $170 billion and, instead of cutting taxes, cut the hit on these programs that I have outlined. This amendment merely alleviates the substantial and unfair cuts in each and every one of them. I reserve the remainder of my time and may be in a position to yield back after the Senator has made his statement.

Mr. EXON. At this time I would like to yield for purposes of a statement on the budget to the Senator from Montana for 10 minutes. And then we will proceed, if it is all right with the manager of the bill, with the Exon amendment.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, winding up the debate, I just want to reiterate, if I might, some very fundamental points that have been made over and over again. First, we have high hopes that this particular amendment that is universally opposed on this side of the aisle is also substantially opposed on that side of the aisle and, therefore, this might well be the first victory that we have had in the whole series of debates on the budget, inside the Budget Committee and on the floor of the Senate. I hope my optimism about this vote is not ill founded, because if the amendment offered by the Senator from Texas comes to pass and is agreed to by this body, I think it is going to cause such havoc that the conference with the House of Representatives would be essentially meaningless. If we pass this what I think is an ill-advised amendment, regardless of the fact that it passed in the House of Representatives, regardless of the fact that it is the so-called crown jewel of the Contract With America, regardless of the fact that I see no reasonable person could sit down and pencil out the figures and come up with any conclusion that we could possibly balance the budget by the year 2002 then if we proceed not to vote down the amendment offered by the Senator from Texas, the House and the Senate in conference would be placed in a position to where I think it would be nearly impossible to work out anything that would be halfway reasonable. I think under those circumstances it would be a foregone conclusion that whatever system eventually passes through the authorization and through the appropriations process would be vetoed by the President of the United States. This is the time for reason. This is the time for reality. Let us vote down the amendment offered by the Senator from Texas.

Mr. EXON. I am happy to yield.

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, how much time does the Senator wish?

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I yield myself 2 minutes off the time of this Senator. I would simply correct my friend from Alaska. The President of the United States, in his budget, suggested selective sales, including the Power Marketing Administration. This Senator and many on this side strongly disagree with the President on the selling of the Power Marketing Administration. We went down and had a meeting with him and we will fight that here and we will fight it all the way through this budget process. Certainly I think we can disagree. I believe the Senator from Arkansas made it very clear in his remarks that he realizes we are not suggesting this, but the main thing the Senator from Alaska is overlooking is the proposition in this budget changes the rules that could allow this to happen. They cannot happen under the rules the way they are. We objected to the President of the United States, our President, as you say, doing that. And we certainly object to the Republican Budget Committee going along in unison with the President of the United States, which in and of itself is quite unusual. We oppose your doing it. We opposed the President in doing it. And we hope we are alerting the Senate of the United States to this serious mistake. I reserve the remainder of my time and I yield the floor.

Mr. EXON. I also ask unanimous consent I be added as a cosponsor to the amendment just addressed that the Senator will be offering tomorrow, the Senator from Washington, with regard to impact aid.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to take 2 minutes from the time controlled by this Senator, to briefly speak on the subject at hand. I first would like to ask if the Senator from Arkansas has added me as a cosponsor to his amendment or not? If he has not, I would like to be added as a cosponsor.

Mr. EXON. Under the previous arrangement, I believe the Senator from Arkansas is finally ready to be recognized. Amendment No. 1130 (Purpose: To strike the proposed change in the budget process rules which would permit the scoring of revenue derived from the sale of federal assets)

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

Mr. EXON. I think the matter has been cleared on both sides. I urge its adoption.

Mr. EXON. I am sorry, I thought the Senator was out of time.

Mr. EXON. One more minute.

Mr. EXON. If the Senator could complete in 1 minute. We are in a real crunch tomorrow for time, much more than most people realize.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I would like to yield 5 minutes off the resolution to the Senator from Georgia on the subject at hand.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I thank my friend for yielding for 1 minute. I find myself very much in the position just articulated by my friend and colleague from the State of Virginia. We have to make hard choices here. I felt about that amendment that he referenced about like he did. But if we are going to make the hard choices then I think we should make them. Therefore I endorse thoroughly the amendment offered by my friend from Wisconsin and my friend from South Carolina. Certainly, in times like these, when we are talking about the concern for the defense needs and all the other needs we have been talking about all during this debate, it seems to me we have no way or reason to be talking about a tax cut. If there is any money left over after doing what we think is obviously necessary for national defense and these other programs we would be talking about, then that is where the money should be spent. If not there, to reduce the deficit. I hope the Senator accepts the amendment that is being offered and debated at this moment. I yield any remaining time I might have.