Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will again resume debate on H.R. 3108, the pension rate bill. It is our hope to complete the bill either today or early tomorrow. In accordance with the consent agreement entered yesterday, we will vote at 2:30 p.m. today in relation to the Kyl amendment, No. 2234, which is the PBGC hold harmless language. Senator Kyl has an additional amendment pending, and I will be talking to the Democratic leadership as to a time certain for a vote in relation to that amendment. There are a number of meetings this afternoon with Members on both sides. So we will be looking for an appropriate time today for that vote. In addition, one other Senator has expressed an interest in offering an amendment, and we will be trying to schedule that amendment for consideration as well. Having said that, additional votes will, therefore, occur this afternoon as we attempt to finish the pension rate bill today or tomorrow. I thank Members for their cooperation in letting us move forward on this legislation.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this resolution concerns a request for testimony in an administrative proceeding before the U.S. Department of Labor. An employee of a private contractor at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a Department of Homeland Security facility in New York, was terminated from his employment. An investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sustained the employee's allegations that his termination was in retaliation for his voicing environmental safety concerns to the Homeland Security Department and to Senator Clinton's office and was therefore in violation of the employee protection provisions of the Clean Air Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972. That finding is now the subject of the employer's appeal to the Labor Department and is set for an evidentiary hearing. The regional director in Senator Clinton's Long Island Office is a direct fact witness to the events underlying this controversy and, hence, is a necessary witness in this proceeding. Accordingly, this resolution would authorize Senator Clinton's employee to testify at this hearing, with representation by the Senate Legal Counsel.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this resolution concerns a request for testimony and documents in a criminal action in Idaho District Court for the County of Kootenai. In the case of State of Idaho v. Joseph Daniel Hooper, the Coeur d'Alene city attorney's office has charged the defendant with misdemeanor telephone harassment arising out of calls he made to Senator Craig's Coeur d'Alene office. The defendant is also facing a second, separate misdemeanor action for harassing telephone calls made to his Congressman's office. Pursuant to subpoena issued on behalf of the city prosecutor, this resolution authorizes an employee in Senator Craig's Coeur d'Alene office who witnessed the events giving rise to this action, and any other employee in the Senator's office from whom testimony may be required, to testify and produce documents at trial, with representation by the Senate legal counsel.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will be in a period for morning business to allow Senators to make statements and to introduce legislation. Yesterday, we began consideration of the pension rate reform bill but did not complete action on that measure. If Senators desire to speak on behalf of that legislation, I do encourage them to come to the floor today during morning business. As I announced yesterday, there will be no rollcall votes today. When we finish our business today, the Senate will reconvene on Monday to resume debate on this important pension rate bill. I expect amendments to be offered on Monday. However, any votes on Monday will be held over until Tuesday's session. Again, no rollcall votes will occur on Monday. We will finish the pension bill Tuesday or Wednesday. I very much would like to complete that bill Tuesday, if at all possible, but we will finish it either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week and, as always, Senators will be notified of rollcall votes as they are scheduled. I thank everybody for their participation and cooperation during the omnibus debate. It was the unfinished business from the last session and took a lot of cooperation on both sides of the aisle. That was demonstrated over the last several days, which we all very much appreciate. The funding measure passed yesterday. As people saw from the ultimate vote, it was a bipartisan measure. It passed by a large bipartisan margin, and I appreciate the Members' assistance as we worked through the unanimous consent agreement in order to bring that bill to conclusion. Lastly, before we finish our business for the day, we expect to be able to consider additional executive nominations that are on the calendar. I will continue to work with the Democratic leadership to move forward on those nominations that are available. I am pleased the Senate will be able to act on these important positions.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in just a few minutes the Democratic leader and I will be participating in the graduation ceremonies for our pages. Although they are not here now because they are with their parents and family members at the beginning of that graduation exercise, I do, as I did last night, pay tribute to them. They are with us every day, every night, morning, noon, night--whatever hours--in order to work with us and make our lives much easier as we work very hard to carry on the Nation's business. Mr. President, I thank everybody for their attention.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I would like to reinforce what the assistant Democratic leader just said in that the operation of this body is dependent on the boys and girls who are here with us. We don't have that opportunity very often to publicly say thank you. It is important to do that. I will have the opportunity tomorrow to briefly thank them and their parents and family members who will be here. I will simply add to what the assistant leader has said: It is a lot of hard work being a page. We are here a lot of hours in the day. Tonight is a reasonable time to get out, 6:20. We start early in the morning at 9:30. That is hard work. On top of that, they are going to school. So they are putting in hours every day and at the same time carrying a heavy workload in high school. At the same time they are here and working, they realize later tonight they will be doing homework, class work. It is pretty remarkable that they are here all day allowing us to carry on the Nation's business and facilitating that and helping in ways that, if they were not here, this would not be possible, or it would take longer and be a lot less efficient, and at the same time they are committing the time and the energy and hard work to education, which is a big subject on the floor all the time as we work. It leads me to say thank you. We all have tremendous respect for you. It has been a hard 5 months. We know that. We thank you for that. The curriculum itself is fascinating here because at the same time they are learning from great teachers through the Senate in terms of formal education, they are picking up what makes this great democracy the shining light that it is for the world.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Friday, January 23. I further ask consent that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then begin a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Tomorrow morning the Senate will be in a period of morning business. We will not have rollcall votes during tomorrow's session. Members who wish to speak to the pending bill, the pension bill, are encouraged to do so. We want to continue to make progress on that important bill, and we do ask that they come to the floor to continue that debate tomorrow. We will resume consideration of that legislation on Monday to allow Members to offer their amendments. However, it is my intent to stack votes on those amendments on Tuesday. Therefore, to clarify statements made earlier today, we will have no rollcall votes on Monday. Again, I encourage Senators to be available for the consideration of their amendments on that day, continuing the progress on this bill. It is our intention to finish the legislation Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, if the assistant Democratic leader has no further comment and if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. That is correct.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I will be very brief. I want to address a change in the time we will be voting today and move that ahead. I want Senators to know just as soon as possible. I will propound a unanimous consent request and then comment on it for 1 minute. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote on the conference report now occur at 12 noon; provided further, that the time prior to the vote on cloture be for debate only, and that the time be equally divided between the chairman or ranking member or their designees, with the final 10 minutes equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; provided further, that all of the provisions of the previous order remain.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, we have been working with both sides of the aisle to make sure people have had adequate time to address this issue over the last day and a half. These are very important issues and why we have brought this bill to cloture votes and another vote. So the vote will be at 12 noon, with the understanding that this will give people adequate time to speak. We will stick with the time being equally divided. To clarify, the vote will be at noon, an hour and 20 minutes from now. If we are successful with that cloture vote, there will be another vote right after the first vote. So we would have both of those votes between noon and 1 o'clock. At that point, if we are successful, the plan is to go to the pension rate reform bill. We would begin debate on that bill today, as well as amendments today and tomorrow. The reason I am making this announcement now is because I want to put everybody who is interested in that pension reform legislation on notice that they need to be around today, tomorrow, and Monday, during which we will debate and offer amendments. If we are successful with these two votes and we get on the pension bill, I will be able to say no more votes today or tomorrow if we can stack those votes for Monday afternoon. We will have no votes after the omnibus bill today if we can make progress on the pension bill and come to an agreement that we will stack those votes for late Monday afternoon.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I very much appreciate that participation. Coming back on January 20, there were a lot of things going on. This weekend people are going back to their States to have certain meetings. It is important we continue the business. I appreciate the work on both sides this week. It has been a productive week on many important issues, and we will continue to make progress over the course of the day. If it goes as outlined--I would like to be able after the second vote today to begin the pension debate, with both sides having people available--we would have no more votes Thursday or Friday--I am not making that announcement now, but hopefully later this afternoon--and then we will stack votes for Monday afternoon. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. The Senator is correct. As I am sure the Senator from California can appreciate, Senators and their staff were working under severe time constraints to finalize the conference report. In this difficult environment, the language the Senator refers to was not included in the final legislation. It is my understanding that under the extreme time constraints imposed on staff to file the legislation and the lateness of the hour when this issue was brought to the conference, staff were unable to include the language.

Mr. FRIST. I commend the Senator for her dedication and diligence on this issue. I will work with her to support the intent of her omitted language for the $12.5 million funding provided in the legislation for the tree assistance program. I will discuss this issue with officials at USDA and it is my hope that the issues she has raised can be addressed by administrative action once the regulations are issued implementing this section of the legislation. However, if this is not possible due to statutory law, I commit to work with her to enact legislation that will address this unique problem of disaster assistance for producers of high value specialty orchards. rural economic development grant and loan program

Mr. FRIST. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the time has come to move ahead and complete the unfinished work of the first session of the 108th Congress. We have had good debate over the course of the morning and yesterday--in fact, this week. I have made it very clear as to the importance of this vote, the significance of the vote we will take in 4 or 5 minutes. If we fail to enact this legislation, we will do very clear things. We will curtail our efforts in the fight against terrorism; it won't be as effective. We will weaken funding for our food security system if we don't pass this legislation. We will not have as secure and as strong a system inspecting our food. We will create hardships for millions of veterans, which is unnecessary. That is what this vote, in part, is about. We would put at risk millions of lives of people who suffer from AIDS and the global effort to fight one of the most moral humanitarian and public health challenges of our time. We would be shortchanging the needs of our schools, our communities, our States, and needy and disadvantaged Americans. There are people who have said this legislation spends too much. I will once again point out and stress what I mentioned 2 days ago. This bill abides by the spending limits agreed to by Congress and the executive branch, excluding those two emergency supple- mentals enacted last year for the conflicts in Iraq. Appropriations spending authority will increase less than 3 percent between the year 2003 and 2004, with passage of this bill. The alterative to passing this bill is stark--a full-blown continuing resolution for the seven outstanding appropriations bills. Compared to doing the right thing and passing this legislation, Senators do have to be reminded one more time that the alternative would mean title I and special education programs would be reduced by $2 billion; the National Institutes of Health would be cut by $1 billion; veterans medical care would be reduced by $3.1 billion; highway funding would be reduced by $2.2 billion; global HIV/AIDS funding would be reduced by nearly $1 billion. That is what is at stake in this legislation. The legislation doesn't please everybody. That is what much of the debate has been about over the last 48 hours. I recognize that, and I recognize that part of the legislative process is for us to come together and express our beliefs and wishes and have that debate and compromise. Compromises are never going to please everybody. There are provisions in the bill I would have preferred to be different, but I have learned, especially over the course of the last year as majority leader, that you do the best you can. Compromise and negotiation are part of the legislative process. I want to respond, as the Democratic leader made clear in his remarks this morning, the legislative process isn't over with this legislation. It is not over. This is another very important step that we have taken, but issues that have been expressed as issues of concern on the floor of the Senate will--and I understand that--be revisited again and again in our legislative process. The great thing about our legislative process is that people will have that opportunity. It is time to move on the country's demand that we complete action on this bill and, thus, in closing, I do ask all my colleagues to vote for cloture and move America forward. I yield the floor. Cloture Motion

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent there now be a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I take a minute and again welcome everyone back for this second session, this being close to completion of the first week. We have had a very good and productive week in the Senate. The President delivered his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, which is always an uplifting experience for all who have the opportunity to participate directly. And very much I express my appreciation for his very positive, constructive message as we all work together to move this country forward. Indeed, as the President said, the state of the Union is strong, and it is confident. Today we were able to finish our appropriations work for this fiscal year, really the unfinished business for last year. It took a strong, bipartisan vote of 65 to 28. And with that, we adopted the Omnibus appropriations conference report, which will allow us to proceed to a regular order for this upcoming fiscal year. In a few moments we will be considering and confirming several executive nominations. We have been working on that over the course of this afternoon. We will continue to discuss further nominations tomorrow, and I am very hopeful we will have a number of other nominations to be approved tomorrow. I am personally appreciative and glad we have been able to continue this process. It is important for us to continue that work and bring these nominations forward as soon as they are available.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on today's Executive Calendar: Calendar Nos. 511, 512, 513. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the nomination of James C. Miller III, PN99, be discharged from the Governmental Affairs Committee, returned to the President, and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 2673, the Omnibus appropriations bill. A number of Senators will want to speak on that measure over the course of today, as well, I am sure, to make comments on the President's State of the Union Address last evening. The time until 6 p.m. today will be equally divided for debate to accommodate those statements. Although yesterday we were unable to invoke cloture, I do hope we will be able to finish this important funding legislation prior to finishing our business for the week. I will continue to be in discussions with the Democratic leader with the hope of reaching consent to allow the Senate to work its will on the Omnibus conference report.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, at this juncture, on this second day of the new session of the 108th Congress, I will spend a few moments reviewing a bit but also looking ahead, setting the stage for what we are likely to expect in this body. Last night, the President of the United States delivered a powerful challenge to the U.S. Congress and to the American people. He told us the state of the Union is strong and confident. The substance of the talk last night reflected just that. There is much to celebrate as we enter this second session of the 108th Congress. Perhaps most important is the capture of Saddam Hussein. It was only 1 month ago that the world woke up to those astonishing images--the President described it last night--of Saddam Hussein in a hole and now in a cell. They were images of that dirty and dishevelled dictator emerging out of that spider hole. Our brave and resourceful soldiers caught the ``butcher of Baghdad.'' As the President said last night, Saddam Hussein now is in a cell, a military prison, awaiting his fate. He will be brought to justice by the Iraqi people whom he so mercilessly terrorized, and he will be judged as the entire world looks on. Today, because of the war on terror, the capture of Saddam, the death of his two sons, and the destruction of his wicked regime, America and her allies are safer and more secure. As we enter the new year, we are also stronger. America's vibrant economy is beginning once again to hum. The Federal Reserve confirms that the recovery we began to observe last fall is gaining momentum each and every day. Worker production is up. Industrial production is up. Exports are on the rise. Home construction is booming. More Americans than ever own their own homes. Their total household wealth is approaching historic highs. Businesses are investing. Manufacturing is at its highest level in 20 years. In short, those tax cuts, those jobs and growth packages are working. The first round of tax cuts indeed helped end that recession that began in the year 2000. The second round of tax cuts put America on a path to solid growth. Americans today have more money to save, invest, and spend as they, as individuals, choose. Business owners have more opportunities today to realize their entrepreneurial spirit and potential. America is moving forward because President George Bush and the Republican-led Congress believed in that creativity, in that ingenuity, in that common sense of individuals, the American people. The risk-taking, willingness to invest, irrepressible optimism of the American people is in truth what has turned this economy around from recession to where today we are in the midst of the fastest growing economy in not just the last 5 years, 10 years, or 15 years but the fastest growing economy in this country in the last 20 years, since 1984. As the President pointed out last night, now is not the time to rest. We cannot really rest until that economic recovery is complete. Every American who is looking for work should be able to get a job and should be able to get that work. Thus, we have to have smart pro growth fiscal policy to lead this country to job creation. Looking to the future--and our obligation is to look to the future-- there are critical structural problems that we in this body need to take head on, not to shy away from but to go right after, to tackle head on. The one area that is critical to job growth--the President mentioned it last night--is tort reform. Over the last decade, class action lawsuits have exploded. State court class action filings have skyrocketed by over 1,300 percent in just the last 10 years. It is really not just the statistic, not just the figure, but it is the result. The result of this glut of claims is to clog our court system, our State courts. They simply cannot handle them all. It is inefficient in terms of government. It wastes taxpayer dollars. It stifles the innovation to which I just referred. That innovation and that entrepreneurship that is so crucial to taking a growing economy and translating it into job growth is stifled, is shackled, is handcuffed by this glut of claims. Last night the President also mentioned medical liability, another aspect of tort reform. The President said ``frivolous lawsuits,'' and it was wonderful for me to see the Members of Congress stand up, but now we need to act. We cannot just talk about it; we need to act. Those frivolous lawsuits are exploding health insurance premiums. So when we are talking about the 44 million people uninsured, and we are talking about the cost of insurance and frivolous lawsuits are driving those premiums sky high out of the reach of hard-working men and women, we must respond. We must address it directly. I encourage my colleagues to talk to their own doctors and ask them what the impact of this exploding malpractice, medical liability is doing to their own practice, how it affects the quality of care. I was just in a town meeting 3 days ago with physicians. I just come straight in. Being a physician I can sort of cut through a lot of the conversation. I said: What is the biggest problem today in terms of the quality of care that you give that patient coming into the room? It was pretty amazing. That group of physicians, without any hesitation, just one after another, said medical liability, medical malpractice premiums; I cannot afford it; it affects quality; it affects access; it affects the way I practice medicine in a negative way. Being a doctor, I receive letters about this problem from doctors all over America. It is real. The problem is increasing, and thus we in this body must respond to it. It is driving doctors out of the practice of medicine. When babies are being delivered, in some States the tax on that baby is as much as $1,000 the mom or family has to pay, somebody has to pay, at the end of the day. That $1,000, being a tax, goes to medical liability service. It hurts access to care. It hurts the quality of care. It is threatening our health care system. It is costing the country billions of dollars. As a physician, I am concerned about the care and the quality end of it, but even though the numbers are hard to calculate, if we just stand back and look in the aggregate, it is expensive. Well-researched reports predict that if we reform the medical liability system, make sure that there is equity, fairness, and appropriate compensation, if we have appropriate reform, we will save the economy anywhere from $70 to $126 billion a year. Just the Federal Government would save about $14.9 billion over 10 years through savings just in the Medicare and the Medicaid programs. So when we are talking about what is the biggest issue in health care today, clearly this issue of the uninsured and the cost of health care must be put on the forefront. Staying with this whole area of tort liability, I very much would like to address the issue of asbestos litigation. Right now things are out of control. A very good law has run amok over time and the intended consequences no longer are being accomplished, but they are unintended consequences which are hurting America. The torrent of asbestos litigation has wreaked havoc on the victims of asbestos. Many of them develop either cancer or a type of cancer called mesothelioma. It has wreaked havoc on Americans' jobs. Companies are going bankrupt. About 20 companies have gone bankrupt from the cost of this out-of-control asbestos litigation system over the last 2 years. And it is wreaking havoc on the economy. The approximately 600,000 claims that have been filed already have cost $54 billion in settlements, judgments, and litigation costs. The sad thing is that even with all of these billions of dollars that are being spent in the system, the current asbestos tort system has become nothing more than a litigation lottery. A few victims receive adequate compensation. But far more, far more today, the way the system is constructed, the way it has evolved, suffer long delays for unpredictable awards, for inequitable awards--if they receive anything at all. This is the victims, the people who have been hurt by asbestos. It is a system where, if you look at it, there is only one real winner. It is not who was intended to win in the initial legislation or the laws or the regulations; that is, the victim or potential victim of exposure to asbestos. No, the only one real winner today is the plaintiffs' trial lawyers, the only certain winner. They are taking about half of every dollar that is awarded to victims. So you have a victim, you have a system with a lot of money going to it, but only 50 percent of it ends up going to the victim. The other 50 percent gets lost in the system. There can be a system where there is fair and adequate compensation both for the lawyers and especially for the victims. While the attorneys collected their fees, the asbestos-related bankruptcies have already cost about 60,000 Americans their jobs. These job losses are unnecessary. If we act and update and modernize the asbestos tort system and bring everybody to the table, and do it in a bipartisan way, we can stop this unnecessary job loss--60,000 jobs to date. For those who lose their jobs, the average personal loss in wages over a career is as much as $50,000. That is in wages. That doesn't even include the losses in health benefits as well as in lost retirement. Remember, when I say 20 companies in the last 2 years have gone bankrupt, these are big companies, big employers. About 60 companies have gone bankrupt over the last two decades because of the asbestos- related matters. So passing this asbestos reform will create enormous economic benefits. It will benefit the victims themselves. The certainty that flows from the bill itself will also stimulate capital investment which will go to preserve existing jobs and create new jobs. Again, I mention a bipartisan spirit. We have to have everybody at the table. We began the work in the last session. I would like to finish it in this session in a bipartisan spirit to accomplish this reform. In early February we will be turning to the highway system. It will be shortly--February 2, hopefully, somewhere, depending upon when we finish the appropriations bills, which I hope we will finish this week--that we can turn to America's highways. It is another jobs issue. It is also an infrastructure issue. It is a safety issue. It is an issue we will address in this body. It is estimated the highway bill, from a jobs perspective, will help create as many as 2 million much needed jobs, and it is easy to understand why. We are blessed in many ways because this country is interlaced with 4 million miles of roads and highways. Our transportation infrastructure is estimated to be worth about $1.75 trillion. We are blessed in many ways. It is interesting that every $1 billion we invest in transportation infrastructure turns around and generates, for every $1 billion investment, $2 billion in economic activity. That, of course, translates into jobs. Our roads, our ports, our railroads are that infrastructure, that transportation infrastructure that is fundamental to our Nation's economic success. If things are so good, we are so blessed, why do we have to have a highway bill? Because if we look at that infrastructure, we see much of it is deteriorating or is becoming painfully crowded. Probably people listening to me now over their radios as I am talking are sitting in line in their cars. Commutes that used to take 10 minutes now take 20 minutes or that used to take 30 minutes now take an hour. Some people are probably sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic as I speak, not during just rush hour but throughout the day. From a safety standpoint--I have to put it on the table because it is another reason we have to address this highway bill early--we have more accidents. There is less time to spend with families as you spend more time in the car. There will be about 23.6 billion hours spent by Americans in delays, it is estimated. Americans waste 5.7 billion gallons of fuel just sitting in traffic in these delays. We can't ask our fellow citizens to join the great American workforce and then simply sit idly by and allow our roads to decay as that daily commute stretches from a few minutes to 30 minutes to 60 minutes--indeed, to hours. It is a jobs issue. It is a quality of life issue. It is a safety issue. Last year we addressed similar types of issues. We addressed the issue of spam with legislation, the Do Not Call phone registry. We just hit the issue of spam head on. This year we need to upgrade our transportation system. We are losing billions of dollars in lost productivity and billions of hours stuck in traffic. It is that image of being stuck in traffic that kind of moves me to a topic that is unfinished business, that we worked hard on but we were unsuccessful with in the last session. It is an issue that affects every single American, every one of my colleagues, every one of my colleagues' families, everybody listening to me, their families--and that is energy. Our Nation simply does not have a comprehensive energy policy that addresses the unfortunate dependence on foreign sources of oil and energy today, a dependence which is increasing. It used to be 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent. Now it is up to 60 percent dependence on oil from overseas--an energy plan. A lot of this reminds me to at least comment on what happened last summer. Fifty million people suffered the biggest blackout in American history. It came at an instant from New York City to Cleveland to Detroit to Toronto; tens of thousands of citizens were trapped at that instant, trapped in elevators and subways, trapped in trains, and they were stranded on dark city streets. We saw just with a sort of snap of the fingers in that instant the potentially fatal consequences of operating on a grid, upon which we are all so dependent, that is outmoded, that is outdated, that can crash at any time. The Senate must respond. Our Congress must respond. It is our responsibility to respond, to act--not just talk, not just try, but to respond and pass legislation that addresses in a comprehensive way energy supply and conservation and renewable resources and the uses of more efficient types of energy. We have to address what people are beginning to feel in the last several weeks, especially with the cold wave and the cold streak that has hit New England in historic proportions, and that is the cost of energy and the cost of oil and natural gas. U.S. chemical companies are closing plants. They are laying off workers. They are looking to expand production abroad. All because of what? The cost of high energy prices. We will import approximately $9 billion more in chemicals than we exported this year. American consumers are getting hit with higher and higher energy prices. Small businesses are struggling just to contain these rising energy costs. It is our responsibility, this body, the Senate, to act. We acted in the last Congress. We came two votes short. Now it is incumbent upon us to go back and address that challenge before us. I should add, not only will the energy plan lower prices, it, too, will have a real impact on jobs and on the economy--on thousands of jobs. It is estimated that the energy package will create about a half a million jobs. The Alaskan pipeline alone will create at least 400,000 jobs. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested in research and development and new technology. All of this will create jobs. Engineering will create jobs in math, chemistry, physics, and science. Reforming the litigation system, upgrading our highways, and passing a comprehensive energy plan will lead to more jobs and higher economic growth. We also must think beyond our borders in relation to what happens within this country, what happens within other countries, and address the energy issue of trade--specifically trade with Central America and Australia. Free trade is essential to the creation of jobs and to growing the economy. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend 2 days in Mexico City where I met with representatives from the senate there. I had the opportunity to look back over the last 10 years of NAFTA. Indeed, under those 10 years of much freer trade with Mexico, the value of two-way trade between the United States and Mexico tripled. It went up three times--from $81 billion to over $230 billion. While I was there, I was talking to my legislative counterparts in the senate. And I was talking to President Fox. It was apparent to me that free trade does much for growth and economic opportunity. But it also does much more than that. They described to me how elections there have become much freer and much more open at the state level and at the national level. We also need to make sure those trade agreements that we are part of are fair and equitable--that they strengthen the rules of international trade, and we will work hard in this body to achieve that right mix of benefits and obligations. In addition to these types of structural reforms, we will continue to pursue strong fiscal policy and deficit reduction. Again, the President mentioned last night the importance of this fiscal responsibility. In about 2 weeks, the President of the United States will deliver a budget to this body. We will work with that budget to accomplish that fiscal discipline. The President last night laid out a plan to cut the deficit in half over the next 5 years. Now that the economy is beginning to hum once again, thanks to the tax relief package and the jobs and growth package of the President from 2001 and 2003, we must turn our attention to reducing the deficit. The deficit depends in part on revenues and in part on how much we spend. To grow those revenues, we have to focus like a laser, which the President has done and which we in this body have done growing the economy. Now is the time to focus on that spending. We are also committed to promoting fairness in the Tax Code. Last summer we passed a tax bill to provide additional tax relief for families with children. We created a uniform definition of a child. Instead of five confusing and conflicting categories in terms of defining a child, the Tax Code was simplified to make it easier for folks to fill out the forms and get the tax relief to which they are entitled. Tax simplification: We will not solve all of it this year, but I pledge this body--working with the appropriate committees--to work along the line for tax simplification. We will continue to pursue reforms that make the Tax Code clearer, more understandable, and less burdensome for America's tax filers. We will address the issue of Internet tax, for example. We will work hard to pass manufacturing tax incentives. Each of these will reduce the burden that the Government imposes on American workers and on American businesses. They, too, are critical to adding jobs to the economy. Reducing taxes on manufacturing profits especially will increase the competitiveness of American businesses by creating a fairer and a more sound system of taxing income. We will work hard this year to lower manufacturing taxes and streamline the Tax Code; all of that as we focus on taxes because taxes ultimately is not about dollars but about people--people who go to work every day, who start businesses, who hire new workers, who contribute to their communities, who raise their families, and who expand the economy. Tax relief and tax reform grow the range of opportunities for people to make the very best choices for themselves and for their families, whether that is to spend their hard-earned dollars on a dishwasher or whether it might be to take the family on a vacation. For some families, however, the choices are stark. They are not thinking about even a new dishwasher. They are not thinking about a vacation. They struggle just to pay the bills. Often health insurance for their loved ones is a necessity they do without. The President last night mentioned the importance of addressing the cost of health care today. Forty-four million people are uninsured in this country. It varies between 40 million and 44 million. Whatever the figure is, it is too high. The primary cause is the cost of health insurance. It is one of the most daunting policy challenges facing our Nation. As a physician, it is clear to me that if somebody does not have health insurance they simply don't get good care or high-quality care. They do not tend to get things that are important in preventing diseases such as preventive services. The uninsured are four times less likely to receive needed medical and health treatment. The uninsured are five times less likely to obtain prescription drugs. The uninsured are four times more likely to enter the health care system through the emergency room. The lack of affordable health care coverage is also one of the key factors accounting for the health care disparities among minorities-- addressing specifically access to quality care. As we heard last night, the President offered specific proposals. He didn't just say we need to address the problem by saying we are going to take care of everybody no matter what it costs and sort of stick one's head in the sand about the issue or overpromise. The President offered very specific proposals which we in this body should consider. Refundable tax credits for low- and middle-income Americans are important. It means that people who are on the margin and can't afford health care insurance all of a sudden have a pool of resources to be able to buy that insurance. He proposed to expand the number of community health centers and to increase access to this new entity of health savings accounts where you, in essence, own your health savings account. You are able to put in money tax free and take it out tax free. You control that health care dollar. He introduced the concept last night of making the premiums deductible, to encourage and to make it more affordable to have these health savings accounts. We have to control costs through, as I mentioned earlier, addressing head on the frivolous and unnecessary medical lawsuits. The President mentioned promoting association health plans--again, a specific proposal. It will be debated on the floor of the Senate. But the point is the President says we need to reduce the cost of the health insurance policies. He feels very strongly that one of the answers would be lowering the cost by allowing association health plans to enter the market and to compete. In this body, I have asked Senator Judd Gregg to lead a Senate Republican task force to explore ways in which this body can respond to the uninsured--this daunting challenge which is before us. America is a strong nation. America is a compassionate nation. We are committed to protecting the most vulnerable before us. The President last night mentioned immigration policy. The reception to his immigration policy statements from a few weeks ago has been very mixed. We know that. A lot of people are getting phone calls from constituents. But the point is the President says this is a problem, and the reality is we have 8 million people or 9 million people in this country who are in the shadows. We don't know who they are or where they are or what they are doing. Our immigration policy is outdated. It must be addressed. Indeed, in this body we must address immigration policy. I have asked my chairmen of the appropriate committees to come together and see what the appropriate response is in discussing, pulling together and addressing what the immigration policy might be and to report back. It was feared that the President's plan was either amnesty or welfare. But the President was very direct last night. This year we will work to find ways to improve the system. In 2004, we will also work to build on the success of the No Child Left Behind Act and the education bill. We are committed to improving Head Start and making sure that every child in America learns. We will also address the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in this session, and to get education out of the courtroom and into the classroom focusing on the individual--to focus on individuals themselves who have disabilities and to make sure they have that opportunity to learn. We will examine how we can expand access to higher education. The President last night mentioned the support for community colleges. If you are a minority or your family is poor, you are less likely to attend college. We must examine how to close this gap so that college is within reach for all children, regardless of race, regardless of income. We will work hard in this body this year to make sure, from Head Start all the way up through college, every child in America has that opportunity to learn and to achieve. Our commitment to opportunity also brings me to mention welfare recipients as they work to gain independence and self-reliance. Since the enactment of the historic 1996 welfare law, 5.4 million fewer people live in poverty than when the law was passed. Caseloads have declined by more than half. Families once trapped in the clutches of government dependency are now on those first rungs of the economic ladder. It is by no means an easy climb, but these hard-working Americans are succeeding for themselves, they are succeeding for their families. Today, 2.8 million fewer children live in poverty. Among African- American children, poverty has dropped to its lowest level ever. Welfare reform is working. It is working because it is based on the belief that everyone can succeed if given the chance. This year, in this body, we will work to extend the promise of welfare reform which is at its heart the promise of the American dream. As we move America forward on the domestic front, we must also continue to meet international challenges to the safety and security of the American people. There are many but none more important than the war on terror. The fight against terror will be a long and difficult struggle, unlike any struggle this Nation has known before. Let there be no mistake about it; we are at war, but we will prevail. Already we have made tremendous progress. After years of indifference to the threat of terrorism, the U.S. Government has, under the leadership of President Bush, made enormous strides in taking the fight to the terrorists. In just 2 years, America has toppled two terrorist- sponsoring regimes. In just 2 years, America has liberated millions of people. In just 2 years, America has brought avowed adversaries to the table of peace. Our bold, tough, unwavering leadership has yielded spectacular results. As the President said last night in the State of the Union Message, ``No one can doubt the word of America.'' Previously recalcitrant rulers are beginning to cooperate in the war on terror. After seeing our troops roll into Baghdad, the Libyan dictator, Muammar Qadhafi, called the Italian Prime Minister and said: I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq and I am afraid. Libya will now dismantle its nuclear weapons programs and join the Chemical Weapons Convention. With the military defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and Saddam's regime in Iraq, American diplomacy has been further strengthened toward ending the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. North Korea and Iran now feel the combined pressure of the international community to abandon their nuclear ambitions. I am confident in time they will. Finally, change wrought by war has given old adversaries an opportunity to lay aside their grievances and begin the work of peace. India and Pakistan have agreed to peace talks. Syria has established diplomatic relations with Turkey. In each case, the opportunity to pursue a new course of peace between these historic antagonists is a direct result of the United States determination to oppose international terrorists and the regimes that sponsor them. This is not to say the war against terrorism has been won. We are far from that. Yasser Arafat continues to cling to the tools of terror, frustrating the latest efforts for peace in the Middle East. In Colombia, a courageous new government fights a stubborn terrorist movement. But with clear-eyed determination we can find solutions to these conflicts as well. Victory in the war against terrorism is inevitable because of the leadership of our President, because of the perseverance of our people and, most of all, because of the courage and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. Every day they serve the Nation, our service men and women give this Nation their very best. They are not the first, but they are the latest generation to take up and bear arms, to travel from home and loved ones and risk all so we may live in safety, so we may live in peace. They deserve our deep gratitude. I take one final moment to pay a special thanks to the 101st Airborne which is based in my home State of Tennessee and also in the adjoining State of Kentucky. Under the leadership of MG David Petraeus, a friend, the 101st is doing extraordinary work. You may remember it was the 101st that found and dispatched Uday and Qusay Hussein in Mosul. Since then, the 101st has moved more quickly than any other American unit in training guards and policemen for the new Iraqi civil defense guard. They have also shown that the Iraqi people have tremendous generosity in their relationships with the United States. They have demonstrated the generosity through their action, through the action of the 101st Airborne, the generosity, the heart displayed by our service men and women in helping Iraq rebuild its infrastructure, rebuild its civic institutions and, even more fundamentally, the pride and hope of the people in Iraq, that pride and hope in the future. Together with the support of the Congress and the American people, the 101st is helping plant the seed of democracy in the heart of the Middle East. There is yet much to be done, but it must be said that none of these developments was even imaginable 3 years ago. Because of the extraordinary leadership of President Bush and the courage of our men and women in uniform, America is safer. Millions of people around the world are for the first time free. Strengthening our homeland security, prosecuting this war on terror, addressing domestic issues such as education and health care and tort reform are just a few of the issues we will address this year. The President's judicial nominees will get the up-or-down vote they deserve. We will not allow a small minority of Senators to thwart our constitutional duty to advise and consent. Look for action to protect unborn victims of violence, child custody protection, gun liability, bankruptcy, and many other legislative efforts. We have laid out an ambitious agenda, one worthy of a great nation, one that will require strong, bipartisan work. We will be aggressive. We will fulfill our duty to serve the American people and make our Nation strong. Some cynics say in a narrowly divided Congress, especially during an election year, that we are doomed to gridlock, that we can accomplish little. I strongly disagree. I believe everyone in this Chamber will do what is right and what is best for the American people and that is to move America forward. There is much to be done and there is no time to waste. I thank my fellow Senators for their dedication. I look forward to another extraordinary year in the Senate. I yield the floor.