T. Gorton

Mr. GORTON

Mr. GORTON. It is certainly OK.

Mr. GORTON. Could I inquire of the Senator from New Mexico whether he will be prepared to go to a vote on his amendment after the disposition of this vote?

Mr. GORTON. Yes, I concur, and thank the Senators for pointing out the importance of providing adequate funding for the National Trails System. inpatient health facility

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, we have a number of other colloquies but they are not ready yet. When they are, they will, I believe, be the last matters of business before final passage. Awaiting their OK, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. GORTON. Yes, I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendments.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I made a mistake on three of the amendments I just had agreed to that do not at this point have unanimous consent to adopt. I ask unanimous consent that action on the amendments proposed by Senators Baucus, Domenici, and Specter be vitiated.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New Mexico for the promptness in dealing with this amendment. I ask unanimous consent that we return to consideration of the Helms amendment and that we hear from the distinguished Senator from Rhode Island on that amendment.

Mr. GORTON. I would be delighted.

Mr. GORTON. Before the Senator from New Mexico speaks again, I will just say that we are going to attempt to stack the vote on this amendment with the vote on the amendment by the Senator from North Carolina on wolves and any other we may have. I hope perhaps we will settle with the Senator from Vermont.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, with regret, I am going to have to oppose this amendment first, by saying that, again, if you focus on only one line item in this appropriations bill or in all appropriations bill, you reach one conclusion. If you take the budget of the United States as a whole, you come up with an entirely different conclusion. It is correct that this particular Indian education program is subjected to a $27 million reduction under the amount for the current year. In that, the Senator from New Mexico is entirely correct. But that is only one small part of the moneys which are devoted to Indian education. For the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the schools that it conducts, a subject of the debate last night and early this morning, there is actually a small increase in the appropriation in this bill, one of a tiny handful of functions in the entire bill which is actually increased over 1995 in attempting to reach our goal of an 11-percent overall reduction. But that figure pales to insignificance in comparison with the $470 million which goes into Indian education programs administered by the Department of Education outside of this appropriations bill. Mr. President, I do not think Members know that Indian children are the subject of impact aid payments to the school districts that provide education for them. Impact aid is something with which every Member of this body is familiar. It is the added payments made by the Federal Government for people who live on or work on Federal reservations, for children in school, by reason of the tax exemption of the lands on those Federal reservations. So, for example, a child who is in a military family, with a family living on a military reservation, entitles the school district educating that child to impact aid. Indian children get that impact aid exactly as everybody else that is its subject. This bill includes $318 million, way more than the entire budget that we are talking about, in impact aid for Indian children. In fact, Indian children are doubly privileged, because they get all the impact aid and they get this program to which this amendment is an amendment, in addition. So we are not speaking about the only or even the principal program which provides educational assistance for Indian children. I simply want to repeat, other parts of the budget and the appropriations bill which we will adopt include $470 million for that purpose. It is infinitely more than what we are speaking about here. But, Mr. President, at the same time, this amendment proposes to take money out of every other program covered by this bill, ironically including every other Indian program. So a significant portion of it will be transferred from other Indian programs. I have already made the commitment to the distinguished Senator from Arizona, who chairs the Indian Affairs Committee, that when we arrive at a final amount of money for Indian programs, we will work with him for those internal priorities. This proposal sets those priorities by taking additional money from every other Indian program for this together with money from the National Park Service, which we have attempted to protect because of its obvious importance, for the National Endowment for the Arts, on which we have just had a long debate and a restoration of certain amounts of money, for energy programs, for our national forests, literally for everything else in this bill. So everything in this bill, every program, every project, every agency, every responsibility is reduced by this amendment in order to deal with a single line item, which is far from the most important line item for the education of our children. Mr. President, for that reason, I believe it should be rejected. I believe, also, that we would have a rollcall on it. Does the Senator from New Mexico desire a rollcall vote?

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be accepted but it be considered as original text for the purpose of further amendment.

Mr. GORTON. Then I call up the amendment on page 10.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, next in line will be the Senator from North Carolina. I believe, however, that his amendment is appropriately an amendment to one or both of the committee amendments on page 9 and page 10. So, if he will permit me, I will ask that those amendments be called up and his amendment would be to those.

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

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

Mr. GORTON. I yield whatever time I have left.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I send two amendments to the desk in behalf of Senator Bingaman, and I ask for their consideration en bloc.

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendments be dispensed with.

Mr. GORTON

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