Judd Gregg

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Madam President, I think the Senator from Wyoming has made an excellent case. We will try to orchestrate it in that manner, should we get additional second degrees. At this point, the debate for 2 minutes is on the second-degree amendment, and Senator Ensign has a minute, and whoever claims the opposition has a minute.

Mr. GREGG. Madam President, the next amendment is the Enzi amendment. I ask that we move immediately to a voice vote.

Mr. GREGG. I move to reconsider the vote.

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

Mr. GREGG. I move to reconsider and I move to lay that motion on the table.

Mr. GREGG. I ask unanimous consent that 10 minutes be given to the Senators from Hawaii, to be divided as they deem appropriate.

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

Mr. GREGG. I ask unanimous consent it be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. GREGG. Absolutely.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I understand the next item of business will be the Agriculture appropriations conference report. I make a point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, we will support an effort to pass legislation to make the technical change deleted from our bill in a more appropriate vehicle.

Mr. GREGG. Yes. This is a unanimous consent request to strike the language.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I am sympathetic to the concerns of the Senator from Louisiana relative to the needs of the children who have been affected so significantly by the event. I especially appreciate the fact that Senator Kennedy has come to the floor and supported essentially a program which will allow the dollars to follow the children versus a program which would be more school centric and, therefore, you could call it a voucher. Whatever you want to call it, I call it good sense to allow these dollars to follow the children. Hopefully, that will be the way the final package is arranged. The only issue is whether the money comes from the additional savings which came out of the HELP Committee or whether the money comes from the $40 billion which has already been appropriated as a part of the original Katrina supplementals, the additional supplementals that may follow. So where the money comes from is the issue. As the amendment process goes forward tomorrow and we determine whether these dollars are still available and whether it is appropriate to use these dollars or whether we should look toward the supplemental, in any event, the program should be paid for. At this point, I am going to move on to another subject, unless the Senator wants to respond to my comments with her 2 minutes.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, we have now completed, for all intents and purposes, all of the debate on the deficit reduction bill, 20 hours. That will be effective as of 6 o'clock. I would note once again, as the Senator from North Dakota has noted and I have noted, tomorrow we begin a fairly complex and lengthy process of voting on the amendments that have been offered. There are 16 or so amendments already pending, which represents many hours of voting, and there may be additional amendments offered. Obviously, we hope they will be limited because there is a desire, I believe, by most people to complete this bill tomorrow. But if we do not finish all the voting by 6 o'clock, then we will move the events over until Friday because this bill will be completed under either scenario. At this time I want to thank again the Senator from North Dakota and the staff for their courtesy, their professionalism, their effort to move this bill along in a very constructive way as we moved through the debate process. I also especially wish to thank my staff, which has done a great job of getting us to this point. Tomorrow is going to be a fairly intense period for these folks and we appreciate them in anticipation of all the work they are going to have to do. Mr. President, I will yield back the remainder of the time on this amendment and ask unanimous consent that for the purposes of this bill, all time be deemed to have expired relative to debate.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, in a few minutes, I think Senator Landrieu is going to be over here to offer the final amendment of the day. Amendment No. 2392 Pending that, I ask unanimous consent to strike the language on page 41, beginning on line 3 through line 11.

Mr. GREGG. I yield the Senator from Georgia 10 minutes.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I think it is important for people to appreciate what the Senator from North Dakota has said. Tomorrow, we will a have a minimum of 5 hours of votes. Some of these votes are going to get fairly complicated because there will be points of order of various nature. People will have to be here all day and ready to vote. If our membership remembers, during the Budget Committee, the Senator from North Dakota and myself took a position that we should move quickly through the votes, and we will take the same position tomorrow. Members should be on the floor tomorrow all day.

Mr. GREGG. That is correct.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, first I congratulate the Senator from West Virginia for bringing forward a thoughtful amendment, as always, and especially for the fact that it actually, I believe, adds to the savings, if I am not correct. So I cannot argue with that. To be honest, I am not engaged in this issue. The bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee. We have heard from Senator Sessions, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee. I understand Senator Specter is not going to have the opportunity to come over and debate this because he is involved in a variety of other issues today. I am sure he has thoughts and opinions on this because it was part of the package they reported. I would like to speak briefly about the topic which the Senator from West Virginia has raised because I think it is such a critical one, which is the issue of our borders and how we deal with it. I do have the good fortune, along with the Senator from West Virginia, to have a responsibility for the Homeland Security Agency, he being the ranking member and I being the chairman of that appropriations subcommittee. We know that we simply have borders which are too porous. This year, with the significant assistance of the Senator from West Virginia, we were able to increase the funding relative to the number of Border Patrol agents to add another 1,500 agents when we count the supplemental, and we were able to increase the number of detention beds taking it up to about 20,000. We were able to add significantly to the number of immigration enforcement officials, and we were able to expand technology. We are nowhere near where we want to be. In fact, I asked my staff what we need in this area and we really need a lot more. We need about another 8,000 Border Patrol agents. We need about another 10,000 detention beds. We need a significant expansion of the technology capability, satellite capability, unmanned vehicle capability, helicopters, transportation facilities for our agents and physical housing facilities. We need training facilities. There are a lot of resources that need to be committed. As a result, basically, of the ramp-up time, it is very hard to get a lot of agents in place quickly because we want to get the right type of folks. It takes awhile to hire them. We are only able to hire and train about 1,500 a year. Hopefully, we can improve that. Over the next 4 years, this is something I know the Senator from West Virginia and I are going to spend a significant amount of time and effort to try and make sure our borders are secure and that we do have borders where we can expect the people who cross those borders are crossing legally. Part of it, of course, is making sure that people who get visas pay for the cost of issuing that visa. This is what this amendment is about. So I congratulate the Senator from West Virginia for his strong effort in this area. I appreciate his support as the ranking member on the Homeland Security Subcommittee and of course the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee. I look forward to continue working with him on this issue.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I would note the next amendment will be that of Senator Byrd, who I understand is on his way, and he has the floor beginning at 2 o'clock. I make a point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I join once again with the ranking member of the Budget Committee to remind Members that we now have pending approximately 15 amendments and that it will take us 5 hours tomorrow to vote those amendments. Tomorrow evening, we are going to adjourn at 6 o'clock under any scenario, so if we cannot complete voting, we will be here on Friday. I do hope Members will be conscious of that as we move forward into the rest of this evening. I understand when this amendment is over we will then be proceeding to the amendment by Senators Lott and Lautenberg relative to ANWR. At this point, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, what is the time situation?

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I suggest that by unanimous consent we begin the process of debating the Ensign amendment and that 5 minutes be added. He is here and ready to speak.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, is it now in order to move on to the amendment of the Senator from New Mexico?