Judd Gregg

Mr. GREGG

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

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 1075

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I appreciate the work of the Senator from Hawaii. He is always a very positive and effective spokesperson in the Senate for a variety of different issues. He brings this amendment forward. The simple fact is that you can't disregard the fact that there is $7 billion in the pipeline for first responders--$3 billion from the year 2004, $4 billion from 2005--that hasn't been spent. This bill puts another $4 billion into these accounts, so we are not shorting these accounts. One of the reasons the Senate has offered this bill is it takes money from first responders that is not going to be spent in a timely manner, moves it over to Border Patrol where we do need the money, moves it over to weapons of mass destruction where we do need the money, and that is the priority we set as a committee, in a bipartisan way, because this has been, as I mentioned a number of times, a threat-based bill. This is the first time this bill has been brought forth recently, or ever, really, based on threat, and we determined the threat was weapons of mass destruction and border porousness. The fact there were $7 billion in the pipeline, retaining $4 billion in this account we felt was an adequate amount to fund those accounts for first responders, knowing that down the road we are going to put more money into first responders as it can be absorbed. But to put more in now would mean just holding it, and that money can be much more efficiently used as we propose to use it by adding more Border Patrol agents and detention beds, and more aggressive attempts to fight the use of a weapon of mass destruction against us. So that is why we are opposed to this approach. Clearly, it breaks the allocation which we have received. Therefore, it would add $587 million to the deficit, which would also be inappropriate, and that is why the point of order lies against it and that is why we oppose it at this point. I understand we are now on a minute equally divided on the Dodd amendment.

Mr. GREGG. This is $16 billion, $16 billion into an account where there presently is sitting $7 billion in the bank. We as a nation obviously have a lot of vulnerabilities because we are an open society. I wish we could cover them all. But the simple fact is there is not enough money to cover them all. We need to prioritize. This bill does that. This amendment basically flies in the face of good utilization of the dollars because we simply could not spend these types of dollars if they were appropriated effectively. They may get spent but not effectively, in our opinion. It is much more appropriate to look at addressing weapons of mass destruction, border patrol, airline security, and to make sure we have in place the proper systems in order to protect the homeland through these assessment programs which are going forward before we put a large amount of money--$16 billion, which would be half the budget of the Homeland Security agency--into new spending initiatives or additional spending initiatives, the $4 billion in the bill and the $7 billion in the pipeline. The point of order has been made. This is a motion to waive it. This amendment would add $16 billion to the deficit. We do not think it would accomplish what its purpose is.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be agreed to.

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

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask that the pending amendment be set aside and the amendment No. 1112 of Senator Akaka be in order.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 1173 on behalf of Senator Hutchison, and I send a modification to the desk.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I make a point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, it appears we will be able to begin voting here around 6:30, just for Members' edification. The first vote will be on the point of order relative to the amendment of Senator Dodd, followed hopefully with a second amendment dealing with one of the amendments of Senator Akaka. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. GREGG. I appreciate the concern of the Senator from Connecticut and I know he is working hard in this area, but the response to this amendment is not bureaucratic. The response to this amendment focuses on the fact that this bill, and our efforts as a Nation, must be threat based as we address terrorism. I was interested today in a quote from Mayor Bloomberg in one of the New York papers. He essentially said if a professional terrorist, whose purpose it was to kill Americans indiscriminately, wishes to attack the transit systems of New York, it is virtually impossible to stop that individual at the site of the attack. Where do you stop that individual? You stop him by obtaining the intelligence necessary to interdict him before he can attack us. The energy we in this Nation are putting in the area of fighting terrorism is to do exactly that. One of the primary reasons we are fighting in Iraq, one of the primary reasons we are fighting in Afghanistan, is in order to develop intelligence which will give us the capacity to stop these individuals. These individuals come from that part of the world. One of the reasons we have Guantanamo Bay is to develop intelligence capability. A significant amount of our intelligence capability coming out of that facility is as a result of taking their prisoners, who are bad actors, people who are fundamentally focused on hurting Americans, and getting information from them in a proper way. One of the reasons we have the PATRIOT Act is to develop the intelligence we need to interdict an attack. One of the reasons we do profiling is in order to get the intelligence we need to catch these people before they attack us. This bill addresses intelligence. We have significantly improved or are trying to improve with this bill what is our highest risk relative to the capacity of a terrorist to attack us, which is the porousness of our borders. And so these funds which are being proposed here, $16 billion, which literally represents 50 percent of the entire budget of the Homeland Security agency being put into first responder programs when we already have $7 billion in the pipeline that hasn't been spent yet because the assessments and plans for spending the money haven't been properly prepared, would really be a true misallocation of resources, a true misallocation of resources in our effort to defend ourselves. They simply could not be handled, these types of dollars. The dollars already in the pipeline we have not been able to handle. This bill puts $4 billion into these accounts, and we know that $4 billion will not be out the door as quickly as it should. To put $16 billion on top of that is a political statement but is not going to have a dramatic impact because the system to handle the dollars is not there and lot of money will be wasted. Taxpayers will find that instead of getting more security, what they are getting is dollars that could have been used more efficiently somewhere else, that will have been drained off, and those dollars should be going into intelligence gathering and protecting our borders and to fighting these wars which we are participating in and making sure our military has adequate support in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Independent of that, the amendment dramatically exceeds the budget and is therefore subject to a point of order, which I have made, and the motion to waive has been made by the Senator from Connecticut, and we will have a vote on it. So at this time, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 6:30 this evening the Senate proceed to a series of votes in relation to the following amendments and the motions where pending; further, that no second-degree amendments be in order to any amendments prior to the vote, and that there be 2 minutes equally divided for debate prior to each vote: The first amendment will be the Dodd amendment, a motion to waive the budget point of order, and the second amendment would be Akaka amendment No. 1112, and on that amendment there will also be a point of order and I presume the vote will be on the motion to waive the point of order since that amendment also significantly exceeds the budget allocation of this committee.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I send a second-degree amendment to the desk and ask it be reported.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, we are in the process of trying to reach an understanding on votes. It is not clear what that understanding will be, but we do intend to have votes this evening, maybe as many as five. In addition, I understand the Senator from Nevada wishes to be recognized on an amendment. I yield the floor.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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

Mr. GREGG. I ask unanimous consent the amendment be agreed to.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I have no problem agreeing to this amendment if the Senator wants to ask unanimous consent for its approval.

Mr. GREGG. I move to reconsider the vote.

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

Mr. GREGG. It is my understanding that we will now have a vote on Senator Dodd's amendment, on the motion to waive the Budget Act, followed by a vote on Senator Akaka's motion to waive the Budget Act. I should inform Members that we actually are going to have three other votes following those two votes as soon as we line them up. The first vote will begin at 6:30. I think Senator Akaka wanted time.

Mr. GREGG. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 1201

Mr. GREGG

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

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I ask unanimous consent the three amendments which are pending, by the Senator from Colorado, 1207, 1209, and 1210 be agreed to.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.

Mr. GREGG. I ask that the amendment be reported.