Judd Gregg

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 17, 2005, at 9:30 a.m., in open and closed session to receive testimony on current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the United States.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I thank the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for her question. I do recognize the economic importance of a healthy postal service, and as a Senator from the rural State of New Hampshire, I appreciate the role of a healthy Postal Service in meeting the universal service needs of rural residents. I look forward to reading the bill, reading the CBO cost estimate of the bill, and working with the Senator from Maine to ensure that a true, fiscally responsible postal reform bill is enacted.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, can I have order. I am going to suggest something, and I would like to get everyone's attention.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when we begin to vote the order of votes will be as follows, for the initial set of amendments. We will begin with the majority leader's amendment relative to Medicaid, which is No. 229; followed by the Bingaman for Senator Smith amendment on Medicaid, No. 204; followed by the Carper amendment on full consideration of tax cuts, No. 207; followed by the Snowe-Wyden drug pricing amendment, No. 214; followed by the Harkin vocational education amendment, No. 172; followed by the Hutchison-Ensign Border Patrol amendment, No. 218; followed by the Landrieu National Guard amendment, No. 219; followed by the Salazar-Conrad rural education and health amendment, No. 215; followed by the Dorgan runaway corporations amendment, No. 210; followed by the Lieberman-Collins first responder amendment, No. 220; followed by the Vitter port security, amendment, No. 223; followed by the Vitter Corps of Engineers amendment, No. 224; followed by the Allen, as modified, NASA amendment, No. 197; followed by the Sarbanes CDBG amendment, No. 156, followed by the Coleman CDBG amendment, No. 230; followed by the Cochran emergency retirement amendment, No. 208; followed by the Kennedy education amendment, No. 177; followed by the Baucus-Conrad amendment No. 234, agriculture; followed by the Biden COPS amendment, No. 239; followed by the Feinstein State Criminal Assistance Program, No. 188; followed by the Byrd highways amendment, No. 240; followed by the Talent highway amendment, No. 225; followed by the Conrad sense of the Senate regarding Social Security tax, No. 243; followed by the Bunning repeal of Social Security tax, No. 241; followed by the Clinton-Reid prevention first amendment, No. 244; followed by the Lautenberg debt limit amendment, No. 187. That is the first group of amendments which we will be taking up.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, how much time is remaining?

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I thank the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for her question. I do recognize the economic importance of a healthy postal service, and as a Senator from the rural State of New Hampshire, I appreciate the role of a healthy Postal Service in meeting the universal service needs of rural residents. I look forward to reading the bill, reading the CBO cost estimate of the bill, and working with the Senator from Maine to ensure that a true, fiscally responsible postal reform bill is enacted.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I appreciate the appropriate comments of the Senator from Mississippi.

Mr. GREGG. Madam President, this amendment increases spending by $2.5 billion, exceeding the cap, and it increases taxes by the same amount of money. It is a tax-and-spend amendment. Therefore, I would oppose it. There are a lot of other reasons I would oppose it, but I wanted to give the Senator from Missouri an opportunity to say a couple of words on something else. I yield to the Senator from Missouri, and I yield the remainder of my time on this amendment.

Mr. GREGG. What is the time situation on Senator Sarbanes' amendment?

Mr. GREGG. We do not have any time on this side.

Mr. GREGG. We yield back.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. That was the agreement. When President Clinton offered this proposal, which I supported, which I funded--I happened to chair the subcommittee that funded this proposal--the understanding was it would be a 3-year program. The cities and towns would come in, they would get their police officers approved, and then after 3 years those police officers would be off the Federal payroll, on the local payroll, and when we got to 100,000 police officers, the program would end. In the year 2000, we got to 100,000 police officers; in the year 2001, we got to 110,000 police officers--and the program goes on and on. There was an agreement 2 years ago that we would only fund those officers who were sort of the end of the line--in rural communities, essentially--and then we would terminate the program the way it was supposed to be originally terminated. That has not happened, either. Finally, the President, living up to the commitment of President Clinton, has said: Enough is enough. The program did what it was supposed to do, it put over 100,000 police officers on the street. As a result of doing that, it has succeeded. Let's declare victory relative to this program because it accomplished what it was supposed to accomplish--it added 110,000 or 120,000 officers, I guess, in the end-- and let's take these funds which were being used here and move them to another account, specifically accounts which are going to be more focused on a targeted response--primarily to the threat of terrorism-- versus a general response. The police officers, obviously, have a terrorism role, but they have a lot broader portfolio when they walk on that street, from moving- vehicle crimes to, obviously, violent crimes to drug crimes. But the dollars that were being spent on the COPS Program have been moved over, essentially to homeland defense and other accounts, the purpose of which is to get the Federal role together in an area where we have a priority, which is fighting terrorism. The officers who were put on the street by this program are theoretically still on the street because the communities that use this program to basically gear these officers up--I think we paid 75 percent the first year, 55 percent the second year, 25 percent the third year, and then it goes on the community's payroll, that officer's salary-- those officers are still out there, one presumes. It is just extremely ironic that there would be such an outcry to keep a program that the prior administration fully expected and put forward as a program that was going to be focused on getting 100,000 police officers on the street, and when it accomplished that it would terminate. It accomplished that and more, and it should be terminated. So I hope maybe we could prove President Reagan wrong once. He has been right on just about everything he ever did as a President, but maybe we could just prove him wrong once--I'm sure it would make the other side happy--by showing all programs are not eternal in this city and we can terminate one--the COPS Program. I yield the remainder of my time on this amendment, then, and we will move on to the next amendment, which I guess is Senator Feinstein's. Amendment No. 188

Mr. GREGG. To quote President Reagan: The only thing in this city that has eternal life is a Federal program. COPS is the No. 1 poster child for that statement. Why is the COPS Program being wound down? Because when it was started, it was supposed to end after 3 years.

Mr. GREGG

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

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, it is now our plan to move to what is known in the vernacular as the pay-go amendment, which Senator Feingold is going to offer. We are going to spend an hour and a half on it. I ask unanimous consent this amendment be in order for an hour and a half with the time equally divided.

Mr. GREGG. I also ask that be applied to the next vote, which will be on ANWR.

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

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that prior to the vote which is about to occur on the amendment by Senator Byrd, there be 1 minute on both sides.

Mr. GREGG. I will do my best to maintain the Senate position in conference with the House.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, we are now at the end of the day. It has been a long day, especially for staff. We appreciate their effort and their courtesy. I note that there are now pending approximately 25 amendments to this resolution. There are still approximately 70 or so amendments that we have been told may be offered. Tomorrow, when we begin voting, which will occur, it appears, around 1:20, we have to vote those 25 amendments, and that in and of itself would take 8 hours. If any percentage of the ones that are still pending have to be voted, you can presume a significant additional amount of time. So we could be here quite late tomorrow night, and our colleagues should be aware of that as they move into tomorrow. It also should be noted that almost all the amendments that have been offered today--there have been one or two exceptions, or maybe three or four exceptions--have essentially attempted to increase spending. Some have offset that spending increase with reductions in accounts which actually exist. A couple of the amendments, such as one of the amendments on Border Patrol, takes the money that it spends on Border Patrol and moves it over from other accounts in international affairs. Most of the amendments spend additional funds by raising taxes or by doing what is known as the 920 account, which amounts to an across-the- board cut, for all intents and purposes, of other accounts within the Government. It is going to be interesting to see when we have completed this budget process whether there really is a willingness to fiscal discipline within the Congress, especially within the Senate which is controlled by a party that alleges itself to be fiscally disciplined. We are going to determine that sometime very late tomorrow night or early Friday morning. But clearly the issue is in question.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 17. I further ask unanimous 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, and the Senate then resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 18, the Senate budget resolution; provided further that the Senate then resume debate on the Smith amendment under the previous order.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, 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. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. 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. 24 and 25, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, tomorrow it is my expectation that the Senate will complete action on the budget resolution. We will continue the amendment process tomorrow morning. Under the previous order, we will conclude debate on all remaining amendments during tomorrow morning's session. All time has been allocated for tomorrow. It is anticipated that we will begin voting on the remaining amendments around 1:20 or 1:30 tomorrow afternoon, and we will keep Senators posted as to the timing of this vote-arama. We are working through the list of filed and offered amendments so we can minimize the number of votes we will need to have during tomorrow's session. But Senators should be expected to stay on the floor throughout the afternoon and into the evening. These will be 10-minute votes, and Senators should plan their schedules around being on the floor in order not to miss any of these crucial votes.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 428 be star printed with the changes that are at the desk.