Judd Gregg

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. If the Senator from Minnesota will yield, this is a fairly extensive piece of legislation. It may take us a little while to take a look at it. I suggest we lay it aside for a moment and move on to whatever comes next and then come back to it, if the Senator doesn't mind.

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

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Mai-Huong Nguyen, a fellow with Senator Frist's office, be granted the privilege of the floor during the discussion on the Commerce-State-Justice appropriations bill.

Mr. GREGG. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. GREGG. I am sure.

Mr. GREGG. Yes.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I join with the Senator from South Carolina in his views on this issue. I recognize we will lose this vote, but we have had our brief day in the Sun at least. The fact is NED's time has gone by. For all the arguments that have been made by the Senators who have spoken on this, the bottom line is this is a relic of the cold war. In a time when we have very limited resources, it is very hard to justify funding the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, AFL-CIO, and the Chamber of Commerce, all of whom have significantly more resources to put into this than we have available for us out of these very limited accounts. Many of the things NED has done during the time of the cold war were wonderful. But now we have moved on 10 years from the fall of the Berlin Wall and it is time for us to say enough is enough. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some of the things NED is doing now are not. They end up being a substitute for initiatives which are both inappropriate and sometimes just simply junkets. That being said, I am concerned, as is the Senator from South Carolina, this will take funds out of the capital budget of the State Department. We have worked hard on this budget. We have taken the State Department from getting a ``D'' in the area of Y2K compliance to now, just 2 years later, it is one of the agencies getting an ``A.'' Two years ago when we started capital budget expansion, which we initiated in this committee--it did not come from the State Department; although they were very supportive of it, they could not find resources for it-- a majority of the Embassies around the world were using rotary telephones. They were using Wang computers. They had no decent facsimile machines. We have radically upgraded the electronic capabilities of the State Department. But we have a long, long, long way to go. It all ties into the need to protect our citizens who are working for us out there and their families. So when you hit this fund for $30 million, which represents about 30 percent of the money--and this fund was not increased this year; although I wanted to increase it, we simply could not find the money-- you are going to do significant damage, I think, to the State Department's accounts. The State Department, for that reason, is very concerned about this amendment. That being said, the Senator from South Carolina, being one of the best vote counters in the Senate, and I, being a marginal vote counter as chief whip, we recognize we are not going to win this one. I think we should vote on it and move on. If the Senator from Indiana is agreeable to that, I suggest we urge adoption.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I think that makes a great deal of sense since we may be able to work something out on the Senator's amendment.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I yield myself such time as I may take on this. I appreciate the comments of the Senator from Delaware and his commitment to this program. The committee's decision to end this program was based on a number of factors. The first factor was our allocation, which was so low. We had to simply apply resources where we thought they were most needed. The second factor was basically, in our opinion, the administration had taken the money to fund the COPS Program from some other very important law enforcement initiatives. For example, the administration did not fund the additional 1,000 Border Patrol which we think is critical. They did not fund the expansion of strike team efforts by the DEA. They did not fund the Boys and Girls Clubs initiatives. They did not fund the juvenile block grants. They did not fund the local law enforcement block grants. They did not fund the interagency drug enforcement grants. The money which came out of those accounts was essentially used to expand the COPS Program. The funding which this committee has made to the COPS Program has been extraordinary, and it has been strong over the years. In fact, the original program called for 100,000 cops. This committee has funded 105,000 cops over the years and with our final funding we had in place. We also as a committee, with the support of the Senator from South Carolina, initiated aggressive programs of mentoring in schools using police officers. We think this is an important effort, and in our bill we expanded that amount. That is how we arrived at the number we did. I am willing to look at the extension of the COPS Program, but I think we have to look at it in the context of the resources available to us. When the administration sent up a budget as they sent up and essentially played games with the other law enforcement accounts, things which have to be done, which we knew had to be done and they knew had to be done, and then they underfunded those accounts, that is what created the basic problem in the initial bill. Working with the Senator from Delaware, we have been able to work out this resolution, which I think is a reasonable one and one with which I know the Senator from South Carolina agrees. If there is no further debate, I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. GREGG. I thank the Senator from Delaware. I appreciate his fine comments. We are going to accept his amendment at the point when all the folks who want to speak on it have had an opportunity. Mr. BIDEN addressed the Chair.

Mr. GREGG. No second degrees. And at the end of that time, we are prepared to accept it.

Mr. GREGG. No second degrees.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 hours of debate, equally divided, on the amendment that is about to be offered by the Senator from Delaware.

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

Mr. GREGG

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

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, at the end of that 5 minutes, I understand there will be 20 minutes, 10 minutes for the Senator from South Carolina and 10 minutes for myself.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, how much time is left on the amendment?

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 the time continue to run on this amendment equally divided, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask the time be allocated to the underlying amendment and charged equally against both sides.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, under the unanimous consent agreement from last night, we were going to reserve 30 minutes of the time for two Democratic Members of the Senate, Senator Leahy and Senator Biden. Senator Biden and Senator Leahy had 30 minutes of this time. I now ask unanimous consent that the final 10 minutes of the time be reserved for myself, and prior to that, the 10 minutes prior to that, be reserved for the Senator from South Carolina.

Mr. GREGG

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

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. How much City Training will remain once the programs transfers to DoJ?

Mr. GREGG. I would like to say to my good friend from Alabama that I agree with his views on training consolidation at the Center for Domestic Preparedness, and I appreciate his time and attention to this important issue. I look forward to working with him to fully explore this issue with Justice Department officials in the coming months. I would hope they will move aggressively to implement a National Training Strategy.

Mr. GREGG. I am pleased to support the measure to repeal Section 110 of the 1996 Immigration bill. I too believe strongly that the border policy we currently enjoy with the country of Canada should not be disturbed. I will continue to work in Conference to see that this matter is finally put to rest.