Judd Gregg

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. GREGG. You are going to want yeas and nays on both?

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I urge the pending amendment to the amendment, by Senator McCain, be accepted.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I am not sure if the Senator from South Carolina wants to make a statement, but we are ready to accept this amendment.

Mr. GREGG. I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be adopted.

Mr. GREGG. I object.

Mr. GREGG. The Senator has the floor. When the Senator yields the floor, it will be up to the Chair as to who gets recognized. At this time there doesn't seem to be a unanimous consent that is agreeable.

Mr. GREGG. I have no objection.

Mr. GREGG. Reserving the right to object, I believe there are other people who wish to address this issue. It would seem fair that we alternate from side to side. There is nobody on our side now who wants to address it right now. How much longer does the Senator from California plan to talk?

Mr. GREGG. I understood the Senator from California was going to offer an amendment, and the Senator from Minnesota was going to offer an amendment. We were going to alternate. I ask the Democratic floor manager how he feels about it.

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

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the next vote, the Senate resume consideration of the Smith amendment No. 3234, and there be 20 minutes equally divided, with the vote occurring on or in relation to the amendment at 6 o'clock this evening.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, let me begin to address this issue. I know Senator Hollings is on his way to the floor, the ranking Democrat, who has worked so conscientiously on this, along with his staff and my staff. This is the appropriations bill which covers some very core agencies that the Federal Government has responsibility for, specifically areas of Justice, things like the FBI, the DEA, the INS; areas within Commerce--many areas, of course, are covered by the Commerce Department including, of course, the census issue. Equally important, in fact more important in many ways are ITA and NOAA, two agencies that deal with the manner in which the U.S. economy functions and the manner in which our environment is reviewed. We try to stay ahead of weather conditions. In addition, this bill has the State Department--obviously the State Department is a core function of the Federal activity--and the judiciary, which is the third branch of the Government, that is also under this bill, along with a number of independent agencies, agencies like the FCC and the FTC and the Small Business Administration. So this is a bill that has broad reach and is a very significant item for the Senate to take up. This funding bill has been put together as a result of the hard work of a lot of people. I especially thank my ranking member, Senator Hollings, whose input and assistance is always invaluable on this issue. His background and knowledge of the questions which are raised on this bill are extraordinary. I look to him for advice and counsel on many issues. When we agree, we make great progress, which we have on this bill. This bill was reported out of the committee unanimously. In addition, I thank my staff which has worked so hard, and minority staff which has worked so hard, and the other members of the committee. Privilege of the Floor

Mr. GREGG. During the pendency of this bill, I ask unanimous consent floor privileges be made available to Jim Morhard, Paddy Link, Kevin Linskey, Carl Truscott, Dana Quam, Vas Alexopoulos, Kris Pickler, Lila Helms, Emelie East, Dereck Orr, and Virginia Wilbert.

Mr. GREGG. That request also included members of the minority staff. Mr. President, this bill, S. 2260, is, as I mentioned, a bipartisan bill. It was reported out of committee unanimously. It is a bill that allocates $33.2 billion for fiscal year 1999. The bill provides $1.1 billion more than was spent on these agencies last year. I will explain the reasons for those increases as we go on. It is $3.6 billion less than what the President requested. It is a lean bill. There were difficult decisions that had to be made. But the legislation supports the core functions which are required of these agencies while improving a number of activities pursued by these agencies. We provide $17.8 billion for the Justice Department. This includes funds to combat terrorism, violence against women and children, illegal drug running, and cybercrime, along with many other worthwhile programs. I am proud to say the committee included a total of $17.2 million to bolster programs that help law enforcers find and care for missing children. This bill furthers our goals of making communities safer for our children. You may recall last year the committee increased funding for the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to prevent the use of the Internet to exploit children. Based on the follow-up hearings we held this year, I believe those funds have been put to good use. The Center was involved in recovering 4,878 children this year with an overall recovery rate of 90.3 percent. The Center increased the hours of operation for their phone tip hotline and created a web site on the Internet for public use. The hotline, in conjunction with the web site, should lead to more pedophile apprehension. The Center also provides special training for local law enforcement people at the Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center about how to pursue missing children. This is a serious issue, missing children, and we are trying to address it aggressively in this bill. As part of this effort, we have recommended $5.2 million for the FBI to combat child abductions and serial killing. The FBI has put together an exceptional task force to address the issue of child abductions and serial killings. The tragic school shootings in the past few months that have shocked the Nation are also a concern of ours. According to the National School Safety Center, 25 students have been killed in U.S. schools since January 1 of this year. This is the same number of students who were killed for the full 1996 school year, but in half the time. For this reason, the Senator from South Carolina and I created a new Safe Schools Initiative which provides $210 million to introduce a positive law enforcement presence in our school systems. By working together with educators and local communities, we believe law enforcers can find ways to stop the escalation of murders and violence in our schools. The funding is found in three Department of Justice accounts: $175 million from Community Orientated Policing (COPS) for additional officers; $25 million for the Juvenile At-Risk Children's Program for prevention efforts; and $10 million from the National Institute of Justice to develop new, more effective safety technologies. These funds will be used by local law enforcers in partnership with schools and communities to develop programs to improve safety in our schools. I congratulate and appreciate the support of the Senator from South Carolina in developing this new initiative. Our intention is to provide educators with the means to improve hostile environments. We must make sure that violence does not become a commonplace event in our school systems. In addition to this new Safe Schools Initiative, we fund many of the out-of-school programs for children that will likely be familiar to you. We increase funding for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program which brings young people together with responsible adults willing to serve as long-term mentors. These programs give students positive reinforcement while expanding their horizons while taking up those hours of the day when students are most at risk --the time right after school. There are prevention programs, such as the National Crime Prevention Council, whose well known mascots of McGruff and Scruff make learning safety tips fun, or Parents Anonymous which advocates prevention of child abuse and which will be creating an immediate-response system with the fiscal year 1999 funding. Many States have youth programs tailored to their communities, and these communities may be eligible for Federal grants to assist in the areas of education, research, prevention, and rehabilitation. These are the types of programs the committee is supporting by placing $284 million in the juvenile justice programs account. I stress here that we have not tried to reinvent the wheel. We have supported programs that work, and we have turned to communities to give us their ideas as to how these funds should be allocated. Also in line with youth support, the committee is recommending $12 million to expand the Youth Gang Program and $95 million for incentive grants for local delinquency programs, including $25 million to enforce underage drinking laws. Most of the programs I have mentioned are prevention programs to work with youth, but there is more to this process. The committee, with help from the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Youth Violence, added $100 million for the juvenile accountable incentive block grant. These funds will go towards functions that are in place to emphasize accountability to juveniles after they have committed crimes, such as detention facilities and probation officers. The committee recommends an increase to $282 million for the Violence Against Women Program. According to the Justice Department, violence by an intimate accounts for 21 percent of the violent crime experienced by women. Our legislation increases the number of law enforcers and prosecutors who will address these crimes. Our intent is to develop and implement effective arrest and prosecution policies in order to provide better handling of crimes against women. Women ages 16 to 24 experience the highest per capita crime rates of intimate violence. Therefore, the committee is providing $10 million within the funding level for the prevention of violence on college campuses. By doing so, we will be helping the women who are most at risk. Many of our colleagues are familiar with the story of Megan Kanka who was killed by her neighbor, a convicted sex offender, in New Jersey in 1994. Congress subsequently passed Megan's law that asks States to require its violent sex offenders to register their address with government officials upon their release from prison. To further this effort, this bill contains $25 million for the National Sex Offender Registry to identify, collect, and exchange sex offender data from the States through an automated registry. Further, the bill includes $45 million to assist States in improving the automation, accuracy, and completeness of criminal history records. This will facilitate the exchange of interstate information. In addition, we add money for the DNA programs so that States will be able to communicate effectively with each other on the issues of DNA. The balance that we tried to reach was between those areas of prevention where we can assist children, especially children in school, and give them leadership when they are out of school during those difficult hours, with the need to have a tough enforcement process, and that enforcement process has been adequately funded and aggressively funded as a result, in large part, of the Senator who is sitting in the Chair right now whose leadership on the issues of juvenile justice is primary in this body. Another area of Justice activity we have addressed is the terrorism issue. Terrorism continues to be a primary concern and threat to our country, so the committee is continuing to support a strong counterterrorism policy, something we began a couple of years ago with the work of Senator Hollings and myself. The Attorney General is working on a counterterrorism strategy that should be completed by the end of the year. We look forward to the completion of that plan, and we are recommending $224 million for counterterrorism initiatives. Our counterterrorism recommendation is comprehensive. A portion of this funding will go to the first-responder training and equipment as the Nation must be able to quickly react to a terrorist incident. Another portion will provide funding for specific programs to build this capacity, such as metropolitan medical strike team training and equipment, the acquisition of equipment for the largest cities and localities in the United States, the implementation of situational exercises, State and local bomb detection and technician equipment, and equipment grants for local fire and emergency agencies. The intent of the committee is to provide direct assistance to the first responders as well as to guide our national policy toward a coordinated and effective response. We also recommend significant funding for State and local law enforcers to have the same training and equipment as their Federal counterparts. The committee recognizes the need for the Federal, State, and local law enforcers to work together, especially in addressing a terrorist attack. We provide funding for the FBI to prepare for terrorist attacks. The issue of terrorism is a two-fold event--one of trying to stop it and anticipate it through intelligence and, second, trying to react when such an unfortunate incident occurs. We have aggressively funded the FBI initiatives. As part of the counterterrorism effort, we enable the Attorney General to quickly receive reimbursements from other agencies as well as to acquire the necessary equipment and services during a terrorist crisis. We have further requested the Attorney General to conduct a no- notice, counterterrorism-readiness exercise involving the leadership of all pertinent agencies. We look forward to the results of that exercise. This is just a brief summary of some of the elements of our counterterrorism strategy. Obviously, some parts of it have to remain classified, but our purpose is to have a comprehensive, all- encompassing response to what is clearly one of the biggest issues facing our country. Are we prepared for a terrorist attack at this time? No, we are not. Are we moving in the right direction to get prepared for such an attack? Yes, we are. Having visited almost all the agencies that are involved, those that are in our purview of jurisdiction and those outside our purview of jurisdiction, the one thing I have been most impressed with is a sincere and genuine effort to have a coordinated response to this issue, and there appears to be very little in the way of a turf fight going on, which is absolutely critical that we avoid in trying to address this issue. In the area of drugs, we also have a major effort. The strategy includes $24 million for DEA's methamphetamine initiative and $13 million for the heroin strategy. To also combat methamphetamine production and trafficking, we are recommending a $15.5 million methamphetamine program through the COPS program. The Senator from South Carolina and I have worked with the DEA Administrator to create regional drug enforcement teams to address the strategies of the cartels. The committee directs $21.8 million for this effort, and there is an additional $5.6 million provided to handle the influx of violent drug-trafficking groups based in the Caribbean. We included also $25 million for S. 1605, the ``Bulletproof Vest Partnership Act,'' sponsored by my friend and colleague from Colorado, Senator Campbell, and signed by the President on June 16. This funding will go to law enforcement officers for the purchase of bulletproof vests. The committee recommends a new initiative which provides $144 million to improve law enforcement in Native American communities. The funds come from a variety of agencies. However, we have seen, unfortunately, that adequate law enforcement in Native American communities is woefully lacking, and there are a number of initiatives which we have undertaken in this bill to try to assist those communities. In the area of the INS, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, this bill provides $3.9 billion. We want to equip the INS with the means to manage its two-pronged duty of law enforcement and legal immigration. On the enforcement end, we are recommending an additional 1,000 Border Patrol agents for the borders and a 100-person integrated team designed to intercept illegal aliens traveling on highways in the South and Midwest in order to counteract problems arising in the interior of the country. When we take these 1,000 agents and add them on top of the 1,000 agents we put in last year, we are making a huge personnel expansion in the INS in the area of the Border Patrol where the problem exists. For the second prong, the administrative portion, we provide sufficient funding that is enhanced by technology. The INS construction and maintenance has been woefully under funded in the past years, and we recommend more than a 33 percent increase. The $110 million level will strengthen training, border control, and detention and deportation. Detention space shortfalls and the naturalization backlog will benefit from the increased revenues from revived fees. Where possible, new technology should ease the burden on our overworked personnel. Of note, this bill does not address the INS reform issue. Reform is needed in that agency, but it is too complex an issue to address in the context of this appropriations bill. Clearly, it needs to be addressed in the future and, hopefully, in the near term. In the Commerce Department we have provided $4.9 billion. The committee provides funding requested by the President for the U.S. Trade Representative and the International Trade Commission, and a variety of other international trade activities, including ITA, at funding levels which are more than adequate to address the concerns in trade which are so critical to strong commerce. Commerce Department programs are supported specifically at a level that will adequately do the job that is required. In the area of the census, we have put in $848 million, over a half- million dollars. This is the amount that was requested. We have not addressed the issue of the question of the proper way to count the census. The decennial census is important not just for the apportionment of Representatives in the House of Representatives but for many of the formulas that create grants to the States. The dress rehearsal for the census raised several issues which deserve congressional scrutiny. This occurred recently in two cities in the United States. Going into the dress rehearsal, the Census Bureau did not have in place software which could detect duplicate or fraudulent census forms. The inability of the Bureau to test such an important system during the dress rehearsal is troubling. The keystone of any census is the mailing list. In this bill, additional funds are provided to assist the Bureau in ``re- engineering'' its mailing list. The forms returned as ``undeliverable as addressed'' during the rehearsal were twice the number estimated by the Census Bureau. Mailing list problems varied in three locations in which the dress rehearsal was conducted. The purpose of the dress rehearsal is, of course, to identify shortcomings which must be corrected in order for the decennial census to be successful. The Census Bureau is behind in its efforts to create its Master Address File for the decennial census. Also, reports of mail address problems from the dress rehearsal do nothing to increase the confidence that the address list ``re-engineering'' will be successful. During the dress rehearsal, maps for enumerators to follow up with those not responding to the census were found to be hard to read and, in some instances, inaccurate. A successful census will require a good mailing list, a way to detect fraudulent or duplicate forms, and maps to permit enumerators to follow up on nonresponsive citizens. We will spend billions of dollars on the year 2000 census. We should expect these basic elements to be in place for the dress rehearsal. They were not, and this should concern every Senator. We need to know what is going to happen with the census when it occurs. Clearly, there is a fight going on over whether there should be sampling. But one thing is obviously clear from the dress rehearsal: Whether there was sampling or whether there was not sampling--whether there was a head count or not--the census is not ready to go forward and a lot needs to be done. The bill funds the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) programs at a level of $646.7 million. This level will enable NIST to upgrade its facilities and to build a state-of-the-art Advanced Measurement Laboratory. NIST's activities are actually critical to American industry. They are especially important now where exporters are running into trade barriers which are sometimes technically applied to them, and this can assist them in being more responsive to these technical barriers. The committee also funds the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at $2.2 billion. This exceeds the requested level. This committee is totally committed to being sure that we have a first-class NOAA effort. Clearly, in light of what we have seen from El Nino and other weather events in this country in recent times, it is absolutely critical that we have a strong Weather Service. And the need to expand our activity in the area of ocean activities is also equally critical. NOAA advises us that they are getting near to the ability to adequately forecast an El Nino type of event, and we intend to make sure they have the funds to accomplish that. In addition, this year's budget request includes the Advanced Hydrological Prediction System, which should assist in forecasting floods in the Missouri flood basin, an absolutely critical issue, as well as the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System which the National Weather Service needs. Further, we have created a new Oceans Policy Commission. This is basically the outgrowth of an initiative of, again, the Senator from South Carolina. As some may recall, NOAA was initially created under the Nixon administration by Executive order. The idea for an agency to conduct research on oceans and atmosphere came as an outgrowth of the Stratton Commission, which was created in the 1960s. I think it is fair to say that the Senator from South Carolina and I believe the time has come to reinvigorate and assess the state of U.S. ocean policy and research. This commission will accomplish that. In the area of the State Department and its related agencies, we have provided $5.6 billion. We are totally committed to modernizing the information technology and facilities, and especially housing, of the State Department. The committee recommended $118 million, the full request, for computers and communications equipment. This funding is an essential part of achieving the year 2000 compliance. Another $5 million is provided for systems unique to the United States Information Agency. And $550 million, approximately, is provided for the security and maintenance account, and $52.9 million is allocated for desperately needed housing. Finally, we fund the design of two new chanceries in Beijing and Berlin and anticipate funding the construction in next year's bill. As for the international accounts, the committee recommends $1.1 billion for international organizations and $431 million for peacekeeping. Though the administration did not request it, the committee recommendation includes $475 million for arrears. The $475 million is consistent with the State Department authorization bill and the 1998 budget resolution. This year's payment brings the total available for arrears to $575 million. That is the amount that the U.N. requested. And we are on course to full funding of the arrears. With a stroke of the pen, the President can restore the credibility of the United States at the U.N. by simply signing the appropriate legislation --specifically, the State Department authorization bill which was agreed to. So the Congress has done its part and continues to do its part on funding the arrears issue. The problem lies with the White House. Finally, because of the crisis in India and Pakistan, we fully fund the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In the area of the Judiciary, out of a total of $3.6 billion, we recommended full funding for the Judiciary's highest priorities: court security, defender services, and the Supreme Court. The remaining accounts receive increases across the board, although not all at levels that they were requested. We also include a cost-of-living adjustment for the justices and the judges. We, as I mentioned, have a number of independent agencies. In regard to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), we are funding that at the levels they requested. However, there remains the issue of the Portals II building. I am sure there will be considerable discussion of that before we complete this bill, but the fact is that there has been gross mismanagement relative to the Portal II building. The FCC should not be forced into moving into a building that does not meet its requirements from the standpoint of technology or security, and that building is really a total affront to the taxpayers of this country-- that being the fact that we continue to pay for uninhabited space which is uninhabitable space as well as being uninhabited. In the Federal Trade Commission, we have aggressively worked with the leadership of the Federal Trade Commission, Chairman Pitofsky, to pursue an aggressive program on telemarketing fraud. Consumers lose anywhere from $3 billion to up to $40 billion a year as a result of telemarketing fraud. We are seeing a great expansion of this activity, especially on the Internet. The committee is working with the Commission and has set up a new program to try to address this, including an 800 number. The Commission feels quite confident this will have a significant impact on the problem. The Small Business Administration is also funded at a high level, $613 billion. Of this, $240.8 million goes to business loans and $94 million goes for the disaster loan account. Of concern to the committee is the administration's request to increase the disaster loan interest rate. This request was soundly rejected. The committee has made it clear to the SBA and the administration that increasing the interest rates on loans to Americans who have experienced disasters is unacceptable. The administration should reverse its ill-considered proposal to make disaster victims pay market rates for assistance in recovering from economic injury. I thank the Senator from South Carolina for his strong assistance in helping with this bill. There is a great deal more to talk about, and I am sure we will have plenty of time to do that as we proceed forward. I thank the Senator from South Carolina for his courtesy for that long statement. I understand we may break at 12:30, so he may want to reserve his statement.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate insist on its amendment to H.R. 4112, request a conference with the House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. GREGG. I understand the vote is to occur at 6 o'clock.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for morning business.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I would like to move on with the bill, to be quite honest with you. I will yield the floor, but I hope we can move to the completion of this bill. The Senator from Arizona has been waiting, along with the Senator from Utah, to get an amendment completed that we worked on for a few hours here. It would be nice if we could wrap that up. Then, if you want to come back to the health care debate, that is great. I ask unanimous consent that the next Member to be recognized be the Senator from Arizona.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, even though it has nothing to do with this bill, I would like to congratulate the Senator from Minnesota for his truly superb analysis of the Social Security issue and especially the information he brings to this Senate relative to other countries that have pursued reform of their pension programs. There is no question but if there is a single issue of fiscal policy which most threatens this country's economic well-being in the future and, as a result, threatens our well-being today, it is the Social Security crisis. That occurs as a function of demographics; beginning in the year 2008, the Social Security system in this country pays more out than it is taking in. It begins that cost expansion dramatically as it moves into the period 2015, and by the year 2029-2030 the system is bankrupt and the Nation is unable to afford the costs of it. It is absolutely essential that we guarantee our children and the postwar baby-boom generation which is about to go into the system a chance to have a viable Social Security system. Some of the ideas the Senator from Minnesota has outlined are excellent approaches to this. I congratulate him, obviously, for the intensity of thought and energy he has put into this issue. I hope he will take an opportunity to review a bill which I have cosponsored along with Senator Breaux from Louisiana to try to address this, which bill provides long-term solvency for the next 100 years. I include some of the ideas outlined by the Senator from Minnesota. In any event, the thoughts of the Senator from Minnesota were extremely insightful and very appropriate, and I hope people have a chance to read them and review them as we go forward. I yield the floor.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, the Senator from Florida has brought forward a very good amendment. It is our hope we could agree to it. At this time, because of the potential of a CBO scoring which could impact the underlying bill, it is impossible for us to do so. So our proposal would be we keep this on the list for a vote tomorrow morning, and if we have not gotten the proper response we are comfortable with from CBO, we can take the issue up at that time and try to resolve it at that point.

Mr. GREGG. The Senator from Utah is correct in his understanding. The Committee appreciates the importance of the involvement of the National Weather Service in preparing for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I don't foresee there is any additional morning business to come, so I ask unanimous consent the period for morning business be brought to a close.