Mark Hatfield

Mr. HATFIELD

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be the only first-degree amendments in order to H.R. 2002 and that they be subject to relevant second degrees; that all amendments must be offered and debated tonight; and that any votes ordered with respect to these amendments be stacked to occur at 9:15 a.m. Thursday morning, with 4 minutes for debate to be equally divided between each succeeding rollcall vote, and all votes in the stacked sequence after the first vote to be limited to 10 minutes each, and any vote after the third vote, that there may be 10 minutes for debate. I have a list of such amendments that have been given to the managers on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. HATFIELD. If the Senator would yield, I have listed here an Exon amendment relating to the Rail Institute. Is that the amendment? One million for the Rail Institute?

Mr. HATFIELD. I have a Bingaman amendment relating to DOT on energy savings.

Mr. HATFIELD. I have two amendments for the Senator from Arkansas.

Mr. HATFIELD. I have two amendments for the Senator from Delaware, [Mr. Roth].

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I urge the adoption of the Dorgan amendment.

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

Mr. HATFIELD. The amendment is clear on this side.

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I urge adoption.

Mr. HATFIELD. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Dorgan I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, this amendment, on behalf of Senator Dorgan, is requesting we set up a study on the problems relating to essential air services that many States are confronting today because of the diminishing resources available for that program. It has been cleared on this side.

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, we are willing to accept the sense-of- the-Senate amendment of the Senator from South Dakota on this side.

Mr. HATFIELD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2337 (Purpose: To provide for the allocation to certain airports with respect to which commercial air service has been disrupted during the past 3 years, an annual subsidy under the essential air service program under subchapter II of chapter 417 of title 49, United States Code)

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Boxer and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. HATFIELD. This is a technical language correction relating to the State bank proposal within our bill, a technical amendment to that provision. It has been cleared on both sides.

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Pressler and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I should like to indicate that we are making progress on completing this list of amendments. We have not yet received clearance on one offered by Senator Abraham, one offered by Senator Chafee, one offered by Senator Feinstein, one to be offered by Senator Gregg, one by Senator Warner--they either have not been cleared or they have not been offered--one by Senator Coverdell, two by Senator Roth, and one by Senator Burns. Senator Roth has reduced his from two to one. As the unanimous-consent agreement did indicate and instructed the managers and the body, we had to complete all of these amendments tonight, and if a vote is required on any one of them, then that will be carried over until tomorrow. So if Senators have a desire to offer their amendments, we would urge them to come to the floor to do so. I yield the floor. Mr. ROTH addressed the Chair.

Mr. HATFIELD

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I hope the Senator from South Dakota will withhold on this third amendment question for a moment. I think the last speaker on this pending Roth amendment --and then I would like to take action on it--is the Senator from Michigan. He said he is going to be brief. I would like to complete this business before we turn to a new piece of business.

Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I am going to make a response now to this amendment to complete the debate on this so we can put it in line for a vote tomorrow, and that I will move to table the amendment following my brief remarks. Does the Senator wish recognition? Unanimous-Consent Agreement--S. 1026

Mr. HATFIELD. I yield to the Senator from South Dakota. I would like to complete this particular issue, but if the Senator is raising another issue, I guess he would have to do it by unanimous consent anyway.

Mr. HATFIELD. If the Senator would bear with me for just a few moments, we are trying to proceed in an orderly fashion here and cleaning up these amendments as soon as possible. Mr. President, just a brief response to the proponents of this amendment. Let me make clear first of all to the Senator from Michigan, we did not solicit this administration statement. The administration submits such a statement to every appropriations bill, so this was a part of a normal routine. This administration policy statement is dated as of August 9--which I believe is today, since August 10 is tomorrow, President Hoover's birthday. Mr. President, I would like to say this. The administration approached us. Let me relate the story that the administration gave to us in desperation, to try to get some kind of help in a very serious situation. We are not talking about jurisdiction of one committee or another committee. That is important for our process. Nevertheless, the administration says to us that, for years--not just this year--but for years, one FAA administrator after another has talked about this, has pled to get out of the Federal personnel and procurement rules because they need to maintain the safety and the modernization of the whole operation. Over the last 2 years, Secretary Pena and Adminstrator Hinson have continued to focus on this as a major problem facing the FAA. They tell us this particular story. They say the FAA technology, the air traffic control system, is based on 30-year-old technology. I am greatly concerned when I think of the massive air transportation in our country today and throughout the world, that we are depending on 30-year-old technology. The Senator from Arizona mentioned a moment ago about vacuum tubes. They told us the FAA is the largest consumer of vacuum tubes today, with funds in this bill designated to buy $7 million more of vacuum tubes, a technology that was thrown out by the private sector 20 years ago; 20 years ago. I think that ought to give us a pretty major signal this is not just some effort to try to escape rules or regulations set down. Because, as I say, they approached us, really, in a state of desperation. Let me illustrate it further, as they did to me. The Boeing 777 has as much computing power today as existed in the whole world a few decades ago--one airplane. As much or more than the whole world had in computing power, they now carry. I think we should have an ATC system just as advanced, helping to protect our planes and the people who fly in them. They tell me that these changes that they gave us, in the technical language, to incorporate in this bill, would do much to help improve the situation that has reached this kind of a crisis. I think also, as we note in the committee report, we are facing tremendous budgetary pressures this year. We are going to face greater ones in 1997. Let me repeat what I said earlier today in the presentation of this bill. In this bill, 70 percent of that funding is prior year commitment, and it is going to be greater in 1997. So we are squeezed down with the money, the demands for new technology, and the demand for greater safety continues to escalate. Also, the FAA tells us if they could have this kind of operational flexibility, they believe they could cut as much as 20 percent out of the procurement budget than what they are forced to spend today. I have just here, August 9 dated, again, the Airport Report, which is a publication of the American Association of Airport Executives. The President, Mr. Charles Barclay, says: The existing governmental personnel and procurement rules serve as a straitjacket at FAA. Now, there is no one who admires and respects our orderly procedures and our methods of procedure, our jurisdictions, more than I. But I have to say that in many instances over the time I have served in the Senate, when authorizing committees either have failed or where they have been not been able to move within their own committee, they have approached the Appropriations Committee as a vehicle to get the action accomplished. I remember when Senator Thurmond, of South Carolina, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, came to me back a few years ago and said, ``Would you take the crime bill and put it on an appropriations bill to get this before the body and get it passed?'' I remember when Senator Percy, former Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee said, ``Would you put on the foreign assistance authorization bill?" So, for years the committee has been approached by authorizers and by others as well to assist in moving something that had somehow bogged down, for whatever reasons. I am not faulting the authorizing committees. I have to say we gave notice we were going to take action on some of these things that were legislation on appropriations. I have indicated, also, we would like to see the kind of taking over of that, and we would be happy to relieve ourselves of that burden, within the conference committee, if we could see the substitution of the authorizers taking hold of something the administration has asked us to take emergency--what you would call emergency action on. We have enough problems without reaching out, trying to do the authorizers' work. That is not our intent. But, nevertheless, I have to put it in that kind of context. That led us to take this particular action. I have to, again, thank the Senator from Arizona for his kind remarks, and for clarifying again this relationship that we have with him as well as the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Aviation. We have full confidence in our authorizers. We have full confidence in our Governmental Affairs Committee. But nevertheless, the administration approached us with this crisis and said, ``Will you help?'' And we responded by saying, ``Yes, we will help.'' Now, I do not want to cut off anyone on this. Mr. LEVIN addressed the Chair.

Mr. HATFIELD. I am about ready to make a motion to table.