Kay Hutchison

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, let me just say that when the distinguished majority leader is prepared to go forward or the chairman of the Appropriations Committee is ready to proceed to H.J. Res. 20, I will stand down. But I wish to take this opportunity to also commend my colleague, Senator Cochran. It is truly amazing when someone has been here long enough to cast 10,000 votes. It means they have represented their State well, and it means they are indeed diligent because they are here doing their duty. I have loved working with Senator Cochran. He has been the kind of person who has helped every State when that State needed it. And I hope he has 10,000 more. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, if I could ask the majority leader if I could respond.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I so appreciate what you have just said. I do hope the door is still open. Originally, I had hoped we could do the military construction as well as the base-closing commission funding because the delays are going to have impacts throughout the military services. But the amendment I am hoping to offer, that I am told now you are considering--the Hutchison-Inhofe amendment--only does the BRAC funding. It only restores the funding for BRAC so that the 6-year time allotment this Congress itself has mandated for BRAC to be completed can, in fact, be done. If we delay the BRAC, it will have severe consequences on 12,000 troops coming home hopefully this year. And there are so many other things. I know some of the Members on your side of the aisle have talked to you about environmental remediation that will not be able to be done, and other things. So I so hope we can work this out so the House could approve it and we would not have to have a conference. I hope the majority leader will also consider, when we do go into the supplemental, looking at some of the MILCON that must be done before the 2008 budget starts for that year of funding. There are some prerequisites that are necessary. But I have set that aside in deference to the wishes of the majority to try to move a bill forward. But I do think the BRAC has been the single area where we have not been able to accommodate what needs to be done to move forward. And delays are very costly. I do thank you for making it a point to say that to me, and I think we certainly would have time. I would work with anyone on the Democratic side or House side to work out differences, if there are differences. All of these projects in the $3.1 billion we would like to put back in have been approved by Congress, approved by the Senate, and asked for by the Department of Defense.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I have heard the remarks of the distinguished majority leader, the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and the distinguished ranking member. All I have now is hope because the distinguished majority leader has said he will still work to get the BRAC amendment, which I am going to offer, or attempt to offer, this afternoon. I know there will be an objection. But I want it to be on the record what we are trying to do, with the hope, as the leader said, that perhaps we can adopt this amendment and still make the deadline. The deadline is actually over a week away, and I think if all of us want to fully fund our Base Closure Commission projects, we can do that. I also will say I am very hopeful from the chairman's remarks that we will have bipartisan bills. As has been noted on this floor already today, I have been chairman and ranking member of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee for some 6 years. I have never noticed a difference when I was chairman and when I was ranking member because Senator Feinstein and I were working together, trying to accommodate the needs of every State in our country. We worked so well together that when she was chairman, it wasn't any different from when I was chairman. I want that to be the case for our appropriations bills again. But I have to say, in all honesty, I don't feel I have had any input into this particular bill. I don't see the bipartisanship. I don't see the cooperation. We could have done what the Senate normally does, and that is allow some number of amendments--not a filibuster amendment tree, not an unreasonable number. But I think some of the issues that have been brought forward today and in recent days, since the H.J. Res. 20 was made known, are legitimate. I believe we would agree on a bipartisan basis, if we had the ability to offer amendments and debate them, that we should be funding the Base Closure Commission recommendations that were ours, with a deadline that is ours so that we can meet our own standard. I believe we could work that out. We have already passed the exact same $3.1 billion--actually $5 billion--appropriation in this body, so I know we can do it. We have a week. I suggest it would be a wonderful gesture on the part of the majority to allow that to happen. In addition, what Senator Coburn talked about earlier today, the HIV/ AIDS testing of babies, I know there is not one Member on that side who wouldn't make it a priority to give babies a test that would allow them to be inoculated immediately and give those children a chance to have a life. But the funding for the Ryan White Act was cut back, so that is not going to be allowed to go forward. I don't think that is the intention. I ask, if that is not the intention, can we not sit down as responsible Members of the Senate and work out these few items, work with the House and do a preconference? Nobody wants to delay this legislation, but we would like to have a say. Where I have talked bipartisanship, that is what we do in the Senate. That is the way we act, in a bipartisan way, which, in the past, the Appropriations Committee has certainly done. I am disappointed in this resolution. I am disappointed especially in the process that does not allow for an amendment. Mr. President, is it in order to call up amendment No. 242, the Hutchison-Inhofe amendment to H.J. Res. 20?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. It is not in order then, Mr. President?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Chair.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the Hutchison-Inhofe amendment is cosponsored by 27 Members of our Senate. The cosponsors, besides myself and Senator Inhofe, are Senators Allard, Baucus, Bennett, Brownback, Bunning, Burr, Chambliss, Coburn, Cornyn, Crapo, DeMint, Dole, Enzi, Graham, Kyl, Lott, Martinez, McCain, Roberts, Sessions, Stevens, Thomas, Vitter, Voinovich, and Warner. That is a good number. That is almost a third of the Senate, and there are many who said they would like to cosponsor the amendment, but they were concerned about stopping the bill or going against the leadership on the Democratic side. It is clear we can work this out, that people want to have this amendment. The amendment is very simple. It restores $3.136 billion that was taken out of the Department of Defense base closure account, and it is paid for so that we keep the fiscal responsibility with a rescission of .73 percent--that is three-quarters of 1 percent--across the board of all of the accounts, except for defense, homeland security, and veterans. With a .73-cut, which I think any agency or program could take without any disruption whatsoever, I believe we could fully fund our military and the important operations they are doing, and that is what I think is essential. I have a much longer set of remarks, but at this point, I will yield for a question from the Senator from Alabama, who I know is on a timetable.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Alabama is right. Actually, he may be a little under because the original need was $5.6 billion, and we are cutting it by $3.1 billion. We are cutting it by $3.1 billion. I think that it is a huge cut. It is going to affect the whole synchronization. We gave the Defense Department 6 years in which to accomplish what the Base Closure Commission recommended, passed and then was adopted by Congress and signed by the President. We have given them a deadline, and yet as the Senator points out, of the $5.6 billion that was in the budget that has been approved by the Senate before, we only have $2.5 billion.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Yes, and I point out the cost savings projection is $20 billion over the period we would be closing and then gearing up the bases that are being consolidated. In addition to that, it has been said the majority intends to bring this $3.1 billion back in the supplemental, but the supplemental is outside the budget process; therefore, it is going to be $3.1 billion added to the deficit, which will have to be subtracted from the $20 billion savings we were envisioning from the BRAC. I have to say to the distinguished Senator from Alabama, I didn't like some of the recommendations of BRAC, but we passed it, the President signed it, and Congress has mandated the Department of Defense to go through with it. We certainly cannot do it halfway if we are going to be responsible stewards of the security of our country, as well as its tax dollars.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I am very concerned about it. I think we are going to cut back on the savings. We are thwarting the mandate we set down by not going forward. We should have governed last October 1. We should have gone forward in November and December, but for a variety of reasons, including some on our own side, we didn't do that. Now we have an opportunity to do it, and do it right. I am just hoping, and I haven't given up hope, that we will do this the right way; that we will pay for it so that we achieve the objective of staying within that budget because we can do that. It has been planned for, it has been in the budget, and we shouldn't have to add it to a supplemental and increase the deficit for these particular projects.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I will be happy to yield to the Senator from Kentucky.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I still control the floor. I am yielding for a question.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I will be happy to yield to the Senator from West Virginia for a response for 1 minute.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I yield to the Senator from Kentucky for a question.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I appreciate the Senator from Kentucky asking the question, and I will read a letter signed by all four of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dated last November, where they are asking that we pass a short-term CR rather than a complete year's CR because they are so concerned about that very issue. They say in their letter: As required by law, we are executing thousands of interrelated moves to implement all the base realignment and closure projects by September 2011 and to reposition our forces under the Global Defense Posture review. Disruptions in resources will cause delays and desynchronize these moves. This, in turn, can disrupt our force generation and deployment schedules, which ultimately degrades readiness while increasing the burden on servicemembers and their families. So we know now from their own reports, I would say to the Senator from Kentucky, that 12,000 of those who are scheduled to be coming home just this year are going to be delayed, which is going to cause a domino effect all the way down the line. It is incomprehensible that we have this opportunity, but we are not able to go forward. I thank the Senator from Kentucky for asking the question.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I will yield up to 15 minutes to Senator Roberts, after which I will yield up to 10 minutes to the Senator from Georgia, Senator Chambliss. I am going to send my remarks to the desk and ask unanimous consent they be printed in the Record after Senator Chambliss has spoken. I will need to follow him in that order. I ask unanimous consent my remarks be printed in the Record after Senator Chambliss.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Senator Roberts and Senator Chambliss.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, Senator Inhofe has been here for several hours as well. He has been waiting patiently, as has Senator Shelby. I ask if it would be possible to allow the people who are on the floor to be put in an order. If Senator Kennedy would be able to then come after Senator Roberts, Senator Chambliss, Senator Shelby, and Senator Inhofe?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, at this point I think I will keep the floor and yield to Senator Roberts for 15 minutes and let me talk to Senator Murray. I wish to try to accommodate Senator Murray, but I will not do that at this time. I yield up to 15 minutes to Senator Roberts.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I believe the Senator from Washington asked for me to yield to her for a question, and I will yield to her for a question.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I have the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I have the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I will yield to the Senator from Kansas for a question at this time. For a question only.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. The distinguished Senator from Kansas is exactly right. You know, it was pointed out earlier that we had $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2006, with the implication that we were increasing from that amount in this budget because it has $2.5 billion. The problem is, in 2006, the money was planning money, now we are trying to actually build the project and we are missing $3.1 billion. Now we are in the building stage.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. The Senator is correct. I have no memory of ever doing that. Of course, there are no earmarks in the BRAC funding. The funding, the $3.1 billion that was set out was all Department of Defense. They are doing the planning for BRAC, not Congress. There are no earmarks.