Frank Lautenberg

Mr. LAUTENBERG

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG. We are pleased to support the amendment, Mr. President.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendments were agreed to.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I have a series of amendments here that have been agreed to on both sides. Amendment No. 354 (Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate regarding the extension of the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund through fiscal year 2002)

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

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Very simply, Mr. President, I too approve of the amendment. I have a deep interest in Amtrak and national passenger rail service. And this refines a process. I am pleased to endorse it.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I urge adoption of the amendment.

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment, as modified, was agreed to.

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 348, as modified

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I do.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I am not going to take that much time, Mr. President. I think the chairman of the Budget Committee has fairly directly and succinctly made the arguments. The fact of the matter is that none of us are happy with the level of funding that we have for our investments in highways and our transportation needs. We are more deficient, in many ways, than countries down the Third World list. I think we rank about 55th in per capita spending for infrastructure. So, one would not disagree with the distinguished Senator from Virginia or the distinguished Senator from Montana in terms of the need, the need to correct the situation. But unfortunately, and it is unfortunate for me because I have long been an advocate of more spending on transportation in this country. I think it is common knowledge that the Senator from New Jersey has been an advocate of mass transit, of rail transportation, improving our highway system, of fixing our deficient bridges, which number in the thousands. But we have a proposal in hand that takes a priority, unfortunately, for the moment. That is, to complete the work we started on a balanced budget. We are committed to it. Believe me, this is not a place I enjoy being, because I do not agree with everything that is in the budget resolution. But I agree with it enough to say that there is a consensus that we fulfilled an obligation that we talked about to children, children's health, to the senior citizens, to try to make Medicare solvent, to try to not further burden the impoverished in terms of Medicare, to try to take care of those who are in this country legally and become disabled. We fulfilled those obligations. The economy is moving along at a very good rate and we are still running the risk, in my view, with some of the tax cuts that have been proposed, of taking us away from the direction that we are moving in, which is to continue to reduce the budget deficit until the year 2002, when there will be none. So we have an imperfect, but pretty good, solution in front us. And, now what we are discussing, in terms of transportation--and this is like me talking against motherhood--but the transportation funds that are there are inadequate because of the structure of our budgeting structure, the budgeting arrangement that we have in our Government. The fact is that we have unified budgets. If one wants to start, as has been claimed here several times, establishing truth in budgeting, under that nomenclature I think one would have to start with Social Security. Are we prepared today to say we are going to add $70 billion to our deficit each year? We certainly are not. Yet I think, when you talk about a trust fund, there is no more sanctified trust fund than Social Security, something people paid in, they are relying on for their future, for their ability to get along. But we nevertheless still have the unified budget. That problem, I assure you, is going to get intense scrutiny over the next several years. Senator Roberts said something--I don't know whether you were here, Senator Domenici, when he said: Everybody, in order to have the budget fully understood, every Senator should be sentenced to 6 months on the Budget Committee. I thought immediately, there is a constitutional prohibition against cruel and inhuman punishment, so we could not do that, even if we wanted to. I am on the Budget Committee by a quirk of circumstance. When I came here, a fellow I had known who was a Senator said that he would do me a favor and that he would vacate his seat on the Budget Committee for me. And I will get even. The fact of the matter is, we complain and we gripe, but the money is where the policy is, the money is where the direction is. We take this assignment with a degree of relish, because we want to do the right thing. None of us want to throw the taxpayers' money away. But we are where we are. It is with reluctance that I am opposing this amendment because both Senators, Senator Warner and Senator Baucus, have been very actively involved in highway funding and highway legislation as a result of our mutual service on the Environment and Public Works Committee. But we are spending more than we did last year. We are spending more than the budget resolution of just 2 years ago. I was able, with a lot of hard work and with the support of the chairman of the committee, to get an $8.7 billion increase over the President's budget request for transportation. I had asked that transportation be included as one of the top priorities in the budget. Unfortunately it is not there. But there is a plan, that we expect to be fulfilled, to have a reserve fund that would allow significantly more funding for some of the transportation needs. But I want to point out one thing about the trust fund. That is, there is a slow payout in highway projects. I think everybody is aware of that--5, 7 years on many of these things. If we shut down the revenue source now, interest alone would not carry the obligations that are already out there. The obligation ceiling as contrasted with the contract authority are quite different things. We have these obligations that have to be fulfilled, they are there and one day must be met. The balances in the fund, I think, will start coming down with the adjustments that are expected to occur in ISTEA. We have the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee on the floor. That will be opportunity to make some of the changes that are being contemplated here. I just think it is a terrible time to say we ought to burden the budget deficit by $12 billion, roughly, right now, when everybody has worked so hard, and this budget has been scrubbed, reviewed, rewashed, rehashed--you name it. We are where we are, in a fairly delicate balance, I point out to my colleagues. There are very delicate opportunities that will, I think, upset the balance that has been achieved. So, again, I repeat myself when I say with reluctance I am going to vote against it.

Mr. LAUTENBERG

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Five minutes each from the resolution.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from New Jersey.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Will that be enough time to finish your remarks, the 5 minutes you have remaining?

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I agree, Senator Domenici, that we have to start constraining time because the list is long and unless we get after it we will not have a chance for everybody to be heard on the amendments that they care about. I suggest, however, we give 5 minutes to the Senator from New Jersey and after that, 5 minutes to the Senator from Illinois, who has requested time, as well, and we will try to button it up. I know the sponsor of the amendment has a few minutes that she will complete.

Mr. LAUTENBERG

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Massachusetts.