Frank Lautenberg

Mr. LAUTENBERG

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Absolutely.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Why are we doing two Gramm amendments in a row? As far as I know, there was no understanding. I would be happy to hear what the unanimous-consent agreement was, just to refresh my memory.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I wonder if we can just take a minute to confer with our leader. Amendment No. 318

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Have the yeas and nays been ordered on the Gramm amendment?

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I move to table the Gramm amendment.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Massachusetts from the resolution itself.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Rhode Island.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Oregon.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, how much time do we have?

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I yield 5 minutes more to the Senator from Massachusetts.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. How much time does the Senator want, 10 minutes? I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Massachusetts off of the budget resolution.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. And the yeas and nays are ordered. Is that correct?

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I move to lay that motion on the table. Mr. BYRD addressed the Chair.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. It is very generous of the Senator from West Virginia to propound this request. I certainly do not object, but understand, I say to my colleagues, that the amendments then should go up immediately.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Madam President, I have one amendment I send to the desk on behalf of Senator Dodd, and I have two amendments which I send to the desk on behalf of Senator Moseley-Braun.

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I ask unanimous consent that the amendments be laid aside.

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

Mr. LAUTENBERG

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendments be dispensed with.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 342 (Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate regarding retroactive taxes)

Mr. LAUTENBERG. We have no objection here, Mr. President.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. They cannot even go sometimes to the age of civilization in some of these facilities.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Is the Senator finished?

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I find myself in a very difficult position. First, I commend the Senator from Illinois for her interest not only in school construction, the infrastructure for schools, but her view about investments in children, about what it is going to take to help our society stabilize, about what it is going to take to avoid criminality and violence that we see so freely around our country. She has been a leader on those issues for children. She is always discussing what it is that we have to do to make certain that children will grow up as contributing adults with a prospect for their own successes. It is consistent with her views on what we ought to be doing for the children in our country to be concerned about the schoolhouses they attend. Senator Moseley-Braun has made too many speeches, written so much about what the alternative to incarceration and prosecution is, and it is investment in our kids. If there is not a particularly identifying view of what we ought to be doing for our children than a bunch of broken down schoolhouses, then I would tell you there is nothing else. I am a member of the Budget Committee, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee, and as I said, this is a painful point at which I find myself. We have a consensus budget resolution. It took a lot of work. I was surprised, I must say, when I saw the agreement in its final form because I was expecting that there would be some funds reserved for improvement of the school facilities around the country. I did not think at the time that the original $5 billion request was held, but I thought it might be somewhere in the vicinity of $3 billion, certainly not enough to make a dent when we consider that the GAO estimate, as the Senator from Illinois mentioned, is that there is $112 billion needed to bring our schools up to date. Now, I happen to come from a highly urbanized State, a State in which we have more than a fair share of poverty. Our cities, and we have many of them, are among the poorest in the country--Newark, Camden, Paterson, my birthplace, I think is the fifth poorest city in America. I visit my old hometown, if I can call it that, on a fairly regular basis. It is often said here that we do these things, but I happen to go to the same barbershop that I have been going to since I was in college--and that was some years ago--and the barber is still cutting. Even if he misses a few hairs here and there, I don't care, but it takes me back to the city of my birth. I have a lot of sentiment attached to that city because they were hard-working people, people who were determined to have their children succeed and invest whatever they could in terms of personal involvement in the development of those kids. School was the No. 1 thing. That was always the concern of the parents. I can tell you, I don't like to admit this publicly, but I was a truant one day, and it was just my luck my father found out. I was never truant again. I visited that school just last week because I was helping them establish the connections they needed to get ultimately into the Internet, the schools being wired. My old company paid for the wiring of the schools in Paterson where our company started because my partners, like I, came from poor working-class families. I remember what it was like living that way, not particularly enjoying anything but the memory of good family life. So we helped to get the schools wired in the city. When I was there, I was struck by the horrific condition of not that schoolhouse, not that school building in particular, but others in the city, with signs of almost war-type devastation, with broken windows and things of that nature. I am also, since I was very active on the environment committee, conscious about the hazards to the health of the children. Forget about the disruptions to learning, for the moment--asbestos, lead paint, things that you would not permit your children to be near, to fiddle with if you had any way around it. So when I think of the amendment proposed by the Senator from Illinois, I say, yes, it is difficult for me. I am going to support the amendment that the Senator is offering in hopes that we can find some way to finance it. The amendment, I understand, includes a source for the funding coming from where, may I ask, reduction of tax cuts?

Mr. LAUTENBERG. The Senator is on the Finance Committee.