Carl Levin

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the Biden amendment.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, it was my understanding that this was either cleared or was going to be supported by the chairman. I did not confirm that with my friend. That is a little bit in limbo. I very much support the Senator's amendment. I hope it can be cleared. If so, apparently the Senator is willing to take a voice vote.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I am one who has cosponsored a version of the Iranian sanctions amendment which Senator Santorum offered now over a year ago. I believed then and I believe now that it may well be necessary for sanctions to be imposed on Iran. However, I cannot support the amendment that has been offered by Senator Santorum for two reasons. One is the fact that it is significantly broader than the other amendment that was introduced by Senator Santorum, the Iran Freedom and Support Act of 2005. In many ways, it is broader and it interjects an unrelated issue with respect to Russian pricing for nuclear reactor fuel. It removes the requirement that a person have actual knowledge of the actions for which he is going to be sanctioned. There is a direction here to a United Nations representative, which was not present in the amendment I cosponsored. It changes the threshold which makes it more difficult for the President to waive sanctions. So there are a number of significant differences between this and an amendment I cosponsored. The other difference is that, of course, there has been significant change which occurred since that time. Senator Warner has outlined that point. That change is now the decision of the administration--which I support--to engage or participate in direct talks with Iran under specified circumstances. I think that is a policy which should be given a chance to work, and if the policy doesn't succeed and Iran does not work out a negotiation and agreement with all the countries with which there are discussions going on, at that point, it seems to me there is a greater chance we will get those other countries, including Russia, to support sanctions if, in fact, the negotiations and discussions with Iran do not succeed. So those discussions the President has decided to engage upon are actually a prelude to a much stronger chance to succeed with sanctions down the road because countries that might support us on sanctions, and whose support would be extremely helpful, would then realize we had gone through the negotiation and discussion route with Iran. I believe that policy is wise. It will strengthen our position in getting sanctions, should that be necessary. Also, it is the best chance of having the solution here, which will avoid greater and greater conflict down the road. While it is with some reluctance that I cannot support a sanction amendment relating to Iran, nonetheless, because this is broader than the one that previously I cosponsored, and mainly because of the ongoing negotiations which will strengthen our position if they do not lead to a good resolution, I cannot support the Santorum amendment. I will support the Biden amendment. I yield the floor.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. I have no objection.

Mr. LEVIN. I have no objection.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. I have no objection.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I will be brief. First, let me thank the Senator from West Virginia. He, as always, speaks eloquently. If I can make the claim, he speaks for all of us when he talked about our flag and what it means to him. I think he reflected the spirit of every Member of this body. I thank him for it. I also thank Senators Byrd and McCain. The McCain-Byrd amendment, which restores honesty and truthfulness to our budget process by reflecting the cost of war, is absolutely essential if we are going to have a realistic budget. Regardless of whether one supports or doesn't support our going to war or how the operations have taken place, it is critically important that we pay the cost and know what we are paying for and that the budget reflect those costs. The effort has been made year after year to do that but so far without success because it was not put into law. This amendment of Senator McCain and Senator Byrd will put this requirement in law. It is essential. I commend both of them for it. I believe all Members of this body, regardless of the differences we may have about our policy on Iraq, should agree that we should budget for and pay for these operations. This week Congress will send to the President the second FY2006 supplemental which includes another $70 billion on the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of the $50 billion provided in December. That means in the current fiscal year we will spend $120 billion, or $10 billion a month, on these operations-- and none of it was included in the President's 2006 budget. I can think of no clearer evidence of the need for this amendment. In February, I included the following statement in my letter to the Budget Committee: [T]hese costs should be moved into the regular budget process, rather than continuing to treat them purely as emergency spending. These expenses are not, to use the words of section 402 of last year's budget resolution, ``unforeseen, unpredictable, and unanticipated''. Calling them emergencies does nothing to reduce their impact on our federal deficit and debt. Furthermore, the Quadrennial Defense Review released by the Department of Defense last month asserts that our military is fighting a ``long war'' that ``may last for some years to come''. If this is so, all the more reason to start recognizing the ongoing costs of this ``long war'' in our budget, so we can start paying for it. So far, these costs have been financed entirely by deficit spending. That may be necessary for a short, unforeseen war, but if a ``long war'' is part of our national security reality, it must become part of our fiscal reality, and we must pay for it. There is an additional reason why these costs should be built into our regular budget process. Supplementals are not subjected to the oversight of the authorizing committees. I believe it is time for that to change. The costs of war are enormous, and these costs, starting with the $50 billion budget amendment the administration intends to submit, should receive more oversight, and putting this funding through the normal budget process will help Congress do its oversight job better, which will better serve the American public. As I also stated at our Armed Services Committee hearing with Secretary Rumsfeld in February that: Reponsible budgeting means making choices and setting priorities. This budget request fails that test. It understates the true cost of our defense program because it does not fully recognize or pay for the cost of ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007. Funds for those will apparently be requested later this year on an emergency, non-paid for, basis. That is not responsible budgeting. Those costs should be planned on and paid for now. Honest budgeting requires no less. It is essential that our budget begin to reflect reality and recognize the enormous cost of these ongoing military operations. I congratulate Senator McCain and Senator Byrd for this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. LEVIN. It is.

Mr. LEVIN. My remarks in support of the McCain amendment will be fairly brief, but Senator Byrd does wish to speak on the amendment. We are trying to ascertain how much time he desires.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield? It was my understanding that the Senator from Florida was going to speak on an existing amendment or some other subject, and he now has offered an amendment?

Mr. LEVIN. No objection.

Mr. LEVIN. If the Senator will yield, I wonder if we could keep Senator Durbin in line after Senator Santorum, subject to the work being completed on his amendment?

Mr. LEVIN. There is a lineup of amendments to which we had previously agreed. It was not my understanding the Senator would be offering an amendment.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator has additional copies of the amendment he can share.

Mr. LEVIN. I wonder if we could inquire of the Chair whether the Durbin amendment has been offered. I don't believe it has yet. We agreed yesterday it would be next in line; however, there is an effort being made to work out the Durbin amendment, and I suggest Senator Dorgan be recognized.

Mr. LEVIN. We asked Senator Dorgan to come over and take over that spot.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, let me congratulate Senator McCain, not just for his honesty in the budgeting amendment, but also for the previous amendment which he brought up while I was absent from the floor and which I am proud and pleased to cosponsor, which would name this bill after our esteemed colleague, Senator Warner. We will have a lot more to say about that later, but it is the right thing to do. I know there will more Members on the Senate floor when we accomplish that wonderful goal.

Mr. LEVIN. I very much appreciate it.

Mr. LEVIN. The two Senators will be recognized in that order?

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I want to particularly commend the Senator from North Dakota for sections 1521 and 1522 of his amendment which address the issue of competition in contracting. This is an issue that I have been concerned about since I worked with Senator Bill Cohen to enact the Competition in Contracting Act in 1984. Sections 1521 and 1522 in Senator Dorgan's amendment build on the principle that the Federal Government, taxpayers, and Government contractors all benefit from the competitive award of Federal contracts. I was pleased to work with Senator Dorgan and his staff in drafting these particular provisions of his amendment. Over the last 10 years, the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Defense Inspector General, and others have documented numerous shortcomings in the application of competition rules by Federal agencies. These problems have included, one, numerous unjustified sole-source awards under Government-wide, multiple-award contracts. Some studies have indicated that more than 50 percent of such awards have been made on a sole-source basis. Second, the award of huge what are called indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, or IDIQ, contracts--some of them in the billions of dollars--go to individuals, individual contractors, rather than multiple contractors. These single awards--these indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contracts--basically give a single contractor the right to sole-source award of innumerable highly lucrative projects. Such contracts include the highly visible contracts awarded to Halliburton relative to Iraq. Sections 1521 and 1522 of the Dorgan amendment would address these problems by prohibiting, with limited waiver authority, the issuance of long-term, open-ended contracts, like Halliburton's LOGCAP contract, to a single company. Federal agencies would be required to issue such contracts to more than one company so that they could compete with each other for work, unless the agency makes a determination that it is not practical to do so and reports that determination to Congress. That section of the amendment would also extend to civilian agencies a legislative provision that we wrote 4 years ago to eliminate abusive sole-source awards and ensure competition when Department of Defense officials place work orders under multiple-award contracts, and we would authorize bid protests for task orders in excess of $500,000 under multiple-award contracts. So I commend our colleague from North Dakota for offering this important amendment. I support this amendment. I hope the Senate will adopt it and not table it because it includes many important reforms and changes in our contracting process to address some of the abuses that have been identified by the expert agencies that we actually utilize and hire to do these kinds of reviews. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, first let me thank the chairman of the Armed Services Committee for his wisdom in identifying an appropriate way--one of the many, but very appropriate ways--we can honor President Ford. Jerry Ford is a dear friend to Members of Congress and probably thousands of others. Regardless of party, he was someone who knew how to reach across the aisle. It was a matter of pride for him to reach Democrats as well as Republicans, to pull together in common causes. We are particularly proud of Jerry Ford in Michigan. He is a proud son of Michigan. He went to the University of Michigan. He represented a district in west Michigan for a long period of time in the Congress. His Presidential library and his Presidential museum are both in Michigan, and they are the objects of a great deal of reverence, not just for the people of Michigan but for people who visit Michigan as well. He came to be President at a time when we needed a healer, when we needed someone who would unify this Nation in a time of great turmoil. We were in the middle of the Watergate crisis and the Watergate crimes. It was fortuitus that it would be Jerry Ford who would become President when President Nixon resigned. Senator Warner has read from one line of Jerry Ford's remarks on taking the oath of office as President. I thought I would close by reading a few other lines because he captured the sentiment and the feel of our Nation at a very critical moment in our history. Jerry Ford started his remarks on taking his oath in August of 1974 by saying: The oath that I have taken is the same oath that was taken by George Washington and by every President under the Constitution. But I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by Americans. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts. He went on to say: I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. . . . It is only fitting then that I should pledge to [all of the people] that I will be the President of all of the people. A little later in his remarks, in addressing the people of other nations, he said: I pledge an uninterrupted and sincere search for peace. America will remain strong and united, but its strength will remain dedicated to the safety and sanity of the entire family of man, as well as to our own precious freedom. And then he said: I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our Government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad. In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end. And then he added, as Senator Warner has quoted: My fellow Americans, our long, national nightmare is over. The only other line I would choose to quote from his remarks is the following. It speaks so much of Jerry Ford and what he stood for and the reason he is held in such affection and esteem by all of our people, particularly by the people of Michigan. As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate. So spoke Jerry Ford, and that is the way he lived his life. I am delighted that Senator Warner has taken the lead, as he has, to so identify this new class of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. I thank him again for his graciousness, his sensitivity, and his wisdom in identifying this specific class of aircraft carriers to be named after a truly great man and wonderful son of Michigan, Jerry Ford.

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

Mr. LEVIN. And as Vice President, we will also claim him as a Member of the Senate as well.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I am honored to recognize James McCann, a tireless and dynamic educator, on his retirement after 40 years of service in Michigan. For 20 years, Jim has served as district superintendent of the Lamphere School District with unparalleled leadership and vision. His efforts have led to numerous opportunities for his teachers, staff, students, and their families, as well as others across Michigan, and have earned the Lamphere School District many awards and achievements over the years. I know I join many in Michigan in congratulating him on a stellar career that has spanned decades and has inspired generations of students to strive for excellence. After earning a teaching degree from Eastern Michigan University and a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Michigan, Mr. McCann has focused his efforts in southeast Michigan. He began as an educator with the Archdiocese of Detroit. Five years later, he accepted a position with the Lamphere Schools. During his tenure with the Lamphere Schools, he served as an administrative assistant, assistant principal, and a principal at various schools in the district, and in 1986, he was named the district superintendent. Jim's passion for integrating technology into the classroom has earned him national recognition, and I am familiar with Jim's energetic and passionate approach to educating young people. I have been privileged to work with Jim on an effort to enhance learning across Michigan, and that project has benefited greatly from his innovation and enthusiasm. In 1982, Jim attended a summer institute at Harvard University that emphasized the importance of using technology to teach multiple learning styles. Recognizing an urgent need to train teachers and staff in the district in computer networking, programming and software use, he developed an innovative plan to install cable and wiring in classrooms and to provide a 2-week training program for his teachers. This innovative approach led to Lamphere being the first district in Michigan to have Internet access in the classroom, which occured in 1992. Jim has been the chairman of the Oakland County Superintendents' Committee for Instructional Technology since 1992 and through this position has helped to improve and advance the use of educational technology in schools throughout Oakland County. In 1996, he was instrumental in bringing the JASON Project to Michigan. This effort established the Lamphere School District as a JASON Project Primary Interactive Network site for Michigan. As host for JASON, Lamphere Schools helped thousands of Michigan students experience exciting scientific adventures. In 2001, Mr. McCann received the first-ever ``Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award'' for his leadership and vision in the area of educational technology, one of only 10 educators nationwide to earn this distinction by ``eSchoolNews.'' I know my Senate colleagues join me in congratulating James McCann on his retirement. I am proud to recognize his contributions to education and the indelible mark he has made in teaching with technology in Michigan. I wish him and his family many more years of good health and happiness.