Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mrs. Dole), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I rise in support of the motion to commit this appropriations bill with instructions to report back to the Senate forthwith with a total discretionary amount not exceeding the amount of $51,238,522,000. Let me make it clear, I understand these appropriations bills are difficult. You have a lot of demands from a lot of Members. You have to work with the administration. You have to work with outside people who have needs, concerns, and priorities. It is not easy to live within a budget. But if we are ever going to begin fiscal responsibility and some restraint on spending, when is it going to be? This is a bill which richly deserves to have some restraint applied to it. I think this bill demonstrates why the American public has such a dismal view of the Congress. At a time when the CPI went up barely 2 percent and average weekly earnings went up 3.9 percent, the Senate is considering a bill that has double-digit increases for these Departments that are involved. Spending for the Commerce Department, not the Justice Department--and by the way, I suspect people have some doubts about some of the ways the Justice Department has been spending money--Commerce is up 14 percent. Spending for the Legal Services Corporation is up 12 percent. Overall spending for Commerce, Justice, and Science--more than $55 billion, a 10-percent increase. How much is enough? No wonder people do not think we have any desire to restrain spending. This is, by the way, not just a partisan charge; it is a problem that has been building for quite some time. At some point, we have to begin to say we have to get a control on this. Let's send it back to committee. They know what is in this bill. I do not want to pit one department or one agency against another. It won't be easy for them to do it, but they have the knowledge, the ability to get this under control. The proposal the President sent up was $900 million over the previous year--a 1.8-percent increase. But we added--I believe this is correct-- $4.2 billion over last year's spending. So I think this is a tremendous burden. We can get this under control. Why do we want to force this into a confrontation where we run the risk or expectation of a veto and an override when we can get it under control now, hopefully get it under control along the way as we go into conference? I supported the Treasury, Transportation, and HUD appropriations bill. I supported going to conference. But there, too, it was $3 billion over the budget request of the President. If you add this up--a billion here, a billion there--the combination is about $40 billion over the appropriations bills we have. When you couple that with $20 billion more we added earlier in the year, that is $60 billion more than should be expected in this budget. So I urge my colleagues, let's support the motion to commit. We can pick away at this earmark or take a little away from this agency or department, but we need hundreds of millions of dollars to be moved around here. Let these leaders of the committee, who know where the funding is, make some decisions of where we can bring this spending under control. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it is my pleasure to have this opportunity to speak on behalf of Judge Sharion Aycock in advance of her confirmation vote. Judge Aycock is the first female jurist from Mississippi to be nominated to a position on the Federal bench, and I am delighted that the President has chosen her to serve on the United States District Court for North Mississippi. Judge Aycock was born and raised in Tremont, MS. After graduating with honors from Tremont High School, she went on to attend Mississippi State University where she graduated with a degree in political science. Judge Aycock then earned her law degree from the Mississippi College School of Law, where she served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Mississippi College Law Review and finished 2nd in her class. Following law school, Judge Aycock was employed by the A.T. Cleveland Law Office in Fulton, MS, and later opened her own practice. While in private practice, she represented the Itawamba County Board of Supervisors, Itawamba County Board of Education, Town of Tremont, City of Fulton, and the Northeast Mississippi Natural Gas District. She also served as the Itawamba County Prosecuting Attorney from 1984 to 1992. Judge Aycock has been extremely active in her local community serving as Past President of the Itawamba County Development Council, a Member of the Itawamba County Hospital Foundation, a Member of the Three Rivers Area Health Services, Inc., Co-Chairman of the Itawamba County March of Dimes, and Chairman of the Prairie Girl Scouts Capital Fund Drive for Itawamba County. She was chosen as the ``Itawamba County Good Citizen of 2000'' and selected as one of the Mississippi Business Journal's ``Top 40 Under 40.'' In addition to being heavily involved in her local community, Judge Aycock has been an active member in the Mississippi Bar Association. She served as First Judicial District President and Secretary, and was honored as a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. During her professional career, she has also received several gubernatorial appointments, including appointments to the Board of the Mississippi Home Corporation; Board Member and Past Chairman of the Mississippi State Personnel Board; and a Member of the Governor's Commission on Youth and Children. Judge Aycock is currently Circuit Court Judge of the First Circuit Court District of Mississippi, a position she was elected to in November of 2002. During her tenure, Judge Aycock has had the opportunity to hear numerous criminal and civil cases covering a broad range of subject matter and complexity. She has presided over countless criminal cases, including capital murder, murder, manslaughter, and numerous drug offenses. Civil cases have included medical malpractice, contracts, fraud and misrepresentation, personal injury, and other suits for monetary damages. I believe that Judge Aycock will serve as a credit to both the Federal bench and to the State of Mississippi. I look forward to her confirmation.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Craig), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici), the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Hagel), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Specter), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I am submitting Senate amendment No. 3124 to make funds available from the appropriation account Other Procurement, Air Force, to accelerate the deployment of the Associate Intermodal Platform pallet system. The Associate Intermodal Platform pallet system is manufactured by Shan Industries LLC, headquartered in Miami, FL, with manufacturing plants currently located in New Jersey and Oklahoma. The Department of Defense has concluded that use of the Associate Intermodal Platform, AIP, pallet system, developed 2 years ago by the U.S. Transportation Command, could save the United States as much as $1,300,000 for every 1,000 pallets deployed. The Associate Intermodal Platform pallet system can be used to transport cargo alone within current International Standard of Organization containers, or in conjunction with existing 463L pallets. The Associate Intermodal Platform pallet system has successfully passed rigorous testing by the U.S. Transportation Command at various military installations in the United States and in the field in Iraq, Kuwait, and Antarctica. The Associate Intermodal Platform pallet system has performed well beyond expectations and is ready for immediate production and deployment.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).