Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 2 p.m., with the two leaders or their designees in control of that time. Following morning business, the Senate will begin consideration of Gale Norton's nomination to be Secretary of the Interior. Under the previous order that was entered into last week, there will be up to 4 hours of debate on the Norton nomination during today's session. Tomorrow the Senate will complete debate on the Norton nomination as well as consider the nominations of Governor Whitman to be the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and Elaine Chao to be Secretary of Labor. Those confirmation votes are scheduled to occur at 2:45 p.m. tomorrow. Following those votes, the Senate will begin consideration of the nomination of John Ashcroft to be Attorney General. A vote on that nomination is expected prior to the Senate adjourning this week. I should say that while the vote in the Judiciary Committee on Senator Ashcroft was delayed until this week, I believe there will be a vote on it either Tuesday or Wednesday morning. I hope we can begin the debate on his nomination as early as tomorrow afternoon and continue, if necessary, into the night and Wednesday and into the night and into Thursday--all if necessary. I had a brief conversation with Senator Daschle this morning about the schedule for the next month or so, but we did not get into a deep discussion about exactly how to proceed after the votes that are now scheduled at 2:45 tomorrow afternoon. We expect to meet later on today, and as we get an agreement of how we can proceed, certainly we will notify our Members to that effect. I do want to say also, I firmly believe that Senators should have every opportunity to question the nominees to the President's Cabinet, and to make statements on the floor if they choose so there can be a full reading of the record and a discussion of their record. But I also think it is important that we do come to a conclusion and reach a vote. There has been good cooperation on both sides of the aisle, and from committees, over the past month when they were chaired by Democrats and last week as it continued under Republican leadership. We will have completed all the nominations but one by tomorrow afternoon. I hope we can move to that nomination expeditiously also. Again, I am sure we will have a full debate, but I think after a reasonable period of time we should come to a vote so the Justice Department can have an Attorney General in place and can begin to do the very important job that he will have to carry forward. I thank my colleagues for their attention and look forward to the debate this week and working with the leadership on the schedule.

Mr. LOTT. I will be glad to yield.

Mr. LOTT. I thank the Senator from Vermont for that information. I think it is appropriate we actually receive the nomination before we vote--a little small detail but that has been taken care of.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I have enjoyed the welcome speech from the Senator from Delaware, and I look forward to hearing from the other Senator from Delaware. Welcome, Father Trainor. We all welcome you. Thank you for being here. You and our Chaplain, Lloyd Ogilvie, mean a great deal, obviously, to the Senators from Delaware, but also to the spirit of our country. We thank you for being here this morning and being our guest Chaplain.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today I enter into the Record the majority party committee assignments for the 107th Congress. I thank all Members for their cooperation during this organization effort. I send to the desk the majority committee assignments. I understand Senator Daschle will be presenting his committee assignments later. The committee assignments are as follows: Republican ``A'' Committee Assignments for the 107th Congress (Note: All committees have an equal number of Republicans and Democrats) Agriculture Senators Lugar, Helms, Cochran, McConnell, Roberts, Fitzgerald, Thomas, Allard, T. Hutchinson, and Crapo. Appropriations Senators Stevens, Cochran, Domenici, Specter, Bond, McConnell, Burns, Shelby, Gregg, Bennett, Campbell, Craig, K. Hutchison, and DeWine. Armed Services Senators Warner, Thurmond, McCain, B. Smith, Inhofe, Santorum, Roberts, Allard, T. Hutchinson, Sessions, Collins, and Bunning. Banking Senators Gramm, Shelby, Bennett, Allard, Enzi, Hagel, Santorum, Bunning, Crapo, and Ensign. Commerce Senators McCain, Stevens, Burns, Lott, K. Hutchison, Snowe, Brownback, G. Smith, Fitzgerald, Ensign, and Allen. Energy Senators Murkowski, Domenici, Nickles, Craig, Campbell, Thomas, Shelby, Burns, Kyl, Hagel, and G. Smith. Environment and Public Works Senators B. Smith, Warner, Inhofe, Bond, Voinovich, Crapo, Chafee, Specter, and Campbell. Finance Senators Grassley, Hatch, Murkowski, Nickles, Gramm, Lott, Jeffords, Thompson, Snowe, and Kyl. Foreign Relations Senators Helms, Lugar, Hagel, G. Smith, Thomas, Frist, Chafee, Allen, and Brownback. Governmental Affairs Senators Thompson, Stevens, Collins, Voinovich, Domenici, Cochran, Gregg, and Bennett. health, education, labor, and pensions Senators Jeffords, Gregg, Frist, Enzi, T. Hutchinson, Warner, Bond, Roberts, Collins, and Sessions. Judiciary Senators Hatch, Thurmond, Grassley, Specter, Kyl, DeWine, Sessions, Brownback, and McConnell. Republican ``B'' Committee Assignments for the 107th Congress Aging Senators Craig, Jeffords, Burns, Shelby, Santorum, Collins, Enzi, T. Hutchinson, Fitzgerald, and Ensign. Budget Senators Domenici, Grassley, Nickles, Gramm, Bond, Gregg, Snowe, Frist, G. Smith, Allard, and Hagel. Ethics Senators Roberts, Voinovich, and Thomas. Indian Affairs Senators Campbell, Murkowski, McCain, Domenici, Thomas, Hatch, and Inhofe. Intelligence Senators Shelby, Kyl, Inhofe, Hatch, Roberts, DeWine, Thompson, and Lugar. Joint Economic Committee Senators Bennett, Brownback, Sessions, Crapo, and Chafee. Rules Senators McConnell, Warner, Helms, Stevens, Cochran, Santorum, Nickles, Lott, and K. Hutchison. Small Business Senators Bond, Burns, Bennett, Snowe, Enzi, Fitzgerald, Crapo, Allen, and Ensign. Veterans' affairs Senators Specter, Murkowski, Thurmond, Jeffords, Campbell, Craig, and T. Hutchinson.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senate will now be in a period for morning business and will adjourn after that morning business until 12 noon on Monday. During Monday's and Tuesday's session, we will consider three Cabinet nominations with the votes to occur at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, unless we get an agreement for some change. Right now, Senators should expect recorded votes at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday. I must say early, so I will not be accused of not putting Senators on alert, already we are being squeezed on both ends of the week. Senators say: Please don't have any votes after Wednesday night. Oh, please don't have any votes before Tuesday night. We are not going to be able to do that, and we are going to have to start on Mondays. We are going to have to have votes on Tuesday mornings, Thursdays and Thursday nights, too. I realize it is early in the session and we are not under the gun, but we do need to get done as soon as possible the other nominations that have been agreed to so we can move to the last nomination and debate and vote on that one. Those votes on confirmation at 2:45 p.m. will be Elaine Chao to be Secretary of Labor, Gale Norton to be Secretary of the Interior, and Gov. Christine Todd Whitman to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. I ask all Senators for their assistance. Senator Reid from Nevada is here. I know he has been working on helping move these along, especially Governor Whitman to be Administrator of EPA. I thank Senators on both sides of the aisle for that cooperation.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 21 be discharged from the Committee on Finance and be referred to the Committees on Budget and Governmental Affairs, per the order of August 4, 1977.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I may respond to Senator Reid's comments, with regard to the questions that need to be answered by the designee to be Attorney General, former Senator Ashcroft, this very morning we worked to encourage that those questions be answered as quickly as possible and gotten to the committee. Hopefully, that will be done today, and I understand Senator Daschle, if that can be done, is going to work with us to see if we can move that nomination in a reasonable time next week. I appreciate that very much. Senator Reid touched on our meeting with the President yesterday morning. It was a bipartisan, bicameral meeting. I thought it was a very good meeting. Again, the President was reaching out to the Congress and to the American people through their leaders. That was the sixth meeting he has had with congressional leaders in only 3 days as President, or workweek as President. He did have Sunday. It has been Republicans, Democrats, leaders on education, the elected leaders, but the thing I liked about it, it was not just an effort to reach out with platitudes of courtesy. We got into a discussion on issues, not in great depth, but Senators and Congressmen were able to raise points of concern and interest. I think there was a belief on both sides that it was a very positive meeting. I hope this is the first of many of that type in the months to come. I will be glad to yield the floor at this time so others may speak.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thought it was routine business and thought it had been cleared.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the agreement be withheld, until we make sure it has been cleared, as always.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. In light of this agreement then, the next votes will occur back to back at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday next.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, we do have an essential agreement here that will allow us to move through three more nominations. I would like to go through this and then also give the Senators some further idea as to how we might proceed beyond this next week. As in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that at 2 p.m. on Monday, the Senate proceed to the nomination of Gale Norton to be Secretary of Interior and that it be considered under the following agreement: 3 hours to be equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the Energy Committee, 60 minutes equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, and following the use or yielding back of the time, the nomination be laid aside. I further ask unanimous consent that at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the Environment and Public Works Committee be discharged from further consideration of Gov. Christine Whitman to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that there be 30 minutes for debate to be divided as follows: 10 minutes under the control of Senator Corzine, 10 minutes under the control of Senator Torricelli, 10 minutes equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the Environment Committee. I further ask unanimous consent that following that debate, at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the nomination be temporarily laid aside and the Senate resume consideration of the Norton nomination under the following agreement: 10 minutes under the control of Senator Feingold, 15 minutes under the control of Senator Durbin, 15 minutes under the control of Senator Wellstone, 10 minutes under the control of Senator Stabenow, with 30 additional minutes for closing remarks under the control of Senator Boxer and the final 30 minutes under the control of Senator Murkowski. Further, I ask unanimous consent that at 2:15 on Tuesday the Senate proceed to the consideration of Elaine Chao to be Secretary of Labor, and that there be 15 minutes for debate equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and 15 minutes under the control of Senator Wellstone, to be followed by a vote on the confirmation of the Secretary of Labor, to be followed by a vote on the confirmation of Gale Norton to be Secretary of Interior, and that be followed by a vote on the confirmation of Governor Whitman to be the head of EPA. I further ask unanimous consent that following the three back-to-back votes, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that either leader may vitiate the agreement with respect to the Chao agreement prior to the vote and that in no case shall it proceed if the Senate has not yet received the nomination and the accompanying papers.

Mr. LOTT. I appreciate the comments of the Senator from Nevada. I also note with regard to the last paragraph, we do not anticipate there will be a need to vitiate the agreement with regard to the Chao agreement. It is just that we have not received all of the papers yet. We do not expect there to be any problem, but because we do not have it all, it was necessary to put this in. Also--and I appreciate Senator Reid's comments--it is our anticipation to proceed, after these three stacked votes Tuesday afternoon, on the debate with regard to the Attorney General nomination, and it is at least my hope, and I believe everybody's hope, that we will be able to complete action on that nomination next week.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now be in a period for morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I thank the Senator from New Mexico for offering to yield time earlier. Mr. President, I ask that my time be taken from my leader time so it will not count against the time that was made available for this debate.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, we have a new President of the United States who has proven in his own State of Texas and in his life--and with the encouragement of his wife--that he really cares about education and that he means it when he says we should leave no child behind. We need an education system in America that is focused on one thing, and that is children learning. I am convinced he means that. I have had occasion to hear him talk about that in Texas, on the campaign trail, after the election, and even yesterday in the first meeting, when the bicameral Republican leadership met with the President, that was his focus. He made it clear he was going to reach out to the Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, and to outsiders to try to get a consensus as to how we want to move our country. But the issue he focused on was education. I believe that is going to be well received by the American people. People of all backgrounds, races, creeds, color, regions know that for continued advancement for the American culture, education and improving education is absolutely critical. He continues to focus on this issue. This morning he met with the leaders of the appropriate committees to talk about his proposal that he is going to send to us today. I have spoken to a couple of those who attended that meeting, including Senator Jeffords. A moment ago, when the Senator from Vermont, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, spoke, I felt there was an exuberance in him about the fact that this President is opening his administration the way he said he would, and in the Senate we are picking up that mantle. The bill that will carry the number S. 1 is going to be about education. Today the President of the United States will keep his promise to America's schoolchildren. He will articulate for the Nation a vision of America, a public school system that serves the children and leaves no child behind. I think it is important also that he is not going to send us a bill drafted with every word, every dot and comma, but he is going to lay out the provisions, the major points he intends to pursue, and he is asking us to pursue it legislatively in the Congress. Under President Bush, our public schools can and will be doorways to opportunity. In Texas, he has proven that every child, particularly our disadvantaged children, can excel. As President, he will bring that same determination to all of our Nation's children. The President proposed we apply commonsense principles to promote results. He also has picked an outstanding nominee to be Secretary of Education, and now he is the Secretary of Education, Dr. Rod Paige. By the way, I should note he is a native Mississippian. He grew up with a very blue-collar upbringing. He attended public schools. He got a good education. He was the head coach at Jackson State University in Jackson, MS, a university that has produced some outstanding academic leaders and athletic leaders in this country. Some of the most outstanding football players in the history of this country came out of Jackson State University. He went beyond that. He got his postgraduate degrees. He got his doctorate, and then he went to the Houston, TX, school system, a school system that had all kinds of problems, that was deteriorating, declining, and he said: We are going to make this place work. We are going to provide different ideas, innovative ideas, and he produced results. Now he is going to be the Nation's Secretary of Education. Here again is a man who has shown the American dream is alive and well. When you look at his humble beginnings and what he did in terms of getting an education in public schools, at Jackson State University, and then getting his postdoctorate degrees and now is Secretary of Education, it is a tremendous testament to what can be done. Our schools should be measured by what our children learn. I have said on this floor many times that I am the son of a schoolteacher, a lady who taught school for 19 years. I am very proud of it. She still corrects my grammar when I use the wrong word, the wrong tense in my weekly columns or when she hears me speak. If I speak improperly, she will mark my paper in red or chastise me. I am proud of that. Unfortunately, like a lot of teachers, after 14 years she left and went into bookkeeping and even radio announcing because she could make more money. That is a tragedy, too. At the local and State level, we have to make sure we pay our people a livable wage so they will stay in teaching and not go out into other places and get more money but maybe not much reward in terms of what they actually produce. I went to public schools all my life. So did my wife and so did my children. I remember distinctly the best teachers I ever had in my life were my teachers in the second, third, and fourth grades at Duck Hill, MS. Those teachers affected my life. They taught me the basics. They taught me to read. By the way, I stayed in touch with two of the three all my life. One of them now is deceased. One of them I still hear from every now and then. They came from a small poor school, but they made a difference in my whole life, more than my college professors, more than my high school teachers. We have to make sure we have that for every child in America. No child--no child--in America should be trapped in failing schools just because they lack the economic means to have a choice or to make sure they do get a good education. We have to be prepared to think outside the box. What we have been doing is not working in every school. Some schools are fantastic. In my own State, we have some great schools. We have students who make tremendous test scores on the ACT and SAT, and yet we have schools where children are just not getting a quality education. They are not learning. They are not safe. They are in danger from all kinds of things in these schools. So we have to keep the good ones good and make them even better, but we have to make sure those other schools can be brought up. That is a local responsibility, a State responsibility. But, yes, the Federal Government has a role to play. There are many things we can do to be helpful in that area. The President's proposals will help us address that. The fact that he is willing to put money-- and a significant amount of money--into children learning to read, that is a beginning, that is where it all starts. We have one couple in my State of Mississippi who have been remarkably successful in their lives: Jim Barksdale and his wife Sally, from Jackson, MS. They went to the University of Mississippi. Jim Barksdale worked with FedEx. He worked with McCaw Telephone in Washington State. He is one of the founders of Netscape who made a lot of money, and now he is on the board of AOL Time Warner. He and his wife just gave $100 million--$100 million--of personal money, the two of them, for one thing, and only one thing, in my State--4th grade reading. The State said, OK, can we join in on this? And others said, no, we want this to be focused on teaching those 4th grade students to read. That is the kind of thing happening with individuals in the private sector. They have a responsibility to help with education, too. So we need to really build on that. Parents have a right to hold schools to high standards and know that their schools are meeting those high standards. Our children excel when they are exposed to basics, going back to the points I made about reading. Our early childhood programs should focus on reading first, and we should not be afraid to measure those programs to make sure they are succeeding and not merely just good-intentioned programs that do not produce results. Also, character counts. There is a program called Character Counts in America. I think we need to incorporate that in how we teach. We should never shy away from teaching that basic lesson to our students. These basic principles work. They have worked in Texas, they have worked in other parts of the country, and they have formed the cornerstone of the President's education initiatives. Under Governor Bush, African American 4th grade students have made the largest gains in the country in math and science. In fact, they had the highest test scores in their peer group of any State in the Nation. Hispanic students have made similar gains, scoring second highest of Hispanics in all States. We can and should do the same thing for all of America's children. The President's education plan is based on a simple premise: Those who know our children best--parents, teachers, and principals--should determine how to prioritize our education dollars. The needs in rural America are often left out, and they are quite different from those in our cities. It makes sense that local schools have the freedom to design programs that meet individual needs. The compulsion in Washington has always been to have one size that fits all which they dictate from Washington. What is needed in Pascagoula, my hometown, is obviously, on its face, different from what they need in Pittsburgh, PA. So we need that local flexibility, that local control, and with accountability that goes along with it. In exchange for that freedom, the President proposes to hold States accountable for the one thing that matters, and that is to make sure our children are learning. There are many special interests in education. Many of them will raise their voices against the President's plan. They will use tactics to try to distract from what we are trying to accomplish by advocating other things and new programs. I think we need to go with what works and to make sure the only interests that matter are the interests of our children and that they are learning. I believe this commonsense approach will form the kind of principles that can improve our education in America. I believe we can, in this area, reach bipartisan agreement. We tried mightily last year, and there was a lot of effort across the aisle from our education leaders, good men such as Paul Coverdell, who is not with us, and Slade Gorton, who will not be serving in the Senate. Joe Lieberman was involved in that effort. We can have Republicans and Democrats who can come together on this because what President Bush is proposing is not Republican or Democrat; it is what has worked and what will work. So I invite my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, let's engage in this issue. Let's move this bill. I hope the HELP Committee will have the necessary hearings to think about what we are going to do, but do not delay. Do not delay. Every day that goes by that we do not act in this area, another child is not getting the education he or she needs. They are in a school that is not safe or a school that is drug infested. This could be one of the most exciting things we do in the next 2 years. I appreciate the fact that the President has shown his commitment. He is going do be dogged. He is going to be focused. We are going to get this done. And the children will be the beneficiaries now, and the country will be the beneficiaries for years to come. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. I thank the Chair.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed en bloc to the consideration of the following nominations: Executive Calendar No. 7, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Executive Calendar No. 8, Anthony Principi to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Executive Calendar No. 9, Melquiades Rafael Martinez to be Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. I also ask unanimous consent that at 2:45 p.m. the Senate proceed to a vote on the nominations en bloc, and further, that one rollcall count for three votes with respect to the nominations. I further ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table and the President be notified of the Senate's action. I further ask unanimous consent that the Finance Committee be discharged from further consideration of the nomination of Gov. Tommy Thompson, to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the nomination, with the time on the nomination as follows: 60 minutes under the control of Senator Wellstone; 40 minutes for the chairman and ranking member of the Finance Committee; 10 minutes under the control of Senator Feingold; 10 minutes under the control of Senator Kennedy; and that following the use or yielding back of time, the nomination be laid aside and the Senate proceed to a vote on the nomination at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and following the confirmation, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. LOTT. I amend the UC to that effect: 10 minutes under the control of Senator Reid following Senator Kennedy.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, let me reiterate, we will have the one vote now for the three nominees en bloc. We will then have time for debate on the nomination of Gov. Tommy Thompson to be Secretary of HHS. The next recorded vote will be at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and we could have another vote or votes at that time on three additional nominees that will be ready to go at that time.

Mr. LOTT

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

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, earlier this month the U.S. Senate lost another member of its family. Gerard Lougee passed away on January 6th at the Washington Hospital Center. Gerard worked in the Senate post office as a mail carrier for the past eighteen years. He was a graduate of Cardoza High School and attended the National Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. He began work in the Senate in 1982 after working in the White House mail room. During his career in the Senate post office Gerard was recognized for his perfect attendance record, as well as numerous other performance awards. Many of our Senate staff will remember Gerard as he traveled the corridors of Congress delivering the mail with diligence and pride. He will be sorely missed not only by his mail room colleagues but by all of the Senate family. On behalf of the Senate I thank Gerard for his service and dedication and express our condolences to his family.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Nevada for his comments. That is why I did make specific mention of the fact that we confirmed seven of the nominees on Saturday. That was a very good gesture, very positive gesture. I had noted earlier that 8 years ago we had confirmed three of then-President Clinton's nominees the first day and all of the rest of his nominees the second day except one, which we did have a recorded vote on subsequently. But I thought in this case the fact that we moved seven was very good. I think as long as we can, and as many times as we can find a bipartisan way to work together, we should do that and we will do our best to do that. Back to the schedule today of introducing bills, the leadership may opt in some instances to go ahead and introduce a bill that is fully prepared, fully vetted and properly drafted or they may decide to have what we call place holders for their bills--S. 1 through S. 5 on our side or S. 6 through S. 10 on the other side. We will probably have place holders today because we would like to have an opportunity to honestly have more consultation with leaders on both sides of the Capitol in the majority party, but also to have input from the President. This week, the President will go forward with his commitment to make education his highest priority, and he, as I understand it, will speak to different aspects of his proposal each day, or two or three times during this week. We would like to make sure we have a bill that has been worked through and we will have an opportunity to work with our new chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania, Senator Santorum. So, within a couple of weeks we will have the specifics of this legislation. Again, without saying these are the order of priorities, I do think I should at least touch on the issues we are going to be focusing on in these early bills. Education, as the President has indicated--I think everybody in America is in agreement, regardless of region or party or financial background--has to be addressed. We have lost some ground in comparison to previous generations, compared to other countries. We can do a better job in education. No child should be left behind in America. We are going to focus on accountability and reading. I feel very strongly about this whole issue. I am the son of a schoolteacher who taught school for 19 years. I went to public schools all my life, as did my wife and both of our children. It really pains me to see what is happening in some of our schools. The quality has deteriorated. The accountability has left. The schools are dangerous. The schools are not safe from drugs. So we have work to do there. Also, clearly we need to continue to try to address the Tax Code. The Tax Code is unfair. It is too complicated; it is too long--it is endless. But even beyond that, now, we see there is some softening in the economy. Without trying to predict what might happen in that area-- we always look for a way, in America, to have more. But when you look at the surplus we have and look at what can be done with the Tax Code to make it more fair and also to encourage economic growth. I think that should be one of our high priorities. I believe it will be. The President has said he is going to seek that, and I believe there are Members of Congress, again, on both sides of the aisle in both Chambers, who are going to try their best to achieve that goal. Will there be arguments over some of the details? Surely. This is a legislative body and different Senators and different House Members will have different approaches. But we should get this done and do it as quickly as possible because we need to start having some impact. That is why I do support the ideas that have been suggested, that it be across-the-board rate cuts and that we look at retroactivity and other ways to really affect the economy. Over the past week, in various settings, I did also have the opportunity to talk to some of our leaders in defense. I spent some time with the new Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld. I had the opportunity to talk to a number of Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but, more important, to individual military men and women. I believe there are more problems in our military and greater needs there than we have acknowledged or that people are prepared to recognize at this point. It does go to morale, the quality of the facilities for our military personnel: readiness and modernization. So defense has to be at the very top of any agenda we discuss. Then you start looking to your grandparents and your parents, to your own future and that of your children and grandchildren. We have to go ahead and address the issues that are difficult politically but essential for the future security of all of us; that is, Social Security and Medicare, and how do you provide prescription drugs to our needy elderly. It will not be easy, but as the President said in his Inaugural Address at his swearing in on Saturday: We cannot just pass these issues on to the next generation because it is tough for us to deal with them. That is not exactly what he said, but that was the gist of it. That is what he meant. So I think we have to find a way to do these things, and we can do them. There are a lot of different ways to approach this. Again, the substance will be hotly debated. I really think that Social Security can be dealt with, with just a few changes that would protect it for 90 years or more. Medicare has more moving parts, and I think it has more difficulty right now, but we should start early to try to find a way to work on those. On Medicare, I think a good place to begin would be where the Medicare Commission left off. We had a bipartisan Medicare Commission with some of the most thoughtful Members of the Congress serving on that Commission, chaired by Senator John Breaux. They did a lot of good work. Have we learned more? Surely. But that would be good place to start because unfortunately that Commission's recommendation never had a good airing by the Senate committee or the House Ways and Means Committee. In the case of Social Security, I think a good idea would be to consider a commission somewhat similar to the commission we had in the 1980s, sort of a base closure-type commission, where we have a distinguished blue ribbon commission that would look at this area and make recommendations. Then Congress would have to review it and then vote it up or down. But these are just some ideas, ideas I am not advocating on behalf of any group of Senators and not the new President, but just some thoughts that we can work on. Another area--and this goes beyond five categories but is something we have to look at very quickly--is energy. We have ignored this energy problem. We don't have a national energy policy. How many times are we going to have to be shaken to wake up and realize that we do not have a national energy policy; we are not making use of the resources we have in America, we are not properly providing the right incentives for conservation; we are dependent on foreign oil? This makes no sense. Then we have the situation in California where they say they have deregulation but it is not deregulation, or it is half deregulation which is worse than no deregulation. They deregulated at one end and not at the other, and we see there are real problems. But we should not protest and damn the darkness. We should prepare for the light. We should find a way to have a broad policy in this area. On Sunday, I spoke to the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Murkowski. I thought that issue was so important that I took some time to give him a ring and talk about what he has in mind and the preparation he is doing to have a bill ready within the next few days. It can be introduced in our first grouping of bills. We have a lot of work to do, but I am excited about the possibilities. This is by no means a complete list. There will be issues we will be working on beyond the first five or first six bills, things that are left over from last year that I know we are going to need to address. We will have to address them. It will be in a variety of areas all the way from transportation to housing to health care, obviously, that is still pending. So we will have plenty of other things that will be moving. But as Winston Churchill would say, I think, and as he said, you do need to give the people a few really big ideas. You do need to step up to the difficult issues. You need to stretch people to reach beyond their own comfort and try to think about the next generation. So the issues I have addressed here are big issues, issues that we need to speak to quickly. With the leadership of our new President, one who is going to be very aggressive in promoting ideas but also very willing to listen, to reach out to Members of both parties and Americans of all stages in life, I think he is set up now in such a way, with his own efforts and also some things that have happened here in the Senate, that give us an opportunity to achieve some really wonderful things for the American people. So I look forward to this opportunity, working with Senators on both sides of the aisle. I thank the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania for being willing to be here this morning and go over this list, perhaps in some more specificity. I yield the floor at this time, Mr. President.