Barbara Mikulski

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 3220

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I concur. I thank the Senator from Alabama for bringing this to our attention. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, we are trying to clear amendments that have been cleared by Senator Shelby and myself. Others are looking at them, so we are proceeding. While those amendments are being cleared, one of the issues I wanted to bring to our colleagues' attention is how we are making America more competitive with this bill. Earlier in my presentation in which I gave an overview of the bill, I emphasized what we were doing in law enforcement, which I am so proud of, and of course the Presiding Officer himself as a former attorney general knows how important the Federal and local law enforcement agencies are. But this bill is called Commerce-Justice-Science. We focused, in our subcommittee--myself and my ranking member, Senator Shelby--on three issues this year: security, competitiveness, and accountability--the stewardship of the taxpayers' dollar. We focused on competitiveness because it is our subcommittee that funds the major science agencies that come up with the new ideas that help come up with the new jobs, the research that enables the private sector to take value and add to it to come up with the new products and very high-end technology. That provides jobs right in our own country and enables us to be competitive. We based a lot of our work on legislation called the America COMPETES Act. I know the Presiding Officer was part of that. This year, it was a bill that was passed by the House and the Senate to ensure our Nation's competitive position in the world through improvements to math and science, both a commitment to research and math and science education. It follows through on a commitment to ensure U.S. students, teachers, businesses, and workers are prepared to continue to lead the world in research and then taking that research to the private sector so it can come up with those products. In our bill, we don't do anything that picks winners and losers. We are not industrial policy people. What we are, though, is American policy people, to do this. This America COMPETES Act was based a lot on recommendations that came from the National Academy of Science report called ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' That report was done at the request of three leaders: Senator Domenici, Senator Bingaman, and Senator Alexander. Then I, after it was published, became part of the group to implement it. Well, this is a great day for our colleague from New Mexico. I know last night our colleague from New Mexico, Senator Domenici, announced that he is going to retire from the Senate. He is in his home State of New Mexico today sharing his plans for his own future with his constituents. But while he is talking about his own future with his constituents, I want to acknowledge that he worked very hard on a bipartisan basis to ensure the future of the Nation. He and Senator Bingaman and Senator Alexander, again, working together, showed that we can do better so that we can compete in the world and that we compete in the world not only to win Nobel prizes--and we will continue to do so--but we will also win the markets, for which we must to have a stronger economy. So ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm,'' which was promoted by those three excellent and wonderful colleagues, led to, with the help of people such as Senator Lieberman and others, the America COMPETES Act. It keeps research programs at the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards, and DOE on a path for doubling the money for research in these key areas. But, in addition to research, we wanted to make sure we have the scientists, the engineers, and the technology experts to do so. We are falling behind in the number of people who choose science as a career or people with a science education to go into our classrooms. The America COMPETES Act puts an emphasis on that into action. They wanted to prepare thousands of new teachers and provide current teachers with teaching skills in the area of NSF's Noyce teacher scholarship program. They also wanted to enhance undergraduate education for the future science and engineering workforce. They also wanted to authorize new competitive grants at the Department of Education to increase the number of teachers, so grant programs also help do that. So we passed the America COMPETES Act. But, as my colleagues know-- what is authorizing legislation? It sets the policy, sets the direction, and puts national goals into the Federal lawbooks, which is a great first step. But now, the legislation we bring before the Senate, the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, the Mikulski-Shelby bipartisan bill, following on the tradition that sparked us, we are actually putting money in the Federal checkbook to do that. One of the areas, of course, where we do that is we increase funding for research. We are going to talk later on today about NASA, on the anniversary of sputnik, where that little round ball weighing 180 pounds shook up the cosmos and even the galaxies. But little known is something called the National Science Foundation. This was an agency which was created during the Eisenhower administration and has now withstood the test of time. President Eisenhower responded, a warrior-- and we all saw the great miniseries of Ken Burns on the war. We are so proud of Senator Inouye, who was featured in it. But Eisenhower, the man who led us in Europe, knew that when sputnik went up, we were in a race for America's future and we could either respond militarily or we could respond in a way that would have many uses. Eisenhower created two things: One, the National Science Foundation, and two, something called the National Defense Act. The National Defense Act was to get our young people involved in science and in technology so that they could come up with those new ideas to make sure that we not only beat the Russians in space but that we beat the Russians in everything--an idea with currency today, I might add. And then, the National Science Foundation. His brother was president of Johns Hopkins University, Milton Eisenhower. Later, what did the National Science Foundation do? We could have put a lot of money into the military so we could shoot those satellites down, but we said we were going to develop our own and be better at it. We became the premier country in satellites. Satellites defend the Nation. Satellites also give us information on weather. Satellites give us information and early warnings on things such as solar flares that can take out our power grid. Satellites were one of the greatest inventions ever created. America led the way. Eisenhower created this, where we would fund--we, the Federal Government, working in a unique partnership with universities, not Government doing the research but the Government putting money out in almost intellectual venture capital to come up with new research in physics, chemistry, biology, and the basic sciences; and then to give stipends so young, smart people, such as the people who wanted to do the ``October surprise,'' could come out of the hollows of West Virginia and the streets of Baltimore, our communities, to go on to do this. What did we fund? We funded programs that then we're able to do. In our legislation, we have now increased our research to $6.5 billion. In this, we have focused on education, K through 12. We have also funded other important programs in research, our science programs. We help with minority education. By the way, this is one of the most important agencies that helps historically black colleges, to make sure they have the financial resources they need. An example would be the increased funding for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. We provide $75 million for math and science partnerships in education. We estimate that our program will have an impact upon over 140 math and science teachers. We also have a talent expansion program to begin to recruit them. We are bringing teachers into internships. Over at Morgan University and down at the Eastern Shore, we have something called the Chesapeake Consortium, where our young people are getting paid internships to work on rocket ships that go off--small rockets that go off from down on Wallops Island. If you came with me to the Eastern Shore, to Somerset County, where primarily the lifestyle is that of watermen and agriculture--these people work hard and have dirt under their fingernails and big dreams. One of the largest employers is our prison. This is an area the Senators from Virginia share, where the facility is called Wallops Island. Our young people at the Chesapeake Consortium are working at Wallops to develop these small rockets and also work with UAV research. If you went down there with me to that county that has one of the highest poverty rates, in terms of cash income, in my State, and you saw these young men and women with the Chesapeake Consortium shirts on, where they had worked at historically black colleges with our talented science team instead of flipping hamburgers, they had a paid internship, they are flipping ideas. Each and every one of them is a graduate and they have jobs in major technology agencies in our country. This is what we are doing. I want my colleagues to know we are increasing funding in research. We are investing in education. We are investing in and implementing the America COMPETES Act, and we are making sure we are truly rising above the gathering storm. I hope Senator Domenici will be here today. I will personally pay my respects to him for being the leader he is. When he returns, he will find we passed this bill. It is a tribute to what bipartisanship means, finding that sensible Senator, and we are going to build a stronger country because of this. I wished to bring this to our colleagues' attention as we clear these amendments. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Ms. MIKULSKI. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I urge the adoption of the amendment.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate return to consideration of amendment No. 3216.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am proud to present to the U.S. Senate the bill to fund the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and our science agencies. I want to thank Senators Reid and McConnell for agreeing to bring up the CJS bill, and Chairman Byrd and Ranking Member Cochran for the CJS Subcommittee's robust 302(b) allocation. This is a bipartisan bill. Senator Shelby and I worked hand-in-hand. I thank him and his excellent staff for their partnership. The CJS bill totals $54 billion in discretionary budget authority. Did we spend more than the President asked for? You bet we did. We are proud that our bill is $3.2 billion above the President's budget request. Let's talk about how we spent the money. The subcommittee had three priorities: Security--keeping 300 million Americans safe from terrorism and violent crime. Innovation--investments in science and technology to create jobs that will stay in the United States. Accountability--fiscal accountability and stewardship of taxpayer dollars, standing sentry against waste, fraud and abuse. The subcommittee's first priority is protecting America from terrorism and violent crime. The Justice Department is almost 50 percent of the CJS bill. Funding for Justice totals almost $25 billion, $2.1 billion more than the President's request. The CJS bill funds our major Federal law enforcement agencies, and our State and local cops on the beat. CJS funds the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI. The FBI is our domestic national security agency. It has a dual mission--disrupting terrorism on U.S. soil--tracking and taking down terror cells and dismantling dirty bombs, as well as fighting violent crime in our communities. The CJS bill provides $6.6 billion for the FBI, $150 million more than the President's budget request. This includes almost $4 billion for FBI counterterrorism. Our bill will put 230 new counterterrorism agents on the beat and give agents new tools to collect intelligence to protect Americans here at home. At the same time, the President's budget cut 100 FBI agents dedicated to fighting violent crime. This is outrageous--because for the first time in almost 15 years, violent crime has increased. Robberies are up 7 percent. Homicides are up 2 percent. Nearly every region of the country has been affected--from large cities to small communities. We've heard from our colleagues that the FBI needs more agents fighting violent crime in their communities. The CJS bill rejects the President's irresponsible cut. We provide full funding to retain 100 FBI agents that the President eliminated. The CJS bill also funds the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA. The DEA is an international agency--in over 60 countries, with significant local responsibilities. It's fighting a $330 billion annual drug trade in over 60 countries around the world. Drugs finance over two-thirds of all terrorist activity, including the Taliban. The DEA is in Afghanistan fighting narcoterrorism, working hand-in-hand with our military to disrupt the poppy trade that funds terrorist networks. And the DEA is in our communities, fighting the scourge of illegal drugs like heroin and meth that destroy our neighborhoods. We were horrified to learn that the DEA has a hiring freeze. The DEA can't hire new agents. This is outrageous--so we added $50 million to DEA to lift the hiring freeze so DEA can hire up 200 new agents to fight drugs at home and abroad. The CJS bill funds the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF, which investigates arson and stops illegal firearms trafficking. The ATF is working hand-in-hand with our military to disable the improvised explosive devices, IEDs, that are so perilous to our troops on the battlefield. We provide robust support for our U.S. Marshals Service, keeping our marshals on the beat to track down dangerous fugitives--including sexual predators and drug kingpins-- protect Federal judges and provide security at terrorist trials here in the U.S. and in Afghanistan. The CJS bill is also the most important source of Federal funding for the frontline men and women of our State and local police forces, working tirelessly to keep our families and neighborhoods safe. Our cops on the beat are working harder than ever to fight rising violent crime. And our State and local police are often the first to identify suspected terrorist activities in their communities. At the same time, State and local budgets are under increased stress. So we were deeply troubled by the President's draconian cuts of almost $1.5 billion from grant funds for State and local police. The CJS bill rejects these outrageous cuts. Instead we provide a total of $2.7 billion to give our cops the tools they need to fight crime, gangs, drugs, domestic violence, and crimes against children. Our bill provides $660 million for Byrne formula grants. President Bush eliminated Byrne grants formula grants to States that pay for police and prosecutors, training and technology, and require a 25- percent State match. The first President Bush named these grants for Edward Byrne, a New York City police officer killed in the line of fire. If Byrne grants were good enough for Bush 41, why aren't they good enough for this President Bush? We also provide $550 million for Community Oriented Policing Services, COPS, grants. President Bush only asked for $32 million to terminate COPS grants. COPS is a competitive grant program that pays for police salaries and overtime, police technology, and equipment like surveillance cameras and interoperable communications equipment. The CJS bill makes sure that our cops are not walking the thin blue line drawn through green eyeshades. The CJS bill provides over $300 million to prevent, investigate and prosecute despicable crimes against children. This includes: $55 million for a new national initiative for grants to State and locals to locate, arrest and prosecute child sexual predators; $65 million to fight child abduction and exploitation and locate missing children; $9 million for the FBI's Innocent Images project--for agents and technology to track the deviants who use the Internet to prey on our children; $8 million for the U.S. Marshals to apprehend fugitive sexual predators and get them off our streets and out of our neighborhoods; $10 million for grants to keep kids safe from violence at school. Our second priority for the CJS bill is investing in America's future competitiveness. We added $1 billion above the President's request for science, education and economic development to foster job creation--for jobs that will stay in this country and to inspire and train our future scientists and engineers. We based our funding levels on the best ideas from outside experts like the National Academy of Sciences. We took the politics out of science. The CJS bill implements the framework of the recently enacted America COMPETES Act. This bipartisan legislation recommended investments in science and education to improve America's global competitiveness. We provide $6.5 billion for the National Science Foundation, NSF, $125 million above the President's budget request. NSF is important because it funds 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities in many fields such as math and computer science. NSF is the major source of federal support. NSF keeps the U.S. on the leading edge of discovery in areas like astronomy and geology. And NSF supports our college and universities' efforts to educate our next generation of scientists and engineers, including at our historically Black colleges and universities, HBCUs. We provide $860 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST. NIST is important because it sets standards that are critical to successful commerce, and transfers technology to American industry. Our recommendations provide $100 million for the Technology Innovation Partnership program, which will replace the Advanced Technology Program to foster the development of the newest technologies, and $110 for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, MEP, which helps U.S. manufacturers to be more competitive. The bill also provides $17.5 billion for NASA, $150 million above the President's budget request. NASA is our No. 1 innovation agency. No other agency has the ability to inspire our future scientists and engineers like NASA does. The bill keeps our commitment to human space flight. It fully funds the space shuttle at $4 billion and the space station at $2.2 billion. And we provide $3.9 billion to Ares and Orion, the next generation vehicle. The space shuttle will be retired in 2010. We must continue to have safe, reliable space transportation. Later, I will offer an amendment with Senators Hutchison, Shelby and Landrieu to finally begin to pay the bill of returning the space shuttle to flight after the Columbia tragedy. To ensure that we continue to have the premier space agency in the world, NASA must have a balanced portfolio of human space flight, science and aeronautics research. In the area of Earth science, the bill includes $25 million above the budget request to begin to implement the recommendations of the recent Earth Science Decadal Survey, the top priorities of the scientific community, and missions we need to accomplish to help us better understand and predict the Earth's environment and climate. For aeronautics research, we provide $554 million. This is so critical because we must rise to the challenge of our international competitors. Aeronautics is an area that we would have liked to do more. As our bill moves to conference with the other body, we hope to be able to add funding for aeronautics. A strong patent system is critical to an innovation-friendly government. We provide $1.9 billion for the Patent and Trademark Office, PTO--this is full access to all fees. We know there have been concerns that the PTO's fees have been used to pay for other priorities. Senator Shelby and I are committed to giving PTO full access to the resources it needs. Our bill will allow the PTO to hire 1,200 new patent examiners to reduce application backlogs and processing times. We are livid that it takes almost 3 years for the PTO to make a decision on a patent application. Through our oversight, we have required PTO to implement management reforms to reduce the backlog of applications, while ensuring quality. The CJS bill also provides $420 million for the International Trade Administration, ITA, to investigate unfair trade practices and enforce our trade laws. It includes $48 million for the United States Trade Representative, USTR, to negotiate trade agreements that protect our intellectual property. For the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, the bill provides $4.2 billion, $400 million above the President's budget request. This includes $795 million to implement the bipartisan recommendations of the Joint Ocean Commission. Seventy percent of the Earth is covered by oceans, but only 5 percent of the oceans are explored. Our Nation's economy depends on the oceans. Oceans contribute $120 billion to our economy and support over 2 million jobs. The bill also provides full funding for the National Weather Service, which is so important to saving lives and livelihoods. I think my colleagues would be interested in knowing that the CJS bill funds 85 percent of all federal climate change science. That's about $1.6 billion for peer-reviewed basic research at NSF, atmospheric weather and climate research at NOAA, and NASA Earth science missions studying. As we look for solutions to this crisis, the CJS bill will continue to give us sound science to inform our policy decisions. The CJS bill emphasizes oversight, accountability and fiscal stewardship. Let me tell my colleagues--there's a new sherriff in town. It's a bipartisan posse against cost overruns, ineffective management and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. The CJS Subcommittee, through its oversight, has uncovered enormous cost overruns and schedule slippages. NOAA's satellite program was $4 billion over budget. NSF's research equipment was $25 million over budget. At the appropriate time, I will offer an amendment to prevent this mismanagement and get our agencies back to fiscal discipline. Through our oversight, we also uncovered dramatic backlogs at PTO and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC. And we required effective, efficient management reform. The CJS bill insists on discipline and vigorous oversight. It requires each agency to notify the committee about cost overruns greater than 10 percent, bans funding for lavish banquets, and requires that inspectors general conduct random audits of grant funding. Unfortunately, the President threatened to veto the CJS bill. He doesn't support funding for these additional investments I have outlined. The CJS bill reflects bipartisan priorities to make America safer and smarter. I think these investments in fighting terrorism and violent crime, and educating our future scientists and engineers, are wise uses of taxpayer dollars. Let me be clear--we didn't overspend; the President under funded. It is not lavish to lift the DEA hiring freeze so we starve terrorists of their financing, or to give our men and women in blue the tools they need to keep us safe. The President should not veto this bill. Instead, together we should veto funding for the Taliban and jobs moving overseas. I believe that, if necessary, the Senate will stand up for our families, neighborhoods and communities by standing up against the President's veto. Let's veto jobs going overseas; let's veto the Taliban. Again, I want to thank Senator Shelby and his staff for their cooperation and collegiality. This is a fair and balanced bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it. For the information of our colleagues, Senator Shelby and I intend to move this bill quickly. We encourage Members with amendments to come to the floor and offer them now. The bill fully complies with the subcommittee's 302(b) allocation so any amendments will need offsets. It also fully complies with the recently enacted Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. Mr. President, in a short time, I will be joined by my colleague, the distinguished senior Senator from Alabama, who is my ranking member. He, too, will be making his opening statement. I thank Senators Reid and McConnell for agreeing to bring up this billand Chairman Byrd and Ranking Member Cochran for a rather robust 302(b) allocation to let this bill go forward. First, let me say to my colleagues in the Senate as they watch this debate that this bill is a bipartisan bill. The Senator from Alabama, Mr. Shelby, and I worked hand in hand to craft a bill that is in the best interest of the United States of America and not trying to score partisan political points. That is what we have done. The Commerce-Justice-Science bill promotes a strong economy, promotes a safer country, and also promotes U.S. competitiveness in the world. The CJS bill totals $54 billion in discretionary budget authority. Did we spend more than the President asked for? You bet we did, and we are proud that our bill is $3.2 billion above the President's request because we put the money primarily into security. We spent the money in this bill on security, keeping 300 million Americans safe from terrorism and also fighting violent crime. We also promoted innovation and competitiveness by investing in scientific research and technology and the scientific education of our people. But we were also strong stewards of the taxpayers' money and have promoted accountability, fiscal accountability, and stewardship of taxpayers' dollars. We, working on a bipartisan basis, stood sentry against waste, fraud and abuse and we have put our language also in the checkbook. The subcommittee's first priority is to protect the American people-- to protect the American people from terrorism, a war without borders, a war without a front. We also want to protect them here at home against violent crime, against murder, mayhem, sexual predators stalking our children, violence against women, looking out for our children, and making sure there are enough cops on the beat. The Justice Department is almost 50 percent of the CJS bill. Funding for the Justice component totals over $25 billion. But remember what we do: We fund the Federal law enforcement agencies--the FBI, the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as our Marshals Service. Our major law enforcement count on us. But who else also counts on us? State and local cops on the beat. We have put the money into the Federal checkbook to say: As you go after the bad guys, we are absolutely on your side. Let us start with our primary responsibility as a Federal government, and that is funding the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is our premier domestic law enforcement agency. It has a dual mission. One is fighting violent crime in our communities, and in that it is well known, well established, and well respected. But after that terrible attack on the United States, we had to decide how we were going to have a domestic agency also focus on terrorism. We didn't create a new Federal agency to do that because we didn't want a new bureaucracy. We wanted a new and fresh effort against terrorism. So we gave it to the FBI. If you read all the British spy novels and so on, the FBI is akin to the MI5 in England. This bill provides $6.6 billion for the FBI. That is $6.6 billion for the FBI, which is $150 million more than the President's budget. This includes almost $4 billion for their counterterrorism effort. To make sure we are fighting terrorism effectively, our bill also puts 230 new counterterrorism agents out there and gives them new tools to protect Americans at home. At the same time, we want to make sure we are fighting violent crime. We have been very concerned about some of the budget games going on at Justice and OMB, where they keep moving agents around, out of their job of fighting crime to fight terrorism so those numbers look good; then they eliminate those vacancies, and there we are. We need our FBI doing both. Violent crime in America has increased 2 percent. Homicides are up 2 percent and robberies are up 7 percent. Nearly every region of the country has been affected, from very large cities to small communities. We have heard from our colleagues the FBI needs more agents and more help fighting violent crime in their communities. The CJS bill rejects the President's cut. We provide funding to retain 100 FBI agents that the President eliminated. Eliminating FBI agents when we are fighting crime and fighting terrorism? I don't think that is a good idea. I don't think that is a good idea at all. On a bipartisan basis, we rejected that foolhardy recommendation. So we will be there for the FBI. But they are not the only ones fighting terrorism and fighting crime in our streets. The other is the DEA. It is an international agency as well as an all-American agency. It is in over 60 countries. Yet, at the same time, has very strong border and local responsibilities. Fighting a $330 billion international drug trade, they need help. Drugs finance over two-thirds of the terrorist activities. It comes out of Afghanistan, from the poppy fields of Afghanistan, and they are seeing one of the biggest crops they have ever had. That money goes to funding the Taliban and funding terrorist activity. The DEA is, right now, in Afghanistan fighting narcoterrorism, working hand-in-hand with the Karzai Government, working hand-in-hand with our military to disrupt that poppy trade. But right now they are also in our streets and our neighborhoods working with our local police chiefs, working with our local sheriffs, working with our local FBI, fighting to keep the scourge of illegal drugs, ranging from heroin to meth, from destroying our neighborhoods. We were horrified during the committee hearing to learn that DEA has a hiring freeze. A hiring freeze on drug enforcement agents? Oh, my gosh. Foolhardy. Foolhardy. This is outrageous. So, again, working on a bipartisan basis, we added a modest $50 million to DEA to lift this hiring freeze so they can now hire up to 200 new agents to fight drugs at home, drugs in schools, and drugs overseas. We have also funded the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which does everything from investigating arson to stopping illegal firearms trafficking. They are also working hand-in-hand with our military to come up with ways to deal with these terrible improvised explosive devices. We also provide robust support for our Marshals Service, where we ask them to track down everyone from dangerous fugitives to sexual predators. They protect our Federal judges, they provide security at terrorist trials, and they are doing a good job, so we need to support them. Where we have also made another significant effort, though, when it comes to State and local law enforcement in the CJS bill, is the most important source of Federal funding for that thin blue line of local law enforcement that is out there every day working tirelessly to keep our families, our schools, and our neighborhoods safe. Our cops on the beat are working harder than ever to fight this rising tide of violent crime. Our local and State police are often the first to identify suspected terrorist activities, but their budgets are under increased stress. So we were deeply troubled when the President came in with draconian cuts to the State and local police. What did the administration do? Well, first of all, in that famous Cops on the Beat Program that helped local law enforcement have more officers, they reduced the funding to a skimpy, Spartan $32 million for the whole country to put cops on the beat. One State alone could use that. At the same time, they eliminated the Byrne grants. The Byrne grants are those Federal funds named after Edward Byrne, a police officer from New York killed in the line of duty, and this program was to help local law enforcement have the tools, the technology they need to protect themselves so they can protect us. That was eliminated. We are spending a fortune on so many other things, such as the war in Iraq, and yet we eliminated the Byrne grants? Well, this committee stepped up to it and we have added $1.5 billion for grants for the State and local police. These funds will fight crime, gangs, meth, violence in the schools, and we think it is terrific. Our bill will provide $660 million for the Byrne grant formula. It will pay for the improved technology they need, improved training and police and prosecutors. We also added $550 million to the community policing efforts, which is a competitive grant program that enables them to bring more police into their department, paying their salaries and their overtime. We stand with the frontline. We stand with the thin blue line. We are also protecting ourselves against other threats. We do not want to have a declining economy or a declining ability to compete in the world. So our committee fostered innovation and competitiveness. So when we look at those things in our legislation, we added more money. We implemented the recently enacted bipartisan bill called the COMPETES Act. We added $1 billion to the science and commerce part of this bill, and $6.5 billion for the National Science Foundation. We provided $860 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. We provide close to $2 billion to the Patent and Trademark Office, to make sure they are fully functioning and dealing with the backlogs. We fund the ITA and our International Trade Representative. We also have two premier science agencies, one is NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We provide $4.2 billion for that, which is $400 million above the President's request; and $795 million to implement the bipartisan recommendations of the Joint Ocean Commission. We also provided money to look into Federal climate change. This is not new for this committee. The NSF, NOAA, and NASA provide 85 percent of all the Federal research looking at climate change. As we work on policy, as we try to find sensible solutions that are affordable to our country, they are going to turn to science, and in turning to science, we need to make sure we have funded them. Last, but not at all least, a very important agency--NASA. Today is the 50th anniversary of Sputnik. Fifty years ago, the Russians launched into space a 180-pound satellite that shook the cosmos. It shook the cosmos and it said that the Russians were the first in space. Well, we knew we couldn't let that lie. So President Eisenhower answered that call with robust efforts in science and particularly the National Science Foundation. A few years later, 3 years later, a dynamic President, named Jack Kennedy, put out a national goal that we were going to go to the Moon, we would be there first and return our astronauts safely. Well, 50 years later, we honor that legacy by providing $17.5 billion for NASA, $150 million above the President's request, to keep our commitment to a balanced space program--the space shuttle, the space station, and the next-generation space vehicle. We make significant efforts in science and aeronautics, and I will talk more about that later when I will offer an amendment, along with my colleagues, Senators Shelby, Hutchison, Landrieu, and Nelson, on how to help NASA continue to meet its responsibility. In conclusion, let me say this committee has been strongly committed to reform, strongly committed to accountability and oversight and fiscal stewardship. Through our oversight, we uncovered cost overruns on the NOAA satellite programs, with $4 billion over budget; the NSF's research equipment program, $25 million over budget; and dramatic backlogs at the Patent Office and backlogs at the EEOC. We said we were not going to allow that. We also found that some of our funds were going into things such as lavish conferences, lobster rolls, and limousines. Well, you are going to have an amendment later on that is going to take that right out. When we give money to these agencies to do the kind of training we want them to do, it is not to sit around sipping chardonnay and eating lobster rolls and so on. So if you will pardon the expression, we told them ``to take a cab.'' Our bill continues to do that. I hope the President doesn't veto our bill. We will talk about that more in conclusion. Again, this bill is a bipartisan bill. I presented it to the Senate and now I compliment my ranking member, Senator Shelby, and his staff. Our staffs have worked together. I wish the taxpayers could see it; they would be proud of us. They would be proud of our working relationship, and that is why we produced a bill that works for America. I yield the floor.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I concur with setting aside the amendment. I also want to say something. I believe I am the bastion of collegiality. I believe conversation avoids confrontation. That is why we have such a great bill. We have a fantastic bill we have arrived at together. Senator Shelby and I go back a long way, from the House of Representatives where we served, and we have been appropriators during our entire time in the Senate. But in clearing things, we are talking about clearing it with one Senator. That Senator must exercise a lot of fiscal responsibility. I am ready to move my bill along. I would like him or his representative to promptly come to the floor. If we have this new kind of arrangement where we have to clear it with this Senator rather than clearing it with the ranking member and our leadership, then I would like that Senator to come to the floor. I will be collegial. I will be patient up to a point. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. MIKULSKI

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

Ms. MIKULSKI. The committee recognizes the importance of aeronautics research and NASA's 10 Healthy Centers effort. We share your concern about the steady decline in budget requests for aeronautics research. We will work with you to ensure this critical and historical strength of NASA is funded at a level sufficient to maintain our country's competitive edge in aeronautics. Plant Genome Research Program

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, that is correct.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I agree with the Senator from Massachusetts. I am committed to working with the Senator from Rhode Island, the Senator from Michigan, and the chairman of the HELP Committee to solve this problem.

Ms. MIKULSKI. If the Senator will yield, I have been on thin ice, but I didn't skate.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that all first-degree amendments to H.R. 3093 must be filed at the desk by 2:30 p.m. Monday, October 15.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, this amendment is cleared on both sides of the aisle and I urge its immediate adoption.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, my last request is, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I yield to the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania. We had this pressing amendment we needed to get done, but the Senator from Pennsylvania and the Senator from Ohio have been very patient. I will now yield such time as he may consume to the Senator from Pennsylvania.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Before my three colleagues who have accomplished this significant feat leave the floor, I, too, wish to salute them. Dear colleagues, what an emotional day. First, our good friend Senator Wellstone embarked on that with you, Senator Murray, many years ago. Paul is no longer with us. His legacy lives on. There is a saying I learned in Catholic girls school: exegi aani perrenius. I will build a monument in lasting bronze. And when one thinks about a monument to Paul Wellstone, the kind of wise guy he was, he wouldn't be a marble guy or want some bronze statue. He would want this as a memorial that others might live. As a Senator from Maryland, my State is a manufacturing State. In my shipyards, there was so much asbestos. To this day, the shipyard workers of Baltimore and Fairfield, Bethlehem Steel, people who built the liberty ships, the ones who helped win the battle of the North Atlantic, the ones who every day would go to work with their lunch pail, now go to the senior citizen meetings carrying an oxygen tank, and not only have they suffered but their spouses suffer. Most of the guys in those days would come home and they would wash their clothes and take care of them. The women were exposed to this as well. It is not only secondhand smoke, but it was secondhand asbestos. For me today to know that when we talked about better things through chemistry, the answer was yes, but what we did without realizing it was subject our American citizens to such unbelievable pain. So for the guys at the shipyards, we say to Murray, to Boxer, and to Isakson: Anchors aweigh, my boys and girls, anchors aweigh. I yield the floor.