Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in adjournment until the hour of 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11. I further ask that immediately following the prayer the routine requests through the morning hour be granted and the Senate then proceed to the consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 1, and under a previous consent there will be 1 hour for debate prior to a vote in relation to the Wellstone amendment regarding underprivileged children.

Mr. NICKLES

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Utah [Mr. Bennett] and the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Thurmond] are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I thank you.

Mr. NICKLES. Today, the Senate will begin a period of morning business until 3 p.m. this afternoon. At 3 p.m., the Senate will begin consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 1, the constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. By unanimous consent, during today's session no amendments will be in order to Senate Joint Resolution 1. Senators, hopefully, will make their opening statements throughout the day, and I encourage all Members to make remarks today so that on Thursday we will be prepared to make progress on this important constitutional amendment. For the remainder of the week, it is still possible the Senate will consider any of the available nominations that have been or will be reported from committee. As always, Senators will be notified of any rollcall votes as they are scheduled. I might mention that it is anticipated no votes will occur today, but that has not been totally decided. So with that, I thank my colleagues and I yield the floor.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I wish to compliment Senator Collins for an outstanding maiden speech, her first speech on the Senate floor. I think the speech speaks very well for itself and for Senator Collins. I think it also speaks very well for the State of Maine, in showing excellent taste, making an excellent decision in electing Senator Collins. I look forward to working with her and joining with her and with Senator Snowe and following the tradition of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who was one of the pioneers in the Senate. I wish to compliment the Senator from Maine for an outstanding speech. Several of the things which she mentioned in her speech we have very high on our agenda. Senator Collins mentioned that she wanted to pass a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We are going to be discussing that today, and hopefully we will be voting on that very soon, certainly by the end of this month. Hopefully, we will pass it. I might mention, Senator Collins' election may well be the deciding vote in making that happen, because in the last Congress, we failed by one vote. So, again, every election is important. I compliment the Senator from Maine for an outstanding speech and reassure her that I share many of her objectives. She mentioned reducing the inheritance tax to help small business. I couldn't agree more. I compliment her on an outstanding speech and compliment the people of Maine for sending two outstanding Senators to serve and join us in the U.S. Senate. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Thurmond] is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

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

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Missouri [Mr. Bond], the Senator from New York [Mr. D'Amato], and the Senator from Texas [Mrs. Hutchison] are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business with Senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, there will be no further rollcall votes today. Members may continue to introduce legislation and make statements during the morning business period. It is possible that later today the Senate may debate the nomination of William Daley to be Secretary of Commerce. However, the rollcall vote on Mr. Daley will not occur until tomorrow morning, possibly at 9:45 or 10 o'clock. We urge all colleagues to be prompt. I thank my colleagues. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I wish to extend my congratulations to Mr. Cuomo.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, this bill, the Paycheck Protection Act, sponsored by myself, Senators Gregg, Lott, Inhofe, Hutchison from Texas, Cochran, Roberts, Hagel, Smith from New Hampshire, and Kempthorne, deals with making sure that no one is compelled to contribute to political campaigns with which they disagree. Senator Ford made an eloquent speech on campaign finance reform. I don't disagree with everything he said. I just disagree with parts of it. Campaign reform is an issue a lot of us are going to be dealing with this year. It is important, in my opinion, Madam President, that we encourage people to participate in campaigns. We want more people all across the country to participate in the electoral process. It is a sad day when only half of the people vote in a Presidential election. Madam President, it is very important that nobody be compelled to contribute to a campaign with which they disagree. You might think, well, wait a minute, how in the world in 1997, in this day and age, would anybody be compelled to contribute to a campaign with which they disagree? But it happens. Unfortunately, Madam President, every week millions of Americans are having money taken out of their paycheck to contribute to candidates that they may well disagree with, but they didn't have a voice, a choice, or an option. Madam President, that is wrong. I will tell you that the origin of the bill we are introducing came from a town meeting that I had, where an individual--a union member--stood up in a town meeting and said, ``I really resent the fact that my money is taken from me, without my vote, without my voice, without my option, and given to candidates and parties which I totally oppose.'' I said, ``I agree with you. We will try to remedy that.'' That should not happen in America. That is something that sounds like it might happen in some totalitarian state where moneys or assets are confiscated and some corrupt politician would use it against their will. It is happening today. Millions of Americans are finding part of their paychecks taken from them without their voice or choice and used for political purposes with which they disagree. Madam President, this bill, the Paycheck Protection Act, which is sponsored by several of us, basically is very simple. It says that no individual, no employee working for a corporation, would be compelled to contribute to a political organization without their express consent. As a matter of fact, it says that no deduction from their wages would be used for political purposes unless they give prior written consent. Consent is the big issue. If we are going to have campaign reform, I am going to tell my colleague, this is going to have to be part of the package. This is America. No one should be compelled to contribute to political purposes for which they disagree. And that applies for an individual where maybe their company has a PAC (political action committee), and maybe the board of directors or the officers say, ``We want everybody to contribute.'' They can say what they want, but they cannot compel. No one should be compelled to contribute to a political organization, a political action committee, or to a labor organization against their will for political purposes. It is that simple. As Thomas Jefferson said, ``To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves or abhors . . . is sinful and tyrannical.'' We're not talking about nickels and dimes here, but untold millions of dollars in partisan political campaigns and propaganda. Since such funds are not required to be disclosed, it is impossible to determine the exact amount of this spending. However, estimates of this under- the-radar spending is somewhere between $300 million and $1 billion for this most recent election. The way it is now, an employee paying dues to a labor organization has no choice over whether or not that labor organization can collect the money for politics. The only choice these employees have in the matter is to ask for a refund of the portion dues which is to be used for politics. This refund process is so lengthy and burdensome that it is next to impossible for someone to get their money back. Furthermore, for an employee to exercise their right to a refund of such dues, they are required to give up their right to vote in the labor organization that they are still required to pay for representing them. This is taxation without representation. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that employees paying dues to a labor organization cannot be forced to also pay for the activities outside the core representational activities, such as costs associated with political activities. The Clinton administration, however, has kept employees in the dark regarding the minimal rights they do have. One of the first acts of this administration was to repeal the very regulations to carry out the Supreme Court's decision, which protected employees forced to pay for politics. People are recognizing the wrong brought upon Americans who have been given no choice in supporting causes for which they oppose. Even the administration's own National Labor Relations Board [NLRB], which has strong labor organization sentiments, recently ruled dues-paying employees are in the least entitled to information setting forth the percentage of those dues not related to collective bargaining activities. While this is a step in the right direction, more needs to be done. The Paycheck Protection Act protects employees from having their money involuntarily taken from them and used for politics. The act protects stockholders and employees of a corporation from having, as a condition of employment, dues, initiation fees, or other payments for politics taken from them without the separate, prior, written, voluntary authorization. Similarly, the act protects employees paying dues to a labor organization from having such dues, initiation fees, or other payments taken from them which are used for politics. Mr. President, this act furthers the basic civil right spoken of by Thomas Jefferson. It does so by requiring that individuals not be compelled to fund or support activities outside the legitimate scope of the employer or labor organization. This bill pro-worker, pro-labor organization, and most importantly, pro-American. I look forward to a broad bipartisan support for this bill. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, how much time remains of the majority leader's time?

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate and compliment the majority leader of the Senate for his statement today, but also for his work with all of the 55 Republican Senators to put together this list. This is a list which we have spent some time on. When I say ``we,'' I am talking about all 55 Republican Senators, who had some input on this list. That is a little unusual. We have not done that before. We came up with 10 bills. In the past, our tradition has been to introduce five. We came up with 10. I might mention later today, or in the next few days or weeks, we had several other bills people wanted to have in this list. But this list represents a consensus of an overwhelming number of Republicans, that these are positive things we can do, should do, and that we should pass this year. Mr. President, let me just comment and take a second to compliment President Clinton on his inaugural address yesterday. President Clinton made two or three comments that I would like to refer to. He said Government is not the problem, it is not the solution; the American people are the solution. I think you will find that we Republicans really do believe the American people are the solution. We have a lot of ideas for saving Medicare, saving Social Security, a lot of different things where we really want to involve the American people. I compliment the President on that. He said that Government should live within its means. The first item that Majority Leader Lott mentioned was a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We have overwhelming support among our colleagues for passage of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We are equally serious about passing legislation to implement a balanced budget. We want that to happen. Unfortunately, President Clinton vetoed that in the last Congress. We want to work with the President. He said in the inaugural address that we should live within our means. We are going to try and make that happen. We look forward to working with this administration to make that happen. The President also said we should put petty politics and extreme partisanship aside. He is right. This Congress, this political year, maybe in the last year or two, has become too partisan and maybe too extreme in working with the administration. It has been too partisan. It has been too extreme. We need to put that aside. So I welcome the President's comments. I look forward to working with President Clinton in this administration to implement many of the things he talked about. A lot of things we have in this agenda are targeted toward doing exactly that. The constitutional amendment to balance the budget has overwhelming support among the membership, and rightfully so. We should live within our means. Almost all the States have provisions in their constitution saying they will not spend more than they take in. We should follow that guidance. President Clinton, during the campaign, said he was in favor of tax relief. S. 2, the second bill we have in our list, does provide for family tax relief. Even during the campaign, President Clinton talked of a $500-per-child tax credit. That is the foundation of our tax bill. Senator Lott mentioned 80 percent of the tax bill we have introduced as the leadership package. We passed that last year, but again President Clinton vetoed it. He said in the campaign that he was in favor of it. We want to pass it this year and we want it to become law. We are not interested in passing legislation for legislation's sake or for political points' sake. President Clinton is not running again. We want these bills to become law because they will have a positive, real impact on American lives. We define the child tax credit as children up to age 18. President Clinton's proposal limited it to kids under 12. We think it should include at least kids up to 18. I told some people that my kids range up to age 26. We might have an amendment to make it age 26. The bill we introduced takes it to age 18. We provide estate tax relief. There is a small business advisory council that advises the President and those of us in Congress and they always have an estate tax relief on their list. Why? Because if you have a taxable estate right now above $600,000, Uncle Sam starts taking big bites. If your estate goes up to a million above that, Uncle Sam wants 35 percent of it. If you have an estate of 3 million, say your business is as a farmer or a rancher or a businessman, if it is 3 million above the $600,000 deduction, Uncle Sam says, ``We want 55 percent of anything above that amount.'' Instead of protecting property, it is confiscating property. We want to reduce that, especially for small business and especially for family-owned operations. That is in our package, as well. We have capital gains relief because we think we tax transactions too much. We actually tax transactions more than almost any of our other industrial competitors. We need to reduce the taxes on transactions. If we do so, we will have more transactions and the Government will make more money, not less money. That is in our package. We can do better with the economy. I think we put together a good package, one that is family friendly. We have a provision that Senator Lott alluded to called the Family Friendly Workplace Act--Senator Ashcroft has worked hard on it--giving families the option that if they work a few extra hours one week, we think they can take off for their kids the next week. Why have good Government come in saying, ``We mandate you have time off for PTA.'' Why not let the families and employees make that decision? So we do that. We provide much greater flexibility for families, employers and employees in this bill. It is all on a voluntary basis, where they can work a few more hours one week and take time off for whatever they desire the following week. You do not need Government's blessing to do it. They allow for compensatory time. Instead of taking time-and-a-half if they have to work an hour or two above 40 hours, if they want they can bank some time and take time-and-a-half off. If they worked 44 hours, under present law they would be entitled to 6 hours of overtime pay. If they want to keep it that way, they have the right to do so. If they would like to have 6 hours off and maybe have a day off or maybe work some other kind of combination or schedule that meets their family's needs and desires, maybe for a vacation day, maybe for more time off, maybe for time to visit their kids' athletic events, they have the right to do so without having the Federal Government enumerate that this is what you have to offer by law, and not be paid for that time. We give them, through flextime and through the comp time, the ability to have the flexibility in their schedules to meet their family's needs, all of which are different. All of our families are different. All of our families have more time demands that are at variance. This gives them that flexibility, and probably would be the most family friendly thing we can do. We provide for a balanced budget package which will say the Government will live within its means. We are not going to spend more than we take in. Interest rates will come down. Homes will be more affordable. When we talk of family tax credits, if you have three kids under the age of 18, that is $1,500 more you get to spend as you desire. Maybe it is for education, maybe it is for food on the table, maybe it is for a home. You make that decision, because we decided it is your money, not Government's money. Then the flextime proposal, where we are basically saying that families can make the decisions. You have the flexibility in your schedules to work out what is mutually beneficial with you and your employer.

Mr. NICKLES. I see the minority leader is not here, and I ask unanimous consent for an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. We also have an additional provision called the Paycheck Protection Act. It is fundamentally prodemocracy. It says no person should be compelled to contribute to a political organization without their consent. That person may be a stockholder. No one should be compelled, as a condition of employment, to contribute to a political group or organization, whether that be a PAC, whether it be a union organization or what. No one should be compelled. That is what this bill says. No one will be compelled to contribute to a political organization or entity or candidate against their will. They would have to sign a written authorization form before they would have contributions taken out. Mr. President, I compliment Senator Lott and all my colleagues for their work in putting this list together. I look forward to working with the minority leader and others on the other side of the aisle. I know they have their agenda list. I look forward to hearing what that is, and I look forward to working with them to see if we can have several items beneficial not for Congress but for the American people.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, yesterday, in a moving ceremony, we witnessed the swearing in of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for their second term. The inaugural ceremony is significant not only to the history of our Nation, but for the message it sends to the rest of the world about our democracy. The ceremony required a tremendous amount of planning by many, many people. The extensive preparations included construction of the platform, ticket distribution, coordination of security measures, organization of the ceremony, planning the luncheon in Statuary Hall and countless other tasks. Leading this team of dedicated people was the distinguished Senator from Virginia, Senator John Warner. As chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, he had the monumental task of making the arrangements for this historic occasion. He performed his responsibilities with great efficiency and with outstanding attention to every detail. As master of ceremonies, he skillfully orchestrated the entire program. I, along with my colleagues, would like to thank Senator Warner and congratulate him on a job well done. In addition, I would like to applaud the distinguished Senator from Kentucky, Senator Wendell Ford. His contribution of hard work and past experience as Chairman of the committee was evident in the success of this endeavor. I wish to express my gratitude to Senator Ford for his hard work. I would also like to thank and congratulate the other members of the Joint Inaugural Committee for such a successful ceremony. Those members were Majority Leader Lott, Speaker Gingrich, Representative Armey, and Minority Leader Gephardt. In addition, the members of the committee were ably assisted by the officers and employees of the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as by personnel from the executive branch. The success of the ceremony demonstrated tremendous cooperation between both parties, as well as both Houses of Congress and the executive branch. I offer my appreciation to everyone who contributed countless hours to the 1997 inauguration ceremony, particularly to the chairman, Senator Warner, and the ranking member, Senator Ford. Thanks to the efforts of all involved, the ceremony will be a memorable event for our Nation.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I know my colleagues have been waiting patiently. Would they mind if I went ahead for a few minutes?

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I must rise to congratulate our colleague, the new Senator from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, for his statement. I think it is an outstanding statement--his first speech, as I understand it, on the floor on our first legislative day. I just wish to compliment him. I hope every American could hear that speech, a very well-thought-out speech on the necessity and importance of a balanced budget amendment. I think Senator Enzi's credentials are certainly meritorious of that statement, the fact he is an accountant by trade, a businessman, former State legislator as well as mayor. I compliment him and thank him for his well-thought-out speech. I hope everyone will pay attention to it and follow his advice and pass this amendment. I thank him again for his speech.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, Senator Grams and Senator Hutchinson will be introducing legislation dealing with the $500 tax credit per child. I compliment them on this legislation. I am happy to cosponsor it with them. It is outstanding legislation that will restore individual families the opportunity to keep more of their own money. I might mention that the definition of ``child'' in the legislation which we are introducing includes children up to age 18 in contrast to that introduced by the President which is up to age 12, a big difference. It is a very profamily, very positive protaxpayer piece of legislation of which I am very happy to cosponsor. And I compliment my colleagues from Minnesota and Arkansas for their leadership on this issue. I yield the floor. Mr. GRAMS addressed the Chair.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I congratulate and compliment the majority leader. We just passed the resolution congratulating him, but I personally would like to congratulate him for outstanding leadership since he has assumed majority leadership of the Senate. I believe this has been a very, very productive legislative session. There is an article in Rollcall today that talked about the Senate, this Congress, spending more time than any Congress since World War II. I think the record would show, for the last couple of months, this has been a very, very productive Congress, whether you are talking about welfare reform--historic welfare reform, or whether you are talking about reaching back and passing line-item veto. Whether you are talking about actually trying to rein in the growth of Government--we have seen the size of Government deficits actually declining, I think primarily because of some restraints on discretionary funds that passed this Congress. So, I add my accolades to those of others, to say I think Senator Trent Lott, as majority leader, has done an outstanding job, and also to say the minority leader, Senator Daschle--we have had a lot of conflicts. It has been a tough session, maybe a lot more partisan than a lot of us would like. Maybe we will be able to improve upon that next year. Certainly, I have enjoyed my working relationship with Senator Daschle and have always found him to be cordial. We have worked well together and, hopefully, the next Congress will be even more cordial, less partisan, and more productive. I yield the floor.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Coats], is necessarily absent. I also announce that the Senator from Colorado [Mr. Campbell], is absent due to illness.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Coats], the Senator from Texas [Mr. Gramm], and the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. Gregg], are necessarily absent. I also announce that the Senator from Colorado [Mr. Campbell] is absent due to illness.