Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the adjournment resolution which is at the desk. I further ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I yield to my colleague from Oklahoma such time as desires.

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

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we are going to begin our series of rollcall votes momentarily. First, I ask unanimous consent that after the first vote in this series, the Senate then proceed to a resolution at the desk regarding the recent bombings in Spain; provided further that following the reporting of the resolution, there be a brief moment of silence; provided further that each leader be recognized for up to 5 minutes each, Senator Allen and Senator Dodd be permitted to speak up to 2 minutes each; I further ask consent that the Senate then proceed to a vote on adoption of the resolution with no intervening action or debate; further that following the vote the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that with respect to the voting sequence, the Senate proceed to the votes in relation to the pending amendments in the order offered, with no second-degree amendments in order to those amendments; finally, there be 2 minutes equally divided for debate prior to each vote; and after the first vote, that the time limit for each vote be limited to 10 minutes. The sequence of votes will be as follows: Boxer amendment No. 2783; Sarbanes amendment No. 2789; Dorgan amendment No. 2793; Lautenberg amendment No. 2703; Harkin amendment No. 2799; Lincoln amendment No. 2803; Byrd amendment No. 2804; Bingaman amendment No. 2765; Lieberman amendment No. 2807; and Kennedy amendment No. 2725.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to vitiate the order dealing with the Spanish resolution.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we are now ready to call upon Senator Boxer for her 1-minute description. I would also say if the sponsors are not ready, we don't need descriptions and we will move forward with rollcall votes. We are going to be very tight with time. Senators cannot assume there is going to be an extra 10 minutes on the rollcall votes. We are not going to allow that to happen, or we are going to try not to let it happen. I believe the Senator from California is ready.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, this amendment offered by our friend from California increases taxes by $24 billion over 3 years. Basically it would wipe out all the tax relief we have in the bill in the year 2005 for the child credit and marriage penalty. But it doesn't add any funding for jobs programs. We hear it does. It has a reserve fund that could increase spending, maybe, if a few things happen. The resolution before us fully supports the FSC/ETI bill, the JOBS bill Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus are working on. If you want to help us be more competitive, to create more jobs, that is certainly the approach. It is a bipartisan approach and has a much greater likelihood. The proposal suggested by our friend from California, frankly, would mean an exodus of jobs from the United States. It would be telling multinational corporations, you should not be in this country. You have tax advantages for being in other countries. I don't think we should be encouraging the headquarters of companies such as Intel or Microsoft and others to be leaving the United States. I urge our colleagues to vote no on the Boxer amendment.

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

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

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, next we will have a vote on the Sarbanes amendment No. 2789. I have two comments, but first I tell my colleagues, we are going to cut these votes off. I am warning everybody, and I urge colleagues to stay on the floor. We are going to try to keep all of these amendments limited to 10 minutes. In fact, I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be limited to 10 minutes each.

Mr. NICKLES. As soon as we have order, I ask the Chair to call upon the Senator from Maryland.

Mr. NICKLES. This amendment, as most of the amendments we are going to be facing in this sequence of 10 votes, increases taxes. This one increases taxes by $2.86 billion next year. That happens to be about the same amount of money we assume for the child tax credit next year. But it doesn't add any money for firefighters, zero. What it does is promise a possible $1.3 billion increase in spending later in the year, if the appropriations bills do such and such. I think it is a gimmick. The facts are, if it did go to firefighting, that would be a 157-percent increase over last year. That is ridiculous. We put in 10 percent for homeland defense as requested by the President. What the Secretary is trying to do is move more of that money into high-threat areas, not necessarily in every little rural fire department in Oklahoma, which, frankly, is not a Federal responsibility. Terrorism is not a threat in most of the rural communities. I urge opposition to the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. NICKLES

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

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, we still have several rollcall votes to make just on this list. Senator Conrad and I also are going through the list of other amendments that people want us to consider. We urge Senators not to push us to votes on these amendments. If we vote on all the amendments, we are going to be here not only very late tonight but very late tomorrow night. I do not think most of these amendments and the amendments on our side require rollcall votes. We are going to work to see if we can accept some amendments, and we are going to work to see some amendments be dropped. I urge the cooperation of our colleagues. We will go now to the Lautenberg amendment, after my colleague makes some comments. I urge the clerks, we are going to move these votes. We have another six votes. We are going to try to adhere to the time limits as closely as possible. All remaining rollcalls will be 10 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Seven.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I believe the Senator from New Jersey has an amendment.

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

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

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I believe the amendment of the Senator from Iowa, Senator Harkin, amendment No. 2799, would be next?

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, this amendment would do one thing. It would increase taxes by $39 billion over 5 years. That is really half of what we are assuming we are going to do to help American families. So this is going to cut the tax cut. That will mean, to preserve present law, it is going to cost about $80 billion. This is going to take half of that away. My colleague might hope it is going to be used to raise tobacco taxes, and so on, but that doesn't mean that would happen. This tells the Finance Committee to raise $39 billion. I urge my colleagues to vote no on the amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, we have four additional rollcalls in this sequence. The next amendment, I believe, is from the Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Byrd.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I compliment my colleague from West Virginia. This amendment increases taxes by $24.5 billion over the next 2 years. That basically is going to wipe out the continuation of present law that we have scheduled for low-income, middle-income families. I hope our colleagues will not support the amendment. It also spends most of the money, or it purports to spend the money, maybe, if the appropriators get it and it is reallocated, and so on. It basically is an amendment that would greatly increase taxes by $24 billion. I urge my colleagues to vote no on the amendment. I ask for the yeas and nays.