Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until the hour of 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 3. I further ask consent that on Thursday, immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of S. 1, the education reform bill.

Mr. NICKLES

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all time under rule XXII be yielded back and the motion to proceed to S. 1 be agreed to. I further ask consent that immediately following the reporting of the bill, the Senate then proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators to speak up to 10 minutes each. Finally, I ask consent that the Senate resume consideration of S. 1 at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning and Senator Jeffords be recognized at that time to offer an amendment to the so-called bipartisan amendment.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent S.J. Res. 13 be star-printed with the changes that are at the desk.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 9:30 cloture vote be postponed to occur at 11 a.m. today.

Mr. NICKLES. I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate begin a period of morning business until 11 a.m. with the time equally divided in the usual form.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Billie Penn, a friend and member of my staff for the last 18 years. Billie is one of the most energetic, friendly and sweet people I know. Today this bundle of energy with a heart of gold is retiring. Billie opened my Lawton office and has managed it for the last 18 years. As my field representative for Southwestern Oklahoma, she has worked diligently for the people of Beckham, Washita, Caddo, Greer, Kiowa, Harmon, Jackson, Tillman, Comanche, Cotton, Stephens, and Jefferson counties. Billie's enthusiasm is contagious. I think we'll have to hire four or five people just to fill her spot. Besides working for me, Billie finds energy to golf with Bill, her husband of 41 years, visit her kids-- William and Allison--and spoil her grandkids, Alisa, Skyler, Nathaniel and Ashlyn. She's active in Lawton's Chamber of Commerce, her church, Grace Fellowship, and probably any other cause that asks for a helping hand. Today, there was a surprise retirement party for her that I'm sorry I could not attend. I can only imagine the numbers of people that showed up to celebrate the great job Billie has done. There is no one else like her and she will be missed. Billie is a true friend and a real treasure. I am grateful for her outstanding service to the people of Oklahoma. We all have benefited from her hard work. Today, I wish her all the best as she begins her retirement.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. For the information of all Senators, the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the education bill is now scheduled to occur at 11 a.m. However, it is possible that vote may be vitiated so substantive debate can begin this morning. Senators will be notified as to the status of that vote as soon as possible. Amendments to the bill are expected to be offered during today's session, and therefore further votes are anticipated in today's session. I thank my colleagues for their attention. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, today we will be in a period of morning business until 11 a.m. Following morning business, it is hoped that the Senate can begin consideration of S. 149, the Export Administration Act. Senators interested in this legislation are encouraged to be present on the floor at 11 a.m. In addition, negotiations are continuing on the education bill, and consideration of that bill is expected in the not too distant future. As announced, there will be no session of the Senate on Friday. I thank my colleagues for their attention.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague's comments. I have always enjoyed working with Senator Reid. I think this can be a very productive month. This can be a month that we finish the budget and the tax bill, and we can finish the education bill. It is a month in which we can accomplish a lot for the American people that will make a difference in their lives and in their paychecks. A lot of times people wonder what do we do and are there real results and are there real differences in what we do. Considering the education bill and tax measures pending, we can make a lot of difference, whether you are talking about the marriage penalty or a $500 tax credit per child, cutting taxes across the board, reforming education, giving more power to parents and teachers. We can do all that this month. By Memorial Day, we can have great, significant accomplishments by working together. I look forward to working with my friend and colleague from Nevada. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Hutchinson) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

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

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. For the information of all Senators, it is hoped that the Senate can begin consideration of S. 149, the Export Administration Act, at approximately 11 a.m. Therefore, votes could occur during tomorrow's session. In addition, the negotiations on the education bill are continuing, and it is still hoped that an agreement can be reached prior to the end of the week.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it adjourn until the hour of 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 26. I further ask unanimous consent that on Thursday, immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then begin a period of morning business until 11 a.m. with Senators speaking for 10 minutes each with the following exceptions: Senator Thomas or his designee from 10 to 10:30, and Senator Durbin or his designee from 10:30 to 11 a.m.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I would like to express some concerns I have regarding the Family Opportunity Act. I agree with Chairman Grassley's position that it is critically important to make sure that our federal safety net programs do not create disadvantages for families to work and therefore earn their way off federal assistance. He has made the argument that it is wrong that families, who are currently served by public programs such as Supplemental Security Income, must decline promotions and raises which would improve their situation for fear of losing their health care coverage. I agree and will support an effort to address these inequities and help those families move off of federal programs. The legislation currently contemplated by Senators Grassley and Kennedy does not simply remove the work disincentive in SSI. In fact, the legislation applies to families who have never been on SSI nor would ever qualify for SSI. This legislation would open up Medicaid to a family who earns up to $51,000 for a family of four. In this situation, these families would be competing against families who do qualify for SSI and are currently waiting, in some cases, up to 900 days to simply get on the program they desperately need. These are the poorest of the poor. They are the people for whom this program was designed but they are not being served effectively. In my opinion it is unacceptable to punish lower income Medicaid eligible persons presently waiting for needed assistance. There are many of us who would wonder about adding more applicants who would not be receiving the SSI benefit but rather just the certification for this Medicaid expansion to an overburdened system. In recent years, we have seen a series of rifle shot expansions to the Medicaid program based on specific disease categories or groups. I am concerned that those expansions are not consistent with the intention of the program and undermine its purpose. It would be my hope that we could address these issues in the broader context of Medicaid reform and that the Finance Committee could responsibly evaluate any new federal entitlements to ensure that we are not duplicating existing health programs like SCHIP or discouraging private employer insurance. This country has 43 million uninsured Americans. This bill, which costs $7.9 billion, impacts 200,000 kids; 60,000 of whom have, or have access to, employer sponsored insurance and many of whom have access to SCHIP as well. It is a higher priority to provide health care to the uninsured with no health options than to create multiple health insurance options for a select population. I do commend Chairman Grassley for his hard work with Senator Kennedy on this bill. I know that they have been working on this program for a number of years now and hope we can work together in this process toward a final bill. I look forward to working with the chairman and others on the committee to ensure this bill addresses the issue it was designed to fix.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning) is necessary absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning) is necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. All the votes in this series.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a second?

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I thank my colleague, the Senator from Nevada, as well as the Senator from North Dakota for their willingness to work with the majority leader and me and others to try to reduce the amount of amendments and the time and try to get through this process as best we can. These vote-aramas are not pretty or very pleasant. Mr. President, I ask for the regular order with respect to the amendment so that we will vote on the remaining amendments in the order offered and, further, that the next votes in this series be limited to 10 minutes in length.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I want to correct the record. The pending amendment provides additional tax relief in the year 2002, $31 billion, and in 2003, $11 billion, but it also has over $400 billion in tax increases compared to the resolution before us. If we adopt this amendment, the net tax cut will boil down to not $1.6 trillion, not $1.1 trillion, which is where we ended up last night, but a total of $746 billion. That means the President gets less than half the tax cut he proposed. There is a lot of spending. My colleagues on the Democratic side have offered $697 billion in new spending and higher taxes, now $1.3 trillion. The pending amendment raises taxes $418 billion over and above the tax increase we passed last night, which was $448 billion. If my colleagues want a tax cut that is less than half of what the President proposed, adopt this amendment. I urge my colleagues to vote no on the underlying amendment.

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

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a table that shows the tax reduction Senator Durbin offers in the first 2 years and the tax increases he has in the years 2004 through 2011, which net a total tax increase, compared to the underlying resolution, of $418 billion for a net tax of $746, assuming the budget resolution was amended by Senator Harkin. I want this to be in the Record so everyone can see the total evisceration of the Bush tax cut should this amendment be agreed to. I ask unanimous consent to have that printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES. I inform my colleagues that the Bennett amendment takes the two tax accelerations that the Senator from Illinois has in his first 2 years. If I am correct, the Senator has an additional tax increase of $31 billion in 2002 and $11 billion in 2003. We put that in our amendment. The difference is that we reduce or eliminate the tax cut, and in subsequent years we drop that. But we took the first 2 years of accelerated tax cuts that the Senator has, and that is going to be in the Bennett amendment.