Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

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 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

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 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I believe the Senator from Alaska has an amendment to send to the desk.

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 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, we have been negotiating for some time, trying to resolve two or three amendments. I think we have done that. I thank Senator Warner, Senator Chambliss, Senator Durbin, and Senator Landrieu because I think they have cooperated. They came up with amendments I think all of us can be supportive of. I ask on this amendment, and this amendment alone, there be 4 minutes equally divided so all the principal players can have a moment to speak on this amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, for the information of our colleagues, we are making good progress. I again thank my colleagues for their cooperation in working out the last two or three amendments. I now call upon the Senator from Alaska to introduce an amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that following disposition of the Murkowski amendment, Senator Conrad or his designee be allowed to introduce a sense of the Senate relative to the Murkowski amendment.

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

Mr. NICKLES. I ask unanimous consent that the vote on this amendment and subsequent amendments be limited to 10 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I believe there is a sense-of-the-Senate amendment that is going to be offered.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, this amendment is a sense of the Senate. It may provide political cover--I compliment my colleague from Alaska for her effort to help American families--but this is a sense of the Senate, so it does not change any revenue numbers. It may give political cover. I have no objection to this amendment. I hope we accept it by a voice vote. Almost all of the sense-of-the-Senate amendments have been accepted by voice vote. Regardless, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and provide ample political cover for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, we are very close to finishing. I expect we will have a vote on final passage in probably about 10 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I believe the Senator from Michigan has a sense-of-the-Senate amendment to be called up.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I believe we adequately take care of many of the functions that our colleague from Michigan mentioned in her statement. We have no objection to accepting her amendment by a voice vote.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, momentarily we will be voting on final passage. We have a couple of additional things to do. I believe we are trying to work out a McConnell sense of the Senate. That will take just a moment. And then we will be voting in just a few minutes. I also wish to join the majority leader in complimenting Senator Domenici for his many years of service, either as chairman or ranking member of this committee. I have a much greater appreciation for its challenges. He passed resolutions when we had a majority and minority, even when we were 50-50. My compliments to him. He is ``Mr. Budget'' as far as I am concerned. Plus, as evidenced in some of the debates, he proved that he knows this act unlike any other on the floor. So I thank our friend and colleague.

Mr. NICKLES. 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, I send a sense-of-the-Senate resolution on behalf of Senator McConnell to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I hope our colleagues will agree with this. We can agree with it by voice vote. It is a sense of the Senate that we should negotiate a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has proved to be a very valuable ally, certainly in this latest conflict, but they have been for a long time. I compliment Prime Minister Blair and his leadership team and compliment Senator McConnell for his amendment and also thank the cooperation of the staff of the Finance Committee for working with us to make this an acceptable resolution. I urge its adoption.

Mr. NICKLES. That is correct. I appreciate the important information that Senator Kyl has brought to the attention of the Senate, and I will work with Senator Kyl and other interested Members to address this issue.

Mr. NICKLES. I provide that assurance.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 4 minutes equally divided between myself and the ranking member for closing debate on the resolution.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I urge our colleagues to vote in favor of the resolution. I thank all of our colleagues. We have conducted a number of rollcall votes. By the time we have final passage, there will have been 51 rollcall votes; we will have had 29 voice votes, for a total of 80 votes on this resolution. That may be an all-time high, one I hope we don't repeat next year. The budget process, in my opinion, is somewhat flawed. It is not easy to pass a budget. That is one of the reasons I wanted to compliment my friend and colleague, Senator Domenici, because he did it year after year. It is not easy to do. I understand we didn't get it done last year. I don't want to be too critical, but we didn't pass a budget last year. And because we didn't pass a budget, we didn't get appropriations bills done. We didn't do a prescription drug bill, a Medicare bill. We didn't do anything to help grow the economy. The budget does lay the blueprint for the next Congress, certainly for the rest of the year. So we need to pass a budget. I have told my colleagues, we need to pass a budget regardless of the size of the growth package. I readily admit this growth package is not what I wanted. It is about half a loaf. That is better than none. We could have done better. We didn't; we tried. We let the legislative process work. With 80 votes, the legislative process did work. The Senate did speak. I thank my colleagues for their participation. I happen to believe the level of debate was good. I think it was a healthy debate. I thank colleagues on all sides for their cooperation in making that happen. I also especially thank my friend and colleague, Senator Conrad, and his staff. They have been a pleasure to work with in a very challenging environment, particularly on Friday evening. Also, I thank our staff as well, Hazen Marshall and Stacey Hughes and our entire staff. They worked very hard to put together a budget process that will work, a budget that will lead us to a balanced budget, a budget that will have deficits declining, substantially declining in the next couple of years, the percentage of GDP substantially. We need to be in balance. We will work to do that. That is not easily done since we have inherited a situation where revenues have declined substantially in the last 2 years. We need to figure out ways to grow the economy. I look forward to working with my colleagues to try to make that happen. I appreciate very much their cooperation and support throughout the challenging last several days. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the resolution.

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