Jim Nussle

Mr. NUSSLE

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I would just alert the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) that I have 4 minutes, and I plan to use that to close the debate tonight if that would be appropriate.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Sununu), the distinguished vice chair of the Committee on the Budget. (Mr. SUNUNU asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), a former member of the Committee on the Budget. We have come to a very critical part of the debate, and that is why we are calling in one of our big guns.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Crenshaw), a new member of the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), a member of the committee.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the distinguished chief deputy whip.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson). (Mr. CULBERSON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. Putnam), a new member of the committee.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins), a distinguished member of the Committee on the Budget and a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Brown), a distinguished new member of the Committee on the Budget, to talk about paying down our publicly held debt and our commitment to our Nation's veterans in this budget.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute for a brief response. Madam Chairman, first of all, I appreciate the tone of the gentlewoman's comments. We do have a slight disagreement on how we are going to achieve this goal, but it is a goal that is shared on both sides. As I say, I appreciate the tone in which the gentlewoman made her presentation and I hope that we can continue that tonight because there are, I think, shared goals even though there are differences of opinion on how to reach those goals. I would just report to the gentlewoman that the American Farm Bureau Federation has recently today sent me a letter endorsing our budget, H. Con. Res. 83, which is the Republican budget, but again there is much work that we are going to have to do in agriculture and a number of other areas, and we share that workload and hopefully can continue to do it in a bipartisan way. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), a new member to the Committee on the Budget, to discuss our commitment to Medicare and reforming Medicare and modernization with a prescription drug benefit. (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Ryun) to speak about our commitment to our Nation's defense.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. Madam Chairman, to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bentsen), my very good friend, in 1965, I was 5 years old. Most of the people here were at least that age. We were not here in 1965. The gentleman was not here in 1965. How old was the gentleman in 1965? My guess is the gentleman probably was not much older than me. My point is very simple, can we back off of this for just a moment. Both sides want to protect Social Security. Both sides want to protect Medicare and pay down the national debt. Both sides want to provide tax relief. Can we at least agree on that, and talk about real numbers? If you want to continue to heighten the rhetoric here tonight, we can go toe to toe. That is not what the American people are wanting to tune in to listen to tonight. They want to know what is in your budget. They want to know what is in our budget. Do not try to scare seniors with this. That is not what this is about. Both sides, both sides, I say very respectfully, want to save Social Security, Medicare, pay down the debt, and provide tax relief. We have a little bit of different approach on all those things. Let us talk about those little bit different approaches, but quit scaring seniors, telling them we are not setting aside this or we are dipping into that. That is not fair. Let us be fair about this debate.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, there was a mention made before about privatizing Social Security in our budget. We do not privatize Social Security in our budget, and the gentleman from New Hampshire will talk about that. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Sununu), who is vice chairman of the Committee on the Budget. (Mr. SUNUNU asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute just to respond briefly. Madam Chairman, of course my colleagues do not know what modernization is because they never proposed it. I mean it should not be a surprise that they come out of the floor now and say they do not know what modernization is. They do not know what reform looks like; of course not. It has been Republicans that have come to the floor in budget after budget after budget extending the trust fund, extending the solvency. When we took control of the Congress just 6 years ago, the trust funds were going bankrupt. And now my colleagues run to the floor and say our budget might, our budget could, our budget may, because you have at least some intellectual integrity to suggest that at least under our plan we can get the job done and still be able to provide the kind of reforms and modernization that we claim we can under this particular budget. Yes, this budget allows for Medicare modernization. We are proud of that. The fact that my colleagues want to come in here and want to scare seniors about Medicare, I say sadly is not all that unusual. But I would ask my colleagues to please curb your rhetoric, because my colleagues know full well, that is not what our budget does. Madam Chairman, to talk about how we are going to reduce the national debt, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger), who is an outstanding member of the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chairman, I would say I wonder where the gentleman's mother was for the last 40 years when we were spending all the money that the Democratic-controlled Congresses were spending that they did not have. It is great to quote one's mother when it works. I am probably as much at fault for that as anybody, not listening to my mother enough. But we should quote our mothers all the time, not just some of the time. What we are going to talk about tonight, we are going to talk about the budget that we believe is an important step towards securing America's future. As we wrote this budget in the committee, taking the advice of the President, taking the advice of many years of budgets, we came up with six principles that we felt were important to put into this budget: No. 1, maximum debt elimination; No. 2, tax relief for every taxpayer; No. 3, improved education for our kids; No. 4, a stronger national defense; No. 5, health care and Medicare modernization with a prescription drug benefit; And finally, No. 6, better Social Security for our seniors. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra) will talk about how we are going to improve education for our children. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra).

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, if the gentleman will further yield, I am wholeheartedly committed to working with the distinguished chairmen of both the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations to ensure that the process delineated in the budget resolution is sufficiently flexible to give the committees adequate time to consider properly and report out legislation acting on the President's amended budget request.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, if the gentleman will again yield, the resolution permits the adjustment of the 302(a) allocation aggregates and functional totals to reflect authorization and appropriations legislation reported by July 11 of this year if such legislation exceeds the allocations contained in this concurrent budget resolution. The appropriation totals for the reported bills would be adjusted by the chairman of the Committee on the Budget not later than July 25, 2001. The allocations could be further adjusted for a conference report considered at a later date as well.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, the gentleman is correct.

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. NUSSLE. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), the chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. NUSSLE

Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time. (Mr. SAXTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Alaska is correct. The Office of Management and Budget's budget submission contained recently identified errors in the transportation function. Let me assure the gentleman that we will address these errors in conference, and that the Function 400 totals will be fully funded for TEA21 and AIR21, and provide increased funding for the Coast Guard.

Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Chairman, I would be pleased to engage in a colloquy with the gentleman from Alaska.