Richard Shelby

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, this amendment strikes title VII of the bill. Because of the urgency of investigations of the church fires, this language was included in the agriculture appropriations bill. The President signed that bill on August 6. I understand that this amendment has been cleared on both sides.

Mr. SHELBY. I urge its adoption.

Mr. SHELBY. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, this amendment before the Senate provides funding to the Postal Service for liabilities incurred by the former Post Office Department. The funds are paid to the Department of Labor for workmen's compensation claims. Mr. President, this provision was inadvertently left out of the bill. It is a mandatory payment and does not have an impact on the discretionary funding in the bill. This amendment, I understand, has been cleared on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I have another amendment that I send to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SHELBY. I, as the manager of the bill, along with Senator Kerrey--we are going to try to work with you to make that part of the managers' amendment. We believe it will be. But if it is not, we will tell you and give you a chance to offer it on the floor. Mr. KERREY addressed the Chair.

Mr. SHELBY. Will the Senator from Oklahoma yield?

Mr. SHELBY. I have no problem with that.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I again acknowledge the hard work and the leadership that the Senator from Nebraska, Mr. Kerrey, has brought here. He is absolutely right. When we are dealing with something as complicated as the Internal Revenue Service modernization and taxes in general, it is going to take, I believe, as he does, a bipartisan effort to do this. If we can bring something out of this commission that we will listen to and do something about here that will modernize the IRS, that will help the taxpayers understand the system, will help the taxpayers keep more of their money without a lot of cumbersome involvement, we will be doing part of our job here today. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendments to H.R. 3756 be considered and agreed to en bloc, provided that no points of order be waived thereon and that the measure, as amended, be considered as original text for the purpose of further amendment, with the exception of the following amendments: Page 2, line 18; page 16, line 16 through page 17, line 2; page 80, line 20 through page 81, line 4; that portion of the amendment on page 129, line 20 through page 130, line 18.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, we are trying to clear, with both sides, a number of matters. We have worked out a number of committee amendments, and we have several that we are trying to clear with the other side of the aisle at the moment. I want to take a minute to thank Senator Kerrey for his leadership on the committee. We have had a number of hearings throughout the year. Some of them have been tough hearings. He has made a real contribution to the tax system changes that we envision in the future. We have set up a task force that he is involved in. As a matter of fact, he suggested this to me a year or so ago, as he was not satisfied--and he worked on this committee before I had --with the modernization program of the Internal Revenue Service and thought that, of all the agencies in Government, Internal Revenue Service should be on the cutting edge of technology and should not be behind in any way. Some of us are concerned that maybe the IRS is getting behind. Getting behind what? The marketplace. There has been a tremendous revolution in the software industry, and Senator Kerrey and I both have talked and met with various people that are dealing in financial electronic software of various kinds. The market, it seems to me, is farther ahead in various areas than the IRS. This is not a good sign for the future of the IRS or the future of Government, because most people in America always thought--and I came to believe it--that the IRS had the best of everything and was on the cutting edge. But I will submit to you that they are not. I believe the Senator from Nebraska believes that. He is also interested in--and so am I--the task force to study the IRS and our tax laws and everything that goes with it. I believe we are going to get some good results out of that, some great recommendations. He may want to take a minute to talk about that.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, today with my distinguished ranking member, Senator Kerrey, I bring before the Senate the Appropriations Committee recommendations on fiscal year 1997 appropriations for the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Postal Service, the Executive Office of the President and certain independent agencies. The bill we are presenting today contains total funding of $23,487,761,000. This bill is $324,007,000 above the appropriations provided in fiscal year 1996. The mandatory accounts make up $320,850,000 of this increase. In other words, this bill is $3,157,000 in discretionary spending above the fiscal year 1996 level. Of the totals in this bill we are recommending $11,291,000,000 for new discretionary spending. The $11,291,000,000 the committee proposes for domestic discretionary programs is $1.354 billion below the President's request. Let me repeat that, Mr. President. This bill is $1.354 billion below the President's fiscal year 1997 request. The fiscal year 1996 bill was $1.8 billion below the President's request. That is a reduction of $3.15 billion below what the President requested in 2 years. Reaching this level has not been an easy task. We have had to make some very difficult decisions, while trying to ensure that funds are made available to carry out essential Government services. Mr. President, this bill includes $10,185,009,000 for the Department of the Treasury. The Treasury Department has varied responsibilities, the bulk of which are directed to the revenues and expenditures of this Government and law enforcement functions. This bill includes $90,433,000 for payment to the Postal Service Fund for free mail for the blind, overseas voting, and a payment to offset previous shortfalls in revenue forgone funding. The President receives $183,339,000 to exercise the duties and responsibilities of the Executive Office of the President. This bill includes $657,724,000 for construction of new courthouses and Federal facilities. This funding provides the General Services Administration with the ability to let construction contracts for courthouses for which the construction schedule is slated in fiscal year 1997. The courthouses funded in this bill are those listed as the top priority of the administrative office of the courts for fiscal year 1997. There is $12.08 billion in mandatory payments through the Office of Personnel Management for annuitant and employee health, disability and retirement, and life insurance benefits. There is $850 million for other independent agencies. Mr. President, this subcommittee continues to be a strong supporter of law enforcement. We have done what we can to ensure that the law enforcement agencies funded in this bill have the resources to do the job we ask them to do. We have utilized the salaries and expenses account, as well as, funds from the Violent Crime Trust Fund to enhance law enforcement efforts. In addition, the committee has provided funding over the President's request for the Nation's drug policy office. While I have been highly critical of this administration's previous commitment to combating the growing drug problem in this country, I fully support the efforts and leadership of the new drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey. Under his leadership, it is my hope that the alarming rise in teen drug use can be turned back, before this country feels its tragic consequences--such as, more crime, more death, more young futures lost. Drugs are a plague that claim the hopes and dreams, the aspirations and goals, of our young people. We need to do more. This bill does more. The fiscal year 1997 Treasury bill funds the Office of National Drug Control Policy at the President's request of $34,838,000 and provides $103 million for high-intensity drug trafficking areas. While the committee has attempted to give the drug czar sufficient flexibility to address the high-intensity drug trafficking areas, the bill does encourage the drug czar to give high priority to certain areas of the country where the methamphetamine problem is overtaking many communities. The committee has further provided an additional $13 million in funding within the Violent Crime Trust Fund to designate new HIDTAs. In addition, the committee has provided $65 million for southwest border antidrug efforts, $83 million for air and marine interdiction and $45 million for procurement of an additional P-3AEW aircraft for detection and interdiction purposes. There has been considerable discussion since this bill was reported from the subcommittee about the level of funding for the Internal Revenue Service. Some have questioned overall funding in this bill for the IRS, but the major focus has been directed toward the committee's action regarding the IRS tax systems modernization or TSM program. I would like to take a few moments to describe how we arrived at the funding level for the IRS. This bill includes $6,880,221,000 for the IRS; this total is $1.14 billion below the President's request and $468 million below the fiscal year 1996 appropriation. There are those, including the President, who have said--you have to fund the IRS at the requested level to ensure that tax systems modernization continues and that funds ``owed'' the Government are collected. Mr. President, the IRS budget makes up approximately 65 percent of the committee's discretionary spending. Think about it--65 percent. As the largest consumer of revenues under the committee's discretionary budget and competitor with equally important funding priorities in the budget, like law enforcement, the IRS is subject to reductions, which would otherwise have to come from these other important programs. A dollar more for law enforcement, means a dollar less somewhere else--and this budget, which I believe to be consistent with the priorities of the President, reflects an emphasis on law enforcement, particularly drug enforcement. While the Committee's funding for the IRS is significantly below the President's request--$1.14 billion and $468 million below last year's appropriated level--the Committee feels strongly that these funding levels are adequate, and more than justified given the dismal record of the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. President, the IRS, until very recently, has refused to respond to bipartisan concerns that have been raised by the Congress and the General Accounting Office. Its overall lack of financial accountability and failure to produce quantifiable results in tax systems modernization has done little to encourage the committee of the IRS's commitment to ensuring that funds appropriated are being spent wisely or effectively. The taxpayer deserves accountability, particularly from the IRS. But more than that, Mr. President, no taxpayer should be held to a level of accountability that even the IRS cannot meet. The committee has gone to great lengths to ensure that the IRS is adequately funded, and that sufficient resources are provided for taxpayer assistance and tax return processing. There is nothing in this bill which will inhibit the IRS from doing their job. Any forecasts of doom and gloom are not accurate. We have spent a long time looking at IRS operations, especially tax systems modernization over the past 1\1/2\ years during my tenure as chairman. I worked with Senator Kerrey, the ranking Democrat on this. Frankly, I am not pleased with what I have seen after the expenditure of millions of dollars. TSM programs that the committee and the GAO have reviewed, have almost always come in late and over budget and have almost universally--universally, Mr. President--not lived up to expectations, despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent. The Department of the Treasury has indicated the current program is off course. They are not the only ones, though, who have reached that conclusion. The General Accounting Office and National Research Council have been highly critical of the direction TSM is headed. I have stated many times that we must modernize the IRS. I will support that effort. To follow the current course, or lack of course, the IRS has chartered for TSM at this time would be irresponsible. TSM is clearly not providing us with what we have been seeking and what taxpayers deserve. Mr. President, I feel very strongly that the subcommittee would be abdicating its responsibilities if it did not take action. Funds are provided in this bill to continue current information systems, but no money is available for further TSM development. I expect the Department's review board to take an active roll in ensuring corrections are made, and made soon. When the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service have shown that things are back on track, we can proceed with providing funds for programs that work. Let me repeat that--we will support programs that work and provide the IRS with the necessary tools to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. Mr. President, this bill does not spend as much as the President would like. If it did, the subcommittee would be over a billion dollars above its allocation, and that is not the way to balance the budget. Tough choices were made as said--in a way that attempted to reflect the priorities of the President and the Congress--law enforcement is plussed up across the board. It is, however, the result of long, hard hours of work on the part of the members and the staff of this subcommittee. I want to thank all of them for that effort. I believe it is workable and should be enacted. I yield to Senator Kerrey, the subcommittee's ranking member.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, this amendment makes a number of corrections to further define the actions that the Internal Revenue Service is to take with regard to the information systems account we have been talking about. It has been cleared on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. SHELBY. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, this amendment amends section 636 of the bill which provides authority for agencies to provide assistance to agents who secure liability insurance. This amendment will provide this authority to the State Department if it chooses to provide the same assistance to special agents of the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service. It is my understanding that it has been cleared on both sides of aisle.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Paul Irving, a legislative fellow with the subcommittee, and Bruce Townsend, a fellow with the office of Senator Mikulski, be granted floor privileges during deliberations on H.R. 3756, the Treasury, Postal Service, and general Government appropriations bill.

Mr. SHELBY. Sure. That is good.

Mr. SHELBY. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, section 613 prohibits the executive department from pooling or passing the hat for funds. This amendment allows for agencies to contribute funds to Federal executive boards when they are created. It is very tightly written, and it is intended to meet specific problems faced by these boards. It is my understanding it has been cleared on both sides.

Richard Shelby

Speeches

Manage analytics