Arlen Specter

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss these important items with the chairman today, and thank him for his attention to these crucial fossil energy research and development projects. Wind River Irrigation Project

Mr. SPECTER. Air Products and its partners, including the Department of Energy, are developing a unique, oxygen-producing technology to use in producing oxygen and electric power for the utility, iron/steel, nonferrous metals, glass, pulp and paper, cogeneration, and chemicals and refining industries. This project, ITM Oxygen, is a cornerstone project in the Department of Energy's Vision-21 Program that has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of tonnage oxygen plants for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC, systems. The ITM Oxygen program is entering its final three funding years during which Air Products and its partners plan to demonstrate and test this unique technology with a pilot unit at a suitable field site. Air Products and the Department of Energy are sharing the cost of this program together with each party responsible for 50 percent. Underfunding this program in Fiscal Year 2004 will result in slowing the technical process and schedule of this important project, will halt crucial expansion of test platforms for the final demonstration unit, and in the end will add approximately $10 million more to the total program cost.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I seek recognition to engage in a short colloquy with the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Senator Conrad Burns. The matter is of great importance to my constituent, Air Products and Chemicals of Allentown, PA and involves two programs in the Fossil Energy Research and Development section of the Interior Appropriations bill.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I seek recognition to engage in a short colloquy with the distinguished Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Senator Burns. The matter is of great importance to my constituent, Air Products and Chemicals of Allentown, PA, and involves two programs in the Fossil Energy Research and Development section of the Interior Appropriations bill.

Mr. SPECTER. Air Products and its partners, including the Department of Energy, are developing a unique, oxygen-producing technology to use in producing oxygen and electric power for the utility, iron/steel, nonferrous metals, glass, pulp and paper, cogeneration, and chemicals and refining industries. This project, ITM Oxygen, is a cornerstone project in the Department of Energy's Vision-21 Program that has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of tonnage oxygen plants for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC, systems. The ITM Oxygen program is entering its final three funding years during which Air Products and its partners plan to demonstrate and test this unique technology with a pilot unit at a suitable field site. Air Products and the Department of Energy are sharing the cost of this program together with each party responsible for 50 percent. Underfunding this program in FY04 will result in slowing the technical process and schedule of this important project, will halt crucial expansion of test platforms for the final demonstration unit, and in the end will add approximately $10 million more to the total program cost.

Mr. SPECTER. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss these important items with the Chairman today and thank him for his attention to these crucial fossil energy research and development projects. fetal alcohol syndrome

Mr. SPECTER. I thank the distinguished Chairman for recognizing the importance of the ITM Oxygen program and look forward to working with him and his staff to see that the Department of Energy follows the Committee's intentions. Another project Air Products is involved in with the Department of Energy is the ITM Syngas project, the purpose of which is to develop and demonstrate a ceramic membrane reactor able to separate oxygen from air in a way that produces hydrogen for use in centralized power generation or with regional distribution for fuel cell applications. This technology also captures the carbon dioxide in the process leading to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, a goal we should all support. The bill includes increases in the Transportation fuels section for syngas membrane technology. I would like to ask the Chairman if part of this increase is intended to be used to fully fund the Air Products ITM Syngas project.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I am sure my colleagues want to hear about the outstanding qualifications of this judicial nominee so they will be prepared to vote yea or nay. The Senate is about to vote on the nomination of Common Pleas Judge Kim Gibson for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Judge Gibson now serves on the State court, where he has been a distinguished jurist since 1998. He has gone through the bipartisan, nonpartisan nominating panel that Senator Santorum and I have set up. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in 1974. He has a law degree from Dickinson Law School, magna cum laude, 1975. He served with the defenders office helping the indigent. He has had a distinguished practice and now is on the Common Pleas bench in Somerset County, PA. He is well grounded academically, well grounded professionally, and I recommend to my colleagues that he will make an outstanding Federal judge. I now yield to Senator Santorum.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I sought recognition to introduce legislation to create a commission on overtime pay. Yesterday, the Senate passed an amendment to preclude Federal funding for the regulation issued by the Department of Labor on overtime pay, and it is uncertain what will happen as the bill goes to conference. There has been a representation that the President will veto the appropriations bill on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education if this regulation is not in the bill. It seems to me we ought to be taking another step, and that is to create a commission to deal with this issue so we are prepared in any eventuality. There is no doubt that the 1945 regulations on the Fair Labor Standards Act, that those regulations are vastly out of date and they ought to be revised. There are many lawsuits, some class actions, to determine what the definitions are for those who are or who are not covered by overtime pay that ought to be clarified. Clarification can be achieved without having the massive disruption on the change on overtime pay for so many in the workforce. A change in the overtime pay for those in the workforce would be especially problematic given the economic situation at hand, that it is a difficult time and there ought not to be that kind of disruption which would be occasioned by this bill, by the regulations going into effect. Even though the Department of Labor's propose legislation stated that the Department could not exactly clarify which workers would be exempt or not exempt based on the current and the proposed rules, the commission which I am proposing would have representatives from business, the public sector, the labor groups, with widespread approval from congressional leaders, and is a preferable course so we can achieve both objectives; that is, to have clarification on the outdated regulations to avoid the litigation and know who is exempt and who is not exempt while doing it without massive disruption of the overtime pay at a very difficult time for the workers. To reiterate, today I am introducing legislation to establish a commission to conduct a thorough study of issues relating to modernization of the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime provisions. These provisions have remained substantially unchanged since 1975, despite changes in the modern work place. On March 31, 2003, the Labor Department issued proposed regulations to update the exemptions from overtime pay for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer employees. More than 70,000 comments were received by the June 30, 2003 deadline. Due to the controversy generated by the proposed regulations, I held a hearing on July 31, 2003 to explore this complex question. We heard testimony from the Labor Department, as well as organized labor and business representatives. It was evident that while there was general agreement that greater clarity of definitions concerning overtime pay eligibility would be beneficial to both employees and workers there was disagreement about the impact of the proposed regulations, and no consensus about how to achieve greater clarity and compliance to avoid costly lawsuits. Even the Labor Department's proposed regulations stated that the Department could not exactly clarify which workers are exempt and nonexempt based on the current and proposed rules. The commission I am proposing will bring together experts to study these ambiguities and other issues deemed appropriate, and report to the Secretary of Labor and Congress by July 30, 2004. The legislation also specifies that the proposed overtime regulation will not become effective until 60 days after the date the commission report is submitted. The commission will be composed of 11 members representing organized labor, the business community, the general public and Federal officials. The commission members will be appointed on a bipartisan, bicameral basis and shall be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, and the House and Senate appropriations and authorizing committees. The primary duties of the commission will be to conduct a thorough study of, and develop recommendations on, issues relating to the modernization of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Specifically the commission will: (1) Review categories and numbers of workers not eligible for overtime pay under current regulations and identify how many workers and employers might be affected by proposed changes to the current regulation; (2) Determine if the proposed regulation relating to overtime is sufficiently clear to be easily understood by employers and workers; (3) Assess the paperwork burden that employers would have in order to assure that each individual worker, claimed to be exempt from such overtime requirements, actually is exempt under such regulation; (4) Assess the extent to which it will be clear to the individual worker as to his or her overtime pay protection under the proposed regulation; and (5) Determine the impact of the regulation on nurses, pharmacists, and police, firefighters and paramedics. Given the extreme controversy over the proposed overtime regulation, I believe that the legislation that I am proposing will provide an opportunity for all sides to air the concerns and work with the Secretary of Labor to craft a regulation that will benefit employers, employees and the general public. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, on this day, 2003, September 11, we remember the horrific events of September 11, 2001. We mourn the victims. We pray with the families who lost loved ones and we focus on redoubling our efforts to make sure that September 11, 2001, never occurs again, and to redouble our efforts to fight terrorism. We all recall the horrors of watching those planes crash into the trade centers, the plane which crashed into the Pentagon, and then the plane which struck my State, Pennsylvania, going down in Shanksville, Somerset County, a rural setting. No one will ever know for sure whether the plane which went down in Shanksville, PA, was headed for this Capitol. My own personal view is that it was, and this Capitol was spared because of the heroic efforts of the passengers who took matters into their own hands and saw to it that the terrorists were overwhelmed and the plane crashed. We remember those who perished and we console, to the extent we can, the families and loved ones of those who perished. On this day, we ought to focus on our responsibilities as Members of Congress to see to it that we do not have a repetition of 9/11. In my view, had we put all of the dots on the so-called board we might well have prevented September 11. Whether that is so or not, we ought to be absolutely sure that our intelligence agencies are working coordinately to do their utmost to prevent any recurrence. Then there is the fight against al-Qaida. I believe we are waging a successful worldwide fight in attacking al-Qaida and in bringing key operatives to justice. I believe the time is not too far away when we will find Osama bin Laden. As President Bush said, he will bring Osama bin Laden to justice or bring justice to Osama bin Laden. There is more we can do to fight terrorism, where Americans are still being killed--for example, in Israel by Hamas. We ought to reintensify our efforts to bring back the Palestinian terrorists to the United States and try them in our courts since we have an extraterritorial jurisdiction to do so, and to impose the death penalty. These are only a few of the thoughts which ought to be focused upon today as we pay solemn tribute to the victims of September 11 and dedicate ourselves to fighting terrorism and to prevent any further recurrence in the future.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I sought recognition to introduce legislation to create a commission on overtime pay. Yesterday, the Senate passed an amendment to preclude Federal funding for the regulation issued by the Department of Labor on overtime pay, and it is uncertain what will happen as the bill goes to conference. There has been a representation that the President will veto the appropriations bill on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education if this regulation is not in the bill. It seems to me we ought to be taking another step, and that is to create a commission to deal with this issue so we are prepared in any eventuality. There is no doubt that the 1945 regulations on the Fair Labor Standards Act, that those regulations are vastly out of date and they ought to be revised. There are many lawsuits, some class actions, to determine what the definitions are for those who are or who are not covered by overtime pay that ought to be clarified. Clarification can be achieved without having the massive disruption on the change on overtime pay for so many in the workforce. A change in the overtime pay for those in the workforce would be especially problematic given the economic situation at hand, that it is a difficult time and there ought not to be that kind of disruption which would be occasioned by this bill, by the regulations going into effect. Even though the Department of Labor's propose legislation stated that the Department could not exactly clarify which workers would be exempt or not exempt based on the current and the proposed rules, the commission which I am proposing would have representatives from business, the public sector, the labor groups, with widespread approval from congressional leaders, and is a preferable course so we can achieve both objectives; that is, to have clarification on the outdated regulations to avoid the litigation and know who is exempt and who is not exempt while doing it without massive disruption of the overtime pay at a very difficult time for the workers. To reiterate, today I am introducing legislation to establish a commission to conduct a thorough study of issues relating to modernization of the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime provisions. These provisions have remained substantially unchanged since 1975, despite changes in the modern work place. On March 31, 2003, the Labor Department issued proposed regulations to update the exemptions from overtime pay for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer employees. More than 70,000 comments were received by the June 30, 2003 deadline. Due to the controversy generated by the proposed regulations, I held a hearing on July 31, 2003 to explore this complex question. We heard testimony from the Labor Department, as well as organized labor and business representatives. It was evident that while there was general agreement that greater clarity of definitions concerning overtime pay eligibility would be beneficial to both employees and workers there was disagreement about the impact of the proposed regulations, and no consensus about how to achieve greater clarity and compliance to avoid costly lawsuits. Even the Labor Department's proposed regulations stated that the Department could not exactly clarify which workers are exempt and nonexempt based on the current and proposed rules. The commission I am proposing will bring together experts to study these ambiguities and other issues deemed appropriate, and report to the Secretary of Labor and Congress by July 30, 2004. The legislation also specifies that the proposed overtime regulation will not become effective until 60 days after the date the commission report is submitted. The commission will be composed of 11 members representing organized labor, the business community, the general public and Federal officials. The commission members will be appointed on a bipartisan, bicameral basis and shall be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, and the House and Senate appropriations and authorizing committees. The primary duties of the commission will be to conduct a thorough study of, and develop recommendations on, issues relating to the modernization of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Specifically the commission will: (1) Review categories and numbers of workers not eligible for overtime pay under current regulations and identify how many workers and employers might be affected by proposed changes to the current regulation; (2) Determine if the proposed regulation relating to overtime is sufficiently clear to be easily understood by employers and workers; (3) Assess the paperwork burden that employers would have in order to assure that each individual worker, claimed to be exempt from such overtime requirements, actually is exempt under such regulation; (4) Assess the extent to which it will be clear to the individual worker as to his or her overtime pay protection under the proposed regulation; and (5) Determine the impact of the regulation on nurses, pharmacists, and police, firefighters and paramedics. Given the extreme controversy over the proposed overtime regulation, I believe that the legislation that I am proposing will provide an opportunity for all sides to air the concerns and work with the Secretary of Labor to craft a regulation that will benefit employers, employees and the general public. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. I thank the Chair. (The remarks of Mr. Specter pertaining to the introduction of S. 1611 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, have we adopted the DeWine amendment?

Mr. SPECTER. It is true that we have not funded the Community Access Program. That program has traditionally been funded by the House, and let me assure you that it will be funded when we come out of conference. As the Senator from Washington is aware, the House passed LHHS Appropriations bill allocates a total of $104.317 million for FY 2004 for the Community Access Program.

Mr. SPECTER. I urge its adoption.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Iowa for what he has done. I am delighted to join him in sponsoring the amendment to name the Muscular Dystrophy Operative Research Center after Senator Wellstone. Senator Wellstone attended many of our appropriations subcommittee hearings on neurological disorders and was a tireless advocate for medical research regarding the cause of muscular dystrophy. He was the original sponsor of the Muscular Dystrophy Care Act of 2001. This was the first disease-specific piece of legislation in the 107th Congress, the first major piece of health care legislation signed by President George Bush, and the first piece of legislation to ever address a very lethal childhood disorder. Just a few weeks before he died, Senator Wellstone visited a little boy named Jacob who was afflicted with muscular dystrophy. He and Jacob made some television ads, which sadly didn't air because of Senator Wellstone's tragic death. Senator Wellstone made a difference in the lives of thousands of children afflicted with this deadly disease. He leaves a legacy of unprecedented Federal commitment to muscular dystrophy research and development. I have no doubt that someday soon we will win the fight against muscular dystrophy because of Paul Wellstone's work. Mr. President, I yield to my distinguished colleague from Pennsylvania, Senator Santorum.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I congratulate the Senator from Ohio for his outstanding work. I congratulate my colleague from Pennsylvania for his contribution. The Senator from Ohio only talked to me about this amendment about 79 times during the course of the last 2 days. To say that he was persistent would be a vast understatement. We are prepared to accept this $61 million for the global AIDS for the CDC, of which $60 million is for the mother-to-child transmission prevention initiative and $1 million is for other global AIDS activities. This offset will be made from the administrative costs of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. During the course of the debate, we have had a great many AIDS amendments offered, and we wish we could have accepted more of them. But this particular one is very precisely targeted. I know the Senator from Ohio just came back from Africa and feels very deeply about this issue. We are pleased to accept this amendment, with our compliments to the Senator from Ohio, Mr. DeWine, the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Santorum, and the Senator from Illinois, Mr. Durbin. I yield the floor.

Mr. SPECTER. I thank my friend from California for withholding from offering her amendment. The Senator is correct that the program would benefit greatly from an additional $20 million, and I am dedicated to helping secure that funding before the end of this process. As the Senator knows, the House mark for Refugee and Entrant Assistance was $33.797 million higher than the Senate was able to recommend. Should the conferees reach agreement on overall ORR funding that is closer to the Senate mark than the House mark, I will work with my colleagues in the Senate and the House to achieve an appropriation for unaccompanied alien children along the lines of the amendment that you have so graciously agreed to withdraw.

Mr. SPECTER. It is from all three.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished majority leader for his comments and for his leadership on these very important issues. He has truly been a leader in this area, and he has consistently pushed for improvements in Federal programs to eliminate health disparities. In fact, he authored the Title VII and Title VIII Reauthorizations as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee's Public Health Subcommittee during the 105th Congress. As he knows, our subcommittee has a long history of supporting HRSA's Health Professions Training programs. Senator Harkin and I appreciate the contributions these programs make to our provider workforce through a variety of scholarships, loans, grants and contracts. Unfortunately, the allocation that was provided to the subcommittee for FY04 did not permit us to fully support these worthy initiatives. I agree with the majority leader that a restoration of funding for all health professions programs should be our goal in conference. I am pleased to commit to the majority leader that I will do all I can to fully restore funds for the four diversity programs and, at a minimum, bring funding for the other programs to the House level.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, this amendment provides $80 million for data collection for student achievement. While it would be desirable to have more funds in this appropriations bill, we don't have them, and the offset is a cut in the program out of the Department of Education which would be very burdensome, really intolerable for the Department of Education. For that reason, I reluctantly oppose the amendment by the Senator from Nevada.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, may we proceed with the Durbin amendment? Amendment No. 1611

Mr. SPECTER. Yes.

Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that on the subsequent votes, as we proceed through as many votes as we can complete before 3:15, the votes be 10 minutes in duration.

Mr. SPECTER. I thank the Chair and call for the vote.