Arlen Specter

Mr. SPECTER

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 ask for the yeas and nays on final passage.

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, have we adopted the DeWine amendment?

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I send a series of cleared amendments to the desk and ask unanimous consent that they be agreed to en bloc, with the motion to reconsider laid upon the table.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I now call up amendment 1542.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. I yield my time to the Senator from Massachusetts.

Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, the managers would like to have one additional vote before people go to the meeting with Secretary Powell. So I ask Senators to stay in the Chamber. If we are to finish this bill today, we are going to have to move along with dispatch.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, on the modification, I do not anticipate a problem, but I would like to have a chance to look at it. May I call for the regular order? I can examine it when we vote next. The regular order is to hear from the Senator from Rhode Island for a brief period of time before we vote. Amendment No. 1596

Mr. SPECTER. Anybody who takes a look at this amendment would say, fairly stated, it is too complicated to be discussed in 2 minutes after an argument last night. It ought to go before the authorizing committee.

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

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

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. Yes.

Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I suggest we move to the next vote. Amendment No. 1609 Madam President, the first vote is on the amendment offered by the Senator from California, Mrs. Boxer, on afterschool programs. This account has $1 billion in it. It has an increase of some $400 million over and above what the administration has requested. Here again, if we had a larger allocation under the budget resolution for this subcommittee, we could do more. But I think the appropriation of $1 billion is realistic and reasonable within the constraints of the subcommittee. Therefore, I raise a point of order under section 504 of the concurrent resolution that the pending amendment is in violation of the Budget Act.

Mr. SPECTER. May I say for the record I thought it was my prerogative to oppose the amendment, but I would like to incorporate by reference everything the Senator from Illinois said as if I had said it. He did a good job.

Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for the adoption of the Sessions amendment.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I alert all Senators as to our schedule. I have had a number of inquiries as to what we will be doing. There are very few amendments remaining to be voted upon. Unless we are going to have a series of rollcall votes on amendments which the managers have agreed to, the senior Senator from Arizona has notified this manager there are objections to amendments. At this time I ask unanimous consent to offer an amendment by Senator Sessions regarding the Centers for Disease Control on a plan related to blood safety and ask for its immediate adoption. The provision of the amendment is ``not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this act, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shall prepare a plan to comprehensively address blood safety and injection safety in Africa under the global AIDS program.'' The area of disagreement, if I may inform my colleagues, is whether the word ``shall'' will be in the amendment, which is what Senator Sessions insists upon, or whether it will be ``may,'' which would leave it up to the discretion of the executive branch as to whether they will carry out the study. If the yeas and nays are requested, I intend to ask my colleagues to deny a sufficient second. I have consulted with the Parliamentarian who advises that the rule is, to have a sufficient second, there must be one-fifth of those who previously voted, which would be 19 out of 95. If this will require a rollcall vote, I cannot predict how many rollcall votes we will have this evening, but I would not make dinner plans.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, there is no doubt about the seriousness of the West Nile virus. But we have, at the present time, some $76 million at the Centers for Disease Control. This past Saturday, I visited the Centers for Disease Control. I took a look at their maps and saw the incidence of West Nile and have no request from the Centers for Disease Control that there ought to be any additional funding. Mr. President, I raise a point of order under section 504 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2004 that the amendment is not in order because it exceeds discretionary spending limits.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, we have decided to accept the amendment of the Senator from Nevada, Mr. Ensign. Does the ranking member concur in that?

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished President pro tempore and chairman of the full committee for those comments. I associate myself with them. It has been an outstanding and extraordinary staff. Ellen Murray for Senator Harkin and Bettilou Taylor on the majority side are--exemplary is not a high enough characterization. While I am at it, I thank my distinguished ranking member, Senator Harkin, for his extraordinary contribution to the public good. He and I have worked as the chairman and ranking and reversed the roles, and we call it a seamless transfer of the gavel. I take this occasion to thank him for his work. I note Senator Nickles is in Chamber now, so I yield for a moment to my colleague, Senator Harkin.

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

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I yield to the Senator from North Dakota.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.