Arlen Specter

Mr. SPECTER

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

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, by way of brief response to the argument by the Senator from Colorado, I agree with him that Amtrak needs to be self-sufficient, and that is the purpose of the legislation. The question is, How fast is that going to occur? They are looking for self-sufficiency under the existing legislation by the year 2003. What they are asking for here is an extension from October 1, 2000, to October 1, 2002. I went into some detail on the information provided by Governor Thompson, who is chairman of the Board of Amtrak, as to the progress which they are making. When the Senator from Arizona says there is no mistake here, he may be right about that. Maybe this is not an unintended consequence, but where you have a provision which reaches the extent of leasing under these circumstances, I doubt that anybody thought about that when the legislation was drafted. Maybe it is not an unintended consequence, but I doubt very much that it is an intended consequence. It is something that happened that nobody had thought about. Perhaps if nobody had thought about it, it is genuinely an unintended consequence. Considering the issues we face in this body, when you are talking about $15 million, although not unsubstantial, we seldom take a protracted period of time as we wrestle with the budget of $1.850 trillion. I have not calculated the percent, but it is a mighty tiny fraction. This is symbolic as to what we are trying to do to get Amtrak on its feet. When the Senator from Arizona says it is wrong to put this amendment on this bill, I have to categorically disagree with that as a matter of fact because if the rules allow this amendment to go on this bill, it is not wrong to put this amendment on this bill. It may be an unwise amendment, it may be against public policy, but it is not a wrongful act to put this amendment on this bill when the advice that the Senator from Arizona got was the same as the advice this Senator got: that as a matter of parliamentary procedure, it is an appropriate matter. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, there is a heavy cloud hanging over the Senate Chamber today. A bouquet of flowers with a black tapestry is on the desk of our departed colleague, Senator Paul Coverdell, whose presence will be greatly missed. There is a saying that in Washington, in Congress, in the Government, a great deal could be accomplished if there was less concern--perhaps no concern--for who gets the credit. Paul Coverdell epitomized that concept. He was always in the thick of the action. He was always prepared to help. He did it with conciliation, with good will and accommodation, and in the spirit of compromise; self-effacing and never interested in the credit, not interested in the news reports or the television acclaim or any of what is customarily associated with the politics, the public relations of the Congress in Washington, DC. That kind of effective, quiet Senator behind the scenes is a relative rarity here. He had a very distinguished career in the Georgia Legislature, in the Georgia State Senate, going back to 1970. He was the Republican leader. Just this morning I talked with people who knew him in Georgia. It was the same Paul Coverdell 30 years ago whom we saw in Washington heading up the Peace Corps, a nonglamorous but a very important undertaking to project America around the world with young people, and then in his election to the Senate in 1992 and the immediate recognition of his colleagues who knew him well, even though he was not so well known with the television cameras but very well known by his colleagues, and elected to a leadership position, No. 4, in the Republican caucus. He was the point man for the Republican caucus on education. He brought to that very important subject, a subject of priority second to none in America today and in the world today, again his quiet effectiveness. I had the opportunity to work with him on the appropriations bills on the subcommittee which I chair which covers, among other Departments, the Department of Education. For the last 2 years, we had a list of a couple hundred amendments, and in the flurry of floor action, Paul Coverdell was enormously effective in talking to Senators about their amendments, saying which ones could be accepted, which ones could be accommodated without coming to the floor even for a voice vote, and then narrowing the frame of reference as to which ones had to be debated with time agreements and which ones had to be voted upon. The management of a Senate appropriations bill is a complicated matter, especially when you have a $100 billion-plus budget and you have to worry about Head Start, drug-free schools, the National Institutes of Health, worker safety, and the myriad problems. Paul Coverdell was an effective man to get that job done. Senator Bill Frist--Dr. Bill Frist--gave us all a report on the medical aspects of what happened to Senator Coverdell: that it was not painful, an extraordinary medical incident with problems which simply could not be contained or controlled. I know every Senator sends sympathies to the Coverdell family, to his wife Nancy. He will be sorely missed for the great contribution which he has made. There are tough days in the Senate. Last year, in October, we had the passing of our dear friend, John Chafee, and now the passing of Paul Coverdell. While we intend to focus on matters of Government and high finance, international affairs and war and peace, nothing is more sobering than to see what is really important with the loss of a very special friend and a really great Senator.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. I thank my colleagues from Delaware for those very generous comments.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the 20th century story of the Shanin Family portrays the success of immigrants in America and the success of America itself. The naturalization papers of Freda Mermorvich Shanin show that she traveled from Lugansk, Russia and arrived at Ellis Island on October 31, 1906, with her two children, Lilli and Max, enroute to joining her husband, Mordecai Shanin, in St. Joe, MO. The Shanin Family grew with the addition of five more children: Annie, Louie, Rose, Albert, and Margaret. Mordecai Shanin struggled to earn a living with a variety of occupations including selling Singer sewing machines. Lilli Shanin, later to become my mother, told me about her father dying in her arms form a heart attack in 1916 on the backstairs of the Shanin home at 922 South Ninth Street. My grandmother, Bubbie Freda, told me she was left a widow with seven children and seven dollars. Deeply religious, proud and independent, Freda Shanin raised her children with the help of Lilli, who left school to work in a tablet factory, and the other siblings pitching in when they became old enough to contribute to the family's support. In 1917 Freda Shanin met a young immigrant, Harry Specter, who was buying dry goods and blankets at the wholesale house for sales in his travels to farms in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. Harry Specter asked Freda Shanin if she had a daughter. ``Yes I do'' said the protective mother, ``But she's too young for you.'' Harry Specter courted Lilli Shanin, won her heart, went off to World War I, was wounded in the Argonne Forest, and returned in uniform to St. Joe to marry the beautiful 19-year-old redhead in her resplendent white gown carrying a large bouquet of roses. That union produced Morton, Hilda, Shirley, and Arlen Specter, who in turn brought Mordecai and Freda Shanin 10 great grandchildren, 25 great-great grandchildren and 6 great-great-great grandchildren. The three sons, Max, Louie, and Albert grew up in hard times in St. Joe with Albert, who added a granddaughter to the family tree, becoming a prosperous pharmacy owner who spent much of his time and drugstore medicines devoted to his ailing mother. Annie, who wrote a book of Hebrew poetry in 1945, married a distinguished chemist, Dr. Morton Kleiman, and they in turn had Dr. Adina Kleiman, a noted psychologist, and Dr. Jay Kleiman, an eminent cardiologist, who added two more great grandchildren to the Shanin family. Margaret ``Mashie'' Shanin married handsome Leslie Hoffman, who brought a truckload of watermelons from the family produce business in Waco, TX, to St. Joe. Mashie added to the family tree with four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Rose Shanin left St. Joe at the age of 18 to live with her sister, Lilli, in Wichita, where Rose became a high-powered executive secretary for the Beyer Grain Company. In 1930, at my birth, Tante Rose intervened to save me from the name ``Abraham'' with the suggested ``Arlen'' after the famous movie star, Richard Arlen. Rose would later start my brother Morton and me in the development of our work ethics as messengers riding our bicycles all over Wichita delivering bills of lading for Beyer and other grain companies. Rose married Julius Isenberg and added a daughter and son to the growing family tree. Judaism has continued to be the mainstay of the Shanin Family with many, albeit not all, maintaining strictly kosher homes, with a few emigrants to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to strengthen the State of Israel. The 70 descendants of Mordecai and Freda Shanin have contributed to the values, prosperity, and success of the United States. Interspersed in the family tree are Ph.Ds, LL.Ds, MDs, a Federal judge, businesspeople, professionals, and elected public officials. Today, members of the Shanin Family have assembled in Washington for a Shanin Family reunion led by the matriarchs of the family, Annie Kleiman and Rose Isenberg and Joyce Specter, who were privileged to meet with the President today. The entire family visited the White House, the Senate, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Monument, President Kennedy's gravesite, and the Secret Service headquarters. America is the spectacular story of immigrants who have come in search of freedom and opportunity who have contributed so much. The Shanin Family is typical of the great contributions by immigrants, who, along with native Americans, have made the United States the greatest country in the history of the world.

Mr. SPECTER. I thank my colleagues for their very kind remarks.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. of Allentown, Pennsylvania and an industrial team are developing a unique oxygen-producing technology based on high-temperature, ion transport membranes (ITM). The technology, known as ITM Oxygen, would be combined with an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) system to produce oxygen and electric power for the iron/steel; glass, pulp and paper; and chemicals and refining industries. The ITM Oxygen project is a cornerstone project in the Department of Energy's (DOE) Vision 21 program and has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of so- called ``tonnage oxygen'' plants for IGCC systems. Working in partnership with DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory, the first of three phases of this $24.8 million, 50 percent cost-shared research program will be completed in September 2001. Research and development conducted as part of phase 1 of the ITM Oxygen program has addressed the high-risk materials, fabrication and engineering issues needed to develop the ITM Oxygen technology to the proof-of-concept point. In phase 2, a full-scale ITM Oxygen module will be tested and will be followed by further scale-up to test the production and integration of multiple full-scale ITM modules. In the final phase, a pre-commercial demonstration unit will be designed, constructed, integrated with a gas turbine and tested at a suitable field site. At the end of phase 3, it is expected that sufficient aspects of the technology will have been demonstrated to enable industrial commercialization. I thank the Senator from Washington for adding $3.2 million to Department of Energy's IGCC. I also understand that the House of Representatives added $3.2 million to the FY01 budget request for IGCC without designating any one project to receive the increased funding. As part of its FY01 budget, DOE requested $2.2 million as part of its $32 million IGCC budget to complete phase 1 of ITM Oxygen. Now I would urge the Department of Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory to provide $2 million of the $3.2 million as an increase to the FY01 budget request for IGCC to allow the programs second phase to begin in FY01. This additional funding would allow the ITM Oxygen team to have a smooth transition to the program's second phase and to level over future years the DOE cost share needed to maintain the program's schedule. This additional funding would also allow the ITM Oxygen team to make an early commitment to accelerate construction of the test facility and the full-scale ITM Oxygen module. Accelerating this program makes sound business sense. Now I am confident that DOE and the National Energy laboratory will have the funding to do this. I urge them to work with the ITM Oxygen team and make it happen.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, before moving to final passage, I thank my distinguished colleague, Senator Harkin, for his cooperation, and our devoted staffs: Bettilou Taylor, Jim Sourwine, Mary Deitrich, Kevin Johnson, Mark Laisch, Jon Retzlaff, Ellen Murray, Lisa Bernhardt, and Allison DeKosky. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SPECTER. I understand the Senator's concerns. The Committee has included nearly $1.2 billion in this year's appropriations bill for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NINDS. This is a significant increase over the FY00 level. I believe that the NINDS, and the NIH generally, devote additional resources to Huntington's disease research in FY 2001. I also believe that the NINDS could increase support for the centers of excellence and other programs developed by the Huntington's Disease Society for the care of HD patients.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry. Are we now ready for third reading?

Mr. SPECTER. I would like to commend the Senator from Connecticut for bringing this amendment to our attention. While the amount requested in this amendment is a modest sum, it will make a major difference to an important community in this country. I look forward to working with the Senator from Connecticut as this matter moves to conference.

Mr. SPECTER. I will be pleased to yield for a question from the Senator from Connecticut.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, if there is any issue about the pendency of the Baucus amendment, I think it is in the managers' package. I ask unanimous consent to vitiate the request for the yeas and nays on the Baucus amendment.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, one item came up in the course of the consideration of the bill on which I commented I would respond to regarding the increase in this bill over last year's bill. This year's bill contains a program level of $104.5 billion for fiscal year 2001. This is a $7.9 billion increase over fiscal year 2000, which had a program level of $96.6 billion. When assertions have been made that the bill has grown by 20.4 percent--that is over 20 percent--that is not correct. That calculation is made by comparing the fiscal year 2001 program level of $104.5 billion with the fiscal year 2000 budget authority level of $86.5 billion. That is not an accurate comparison. When you compare the 2001 actual program level to the 2000 program level, the real increase is 8.2 percent. This question has come up with some frequency. I thought it would be useful to make that explanation. Mr. President, I think we are now prepared to proceed to the Wellstone amendment.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the next votes in this series be limited to 10 minutes each.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Senator from Minnesota is correct. Each side has 1 minute, and then we go to the vote.

Mr. SPECTER. I thank both Senators Dodd and Lieberman for their work in bringing this matter to our attention and I would certainly support such a demonstration.

Mr. SPECTER. Yes. It seems to me that such groups would be strong competitors for an education and training demonstration grant. medicare contractor funding

Mr. SPECTER. I thank my colleague from South Carolina for bringing this matter to my attention. I too hope that South Carolina and HCFA can resolve their difference, but would be willing to discuss the matter in the future if an agreement cannot be reached.

Mr. SPECTER. I understand the issues both Senators are raising and the importance of adequately funding the Medicare contractor program. I will work with my two colleagues to try to keep the Senate funding level is kept intact and that no funding cut is made to the Medicare contractor program. hcfa coverage change

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the objective of the Wellstone amendment is laudable in trying to have reasonable prices. The difficulty is that this was tried 7 or 8 years ago and was found to be very counterproductive. Instead of encouraging tests and development of pharmaceutical products, it discouraged them. We have already adopted the Wyden amendment which provides for a study on this issue. There are some very important matters raised by the Senator from Minnesota. Our subcommittee will hold hearings on this subject shortly upon our return in July to try to find out whether the NIH ought to have a share of the patents or what would be a fair approach. There has been substantial experience with what the Senator from Minnesota suggests in the 1992, 1993, 1994 range, and it was counterproductive. That is why, although the objective is laudable, I am forced to oppose the amendment. I move to table the Wellstone amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SPECTER. I move to table the amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, before we proceed to the Wellstone amendment, I understand there is a bill at the desk due for its second reading.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, on behalf of the majority leader, I object to further proceedings on that bill at this time.