Arlen Specter

Mr. SPECTER

Mr. SPECTER. Let me make a short statement. We are anxious to move ahead with our votes scheduled at 3:30. The amendment is acceptable. The subcommittee held a hearing on this matter in February and had extraordinarily heartrending testimony from families who had been touched directly by suicide. The hearing was held at the request of the Senator from Nevada, Mr. Reid. It was quite compelling. The subcommittee and the full committee allocated $662 million to the mental health services, an increase of $31 million over last year. A number of amendments have been offered seeking to reallocate the money in a variety of ways. I have responded that, unless they have offsets, we have made the allocations as best we can. I think the fact we have such a large sum of money in mental health services on a relative basis, including a $31 million increase for this year, is a testament to the propriety or the value judgments which have gone into the structure of this bill. The $3 million for the hotline can be accommodated easily within the existing funds. We had already urged the mental health services to find ways through their research to prevent suicides--to find other means of communicating with people who were emotionally stressed coming to grips with the issue, and preventing suicides. The substantial allocation the Appropriations Committee has made is a testament to the value judgments and the priorities we have established. I thank Senator Reid for sharing his own experiences. It is a very telling matter. At his request, we had a very informative hearing in February, with quite a few people coming forward, including Danielle Steel, the noted authoress who talked about her own son's experience. It made quite an impact. I think it is true that while the C-SPAN 2 audience may not be enormous, people will hear what is being said and it can have a salutary effect.

Mr. SPECTER. I am happy to yield to the Senator.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the point of order has been raised because, although the Dodd amendment for afterschool programs takes up a meritorious subject, we have already added approximately $150 million to that account, bringing it up to $600 million. The program has been in effect for only a few years. We have provided for additional funding in many similarly related situations. We believe the priorities established were appropriate. Had there been a suggestion for an offset, had the Senator from Connecticut made a suggestion that this priority was more valuable than others, we would have been willing to consider it. But it simply breaks the allocations and therefore the point of order has been raised. We urge it be sustained and not waived.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the pending matter is the motion of the Senator from Massachusetts to waive.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, it takes unanimous consent to set it aside. I urge the Senator from Nevada to reconsider. We had an issue yesterday raised by the chairman of the Finance Committee, and there was an agreement between the chairman of the Finance Committee and the chairman of the full Appropriations Committee as to what would happen in conference, that items would be taken out, and that we would seek an additional allocation.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I call on our colleagues to oppose the waiver. This bill has $4.5 billion more than last year's, $100 million over the President's request, and it is a matter of allocation of priorities. There is no doubt that technical literacy is an important objective. We have, in the Senate bill, $425 million. If the Senator from Massachusetts could establish its priority over others, and add offsets, that is something we would be glad to consider. I wish we had more money to spend on things such as technical literacy, but we do not. To accept this amendment would exceed our 302(b) allocations. Therefore, I ask my colleagues to vote no on the waiver.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, there is no doubt this is a good program. It has been in effect only since 1999 when we put in $120 million; last year, up to $200 million; this year our figure is $225 million. Again, it is a matter of priorities. This bill has $4.5 billion more than last year's education bill. It is $100 million higher than the President's figure. When the Senator from Rhode Island argued the matter as being a very special program, I posed a practical question: What should be offset? What is less important? We think we have established the appropriate priorities. As much as we want to have additional funds for a program of this sort, it simply isn't there. The extra million dollars would exceed our 302(b) allocation. Therefore, we ask our colleagues not to waive the Budget Act.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, as with so many of the pending amendments, the objective is good if we had more funding. We have increased the funding for the Department of Labor by $400 million. We have funded two new programs requested by the administration: incumbent worker training for $30 million and responsible reintegration of youthful offenders for $20 million. Over the last 4 years, there has been a 32-percent increase for dislocated workers and a 25-percent increase for the Job Corps. If it were possible to have additional funding, we would be glad to provide it. We think we have established the priorities in an appropriate order for this complex bill. I ask the motion to waive the Budget Act be denied.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following listed amendments be the only remaining first-degree amendments in order to the pending Labor-HHS appropriations bill and they be subject to relevant second-degree amendments. I further ask unanimous consent that with respect to HMO-related amendments, they be subject to second-degree amendments relating to the subject matter of the conferenced HMO bill or the underlying Labor-HHS bill or the original first-degree language. The list is Specter managers' amendment; Domenici 3561, telecom training center; Domenici 3662, telecom training center; Frist 3654, education research; Jeffords 3655, IDEA; Jeffords 3656, medicine management; Jeffords 3677, Public Health Service Act; Jeffords 3676, high school; Collins 3657, defibrillator----

Mr. SPECTER. Well, that would be fine with me, Mr. President. The question would arise as to how we are going to get consent if Members don't know what is on the list.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Budget Act, as amended, I move to waive section 311 of that act with respect to the consideration of this amendment. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have just had a discussion with the Senator from Texas about setting this issue aside so that we can proceed with other matters and try to make a determination as to how we can solve this issue.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, if I might respond, if the point of order is sustained, we would lose $2.4 billion and there would be required an adjustment of the bill which would be catastrophic. So it is my suggestion that we set it aside, taking the willingness of the Senator from Texas to do that, and then proceed with other amendments so we can try to figure out what other allocation might be possible. We have an amendment ready by the Senator from Vermont and one by the Senator from North Carolina. We have not had many Republican amendments. It is my hope that we can proceed. We have to find a way out of this. If we have a little time, we have a chance to find our way out of it. So I hope we will proceed. If I may have the attention of the Senator from Nevada, he will have the opportunity to--we will have to set it aside, as I understand the parliamentary ruling, each time a new amendment is called up. Is that correct, Mr. President?

Mr. SPECTER. So I hope we will set it aside for the two amendments that we now have lined up and ready to go.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I don't know how this percentage worked. I am advised that with this provision there would be an across-the- board 6.75 percent cut to bring the bill under the allocation. I am not sure of that math, although that is the representation made to me. If you take $2.4 billion out of $104.5 billion, that, it would seem to me, would be under 3 percent. But it would be very material.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I am advised that the 17.7 percent would be the across the board on outlays. I have heard what the Senator from Texas says about those percentages. I do not think they are accurate. We will compute the percentages. That simply is not factually so. I managed last year's bill. But we will tally them up and make representation on the floor at a later point.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Nevada for those kind remarks. Perhaps we could move ahead to acceptance of the amendment. I urge the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. SPECTER. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. SPECTER. In formulating this question as to whether we are going to cut it by 6.75 percent, may I suggest to the distinguished ranking member and comanager that we will not cut funding by 6.75 percent. What we are seeking to do now is to obtain a reallocation. Discussions are underway with the chairman of the full committee to reallocate some funds to this bill from other bills, which delays the day of reckoning for the whole process. That is the way things are done, not only around here but generally. It is my hope we can accomplish that. The chairman of the full committee is now busy working on a supplemental, but he will be here in a few minutes. I believe we will find a way on a reallocation to satisfy the issue which has been raised by the Senator from Texas. Unfortunately, we had three amendments queued up and ready to go to make progress, but seeing the state of affairs on the floor, our amendment offerers have dispersed. We are trying to find some more amendments, and we have an amendment ready to be offered. It is my hope that on the representation we are making progress on finding an allocation, which will leave our bill at $104.5 billion, we take the Senator from Texas up on his willingness to set his issue aside so we can proceed with the bill.

Mr. SPECTER. As I said, I intend to raise that point of order after he has completed his statement. I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, 8.2 percent.

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have a very short statement to make. I applaud the Senator from Louisiana for this amendment. I do believe it is a very good idea to target funds for disadvantaged children under title I. The difficulty is that the $600 million will be taken from title VI, where we have already allocated the principal sum of those funds to meet the President's requirements for new school construction and for class size on the condition that local boards may use it for other purposes if they decide they do not need classroom construction or additional teachers. When the Senator from Louisiana concludes, I will move to table the amendment.

Mr. SPECTER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 3672

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the pending motion to waive.