Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, for the information of Senators, we now have an amendment to be offered by Senator Nelson of Florida. I am going to ask, in a minute, that we have a minute on each side to explain this amendment. After that, Senator McCain has an amendment he wishes to debate. We believe we will be able to accept that amendment. Senators Durbin and DeWine have another amendment, and we believe we will accept that one. Following that is the Specter amendment, which will take an hour on each side. After that, we have other amendments that are going to be offered. We are going to try to get an agreement in just a few minutes that the next vote will not be before 7:45, something like that.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I object. I am going to object to all requests for extension of time.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I address the majority leader. We have gone over the amendments. Quite a few of them are technical in nature and legislative in nature. We have members of our staff in the appropriations room downstairs, room 128, prepared to discuss any amendment that a Member wishes to try to work out with the committee and have it adopted without votes. I believe there are quite a few in that category we could accept. All of the amendments are being checked with the committees of legislative jurisdiction where they are legislative in nature and they do not affect the bill from a financial point of view. I hope Members would tell us if they sincerely wish to press their amendments. There are a great many that are very redundant. We will have to choose as to which amendment the individual Senator wishes to bring forward. If we are to finish this bill and be able to get it to the House for conference, when the House comes back, this means a lot of long hours. I say at the outset, there are 129 amendments that our committee would oppose. If a Member wishes to know which we will oppose, we are happy to tell them. I urge the majority and minority to help us by determining the amendments that Members absolutely insist they will raise so we can get a schedule and start working our way through these amendments. It will take the cooperation of every Member. Keep in mind, these are bills that should have been passed last year. Amendments should not be the vehicle for legislation that would arise in this 2-year period of the new Congress. I hope everyone will join in tabling amendments that are legislative in nature, that should be raised later in the session. To hold up this bill at this time is very unfair to the thousands of people out there waiting to know whether they will have funding at the level of 2003, as intended by the President and by the Congress, instead of continuing at the level of the 2002 appropriations which, after all, were devised in the late part of 2001. We are dealing with people who have been waiting for 2 years now to have different types of funding. I hope we can get this bill done this week. I hope we have that will to get it done.

Mr. STEVENS. Will the majority leader yield for a brief statement?

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I ask for regular order on amendment No. 27, the LIHEAP amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. For the information of the Senate, this is the LIHEAP amendment. The statements concerning the amendment will be after--

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, that would be in order. I have no problem with that. I ask for 1 minute on each side to explain this amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. We are prepared to accept this amendment, but I think the sponsors wish a vote.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, before that starts, I think we should wait for the participants. I wish to announce, assuming the Senator from New York and I can work out an understanding, there may not be a second vote. Members should be aware, there may not be the second vote. The first vote will take place as scheduled. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. STEVENS. Will the Chair please announce what the program is. Amendment No. 32

Mr. STEVENS. Yes, we do expect further votes this afternoon. We have the prospect of a Dodd amendment and a further amendment by the Senator from Arizona. So we have the prospect of continuing votes on through the afternoon.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote in relation to the McCain amendment occur at 1:30 today, with the time equally divided in the usual form and with no amendments in order prior to the vote; further, that prior to the vote, Senator Landrieu be recognized as in morning business for up to 5 minutes; further, that following this vote, Senator Biden be recognized to speak for up to 20 minutes and Senator Brownback, for up to 5 minutes.

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. I am not yielding. In my chairmanship, when I was chairman before, we doubled NIH. I am proud of that. We have not reduced that level. We have increased it. No Senator on this side need fear we are cutting one FBI agent, taking one dollar away from the existing level of NIH, or taking one dollar away from anything. The guideline, again, was we kept the level of 2002 in every account. That is a continuing resolution. To reduce the level that they are traveling on now would be wrong. We are increasing every one by passing those three bills. That is why we want to pass them. Look at them. You can go down these Departments. Every one of them gets some kind of increase because of the fact we are going from 2002 to 2003. An across-the-board cut takes less than 2 percent out of all of them, if we have to do that when we come out of conference. We don't believe we will have to. I really respect my friend from West Virginia. But I am carrying the President's torch, which is ``remember the deficits.'' People on this side reminded us of the deficits every day this last week. The President said: Remember the deficits. Get a guideline. Take my number for a guideline. I said: We will do that. We will take your number, we will take it to conference, and we will hold it coming out of conference and you will have a bill you can sign.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Senator is entitled to his last minute. Let me tell the Senator about NIH. In fiscal year 2002, we had $23.45 billion. In this bill, we have $27.15 billion. That is an increase of almost $4 billion. An across-the-board cut takes out about $300 million. It does not reduce anything. In my chairmanship----

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, the Senator from Delaware has given us a chance to think. This is a good time to think. So we are happy to give him 20 minutes right now.

Mr. STEVENS. Yes.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, under the agreement he has 20 minutes to speak. Following that, for the information of the Senate, Senator Brownback has 5 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, what is the regular order now?

Mr. STEVENS. I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, there is a time agreement in effect.