Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Grassley and my colleague, Senator Murkowski, be added as cosponsors of the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we have not been notified by any Senator that they wish to offer an amendment to the Defense bill today. It is my understanding later today there will be an agreement that all amendments in the first degree to this bill should be filed by 5 o'clock Monday. Under the circumstances, since other Senators wish to speak on nongermane matters, unless there is someone who wants the floor right now to talk about defense--I am informed there may be an amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, is the pending business the Defense appropriations bill?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for not to exceed 10 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Well, I say to the Senator, I know my State. My State is not going to let those people suffer because there is a temporary hiatus in Federal funding. The checks will go out from the State. The State provides the checks. I cannot imagine that would happen. Beyond that, FEMA is there. If this agency does not have the money to meet the needs in the area of the two disasters, FEMA can step forward and give them money. And it is already doing that. That is my information.

Mr. STEVENS. If the Senator wants the floor, I will be glad to yield the floor to him. But I hope the Senator from Pennsylvania is not going to support this amendment. If you do so, it means we will be in real trouble as far as our committee is concerned.

Mr. STEVENS. I am happy to yield to the Senator 4 minutes of our time, if he wishes.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, as the Senator from Iowa knows, this Senator completely supports Community Service Block Grant Programs. We both serve on the Committee on Appropriations and serve on the subcommittee that deals with this issue. I tell the Senate, on these community service block grants, for every dollar that the Federal Government puts up, more than $2 comes from outside sources. They are not matching funds. They put them up. They supply them. This reduction in the House bill was done to sort of have leverage over our committee in conference. The Senate bill which is carried by the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania already has the full amount of the request in it. All we have to do is get that bill to conference, but it has not been possible thus far. But when this continuing resolution takes effect, there will be allocated to the States the money they need. Beyond that, FEMA has all sorts of money right now to assist the people who are involved in the hurricane areas. There is no reason to think anyone is going to be shut off in the disaster area from the community block grant concept because FEMA will provide money to this agency if they are short of money in this period ahead of us because of the delay in getting the Health and Human Services bill passed by the Congress and sent to the President. But what happens if the Senator's amendment passes? We come to a halt tonight. We have already reprogrammed money to the Department of Defense from 2005 moneys in order to carry them over until they get the money from the Defense bill, when and if it is passed. We know we are in a period of delay because of a lot of things, because of the two major disasters, because of the delay we have had in terms of being able to confirm the nomination of the Chief Justice. There has been a lot of delay this year, and we are late. It is not something new. We have been late before and had continuing resolutions. This matter the Senator has brought up will not lead to people being denied assistance because the States can advance their money for this period of 6 weeks, and it will be repaid when we pass the bill. The Senate will hold the money for the Community Services Block Grants. We always have. It is one of the things we have negotiated with the House almost every year. The Senator knows this. We go to conference almost every year, and the House has reduced this item. It is sort of a little leverage in terms of negotiation with the Senator from Iowa, the Senator from Pennsylvania, both of whom have done an excellent job with Community Services Block Grants. As I said, I support it. The chairman of the committee supports it. We support the Community Services Block Grant Program. It will be fully funded. It has been fully funded in the bill that is before the Senate. To delay this bill now and delay funding for everyone else because there is a little glitch here that it could--it could--be read to be something that is taking money, as a practical matter, it carries the same language that was in the continuing resolution before when the minority was in the majority. This is exactly what happened before. It is the same thing. And it is a continuing resolution that has to be passed. If it is not to the President by tonight, funding stops for everybody, not just a slight glitch in the Community Services Block Grant. I do not like to see people out there who really depend upon the Federal Government for assistance being told somehow or other they are going to be denied money. The money that comes from the Federal Government is less than a third of the money they get. So we have a possibility of a slight delay in Federal money getting to them, but during that period, the non-Federal money, both from States and private sources, will meet the need. Beyond that, FEMA has money. We all know we gave them a tremendous amount of money to deal with those who are in the disaster areas. So I say to my friend from Iowa, this is wrong. This is wrong. We will resolve this difference with the House. We have never before abandoned Community Service Block Grants in the Senate. I do not care which party has been in charge over the Senate, we have supported this program. And we will. But to threaten these people, to make it sound as though somehow or other they are going to put them out on the street and they are not going to get any assistance, that is wrong. I tell the Senate, if we do not pass this bill without amendment, not only will the House be back here, we will be back here for days wrangling over what to do because we cannot get the House back by midnight. We go into that period of all the slush that comes after the funding runs out. And it is not an easy sight. We all remember the time it happened once before when the Government did shut down because of a dispute between the House and the Senate. It was resolved out at Andrews Air Force Base about 9 days later, as I recall. Now, at this time, after these two disasters, is no time to put a question on the availability of the funds for every agency. If the Senator's amendment is adopted, every agency is going to have to say: What do we do? We can't spend any money from the 2006 account. They will not have this continuing resolution, a lot of them, to spend from 2005 levels. This is chaos. We do not deserve chaos in this country after the two disasters we have just come through. I say to the Senate, it is absolutely wrong to try to stop this continuing resolution this year. We have troops in the field. As I said, those of us on the Defense Appropriations Committee have, this last week, approved about seven different reprogrammings to make sure funds are available tomorrow morning for those people who need them who are deployed overseas. So to stop these funds, to stop this bill, would stop everything tonight. Now, again--and the Senator has mentioned my State--my State is one of the States that needs funding of this kind. There is no question that if there is a hiatus of having Federal funds, the State is going to have to step forward and put some of their money up first. But they know we will restore this money. By the time the 2006 bill is signed, it will say that starting for October 1, they will get this money they should have had. I tell the Senator from Iowa, there is just----

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I will yield right now to the chairman of the committee.

Mr. STEVENS. I will not object, but I would like to have some time on our side.

Mr. STEVENS. The Senator has already had 20 minutes. The time was equally divided?

Mr. STEVENS. I have no objection if the Senator has 4 more minutes, but I would like the time until 10 o'clock.

Mr. STEVENS. I am happy----

Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. STEVENS. Will you amend that question by saying we will provide in the bill that the States will be repaid for what they advance?

Mr. STEVENS. I yielded the floor, Mr. President.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I yield time to the chairman of the committee. I was just occupying the position of the chairman until he sought recognition.

Mr. STEVENS

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

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Friday, September 30, 2005, at 9:30 a.m. to hold a hearing on Nominations.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 29, 2005, at 9:30 a.m., in open session to receive testimony on United States military strategy and operations in Iraq.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security be authorized to meet on Thursday, September 29, 2005, at 3 p.m. for a hearing regarding ``GSA II: The Procurement Process from Start to Finish.''