Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask for the adoption of the basic underlying amendment.

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

Mr. STEVENS. For the information of all Senators, I intend to make a motion on the soon-to-be-offered amendment of Senator Feingold rather soon.

Mr. STEVENS. I will ask for the yeas and nays in a minute on my motion. I think we should be clear about the issue before the Senate. The issue really is whether the cost-of-living provision in this bill should apply to Members as it does to others who work for the Federal Government. We have provided COLAs to military personnel, civil servants, Social Security beneficiaries, a whole list of other categories of Federal service, Civil Service and Federal service. This is not a pay raise. It is an increase that is required by law. (At the request of Mr. Daschle, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am tempted to remark about my friend from Missouri saying there are only 477,000 Alaskans, but I will let that go.

Mr. STEVENS. It comes closer. I thank the Senator. Mr. President, up my way there is a saying: The promise made is the debt unpaid. This year, when I went to the President to increase the moneys allowed for education and a series of other items in this total budget, after a serious discussion, he agreed. I told him if he would make those changes, I would promise him I would see to it that there would be no funds appropriated in the regular process in excess of the amounts he requested. He has not requested this additional amount. Therefore, the pending amendment No. 1928 offered by the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Dodd, increases the spending by $1 billion. This additional spending would cause the underlying bill to exceed the subcommittee section 302(b) allocation. Therefore, I raise a point of order against the amendment pursuant to section 302(f) of the Budget Act. Parenthetically, I also say that, before we recess this year, we will have to provide this money and the Appropriations Committee will find some way to find it within the budget.

Mr. STEVENS. I object. We have to get back to the appropriations sometime.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, since I have been mentioned personally, let me just say I will be happy to see the day when the Armed Services Committee brings the bill to the floor, goes through the normal process, and passes a bill and provides the budget authority and the outlays to do it. That has been the problem. This is air we are talking about now--air. Does the Senator from Hawaii want time to speak on his amendment to this bill? How much time does the Senator want? Two minutes? I yield the Senator up to 5 minutes. We are waiting for the balance of the papers. I say to the Senator, we have tried to clear his amendment. We have not been able to clear his amendment because of a problem with jurisdiction on the House side. But I believe he would like to explain his amendment. We were willing to take it to conference, but we are told that it would not survive conference because of the jurisdictional problem on the House side. I ask Senator Akaka, does he wish to speak at this time? I thank the Senator. Does the Senator from New Mexico wish time?

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we have a 10-minute limit and that vote went over again. The next amendment is the Landrieu amendment. Amendment No. 1859

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays, and I ask that the Chair instruct the clerks to deliver to the Chair this vote at the end of 10 minutes.

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. Amendment No. 1843

Mr. STEVENS. This amendment, which we offered to accept, deals with reimbursement for the costs of services and food to military personnel while in the hospital. We offered to accept the amendment, but the Senator demands a vote. I have already accepted the amendment so I would renew my request that we pass it by a voice vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Let's have the Chair state the understanding of the time limitation. Can the Chair state the time limitation?

Mr. STEVENS. No. That is 20 minutes, Mr. President.

Mr. STEVENS. With no amendments in order. That is my unanimous consent request.

Mr. STEVENS. It is 20 minutes for Senator Roberts, 5 minutes for Senator Rockefeller--

Mr. STEVENS. Senator Rockefeller, 5 minutes. Twenty minutes for the Senator from Kansas. Ten minutes for the Senator from New Jersey. There are five Members sharing the 20 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. We have no objection. We can change the Corzine limitation to 15 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. The limitation applies only to Senator Byrd; is that correct?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the time used by the Senator from New Jersey in answering the question of the Senator from Kansas was taken out of the time of the Senator from Kansas?

Mr. STEVENS. I want some time. I ask unanimous consent that 4 minutes be added to this time.

Mr. STEVENS. I withdraw the request.

Mr. STEVENS. I thought this unanimous consent request says there are only four votes left?

Mr. STEVENS. I have not.