I rise to discuss a second-degree amendment that I intend to offer. It deals with a very important problem in the national interest--assuring that rental and leasing car operations can be performed in all 50 States. Right now there are…

Is it the understanding of my colleague that the major projects that would generate the kind of work that is needed to improve our Nation's infrastructure, the major highway and bridge projects, cannot be undertaken on a 1-year extension…

Let's be clear; the Senate Intelligence Committee on a bipartisan basis has launched a massive effort to determine whether our intelligence was accurate, where it had holes in it, where are our assessments and our estimates. In…

This is a mandate. This is very clearly a mandate with a very severe penalty on any State that doesn't either have 90-percent usage of seatbelts or a primary seatbelt law. I came to this body as a former Governor who has seen so much of…

Does the Senator realize all the rest of the Intelligence Committee is in S-407 receiving a 300-page report compiled over 8 months by the entire staff of the Intelligence Committee, after over a couple of hundred interviews and reviewing…

Under the current law, there is a general prohibition against placing commercial establishments in recreation and safety rest areas on interstate rights-of-way. This bill creates a small exception to this prohibition by allowing States to…

this obviously is a very important issue the Senator has raised. Having this as an amendment to a technical amendment raises questions that I think perhaps should be answered. First, I point out to my friends who are concerned about it…

Isn't it true that the scope of this bill, the size of it, reflects programs that Congresses in previous years decided are good for the national transportation policy? In other words, we are not creating a new formula; we have taken the…

Mr. President, we have heard lots of reasons why this bill is not a good bill, why we don't want to go to this bill, why we shouldn't be moving a highway bill. I have talked about some of those reasons, but let me share with you some…

I was wondering if it is correct that the original highway bill really didn't have any formulas; it was what one would have to call pork because it had various projects in it. It was an effort by the Congress to outline where money is…

I have driven the highways in Arizona, and I know that my colleague from Arizona does an excellent job representing his State. I hope the additional $1.118 billion will be a help. This is a problem we always face on the highway bill. I…

I want to answer some of the concerns raised by my colleague from New Jersey. Basically what he is describing is the Intelligence Committee. For 8 months, our staffs have interviewed over 200 people. They have gone through thousands of…

to respond to that question, what the Intelligence Committee looks at is what is the intelligence that was gathered. There have been some suggestions that the intelligence was influenced or colored by pressure from the administration…

I intended this provision to apply only to the adoption or enforcement of standards or other requirements relating to "new" engines, not existing engines or "in-use" engines. Also, I have heard from other colleagues and stakeholders…

Yes, I believe the entire provision, including subsection (c), should apply to adoption or enforcement of standards or other requirements relating only to nonroad engines.

I am most grateful to my colleagues. I have been here on the floor for 3 scintillating hours, and I have other commitments that I have to make. Early this morning the House passed historic bipartisan legislation to improve and strengthen…

Mr. President, I support this important amendment, to put a halt to the Bush administration's disrespectful and disturbing treatment of the lives of America's seniors in setting environmental policy. It is unconscionable that the…

I have had numerous discussions with the Senator from California. Obviously, we see these issues very differently. Let me point out to my colleagues, this is not something that has just come up. When we had the committee markup of this…

I believe we can accept this amendment. This is an increase, obviously. Our budget has been short in every area. We share the concern of the author of this amendment in ensuring EPA enforcement is strong enough. There is no objection on…

These organizations all oppose the Clinton-Enzi amendment because they understand the problem the VA has. In 1999, the General Accounting Office found that VA could spend billions of dollars operating hundreds of unneeded buildings over…

We face a very tough conference with the House with our tight allocation and other competing funding priority areas such as veterans' health care, affordable housing, and other science and space programs. Nevertheless, I will look at this…

This is something we need to do throughout the system, and we need to have a better integration of the health care facilities of the active military and the Veterans Affairs. I commend the Senators from Illinois and hope this model can be…

I, too, have heard about the importance of the research infrastructure program and I want to assure the Senator that we have sought to provide sufficient funding to cover existing commitments and states that are currently under review.

The bill includes more than $461 million for the HUD Secretary to support a range of activities related to the Section 8 program including contract amendments and other measures to ensure that housing authorities are able to lease up to…

I share and strongly support the Senator's view that NASA should continue to work with universities and industry on NASA-related scientific research.