Dale Bumpers

I don't think it would be appropriate for the Senate to take a position on the issue of liability. That is for the courts to decide.

I want to voice those concerns both for the Record and for a response by the chairman of the subcommittee dealing with weapons activities. Now, for the Record and people who read it and may not know, the Energy Department not only tries to…

this is an amendment that Senator Coats and I have been talking to other Senators about. I think it is agreed to by both sides now. It simply says, regarding the F-22 fighter plane, the day before yesterday the Air Force said they would…

several weeks ago I stood at this desk during the debate on the budget resolution and offered an amendment that I thought was an eminently serious, major, defining amendment on that bill. I have been here 22 rac{1}{2} years and I knew…

I have never heard so many stale arguments in my life. This is like saying we will give General Motors the steel to build cars if they will hire some people to do it. This is a simple question of giving the biggest mining companies in the…

this is the ninth year I have stood on this floor and tried to prick the conscience of the Members of this body about this last remaining egregious scam on the American people. Next year, when some of you are up for reelection, I expect…

this is the 9th consecutive year that I have tried my very best to do justice to the taxpayers of the United States. I have heard an awful lot of talk in the last 60 days by people on both sides of the aisle about the $135 billion in tax…

I have never been as happy with my decision not to seek reelection as I have been today. I have been voting on amendments that involve billions of dollars today with only a superficial or cursory knowledge of what I was voting on. I would…

let me first extend my sincere and profound gratitude to Senator Bond for creating and being the originator of this legislation. I am honored he has asked me to be his chief cosponsor. I just want to say for the Record and for those who…

So anyway, Mr. President, the budget resolution calls for a $115 billion cut in Medicare, ostensibly to provide some solvency in the Medicare trust fund. The Finance Committee, in my opinion--in my opinion, we should not go forward with…

my second amendment is one I feel strongly about--both of these--but I want you to listen to this. It would delay the tax cuts that are provided in this budget resolution. We are going to face all of this later on in the reconciliation…

My first amendment simply says that the Finance Committee must come up with offsets of $115 billion to offset that amount which is the cut in Medicare. I think it would be unseemly and extreme if we have to go home and tell our people that…

I want to relay that to every Senator in the U.S. Senate. I am telling you, if you have the 5 years, if you have the 5 years you are talking about here, do not assume that the deficit will continue to go down and we will start paying on…

for Members of this body who have not dealt with this issue on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, this is a slightly complex amendment. I am going to simplify it as best I can. We have had several hearings in the Energy Committee…

No. I will finish reading, and then I will yield the floor. The role of State law: He says, ``In making its recommendations, the agency shall apply State law in effect from 1976 to the extent that it is consistent with Federal law.''

Everybody knows exactly why Don Hodel came up with that policy--because the Western Senators threatened him probably with death if he didn't. Everybody knows that policy was crazy. It was done for political purposes. We all know that. I am…

I have to make this point one more time. The Senator talks about Don Hodel consulting with everybody. Bruce Babbitt had 3,000 comments from the public. Why is it that Don Hodel with a few Republican Senators and Congressmen around him…

The Senator from Alaska is saying that Donald Hodel, who was Secretary of the Interior, had nothing to do with the development of policy--that the Department did it. Now does the Senator separate the Secretary of the Interior from the…

in 1866, Congress passed a mining law called Revised Statute 2477. Here is what it said: The right-of-way for the construction of public highways across public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted. That was the law until…

Senator, let me answer that by saying the fact that Alaska was, until recently, a frontier State, as was all of the West not too many years ago. To suggest that simply because the West was settled by pioneers who made wagon tracks or where…

I want to make two points, one to the junior Senator from Alaska. When he talks about how Bruce Babbitt did all of this behind closed doors last year--with no consultation--last year, the Senator will recall that we tried our very best…

Let me answer the question this way, Senator. I did not hear a single soul complain when Donald Hodel established his policy in 1988. It is only the Babbitt policy of 1997 that seems to be objectionable. There is no question, if you want…

That is the very point I am getting ready to make. Simply because somebody drove a covered wagon or group of covered wagons over land heading west, or it was a footpath used by people who walked on it, to suggest those paths now constitute…

I don't think many minds are being changed with this debate. I don't see any reason to pursue it because we have a 180-degree difference of opinion on it. I personally think that the law is fairly clear on it. The policy of Donald Hodel is…

I have never felt more comfortable with a position in my life than I do on this. It has nothing to do with Alaska or Utah or Idaho. What it has to do with is saying this language of the senior Senator from Alaska, No. 1, has no business in…