Max Baucus: “Mr. President, we had a good debate yesterday. I want to emphasize a couple of points. First, with all due respect, the…”

“Mr. President, we had a good debate yesterday. I want to emphasize a couple of points. First, with all due respect, the argument that the Supreme Court has ruled that this program is unconstitutional and that we now have a duty to expunge the program from the statute books is a red herring. It is a bogus argument, a diversion, a smokescreen, as was so ably stated by the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter. If there was any doubt, it should have been dispelled by the letter that Senator Domenici received yesterday from Attorney General Reno and Secretary Slater. I urge my colleagues to read that letter. In Adarand, the Supreme Court did not hold that the DBE program is unconstitutional. It held that the program is subject to strict scrutiny. And it emphasized that this is not equivalent to holding that the program is unconstitutional. The case was remanded to the district court. Judge Kane held that the program furthers a compelling governmental interest. But he also held that the program was not narrowly tailored. So we have one district court judge, holding that the program is unconstitutional. Not the Supreme Court. Not an appeals court. But one federal district court judge, out of the 647 federal district court judges in the country. The Justice Department disagrees with the decision. So do many others. And the federal government has appealed the decision.”