Byron Dorgan

While I would prefer to see passage of my amendments, I also understand the chairman's concern and will not offer them today. I would encourage the Senator from Indiana to move expeditiously. Rural Americans from our region need some help…

I join with my colleague to urge those who I know have other agendas and amendments, which I am sure are important to them, to decide not to offer them to this legislation. I encourage those who have offered them in the Senate…

Let me say that the amendment you described a few moments ago--I understand that there is some controversy about it, but it is perfectly appropriate. Your amendment deals with the disaster. I read it last evening at home, and I certainly…

H.R. 1003 would not create any new restrictions in those areas. In fact, section 3(b) of the bill explicitly states that none of those practices or services would be affected by the bill. This means that we do not create any new…

I want to tell my colleagues of the kind of crisis that exists. Again, we had a blizzard that in many parts of North Dakota gave us 15, 18, and 20 inches of snowfall on top of a circumstance that already existed that would have provided us…

Let me point out that my suggestion and my inclination to offer an amendment was not prejudging whether one might or might not have misused subpoena power at all. It seemed to me this represented a procedure that made a great deal of…

One can drive down a street and see a Cadillac in front of an expensive house, and if you do not understand the debt that will be used to repossess the house and the Cadillac, you don't understand the financial position there. The same…

Edmund Burke said something like: Your representative owes you not only his industry but also his judgment, and he betrays rather than serves if he always sacrifices it to your opinion. [...] to do what they think is right--not to be a…

I suspect there are a lot of people out there who view us all as a bunch of windbags in blue suits. The fact is, people judge us not on what they think we say or do here on the Senate floor but whether the public policy we create improves…

I obviously disagree strongly with his contention that doing what he proposes to do will in any way strengthen Social Security. It will do exactly the opposite. In fact, the surpluses that we are desiring to save are not going to be there…

The Reid amendment is designed to make sure that we do two things at once--balance the Federal budget by exacting the discipline needed to do that in the Constitution, but while we do it, keeping our promise to those who we made a promise…

I ask the Senator from Nevada one additional question. Why Social Security? I suppose some would say, well, there other areas that ought to be excluded. The Social Security area is one of the largest areas of public spending and has had…

I feel so strongly that the discussion I just heard is wrong, I feel compelled to correct it, at least from my perspective. Let me describe what we have. We have a proposal to change the Constitution of the United States. Some refer to it…

Isn't our balanced budget amendment a gimmick? Isn't yours real, the one offered by the Senator from Utah? The answer, I would say to the Senator from Utah, is, it is now 6:27. If at 6:28 we pass and all the States ratify your proposal, at…

As I pointed out, if the Constitution is amended at 2:25 today, at 2:26 the deficit will not have decreased by one penny. Why? Because altering the Constitution will not decrease the deficit. Only individual choices by men and women of…

If the budget is balanced, why is the Federal debt increasing? Why do you want to put a process in and enshrine a practice in the Constitution that reaches this result, a budget that you claim is in balance when the Federal debt is…

That is the point I was making. It is the point David Stockman made. It was the fiscal policy recommended and designed by them. However, we also have a responsibility. Democrats and Republicans all have a responsibility for this problem…

I say to the Senator I have not. Again, the Senator makes a good point. There is a difference between balancing the budget and amending the Constitution to require that it be done.

There are a couple of ways for the Senate to resolve this issue. One is a cloture vote that prevails, and the other is for the provision that is currently in the legislation to be withdrawn. I want to point out that the Congress, in my…

I thought Wyoming had a smaller population than that, but it is sufficient to say you could take a number of the States in the northern Great Plains that are not heavily populated and you can compare the kind of progress we have made in a…

I am proud of the last half century in this country. I am proud of what we have done.

Our legislation is called the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act. That is a rather long name, but simply stated, what this bill ensures is that Federal tax dollars will not be used to pay for assisting in suicide. We are in a…

If I might, Mr. President, with the consent of the Senator from Mississippi, observe, he deserves commendation for getting some of these judgeships moving. He did work on them very hard. I will just say, I don't think we have done as well…

I ask the Senator whether any of the unanimous consent requests he is intending to propound would include the clearing of any judgeships. If so, we would certainly be favorably disposed to not object to that. If not, I am wondering if just…

As I understand the Senator from Mississippi, he suggests we agree to a piece of legislation not yet written, agree to offer no amendments to a bill, the provisions of which we are not yet sure might or might not need amending, and agree…