Kent Conrad

We should add Mike Dwyer, of the North Dakota Water Users, who played a critical role of shuttle diplomacy, going back and forth in the final days to reach conclusion here. So this has been a true team effort, with Dave Sprynczynatyk, the…

I thank the Senator. If I could just conclude the thought, a number of our States are very concerned about the highway legislation because, although we are going to have a 6-month extension here, they are concerned about having a short…

Which is what most of us would like to see, at least in this Chamber. We have a problem on the House side; they only want a 6-month bill, but we want a 6-year bill.

I want to, if I can, thank my colleague from Michigan, to say then that this is consistent with what we did after Hurricane Andrew with respect to Homestead Air Force Base personnel, and that the top Air Force officials have been in…

I think this is a matter of equity for our Armed Forces personnel. I know they will very much appreciate this assistance.

I think that is a reasonable way for it to work because obviously we do not want to be expending Federal dollars where private insurance covers the loss or where other Federal programs cover the loss. The concern that the Air Force has had…

Is the Senator aware that under the proposal in the underlying legislation, we could have a private company decide the custody of a child? That this is so far-reaching without any limits we could be in a circumstance in which a private…

The rest of it is State funded. We would be in a position to endorse any proposal the State of Texas sent up here without any review, without any comment by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. That is the situation we are in with…

If we think about this, these are programs with respect to food stamps and WIC that are 100 percent federally funded. The Medicaid Program is over 50 percent federally funded.

I wish to thank several additional people. There have been so many people involved in this effort. The mayor of Grand Forks, Mayor Pat Owens, who has been just remarkable through this series of disasters, and Mayor Lynn Stauss of East…

First of all, I feel I need to respond to the statement about the President's action. The President did not include unrelated items in a disaster bill. It is not his fault that we are in this circumstance. It is the fault of those who…

If I could ask the Senator, with this question of the money in the FEMA pipeline, is the Senator aware that there are other pipelines that deliver assistance that in fact don't have money in them? That is, housing doesn't have money in…

The message, as I understand it, is that they want to send a clear and unmistakable signal to the Congress and to the country that the time to act is now.

Is the Senator also aware in the Grand Forks editorial, the 11 reasons they give for passing the Federal disaster bill now, they point out that not only the Housing Department does not have funds, those funds are not in the pipeline, the…

Is the Senator aware that not only does the Housing Department not have funds that are in the pipeline, but then in addition to that that the Agriculture Department does not have funds in the pipeline, so livestock producers in our States…

Is the Senator aware-- again, I am asking a question--is the Senator aware that in this disaster supplemental is the money for housing assistance through the CDBG program that would allow the funds for the buyout and relocation of homes…

I just say to my colleague by way of a quick answer that in Grand Forks two-thirds of the people are refugees. They cannot be in their own homes. They have been gone now for nearly 2 weeks. They still do not know in many parts of the city…

If we balance the budget and the economists are correct that that would reduce interest rates by 1 percent, that would mean on a typical mortgage, a savings of $900 a year. Over 5 years it would be over $4,500 in savings for a homeowner…

On this question of national economic emergency, it is very interesting that all these arguments about supermajority go right out the window because they themselves provide for a simple majority in the case of a national security emergency…

The fact is we are talking here about an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This amendment does not lead to a balanced budget. The debt continues to increase even if this is passed. That is not a balanced budget, No. 1…

Just to respond to my distinguished colleague from Utah, the Senator from Utah says, well, it is OK for us to put in the Constitution of the United States a definition of a balanced budget which assumes that you are going to loot Social…

I have enormously high regard for his integrity, his honesty, and his ability to work with others. A superb choice.

If we didn't have to pay the interest on the debt that was accumulated during the Reagan and Bush years, just those years, we would have a balanced unified budget today. That is a fact.

But here is a case where the portion of our elderly population that lived in poverty has been reduced from 29 percent of the elderly to 10.5 percent. That is a dramatic improvement in the lives of real people. I think that is something…

Almost 29 percent was the rate of poverty for the elderly; 29 percent of the elderly lived in poverty as recently as 1966. What did it drop to?