Bob Kerrey

For years, the principal criticism of the farm program has been an inaccurate one, but it has been an effective one, that American farmers are being paid not to farm; converting acres is a payment not to farm; farmers are going to get paid…

I believe this conference report is substantially improved from both the House and the Senate bill. I voted against the bill when it left here, and I intend to support the conference report in its current form. I appreciate in particular…

I wonder if my friend also will talk about something else that I think is terribly important. That is, all of us, when we go home and talk to people who are working, they feel a great deal of insecurity about their jobs today. As I saw…

One of the things the public needs to understand, it seems to me, is that these companies have been given public franchises. They made their money not as a consequence of going out and starting a business and trying to get customers to buy…

I ask the Senator from Montana a question: Does he believe that the people of the United States, having granted a franchise to somebody to operate a service using a piece of the frequency bandwidth, should say, ``You own it, do whatever…

If you want to talk of the Homestead Act, it has many specific requirements for the individual to develop, and if they worked the land and developed the land, they owned the land.

First of all, I ask my friend from North Dakota, Mr. President, is it not the case that one of the arguments we have heard all along for this bill that we are going to get more competition? Are Time Warner and Turner competitive?

I am perfectly willing to have a debate about the comparative analysis between the Homestead Act and private property and franchises granted to phone companies to have a monopoly to deliver a local telephone service or to a television…

It is not the same. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Montana, did the Senator believe we should not pass laws restricting what broadcasters can put over the airwaves? We do not have similar laws for people in their home. I can engage…

I would love to vote for a piece of legislation. I hope the conference committee comes back with one in a form I am able to vote for it. I am prepared not to just embrace the future but to make a bet, based on my strong belief that there…

I can answer the question, now I understand what the Senator is saying. You are saying that bandwidth and a piece of real estate are the same? They are not the same. In that regard they are not the same. The people's airwaves are licensed.

Will we not get less competition as a consequence of bringing these two companies together?

while I believe this bill is the best that can be achieved during this period of tight budgets and a changing world, there is one part of it that makes me uneasy. All of us were presented earlier this week with media stories that the…

the modification basically was done as a consequence of really not needing an offset now, as I explained earlier, from the Domenici amendment. Staff informs me the $18.9 million we are adding back is available in the bill. This is a very…

I rise to endorse the views of my Chairman and Chairman Thurmond. Continued close collaboration between the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Service Committee can only result in the best possible intelligence for the military, together…

As a consequence of the Domenici amendment, an offset is not needed. That is what my modification did, was to strike it. His is a straightforward argument against this amendment. It can only be made on the basis the Senator from Texas…

I rise to describe a bill which has not attracted much attention this year, the intelligence authorization bill for fiscal year 1996. This year the intelligence bill is not the venue for controversies over the foreign policy issues or…

The amendment I offer on behalf of myself, Senators Leahy, and Lieberman, is a very straightforward amendment. It restores $18.9 million to telecommunications and information and infrastructure assistance programs. This program has been…

under the Dole bill, we are fundamentally changing the covenants of welfare. It seems to me and other supporters of this amendment that we should be fundamentally changing the way we design our formulas. Instead, under the Dole bill, we…

this amendment unfortunately will probably be defeated along party lines. I say unfortunately because there is a significant amount of enthusiasm in this body to respond to the people's concern about our welfare system and to try to change…

I believe that S. 652 in its current form, unamended, is not good for the American consumer. I do not believe the American consumer will enjoy the full benefits of competition with S. 652 in its current form. The reason I believe that is…

It does exactly what the consent decree did, as well. It basically says, ``You are going to have multiple consent decrees.'' What happens when, say U.S. West buys a long-distance company. What happens then? I tell you what happens. The…

The answer is no. I say to the majority leader, I came-- the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania gave me his amendment. I was reading it over, and he got up and he provoked me. There is no other way to say it. So I took his amendment…

Is the Senator from Pennsylvania saying essentially then if somebody else does something that he finds objectionable, because the other person has done it, therefore it establishes a precedent and he does not mind doing it as well? Is the…

I have no problem, as I understand it, with this amendment. As I see it, the Senator from Pennsylvania is bringing a request from the Bell operating companies to clear up this language so that the Bell operating companies will know with…