Don Nickles

I will make a couple of comments concerning the budget and the appropriations process. A couple of days ago we heard the majority leader being very critical of the President, talking about his lack of working with Congress and it is his…

Strom Thurmond, by the end of this year, will complete 48 years in the Senate--eight terms in the Senate. He was elected to the Senate in 1954 and has served this body with great distinction and honor during that time. Prior to that time…

I will object to dual-tracking on homeland security and appropriations bills simultaneously because it doesn't work. I think maybe we should have a little greater focus and stay on homeland security. I don't care if we stay all night and…

Just knowing postcloture, if the Senator from Tennessee offered the substitute section dealing with collective bargaining, dealing with Presidential flexibility, I can assure you--or my guess is--that 90 percent of those would be ruled…

I am here to debate strongly against voting for cloture. Cloture is a very serious procedure. That limits a Senator's ability to offer amendments. Are we going to deny them the opportunity to offer an amendment they have worked hard on and…

Does the Senator think it would expedite completion of homeland security if we allow Senator Gramm's and Senator Miller's amendment to be adopted, or at least be voted on? Let's have an up-or-down vote on the Gramm-Miller substitute, let's…

First let me thank my friends and colleagues, Senator Reid and Senator Daschle, for finally moving some of these nominees. Some are long overdue. Some are still yet to be confirmed. I will make one mention: Kyle McSlarrow, to be Deputy…

The chart does not show any offsetting. It shows a total cost increase of the new Medicaid mandate. I think the Senator is trying to imply there may be some savings for some areas if a State had a lot of catastrophic and the Federal…

As we wrap up this summer session prior to the August break, I want to make a few comments. Several of my colleagues have discussed different issues. First, let me state that I am very pleased that this Congress was successful in passing…

Mr. President, 80-some percent of the people do not have drug costs that exceed $2,000. Catastrophic did not kick in until $3,300. No doubt some people would benefit, but maybe the majority of the people would not. It looked to me as…

I know my State would be out of a lot of money. We offered a drug benefit that goes up to 74 percent of poverty, and we are going to put a new mandate between 74 and 150 percent of poverty. The State has to make that match. I know it is…

These are items that have support. Most of these are items that have been reported through the Energy Committee. They have bipartisan support. These are Democrat and Republican bills. I appreciate the cooperation of the assistant majority…

I don't know. I will just state to my friend that these are additional new costs. There may be some offsets. I mentioned one possibility. You mentioned: Well, if they have the State drug program, that might be a savings. I didn't have that…

The point I am making: It would be nice to go through the process, have a bipartisan markup, have hearings, have experts, and not be relying on e-mails that came from somebody in CBO. Incidentally, I noticed in CBO's scoring of the…

The Senator can answer the question. I have the floor and I will state again, some States lose under the Senator's proposal big time. I am not sure all States do; some States lose big time. The Senator stated that he did not have a…

On June 19, the people of Oklahoma, and many others around the world lost a great servant and friend with the passing of Charles Kothe. He was 89. Charles Kothe, a long time Tulsa resident and nationally recognized attorney who specialized…

Well, I will tell my colleague, all we had from CBO on the Senator's amendment was one page that said, one, it never went State by State and, two, it said $394 billion and it said it was not based on legislative language. We had nothing to…

I am wondering about all these savings. I am looking at my State. You said if the State had a prescription drug program, the Federal Government might be picking up a lot of that State program so therefore it is saving. My State doesn't…

So now we are down to $129 million worth of contracts. If they do those contracts with U.S. employees, do they pay taxes on their U.S. contracts if they make income--I mean, if they make income, don't they pay corporate income tax on the…

There is a major automotive company called Chrysler that recently merged--or you could say was acquired by Daimler, a German company. They are headquartered now in Germany and domiciled in Bermuda. I am guessing; I don't know. If my memory…

Any contract with the Department of Defense--and any company doing that has to pay U.S. corporate income taxes if they generate income off those contracts.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is a $220 million contractor. That is pretty significant. Let me ask you a question. PricewaterhouseCoopers does a lot of business, evidently, with the Department of Defense, homeland security, and other Federal…

I urge my colleagues not to waive the Budget Act with respect to the point of order for a lot of different reasons. One, I wish we had a budget. Somebody said we could have passed a budget. Maybe the Budget Committee was going to pass a…

Really, the difference we are talking about is income generated in other countries.

There are 200-some-odd-million-dollars' worth of contracts. There is no prohibition right now that I know of that would keep a foreign company from doing the same work that PricewaterhouseCoopers is doing, or some other company, so a…