Don Nickles

I am not sure it is written that way. I am not sure it is a requirement that an employer has to give the money immediately to a service man or woman. I suspect that is your intent. I don't believe that is the way the amendment is written…

I need to know a little bit more about the amendment. The tax credit goes to the employers. Is there any guarantee that money, the tax credit--let's say $20,000 for the service man or woman-- goes to the service man or woman. How do we…

I thank our colleagues for the vote on the last amendment. I especially thank my colleague and friend, Senator Conrad, for his eloquent debate on it, as well as for his support and cosponsorship of the amendment. I think it is a good…

the pending Foreign Operations appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2005, S. 2674, as reported by the Senate Committee on Appropriations, provides $19.386 billion in discretionary budget authority and $26.728 billion discretionary outlays…

I have heard some statements where people are insinuating that American combat personnel are getting gypped by this bill. That is false. We are giving them a benefit they didn't have before. We are saying they can use combat pay in…

Yesterday the Senate completed action of the second of 13 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2005, the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. Although the Senate has not yet adopted a new concurrent resolution on the…

I will make a few comments concerning the Baucus amendment requesting $2.65 billion of drought assistance. I have two or three comments. One, it doesn't belong on this bill. This is the Homeland Security bill. This is not an agriculture…

I have every confidence that in comparing President George Bush and Senator John Kerry, that Oklahoma will make it 10 in a row. We will vote overwhelmingly to reelect President George W. Bush as our president.

I have a couple comments. Again, I compliment my colleagues, Senator Kennedy and Senator DeWine. They have been steadfast in their advocacy. Senator DeWine is right, he and Senator Kennedy introduced this a long time ago. If I am correct…

I congratulate Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus for the way they have managed this bill. They have conducted their work in a very appropriate way. They had hearings on this bill. I want to compliment Ambassador Zoellick. Our trade…

I was the principal sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which passed and was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. I heard my very good friend from Minnesota, Senator Dayton, mention that this is about politics, and I wanted to…

I am happy to debate my colleague, or any colleague, on the budget. We spent several days debating the budget. I am more than happy to debate it. I will tell my colleague that we basically have assumed a freeze in nondefense, non-homeland…

I would have to look at the figures. The baseline scored by OMB was 521. The baseline scored by CBO was 477. The figure we had before us in the budget resolution, I would want to check. CBO is in the process of revising that. We use CBO…

If somebody is activated and they go to Afghanistan or Iraq, don't they receive full health care costs without paying the 28 percent?

Is there any job in the Federal Government where an individual would work 2 days a month and receive $7,000 or $5,000 worth of benefits in health care?

I believe we have been on this bill for about 14 days, maybe 15 days. They have considered hundreds of amendments. In my opinion, this bill has gotten pretty expensive and I want to talk about it a little bit. Senator Kyl and I voted…

The intention of the Senator from Washington may be that it is not retroactive, but your amendment is retroactive. With the amendment before the Senate, an individual could be out of work in January and February, get a job in March, and…

I clarify something for my colleague's amendment on cost. Her proposal in February was estimated by CBO to be $5.4 billion, but that proposal expired in June. This one expires in November. This one is retroactive. The one in February was…

I have asked our staff the answer to that question and it came back that a person only had to work 26 weeks of the previous 52 to qualify for the benefit.

My very good friend from Oregon--and he is my good friend--as he is trying to find another vote said, wait a minute, we should not treat service workers differently than those in manufacturing. I used to run a manufacturing company…

I said the facts are the benefits under this Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, which was an amendment that was added to the fast-track promotion bill to maybe encourage some people to vote for it, in my opinion, is fatally flawed…

What is the cost of this proposal? I have heard somebody say it is paid for. It is not, according to the scoring rules we use in the Senate. The cost of it--and we got a copy of this from the Congressional Budget Office. The total budget…

I believe you do provide trade adjustment assistance to workers in companies where it is 20 percent and you are looking backward to see whether they qualify.

I wish to make a few remarks concerning the asbestos legislation we failed to reach cloture on a motion to proceed. I am disappointed that we did not go to the legislation. We have a very serious problem dealing with asbestos in this…

I want my colleagues to know we keep tally and keep measures of how much some of these amendments cost. This is an accurate portrayal. We had amendments that would increase taxes and spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. Those are…