Don Nickles

There was $8 billion and there is still $4 billion on the table the States have not utilized for the unemployment compensation?

I did not usually put Montana and saints in the same sentence, but I understand the Montana Saints prevailed and I wish to congratulate the Senator from Montana.

I, too, am disappointed that we were unable to consider the amendment of the Senator from North Dakota. I look forward to working with him and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Finance Committee to find a way to fulfill the commitment…

I happen to think we do. Because we passed a budget last year, we saved hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of spending over a 10-year period of time. The budget resolution helped make that possible. So I hope we will still be able to…

It is 46 percent over the 6-year period. You have a 6- year bill. The bill that just expired, TEA-21, was $218 billion over 1998-2003. This new bill will be a total of, for contract authority, $308 billion; total budget authority would be…

Over the 6 years, a 17-percent increase. The bill before the Senate in contract authority is an increase of 46 percent.

The President's proposal increases from $218 billion to $257 billion, an increase of 17 percent.

I agree that the pending transportation bill is not the place to consider budget enforcement provisions within the Budget Committee's jurisdiction. Even though the budget enforcement provisions in this bill are meaningless in the absence…

The Senator's rationale for agreeing to this compromise, whereby the total number of tankers to be leased was reduced by 80 percent, relied on the Congressional Budget Office's conclusion that the fewer planes that the Air Force leased…

I commend the Senators from Arizona and Virginia for their leadership on this important issue. When the Air Force's original proposal to lease 100 tankers looked like a done deal a couple of months ago, both of these Senators stood up and…

I appreciate the difficult challenges that the Chairman is facing as he puts together the FY 2004 Agriculture Appropriations bill. I thank him for his attention to this very important need and for his willingness to work with me to address…

I think a purchase is so much more fiscally responsible, and it is such more honest with the budget. We are going to save billions of dollars by doing the purchase. The lease, in my opinion, is, frankly, not the right way to do it if we…

To respond to the statement of my friend and colleague, he is exactly right. If one were trying to take this debt or paper on the international market prior to the U.S. liberation of Iraq, it would be worthless because no payments were…

Correct me if I am wrong. It is my understanding the Department of Defense opposes this amendment.

To further clarify, I ask my colleague, should the inclusion of this provision be seen as a break from the longstanding tradition of Federal Government neutrality in labor- management relations?

I want to join my colleague, Jim Inhofe, in urging the committee toward a rapid confirmation of Dr. Grim to be the Director of Indian Health Service.

If this amendment were adopted, it would more than complicate the debt limit extension. We have already mentioned that. Senators are aware of that. I have already said I will work with members of the committee. I will work with other…

Just to repeat, I tried to do that yesterday, and the Senator from Massachusetts objected--or somebody from the other side of the aisle objected. I just want to make that point as well. Some of us tried to pass a clean extension yesterday…

We are very grateful to the Senator from Massachusetts for bringing this to our attention. We are supportive of the President and his budget. I know it has happened time and time again, and we welcome his support. We have no objection to…

I do know the effect of this amendment would be in the outyears we would be taking a 10-percent rate and making it 15 percent. I do know in the outyears we would eliminate the marriage penalty relief. I do know the effect of it would be…

We have to decide, are we going to have individual Senators come here and say we know best, we ought to give the Secretary--this is a new Secretary, a new Department, where the funding for these items has more than doubled in the last 2…

That is percentage of GDP. We have a much bigger percent of GDP, but a tax rate is a tax rate. I ran a corporation. When I made profits, I paid that rate. Maybe somebody was able to figure out some Enron-type schemes and things. This…

How much of an increase did you have in 2004? I heard $88 billion over the life of the bill.

You also increase taxes, or decrease the tax cut-- whichever language you want to use--by an amount of how much?

For people who live outside the State and have never been in this area to try to dictate that we should never drill there, without living there, and override and superimpose their will over the two home State Senators, I find to be almost…