Don Nickles

I am very upset about the procedure and how we arrived here today. I served 22 years on the Energy Committee. I worked with Democrats and Republicans to pass historic legislation, to deregulate the price of natural gas. My point is, we…

First I wish to compliment Senator Clinton from New York for her speech in criticizing the International Olympic Committee for refusing to allow us to use the damaged flag that flew in the recovery efforts at the World Trade Center. I find…

I have heard some people say this will cost $8 billion. I have heard other estimates that it will cost $10 billion. I ask my colleague from Illinois, is that $15 billion in addition to the underlying amendment or $15 billion total? He is…

The essence of the Senator's amendment is there would be accelerated depreciation of 30 percent for 3 years in contrast to Senator Daschle's amendment, which is 30 percent for a timeframe between September of 2001 and 2002.

I don't think it is good policy for us to go out and borrow $14 billion to have to pay over $1 billion a year in interest basically to hand out money and call it a tax cut when they didn't pay taxes. I find that objectionable. Maybe I am…

I will tell my friend and colleague, if the majority leader is willing to take up the House-passed tax bill, I will work with him to come up with a limited number of amendments and see if we can't get that passed in the next couple of…

I also compliment Senator Allen for his leadership and passage of a bill a few moments ago that will allow closed-circuit TV viewing for the trial of the alleged terrorists. I compliment Senator Allen because I know he has a lot of…

I cannot agree to that. I do not know if we are playing one-upmanship. I would like to pass the bill that passed the House. So I will not agree to that.

My intention was, if we want to repeal the death tax and pass the extenders, this Senator would have no objection. I am sure we could whip it and see if there would be no objection.

It is just one farm organization, but it happens to be the largest farm organization in the country.

Then on the issue of cloture, some people are assuming if you vote no on cloture you are filibustering the bill. I disagree. Isn't it correct, if cloture were invoked, the amendment you are now offering would be nongermane?

I want to maybe take issue with the comments that were made that Republicans have been conducting a filibuster on this bill. Will the Senator correct me, but haven't we had germane amendments every day we have been on this farm bill?

That wasn't my understanding. Regardless, I will vigorously oppose cloture if that is what the majority leader's intention is. I urge him to ask consent to postpone the cloture vote until we determine what the outcome of some of these…

I am concerned if we get cloture, there are a lot of amendments that will fall. The Dorgan amendment happens to deal with payment limitations. I am concerned that it might fall. I have an amendment dealing with payment limitations. That is…

I urge my colleagues, I don't think we have to get in a trance, and say I am for this and not for that. I don't think now is the time to make that decision. Let us make that decision when we are considering all airports and when O'Hare is…

We can solve that by putting all railroad employees, like we put all new Federal employees, under Social Security. We did it. We put Members of Congress under Social Security. To me, it would help this problem so we would get away from…

The Senator said I took the most pessimistic assumption. I correct him. All my statements and the charts are on the middle assumption, not the most pessimistic assumption. The most pessimistic assumption says this bill has real problems. I…

I am pleased that the Appropriations Committee has provided $1.5 million for the Southern Plains Range Research Station in Woodward, OK. However, it has come to my attention that there is an urgent need for a conference center at the…

I wonder if my colleague and friend from Arizona would be willing to modify his unanimous consent request, that he amend it to say that all amendments be relevant to the underlying airport security bill?

I would love to see that happen. I do not know if the other proponents will consult other people; maybe we can make that an offer. I would love to see that happen. I think adoption of this language further clarifying that we are not doing…

I know in the State of Louisiana and I know also in the State of Texas there is a lot of activity off the coast. I asked my staff to find out what percent of our domestic oil production and gas production right now comes from the Gulf of…

Isn't the risk of spillage even greater from shipping, tanker movements than it is from the production record in the Gulf of Mexico?

The Senator is correct. Federal employees are not covered by the underlying McCain-Kennedy bill.

I believe the bill already has a blue slip problem. There is already a tax increase in the bill, section 502, that extends customs user fees from the year 2003 to the year 2011. That is blue slip material. It is already there.

So the State of Massachusetts still does not comply with the Health Insurance Portability Act we passed several years ago?