Don Nickles

I hope we can come to a compromise. I hope people do not draw the lines too firm in the sand and not allow us to make some minor adjustments to save a bill that is very important.

To conclude the dialog on Kosovo, the administration gave most Members of the Senate a briefing yesterday, but they have a lot of work to do. They have a lot of work to do if they are going to convince the Congress, if they are going to…

I agree. Particularly, if you want to see something become law, it is going to have to be this kind of structure, or it will never happen. We would still be talking toward the end of September. We might have a good debate or a political…

Yes. It is unfortunate because my Democratic colleagues are not able to take yes for an answer. I regret that.

To respond to my colleague, we are talking about so much, not per case, but per attorney. We didn't limit the number of attorneys. We just didn't want to be in a situation where a U.S. attorney is hiring additional counsel and to have the…

I appreciate it. Mr. McCAIN. In any way, that implication, I say to my friend from Oklahoma. I said on numerous occasions that his views on this are sincere and heartfelt. I hope the Senator understands that. And I say, I understand that…

I did not do it because I was not comfortable with it. I did not do it because I do not want to introduce a bill that says tobacco companies will be exempt from class action suits. I did not do it because I looked at look-back assessments…

What I am asking him to understand is why these look-back provisions are there, because the tobacco companies tried to entice young people to smoke, and here are the documents. In the agreement of June 20, 1997, the tobacco industry…

I want to come back to the fundamental issue of the look-back provision. Mr. President, I didn't invent the look-back provision. It wasn't my idea. I have very talented staff and advisers and friends. The look-back provision came from the…

The Senator used my name about 14 times. I would like to respond, because you made a couple allegations I resent and I would like to respond. But I would like to make a statement, not a question. I would like to make a statement. It would…

I will be happy to tell my colleague from Arizona that he makes a good point but he is absolutely wrong. What the industry agreed to, according to the settlement, is that they would pay $80 million per point of noncompliance, up to a total…

I appreciate the correction. Let me make the comment, Mr. President. In every State in the Nation it is unlawful to purchase cigarettes.

I am troubled by these games. I am troubled by people saying, oh, here is what the bill says and then to play games maybe late at night, Sunday night, Monday night, and have this bill written by the administration. This is not a Commerce…

The question to my colleague from Washington is: How much does your proposal cost, and are these going to be Federal teachers? Are they going to be paid for entirely by the Federal Government or partly by the State government? What is the…

These are not insurers. They are providers of care saying that more regulation will do just the opposite--it will increase costs. Experts are saying the Kennedy proposal will increase costs and therefore increase the uninsured and add a…

I am concerned it will increase costs, I am concerned it will increase regulation, and because it will increase costs, the number of uninsured will rise. Estimates were made on that bill that it would increase costs 23 percent. That is a…

No, not on my time. I only have a minute left. So I just make the comment that people can talk about these goals. I will agree with the goals. But when you try to mandate them by legislation, saying that we know better, that we are going…

Just a couple of comments. My colleague said that the President's Commission on Quality endorses these proposals, but they specifically did not endorse legislation. There is a big difference. Do we want to encourage the private sector to…

You have to use offsets; $600 million in 1999, we have a total amount of spending on domestic discretionary side. I have the 1997 figure of $288--it is more than that in 1999. I might mention, between 1997 and 1998, it went from $274 to…

To respond to my colleague, this year, 1997, we have domestic discretionary caps at $288 billion. What we will have to do is fund it within that amount. To answer you specifically, if you wanted to stay on your HUD baseline--you have a…

It would mean that it would have to come within the total amount of money that we have on domestic discretionary spending caps. It would be in that amount, several hundred billion.

Yesterday Senator Gramm had an amendment that said let's fund the 1998 emergencies and we will call it an emergency; we don't have to have an offset. That was the underlying bill. The underlying bill had money for defense, money for Iraq…

I thank and compliment Senator Dodd of Connecticut because he likewise was working on a resolution. This resolution was an effort by several of us who felt we needed to express condemnation towards the outrageous behavior of Mr. Milosevic…

I think a fundamental principle should be agreed upon at the outset, and that principle is this: No American should be compelled to contribute to a campaign against their will. No American. It is a fundamental principle. We want to…

I think Senator Kerrey's assessment of the House-passed language is correct. It is good language. But I certainly agree with the chairman of the Finance Committee. We had outstanding hearings conducted in a very fair, bipartisan way that…