I have always believed health care policy needs to be bipartisan, and needs to be ideas driven. So as we talk about health care, I come to the floor to mention an idea our colleague Senator Kerry has talked about which I think is…

at a time when there are record gasoline prices for the American consumer and record oil company profits, the Bush administration is filling our Strategic Petroleum Reserve at 2 rac{1}{2} times the average fill rate. Over the last 2 years…

we pay for it as essentially outlined in the President's budget. According to OMB and the Treasury Department, we would close the loophole that would save taxpayers approximately $5.7 trillion over 10 years. That is the way we pay for the…

The Senator from Montana is absolutely right. A lot of Senators have been at this issue for many of years. Senator Bingaman's contribution with respect to community services in the health care area is very important. I heard my colleague…

As we heard earlier, these are folks who are getting hit by a wrecking ball with respect to health care. They literally have nowhere to turn. Many of them are not old enough for Medicare, not poor enough for Medicaid. They don't fit into a…

I bring this bipartisan amendment to the floor tonight because I think it illustrates a point Senator Lott expressed earlier when he talked about updating our laws to make sure they are fair and practical for the times. The Trade…

The Senator is right. In addition to the bipartisan support in the Senate, there has been very significant bipartisan support in the business community. There are an awful lot of business leaders who have been looking for these kinds of…

The certification process today for the workers is almost a kind of bureaucratic water torture. It involves essentially a different process with different countries. What we tried to do in our bipartisan discussions is to try to streamline…

having been involved in this issue now for 8 years, I can say it has never been easy. Certainly what we have seen today demonstrates that once more. But I think the Senate has made an important statement today; that is, as we try to lay…

I wish to consult with the chairman and also Senator Allen, but it has always been our intent--and as the prime Senate sponsor of the law back in 1998 it was always my intent--that franchise fees not be affected by the Internet tax…

I will be very brief. We have had 3 full days of debate on the Internet tax question. I am hopeful we will be able to get cloture on the McCain substitute. If the Alexander proposal, the alternative, is accepted, all across this country…

California does not tax the backbone of the communications system now. California does, based on these analyses that have been given you, tax various telecommunications services. I think it would be fair to all of us to say it is our…

The issue that came up with all the witnesses this morning and came up yesterday morning was the United States is falling dangerously behind all other nations on DSL. We are now ranked 11th in the view of some, 20th in the view of others…

First, Mr. President, I say to the Senator from North Dakota I very much support what the Senator is trying to do in terms of procedure. It is time to vote. As the Senator has said, whether 15 minutes or half an hour, people ought to get…

with respect to the architecture the Senator from North Dakota has described, people have already paid once. So this question of what is going to be done with respect to various aspects of the architecture is an interesting discussion for…

The point that is being made with respect to broadband and that Senator McCain has touched on is if we now say the Alexander definitions go forward, broadband through DSL is going to be taxed. That is discrimination against the future. It…

Of course, under the McCain proposal, Senator Allen and I would simply say, with respect to Internet access, it is tax free. You have already paid for it. It is like buying a carton of milk. You have already paid for it once. You should…

We see this new rule to be a considerable barrier to our partnership.

I agree fully with the Senator from Nevada. In fact, I submitted a resolution urging the President do that. In fact, my resolution mirrors the resolution that was drafted by our former colleagues, Spence Abraham and John Ashcroft, that…

The fact is the Federal Trade Commission is AWOL on this issue. It has sent letters to all of us in the West saying they are concerned about the issue, but they have not been aggressive in standing up for the consumer. I pointed out today…

Chairman McCain, I and others who have worked on this effort to try to find common ground thought it was important early on to begin efforts to find some areas of agreement that would bring the sides together. Let me outline 10 particular…

most American companies make their profit by selling the best product at the best price. But too often in the oil industry it just doesn't seem to work that way. For example, oil companies can even get a subsidy from the Federal taxpayers…

What concerns me is that both the 1998 definition and the proposal of the Senator from Tennessee essentially discriminates against the future because the future is about broadband, particularly for rural areas, for job creation, and highly…

this week the Senate will spend most of its time on the question of taxation of the Internet. Having been the principal sponsor of the legislation on this subject in the Senate twice, I would be the first to say this subject inherently is…

on March 10, I announced my intention to object to any unanimous consent request for the Senate to take up the nomination of Stephen Johnson to be Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. I did this because I had…