The Public Record
I came to the floor to thank the distinguished senior Senator from New York, but also my two colleagues, Senators Robb and Kerrey, for their extraordinary statements on the Senate floor. I hope the American people have had the opportunity…
The Senator makes a good point. I defended the cost-of- living adjustment. I think there are times when we have to recognize we want people in public service. But if we want to bring about the kind of cost-of-living increases that we…
let me say with enthusiasm how completely this Senator agrees with the statement made by the majority leader. Ted Stevens is one who is admired, I say even loved, by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We have worked with him; we have…
This is a $2,000 increase. That $2,000 increase is probably made, in the case of many American entrepreneurs, in a matter of moments, minutes, or hours. We are talking about a $2,000 increase over the course of a couple of years. These…
today the distinguished and esteemed Senator from Massachusetts and I are reintroducing the Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage. For those familiar with the legislation, they know that our legislation--the bill being reintroduced…
I wish I could. All I know is that if you take what it costs to get elected to the Senate and divide it over the number of legislative days, it comes out to millions of dollars per day. It is a remarkable change in the circumstances we…
The Senator from Montana raises a very good point. It used to be that we considered a workweek working 5 days. The workweek is becoming more and more 3 days. Not only that; our work periods are only 3 weeks. Then there is no workweek at…
We are talking about minimum-wage workers working 40 hours and sometimes 80 hours a week. If we are not in session long enough to address the concerns they have, it seems to me, we will have a lot of explaining to do to a lot of those…
the Missouri River is one of our nation's greatest natural resources. Millions of visitors travel to the river each year to hunt, camp and fish. Millions more Americans rely on the Missouri's federal dams for affordable electricity. And…
the time is right to repeal the Social Security earnings test. I ask my colleagues to join with me today in support of the passage of H.R. 5, the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act of 1999. We all know that reaching retirement age does…
the farmers and ranchers of this country have been struggling with terrible economic conditions over the past three years. They have seen their prices collapse and remain at, or in many cases below, the cost of production. Not only have…
I am not aware of any effort on the part of Senators on this side to renew debate and start all over. As I said, I am more than willing and prepared to go to conference and to support efforts parliamentarily to ensure we are successful in…
I want to make three points. I think the most disconcerting aspect of this debate, for those who may be watching, is the concern that I would have, having heard many of our colleagues express their virtual desire to influence the Ninth…
Among the constitutional responsibilities entrusted to the Senate, none is more critical to the well-being of our democracy than providing advice and consent on Presidential nominations. Later on today, we take up that solemn…
I would like first to voice my support for the conference report to H.R. 1000, which, as has already been noted, is the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century. I hope our former colleague, Senator Wendell…
I appreciate the leader yielding to me. As we go through our daily schedules and responsibilities, I bet I do a lot of things which are a source of concern for the majority leader. I am sure he is not surprised that the way this matter has…
I share the desire expressed by the majority leader to get this done. I want to publicly, again, commend Senator Leahy for all of his leadership and effort to get the Senate to this point. He spoke earlier and I appreciate very much his…
I will use my leader time in discussing the Boxer amendment for a moment. First, I came to the floor to commend Senator Boxer for her amendment and applaud her for her leadership in drawing attention once again to this very important…
This appears to be an understandable clerical error, and I don't think we ought to challenge the calculation or the ultimate outcome of that particular vote, but under the rules, I think the author of the amendment might have been entitled…
I want to speak briefly on a matter we will probably have the opportunity to discuss in greater detail at a later time. That has to do with the nomination of Bradley Smith to be a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. The…
for the last several days the Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Murkowski, and the Ranking Member, Senator Bingaman, have been working to come to an agreement on legislation to resolve how our nation will…
I come to the floor for just a couple of moments to express my sincere regret that we have not been able to come together to resolve the outstanding differences that are represented today in the debate and will be represented in the final…
It was so hard that there are some colleagues who are no longer here because they paid the price. Before we could see the results, of course, there were some across the country who made a judgment about the prudence of their very difficult…
I was disappointed this morning to read in one of the newspapers some of our Republican colleagues have already pronounced this budget dead on arrival. What is there not to like about this budget? This is a budget that protects the Social…
What an appropriate time to do it as we consider the budget. The budget was just released yesterday. Did the Senator from Illinois make comment that we actually have a lower percentage of Government spending as a percentage of GDP than at…
Politicians like Thomas Daschle
