I will say, as I said over and over again, we have to separate the difference between a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and a balanced budget. There is nothing to stop us today, this moment, right now, from bringing about a…

we should understand what we are voting on. We are about to vote on a resolution to decide when, not whether we release funds, but when. Somebody said yesterday that this vote is about an additional $123 million for groups that fund…

You know what this debate has shown? The two Senators from North Dakota have been in the forefront in discussing this... Just what is it we are buying with this?

I mention this because Senator Hatfield was ardently, consistently pro-life for all his years here in the Senate. But I also know he is equally passionate about his support for family planning. He fully understood that when you limit…

it is so frustrating. Every year we have this debate, time after time. We have written into our law that not one cent of our money for family planning can be used for abortion, and none of it has been. Yet we hear the argument, ``But we…

All Senators should understand what this vote is. It is really whether to approve the President's finding. The President's finding is that withholding until July 1 the release of the funds that Congress appropriated last September for…

with the exception of a few self- appointed experts who have apparently never been to Beijing, Mexico City or Calcutta, it is widely understood that stabilizing the Earth's population is the foremost challenge of our time. This vote is as…

as I recall, the tax bill actually lowered taxes for the vast majority of Americans. I can understand some concern for some who may have had it higher, those who serve in this Chamber, because they are in the highest income bracket anyway…

I think that Senator Dodd has put his finger on a very serious flaw in the language of the proposed constitutional amendment. Section 5 of the proposed amendment requires the United States to be engaged in military conflict before a waiver…

I abhor this kind of activity. Justice Thomas was nominated by the President of the United States, went through his hearing, we had a vote on it up or down, and he was confirmed. That is the major trial that he should have to go through…

paralleling the position of the 1,060 economists who banded together to oppose this constitutional amendment, the 150 organizations that make up the Coalition for Budget Integrity argue that the proposed amendment is likely to damage the…

But I hope no person in the public will be fooled by that. The result is still going to be the same as an up-or-down vote would be. Madam President, the Senator from Utah has virtually a blood oath from the Republicans to vote against…

I do support the Durbin amendment. I stated earlier that I wish it would not be tabled, that we would have a straight up-or-down vote, but I think the American public understands what the vote means. I was interested in hearing my friend…

I should note a couple things from the debate that my good friend from Utah has stated. He said he is in favor of a balanced budget amendment. I know he has been very sincere about that. My difference is I am in favor of a balanced budget…

I ask the Senator: The Senator is aware, I am sure, that during the first 7 or 8 years of the 1980's the national debt was doubled and tripled; that the administration, then President Reagan's administration and the budget they proposed…

Anytime one amends the Constitution, something that has been amended only 17 times since the Bill of Rights, that is a significant effort. As I said yesterday, for 200-some-odd years, we have resisted the temptation to amend our…

Mr. President, I would note though that it is an important issue. That is why we should take it as serious as possible. We talked about amendments. Senator Durbin, the distinguished Senator from Illinois, has also spoken, in one of his…

I agree with the Senator's point. Would the Senator not also agree with what President Clinton said in the State of the Union Message that we want a balanced budget? The answer is right there in the Chamber where he spoke. We can vote for…

think back again to last night's State of the Union address. The President said all it takes is for us to cast the votes and for me to sign the bill to balance the budget. Many of us who cast those tough votes to cut programs, to bring the…

we are, in some ways, an unprecedented country. No nation, no democracy has achieved the power that we have. In fact, in history, no country, democracy or otherwise, has had the great economy and the great power of the United States. But…

I have great affection for President Reagan. We had a very good personal relationship. I used to kid him that every year he would talk about a need for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, and then he would send up a budget…

And see if it could be cleared here, too. Madam President, last night in his State of the Union Address, the President of the United States spoke of the difference between taking action to balance the Federal budget and the political…

I rise today to echo the words of Senator Bumpers regarding national forest policy and to welcome Mike Dombeck as Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service is one of the oldest and one of the largest stewards of our public…

the Senate and House will soon vote on the President's finding that withholding disbursement of USAID family planning funds until July 1, 1997, will cause serious damage to the proper functioning of the program. It is no surprise that the…

2 weeks ago I came to this floor and spoke of an event that happened in the late 1930's in Montpelier, VT, the capital of Vermont, the city where I was born. I will recount that only briefly because we have the state of the Union message…