Within the $20,566,000 provided for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an estimated $4,736,000 has been identified for emergency needs in South Dakota, including emergency assistance for the Crow Creek Sioux. In distributing these amounts, I…

I fully appreciate the sentiments of the Senator from South Dakota. The President's request for emergency funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs is $10,800,000. The Appropriation Committee's recommendation, based on updated information…

I want to introduce my remarks by expressing my view that this has been a remarkably thoughtful and important debate in the finest traditions of the Senate... But as we vote tomorrow, Mr. President, I don't believe we are going to be…

my good friend, the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee and the Senator from New Mexico, Senator Domenici, has just introduced and explained to the Senate two alternative budget resolutions. He has, as a matter of courtesy…

Agriculture is a cornerstone of Washington State's economy. Washington State farmers produce over $5.8 billion worth of agriculture products, employ more that 100,000 people, and export nearly a quarter of all their goods to international…

would it be appropriate to say, I ask my friend from Kentucky, that at the present time under the first amendment the American people are free to participate in their political system and in public affairs pretty much in any way they wish…

Congress, if this should be part of the Constitution, might well make just such a decision on the relatively rational grounds that all political speech they want to be directly attributable to candidates and not to permit anyone to engage…

There is a bill we will be discussing later this year called McCain-Feingold, which seeks, in this Senator's judgment, to essentially shut down legislative-advocacy-type independent expressions and to make almost impossible the ability of…

Congress would certainly have the authority to pass just such a law, I say, Mr. President, to my friend from Kentucky. I think as a former State attorney general, he has argued a number of cases in the Supreme Court. I would probably be…

Senate Joint Resolution 18 almost certainly represents the most serious and fundamental attack on first amendment rights of free speech in the 210-year history of that first amendment. Senate Joint Resolution 18 is not aimed at the entire…

I am pleased to voice my strong support for the nomination of Charlene Barshefsky as U.S. Trade Representative. Ambassador Barshefsky has done an outstanding job as acting USTR since her appointment last April. I believe Ambassador…

the economic arguments for this constitutional amendment were eloquently stated--lower interest rates, more jobs, and a higher standard of living for Americans in the future. I want to emphasize that the moral arguments favor this…

the long and often thoughtful debate over the balanced budget amendment is now drawing to a close. It is also apparently drawing to a regrettable unsuccessful end unless a sudden flash of enlightenment takes over the minds and hearts of…

And then in several years, in a few years when the Social Security trust fund is paying out more money than it is taking in, Congress would be able to pretend that the budget was balanced when, in fact, we were running a huge deficit in…

That $5 trillion figure, you did not pull that out of thin air, did you? That is what the indicators show we would have?

In summary, then, I ask my friend from New Mexico, that is just one of the reasons that this proposed change in the balanced budget constitutional amendment is a risky gimmick, and the risk is to Social Security and its beneficiaries…

Now, perhaps my friend from New Mexico, who is the chairman of the Budget Committee, and who has totally immersed himself in these problems, has a better memory than I have, but does the Senator from New Mexico remember any proposal after…

Is it not also true that all of those, almost all of those who opposed the balanced budget constitutional amendment 2 years ago told us all that was required to balance the budget was courage and dedication on the part of the Congress…

And is it not also true that whether this constitutional amendment passed or not, there would be no impact on the actual total spending of the Government of the United States or the total receipts of the United States; we would simply…

And we heard all of the same alarms from those who ultimately opposed the balanced budget amendment about the future of Social Security at that point?

Is that not exactly one of the forms of risky gimmicks that the Senator spoke of should we adopt this amendment?

Am I not correct in remembering that we went through exactly this same debate 2 years ago at the time at which the balanced budget constitutional amendment ultimately was defeated by one vote in the Chamber of the Senate?

So is it the net result of the defeat of the constitutional amendment 2 years ago that we are simply 2 years closer to the insolvency of the Social Security trust fund and the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund?

And did we not take them up on that proposal and did we not, in fact, pass through the Congress of the United States a budget that would have been balanced by the year specified in the constitutional amendment and would have postponed for…

And was that not opposed by all of the people who opposed the constitutional amendment with the single exception of the then Senator from Oregon and vetoed by the President of the United States?