Congressional Record UNUM

E PLURIBUS

United States

of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 104th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION

∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor.

S 6767

Senate

(Legislative day of Monday, May 15, 1995)

Vol. 141 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1995 No. 82

The Senate met at 9:45 a.m., on the

expiration of the recess, and was called

to order by the President pro tempore

[Mr. THURMOND].

PRAYER

The Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John

Ogilvie, offered the following prayer:

Gracious God, You have shown us

that You want to guide what we pray,

so that You can grant us the desires of

our hearts. We begin this day with

King Solomon’s response to Your question, ‘‘Ask! What shall I give you?’’

Then Solomon asked for what we desire

for the work of this day. He confessed

his own inadequacy and need for

strength to grasp the challenges of

being a leader. Then he asked for an

‘‘understanding heart.’’ We are moved

by the translation of the Hebrew words

for ‘‘understanding heart,’’ meaning a

‘‘hearing heart.’’ Solomon wanted to

hear both Your voice and the voice of

the people expressing their needs, and

be able to respond and speak to those

needs out of the depth of wisdom that

came from a heart tuned to Your spirit’s supernatural power. May the response You gave to Solomon be the response You give to the women and men

of this Senate who long to know and do

Your will: ‘‘See, I have given You a

wise and understanding heart.’’ The

heart of the matter is the heart: Your

heart speaking to our hearts. Help us

to listen, Lord. Amen.

Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I suggest

the absence of a quorum.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The

clerk will call the roll.

The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I ask

unanimous consent that the order for

the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr.

INHOFE). Without objection, it is so ordered.

RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under

the previous order, leadership time is

reserved.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under

MORNING BUSINESS

fthe previous order, there will now be a

period for the transaction of morning

business not to extend beyond the hour

of 10:30 a.m., with Senators permitted

to speak therein for not to exceed 5

minutes each.

The Senator from Illinois.

(The remarks of Mr. SIMON pertaining to the introduction of S. 811 are located in today’s RECORD under ‘‘Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint

Resolutions.’’)

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I apWHERE IS BILL?

fpreciate the opportunity to talk about

an issue that greatly disturbs me at a

time when we are debating in this

country how we are going to get to a

balanced budget and what steps we

need to take and the tough decisions in

setting priorities about where Federal

spending should go in the next 7 years.

We had a process that went through

here in the Senate and over in the

House that just came from the conference committee to cut $16 billion,

$16 billion of funding that has been appropriated by this Congress over the

past year or two—a truly minor downpayment on reducing the Federal budget deficit. It is about 1 percent of what

we will spend this fiscal year. We are

talking about cutting 1 percent, not

just in this fiscal year but this fiscal

year and the next combined. About $16

billion is what the rescission package

will do.

I see the headline in the Washington

Post, not the one I am particularly

proud of, which is ‘‘Capitals Dismantled by Penguins,’’ which I am happy

to see that, but one which greatly disturbs me under that which is, ‘‘Clinton

To Veto $16 Billion Rescissions Package.’’ The President—who has presented a budget that is going to add almost $2 trillion to the national debt

over the next 7 years, who refuses to

come to the U.S. Congress and present

a balanced budget, who says there is no

problem in Medicare, who says that everything is just fine—now decides he

cannot support cuts in spending. He

cannot support cuts in spending: That

$16 billion is too much. We just cannot

do it. We cannot tighten our belt to do

that.

So he is going to go to some group. I

am sure he will wrap himself—I do not

know, I did not read this completely—

wrap himself with either a group of

seniors or a group of children because

that is what you do when you do not

want to change things. You hide behind

children or you hide behind seniors,

and you say: ‘‘We cannot hurt these

vulnerable in our society.’’ But the fact

of the matter is this is a drop in the

bucket. These are spending cuts, many

of which he advocated, to programs

many of which do not work.

Sure there are some tough cuts in

here, things I am uncomfortable with.

We cut, in this bill, low-income home

energy assistance, not this year which

I am happy to see, but next year, by

$300 million. I think that is a painful

thing. But we have to share. We cannot

do everything. We cannot continue to

spend everything we are spending now.

I think that is a good compromise.

There are other things in there that

cause me some problems. They may be

good programs but we have to be able

to say we are going to tighten our belts