Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE AND JUSTICE, AND SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008--Continued -- (Senate - October 16, 2007)

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Ms. MIKULSKI. I know the hour between 3 and 3:15 has not been designated for debate, but as the manager of the bill and also as a professionally trained social worker, I want to speak against the Thune amendment.

What we want to acknowledge is the validity of the concerns to fund help for the Indian tribes. But let's go to the facts. Fact No. 1, the President's budget request eliminated dedicated funding for tribes. This very President, this very administration has eliminated dedicated funding for tribes. This committee, on a bipartisan basis, rejected that. It is true, we do need to help get those resources into Indian country. We do not doubt the validity of that. In response, we said no to the President eliminating dedicated funding, and yes to $83 million. This subcommittee will put in $83 million for tribal programs to fight crime, protect victims, and to help troubled tribal youth; $35 million for tribal law enforcement, for training, hiring, for equipment, for court improvement projects; $28 million for additional tribe assistance; $10 million for youth intervention programs; $6 million for domestic violence programs. We have said no to the President eliminating this, and yes to the $83 million. Even the way OMB counts, that is real money.

The second thing is we should not pit one group of needy Americans against the needs of other Americans.

Let's go to Legal Services. This agency was created in 1974, and it has been fighting for its existence ever since. But little by little over the years we made incremental improvements in its funding. However, in 1996 came a horrendous and Draconian cut. Legal Services endured a 50-percent cut in their funding. In 1980, the funding was $300 million. Remember what we are talking about now. In 2007 funds, we are talking about $390 million. If we had kept funding at the 1980 levels, just with inflation, Legal Services would be funded at $757 million.

So guess what. Senator Mikulski, the Democrats take charge. We take a look at Legal Services and we say: We are concerned. We are concerned that for over 1 million people Legal Services helps, 1 million need to be turned away. Fifty percent of the people who come for legal services have to be turned away because of a lack of lawyers, paralegals, and other support staff.

Let me say this: As a social worker--and, I might add, I am a dues-paying National Association of Social Workers member. I was a foster care worker. I was a child abuse worker. I was an antipoverty program worker. I am still that kind of social worker, only now I fight it on the floor of the Senate rather than in the neighborhoods of Baltimore.

As social workers, two of our best friends were our Legal Services lawyers and our school nurses. We could turn to them to have a team to help get families on the right track. We would turn to those Legal Services lawyers so that if a spouse was in a domestic violence situation, we could get the law enforcement help to them. We could get them through a divorce proceeding to get them on the right track, to give them a second chance, to get them moving.

Often they were victims of predatory lending or other schemes and other scams. It was the Legal Services lawyers to whom we would turn to get that taken care of. Sometimes unscrupulous landlords would have them in lead-saturated houses. We could turn to our Legal Services lawyers and our public health nurses and we were able to turn lives around. Thank God for the Legal Services lawyers.

Now, the Senator from South Dakota says this will not hurt anybody. You are not going after a corporation. We are eliminating lawyers and paralegals and the social support staff to help 1 million people. Darn right you are having an impact. You are not going after something called a corporation; you are going after our increases there.

Now, we did not fund administrative costs. We did not kind of bloat up a bureaucracy. Our money is specifically focused on lawyers, paralegals, and the social support staff for a difference. So when we say let's take it from Legal Services to help the tribes, well, 70 percent of the Legal Services population in South Dakota is Native American.

So I would hope we are not pitting one group of needy Americans against another group of needy Americans. We hope you reject the Thune amendment, support the Mikulski-Shelby bipartisan bill that puts $83 million in to help with tribal assistance. We are looking at how to deal with additional resources on the meth issues.

Let's put Legal Services back on track. Let's help those lawyers. Let's help those paralegals. Let's help that social support staff work with people, families, and child services to turn lives around. One of the best ways to really help fight crime is in those early interventions we can do with families. So really, I ask you, with all the professional experience I ever had in these areas, let's stick with Legal Services.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote sequence now commence at 3:30 p.m. today under the same conditions and limitations as previously ordered and that the time until then be equally divided between the managers or their designees.

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Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, in about 15 minutes we will be voting on a series of amendments, and I wish to comment now on one of them, the Ensign amendment No. 3295.

I want my colleagues to know I oppose the Ensign amendment No. 3295. What the Senator from Nevada is proposing is to reduce the NASA funding in this bill by $150 million and to put it into something called the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.

Again, we are pitting good ideas against each other. That is why you have to really rely upon the chairman and ranking member, who kind of strike a balance with this bill.

In the CJS bill, we did want to fund the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. We know how important it is because it reimbursed the States for detaining illegal immigrants. This is a priority for this subcommittee, and we provided $400 million to do that. We are very aware that State budgets are stretched thin, that they should not bear the cost of paying the bill for detaining illegal immigrants. We do not want to create another unfunded Federal mandate there. So working with my colleague on the other side of the aisle, we made sure there was $400 million in it. Now, we acknowledge that the Senator from Nevada would like to increase it. We would like to increase it as well. But already the President is threatening a veto because we restored the funding for the COPS Program.

Now, the cut to NASA is not a benign cut. It would be a devastating blow to NASA. It would be a major setback to the exploration programs and a devastating blow to the science programs. It would harm our effort to do very important things, one of which is a key priority for funding the next-generation shuttle.

The shuttle, as we now know it, will retire in 2010. It is getting older, it has fewer flights that it can continue, and we need to be returning to space with a new vehicle. It is the No. 1 priority, on a bipartisan basis, for Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison, Richard Shelby, Bill Nelson, and Barbara Mikulski, who kind have been the space Senators here. Also, it is the No. 1 priority for the administration, and it is the No. 1 priority for the director of NASA that we need not delay in getting ready for that vehicle that returns us to space.

From 2010, for another 3 to 5 years, we will have no access in space. We are going to rely on the kindness of allies to go back. We cannot lose time or ground. Our national security and our national honor depend upon it. Also, this would have a tremendous impact on the state of science, which goes to major efforts in terms of better understanding our planet Earth, where we do suspect intelligent life, and also the impact of climate changes. It is wonderful that we win the Nobel Prize on climate change--and we support our former colleague, Vice President Gore--but we have to keep winning those. Remember, the Nobel Prize not only went to Gore but to the scientists studying this. Regardless how you feel about the climate crisis, I think we need sound science and sensible solutions. So please, while we are looking at how are we going to pay the bills for the detention of illegal aliens in State facilities, don't penalize NASA. That would be an incredible setback to national security, to national honor, to national innovation, and a key administration priority.

So I hope that when the Ensign amendment No. 3295 comes up for a vote, my colleagues will join me in tabling this amendment.

I cannot say enough about the cooperation of Senator Shelby and his staff and about finding a balance in this bill, because we had so many competing needs, and in each one we tried to strike the balance. We had the will, but we didn't quite have the wallet to do what we needed to do. But we certainly have made significant progress and went well beyond downpayments in meeting our responsibility.

I yield the floor.

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Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, on Ensign amendment No. 3294, I support this amendment and urge my colleagues to do so as well. We have arrived at a bipartisan solution. It is Ensign amendment No. 3295 that the Senators from Florida and Alabama and I oppose.

So on Ensign amendment No. 3294, I urge support of this amendment and urge we go to a vote.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I too oppose the Ensign amendment. We have met our responsibility to the State Criminal Alien Program. We have put $400 million in it. I believe the amendment is unnecessary.

I oppose it, and I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

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Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Harkin and myself, we vigorously oppose this amendment. We too acknowledge that we should help people who are victims of crime on Indian reservations. But the administration eliminated all funds to do that.

The bipartisan agreement puts $83 million in for tribal programs to fight crime, protect victims, and help troubled tribal youth. What this amendment does is take money out of the first meaningful increase that Legal Services has had. This does not take money from something called a corporation, it takes it out of the lawyers, the paralegals, and the support staff who provide legal services to the poor in this country. In South Dakota, 70 percent of those are Native Americans.

Senator Harkin and I oppose this moment.

I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

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