Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2006

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - April 28, 2005)

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Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, thank you for the debate we are having on the floor of the Senate this evening. I rise in opposition to the conference report on the budget resolution.

This budget keeps mountains of debt on our children and fails to fund the priorities of our Nation from veterans to children, law enforcement, and rural America. It is a bad budget.

The first problem is that this budget heaps more debt on our children and grandchildren than ever before. Counting what the President wants to borrow to privatize Social Security, this budget will add an additional $600 billion in debt each year for the next 5 years. That is irresponsible. That will amount to over $3 trillion in additional debt--debt which is more and more funded by foreign central banks.

This mountain of red ink ought to alarm the Nation. It has alarmed Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who has been warning us to do something about it, and other great Americans like Warren Buffet.

We also know that this budget turns our priorities upside down. We ought to fulfill our commitment to the men and women who have laid their lives on the line for this country. Yet this budget shortchanges our veterans by at least $1.6 billion.

The paltry increase in the veterans health care budget in this conference report will not even cover the cost of inflation. The VA says that increases in its payroll and prescription drug inflation alone will cost $1.4 billion. VA's costs are sure to rise higher than that due to the increasing number of injured and disabled veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan and other increasing pressures on the system.

At a time when we ought to be standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform for our country, we are retreating from this Nation's basic commitment to our soldiers and to our veterans.

The budget does nothing to rescind the ban on new priority 8 veterans enrolling in the system. Since January 2003, when the VA announced suspension of enrollment of new priority 8 veterans, more than 192,000 veterans across this country--that is 192,000 veterans across this country--and 2,000 veterans in my State of Colorado have sought assistance from the VA and they have been turned away. That is absolutely unacceptable and un-American. We ought to remember the forgotten America.

We ought to remember rural America. The budget before us cuts $3 billion from agriculture. That is not remembering the forgotten America. A coalition of Republicans and Democrats added back funding for payment in lieu of taxes programs here in the Senate just a few weeks ago. That was an important amendment to the budget reconciliation measure. Rural counties across the West rely on PILT funding from any number of local priorities, from schools to roads.

The budget this Senate is now considering tells mayors and county commissioners across this country that we cannot afford to invest in them and to invest in America's rural communities. For all of us who are from the West, who live in States that have so many acres that are owned by the Federal Government, this is something that should alarm each and every one of us from the West.

We ought to fund public security. Yet this budget accepts the President's priority for law enforcement and homeland security, and in so doing, the Nation and Colorado will suffer.

The COPS Program has helped put over 1,200 additional officers on the streets in Colorado and, yes, we have done a good job in fighting crime. Yet the COPS Program, as presented in this budget, will not allow the hiring of single additional school resource officer in our State or in the Nation.

By reducing the funding for the COPS Methamphetamine Enforcement and Clean-up Program by 62 percent, this budget would cripple efforts by law enforcement agencies in Colorado to combat meth production and distribution and to remove and dispose of hazardous materials at clandestine methamphetamine labs around our State and around our country.

This budget calls for $215 million, or a 30-percent cut, to the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. In 2004, the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program provided 54 grants in my own State of Colorado, totaling $4.6 million. That program assists rural, urban, and suburban fire departments to increase their effectiveness in firefighting operations, firefighter health and safety programs, new fire apparatus, emergency medical service programs, and fire prevention and safety programs in local departments.

Like the President's proposed budget, this budget calls for the complete elimination of funding for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program which last year consolidated the old Law Enforcement Block Grant Program and the Byrne Formula Program. Funding under this program has been available for law enforcement programs, prosecution and court programs, prevention and education programs,

corrections and community corrections programs, drug treatment programs, and finally, planning, evaluation, and technology improvement programs. This funding has gone a long way toward strengthening the criminal justice system at the State and local levels, but it will be no more.

With regard to these important programs, the effects of this budget on my State are clear. In fiscal year 2004, Colorado received $7.4 million in Byrne grant funding. This budget for fiscal year 2006 eliminates that funding.

Colorado received over $1 million in funding under the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program in fiscal year 2004. Several cities received tens of thousands of dollars in needed assistance, including cities such as Denver, Colorado Springs, and Aurora, and 20 other localities in the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice received grants from this program. Colorado cities now will receive nothing under these programs.

We ought not to forget 9/11 and the heroic efforts of the men and women in law enforcement and first responders who responded on that day. Standing with our President and standing with law enforcement around this Nation, we ought to be investing in those personnel who are at the front line of defense for our homeland security.

Finally, we ought to fund health care and education. This budget directs the Senate and House to save $32 million from Medicaid and student loans. I am proud, in my family, each of my brothers and sisters are first-generation college graduates. That is part of the American dream that was made a reality for me. That education has been a success for my family, as it has been a success for generations around America. We got that education because our parents and our faith instilled in us the value of books and ideas. We also got that education because we were able to rely on Federal assistance to go to college.

The price of college increases each year at rates well above inflation. Even so, this budget cuts funding for higher education for the first time in 20 years. I repeat, this budget cuts funding for education for higher education for the first time in 20 years.

Budgets are difficult. Every family in this country knows that. Every family makes its choices on how to invest its resources. Growing up as I did, I understand we cannot have everything we want. In fact, there are too many families in this country that struggle simply for survival every day.

Spending is not restrained in this document. In fact, it has increased and with it so will the deficits. Most importantly, budgets are also a statement of what we believe and what we value.

Why is it that in each and every case in this budget the needy lose and the most powerful win?

Why is it that the neediest among us are not rewarded but punished?

Why is it that every tough decision is taken not in this document but forced onto our children and onto their children?

I can only think of one word to accurately describe the set of priorities outlined in this document. It is wrong, and I will vote against it.

I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.

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Mr. SALAZAR. Will the Senator from North Dakota yield for a question?

Mr. CONRAD. I would be happy to yield.

Mr. SALAZAR. The Senator describes this mountain of debt that we are piling up in this Nation and the trillions of dollars never before done in the country in the way that is happening today and has been happening over the last several years and will happen under this budget. That mountain of red debt is debt that every citizen is going to be responsible for in just the way the Senator described and debt we are going to pass on to our children and a mortgage that we are going to create for our children.

When I hear people such as Warren Buffett talk about this mountain of debt and what it means to this country, I am concerned about what it means with respect to the future strong economy of our country and what it means in terms of the ownership of this debt by foreign countries.

Would the Senator from North Dakota, who has studied these issues and is distinguished on the budget of this country, please let the American people know what it is that this budget means for the future of America if we continue to pile up this debt at this unprecedented pace?

Mr. CONRAD. It is very clear what it means because, as I have indicated, according to their own budget documents, this budget, which they have advertised as one that is fiscally responsible, increases the debt each and every year by more than $600 billion. The thing that is quite stunning is here is what has happened to foreign holdings of U.S. debt just since 2001. According to this chart, it has gone up 97 percent. The truth is this chart is a little bit behind the times. Foreign holdings of our debt have gone up more than 100 percent in just 4 years. The result is we owe Japan over $700 billion. We owe China almost $200 billion. We owe the United Kingdom over $170 billion. We even owe the Caribbean banking centers over $100 billion. Who would ever have believed the powerful, mighty United States owes the Caribbean banking centers over $100 billion? Here we are borrowing money from the Caribbean banking centers. Why, we have even borrowed over $65 billion from South Korea. I have never heard of a country building its strength by borrowing from abroad. I have never heard of a great power that made itself mightier by borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from countries all over the world.

No, this is not a way to strength. This is a way to weakness. This is a way to dependency on foreign central banks. What happens if all of a sudden they decide they are going to start diversifying out of dollar-denominated securities? Well, we all know what could happen. If they did not show up at the bond market options at the U.S. Treasury Department, if they decided not to show up next Tuesday, interest rates would have to go up dramatically. What would that mean? That would mean higher prices on every mortgage, every car loan, every student loan. Every business in America that has to borrow for its financing would be adversely affected. Our competitive position would be hurt, and American economic strength would be damaged. That is the risk that is being run by this reckless policy of deficits and debt.

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