The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Montana is recognized. Xx. XXXXX. Mr. President, I thank my chairman and the Chair. First of all, I rise today to join my colleague in pledging my support for this piece of legislation, the Tele- communications Act of 1995. Let me first start out talking about the leader- ship that Senator XXXXXXXX has shown on this particular piece of legislation. As you know, we have gotten the re- form of telecommunications further than it has come since I have been in this body. In 1989, we started working on telecommunications in the reform, the deregulation of it, to do one thing, and that was to push new technologies into areas where we desperately needed those new technologies, because all one has to do is to look around and say we are going to do things differently when it comes to educating our kids, we are going to do things differently when we talk about telemedicine. I can remember almost 5 years ago I joined with then-Senator Xxxx to intro- duce a series of telecommunications in- frastructure bills. I remember that day. I think the ranking member of the Commerce Committee was chairman at that time. I can remember that situa- tion. We both strongly believed at that time in the need to unleash the digital revolution through the substitution of competition for excessive regulation. The bill basically achieves that basic goal, and because of this, it will accel- erate by decades the deployment of ad- vanced telecommunications infrastruc- ture. This is not to say, Mr. Xxxxxxxxx, that the conference report is perfect or the best it could possibly be. In some places I would like to change it. But, you know, you do not get everything you want, but at least you want every- thing that you got. I think basically that is the position we are in. We can- not let the best become the enemy of the good. It is time that we take what we can get now and move forward with this piece of legislation. Under this bill, the nature of regula- tion will change. Instead of regulating the profits of telephone companies, regulation will now focus on ensuring that competition can take root in all S700
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. The motion was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: House message to accompany H.R. 1892, a bill to amend title 4, United States Code, to provide for the flying of the flag at half-staff in the event of the death of a first responder in the line of duty.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (S. 2127) for the relief of the Pottawatomi Nation in Canada for settle- ment of certain claims against the United States. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (H.R. 4558) to extend the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to the consideration of the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Arizona declines to yield fur- ther to the Senator from Delaware? Xx. XXXXXX. I decline to yield. Xx. XXXXX. I am not seeking rec- ognition. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Virginia has the floor. Xx. XXXXXX. I will try and summa- rize. Mr. President, how much time do I have? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator still has 11 minutes of the original 15 minutes remaining. Xx. XXXXXX. As a courtesy to the managers and the whip, I will not use all that time, but I would like to just finish our colloquy. Because I thought we were making a point, at least I felt very strongly, the President gave the assurances. And you said the way to settle this—and you wanted it for the House, the letter was sufficient for the House—why wouldn’t this letter con- tinue to be sufficient for the Senate? If it is sufficient for one body, it is suffi- cient for the other body. That is my point. Xx. XXXXX. Would the Senator like me to answer? I will try to do it quick- ly.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question recurs on the Bond amendment, No. 5167. Xx. XXXX. Mr. President, we raised this issue and filed this amendment yesterday. We had a good discussion on it. We had it printed. We wanted everybody to have an opportunity to look at it. As I advised yesterday, this is an attempt to deal with a very complex problem that has some real consequences. HUD has given us estimates that if we don't do something with the oversubsidized section 8 contracts for multifamily housing, we are going to do one of two things: No. 1, if we continue to renew the contracts at existing rates, these are multifamily units where subsidies were granted in the form of section 8 rental payments to get people to develop housing for the elderly in rural areas, needed housing in urban areas, these overmarket rent section 8 contracts would have an exploding cost. The appropriations for this year would be about $4.3 billion; for 1998, $10 billion; $16 billion by fiscal year 2000. The actual cost each year would grow from $1.2 billion in fiscal year 1997 to $4 billion in fiscal year 2000 and to $8 billion in 10 years. Those are the costs. If we just refuse to renew the contracts, we could have tens of thousands of people who depend upon these section 8 subsidized contracts thrown out on the street. These could be elderly people in rural areas. These are people in many parts of the country where there are no readily available alternatives for which vouchers could get them housing. So we have proposed a system that sounds complex, but, basically, we would write down a portion of the debt on the project and the Government would take back a second mortgage that would be paid back at the end of the first mortgage, writing these contracts down to fair market rentals. That is a very brief and overly simplistic discussion of the amendment. We have worked on this on a bipartisan basis not only in the Appropriations Committee but, more important, with the authorizing committee, with Senator X'Xxxxx, Senator Xxxxxxxx, Senator Xxxx and Senator Xxxxx. We appreciate very much their assistance on it. This is a demonstration project for 1 year on the way to getting a permanent resolution of these exploding contract costs. I hope that we can adopt this amendment by voice vote. Xx. XXXXXXXX addressed the Chair. The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ate will proceed to the consideration of the conference report.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Iowa is recognized. Xx. XXXXXXXX. I yield myself such time as I might consume. The conference on H.R. 1308 brings to the Senate for consideration the Work- ing Families Tax Relief Act of 2004. This is a product of the cooperative ef- forts that Xxxxxxx XXXXXX and I have had on a lot of legislation, and even though there were some differences of opinion within the conference, for the most part, many parts of this bill are things on which we mutually agree. There are some parts included that we might not agree on, but it doesn’t keep us from getting it to finality.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (S. 302) for the relief of Xxxxxxxx Xxxxx-Xxxxxxxxx. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill. Xx. XXXXXXX. I ask unanimous con- sent the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any state- ments related to the bill be printed in the RECORD. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The bill (S. 302) was read the third time and passed, as follows: S. 302 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- resentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
