October 18, 1979
Page 28730
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. I yield 3 minutes to Mr. MUSKIE.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized for 3 minutes.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the other day on the first Javits amendment I indicated my concern about the amendment. I still think from the point of view of the parliamentary situation that it is most unfortunate that this amendment has been offered to this bill. The issue is in the budget conference which has not yet completed its work. Yesterday that conference was on the verge of collapse. This program was an important bargaining chip for the Senate conferees to use in undertaking to close the gap between the Senate and House budget conferees.
Now, because of the events that have already taken place on this floor, and which are about to take place, the value of that bargaining chip has been pretty well dissipated.
The Senate ought to know that the Senate budget conferees this morning made an offer to the House conferees on a package of functions and programs which included not the $1.45 billion we are talking about for this amendment but the $1.6 billion that I indicated the other day it was our intention to offer. There is another way, a more orderly way to do it than this way.
But if we continue to ignore our regular procedures and to use ways like this in order to achieve objectives, no matter how worthwhile, pretty soon you are going to nibble away at the budget process, and there will not be much left. I appreciate the expression of confidence in me that the distinguished Senator from New York has just stated. But it is not a question of my credibility or my personal prerogatives or my integrity; it is a question of how you get these things done.
Every budget resolution is a package of tradeoffs. In order to get tradeoffs you have got to be prepared to give up something to get something. Now, surely, that is not an unfamiliar notion in the Senate of the United States, and a budget conference is no different. You have to give up something to get something, and that is all I have been arguing for.
But, Mr. President, I appreciate the fact that the other day a majority of the Senate, a bare majority, supported me in taking this position on procedural grounds. But it is not fair to them, to those who would have supported the program on its merits, to ask them to jump through that hoop again. It simply is not fair, and I do not think it is fair to ask me to do it.
So the value of the bargaining chip having been almost totally dissipated by what has already happened, I am not going to insist on a procedural position that I asked the Senate to take the other day.
I will vote for the Javits amendment now. This is the situation where we are, and I will support this amendment, having expressed my doubt about the procedure.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
Mr. JAVITS. Mr. President, I yield myself 30 seconds more.
Mr. President, when I said to Senator MUSKIE that I had confidence in him, of course, I have it personally. I have demonstrated that for 20 years, but I mean in respect of this negotiation. I do not believe he has lost his bargaining chip, whatever it may mean. I believe he still has it because of the fact that both issues are still in conference.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a comment? Yesterday afternoon, when we included this in our package offer, Congressman Giaimo said to me, "You have not given us anything here. It is obvious the Senate wants this as badly as we do." That is what I mean by having dissipated the bargaining chip.
Mr. JAVITS. May I say to the Senator you are too experienced a Senator to take the word of a bargainer in anything like that. The actual fact is this has yet to emerge from both conferees, so I deeply believe nothing whatever has been lost, but if something has been lost—
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President,do I have more time? I yield 30 seconds.
Mr. JAVITS. The bigger point is if we are going to get this show on the road for people who otherwise might not survive the fact that we do not act, that is the whole issue, and I hope the Senate will vote "no" on the motion to reconsider.
I yield back the remainder of my time.
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President, is there any time left at all?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 42 seconds remaining.