Floor Discussion Over Budget for Fiscal Year 2004

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the first vote will be on the amendment that I offered, along with many of my colleagues: Senator Clinton, Senator Daschle, Senator Byrd, and Senator Lieberman. It is the homeland security amendment that we debated. I remind my colleagues how important homeland security is, how we have to fight a good offense. Praise God, it seems as if that is going quite well in Iraq. It is also very important for us to fight defense and we have not been doing an adequate job.
    
I believe Senator Cochran will offer an alternative version later on today, but I would make two points about the Schumer amendment as opposed to the Cochran amendment. One is that the Cochran amendment is not as generous, as I understand it. I have just received it. It is even in this fiscal year, the 2003 fiscal year, when our police officers, our firefighters are hurting from one end of the country to the other, when our port security is not what it should be, when our rail security is not what it should be, the Cochran amendment is considerably lower.

I am sure if my colleagues go back and ask their police and fire departments which amendment they prefer, it is the Schumer amendment.
    
Second and more important, we have close to a $700 billion tax cut. We also have programs on education, on health care, on transportation, the FBI and everything else. The alternative amendment cuts every one of those. Are my colleagues going to tell their police departments that they are going to take away Byrne grants and COPS money to give them this money? Are they going to take away fire money to give them this money? Are they going to cut road building? Are they going to cut the FBI? Are they going to cut everything that is in function 920 to do homeland security? Just as we should not be pitting the defense and the money needed for our soldiers overseas against domestic needs like education, health care and transportation, we should not be pitting homeland security against that. I ask my colleagues to think about it. We have a huge tax cut. This amendment takes a very small amount—in a quick calculation—less than 1 or 2 percent of that tax cut.
    
Where should the money come from? I don't believe we are actually going to cut education any further, no matter what this budget resolution does. I don't believe we will cut health care any further. I don't think we will cut road building any further. They are stretched to the bone because of the necessities of the budget.
    
This amendment offers the real chance at homeland security. This is the amendment. To insist that every dollar of the tax cut must be sacrosanct while we sacrifice the rest of the Government—when your school boards come to you, when your hospitals come to you, when your construction companies come to you, and your Governors and mayors and, of course, your police chiefs and firefighters, are you going to say you let them down?
    
I urge, I hope, I pray; this is a time when we need unity. There is no problem, none whatever, with taking a small amount, a total over 10 years of $38 billion, a total of over $5 billion this fiscal year, 2003, and next year, 2004, getting to $8 billion, out of that tax cut because that will fund homeland security.
    
I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment and stand up for their local police, their local firefighters, their local schools.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I am surprised at and happy to support the Cochran amendment. Unlike what I had been told last night, it does not take the money out of 920. It rather adds the cap. It is $3.5 billion of homeland security money which we very much need.
    
I hasten to add, I do not think $3.5 billion is enough. Our amendment had over $5 billion, and it does not go into 2004 and the outyears. We have a long way to go on homeland security, but this is a good first step.
    
I am delighted to support the amendment, and I thank the Senator from Mississippi for helping us raise the amount of homeland security money.