A bill to require the reimbursement of members of the Armed Forces or their family members for the costs of protective body armor purchased by or on behalf of members of the Armed Forces.

Mr. President, I wish to elaborate on Amendment No. 277, which would provide an additional $16 billion next year to fund our urgent homeland security needs. Because of the failure of the Schumer amendment--which would have provided a substantial but smaller increase in homeland security funding next year--it is clear that my amendment will not carry the Senate. Nevertheless, I would like to set forth the following statement on the reasons behind my amendment and the urgency of dramatically increasing our investment in homeland security.

America has the greatest military in the world--as we are witnessing in Iraq today--and we have it because we pay for it. For generation after generation, presidents, members of Congress, and the American people have come together across partisan divides and every other conceivable divide to invest what's necessary in our military, and in the men and women in uniform who make our military what it is.

If we want the best domestic defenses, we'll have to pay for them, too. But consider this comparison. Under the resolution before us, between this year's and next year's budgets, defense spending would be increased by some $19 billion. I support that increase. But over the same period, this resolution would invest only $300 million more in improving our homeland defenses.

Why? One reason and one reason only: the President's unaffordable, unfair, and unfocused tax cuts are leaving no room for necessary investments. They're crowding out every other priority. It's bad enough that they haven't done anything to create jobs, to grow the economy, to expand the middle class. On top of that, they have raided the national cupboard.

There's little money left for urgent needs--not for healthcare, not for education, not for Social Security or homeland security. Little money left for smart tax cuts that will spur real growth and innovation. Little money left to keep down the deficit at a time when we're looking at $2 trillion in additional debt.

I urge my colleagues to stop and think about this for a second. The President's budget would have us spend about $100 billion next year alone on brand new tax cuts for those who need them least. $100 billion of our national treasure on unfocused, unaffordable and unfair tax cuts when we are at war against terrorism here at home, forced to marshal our strength to defend against a ruthless and unpredictable new enemy. And that's to say nothing of the cost of the war to disarm Iraq, the peace that will follow, or every other critical need facing our country from healthcare to education to Social Security.

For this administration and those who support this resolution, all of those needs are down the list. Those needs can wait. Those needs can suffer. As long as someone preserves the precious new tax cuts--which will do little if anything to create new jobs--they're happy.

That's crazy. It's irresponsible. And it's downright unfair to those who are working day and night to protect us, and who desperately need new resources to do their job well.

My father ran his own small store and, like any decent businessman, he understood that making a good living and paying the bills started with sound and honest budget planning. If he needed to put a new lock on the door, he would set aside some money to do it.

Those who run our government now don't seem to get it. They underestimate or hide serious expenses. They squander money when business is bad. They overestimate revenue. And they seem to think that our security will magically fund itself, rather than setting aside money for it, as my Dad would have.

It's time for this administration and those who back this resolution to show some economic common sense. It's time for them to let go of their pet tax cuts and dedicate some resources to our critical common needs.

This amendment would do that. Rather than giving homeland security short shrift by settling for a paltry $300 million increase, it would start to put real dollars where the danger is. After extensive study and consultation with experts, I've determined it will take $16 billion to start truly raising our guard in the next fiscal year. That's what this amendment would provide.

How will we pay for it? It's an important question--and unlike this administration, we'll answer it. Because we understand, as the American people understand, that we can't have it all. Leadership is about making tough choices--about tradeoffs.

So we propose paying for this new investment in homeland security by redirecting $32 billion in new tax cuts proposed by the President. Half of that money will go toward deficit reduction--to start digging ourselves and our children out of the ditch of debt in which we now find ourselves. And half of it will pay for urgent homeland security improvements.

Aren't those two common goals, both of which will broadly benefit the American people, a far, far better use of our precious resources than brand new unfocused, unaffordable, and ineffective tax cuts to those who need them least? The answer is obvious to me. I hope it's clear to others in this chamber as well.

Let me now talk about some of the critical security needs that this $16 billion would help us meet.

Our commitment needs to start with first responders, who are our frontline troops in this homefront war. In communities across the country, our firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians are struggling for the funds they need to meet the new threats we face. It's time for us to give them the support they need and their jobs demand.

This budget resolution would provide virtually no new funding for our first responders. Virtually no new funding--at this time of unprecedented need and danger. That's unacceptable. There is equipment to buy. There are professionals to hire. There are people to train. All of that--like it or not--takes money.

This amendment provides for $10 billion in FY 04--$6.5 billion above the President's request--to help first responders prepare for and combat terrorism, including attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. Additionally, the amendment provides for $1 billion in FY 04 for firefighter grants, money that would be available to hire additional firefighters. This is the first installment of the SAFER Act--of which I am an enthusiastic supporter--which would provide more than $7.5 billion over 7 years to help communities hire badly needed new firefighters. Unlike in the President's proposed budget, I believe that new funds should not come at the expense of existing programs for first responders like the COPS program, the Local Law Enforcement Grants, or the Byrne Grant program.

Within this overall commitment, $4 billion should be dedicated to helping first responders obtain interoperable equipment--a vital challenge that has been estimated to cost $18 billion overall.

Nor should we wait for the FY 04 appropriations cycle to help our first responders. The recently-approved FY 03 omnibus spending bill comes up far short for first responders. We will need to seize every opportunity to fix that, and I am cosponsoring amendments today to ensure that this happens. I will fight also for more money for first responders in the supplemental appropriations process.

Our second critical unmet priority is shoring up port security--which my amendment would accomplish by committing a $2 billion investment above the pending resolution.

About 7 million containers arrive at these ports each year, yet only a tiny fraction are searched. This poses a risk not only at the ports, but also inland--as many of those containers travel many miles to their final destination without being searched.

Yet the administration's budget proposal and this budget resolution mostly ignore the physical security of our ports. The Coast Guard has estimated that it will cost $4.4 billion to improve basic physical security at the nation's ports, starting with close to $1 billion the first year. In addition, the Maritime Security Act mandates certain security measures without providing a funding mechanism. In an effort to jumpstart these vital improvements, this amendment provides $1.2 billion in port security grants for fiscal year 2004.

Because the ports themselves are a potential target, we do not want to wait until dangerous containers arrive to investigate. Rather, we must ``push the borders back'' and identify and inspect as much high- risk cargo as possible before it enters our harbors. The Customs Service has made some valuable strides in this direction through the Container Security Initiative. This program stations Customs officers at overseas ports to allow for inspection of some containers before they begin their voyage to the U.S. Yet the Administration is not expanding this valuable program as forcefully as circumstances require. President Bush has requested $62 million for this program in fiscal year 2004, a request that is echoed in this budget resolution. My amendment would provide an additional $100 million to allow for aggressive and effective expansion of this program, and for related initiatives to inspect and track containers as close as possible to their point of origin.

Moving beyond physical security, my amendment would enable the Coast Guard to step up its supervision of the ports and adjacent maritime areas. I believe we must accelerate efforts to recapitalize the Coast Guard fleet--specifically, to speed up implementation of the long- planned Deepwater Initiative to upgrade and integrate the Coast Guard's fleet and related communications equipment. The budget resolution before us, following the President's budget proposal, has proposed $500 million for this project in fiscal year 2004, which is only enough to complete the project in 20 years or longer--the timetable outlined before the September 11 attacks. Clearly, current circumstances call for greater urgency. This amendment would provide an additional $700 million, for a total of $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2004, to complete the Deepwater Initiative in closer to 10 years.

In addition to the port security initiatives I have outlined, we must strengthen other components of our border security. In particular, the amendment calls for an additional $1 billion in FY 04 to increase border personnel and to improve information technology systems for the border. On personnel, we must strengthen the presence of Customs and immigration inspectors and of Border Patrol agents in key areas. Indeed, some of these enhancements were mandated by the Patriot Act and the Border Security Act but have not been funded and filled to date. I would allocate additional funds to hire at least 2,000-3,000 new border personnel. With respect to technology, it is especially critical that we expedite implementation of the biometric document system as mandated by the Patriot Act and Border Security Act. The biometric document system will include biologically unique identifiers for immigrants, reducing the risk that immigrants will enter illegally or under an assumed identity. The budget resolution before us clearly has not allocated significant new resources to achieve this new system in the required timeframe, or anything close to it. The additional $1 billion in my amendment would allow us to make significant progress on these border security needs.

We must also invest more in transportation security by increasing funding $1.7 billion over the levels proposed by the administration and the pending budget resolution. As we saw tragically on September 11, 2001, terrorists can exploit weaknesses in our transportation networks to turn them into instruments of terror. The Transportation Security Administration, TSA, was created to confront that grim reality, but it cannot succeed without more support from the Administration and Congress.

The TSA has made its initial mark at our airports, overseeing passenger screening and requirements that baggage be screened for possible explosives. Now, the agency must build on that work by expanding rapidly to other transportation sectors. Unfortunately, the budget resolution before us allows for neither task. It would provide just $4.8 billion for TSA in FY 04, a 10 percent decrease from the Administration's FY03 request of $5.3B.

My amendment calls for $1.7 billion in additional resources to improve transportation security. Among other things, this would restore the Administration's proposed cut to the overall TSA budget, ensure the agency can continue to fulfill its existing missions, and enable the TSA to begin to expand its work beyond passenger airline security to other critical transportation needs including bridges, railways, tunnels, subways and buses.

In addition to this general increase, the amendment would invest an additional $500 million in FY 04 on freight and passenger rail security enhancements, based on legislation approved by the Commerce Committee last session, S. 1991. The bulk of that money would fund security improvements for Amtrak, such as protection of bridges, tunnels and key facilities. Amtrak would also receive money to help improve equipment for emergency communications equipment and other security needs, and to train personnel to detect and handle potential attacks. With respect to mass transit, the amendment would provide $500 million for grants to address urgent transit security needs, as identified by GAO, including communications systems, surveillance equipment and mobile command centers. Additionally, the amendment would call for $200 million in FY 04 for bus security grants, as outlined in legislation S. 1739 that won the endorsement last session of the Commerce Committee. These grants would enable carriers to improve passenger screening, training and communications, surveillance equipment and other security measures.

Next comes preparing ourselves for bioterror attacks and attacks using other weapons of mass destruction--which demands an investment in FY 04 of $3 billion above the pending resolution. Some of the most chilling scenarios posed by homeland security experts are those of a chemical, biological or radiological attack. We are depending on our public health network to help prepare for and respond to such an assault. Yet these health providers have not been given nearly enough resources to fulfill this role.

For example, despite the scope of the threat and our relative lack of preparedness, the resolution would invest just $940 million--flat funding--in CDC grants to help state public health departments care for and track infectious disease outbreaks. That's just not enough. My amendment would provide an additional $1 billion in FY 04--essentially double the proposed and existing funding level--to help these departments detect and cope with a bioterror attack. Among other things, this funding could help defray the costs of administering the Administration's smallpox vaccination program.

In the same vein, my amendment would double the federal appropriation for the Health Resources and Services Administration, which provides money to help hospitals increase capacity, training and supplies. These improvements are essential if our hospitals are to be prepared for a biological, chemical or radiological event, yet, again, President Bush has proposed flat funding for this program. Instead, we should increase this account by $500 million, for a total of about $1 billion.

It will mean little to prepare our health infrastructure, however, if they have no tools to employ--no detective or preventive measures, or countermeasures to administer after an attack. The budget resolution would provide some new funds to confront this challenge--such as the proposed Project Bioshield--but those proposals do not go far enough and are not targeted effectively enough to provide the jumpstart we need in this area.

My amendment would call for an additional $1.5 billion for biothreat and other key research and development countermeasures--particularly efforts to get research from ``bench to bedside,'' translating basic discoveries into usable products. I recommend that the money be available through the following entities: the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, HSARPA, the National Bio-Weapons Defense Analysis Center and the Strategic National Stockpile. Increased funding of these three programs would permit adequate funding of promising countermeasures research, essential investigation of the underlying mechanism of biological threats, and procurement of needed medicines and vaccines to our defensive pharmaceutical arsenal. In addition, some of this money should be available to compensate health care workers who suffer ill effects from the smallpox vaccination program urged by the President.

The last but by no means least funding priority I want to address today is permanent protection of our critical infrastructure, which demands a half-billion increase over the pending budget resolution. Homeland security experts have increasingly highlighted the vulnerability of the nation's critical infrastructure as one of the most dangerous gaps in our homeland defenses. About 85 percent of these resources--which include such vital systems as energy distribution grids, chemical and nuclear plants, or financial networks--are in private hands, complicating the process for assuring adequate security.

The administration, and the resolution before us, seem content to continue studying the vulnerabilities of these systems. They have requested about $500 million for this process in FY 04. This would enable far too sluggish progress for such a vital task. My amendment calls for an additional $500 million in FY 04 to get these assessments done at once so that we can move to create action plans and conduct needed security enhancements at the earliest possible moment.

Halfway around the world, the American military and our allies are fighting to disarm a dictator who refused to give up his weapons for 12 long years. I believe our brave men and women in uniform will accomplish their mission--and that when they do, the world will be a safer place for peaceful people, and a worse place for terrorists and tyrants.

But here at home, to guard the land beneath our feet, other men and women in uniform are engaged in another front of the war against terrorism--and unlike the men and women of our armed forces, we have not given them all the support, the training, the technology, and the resources they need to succeed.

We owe it to our nation and ourselves to do better. On September 3, 1939, shortly after Britain declared war on Germany, Winston Churchill said, ``Outside, the storms of war may blow and the lands may be lashed with the fury of its gales, but in our own hearts this Sunday morning there is peace. . . . Our consciences are at rest.''

Our consciences as Americans--and as parents to our children--will only rest when we demonstrate the leadership and invest the resources to counter the fury the terrorists seek to bring upon us. Protecting the American people in an age of terrorism demands strong leadership and enormous resources--and it demands them now.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Protecting American Democracy Act of 2003, legislation that is vital to ensuring that the voting systems used in our Federal elections are as secure as possible while also ensuring that each and every voter in our Nation has an equal opportunity to verify his or her vote before that vote is cast and permanently recorded. At its core, this legislation will ensure that every vote is properly counted, ensuring the integrity of each vote, which is at the heart of our democracy.

In recent months, there has been discussion about the increasing use of electronic voting systems such as direct recording electronic systems (DREs), the first completely computerized voting systems. Computerized voting systems can have many advantages. As the Congressional Research

Service has reported, they are arguably the most user-friendly and versatile of any current voting system. Among many features, such voting machines can be easily programmed to display ballots in different languages and can be made fully accessible for persons with disabilities, including the visually impaired. They can also prevent overvotes and spoilage of ballots due to extraneous marks since no document ballot is involved. In addition, fully computerized systems have the ability to notify voters of undervotes. Presently, no other kind of voting system possesses so many features. For this reason, it is expected that within the next two years, with funding authorized under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (``HAVA''), state and local jurisdictions across the country will begin purchasing fully computerized systems.

One of the disadvantages of these electronic voting systems, however, is that they do not give voters an opportunity to verify their votes-- to confirm that the voting machinery is registering the vote that the voter intended to cast--before the vote is cast and permanently recorded. In addition, electronic voting systems raise other concerns because of the ability of the software in the voting system to be compromised, or worse, maliciously attacked, by someone who may want to alter the voting results. Indeed, a number of recent studies, including the July 2001 study by Caltech/MIT, the July 2003 study by Johns Hopkins and Rice universities, the September 2003 study by the Science Applications International Corporation, requested by the Governor of Maryland, and the two November 2003 studies conducted by Compuware Corporation and InfoSENTRY, requested by the Ohio Secretary of State, pointed to significant and disturbing security risks in electronic voting systems and related administrative procedures and processes.

That is why in addition to ensuring that voters have an opportunity to verify their vote, it is vital that we improve the security of voting system technology, and that means not only the kind of software that is used but also how, for example, that software is designed, stored, disseminated, updated, field tested, and used in an actual election. This is a developing consensus among computer security experts that not only is the security of electronic voting systems wholly inadequate, but that the security policies and procedures that State and local election officials, voting system vendors, and others use are non-existent, inadequate, or, if they exist, are not followed, which is the same as having no policy at all.

Our Nation is the greatest Nation on earth and it is the leading democracy in the world. Central to that democracy is ability of Americans to have confidence in the voting system used to register and record their votes. This is a fundamental standard that must be met. I have concerns, however, that our Nation is falling short of that standard.

That is why I am today introducing the ``Protecting American Democracy Act of 2003,'' which amends by adding a voter verification requirement for voting systems to give each voter an opportunity to verify his or her vote at the time the vote is cast. Voters will be given an opportunity to correct any error made by the voting system before the permanent voting record is preserved.

While requiring that all election jurisdictions give voters the ability to verify their votes, this legislation also gives States and local jurisdictions the flexibility to employ the most appropriate, accurate, and secure voter verification technologies, which may include voter-verifiable paper ballots, votemeters, modular voting architecture, and/or encrypted votes, for their State or jurisdiction in a uniform and nondiscriminatory manner. Any voter verification method used must ensure that voters with disabilities and other affected voters have the ability to cast their vote in private, and language minorities must have equal access in verifying their vote. This is important if we are to ensure that all Americans--including the more than 20 million voters who are visually impaired, the more than 40 million Americans who lack basic literacy skills, and millions of language minorities--will be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

To address critical security issues, the ``Protecting American Democracy Act of 2003'' also amends HAVA by adding a security requirement for voting systems to ensure that voting systems are as secure as possible. Specifically, voting systems must adhere to the security requirements for Federal computer systems as required under current law or, alternatively, more stringent requirements adopted by the Election Assistance Commission. Currently no such requirement exists. I believe that, at minimum, the systems used by the people of the United States to exercise their constitutional right to vote, the hallmark of our democracy, should be at least as secure as the computer systems used by the Federal Government.

The security requirements must also provide that no voting system shall contain any wireless device, which reduces the risk that hackers will be able to attack any electronic voting system. In addition, all software and hardware used in any electronic voting system must be certified by laboratories accredited by the Commission as meeting all security requirements.

The Act also requires the Election Assistance Commission to report to Congress within 6 months of enactment regarding a proposed security review and certification process for all voting systems. Within 3 months of enactment, the Government Accounting Office, unless the Commission has already completed the following report, must issue a report to Congress on the operational and management systems that should be employed to safeguard the security of voting systems, together with a schedule for how quickly each such measure should be implemented.

Lastly, immediately upon enactment, the National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST) must provide security consultation services to State and local jurisdiction. Two million dollars in Fiscal Years 2004 through 2006 are authorized to be appropriated to assist NIST in providing these security consultation services.

I cannot think of a more significant risk to our democracy than for Americans to lack complete confidence in the voting systems used to cast and count their votes in Federal elections. For all those who believe that in a democracy, there is no more important task than assuring the sanctity of votes, this should be an easy step to take to assure it. For this reason, I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation. I ask unanimous consent that the text of this bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today, I am introducing a bill that seeks to begin a dialogue on one of the most important yet neglected aspects of our health care system--health care quality. this is an enormous issue that affects every single one of us who has ever needed medical care, and it affects all taxpayers because quality care has such potential to avoid waste and save millions of dollars in health care costs. I have raised many of these ideas as amendments in other contexts, such as the Medicare debate on S. 1, and the debate over S. 720, the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2003. I intend to continue working with my colleagues on improving these ideas and proposing additional concepts. But with this bill today, I seek to put forward a package of ideas, provoke conversation, and present this as a first step in making quality a focus of my health care efforts next year. My goal with these efforts is to both improve quality and outcomes, and reduce costs by encouraging care that is more effective.

There is no reason why we cannot achieve this. We have the most advanced medical system in human history--the finest medical institutions, the newest treatments, the best trained health care professionals. But in spite of the best intentions of clinicians and patients, our health care system is plagued with underuse, overuse, and misuse. currently, only about 50 percent of care that is known to be effective is provided, and the care given is supported by solid scientific evidence, and the pace of dissemination of new evidence is painfully slow. It may take up to 17 years for treatments found to be effective to become common practice.

Much of the overuse or misuse of health services stems from the fragmentation of our system. In a recent study in Santa Barbara, CA, 20 percent of lab tests and x-rays were conducted solely because previous results were unavailable. One in seven hospitalizations occurs because information is unavailable, and a shocking percentage of the time, physicians do not find patient information that had previously been recorded in a paper-based medical record.

Despite all of our Nation's medical advances, health quality is becoming even more endangered in some respects. Nursing care which is often shown to be a decisive factor for hospital patient outcomes, its in grave shortage, and a majority of U.S. physicians surveyed by the Commonwealth Fund perceive their ability to provide quality care as having worsened over the last 5 years.

Additionally, even as the quality of health care we purchase lags, our spending on inadequate and wasteful care is spiraling out of control. Premiums increased 13 percent last year, and health care costs are increasing at nearly 10 times the rate of inflation. To make matters worse, the public health system is straining to meet the challenges of bioterrorism or emerging infections, the number of uninsured Americans is rising, clinicians are leaving practice, and the older adult population is set to double by 2040.

The reason is not because doctors aren't trying hard enough, or hospitals are at fault. That we're able to get good health care at all is testament to the genius and heroism of doctors and nurses who deliver care, despite all the obstacles, despite every effort of the system to hinder them.

But what our medical system requires of providers is a little like asking pilots to routinely land planes without any information from the control tower. The best of them can do it--they could land a plane with one arm around their backs missing key information and confirmations, but why force them to do it? Why deny them critical information when it could be easily available? There is no plausible reason for denying needed information, especially when life and death are at stake.

That's unfortunately exactly what our health care system says to doctors, nurses, and hospitals. Physicians for example spend four years in medical school, and then several years more in their residency training, cramming medical information into their heads. Then we expect them to look at a patient taking four different drugs, with a heart condition, and immediately remember any drug-drug interactions that could occur. We ask them to do it without looking up any reference materials. We ask them to do it in the few minutes that they have with each patient given the ever-shorter visits, and ever-increasing patient and paperwork load. Moreover, in their free time, they are expected to keep up with all the new journal articles and learn about every new drug.

Yet hand-held computers can now allow the doctor to pull up up-to- date information immediately, right at the bedside, if he or she has any question. And NIH spends billions of dollars in research to generate that information. Shouldn't that investment reap results for the patient as quickly as possible? This bill seeks to provide the direction that would support such technology and make it widely available to physicians.

Right now, doctors, nurses, and hospitals are holding the health care system up, preventing utter collapse by sheer, heroic, force of will. Instead of the clinicians supporting the system, we should build a system that supports clinicians instead.

The premise of this legislation is that information, in the hands of the right people at the right time, drives quality and value. We need to empower patients and health care providers to make the right choices. And to do that, health care decisionsmakers--providers, payers, and patients--need to have access to the right information, where and when it is needed, securely and privately.

This legislation seeks to: 1. Generate information about health quality through increased research, increased public reporting along key quality measures, and standardization of those measures to assure comparability and usability of reported information; 2. Ensure that payers, providers and patients get information in a usable form so they can make effective decisions; and 3. Reduce barriers to the development of an IT infrastructure that is so critical to achieving those first 2 goals.

Eighty percent of the care delivered today is not backed by sound clinical

research. That is why we need to do more research, and see if the care we provide today has sound justification in science. But even where we know what to do, we don't always do it because the information is insufficiently disseminated and utilized. Studies have shown some procedures being performed even when they have not met accepted criteria for appropriateness: In one study, of all the non-emergent, noncancerous hysterectomies performed, only 30 percent had been properly worked up and met the full medical criteria for necessity. In another study, about one-fourth of coronary angiographies and upper gastrointestinal endoscopies did not meet standards of medical appropriateness.

On the flip side, in situations where the benefits of an intervention are clear, many patients do not receive the indicated care: Very few hospitalized patients at-risk for pneumococcal pneumonia who had not been previously vaccinated end up being vaccinated during their hospital stay. Routine peak flow measurements are conducted in only 28 percent of pediatric patients with asthma. And only one-half of diabetics receive an annual eye exam.

We know what good health care means in these areas, but we don't practice it, in part because that information may not be readily available, and regardless, there is no incentive for quality. We are suggesting--track the outcomes, share that information with patients, providers, and insurers, and ultimately, pay for performance.

This bill will help us become better purchasers of care, and help us take the first steps toward aligning the incentives so that higher quality is rewarded. I ask unanimous consent that the attached article from last week's New York Times be printed in the Record showing how our current reimbursement system is gravely misaligned. Under the current system, higher quality can be penalized, while worse care can ironically be more profitable.

Today, by introducing these ideas for the purpose of seeking feedback from my colleagues and experts in the field, I am taking the first step toward improving our health care system for everyone and saving money. I invite interested colleagues to join me in partnership on this important venture and look forward to taking strong, positive action next year to improve health quality for all Americans.

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce today with my distinguished colleague from New York, Senator Clinton, the National Highway Safety Act of 2003. It would be our intention in the course of the deliberations next year on the reauthorization or, as we call it, the successive piece of legislation to TEA-21, that this bill, which we introduce today, would be incorporated as an amendment.

As the Congress prepares to consider legislation next year to enact a new 6-year surface transportation law to succeed TEA-21, our foremost responsibility, in my judgment and in the judgment of many, and in the judgment of the President of the United States, must be to improve highway safety for the driving public. Simply by increasing the number of Americans who will buckle up is the most effective step that can be taken to save the their lives and the lives of others. That is the single most important step.

I am privileged to serve on the Environment and Public Works Committee that has now completed its markup of the TEA-21 reauthorization bill. The bill addresses, as it should, highway safety measures, such as how to build safer roads, how to do use new technologies to improve safety. But, statistics show that the greatest measure of safety, again, to drivers, passengers, and possibly third parties not connected with the vehicle, is through the use of a seatbelt. It is remarkable, the lives that have been saved through the use of this simple device. I have, through my career in the Senate--I say with modesty--been associated with, and indeed I think in the forefront of, trying to move forward on seatbelt legislation. I will not belabor what this humble Senator has done working with others through the years, but we are very proud today that America has about a 79 percent use rate of seatbelts. That has been translated into the saving of tens of thousands of lives and injuries in automobile accidents.

Those are the facts. Are we just going to have a standstill, or are we going to move forward? Senator Clinton and I think we should move forward with this somewhat new approach. I will address the technical aspects as we go along.

We have debated the benefits of seatbelt use on many occasions in this body, and elsewhere across America. And whether it is in the town forums we conduct, town meetings, or here on the floor of the Senate, there is always that individual who comes back: Don't tell me what I have to do. What does it matter to you, John Warner--or to any other colleague with whom I am privileged to serve--what does it matter to you whether I buckle up?

Well, let's take a look. No one disputes that the absence of a seatbelt causes more serious loss of life and injury and, to some extent, crashes. The statistics show that with the impact associated with the crash, to the extent the driver can maintain, as best he can control of the vehicle in those fatal microseconds, often fatal, perhaps the severity of the crash, and perhaps the loss of life can be reduced by the use of a safety belt--simply said.

Accidents involving unbelted drivers result in a significant cost to the wallet, out of your pocket. Many people are rushed from the accident scene to various emergency facilities. All of that has the initial cost of the law enforcement that responds, the rescue squads that respond, and eventually the emergency room or whatever medical facility you might have the good fortune to be taken to, to hopefully save you your life. That isn't free. There is a cost. Maybe it is a hidden cost in the budgets of the towns and the communities and the States, but there is definitely a cost. Regrettably, a number of persons who suffer those types of injuries are uninsured. Again, the cost often devolves down on the good old hard-working taxpayers; in most instances, the taxpayers who buckle up.

This also is rather interesting and fascinating. When an accident happens, regrettably, on our roads and highways across this great Nation, we try to refrain from rubbernecking. Nevertheless, chances are that we take a glance. More often than not, the accident with the combined slowdown of those passing the accident causes significant congestion for some considerable portion of time. Either the lane in which we are traveling moves very slowly because of the accident or, indeed, we come to a standstill, as often is the case when a lane is closed to clear an accident. That standstill frequently is necessitated because of the severity of the injuries experienced in that accident. It takes the response team longer in their carefully trained steps to extricate the injured person, to give the initial treatment, and then to carefully transport that individual, if necessary, to a medical facility. That takes time. That road is backed up.

That is lost time for your mission on the road, be it for business, family, or pleasure. That is lost time and productivity. Behind you often are trucks and other vehicles involved in commerce. That is lost time and delay due to the seriousness occasioned by injuries and accidents where there has been the lack of use of seatbelts. It is as simple as that.

The legislation Senator Clinton and I are introducing today will take an important step forward for the States to adopt either a primary safety belt law, or take steps of their own devising to meet a 90 percent seat belt use rate--not the Warner-Clinton bill or the legislative measure put forth by the administration upon which Senator Clinton and I draw for concepts of certain portions. The States can decide for themselves how they achieve a 90-percent goal of the use of seatbelts in their respective States. That is the purpose of this legislation--to move every State to a 90-percent use rate for safety belts.

In a letter dated November 12, 2003, to Chairman Inhofe of the Committee on the Environment and Public Works, on which I am privileged to serve, Secretary Mineta states:

President Bush and I believe that increasing safety belt

usage rates is the single most effective means to decrease

highway fatalities and injuries.

That is explicit and clear. The Secretary goes on to say:

The surest way for a State to increase safety belt usage is

through the passage of a primary safety belt law.

I have had this debate with Governors, former Governors, even in this Chamber with former Governors. I think they would tell you that a primary safety belt law is a tough piece of State legislation to pass solely on its own. Frankly, it needs the impetus of Uncle Sam, the impetus of the Congress of the United States to move that process in the States forward, so the local politicians can shake their fist saying, it is Washington that has done it again--more regulation, more direction--you know the arguments. But I think quietly in the hearts of those State legislatures is the thought that we will improve safety in my State. We will improve the chance of survivability on the roads in my State. So that is why we are here today. I ask unanimous consent that the full text of Secretary Mineta's letter be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

As provided in our legislation, the Warner-Clinton bill, States can increase seatbelt use either by enacting, as I said, a primary seatbelt law--everybody knows what a primary seatbelt law is and how it works. It means a law enforcement officer can literally stop a vehicle if they observe that the individual is not wearing his or her seatbelt. It is as simple as that. But a State, if they decide not to enact a primary safety belt law, can, by implementing their own strategies, whatever they may be--and there is a lot of innovation out in the States--that would result in a 90-percent safety belt use rate. So that is a challenge to the States.

The current national belt use, as I said, is 79 percent. But many States--those that have the primary law are sometimes at 90, or even above 90, but those that do not have the primary seatbelt law are down sometimes in the 60 percentile. It is the weight of the primary States that carries the percentile and brings it up to 79 from those States that don't have an effective law. States with their primary safety belt law have the greatest success for drivers wearing seatbelts.

On an average, States with the primary seatbelt law have a 10 to 15 percent higher seatbelt use compared to those with a secondary system. This demonstrates that secondary seatbelt

laws are far more limited in their effectiveness than a primary law.

Essentially, the secondary laws say that if a law enforcement officer has cause other than a perceived or actual seatbelt violation--namely, the driver didn't have it buckled--if they have cause to stop that car, for example, for a speeding offense or a reckless driving offense or indeed an accident and they observed there has been no use of the seatbelt, then in the course of proceeding to enforce the several laws of the State as regards speeding or reckless driving, or whatever the case may be, they can add a second penalty to address the absence of the use of the seatbelt in that State.

Drivers are gamblers. They say: Oh, well, don't worry, I will not buckle up. State law doesn't require it. Unless they stop me--and they are not going to stop me today. It is that gambling attitude that, more often than not, will cause an accident. Then it is too late.

So we come forward today to build on our national programs. We are building on what we did in TEA-21. I was privileged to be on the committee. I was chairman of the subcommittee 6 years ago. I worked with Senator Chafee, who was chairman of the full committee, and we drove hard to make progress with the seatbelt laws, and we did it. We basically put aside a very considerable sum of money to encourage States--again, using their own devices--to increase uses. As a direct consequence of what we did in TEA-21, there has been an 11 percent increase in these 6 years in the use of seatbelts.

Sadly, traffic deaths in 2002 rose to the highest level in over a decade. It is astonishing. Of the nearly 43,000 people killed on our highways, over half were not wearing their seatbelts. That is according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And 9,200 of these deaths might have been prevented if the safety belt had been used.

Those are alarming statistics. Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans age 2 to 34. Stop to think of that: age 2, that means a child; that means a parent neglected to buckle up a child. Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans age 2 to 34. That is our Nation's youth. Do we have a higher calling in the Congress of the United States than to do everything we can to foster the dreams and ambitions and the productivity of our Nation's youth? I think not. And this is one of the ways.

Last year, 6 out of 10 children who died in car crashes did not have the belt on--6 out of 10; that is over half. I plead with colleagues to join with me, join with the President who has taken this initiative.

My primary responsibility in the Senate--and this is one of the reasons I got interested in this subject--is the welfare of the men and women in the Armed Forces. I say to colleagues, again, the statistics are tragic. Traffic fatalities are the leading non-combat cause of death for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. They are in that high-risk age category, 18 to 35.

Someone even took a look at the statistics, the total of the fatalities last year, and said that represents in deaths approximately the size of the average U.S. Army battalion. That is several companies and maybe a reinforced element. Just think, that is the magnitude in one category of those who serve our United States, the men and women in the Armed Forces.

I cannot think of any reason why we all cannot join behind this effort. That alone is a driving impetus for this Senator.

The time is long overdue for a national policy to strengthen seatbelt use rates. I said a national policy, and that is what this bill represents, either through States enacting a primary seatbelt law or giving far greater attention to public awareness programs that result in more drivers and passengers wearing safety belts. Our goal is 90 percent--90 percent.

I have been privileged to serve on this committee 17 years, and I, together with many others, notably my dear friend and late chairman, Senator Chafee, addressed this issue. Our committee is rich in the history of focusing revenue from the highway trust fund on effective safety programs. It goes back through many chairmen and members of the committee.

With jurisdiction over the largest share of the highway trust fund, our committee has had the vision to tackle important national safety problems. Regrettably, I report to you that the recent markup of the committee on the proposed successor to the TEA-21 legislation, which we will take up next year, does provide more funding to help build safer roads--that is a step forward--but it does not have, in my judgment, that provision which represents a step up from what we did in TEA-21, that provision that would represent a recognition for the President's initiative. He has taken a decidedly strong initiative to increase the use of seatbelts. It is absent from the bill, and that is why, I say respectfully to Chairman Inhofe and others on that committee, we need a provision to strengthen and to move forward the position of the Congress on the issue of increased use of safety belts. That is the purpose of this legislation.

It is just unfortunate, but those with reckless intent quickly disregard responsible behavior and drive unbelted at excessive speeds and many times with the use of alcohol. So no increased dollars for improved road engineering, which is in this bill, can defy in many instances and the type of personal conduct that results in reckless behavior. It is as simple as that.

Our automobiles now come equipped with crash avoidance technologies and are more crashworthy than ever before, but these advances are only part of the solution.

In repeated testimony before the Environment and Public Works Committee, from the administration, our States, safety groups, and the highway insurance industry, we are told that three main causes of traffic deaths and injuries are unbelted drivers, speed, and alcohol.

The formula we have devised in this legislation does have a reduction in the amount a State receives under this proposed bill that we will consider next year when they fail to achieve the 90 percent safety belt use rate. It is as simple as that. But the formula is patterned directly after the law that is on the books now with respect to the .08 legal blood alcohol content level.

The net effect of this legislation is simply to recognize we are asking that the same type of sanction policy with regard to one of the three major causes of death--alcohol--be equated to a second cause of death and injury, and that is absence of the use of seatbelts, bringing into parallel two of the three principal causes of death and injury on today's highways.

The administration put forward an innovative safety belt program, as I said, under the leadership of the President that was a major component of their new core transportation program, the Highway Safety Improvement Program. Regrettably, this recommendation is not included in the bill that will come before my committee next year as a consequence of the markup seeking reauthorization of TEA-21.

The proposed reauthorization bill also does not include the current program, the Safety Belt Incentive Grant program, that we even had in the previous highway bill, of which I was primarily one of the authors. Not only are we not going forward, but in a sense we are stepping backwards. I just cannot understand how we can, as a body, not observe our responsibility to do what we can to provide the necessary incentive to the States to take these steps.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, we have been in discussions for the last hour or so. I am calling a caucus for 6:45 to discuss our current situation and a series of ideas that might allow us to bring this debate to closure.

I do not want to discuss it here and now, but I hope Senators will attend at 6:45 and we will have more information at that time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, the caucus, for the information of our Democratic Senators, will be in the LBJ Room, our normal caucus room.

I have something else, though, that I want to share with my colleagues.

Congratulating Senator Paul Sarbanes on Casting his 10,000th Vote

Mr. President, at 3:45 this afternoon, our friend and colleague, Paul Sarbanes, joined what is truly one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. He cast his 10,000th vote as a United States Senator.

Of the 1,875 people ever to serve in the Senate, only 20 others have ever reached this remarkable milestone. Remarkably, eight of the 21 ``10,000 vote'' Senators are serving in this Senate.

In addition to Senator Sarbanes, they include our friends Joe Biden, Senator Byrd, Pete Domenici, Fritz Hollings, Dan Inouye, Ted Kennedy and Ted Stevens. I'm proud to note that, at least in this very distinguished caucus, Democrats still have a majority.

Reaching this historic milestone is just the latest remarkable accomplishment in what has been, by anyone's standards, a remarkable American success story. Paul Sarbanes is the proud son of Greek immigrants. His parents, Spyros and Matina Sarbanes, emigrated from the same town in Greece, but met in America. The Sarbanes family owned a restaurant in Salisbury, MD. They gave it a quintessentially American name: The Mayflower Restaurant. Paul worked in the restaurant, and he and his family lived above it.

He graduated from a public high school and won a scholarship to Princeton University.

He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. After Oxford, he came home and, in 1960, earned a law degree from Harvard. From Harvard, Paul Sarbanes went to the White House, one of the ``best and brightest'' who answered President Kennedy's call to public service. He worked as Administrative Assistant to Water Heller, chairman of President Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisors.

He won his first elected office in 1966, to the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served for 4 years. In 1970, the people of Maryland elected him to the House of Representatives. In 1976, he won his first election to the United States Senate. In November 2000, he won his fifth election to the Senate, making him the longest-serving Senator in Maryland's history.

It's been said that there are two kinds of Senators: those who are here to make headlines and those who are here to make history. Paul Sarbanes is one of the history makers. He is one of the most modest men I know. He is also one of the most intelligent. He was a voice of reason on both the Whitewater and Iran-Contra committees. It was his leadership and his refusal to accept defeat--more than anything--that enabled us, in the last Congress, to pass the most far-reaching corporate accountability reforms since the Securities and Exchange Commission was created 70 years ago.

The Sarbanes-Oxley reforms will help prevent the kinds of corporate abuses that have so damaged our economy and shaken people's faith in the economic markets these last few years. They will protect people's investments, and their economic futures.

I learned a Greek word from Paul Sarbanes: ``idiotes.'' It is the Greek root for the English word ``idiot.'' But it has a different meaning in Greek. It means ``someone who takes no part in the affairs of his community.'' In the Sarbanes family, it was almost a curse.

Paul Sarbanes' parents taught him that serving one's nation is a noble calling. I know they would be proud of him. So are we. I congratulate my friend on casting his 10,000th vote in the Senate--and on his long and exemplary career. I look forward to seeing him cast a few thousand more votes.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and congratulate our colleague.

(Applause, Senators rising.)

Mr. President, while our thoughts are with our troops, the business of Congress continues. And we need to approach our challenges at home with the same resolve and the same seriousness of purpose with which our sons and daughters are confronting the threat abroad. It is sadly ironic that at the very time when our service men and women are inspiring us with their courage in the face of danger, this budget runs and hides from one challenge after another while showering $1.4 trillion in tax breaks primarily to the most prosperous among us.

Month after month, more American families are suffering from the failure of this administration's irresponsible economic strategy. With the economy hemorrhaging jobs from every sector, an increasing number of Americans are losing faith that they will ever find a job. But with this budget, Republicans have turned their backs on the problems of American families. Instead of offering new ideas and new solutions, the administration continues to push a tired ideology that has turned our economy into a job-destroying machine. This budget will hang some $1.5 trillion of debt around the necks of our children. They will be paying for this mistake for decades to come. The President's own economists agree that these chronic deficits will raise interest rates, hold back our economy today, and rob opportunity from even more Americans.

And though all Americans' thoughts are with our Armed Forces today, I would ask that they take a moment to ask, why is this Republican Congress saddling our children with record-breaking deficits and massive debt? It is not to fund the war or the rebuilding of Iraq that will follow. It is not to protect our homeland. Republicans continue to shortchange the police and firefighters who need our help to prevent or respond to a terrorist attack in their own communities, and continue to oppose funding to better secure our borders, ports, and vulnerable infrastructure. It is not to get our economy moving again. Like the President's budget, the Republican resolution before us contains very little to immediately stimulate the economy. It is not to provide all of our seniors with a real Medicare prescription drug plan or strengthen Social Security for the coming generation of retirees. This plan starves Medicare and raids the Social Security surplus. It is not to come to the aid of States and local governments that are suffering the worst fiscal crisis in 50 years. This budget will place an even greater burden on our States. And it is not to build world-class schools so our children have the tools and skills they need to make the most of their own lives. While some schools around our country will be forced to shut their doors early this year due to budget cuts, the President's plan falls $10 billion short of his own promise to education.

This budget is not about meeting the challenges of the moment or the future. This budget is about one thing, and one thing only. More new tax breaks for the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else. At the expense of deep cuts in domestic priorities. At the expense of record deficits that will be imposed on our children and grandchildren.

Any other year, this budget would be seen as mean-spirited and divisive. Today it is shameful. Across the globe, on display for all the world to see, young men and women are risking their lives to secure the lives and liberty of others. And yet here in this Capitol, on display for the world to see, a Republican Congress is taking money out of the pockets of our own children. It is choosing not to provide the necessary resources to make our homeland more secure. It is choosing not to give States any help to deal with their mounting fiscal crisis. It is choosing not to keep its commitments on education. It is choosing not to provide needed health care and prescription drug coverage to our most ill and vulnerable. With all those challenges and needs, this Congress instead is choosing to give hundreds of billions in new tax breaks to the wealthiest among us.

Democrats are going to keep fighting to fund homeland security, provide a real Medicare prescription drug benefit; honor our commitment to our students and teachers; restore funding to make up for Republican cuts to national defense and veterans programs, and offer relief to our States and local governments. This is not a time to shrink from our responsibilities to one another. We need to meet the test of this demanding moment in our history. This Congress should be producing a budget that reflects the very best of our Nation, the spirit that our soldiers exemplify the spirit of honor, sacrifice, and duty in the service of a better future for us all.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I want to thank all of our colleagues, especially colleagues on my side of the aisle who have a great deal of skepticism, I would say, about this particular proposal. I think it is equally clear that there is skepticism on both sides.

We have been through a good deal of debate over the last several days. I think we have made progress. This will accommodate adequate progress on both sides. I will say, as the majority leader and I have discussed on a few occasions, that this agreement requires a good deal of trust on both sides. We are trusting our Republican colleagues to work with us to accommodate the consideration of 40 amendments. They are trusting us that we will share with them those amendments, that we will be able to work through them, that they will have an opportunity to review them, and that we will complete our work at 4 o'clock.

So it does require cooperation and a level of trust that I hope will set a standard and example for other action we take later on. So I hope that our colleagues will continue to cooperate in the course of the next couple of days.

I have designated the ranking member of the Budget Committee and our extraordinary assistant Democratic leader. They have been tasked with the responsibility of determining these 40 amendments. So we will work over the weekend and we will, as this agreement requires, provide those amendments on Monday.

I appreciate very much the cooperation and the trust of the distinguished majority leader and the chairman of the Budget Committee. This certainly is the best way to accommodate the needs of both of our caucuses. I congratulate my colleagues for doing so.

No; we tried that, Mr. President.

Mr. President, last week, the Bush administration--in what has become its normal pattern--ignored the pleas of thousands of hardworking Americans. It lifted the steel tariffs it had promised the U.S. steel industry and imposed on foreign imports back in March of 2002.

Despite its earlier pledge to stand by America's steelworkers, the White House, in typical fashion, decided to turn its back on our highest valued workers and most vulnerable retirees. In a fit of pique and hard-hearted hubris, the White House decided to lift U.S. tariffs on foreign steel imports 15

months ahead of time, instead of letting the tariffs stay in place until March 2005, as is permitted by U.S. law.

Why? Why would the White House betray America's steel industry--the backbone of America's industrial base--particularly during this time of war? Of national emergency? No. Because the President feared retaliation from America's trading partners, he quivered at the threat that they would retaliate against U.S. exports if he did not lift the 201 tariffs. He cowered in the face of exactly those nations whose steel exports to the United States have driven 42 U.S. steel companies to their knees and into bankruptcy. His resolve collapsed in the face of retaliatory threats from America's most virulent competitors, whose illegal trade against the United States has already cost nearly 50,000 steelworkers their jobs.

America's foreign trade opponents gambled that this President lacked the resolve to stand up to them and to the WTO. Do you know? They were right. They were sadly correct.

But this President, George W. Bush, did not need to cave like a ``weak willy'' in the face of belligerent foreign bullies. Instead, he could have invoked Article XXI of the GATT, a viable trade tool that has been legitimately and successfully employed by the United States in the past to exempt itself from the GATT, now the WTO, in a time of war or national emergency. The President on July 31, 2003, formally proclaimed our Nation to be in a continued state of emergency. As a result of the President's own misguided and ill-advised actions, we remain engaged militarily in Iraq.

On July 31, 2003, President Bush formally declared that, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, he was ``continuing for one year the national emergency with respect to Iraq.'' We also continue to face an ongoing war against terrorism, both here at home and abroad.

So, President Bush had--and has--ample authority to invoke a provision of GATT 1994, negotiated by the United States and available to all WTO Members, that would permit him to exempt protections for the U.S. steel industry from retaliation by foreign countries.

But this President has so far lacked the foresight or the fortitude to take that step. Confronted with real threats of economic retaliation by determined competitors, the President folds like a house of cards astride the San Andreas fault.

That is why, today, I am introducing a bill that will do what the President refused to do. It will reinstate the 201 relief and reimpose the 201 tariffs against foreign steel imports. Under my bill, the 201 tariffs will be put back in place to stop foreign import surges, just as they did before the President so ill-advisedly lifted the tariffs last Thursday. And the tariffs will remain in place through March 5, 2005.

This administration should not have been bullied into abandoning the U.S. steel industry. Our steel industry is key to the national economic security of our Nation. Without steel, we cannot guarantee America's national security. Without steel, we could not have rebuilt after September 11. And I am not the only one who thinks that steel is integral to America's economic and national security. Just a few days before that fateful September day, on August 26, 2001, President Bush told America's steelworkers: ``If you're worried about the security of the country and you become over reliant upon foreign sources of steel, it can easily affect the capacity of our military to be well supplied. Steel is an important jobs issue; it is also an important national security issue.''

With an annual take deficit of almost $500 billion, Americans have a right to expect that international trade rules with work for them; not against them. They also have a right to know that the United States can respond as it must to the type of trade crises that have been suffered by America's steel industry for years.

There was absolutely no reason to lift the steel 201 tariffs. They are fully consistent with both U.S. law and our international agreements--regardless of the view of the WTO. The purpose of 201 relief is to give the domestic industry time to adjust to import competition. Our valiant steel industry is doing just that by pursuing unprecedented restructuring and new investment. Since the 201 tariffs were imposed, flat-rolled steel producers alone have invested more than $3 billion to enhance their productivity.

Critics of the 201 relief have been proved wrong on every significant fact concerning that relief. They said that once the tariffs were imposed, steel prices would go through the roof. Yet, prices have risen only modestly, and much less than abroad. The critics claimed that U.S. steel companies would do nothing to improve their competitiveness. But our Nation is witnessing the most dramatic restructuring in the industry's history. The critics also claimed that the tariffs would be bad for the U.S. economy, but the non-partisan U.S. International Trade Commission, ITC, recently found that the potential costs are minuscule--only about 2 percent of what Americans spend each month at McDonald's--and not even a drop in the bucket compared to the value we gain by restoring a critical U.S. industry to long-term competitiveness.

Other nations' actions in this Section 201 dispute have been truly disgraceful. The European Union originally threatened to retaliate against the United States immediately upon the President's application of the safeguard measures in March 2002. In the end, it hesitated. But its threat was sufficient to extort from the administration nearly unlimited exclusions from the tariffs to benefit foreign producers.

Acquiescing to this type of bullying jeopardizes the future of the U.S. steel industry, and it undermines the integrity of, and support for, the entire international trading system. Americans cannot be expected to support a system that works against them, rather than for them.

By lifting the tariffs, the administration is allowing Brazil, the European Union, Japan, and other nations, once again, to flood the U.S. market with imports. The Bush administration could have stood up for America's steelworkers like those at Weirton, WV, and Wheeling- Pittsburgh Steel in West Virginia, and demanded that other countries respect the legitimate rights of the United States in the world trading system. But this administration chose to back down, to lose face, to sit back and watch, once more, while thousands of additional U.S. steel jobs are destroyed by wave after wave of foreign imports.

The administration does not seem to care if the U.S. steel industry is destroyed at a time of war and in the midst of a national emergency. President Bush did not even care enough to personally inform the U.S. steel industry, its workers, and their families of his decision to lift the tariffs. No!! Instead, he sent a trade negotiator, Mr. Zoellick, to do his dirty work. Ambassador Zoellick had the audacity to tell us that the tariffs are ``no longer necessary.'' No longer necessary. And why did he say that they are no longer necessary? They are no longer necessary because, he said, ``these safeguard measures have achieved their purpose.''

The only purpose that I can see in this decision to shut the tariff program down is to succumb to threats and demands from abroad. The only effect will be the loss of more steel manufacturing jobs here at home.

On October 27, 2000, Mr. Dick Cheney--do you know him? He is now Vice President of the United States--just a few days before the elections he came to Weirton, WV, to campaign for the Bush-Cheney ticket. During that visit, Mr. Cheney forcefully pledged to help America's steelworkers. He said, ``We will never lie to you. If our trading partners violate our trading laws, we will respond swiftly and firmly.''

Promise made, promise broken. Unfortunately, like so many commitments this administration has made, its pledge to help America's steel industry got off to a headline-grabbing start, but has now been discarded, out of the glare of the campaign spotlight.

So now, only 3 years after Mr. Cheney's campaign-season vow of honesty to America's steelworkers, this White House has taken an axe to the 201 tariffs and betrayed the trust of thousands of American families whose paychecks depend on the U.S. steel industry.

Mr. President, the Bush White House has absolutely failed the working families across this country. This White House has traded the best interests of the American people for the big special interests of corporate campaign contributors. It is no surprise that the Bush Administration would turn its back on steelworkers.

When the Bush-Cheney ticket needed West Virginia's votes in 2000, it pledged to help our steel industry. At first, it appeared as though the administration would follow through on that promise. The White House applied the steel tariffs, for which West Virginia was thankful and for which I and other Senators congratulated, commended and thanked the administration. But then the President exempted import after import from those tariffs. Now the President has eliminated the tariffs completely.

The Bush White House may have forgotten the promise made to the steel industry in West Virginia, but thousands of West Virginians and other steelworkers across the Nation will not forget. The recognize a fair- weather friend when they seen one.