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This proposal was included as part of the administration's budget request, and we included it as part of our bill. Raising the loan limits will help increase the supply of multi-family housing in this country.

[Page: S8538]  GPO's PDF

   I wish we could do more for housing production. We cannot voucher our way out of our housing crisis. We need a new production program.

   I look forward to the recommendations of the Millennial Housing Commission and the Commission on Senior Housing. These two congressionally chartered commissions will give the Congress a blueprint for addressing the crisis in affordable housing. Once we receive those recommendations, I hope the Congress can take a step forward in solving this crisis.

   In the area of predatory lending and flipping, we are providing HUD with expanded legal authority to deny FHA insurance to lenders who have high default rates to help fight flipping and predatory lending.

   Earlier this year, I held a field hearing in Baltimore on the subject of flipping. Unfortunately, despite some progress, this despicable practice continues.

   To give HUD more resources to fight this problem, we have provided the Inspector General's office with $10 million specifically targeted to anti-predatory lending activities.

   In the area of community development, one of my highest priorities has been to help this country cross the digital divide. In this bill, we provide $80 million to help create computer learning centers in low-income neighborhoods through competitive grants to local governments and non-profits.

   For EPA, we provide $7.75 billion, an increase of $435 million above the President's request.

   We ensure that Federal enforcement of environmental laws remains strong by restoring the 270 enforcement jobs cut by the President's request.

   The President proposed a major shift in policy this year. He proposed to cut 270 environmental ``cops on the beat'' and shift enforcement to the States through a new $25 million State enforcement grant program.

   But major concerns have been raised about this approach. The EPA inspector general has found numerous examples of weaknesses in State enforcement programs. This is a very important issue, and we need to hear from our authorizers about how we should allocate our resources before we make a major policy shift. So we did not break new ground in this area, and we maintained the status quo for Federal enforcement.

   This bill also keeps our commitment to clean and safe water by fully funding the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund at $1.35 billion.

   The Nation is facing an enormous backlog of funding for water infrastructure projects--some estimates say as high as $23 billion per year. The committee acknowledges the validity of the problems faced by large cities and small communities alike in upgrading sewer and drinking water systems.

   Unfortunately, the administration chose to fund the new Combined Sewer Grant Program at the expense of the Clean Water State Loan Fund. This approach was opposed by our authorizers, and GAO told us it was a bad idea because it would weaken the Clean Water Fund.

   We regret that the administration took this approach and that we cannot provide the $450 million requested for the sewer grant program.

   We hope that in the future, the President's request will be more adequate to meet the needs of our communities.

   For the Federal Emergency Management Agency, our bill provides a total of $3.3 billion. Of this total, $2.3 billion is designated for the disaster relief account to be available in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.

   I should note for my colleagues that of the $2.3 billion designated for disaster relief, $2.0 billion is designated as an emergency under the terms of the Budget Act.

   Tropical Storm Allison had a devastating impact on Texas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. We need to replenish the disaster account so the funds continue to be available for the victims of Allison and future disasters we may face.

   We restore $25 million for Project Impact, an important effort that helps to raise visibility and public awareness for the need for pre-disaster mitigation.

   We also increase the FEMA fire grant program to $150 million. In the first year of this program, FEMA received over 30,000 applications requesting nearly $3 billion for fire fighting equipment, vehicles, and protective clothing.

   After seeing what our firefighters in Baltimore went through to deal with the Howard Street tunnel fire, the least we can do for these brave men and women is help give them the equipment and support they need to deal with the hazardous, life threatening situations they constantly confront on our behalf.

   We have also provided the FEMA Director with support to establish and run the new office of national preparedness as requested by the President. This new office will coordinate all the various Federal programs dealing with consequence management resulting from weapons of mass destruction. This is a very important initiative; so much so that the Appropriations Committee held 3 days of hearings earlier this year on the President's action plan.

   And we provide nearly $140 million for the emergency food and shelter and over $20 million to help FEMA modernize their flood mapping operation.

   We provide $14.6 billion for NASA programs, $50 million over the President's request and $300 million over last year.

   This was one of the more difficult parts of the appropriations bill to put together. We found ourselves dealing with a $4 billion plus overrun on the international space station.

   Let me say that while I am disappointed and appalled at the mismanagement of the space station, I am still committed to seeing the space station completed.

   NASA is currently having an outside review team conduct a thorough independent evaluation of the space station. That will give us a new road map for the station. Although we do make a slight reduction to the overall space station budget, we did not make any major decisions regarding the future of the station. We want to wait and see what the administration will do later this year and in their 2003 budget.

   Unfortunately, this is not the first cost overrun we have had with the space station. Since 1993 we have seen at least six different revised cost estimates that have taken the station's cost from $17.4 billion up to a staggering $28.3 billion--a stunning 61 percent increase.

   The committee is adamant that this has to stop. We are committed to completing the space station and that it be the world class research facility it was also supposed to be. But the culture at NASA has got to change so that NASA management gets these costs under control.

   The committee is not going to let NASA raid other important space programs to pay for these space station management failures. So here's what we do.

   First, we provide $1.7 billion for continued construction of the international space station. We redirect $50 million to the shuttle for safety upgrades. Protecting our astronauts is one of the most important priorities within the committee.

   Second, we cap total space station costs over the next 4 years at a total of $6.7 billion. Any proposal to exceed this cap must come with a presidential certification that it is needed and the additional costs are well known.

   Third, to ensure the station is in fact a world-class research facility, we add $50 million to the life and microgravity research program, which takes the program up to $333.6 million for fiscal year 2002. Then we transfer space station research out of the human space flight account into the science account where we protect it from being used any further to pay for space station overruns.

   Finally, we want NASA to create an independent review committee to develop options that will increase the amount of time crew members will have to conduct research on board the station.

   If this is going to a world-class research facility, we have to be sure the personnel on board have the time and support to carry out a viable research program.

   Over in the Science, Aeronautics and Technology account, we provide $7.7 billion. This is $478 million more than the President's request and is driven primarily by the transfer of the biological and physical sciences research program out of the space station account and into the science account to improve aviation safety and commercial competitiveness.

[Page: S8539]  GPO's PDF

   For the National Science Foundation, we provide a total of $4.7 billion for research and education. This is an increase of $256 million or 6 percent over last year.

   We had hoped to provide more. Senator BOND and I--and a large number of our Senate colleagues--believe it is in the national interest to double the NSF budget over the next 5 years.

   This recommendation represents a downpayment on that policy objective.

   We reject the administration's proposal to cut the NSF research programs and instead, we increase them by $187.5 million over the request.

   We provide nearly $500 million for nanotechnology and information technology--two critically important research activities related to the Nation's economic competitiveness; $150 million to help meet the needs of developing institutions and States with $110 million for EPSCoR, Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, $25 million specifically for instrumentation at smaller institutions, and $15 million for innovation partnerships between smaller schools and local industry.

   We provide $55 million for supercomputing hardware: $45 million for an earthquake research network, and $12.5 million to continue constructing a new radio telescope, called ALMA.

   We link hi-tech economic development with out academic centers of excellence through a new $10 million regional innovation clusters initiative designed to bring universities, industries and local government together to map out and carry out strategic R&D and economic development plans.

   Math and science education programs increase by nearly $90 million or 11%--to over $870 million, $872.4 million. We provide $190 million for the President's Math and Science Partnership program, $130 million in this bill; additional $60 million through hi-tech visa fees. We increase the stipends for graduate students in science and engineering by nearly 20 percent (or $3,500) to $21,500 per year. We provide $20 million for a new undergraduate workforce initiative. We increase support for programs related to historically black colleges and universities and other under-represented groups to $100 million.

   This is a Science Foundation budget that emphasizes three critical goals:

   (1) support for people--from the scientist to the grad student to our elementary and secondary school teachers of science and math;

   (2) support for the basic research enterprise of this country in strategic areas as well as to core disciplines in science and engineering; and

   (3) support for tools--the cutting edge equipment and instrumentation that is so crucial to move science forward.

   We have funded National Service at $420 million, which is $4 million more than the President's request, to keep National Service strong.

   Volunteerism is our national trademark. It highlights what is best about America.

   Volunteer programs are the backbone of our communities. They help preserve the safety net for seniors, keep our communities safe and clean, and get our kids ready to learn.

   The 2002 VA-HUD bill maintains our commitment to AmeriCorps by providing funding to support 50,000 members to continue our spirit of providing community service, reducing student debt, and to creating ``habits of the heart.''

   We also continue our promise to bridging the digital divide. We provide $25 million to teach-the-teachers, to bring technology skills to those who have been left out or left behind in our digital economy.

   The bill meets compelling human needs and invests for our future.

   I would like to have been able to do more for science, technology and housing production, but this is the best we can do under our allocation and satisfy the priorities of our Members.

   To reiterate, this committee reported the bill and it compromises $84 billion in discretionary budget authority and $88 billion in outlays. The bill is balanced and fair and meets the needs of the American people. Our job was to meet certain compelling issues.

   My guiding principles were, No. 1, to keep our promises to the veterans for them to have the health care they need and not stand in line when they have to apply for their pensions; to work in the area of housing and urban development, that we would develop the programs and policies that would empower the poor to be able to move to a better life as well as rebuilding our neighborhoods and our community; also to stand up and protect the environment and invest in science and technology to create jobs today and jobs tomorrow.

   Based on the President's budget proposal and the subcommittee allocation, we had to focus on restoring cuts in the President's budget and, of course, we worked very hard to avoid riders. Our overriding goal was to make sure that core programs in veterans and housing and the environment were taken care of. We did that. We could not increase the funding for every program that was meritorious, but we could meet the basic needs of our responsibilities.

   One of the areas that we were sorry we could not increase funding to the level we wanted was in doubling the budget for the National Science Foundation over the next 5 years.

   I want to talk about what we have done for veterans. We increased VA health care by over $1 billion. This is $400 million more than the President's request. It will allow the VA health care system to serve 4 million patients through 2002, 172 medical centers, 876 outpatient clinics, and over 135 nursing homes. VA continues to shift from inpatient focus to outpatient care. The funding in this bill will allow VA to open more community-based clinics.

   This marks also the second year in a row that we have increased funding for veterans health care. We have also increased funding for VA medical research by $40 million over last year.

   This funding level will allow VA to continue its progress in the treatment of chronic diseases, also the diagnosis and treatment of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and special populations, often those who bear the permanent wounds of war, that of spinal cord injury and post-traumatic stress.

   VA is a training ground for health care providers, and we have been able to keep our programs that encourage scholarships and other grant programs to do this.

   The other area we worked on was to increase the speed of processing for veteran claims. Right now, when a veteran files for a claim, it takes 205 days or nearly 7 months. We don't think veterans should have to stand in line to get this consideration. This bill includes $46 million to improve technology and hire additional processors.

   In the area of HUD, for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, we had two overall goals: expand housing opportunities for the poor, but in an empowerment way, rebuild our neighborhoods and communities; and also help special needs populations.

   First, we fully fund the renewal of all section 8 housing vouchers by funding the housing certificate fund at $15.6 billion. This is $1.7 billion more than last year. This amount also includes an advance appropriation of $4.2 billion. This advanced appropriation was included in the concurrent

   budget resolution.

   Within the section 8 account, we provided funding for 17,000 new or incremental vouchers. We also restored the cuts proposed by the President to the public housing capital account. The public housing capital program provides funds to public housing authorities to repair and renovate public housing units, to update heating, ventilation, and plumbing.

   These are absolutely essential. We should not be a slum landlord. We have to raise those standards. Also, we have provided $300 million in the drug elimination program. President Bush eliminated this program, and we have very serious question about what is the best way to proceed.

   This year we didn't want to break new ground in terms of our general policies, so we have kept in the $300 million for drug elimination. We asked the authorizers to hold hearings on what is the best way we can keep drugs out of public housing and make sure that drug dealers don't use public housing as small business incubators for their deals.

   We also increased funding for CDBG by $200 million, taking it to just over $5 billion.

   We continued funding empowerment zones, brownfields, homeless grants, and housing for the elderly and disabled. We would surely like to have increased funding for these programs, but our allocation was not enough to do this. We hope that in next year's budget, we could take a look at it because

[Page: S8540]  GPO's PDF

   Also, again, on a bipartisan basis, we know we need a new production program. We are looking forward to the recommendations of the housing commission and the Commission on Senior Housing so that we could then get a framework for proceeding.

   Also, my senior colleague, Senator PAUL SARBANES, chairing the Housing and Banking Committee, has been leading the fight against predatory lending. We started that fight in this committee under Senator Bond, and we are going to continue that. We have added funds in the inspector general's office to target the antipredatory lending activities.

   Also, we have provided in this bill $80 million to create computer learning centers in low-income neighborhoods. These will be competitive grants to nonprofits and to local governments. I prefer to keep it to nonprofits. This will help cross the digital divide and, we believe, can be used for job training during the day, structured afterschool activities in the afternoon, and essentially be one of the important empowerment tools.

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