[Pages S3006-S3009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

THE FIX IS IN ON O'HARE AIRPORT

Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, in the upcoming discussion on the
expansion of O'Hare, in which I know the Presiding Officer has been
deeply involved, one of the issues the Senate will be debating will be
a competitive bidding requirement for the contracts and concessions at
O'Hare Airport. I intend to offer an amendment that would apply Federal
competitive bidding procedures to the contracts at O'Hare and which
would require the city of Chicago to disclose the recipients of those
contracts.
The lead articles in the two major Chicago newspapers over the
weekend illustrate precisely why this competitive bidding amendment is
essential. The two papers, taken together, report a pattern of flagrant
and chronic abuse in the city of Chicago. The Chicago Tribune reports
that Mayor Daley's pals get rich yet again on a huge public works
project that the city of Chicago thoroughly misrepresented.
Simultaneously, the Chicago Sun-Times reports that, because of a budget
crisis, city workers get the choice of unpaid days off or layoffs. That
is the pattern: The connected guys get the bucks; the ordinary guys get
the shaft.
Yesterday, the Tribune reported that a major Chicago deal was enacted
with the aid of an intense public relations campaign that misled the
citizens of the city and the State on a number of key issues. That
deal--Soldier Field--followed a distinctly Chicago pattern. After the
deal was rammed through, we find that misrepresentations were so
egregious that it is difficult to call them misrepresentations and not
outright fabrications. We also find that several political friends and
allies of both the mayor and the Governor make serious money off their
inside connections.
I will read from the Tribune. The title of the article is ``Bears
play, Public pays.'' It is by Andrew Martin, Liam Ford, and Laurie
Cohen.
I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

[From the Chicago Tribune, Apr. 21, 2002]

Bears Play, Public Pays

(By Andrew Martin, Liam Ford and Laurie Cohen)

As construction at Soldier Field advances, a Tribute
analysis of the $632 million project shows that the public
bill for the stadium renovation is higher than city officials
have said it would be while benefits to taxpayers--in terms
of promised parkland and additional part revenues--fall short
of what was promised.
The bottom line is that the new Chicago Bears stadium will
get one of the largest government contributions in the
history of professional sports, a fact obscured by a public-
relations strategy that tried to divert attention from the
public costs. Among the Tribune's findings
City officials have said the public bill for the project
won't exceed $406 million; in fact, another $26 million in
public costs is buried in bond documents. That money brings
the total public tab to $432 million.
While Mayor Richard Daley praised the Bears's $200 million
contribution to the project as ``unheard of'' for a publicly
owned stadium, neither the mayor nor anyone else involved in
the project noted that the city's contribution also might be
unprecedented.
Officials with the Chicago Park District, which owns
Soldier Field, have called the renovated stadium a good deal
for the agency. But an internal Park District analysis shows
the agency will make $900,000 less the first full year the
stadium is open, figures that officials now dispute.
Meanwhile, the new stadium is expected to double the value of
the Bears franchise, experts said.
Proponents of the stadium renovation pointed to the
creation of 19 acres of parkland for Chicagoans. But
officials counted landscaped medians and sloped berms beside
a parking garage as part of the acreage, according to one of
the project's architects, Dirk Lohan.
In reality, only about 10 acres of usable parkland is being
created, according to an analysis by Friends of the Parks,
which is suing to stop the renovation. The lawsuit could be
decided at a hearing Thursday.
``You're not able to play on a slope or on the middle of a
roadway,'' said Erma Tranter, the group's president.
The strategy to sell the Soldier Field renovations, mapped
out in a 1990 memo by the Bears' public-relations firm, was
based on emphasizing the new stadium's amenities, such as new
parkland and expanded lakefront parking in an underground
garage, while downplaying public costs for the Bears
facility.
``The problem with the current debate is that it is too
often about the Chicago Bears and not about the future of
Chicago and its prized lakefront,'' according to the memo,
crafted by the firm, Burson-Marsteller. The public-
relations advisers recommended a strategy recommended a
strategy that includes changing ``the conversation from
`public funding for the Chicago Bears stadium needs' to a
civic-led discussion'' about such things as preserving
Soldier Field as a landmark and ``doing things right, the
Chicago way,'' said the memo, a copy of which was obtained
by the Tribune.
The Soldier Field deal contradicts previous public
statements from the mayor and Gov. George Ryan, who had
balked at government financing for the stadium.
It also ran counter to a trend in the NFL in which teams in
lucrative markets such as the Washington Redskins and the New
England Patriots are paying most of the costs for their
privately owned stadiums, the Tribune analysis found.
Meanwhile, in nearly every city where government subsidies
were used for a publicly owned NFL stadium in the last
decade, a referendum was held to ask voters whether they
approved of the idea. In Chicago, the city went to court to
stop a proposed referendum on the plan.
Daley on Saturday defended his support for the Soldier
Field project, saying the $200 million private contribution
was unprecedented and the public portion was paid for by
taxes on hotel rooms, not property taxes.
Had the city not proceeded with the stadium deal, the mayor
said, ``Soldier Field, what are you going to do with it?''
Daley appeared to confirm the Friends of the Parks
allegation that the project would only create 10 acres of
usable parkland, not 17. ``They're building 10 acres of open
space and another seven acres of landscape in all of that.
That's what you need to make it environmentally friendly.''
The city's longtime point man on the Soldier Field deal,
Edward Bedore, a former city budget director who now is a
lobbyist for the city, Park District Supt. David Doig and
other Park District officials declined to be interviewed.
Bears Chief Executive Officer Ted Phillips and former Bears
President Michael McCaskey declined to comment.
Barnaby Dinges, a public relations consultant for the
project, said the Park District will save money in the long
term by not paying the increasing costs of maintaining an
old, deteriorating stadium.
``There are tremendous benefits to this project,'' Dinges
said. ``After 30 years of trying, the Park District, the
Bears, the city and the state finally found a plan that does
right by taxpayers, park and Museum Campus users, the
lakefront, sports and entertainment fans and the people of
Illinois.''
In written responses to questions, Park District officials
said that the Bears' contribution to the project far exceeds
what most other teams have chipped in for stadiums. Park
District officials also stood by their estimate for new
parkland, which was revised from 19 acres to 17 acres after
the deal passed the state legislature and more precise
calculations were made.
``This figure includes the planted medians, which amount to
just a fraction of an acre,'' the statement says.
Lohan, the architect, said, ``A berm can have plants on it,
and isn't that part of a park?''

a deal is struck

Although most of the principals would not comment, others
familiar with the deal suggested that the decades-long logjam
over a new Bears stadium was broken because of a confluence
of several key points. There was a flash of inspiration by
the Bears' architect about how to squeeze a new stadium into
a historic landmark, an infusion of cash from the NFL and a
change of leadership in the governor's office and the Bears'
executive suites.
At the same time, the deal created a huge public-works
project with plenty of hefty contracts for friends and
political allies of City Hall and Springfield. For instance,
the bond work went to former proteges of Bedore's, security
for the construction site is provided by an alderman's
brother's firm and the local partner for the construction
team is a major Ryan contributor whose vice president was
chairman of the governor's inaugural ball.
The Soldier Field project was sold to the public, in part,
because of the $200 million contribution by the Bears, which
is the largest private contribution for a publicly owned NFL
stadium. But the Bears are contributing only about $30
million of their own money. The remainder comes from $100
million from the NFL and the sale of personal seat licenses
to season-ticket holders.

[[Page S3007]]

The public portion, $432 million, is being financed by an
extension of a 2 percent city hotel tax originally levied by
the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to pay for Comiskey
Park.
On its face, the city's portion of the Soldier Field
project is the largest public contribution in the NFL, in
which stadiums are larger and generally more expensive than
those in other professional sports.
The next-biggest public contribution for a football stadium
is in Cincinnati, where taxpayers paid $400 million for Paul
Brown Stadium, the Bengals' new $449 million home, according
to a Tribune analysis of NFL stadiums built in the last
decade.
Precise comparisons are difficult because some stadium
deals, including the deal for Soldier Field, provide
amenities outside of the stadium. Similarly, some stadiums
include costs for land acquisition. Some, like Soldier Field,
do not because they are on publicly owned property.
The cost of building just the stadium at Soldier Field is
estimated at $383 million, prompting the Park District to
claim that the Bears will pay more than half the cost of the
new facility. But critics say that calculation is imprecise
because it does not include the cost of amenities that will
primarily serve the stadium, such as the parking deck south
of Soldier Field and landscaping on stadium access roads.
Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based sports
consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd., said the high cost of the
stadium and the public contribution reflect a decision to
keep the Bears playing on the lakefront in a historic
landmark rather than building a new stadium elsewhere.
``A 61,000-seat open-air football stadium on a clean site
would likely cost less than $400 million,'' Ganis said.

creative financing

Officials have pegged the public cost for the project at
$406 million, but the actual amount is $26 million higher,
thanks to some financial moves designed to skirt a
legislative limit on the value of bonds sold to pay for the
deal, the Tribune found.
Soon after the legislation was passed, it became clear that
the project's costs, including the cost of issuing the bonds
would exceed that limit, documents and interviews show. The
funding problem worsened after Sept. 11 because a sudden drop
in Chicago tourism threatened to erode the hotel tax revenues
that would be used to pay off the bonds. Shortfalls would
require the city to tap its share of state income taxes.
The solution involved a financing device that allowed the
Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to raise $425 million on
the bond sale in October while keeping the original value of
the bonds at the legislative limit of $399 million. This was
done by setting such low prices on some of the bonds that
investors were willing to pay extra to buy them; the extra
amount, or premium, wasn't included in the value of the
outstanding bonds.
The total public bill comes to $432 million after adding $7
million in interest income on the bond proceeds.
While the public costs of the deal are higher than
advertised, the benefits to the Park District appear to be
lower. The agency's claims that it will make more money from
the new Soldier Field are belied by its documents.
``Neighborhood park users win because a renovated Soldier
Field will generate at least $10 million in net annual
revenues for neighborhood park programs,'' Supt. Doig said in
a 2001 letter published in the Tribune.
According to a city memo last year to Chicago aldermen, the
Park District's profit from Soldier Field had been about $9.5
million a year. That figure will drop to $8.6 million in
2004, the first full year the new stadium will be open, a
Park District forecast shows.
But even the $8.6 million profit forecast is inflated
because it includes an annual subsidy from the Illinois
Sports Facilities Authority that was wrapped into the Soldier
Field legislation, meaning that one public agency essentially
will be funding another. That subsidy, which will come from
Chicago hotel taxes, will total $3.6 million in 2004.
In the written responses, Park district officials said that
the $8.6 million forecast for 2004 didn't include another
contribution from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority--a
$1.5 million annual payment for Soldier Field improvements--
and a projected $500,000 fee from the Chicago Fire.
The soccer team, which played at Soldier Field before the
renovation, plans to play at the new stadium in 2004 but has
made no commitments beyond that year, a Fire official said.
Documents obtained by the Tribune did not include revenue
forecasts beyond 2004. Park district officials said they are
optimistic that revenues will continue to grow but declined
to provide specifics.

Friends land contracts

The Park District may be coming up short at Soldier Field,
but some political supporters of Daley and Ryan are not.
Bedore, who retired from City Hall in 1993, has served as
the city's consultant on Soldier Field for years. A former
budget director for both Daley and his father, Bedore lists
Michael Daley, the mayor's brother, as an attorney for his
consulting business, records show.
The lead bond underwriter for the Soldier Field bonds was
George K. Baum and Co. of Kansas City, Mo., which beat out
several Wall Street companies for the work. Though the
financial advisers for the Illinois Sports Facilities
Authority ranked at least two other firms ahead of Baum,
sources familiar with the deal said City Hall demanded the
Baum get the assignment.
Baum's Chicago office is headed by two former city budget
officials and Bedore proteges, Anthony Fratto and Albert
Boumenot. Baum also had been selected to sell bonds for
Millennium Park, another project that Bedore launched for
Daley.
When Baum was selected for the Soldier Field work in March
2001, the firm never had been lead underwriter on a deal for
more than $350 million, according to the information service
Thomson Financial. Baum collected fees of at least $1.3
million for the deal, bond documents and interviews show.
Jerry Blakemore, the sports authority's chief executive,
declined to comment on the bond deal, as did the authority's
financial advisers. Fratto and Boumenot could not be reached
for comment.
The prime contractor for the Soldier Field renovation,
selected without competitive bidding by the Bears, is a joint
venture that includes two national firms with stadium-
building experience and Kenny Construction, a Wheeling firm
whose principals are campaign contributors to both Daley and
Ryan. The company's vice president also was chairman of
Ryan's inaugural ball.
Security at the construction site is being provided by
Monterrey Security, a 3-year-old firm that is partially owned
by Santiago Solis, the brother of Ald. Danny Solis (25th),
one of Daley's closest allies on the City Council.

Breaking the logjam

Despite decades of squabbling over a new stadium for the
Bears, the football club's fortunes began to change in late
1998.
That fall, the Bears' architect, Benjamin wood, raised the
possibility of renovating Soldier Field, an idea that had
always fizzled because there didn't seem to be a way to fit
enough seats along the sidelines without ruining the
stadium's historic charm.
During a visit to Chicago, Wood measured the distance
between the colonnades of the stadium and thought he might be
able to squeeze a stadium into Soldier Field by positioning
all the skyboxes and club seats on one side.
The result: a narrower field that would fit within the
stadium's colonnades while positioning most of its seats
between the 20 yard lines. Seats in that area offer better
views and higher prices.
In January 1999, George Ryan became governor, replacing Jim
Edgar, who had fought with Daley for years over stadium
deals. Ryan vowed to work with the mayor and the Bears to
resolve the stadium issue ``short of spending taxpayers'
dollars on a new stadium.''
A month later, McCaskey, who had openly feuded with Daley
over stadium proposals, was ousted by his mother as Bears
president and replaced by the more amiable Phillips.
With a new design for a stadium in the works, Phillips was
a crucial funding boost in March 1999 when the NFL approved a
program to help bib-city teams build arenas by offering to
match a team's contribution to a stadium project.
Daley and Phillips later used the NFL money to pressure
state legislators to pass the stadium deal during the fall
veto session in 2000, saying the money could disappear unless
it was used quickly.
The day the legislation was rushed through Springfield
infuriated some legislators.
``It came out of left field carried by a Hall of Fame bevy
of lobbyists and lawyers who told us that the sky is falling,
the world would come to an end, civilization would end as we
know it, unless we did this deal in the next 72 hours,''
state Rep. William Black (R-Danville) told his colleagues.
But late last week, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello indicated the
legislative rush may have been unnecessary to land the NFL's
$100 million commitment to the Bears.
``There wasn't a specific time frame,'' he said.

Mr. FITZGERALD. I will read an excerpt from that article:

The park district may be coming up short at Soldier Field
but some political supporters of Daley and Ryan are not.
Bedore, who retired from City Hall in 1993, has served as the
city's consultant on Soldier Field for years. A former budget
director for both Daley and his father, Bedore lists Michael
Daley, the mayor's brother, as an attorney for his consulting
business, records show. The lead bond underwriter for the
Soldier Field bonds was George K. Baum and Co. of Kansas
City, MO, which beat out several Wall Street companies for
the work.
Though the financial advisers for the Illinois Sports
Facilities Authority ranked at least two other firms ahead of
Baum, sources familiar with the deal said City Hall demanded
that Baum get the assignment.
Baum's Chicago office is headed by two former city budget
officials and Bedore proteges, Anthony Fratto and Albert
Boumenot. Baum also has been selected to sell bonds for
Millennium Park, another project that Bedore launched for
Daley.
When Baum was selected for the Soldier Field work in March
2001, the firm never had been lead underwriter on a deal for
more than $350 million, according to the information service
Thomson Financial. Baum collected fees of at least $1.3
million for the deal, bond documents and interviews show.
Jerry Blakemore, the sports authority's chief executive,
declined to comment on the

[[Page S3008]]

bond deal, as did the authority's financial advisers. Fratto
and Boumenot could not be reached for comment.
The prime contractor for the Soldier Field renovation,
selected without competitive bidding by the Bears, is a joint
venture that includes two national firms with stadium-
building experience and Kenny Construction, a Wheeling firm
whose principals are campaign contributors to both Daley and
Ryan. The company's vice president also was chairman of
Ryan's inaugural ball.
Security at the construction site is being provided by
Monterey Security, a 3-year-old firm that is partially owned
by Santiago Solis, the brother of Alderman Danny Solis, one
of Daley's closest allies on the city council.

What the Tribune has reported is flagrant, conspicuous, insider
dealing. The friends and allies of the mayor get rich on huge public
works projects that are, to begin with, misrepresented to the people.
We have seen it with Millennium Park in Chicago, and we are seeing it
now with Soldier Field. Does anyone really believe it is going to be
any different with the O'Hare expansion?
The only difference with O'Hare will be the scale and the scope, both
of the misrepresentations of the consequences of the project and of the
amount of money that will flow to the friends and allies of the mayor.
Chicago is indeed the city that works, and it works the same angle
over and over. The city cut the template on this kind of a deal: Ram it
through, fabricate the details, and watch as the money comes home to
daddy.
And what about the ordinary guys? A headline in the Sunday Chicago
Sun-Times: Daley to city workers: Take unpaid days or face layoffs. The
paper reports:

Mayor Daley is asking unions representing all city
employees except police and firefighters to make a painful
choice--take five unpaid vacation days, put off their raise
for six months or face 425 layoffs--to generate $15 million
in savings to help solve Chicago's worst budget crisis in a
decade. . . .

I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this article
from the Chicago-Sun Times from April 21, 2002.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

Daley to City Workers: Pick Unpaid Days or Layoffs

``Don't hold your breath,'' replies police union chief; other labor
groups upset

(By Fran Spielman)

Mayor Daley is asking unions representing all city
employees except police and fire-fighters to make a painful
choice--take five unpaid vacation days, put off their raise
for six months or face 425 layoffs--to generate $15 million
in savings to help solve Chicago's worst budget crisis in a
decade, labor leaders said.
``It's not anybody against anybody. It's trying to keep
people surviving,'' Daley told reporters Saturday at a far
South Side school.
Sworn police officers and firefighters would be exempt from
layoffs partly because their contracts prohibit them unless
nonsafety personnel are sacrificed first.
But police and fire unions are being asked to contribute by
accepting one unpaid furlough day. That would cost the
average sworn police officer about $200.
``Don't hold your breath,'' said Mark Donahue, newly
elected president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
``Our new board will be consulted. A decision will be made
early next week. But I don't know that it has a great deal of
chance to be considered. There's a lot of frustration among
uniformed sworn personnel over our recent contract
negotiations.''
James McNally, newly elected president of the Chicago
Firefighters Union Local 2, refused to comment on the city's
request, except to say that Chicago firefighters who changed
union presidents this week are ``looking for a contract.''
Ousted Local 2 President Bill Kugelman, who got the boot
because of the three-year wait for a new contract, didn't
mince words.
``They've been sticking it to us all this time, and now
we're supposed to be nice guys? All of these unions that
Daley has no use for, and now he needs our help? Forget him?
Where was he when we needed him? They haven't done a damned
thing for us,'' Kugelman said.
``That's up to them,'' Daley said. ``You can only ask them,
and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to have no
one laid off.''
The Chicago Police Department also is exploring the
politically volatile possibility of slowing the steady march
of recruit classes through the police academy to cut costs,
said Lisa Schrader, a spokeswoman for the city's Office of
Budget and Management.
The training academy has been churning out about 10 classes
a year, each with 60 to 100 recruits.
If rookies hit the streets at a slower rate, it would
reduce police protection at a time when the city is losing
650 to 700 officers a year to retirement and grappling with a
rising homicide rate that last year made Chicago the murder
capital of the nation.
``There have been internal discussions about what the
effects would be of delaying a class. How much would it
save,'' Schrader said. ``We don't want to do anything that
will compromise public safety. But that's one of the things
that's being looked at.''
There are 13,248 sworn police officers on the street, said
Kimberly O'Connell-Doyle, manager of police personnel.
Daley's 2002 budget authorized 13,522 sworn officers.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this month that
Daley was extending a city hiring freeze through the end of
the year, ordering a 5 percent cut in non-personnel spending
and considering employee layoffs and more unpaid furlough
days to close a $25 million first-quarter gap caused by lower
than expected local tax revenues.
The mayor has said that tax increases on the eve of his
2003 re-election bid were a ``last, last, last resort,'' but
he has refused to slam the door on either layoffs or new
revenues.
Already, the budget crisis has prompted the City Council to
establish an unprecedented $200 million line of credit to pay
the city's bills if there's a repeat of what happened in
February when the state was late with a $20 million income
tax payment.
Late last week, City Hall began meeting with city labor
leaders to discuss specific union givebacks.
At a meeting Friday hosted by the Chicago Federation of
Labor, union leaders representing 14,050 non-safety employees
got the bad news from John Doerrer, the former labor liaison
now serving as the mayor's director of intergovernmental
affairs.
Doerrer told them the city needs $15 million in personnel
savings and that there are basically three ways to get there
unless they have other ideas: 425 layoffs, five unpaid
furlough days or a six-month deferral of their 3 percent mid-
year pay raise.
Daley has the power to order layoffs without union consent
so long as he goes about it as outlined by union contracts.
Furlough days and pay raise deferrals need union approval.
``They have a shortfall of 425 jobs in two corporate funds,
and every furlough day is [the equivalent] of 81 jobs.
They're looking for $15 million. They don't care how they get
to it,'' said Dennis Gannon, secretary-treasurer of the
Chicago Federation of Labor.
``They gave us those choices, but we're not to the point of
picking. The labor community chose to have the city talk to
fire and police and see what can happen there, then come back
and talk to us again,'' he said.
Another labor leader in attendance, who asked to remain
anonymous, said the city ``didn't seem to have a well
thought-out plan . . . They just said, `Here are the options.
Let's see which one is most doable.' Obviously to us, layoffs
are the worst-case scenario, but most of the unions were
pretty upset with it.''
Five years ago, union leaders allowed the city to reduce
its contribution to their overfunded pension funds in a
landmark deal that paved the way for a $20 million property
tax cut, head-tax relief and $200 million in neighborhood
improvements.
In exchange, the city agreed to lobby the General Assembly
to increase the maximum retiree benefit from 75 percent of an
employee's highest salary to 80 percent.
That never happened. And it left a bad taste in the mouths
of the union leaders whose support Daley now needs to solve
the budget crisis.
``If we go to our people and say, `The city needs a hand,'
they're going to say, `They came to us before, and they
didn't live up to their promise. Why should we help them
out?' '' said one labor leader, who asked to remain
anonymous.
Gannon agreed it's ``pretty hard to make more concessions
when we're still waiting on things that were promised to us
years ago.''
``I'd like to see them pass the pension bill, see how many
people take retirement and then come back and talk to us
about reality,'' he added. ``We could actually have 600
people take their pensions. We might not have to lay so many
people off.''
Schrader insisted the options laid out for union leaders
are not written in stone.
``We need to achieve a certain amount of savings, and there
are several ways we can do it. It's not that rigid. We're
saying, `Let's work together and be creative,' '' she said.
The impact of layoffs on city services won't be known until
specific employees are targeted. But it could translate into
delayed garbage pickup, one union leader said.
Ten years ago, a budget crisis forced Daley to eliminate
1,474 jobs, 837 of them layoffs, and cancel a $25 million
property tax cut that was the cornerstone of his 1991
reelection campaign.
The next year, he ordered an additional 740 layoffs and
proposed a $48.7 million property tax increase. A rare City
Council rebellion forced the mayor to settle for a $28.7
million property tax increase and cancellation of a
supplemental increase to finance a new police contract.

The Mayor's pals get rich and the workers get to choose between
layoffs or unpaid days off. What a contrast.
But here is a different idea: why not take it from the inside guys
for a change? Why not take it from all the people who use their
connections and clout to cash in on no-bid contracts

[[Page S3009]]

and concessions at O'Hare, or Soldier Field, or Millennium Park?
Why not learn from Millennium Park and Soldier Field and exempt
O'Hare before the Mayor can do it again? We have a competitive bid
proposal for concessions and contracts at O'Hare. It is comprehensive.
The Daley-Ryan forces are opposing it. I wonder why that might be?
Maybe Mayor Daley should tell us, before the discussion goes any
farther, who's going to pour the concrete at O'Hare? Will it be someone
who has been lobbying for the expansion at O'Hare? Who will be hired as
consultants or so-called ``expediters''? Who will get a cut of the
contracts? Will it be Jeremiah Joyce or will it be Oscar D'Angelo? Who
is going to get a piece of the action on the insurance? Is it Mickey
Segal or is he too hot right now? What about the bonds? Who is going to
rake it in there? Is it Baum and Co., and Tony Fratto? And what about
the janitorial contracts? Will that be John Duff, Jr. and his sons, the
Duffs?
We have a chance to pass a Federal competitive bid provision for
O'Hare in the U.S. Senate. If we pass it, it should mean a markedly
different way of doing business in Chicago, at least at O'Hare. There
are a number of arguments we will make, and precedents we will review.
Mr. President, I look forward to the debate and to continuing to work
with my colleagues on that issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Presiding Officer, in his capacity as the
Senator from West Virginia, suggests the absence of a quorum.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Nelson of Nebraska). Without objection, it
is so ordered.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, are we on the energy bill at this time?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill has not been laid down yet.

____________________