together to persuade the Senate in favor of cutting back the deficit expense. Byrd raised a procedural point to derail an attempt by Dole that would approve $50 billion in spending cuts over the following five years. McCain proposed killing highway demonstration projects with a $203 million price tag, leading Byrd to produce letters written by McCain that the latter had sent to the Appropriations Committee in 1991 in an attempt to gather highway grants for his home state of Arizona. Byrd said that McCain "is very considerate of the taxpayers when it comes to financing projects in other states, but he supports such projects in his own state." Along with Chuck Hagel, in July 1997 Byrd sponsored the Byrd–Hagel Resolution, which effectively prohibited the US from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on limiting and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In May 2000, Byrd and John Warner sponsored a provision threatening to withdraw American troops from Kosovo, the legislation if enacted cutting off funds for troops in Kosovo after July 1, 2001, without Congressional consent. The language would have also withheld 25 percent of the money for Kosovo in the bill unless the assertion that European countries were living up to their promises to provide reconstruction money for the province was certified by President Clinton by July 15. Byrd argued that lawmakers had never approved nor debate whether American troops should be stationed in Kosovo. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the legislation in a vote of 23-to-3 that was said to reflect "widespread concern among lawmakers about an open-ended deployment of American soldiers". In November 2000, Congress passed an amendment sponsored by Byrd diverting tariff revenues from the Treasury Department and instead allocating them to the industry complaining, the amount involved ranging from between $40 million and $200 million a year. The following month, Japan and the European Union led a group of countries in filing a joint complaint with the World Trade Organization to the law. George W. Bush era Byrd praised the nomination of John G. Roberts to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Likewise, Byrd was one of four Democrats who supported the confirmation of Samuel Alito to replace retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Like most Democrats, Byrd opposed Bush's tax cuts and his proposals to change the Social Security program. Byrd opposed the 2002 Homeland Security Act,