Wayne Allard

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. I am in no hurry to speak.

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, my colleague from the State of Wyoming has done a great job on the amendment. It is discretionary and begins to put on par the Army and Air Force with the Navy program. We think it is the right solution and the right direction for this. So we are not going to object to the Enzi amendment.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. ALLARD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I want to recognize in a public way the fine statement of my colleague from Nebraska and his hard work on this and many other pieces of legislation coming before the Senate. It is always good to hear from somebody who has personally served in Vietnam and been under fire, so to speak. I want everybody to know it is people like my colleague from Nebraska and their dedication to this country and to freedom which is the reason we think this bill is so important. This is the first major increase in military pay since 1982. I yield the floor.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I compliment my colleague for his hard work on the Armed Services Committee. I do agree with him; the idea of giving discretionary authority to the Secretaries to meet certain retention challenges that come up with qualified pilots is extremely important. The question I would like to ask my friend from Virginia with regard to his amendment is that I understand that the funds to cover the cost of this amendment are in the fiscal year 2000 defense budget; is that accurate?

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, in that case, if this has all been cleared within the budget, then we have no objection to this amendment.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that William Adkins, a National Security fellow on the staff of Senator Abraham, be granted floor privileges during consideration of S. 4.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, it is my understanding that this is included in the budget. So we don't have an objection on this side. We view it as an important retention use to help keep our enlisted men and women in the armed services. I yield the floor.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, before we vote, I want to recognize that Senator Cleland is my ranking member on the Personnel Subcommittee. He is working hard. And I am looking forward to continuing to work on these issues that will come up during this year. I think our subcommittee is going to have some of the toughest challenges of any subcommittee on Armed Services. It is good to have somebody such as Senator Cleland out there to help, and have somebody who served in the military and who walked in the shoes of the people whom we are passing legislation to have an impact on. With that, I yield the remainder of my time.

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, this morning there will be a period of morning business until 11 a.m. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 4, the Soldiers', Sailors', Airmen's and Marines' Bill of Rights Act of 1999. At 12 noon, the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow the weekly party luncheons to meet. Following the luncheons, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 4 with amendments expected to be offered and debated. Rollcall votes are possible throughout today's session, and Members will be notified of the voting schedule when it becomes available. I thank my colleagues for their attention. I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, February 23, 1999, to conduct an oversight hearing on monetary policy report to Congress pursuant to the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978. The witness will be: Hon. Alan Greenspan, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Chairman Greenspan, will also give testimony on financial services modernization legislation.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee be authorized to meet on Tuesday, February 23, 1999, at 9:30 am on S. 303, Satellite Home Viewers Act.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, the Finance Committee requests unanimous consent to conduct a hearing on Tuesday, February 23, 1999 beginning at 10:00 a.m. in room 215 Dirksen.

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, be authorized to meet for a hearing on Education Reform: Governors' Views during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, February 23, 1999, at 8:30 am.

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I should like to personally welcome the guest Chaplain today, Dr. James Olson, who is from my home State of Colorado. I wish to also thank Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie for his graciousness in welcoming him here to the Senate. My wife Joan and I are blessed that we have inspirational leaders both here in Washington and back in my home State of Colorado. Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie is somebody we really respect and value and look to for our spiritual leadership. Dr. James Olson is not only a spiritual leader for my wife and I in Colorado but of the family, and I just wish to state in a public manner how much we appreciate his leadership and how much as a family we appreciate what he does for us. He has not only personally served the Allard family, but he has personally served the community of Fort Collins, CO. He has taken an active part in that community as a religious leader, and in his sermons in the Faith Evangelical Free Church of Fort Collins he has been a leader of affairs before our country, and I think he has been a voice of reason for the congregation and one of balance. I have always appreciated his message on Sundays whenever we have attended his church, and I think that he has strengthened the spiritual community in Fort Collins, particularly the Christian community. I just want to recognize in a public way all his leadership in Colorado, particularly his community. I think he typifies the leadership throughout this country of many of our community pastors and religious leaders. Sometimes I don't think we recognize them as we should. They are an important part of what goes on in this country; they are an important part of what America is all about. So it is with a great deal of pleasure that I welcome Dr. James Olson to the Senate and let him know just how much we appreciate his prayer this morning and wish both his wife Carol and him our very best. We are happy that they could take time out of their religious lives to come to Washington and be a part of the Senate today.

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALLARD. I would just like to state that that was a great statement that my colleague from Alabama made. And I just want him to know what a pleasure and honor it is for me to be able to serve on Armed Services with him. We came together into this august body, and I look forward to many years of working with him and trying to shore up the defense of this country.

Mr. ALLARD. Madam President, I thank the Senator from South Carolina for his remarks, and I appreciate the leadership he has shown over the years on the issues that are important to the Armed Services Committee, on which I serve with him. It is an honor to serve on the committee with both he and Senator Warner as chairman. First, I want to commend the Chairman for his efforts. Senator Warner's leadership on ushering S. 4 to the Senate floor has been significantly important. Without his insistence and courage to move ahead, we could not be where we are today on this bill. I'm glad this is the first bill to come before the Senate, not just for substantive reasons but for the message we are sending to our men and women in uniform. They put their lives on the line everyday for our freedom and they need to know they will receive what they earn. We need to continually send the message that we care about them and the families they have to leave while on duty. Unfortunately, I believe this message has not been sent during the last six years. From the Secretary of Defense down, we have been hearing the difficulty the services have had in recruiting and retaining their service personnel, and complaints about the gap between the military and civilian pay. During the last six years, the defense budget has decreased 25 percent in real economic terms, while at the same time our troops have been sent abroad 45 times--and this doesn't include the latest journey into Kosovo. I do not now want to argue the need for all these deployments, but I will say that we cannot keep asking our armed services to do more and more while giving them less and less. This trend must be reversed and fast. S. 4 is the first step in changing this downward trend. But, better pay and benefits is only one step in improving the quality of life for our soldiers. Soon, we must address the problems of frequent deployments, prolonged absences, readiness shortfalls and the other myriad problems facing our military or else all the important changes in this bill will be lost. The first problem I want to address is the issue of pay. If we want to keep the best and brightest then we need to pay them at levels favorable with salaries in the private sector. The current pay gap is anywhere between 5.5 to 13.5 percent and is projected to exceed 15 percent by the year 2005. Pay raises have lagged behind the average private sector raises for 12 of the last 16 years. I agree with Secretary Cohen and General Shelton when they say that we can never pay our military personnel enough, but we can pay them too little--and that is what has been done over the last decade. S. 4 provides a much needed 4.8 percent pay raise, the first major raise since 1982. I point out that the 4.8-percent pay raise is the first major pay raise since 1982. This may not erase the pay gap problem, but at least it is a start to giving the military what they deserve for the long hours they provide in the defense of our Nation. One horrendous example of this low pay is the enlisted soldiers on food stamps. The first time I heard that we had military personnel on food stamps I was outraged. Thanks to Senator McCain's and Senator Roberts' efforts, S. 4 will address this problem. According to the Department of Defense, over 11,000 service members are eligible to receive food stamps. Almost as staggering as this problem was the response given to it by the administration. According to a 1997 AP story in the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said, ``It's too bad, but it's a function of the size of their family more than anything else.'' He said that the problem has been around for decades. He said today, ``More soldiers are married and have families than in the past.'' While I agree with size of the families being a factor, I disagree that this is just ``too bad.'' It is wrong and must be addressed immediately. But since that statement in 1997, the administration has done nothing to fix the problem. That is why I am happy that S. 4 will no longer just say ``too bad.'' This bill will provide $180 per month subsistence pay for enlisted personnel in grades E-5 and below who voluntarily demonstrate an eligibility for food stamps. The allowance, along with the pay raise, is estimated to help nearly 10,000 military personnel climb above the food stamp wage scale. Also, a January 31, 1999, Denver Post article highlights another problem associated with low pay, and that is retaining highly trained personnel. The 3d Space Operations Squadron, whose personnel fly our military satellites from Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, has starting salaries of $13,000. However, it should be of no surprise that these highly trained personnel are being coaxed to leave the military for the private sector with starting salaries of over $50,000. While there is no way the military can compete with salaries such as these, a pay raise will help ease the problems of keeping these personnel. The article also points out that the 3rd Space Operation has a turnover as high as 45 percent. With the commercial space industry booming, especially in Colorado, many of these companies will pay top dollar for these young men and women who haven't even been certified on satellites but have the highly technical training. This results in higher spending in order to train the new people for the vacant slots. At this point, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this Denver Post article.

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. ALLARD

Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the Senate will reconvene tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. and begin a period of morning business until 11 a.m. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 4. It is expected that Senators will begin to offer amendments to S. 4 once the bill is reported, and, therefore, rollcall votes are possible prior to the policy luncheon recess at 12 noon.