Sam Brownback

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 336, S. 1235.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 337, S. 1485.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee on HELP be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 92, and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the joint resolution be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to this resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 339, H.J. Res. 62.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider Executive Calendar No. 197 on today's Executive Calendar. I further ask unanimous consent that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of today's session, it be in order for the Senate photographer to take photographs of the desk of our late colleague, John Chafee, and the flowers that sit there.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to speak regarding the late Senator John Chafee. I have a few comments I want to make. I was privileged to be presiding whenever our colleagues spoke about Senator Chafee and what a great man he was. People have gone through his resume. It struck me as I was listening that it is rare for us to recognize giants when they are among us. It is generally only after they leave us that we recognize the giant of the individual. Senator Chafee was such a giant. For all the things he has done and for which he has been recognized--his work for his country, his fighting for his country, his service in this body, his service in Rhode Island--he was truly a giant among us. Only now do we measure his true greatness because we have this void in that he is no longer with us. He was a great giant, he was a humble giant, he was a kind giant, a giant of a man, and a giant of a soul. We can look at his desk and see the flowers--and they are beautiful flowers. As I look at Senator Chafee's desk, I see this giant oak tree. It is a soaring oak tree, and it has limbs that branch out everywhere. It has leaves that are providing shade and support and nurturing and housing for so many people. It glistens and reaches all the way across America. That is the kind of person he really is. He is a giant of that stature and that nature. The other thing about him is, he doesn't even want to be noticed that he is there. He just wants to do that. He just wants to provide this great shade and this great tree and this great support for this country. He really doesn't even want to be noticed. When you said, my, isn't that great; he just kind of said, no, I just wanted to do this. I just wanted to help the people in this country whom I love so much, these people who are here for whom I feel so strongly. I believe that I have been given much. To whom much is given, much is expected. I am just providing what I think I ought to. That was the kind of humble man he was. I have my own personal experience and memory, as all of us do, about working with him. I am a newer Member, so I didn't have the length of service others did. But I was working with him on a rails-to-trails bill that had a particular problem for Kansas. This was a program he deeply loved. Yet I was having a particular narrow problem. Normally, one would think--I am a new Member and this is a program he loves; I am having a problem with it--that he would kind of quickly shuffle me to the side, that that would have been the normal experience. Yet he was the kindest man about it. He said: I know you have a problem with this. Let's see if we can work it out. He could have easily said: I really don't have time for this. I have more important things to do. But my problem was his problem. He worked with me, and he worked with me in kindness and in gentleness to try to deal with the problem I had with which, in many respects, he disagreed. Yet that was the kind of man he was. There was a great kindness about him. In my estimation, few have carried greatness so gently as John Chafee carried it. If pride is the first sin, humility is the first grace. And John was a truly humble man. John was a man of grace. We will all miss him dearly, as we see this giant that is no longer amongst us. We loved him. God loves him. Our prayers will be with him and his family. I only hope his memory can stay with us as long and that we can recognize that giant who was amongst us and in many respects that giant tree which is still there.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I submit for the Record a speech given by Mother Teresa. I think it is quite germane to this debate we are having on partial-birth abortion. It is piercing in its view of the truth. It is piercing in its view of the issue of abortion. It is quite clear. I think it is full of great wisdom. I ask unanimous consent it be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, for the information of all Senators, the Senate will resume consideration of the sub-Saharan Africa free trade bill at 9:30 tomorrow. The debate on the motion is expected to consume most of the day. For the information of all Senators, the majority leader announced that there will be no votes tomorrow or Monday. However, Senators can expect votes early on Tuesday morning. For the beginning of next week, the Senate will resume debate on the African trade bill and will consider numerous Executive Calendar items. The Senate will also consider appropriations conference reports as they become available.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until the hour of 9:30 a.m. on Friday, October 22. I further ask unanimous consent that on Friday immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and notwithstanding the adjournment of the Senate, the Senate then resume debate on the motion to proceed to H.R. 434, the sub-Saharan Africa free trade bill.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 2367, which is at the desk.

Mr. BROWNBACK

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

Mr. BROWNBACK

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

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I want to speak for a brief period. The reason I want to speak is to read into the Record a great speech that was given by a Nobel Laureate for Peace prize winner in 1979. It fits in with the culmination of what we discussed today, the partial-birth abortion ban. That vote has taken place and we have had extended discussion on that. I think this is actually a very fitting final conclusion to this debate. Mr. President, this speech is titled ``The Gift of Peace.'' It was given by Mother Teresa, Nobel Laureate, on December 11, 1979. I think it relates to a lot of what we have talked about here today. I will read it. I think it puts a good summary on it. Mother Teresa said: As we have gathered here together to thank God for the Nobel Peace Prize, I think it will be beautiful that we pray the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi which always surprises me very much--we pray this prayer every day after Holy Communion, because it is very fitting for each one of us, and I always wonder that 4-500 years ago as St. Francis of Assisi composed this prayer that they had the same difficulties that we have today, as we compose this prayer that fits very nicely for us also. I think some of you already have got it-- so we will pray together. Let us thank God for the opportunity that we all have together today, for this gift of peace that reminds us that we have been created to live that peace, and Jesus became man to bring that good news to the poor. He being God became man in all things like us except sin, and he proclaimed very clearly that he had come to give the good news. The news was peace to all of good will and this is something that we all want--the peace of heart--and God loved the world so much that he gave his son--it was a giving--it is as much as if to say it hurt God to give, because he loved the world so much that he gave his son, and he gave him to Virgin Mary, and what did she do with him? As soon as he came in her life--immediately she went in haste to give that good news, and as she came into the house of her cousin, the child--the unborn child--the child in the womb of Elizabeth, lit with joy. He was that little unborn child, was the first messenger of peace. He recognized the Prince of Peace, he recognized that Christ has come to bring the good news for you and for me. And as if that was not enough--it was not enough to become a man--he died on the cross to show that greater love, and he died for you and for me and for that leper and for that man dying of hunger and that naked person lying in the street not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, and New York, and London, and Oslo-- and insisted that we love one another as he loves each one of us. And we read that in the Gospel very clearly--love as I have loved you--as I love you--as the Father has loved me, I love you--and the harder the Father loved him, he gave him to us, and how much we love one another, we, too, must give each other until it hurts. It is not enough for us to say: I love God, but I do not love my neighbour. St. John says you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbour. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbour whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live. And so this is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him. And to make sure we remember his great love he made himself bread of life to satisfy our hunger for his love. Our hunger for God, because we have been created for that love. We have been created in his image. We have been created to love and be loved, and then he has become man to make it possible for us to love as he loved us. He makes himself the hungry one--the naked one--the homeless one--the sick one--the one in prison--the lonely one--the unwanted one--and he says: You did it to me. Hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find, it may be in our own home. I never forget an opportunity I had in visiting a home where they had all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them in an institution and forgotten maybe. And I went there, and I saw in that home they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking toward the door. And I did not see a single one with their smile on their face. And I turned to the sister and I asked: How is that? How is it that the people they have everything here, why are they all looking toward the door, why are they not smiling? I am so used to see the smile on our people, even the dying ones smile, and she said: This is nearly every day, they are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten, and see--this is where love comes. That poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect to love. Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried, and these are difficult days for everybody. Are we there, are we there to receive them, is the mother there to receive the child? I was surprised in the waste to see so many young boys and girls given into drugs, and I tried to find out why--why is it like that, and the answer was: Because there is no one in the family to receive them. Father and mother are so busy they have no time. Young parents are in some institution and the child takes back to the street and gets involved in something. We are talking of peace. These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing-- direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly. Even if a mother could forget her child--I will not forget you--I have curved you in the palm of my hand. We are curved in the palm of His hand so close to Him that unborn child has been curved in the hand of God. And that is what strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even if a mother could forget something impossible--but even if she could forget--I will not forget your. And today the greatest means--the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. And we who are standing here--our parents wanted us. We would not be here if our parents would do that to us. Our children, we want them, we love them, but what of the millions. Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children of Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child--what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me--there is nothing between. And this I appeal in India, I appeal everywhere: Let us bring the child back, and this year being the child's year: What have we done for the child? At the beginning of the year I told, I spoke everywhere and I said: Let us make this year that we make every single child born, and unborn, wanted. And today is the end of the year, have we really made the children wanted? I will give you something terrifying. We are fighting abortion by adoption, we have saved thousands of lives, we have sent words to all the clinics, to the hospitals, police stations--please don't destroy the child, we will take the child. So every hour of the day and night it is always somebody, we have quite a number of unwedded mothers--tell them come, we will take care of you, we will take the child from you, and we will get a home for the child. And we have a tremendous demand for families who have no children, that is the blessing of God for us. And also, we are doing another thing which is very beautiful--we are teaching our beggars, our leprosy patients, our slum dwellers, our people of the street, natural family planning. And in Calcutta alone in six years--it is all in Calcutta-- we have had 61,273 babies less from the families who would have had, but because they practice this natural way of abstaining, of self-control, out of love for each other. We teach them the temperature meter which is very beautiful, very simple, and our poor people understand. And you know what they have told me? Our family is healthy, our family is united, and we can have a baby whenever we want. So clear-- these people in the street, those beggars--and I think that if our people can do like that how much more you and all the others who can know the ways and means without destroying the life that God has created in us. The poor people are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. The other day one of them came to thank and said: You people who have evolved chastity you are the best people to teach us family planning. Because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other. And I think they said a beautiful sentence. And these are people who maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home where to live, but they are great people. The poor are very wonderful people. One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition--and I told the sisters: You take care of the other three, I take of this one that looked worse. So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: Thank you--and she died. I could not help but examine my conscience before her, and I asked what would I say if I was in her place. And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself, I would have said I am hungry, that I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain, or something, but she gave me much more--she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face. As that man whom we picked up from the drain, half eaten with worms, and we brought him to the home. I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for. And it was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that, who could die like that without blaming anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel--this is the greatness of our people. And that is why we believe what Jesus has said: I was hungry--I was naked--I was homeless--I was unwanted, unloved, uncared for--and you did it to me. I believe that we are not real social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of the people, but we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the body of Christ 24 hours. We have 24 hours in this presence, and so you and I. You too try to bring that presence of God in your family, for the family that prays together stays together. And I think that we in our family we don't need bombs and guns, to destroy to bring peace-- just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence of each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world. There is so much suffering, so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do. It is to God Almighty--how much we do it does not matter, because He is infinite, but how much love we put in that action. How much we do to Him in the person that we are serving. Some time ago in Calcutta we had great difficulty in getting sugar, and I don't know how the word got around to the children, and a little boy of four years old, Hindu boy, went home and told his parents: I will not eat sugar for three days, I will give my sugar to Mother Teresa for her children. After three days his father and mother brought him to our house. I had never met them before, and this little one could scarcely pronounce my name, but he knew exactly what he had come to do. He knew that he wanted to share his love. And this is why I have received such a lot of love from you all. From the time that I have come here I have simply been surrounded with love, and with real, real understanding love. It could feel as if everyone in India, everyone in Africa is somebody very special to you. And I felt quite at home I was telling Sister today. I feel in the Convent with the Sisters as if I am in Calcutta with my own Sisters. So completely at home here, right here. And so here I am talking with you--I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people. And find out about your next-door neighbor--do you know who they are? I had the most extraordinary experience with a Hindu family who had eight children. A gentleman came to our house and said: Mother Teresa, there is a family with eight children, they had not eaten for so long--do something. So I took some rice and I went there immediately. And I saw the children--their eyes shining with hunger--I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And she took the rice, and divided the rice, and she went out. When she came back I asked her--where did you go, what did you do? And she gave me a very simple answer: They are hungry also. What struck me most was that she knew--and who are they, a Muslim family--and she knew. I didn't bring more rice that evening because I wanted them to enjoy the joy of sharing. But there was those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy with their mother because she had the love to give. And you see this is where love begins--at home. And I want you--and I am very grateful for what I have received. It has been a tremendous experience and I go back to India--I will be back by next week, the 15th I hope--and I will be able to bring your love. And I know well that you have not given from your abundance, but you have given until it hurts you. Today the little children they gave--I was so surprised--there is so much joy for the children that are hungry. That the children like themselves will need love and care and tenderness, like they get so much from their parents. So let us thank God that we have had this opportunity to come to know each other, and this knowledge of each other has brought us very close. And we will be able to help not only the children of India and Africa, but will be able to help the children of the whole world, because as you know our Sisters are all over the world. And with this Prize that I have received as a Prize of Peace, I am going to try to make the home for many people that have no home. Because I believe that love begins at home, and if we can create a home for the poor-- I think that more and more love will spread. And we will be able through this understanding love to bring peace, be the good news to the poor. The poor in our own family first, in our country and in the world. To be able to do this, our Sisters, our lives have to be woven with prayer. They have to be woven with Christ to be able to understand, to be able to share. Because today there is so much suffering--and I feel that the passion of Christ is being relived all over again--are we there to share that passion, to share that suffering of people. Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society--that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult. Our Sisters are working amongst that kind of people in the West. So you must pray for us that we may be able to be that good news, but we cannot do that without you, you have to do that here in your country. You must come to know the poor, maybe our people here have material things, everything, but I think that if we all look into our own homes, how difficult we find it sometimes to smile at each other, and that the smile is the beginning of love. And so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love, and once we begin to love each other naturally we want to do something. So you pray for our Sisters and for me and for our Brothers, and for our co- workers that are around the world. That we may remain faithful to the gift of God, to love Him and serve Him in the poor together with you. What we have done we would not have been able to do if you did not share with your prayers, with your gifts, this continual giving. But I don't want you to give me from your abundance, I want that you give me until it hurts. The other day I received 15 dollars from a man who has been on his back for twenty years, and the only part that he can move is his right hand. And the only companion that he enjoys is smoking. And he said to me: I do not smoke for one week, and I send you this money. It must have been a terrible sacrifice for him, but see how beautiful, how he shared, and with that money I bought bread and I gave to those who are hungry with a joy on both sides, he was giving and the poor were receiving. This is something that you and I--it is a gift of God to us to be able to share our love with others. And let it be as it was for Jesus. Let us love one another as he loved us. Let us love Him with undivided love. And the joy of loving Him and each other--let us give now--that Christmas is coming so close. Let us keep that joy of loving Jesus in our hearts. And share that joy with all that we come in touch with. And that radiating joy is real, for we have no reason not to be happy because we have Christ with us. Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor that we meet, Christ in the smile that we give and the smile that we receive. Let us make that one point: That no child will be unwanted, and also that we meet each other always with a smile, especially when it is difficult to smile. I never forget some time ago about 14 professors came from the United States from different universities. And they came to Calcutta to our house. Then we were talking about home for the dying in Calcutta, where we have picked up more than 36,000 people only from the streets of Calcutta, and out of that big number more than 18,000 have died a beautiful death. They have just gone home to God; and they came to our house and we talked of love, of compassion, and then one of them asked me: Say, Mother, please tell us something that we will remember, and I said to them: Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family. Smile at each other. And then another one asked me: Are you married, and I said: Yes, and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at Jesus because he can be very demanding sometimes. This is really something true, and there is where love comes--when it is demanding, and yet we can give it to Him with joy. Just as I have said today, I have said that if I don't go to Heaven for anything else I will be going to Heaven for all the publicity because it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really something ready to go to Heaven. I think that this is something, that we must live life beautifully, we have Jesus with us and He loves us. If we could only remember that God loves me, and I have an opportunity to love others as He loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love, then Norway becomes a nest of love. And how beautiful it will be that from here a centre for peace of war has been given. That from here the joy of life of the unborn child comes out. If you become a burning light in the world of peace, then really the Nobel Peace Prize is a gift of the Norwegian people. God bless you! I simply wanted to put Mother Teresa's speech here again as a reminder to us of one of the great people of the world of our time, one that we have had the pleasure of having in this body, and that at the face of all this, we are really talking about peace. We are talking about a caring peace. I hope that we can move forward as a society, whether we want to do it by laws or not by laws. If we want to do it, we are persuading people's hearts. What we are talking about is the peace of that individual, and peace of mind, caring, caring through adoption. I hope we can move our hearts--all of us, whether we disagree or agree on the legislation--forward to reach out to that child and to those children the way she did.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, on behalf of myself and Senator Dorgan, the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act of 1999. This legislation is the product of more than a year's worth of negotiations between the Governors, cities, State tax and local tax authorities, and the wireless industry. The legislation represents an historic agreement between State and local governments and the wireless industry to bring sanity to the manner in which wireless telecommunications services are taxed. For as long as we have had wireless telecommunications in this country, we have had a taxation system that is incredibly complex for carriers and costly for consumers. Today, there are several different methodologies that determine whether a taxing jurisdiction may tax a wireless call. If a call originates at a cell site located in a jurisdiction, it may impose a tax. If a call originates at a switch in the jurisdiction, a tax may be imposed. And if the billing address is in the jurisdiction, a tax can be imposed. As a result, many different taxing authorities can tax the same wireless call. The farther you travel during a call, the greater the number of taxes that can be imposed upon it. This system is simply not sustainable as wireless calls represent an increasing portion of the total number of calls made throughout the United States. To reduce the cost of making wireless calls, Senator Dorgan and I are introducing this legislation. The legislation would create a nationwide, uniform system for the taxation of wireless calls. The only jurisdictions that would have the authority to tax mobile calls would be the taxing authorities of the customer's place of primary use, which would essentially be the customer's home or office. By creating this uniform system, Congress would be greatly simplifying the taxation and billing of wireless calls. The wireless industry would not have to keep track of countless tax laws for each wireless transaction. State and local taxing authorities would be relieved of burdensome audit and oversight responsibilities without losing the authority to tax wireless calls. And, most importantly, consumers would see reduced wireless rates and fewer billing headaches. The Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act is a win-win-win. It's a win for industry, a win for government, and a win for consumers. I thank Senator Dorgan for working with me in crafting this bill. And, most of all, I thank government and industry for coming together and reaching agreement on this important issue. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the Record. [Data not available at time of printing.]

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. I have no objection.

Mr. BROWNBACK. Thank you very much. I thank my colleague, Senator Santorum, for once again bringing this important issue in front of this body and to this floor. Once again, I join Senator Santorum as an original cosponsor of this legislation to end partial-birth abortion in this country. Last year, the Senate failed to override the President's veto by three votes. President Clinton has twice vetoed similar measures in 1996 and 1997. We will continue, however, to raise this issue until the President signs this into law, or until this procedure is banned for forever. I follow my colleague from Connecticut, who I rarely disagree with on matters of this nature. But this happens to be one of those which I do. I view this as an abhorrent procedure, as my colleague from Connecticut does as well. I also view it as a constitutional issue that we can raise, that we can deal with, and this body should deal with. This goes to one of the most fundamental issues for us as a country, for us as a people, and that is when life begins and when it should be protected. These lives should be protected. As I sat and listened to much of this discussion, I have to say I am sad as I listened to this discussion because it is so difficult, and it is such an awful thing--the birth of a child, and then it is killed by a blunt instrument. I think some medical facts bear mentioning at this point in time. Brain wave activity is detectable in human beings at 41 days after conception--just 41 days. A heartbeat is detectable 24 days after conception. Consistently, State statutory or case law establishes a criteria of dead as the irreversible cessation of brain wave activity or spontaneous cardiac arrest. In short, these are lives of individuals that are ended by this process. It is death. These are heartbeats and brain waves. They are stopped. They are denied life by this abhorrent procedure. I would like to share some thoughts with you from a writer, a Jewish writer, Sandi Merl, when he was asked about this procedure of partial- birth abortion. He said this: When I think of Partial-Birth Abortion, I hear only the first two words--``partial birth.'' To me, this procedure is not abortion. It is pre-term delivery followed by an act of destruction leading to a painful death . . . This is infanticide, clearly and simply, and must be stopped . . . This is about leaving no fingerprints when committing a murder of convenience. That is why I will once again vote to end partial-birth abortion when it comes to the Senate floor. It is a cruel and shameless procedure which robs us of our humanity with every operation performed. It is not true that the anesthesia kills the child before removal from the womb. Instead, it is the fact that the baby is actually alive and experiences extraordinary pain when undergoing the operation. Nor is this brutality only reserved for the most extreme circumstances. According to the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, the ``vast majority'' of partial-birth abortions are performed in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy on healthy babies of healthy mothers. The facts speak for themselves. Bluntly put, this involves the death of a child in a brutal fashion, and all of it legally condoned by the current President of the United States. Our institutionalized indifference to this extraordinary suffering makes me wonder, what has happened to our collective conscience as a nation? Are we really so callous that we knowingly condone this form of death for our very weakest, which we would never force on any adult, no matter how bad the crime? Even murderers on death row are given more consideration when executed. Yet our babies are painfully killed while conscious. This extraordinary cruelty should cause us to bow our heads in shame. In a Wall Street Journal article, Peggy Noonan rightly labeled events such as that at Columbine High School as evidence of a much deeper problem, one she identified as the ``culture of death.'' Quoting Pope John Paul II from his recent visit to Mexico City, he urged a rejection of this increasingly influential culture of death, instead embracing the dignity and principles of life for everyone. It is obvious, especially after the Columbine tragedy, that a culture of death is playing in our land. Lately, the volume has been turned up very loudly. The words to this song include the extremes we know now by heart: Excessively high murder rates, the repeated rampages of violence by schoolchildren against schoolchildren, the unending tawdriness of television programming and other media, to name only a few cultural malfunctions. As Noonan went on to observe: No longer say, if you don't like it, change the channel. [People] now realize something they didn't realize ten years ago: There is no channel to change to. Perhaps our increasingly violent culture has dulled our consciences and worn us down to this place where it no longer is politically expedient to protest the obscene suffering of infants. This explains why we continue to tolerate such a brutal practice as partial-birth abortion--what a dreadful name. I hope it isn't so. It is to this conscience that I appeal. I appeal to those who recognize the suffering and do not turn their heads, who take personal responsibility to correct this course of destruction, no matter the political consequences. Please, please, open your hearts and listen. Hear that voice in there, the cries of thousands of little children, saying: Hear me, let me live. Every once in a while, something happens which shakes us from our dullness. I want to share an event reported in the Washington Times that described an incident in April of this year in Cincinnati where a botched partial-birth abortion resulted in the birth of a little girl who lived for 3 hours. It is reported that the emergency room technician rocked and sang to her. After the inevitable death of the baby, the staff members grieved so badly that hours were spent in counseling and venting to get over the emotional trauma of the incident. One person observed that the real tragedy is that no laws were broken. I hope we will continue to let ourselves be troubled by this event and by this practice and instead of turning a cold heart to it or saying, ``I'm tied into a certain political position I can't change.'' I hope we will prayerfully consider and at night go and search ourselves and ask: Is this something we want to continue in America? Is this something I want to be a part of allowing to continue in America? People of great tradition serve in this body who seek to protect and to serve the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak in our culture and society. They serve so admirably, and they speak glowingly about the need to protect those who are weakest. Yet, is it not this child in the womb who is the weakest of all in our society and in our culture? And that child cries right now. If we will just for a moment listen, we will hear the cry of that child. Can't we just for a moment turn from our locked in, dug in positions and say, OK, just for a moment I will listen, I will see if I can hear that small voice that is crying out to me: Just let me live. Let me have that God-given life that has been promised to me. Let me have that God-given life of which we speak so eloquently in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life. . . . Let's live. Let's stop this culture of death from going forward. Let's appeal to that inner voice that says let that life live. I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, on behalf of myself and Senator Dorgan, the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act of 1999. This legislation is the product of more than a year's worth of negotiations between the Governors, cities, State tax and local tax authorities, and the wireless industry. The legislation represents an historic agreement between State and local governments and the wireless industry to bring sanity to the manner in which wireless telecommunications services are taxed. For as long as we have had wireless telecommunications in this country, we have had a taxation system that is incredibly complex for carriers and costly for consumers. Today, there are several different methodologies that determine whether a taxing jurisdiction may tax a wireless call. If a call originates at a cell site located in a jurisdiction, it may impose a tax. If a call originates at a switch in the jurisdiction, a tax may be imposed. And if the billing address is in the jurisdiction, a tax can be imposed. As a result, many different taxing authorities can tax the same wireless call. The farther you travel during a call, the greater the number of taxes that can be imposed upon it. This system is simply not sustainable as wireless calls represent an increasing portion of the total number of calls made throughout the United States. To reduce the cost of making wireless calls, Senator Dorgan and I are introducing this legislation. The legislation would create a nationwide, uniform system for the taxation of wireless calls. The only jurisdictions that would have the authority to tax mobile calls would be the taxing authorities of the customer's place of primary use, which would essentially be the customer's home or office. By creating this uniform system, Congress would be greatly simplifying the taxation and billing of wireless calls. The wireless industry would not have to keep track of countless tax laws for each wireless transaction. State and local taxing authorities would be relieved of burdensome audit and oversight responsibilities without losing the authority to tax wireless calls. And, most importantly, consumers would see reduced wireless rates and fewer billing headaches. The Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act is a win-win-win. It's a win for industry, a win for government, and a win for consumers. I thank Senator Dorgan for working with me in crafting this bill. And, most of all, I thank government and industry for coming together and reaching agreement on this important issue. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the Record. [Data not available at time of printing.]

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise today to add my support to S. 1652, a bill to designate the Old Executive Office Building located at 17th and Pennsylvania, here in the District of Columbia, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. I remind my colleagues of the many accomplishments and selfless contributions of our 34th President. His strong character and remarkable achievements have made him a role model for many young people worldwide. As a native of Kansas myself, it is an honor to commemorate this fellow Kansan by associating his name with a remarkable architectural landmark like the Old Executive Office Building. Born 25 years after the end of the civil war, Dwight David Eisenhower was the third son of David and Ida Eisenhower. He spent his formative years sharing a crowded house with five brothers in Abilene, Kansas. He sought and received an appointment to West Point. In 1927 he entered Army War College here in Washington, DC. His early Army career saw rapid advancement through the ranks. Within 11 years, he was chief military aide to Gen. Douglass MacArthur and by the age of 40 served as Army Chief of Operations. While holding these positions, Eisenhower occupied several offices in the Old Executive Office Building and spent many hours walking the white marble tile corridors. On June 6, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the D-Day Normandy invasion. Through his actions and duties, his name became synonymous with heroism. Just 6 months later, he was promoted to U.S. Army's highest ranking, General of the Army. After the war, Eisenhower's popularity with the American people soared. In 1948, he actually received the nomination for President from both political parties but declined the honor. Instead, he became the president of Columbia University in New York City. Fear of communist built-up and disappointment with the mismanagement of the Korean war, convinced Eisenhower that he had a duty to run, and in 1952 he received the Republican nomination for President. Eisenhower's two terms as President of the United States saw many progressive and important accomplishments. After inauguration, he signed a truce that brought an armed peace along the border of South Korea and effectively ended the war. In 1956, he sponsored the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction. Eisenhower signed legislation creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and witnessed Alaska and Hawaii become States. His public works programs included the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1954 and the Interstate Highway System in 1956, the largest construction project in history. Perhaps Eisenhower's greatest feat during his presidency was making and keeping the peace with communist countries. Eisenhower seldom boasted, but he once summed up one of the proudest accomplishments of his presidency in these words: ``The United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my administration. We kept the peace. People asked how it happened--by God, it didn't just happen, I'll tell you that.'' Dwight D. Eisenhower attributed his success and good fortune to ``. . . a lifetime of continuous association with men and women . . . who . . . gave others inspiration and guidance.'' His parents, church, and community were first among them. The small town environment of Abilene, Kansas taught him ambition without arrogance and self-dependence with a concern for others. President Eisenhower never forgot where his strength or that of the Nation came from. In June of 1954, an amendment was made to add the words ``one Nation under God'' to the Pledge of Allegiance. Eisenhower remarked, ``In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage of future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war.'' So, in renaming this most historic structure, we celebrate not only the accomplishments of President Eisenhower, but the strong, loving family and nurturing community of his youth which helped propel him to greatness. These are the values with which we attempt to equip our children and prepare great leaders for our future. Many of the young people of our country have little or no idea who this great American was or what his leadership in both war and peace meant to the nation and the world. It is my hope that when Americans visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive office Building, a curiosity about his heritage is evoked in children and adults alike, and people are inspired by his example. I encourage all Senators to support this bipartisan legislation and honor our former President and wartime leader Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Mr. BROWNBACK

Mr. BROWNBACK. I rise to thank Father Chad Hatfield of the All Saints Orthodox Church, Salina, KS, for his encouraging words. Today, it is appropriate to honor this man of God by describing his service to the people of Kansas. Father Hatfield has served faithfully in the ministry for over 20 years and is presently the senior pastor of an Eastern Orthodox congregation. Before settling in Kansas, he lived in several places including South Africa during far more difficult days. His duties included ministering as well as editing a South African theological journal. He became an ordained Orthodox priest in January 1994, after several years in the Episcopal Church. He is a respected theologian, as well as a man of deep faith whose talent lies in pointing people to a relationship with God. He is known for his special events for those exploring Christian Orthodoxy, and many in his congregation are new converts because of his witness. I hope my words capture his strength and wisdom. This is a man who has dedicated himself to the people of his parish, not because it was his job but because they are his flock. His is the work of opening Godly mysteries, while serving the needs of those in his community. He is a servant to those in trouble involving the persecuted church overseas, youth violence at home, reducing teen pregnancy, preserving marriages, and helping promote such projects as Faith Works of Kansas which links needy families with churches to help people get back on their feet. His is the work of a true shepherd, and it is work which surely will remain. The Bible says in Psalm 119:105, ``Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.'' Mr. President, I hope you join me in thanking Father Hatfield for his prayer and lighting our path for this day. I thank the Chair and I yield the floor.