Robert Byrd

Mr. BYRD

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

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Senator.

Mr. BYRD. Madam President, on behalf of Mr. Biden, I ask unanimous consent that Mark Tauber, a State Department Pearson Fellow on the Foreign Relations Committee staff, be granted floor privileges for the duration of consideration of S. 1768, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill.

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

Mr. BYRD

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

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I have offered this amendment on behalf of myself and the distinguished Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan. I am very pleased to join with the distinguished Senator from North Dakota in introducing an ambitious new effort on the matter of the Nation's persistent and growing trade deficit. Mr. Dorgan has taken the floor time after time after time and spoken eloquently and very knowledgeably concerning the perennial trade deficits that seem ever to grow larger. This legislation would establish a commission to take a broad, thorough look at all important aspects of trends involving and solutions to the growing U.S. trade deficit, with particular attention to the manufacturing sector. The trade deficit, as my colleagues know, is a recent phenomenon-- recent in terms of its being over a period of recent years--with large annual deficits only occurring within the last 15 years or so. Between 1970 and 1996, the U.S. merchandise trade balance shifted from a surplus of $3.2 billion--did you hear me, Senators? Our merchandise trade balance has shifted from a surplus of $3.2 billion to a deficit, in 1996, of $199 billion. That is $199 billion. As my colleague, Mr. Dorgan, has suggested, projections by econometric forecasting firms indicate that long-term trends will bring this figure to $300 billion, or more, within the next 10 years. So hold on to your hats. The deficit was $199 billion in 1996, but long-term trends indicate that the figure will go to $300 billion, or more. You better hold on to two hats. It is going to really take off within the next 10 years. No one is predicting a decline in the near future. Sounds kind of like the stock market, doesn't it? This is bad news about the trade deficit. Thus, unless we act, our trade deficits will soon exceed our annual appropriations for the Department of Defense. Mr. President, $2 million is made available in this amendment to establish a 12-member congressional commission to be known as the trade deficit emergency review commission, with three members each to be named by the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and by the Speaker and minority leader of the House. At least two of those individuals are to be Senators, and at least two are to be Members of the other body. The purpose of the commission shall be to study the causes and the consequences of the U.S. merchandise trade and current account deficits and to develop trade policy recommendations for the 21st century. The recommendations shall include strategies necessary to achieve market access to foreign markets that fully reflect the competitiveness and productivity of the United States and also improve the standard of living in the United States. While it is not clear what the particular reasons for this growing trade deficit may be nor what the long-term impacts of a persistently growing deficit may be, the time is overdue for a detailed examination of the factors causing the deficit. We need to understand the impacts of it on specific industrial and manufacturing sectors. We need to identify the gaps that exist in our databases and economic measurements to understand specifically the impacts of the deficit on such important things as our manufacturing capacity and the integrity of our industrial base on productivity, on jobs, and on wages in specific sectors. From time to time, we debate the trade deficits. Both Senator Dorgan and I and other Senators have participated in these debates. Senator Dorgan is an expert on the subject. I voted against NAFTA, I voted against GATT, and for good reasons, which every day seem to be becoming clearer and clearer. So we debate these deficits frequently. We moan and we groan, we weep and we shed great tears by the bucketsful. We complain about them, but if we do not understand the nature, the impacts, and the long-term vulnerabilities that such manufacturing imbalances create in our economy and standard of living, we are in the dark. It appears to me that debate over trade matters too often takes on the form of lofty rhetorical bombast of so-called ``protections'' versus so-called ``free trade agreements.'' But I suggest that neither side knows enough about what is really transpiring in our economy, given the very recent nature of these annual persistent deficits. Certainly, we know that the deficits reflect on the ability of American business to compete abroad. We want to be competitive. Certainly, we know that specific deficits with specific trading partners cause frictions between the United States and those friends and allies. This is particularly the case with the Japanese, as we are well aware, and is becoming quickly the case with China. It will only be when we truly understand the specific impacts of this large deficit on our economy-- particularly our industrial and manufacturing base--that the importance of insisting on fair play on the trade account will be clear. Finally, the legislation requires the commission to examine alternative strategies--big words, ``alternative strategies''--which we can pursue to achieve the systematic reduction of the deficit, and particularly how to retard the migration of our manufacturing base abroad and the changes that might be needed to our basic trade agreements and practices. These are the purposes of the commission that Senator Dorgan, I, and other Senators are proposing in this legislation. I join in welcoming other Senators. I join with Senator Dorgan in welcoming other Senators to cosponsor the legislation. Senator Dorgan will speak later this afternoon on this subject matter. I again thank him for the leadership that he has been providing and continues to provide on this subject matter. I urge Senators to support the amendment. Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Chair, and I thank my friend, the very distinguished Senator from Alaska, who is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. I commend the leaders of the Senate for scheduling this very important emergency supplemental appropriations bill so quickly after its having been reported out of the committee, and I was pleased to join our distinguished chairman, Senator Stevens, in taking the unusual step of scheduling our markup of this emergency bill prior to House action, in order to expedite congressional consideration of the bill. This bill contains some $2 billion in emergency appropriations which are urgently needed for the support of our men and women overseas engaged in peacekeeping efforts in both Bosnia and Southwest Asia, as well as to cover necessary repairs resulting from natural disasters at various military installations throughout the Nation. In addition, over $560 million is included in the bill for assistance to those of our citizens who have suffered from natural disasters, such as the flooding in the western and southern portions of the Nation and the ice storms in the northeast and the recent killer tornadoes in Florida. The bill also includes some $280 million in appropriations for various nonemergency purposes which are, nevertheless, necessary in order to enable various departments and agencies to continue their operations through the end of this fiscal year, without undue interruption. Of this amount, some $156 million is for the Federal Aviation Administration to expedite its work on improving the Air Traffic Control computer system in order to avoid any problems connected with the year 2000. As noted in the committee report, the Department of Transportation's Inspector General has recently concluded that without this additional assistance, if unexpected problems are identified during testing of the replacement computers, the FAA might find themselves in a situation where they may be unable to assure the safety of the traveling public in the year 2000. Page 25 of the committee report states--and I quote therefrom--that: ``Failure to resolve these computer hardware and software deficiencies well before the year 2000 problem could disrupt air traffic.'' These nonemergency discretionary appropriations are fully offset, largely through rescissions, which are set forth in Chapter 11 of Title I of the bill. Finally, and very importantly, the bill includes $550 million in mandatory appropriations for veterans compensation and pensions. These funds are needed to accommodate the additional costs associated with the 1998 cost-of-living adjustment of 2.1 percent for compensation beneficiaries, as well as an increase in the estimated number of persons receiving such compensation and pension beneficiaries. With respect to Bosnia, the President has provided a certification and report, required by the Fiscal Year 1998 Defense Authorization and Appropriations Acts, that the continued presence of U.S. armed forces is required after June 30, 1998. The report bears some careful reading by my colleagues, and I hope they will read it, in that there is a departure from the requests of the administration in previous years. The requests in previous years were all couched in the language of short-term duration. Last year, the administration told us that we would be out of Bosnia in about a year. All of the witnesses who came up before the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee assured the committees that that was the expected timeframe which would be needed during which we would have to place our men and women in possible harm's way, but we were assured--we didn't just ask the question once or twice, and the response didn't come forth just once or twice, but the response was always in the context of a year's time. Well, I had strong suspicions then that it wouldn't work out that way, and I have a feeling that the administration felt the same way about it. I had a feeling that the administration was putting the best face on it and that they would be back within a year seeking more money. There is a bit of disingenuousness about it, I think. They probably knew in their own minds and hearts that it couldn't likely be done in a year, but that was the approach, that was the songbook from which everyone in the administration or the witnesses were to sing. It was to be a mighty chorus, everyone in harmony, no one out of tune, no sour notes, no ``off'' beats, everything orchestrated so that everyone would sound in unison to the effect it would be about a year. Having seen this kind of game played before, I was suspicious of it. The time is up now and we are not only in, but we are in for an indefinite amount of time. The President's report doesn't have any end point included. Here is what the President said, now that men and women are there, and I quote from the report: ``We do not propose a fixed end-date for the deployment.'' Let me repeat that: ``We do not propose a fixed end-date for the deployment.'' Now, that is a far cry from what the President's people were saying last year, a year ago. But there is a big difference. Once you get the Congress to go along for a little while and get the men over there, then it is a fait accompli for the Congress and they come back saying, ``We need more money.'' ``We do not propose a fixed end-date for the deployment.'' That says it all. So we are in a different situation now. The exit strategy--in other words, the required conditions for our forces to come out and come home--reads like a nation-building strategy. What is required for us to leave Bosnia? First, judicial reform. Just a minor thing, judicial reform. Then, development of an independent media throughout the territory. Now, that sounds to me like a pretty big order. Then there is more. Democratic elections. What do we mean by democratic elections? Democratic elections followed by free market economic reforms--ahhh, free market economic reforms--privatization of the economy, and so on and on. Well, that is an amazing piece of work. I urge my colleagues to read that report. We all get the point. This is a formula requiring the completion of a new, integrated democratic state. That is what nation- building is. I didn't buy on to that. The U.S. Senate has not bought onto that. And if the duration of our stay is going to be based on nation-building, as the President is obviously saying in the report, we are there for a good, long time. How many Senators want to buy on now? Now is your chance, or your chance will soon come as to whether or not Senators want to buy on for a long time. Who knows, perhaps a good case can be made for it. Perhaps a good case can be made. But I haven't heard it as yet. This Senator from West Virginia is not in there for a good long time. Not yet, certainly. The administration was being disingenuous. Those who came up here and testified last year--obviously they had to say what the administration had required them to say. They all came up before the committees and it was like a broken record to hear everybody say practically the same thing, ``We will be there about a year, about a year.'' Well, they are the people who are supposed to know. So that is what we were told. But I don't believe this is going to be an indefinite free ride. I think the administration ought to have to make its case this time, and it ought to be required to give more specifics, more facts, more reasoning, more reasons for its program. The terms of our involvement are turning into a permanent force, turning into a permanent force, and the pressure to get out is dissipating. The pressure for our allies to take the lead is evaporating, evaporating. The distinguished Presiding Officer has stood on some afternoons and seen the Sun ``drawing up water,'' as they say. The Sun's rays will be peeping through a cloud and we are told that the Sun is drawing up water. But water is evaporating. I often pour water into my little fountain for my birds over in McLean and the water evaporates after a while. The birds get some of it, but it also evaporates. Likewise the pressure for our allies to take the lead is evaporating. Our combat forces are going to be there for years if the report is accurate. And the funding is to the tune of some $2 billion per year through regular, so-called ``emergency'' supplementals. Now, are our allies being asked to defray any of these costs? I support this supplemental request for fiscal year 1998, but the fiscal year 1999 cost of nearly $2 billion should be debated again, when the regular authorization and appropriations bills are considered on this floor. We need to debate this regularly because we are spending your money. One of the network's TV programs from time to time talks about spending ``your money'' and gives examples of projects from time to time that are being supported by Members of Congress or perhaps others, and they will say, ``This is your money.'' Well, we need to debate this request because we are spending your money, the taxpayers' money. And we need to get some answers. Now, when we turn to Southwest Asia, the situation seems to be even worse. Not only do we have 30,000 troops in the region waiting for the signal to go after the Iraqi regime, but our allies are not there with us. We look over our shoulders and we don't see anybody. Where are they? It reminds me of the first question that was ever asked through all the eternity, all time and eternity, that preceded the making of the world, the universe. The first question that was ever asked, when God, walking in the cool of the evening, was seeking Adam and Eve, and they were not to be found, and then God said, ``Adam, Adam, where art thou?'' The first question. So, we should say to our friends and our allies, where art thou in this matter? Many countries of the world are not in that immediate region but they depend upon oil from that region. Why are they not assisting? Why are we not asking them to assist? The President, in his report to Congress, speaks about leadership. In other words, we, the eldest remaining superpower, must provide the leadership. Well, it comes with a price tag. I take it we are all providing the money, apparently all of us. We are not asking our friends. We are going to do it whole hog this time. Our friends in the Arab world are cool, to say the least, about building an effective coalition to enforce the U.N. inspections team on Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, we continue to pony up to the tune of $1.3 billion for this current fiscal year. My colleagues should be aware that the committee adopted an amendment which I offered and which our distinguished chairman, Mr. Stevens, cosponsored urging the President to go out and get contributions from our friends and allies for financial help, in kind, and other support to share the burden in Southwest Asia against a threat to world peace. Go out and get a little help. People downtown might start out by reading Shakespeare, read about Timon of Athens. Read Shakespeare's ``The Life of Timon of Athens.'' He, too, sought to get help from his friends. After he had squandered his own wealth on his friends, he sought to get some help from them. One day the bookkeeper said, ``Look, Master, we are out of money. You are broke.'' Old Timon said, ``I am sure my friends will help me. You go see this fellow over here and then go see that one over there--I helped him one day--and this one over here, go see him.'' Well, Timon was disappointed. He didn't get any help. I urge the administration to go out and get contributions from our friends and allies for financial help, in kind, and other support to share the burden in Southwest Asia against a threat to world peace. We fully expect a vigorous campaign by the administration to create an effective international political coalition where the burden is shared. This will take a great deal of effort on the part of the administration's foreign policy team. They talk about all this big debt we owe the U.N. Why not charge off some of the costs that we have been spending and that we are yet spending and that we will continue to spend for a while in dealing with the threat of Saddam Hussein. How about that, Mr. U.N.? How about giving us some credit on those expenditures? We ought to try. We expect that an effort will be made on the part of the administration's foreign policy team, and it will result in a wide-ranging political effort to isolate the regime currently in power in Iraq. We face a situation of grave weight and precedent in dealing with this transparent attempt to intimidate the world with weapons of mass destruction. How we handle this threat will be of great importance for the future of effective efforts to control the proliferation of weapons, components, and delivery systems of mass destruction. It is the future of arms control, and we need to pay great attention to it. That is why I offered this amendment in the committee. That is why Mr. Stevens, the chairman of the committee, supported it. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support the committee's recommendations as it brings forth this bill, S. 1768. I again commend my chairman and express my appreciation to him for the excellent work he has put forth in bringing the bill to the floor. Also, I thank him for his courtesy and for the good will and friendship that he has continued to extend toward me. Now, Mr. President, are amendments in order to the bill?

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask that the name of the distinguished chairman of the committee, Mr. Stevens, be added as a cosponsor.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the name of Mr. Sarbanes be added as a cosponsor to the amendment.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator. What is the business before the Senate, Mr. President?

Mr. BYRD. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may speak out of order as in legislative session.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, a great poet of the last century, William Wordsworth, wrote a famous piece of poetry which schoolchildren ought to memorize. They used to memorize it. It begins: I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle in the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay; Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. * * * * * For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. Wordsworth surely wrote those lines thinking, of course, of spring and perhaps of March, for again this March, the crisp brown leaves of winter are scattering before the blustery winds, and the daffodils are dancing in the breeze. And like those bright heralds of spring, I come to the floor today to celebrate today's vernal equinox, that celestial marker of winter's end and the beginning of perhaps the most blessed season of the earth's awakening. The dark, cold days of winter may now be safely said to be behind us and we may all begin to think optimistically about shedding our somber coats of wool, our bulky cocoon of hats, gloves, and scarves. This winter has had more than the usual share of dreary, wet days in the Washington area. Locales more accustomed to winter and to winter's suntans have borne the psychic weight of day after day after day of unrelenting rain, of 3 months of steady downpour, floods, and mudslides. The mountains of my own West Virginia shouldered aside cold winds that left her ancient hollows heaped with snow--white, cold snow--that otherwise might have fallen on Washington, sheltering us in warmer air that caused flooding rains instead. There is hardly a spot in the nation that has escaped some abnormal weather occurrence, be it flood, freeze, gale, or tornado. I am sure that everyone joins me in welcoming the fading of El Nino's influence over the global weather patterns, but it will be a while before things return to normal. In the Senate, we have begun the recovery from winter's chilly wrath with the consideration of an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that will help to repair the worst of the nation's weather-spawned disasters. But just when we begin to doubt that the sun will ever replace automobile headlights as the main source of illumination on our commutes to and from work, the morning brightens to reveal long skeins of Canada geese again filling the sky with their sweet music as they wing their way back northward. The robins, returned to our lawns again, search out worms in the warming earth, and the bluebirds busy themselves with nest building. I asked the robin, as he sprang From branch to branch and sweetly sang. What made his breast so round and red; Twas ``looking at the sun,'' he said. The forsythia joins the crocus and daffodils in painting watercolor washes of lavender and yellow across lawns and roadsides. Spring's pale buds are peeping out from under the somber skirts of winter, giving hope on every tree and bulb. The annual pageant of the cherry blossoms cannot be far behind. Mr. President, I admit to being no great fan of winter. I had all of the snow--all of the snow that I ever cared for when I was a boy, walking through the hills and mountains and hollows of West Virginia. Neither I nor my little dog, Billy, truly enjoys making our round of the neighborhood in the cold and lonely evenings of winter. I do not like to travel on wet or icy roads, on days so gray that the dawn seems to fade seamlessly into dusk, when snow or sleet drives sideways into the windshield--no, I would rather be hibernating in a comfortable chair with a good book, thank you. Not the trash that one finds on the book stands at the airports, but a truly good book written by Emerson or Carlyle. And the beauty of the winter landscape is for me too austere, all shades of gray, brown, white, and black, dull after the scarlet and bronze riot of the fall. Give me instead the cheerful chaos of spring, with its stained glass window of colors, its energy, and its great sense of purpose. I asked the violets, sweet and blue, Sparkling in the morning dew, Whence came their colors, then so shy; They answered, ``looking to the sky''; * * * * * I asked the thrush, whose silvery note Came like a song from angel's throat, Why he sang in the twilight dim; He answered, ``looking up at Him.'' So give me dew, instead of frost, on the grass in the morning, and thunderstorms instead of blizzards in the afternoons. And fill my evening sky with fireflies, not icy, twinkling stars. Let me feel the cool breeze from the West Virginia hills on my face while the sun warms my back, and let me listen to the cheerful cacophony of frogs while I spade up sweet garden soil in which I shall soon plant my tomatoes--my tomatoes--Big Boy or Better Boy or Beefsteak--whatever. I see our Presiding Officer, who comes from the hills and lakes of Minnesota, smiling. He, too, is thinking of spring. Spring is a season for all the senses, a season savored all the more fully because it follows the season of greatest limits. Oh, give me the season so loved by poets, by Wordsworth. Having begun with one great poet, perhaps it is only fitting that I close with another, whose life overlapped the first. Robert Browning surely appreciated the mysteries and the joys of spring. As a poet must do if his works are to stand the test of time, he has distilled a deep feeling, the abiding joy and contentment in the Creator's handiwork, and decanted it in words of pure and simple beauty: The year's at the spring, And day's at the morn, Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven--[and] All's right with the world! The vernal equinox is at hand, Mr. President, tolling its celestial chime of spring. Oh, welcome, spring! What a difference it makes. At the thought of spring, again to the words of William Wordsworth, ``And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.'' Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, on yesterday, I addressed the Senate concerning Senator Moynihan's birthday. On page S1967, the first column, the last full paragraph on that page, the word ``stoop'' should be ``swoop'' in Herman Melville's eloquent quotation. In the Record, during my remarks concerning Wendell Ford being the longest serving Kentuckian in the history of the Senate, on page S1969, the first column, the last full paragraph, the word ``countries'' should be ``counties.'' I ask unanimous consent that these two items be corrected in the permanent version of the Record.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. I ask unanimous consent I may proceed in an uninterrupted manner through the completion of my remarks which will last no longer than 20 minutes.

Mr. BYRD. I thank the Chair.

Mr. BYRD. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, is the Senate in morning business?

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has provided the United States Senate with some of its finer members. Take John Breckinridge, who in the early 1800's became his party's most effective spokesman and legislative leader during his first term in the Senate, and who would doubtless have achieved further greatness had he not succumbed to typhus fever at the age of 46. Despite this early death, Breckinridge did achieve a form of posthumous success when his son, John C. Breckinridge was elected first Senator and then vice-President. (It was, incidentally, the younger Breckinridge who, in 1859, provided such a moving tribute to the ``consecrated character'' of the old Senate chamber, before leading the Senators in procession to their new, and current home.) Or consider the great Henry Clay, who promoted the American system, whose powerful oratory and forceful personality made him one of the dominant figures during the Senate's golden age of the 1830's, 1840's and 1850's. And what of Alben Barkley, Majority Leader during the 1940's, whose booming baritone and vast repertoire of humorous anecdotes made him one of the more popular Senators of his time? Not to mention John Sherman Cooper, who sat right here on the floor during the year that we served together. John Sherman Cooper was a former Ambassador to India. I first met him in 1955, at which time I was a Member of the House of Representatives and was traveling with a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to the Pacific and the Far East. On that occasion we traveled 68 days. We went around the world in an old constellation. That would have been called a ``junket'' in these times. John Sherman Cooper was Ambassador to India when I and my House colleagues stopped there for a short time. John Sherman Cooper also played an outspoken role in the debates on the war in Vietnam. The list of outstanding Senators from Kentucky is a long list indeed. Mr. President, today Kentucky has another native son of whom it can be equally proud. That man is Wendell Ford, who on Saturday last, March 14, became the longest serving Kentuckian in the history of the State. It seems only fitting that Senator Ford should hold this record, for few other politicians have served the great Commonwealth of Kentucky as ably or as successfully as has Wendell Ford. After service in World War II, Senator Ford returned to his home state and in short order became a state Senator, then a lieutenant governor, then Governor, before his election to the Senate in 1974. When Wendell Ford came to the U.S. Senate, I was the majority whip. Since that date in 1974, Senator Ford has earned acclaim as a smart and savvy legislator, particularly during his excellent chairmanship of the Rules Committee from 1986 to 1994. I count it a great privilege and honor and a pleasure to have served on the Rules Committee during those years of Wendell Ford's chairmanship. He did well. He was a mighty protector of the rules of the Senate and is one of the best chairman of any committee on which I have served. Senator Ford has also been prominent in the party leadership. He chaired the democratic senatorial campaign committee from 1976 to 1982 and he has served with distinction as party whip since 1990. As a Senator, Wendell Ford has endeared himself to colleagues and staffers alike with his warm personality and his vibrant sense of humor. He has also distinguished himself as a devoted and vigilant defender of the interests of his native Kentuckians. I should say of all Kentuckians, native or otherwise. I have always felt a kinship with Kentucky, which borders my own mountain II state. I have felt a kinship with the people of eastern Kentucky, whose rugged, mountainous terrain resembles that of West Virginia. And, as a fellow United States Senator representing another less well-off state whose needs have often been overlooked for too long, I have the utmost respect and admiration for Senator Wendell Ford's courageous and tenacious efforts to serve the interests of his state and its noble people. In this regard, Senator Ford may be seen as an heir to the legacy of Henry Clay, whose ``American system'' favored federal spending on communications, transportation and other internal improvements. As a matter of fact, the Old Cumberland Road, as it is sometimes referred to, the Old National Road, began at Cumberland, MD, and went westward to Wheeling, WV and on to Vandalia, IL. The work on that road began in 1811, and by the year 1838 the Federal Government had invested the astounding sum of $3 million in that highway. That was the highway which many settlers traveling from the east and going to the west, took, as they made their way to the Ohio River. I should say that Henry Clay was one of the foremost supporters of appropriations for the Old Cumberland Road, and we who live in the mountainous terrain of West Virginia, and particularly in the northern part of the State, have not forgotten that nor shall we forget it. Few Senators have been as dedicated to serving the needs of their constituents as the able senior Senator from Kentucky, and I salute him for that. At the same time, Senator Ford has also done much good work on a national level. As a member of the Commerce Committee, Senator Ford has become a national leader on aviation issues, a leader who played key roles in shaping the 1994 Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act and the 1987 Airport and Airways Capacity Expansion Act. On the Energy Committee, Senator Wendell Ford has worked tirelessly to lessen our country's dependence on foreign oil and to support clean, environmentally friendly coal technologies. And whether fighting for campaign finance reform or sponsoring the motor voter bill, Senator Ford has been a valiant soldier in the ongoing struggle to make this country's political system as fair, as open, and as representative as possible. Mr. President, the same words spoken by Senator Clay in his farewell address to the Senate 156 years ago could just as well be attributed to Senator Ford's career in the Senate. Senator Henry Clay declared in part: . . . that I have been actuated by no personal motives--that I have sought no personal aggrandizement--no promotion from the advocacy of those various measures on which I have been called to act--that I have had an eye, a single eye, a heart, a single heart, ever devoted to what appeared to be the best interests of the country. Senator Ford's good work has not gone unappreciated by his constituents. The host of state records that he holds testifies to his popularity with Kentuckians. After all, Senator Ford was the first candidate to carry all 120 countries against opposition and, he did this in 1980. In 1992, he won the highest number of votes cast for any state candidate. And in 1996, he surpassed Alben Barkley's record of having the longest consecutive service of any Kentucky Senator. Now, with this latest accomplishment to his name, there can be no doubting that Senator Ford's position is as one of the most successful and popular politicians in the state's history. Mr. President, although Senator Ford has announced that he will not stand for re-election this fall, he may rest assured as he prepares to leave this chamber that his contributions and accomplishments have earned him a place in the Senate's and Kentucky's honor rolls. I am sure that I can speak for all of my colleagues when I say that Senator Ford will be sorely missed. His combination of personal charm and legislative skill is a rare one, and whoever fills his seat will have much to live up to. My wife, Erma, and I shall regret to see him and his lovely wife go. Wendell Ford in his service here and in his service to the people of Kentucky, reminds me of a bit of verse by John G. Holland, entitled ``God Give Us Men'': God give us men! A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie. Men who can stand before a demagogue And brave his treacherous flatteries without winking. Tall men, sun-crowned; Who live above the fog, In public duty and in private thinking. For while the rabble with its thumbworn creeds, It's large professions and its little deeds, mingles in selfish strife, Lo! Freedom weeps! Wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps. God give us men! Men who serve not for selfish booty; But real men, courageous, who flinch not at duty. Men of dependable character; Men of sterling worth; Then wrongs will be redressed, and right will rule the earth. God Give us Men! Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest he absence of a quorum.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, today, March 16th, marks the birthday of a man whom Shakespeare could have been describing when he said in ``Henry VII,'' ``He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one, exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading.'' The man whom that description fits like a glove is the respected senior Senator from New York, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who today celebrates his seventy-first birthday. O, to be 71 again. O, to be 71 again. I have to rejoice in Senator Moynihan being only 71 today. I am pleased to offer Senator Moynihan my best wishes for a very happy birthday, and my thanks for the intellectual vigor, the stubborn veracity, the scrupulous accuracy and the wise counsel that Senator Moynihan has brought to the Senate. Senator Moynihan's curriculum vitae is as widely known as it is broadly based--his humble beginnings, his climb up the academic ladder which, despite being interrupted by World War II, culminated in a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; a period of teaching economics--wouldn't I like to have sat in his class--a period of teaching economics, sociology and urban studies at Harvard and at the Joint Center for Urban Studies; and a distinguished series of positions in the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations before winning election to the Senate for the first time in 1976. Few Senators come to this body with so much academic and practical experience. No one who observes Senator Moynihan on the Senate floor would guess that as a young man, he once arrived at a test with a dockworker's loading hook tucked in his back pocket. William Shakespeare has also said in ``Twelfth Night,'' ``But to be said an honest man . . . goes as fairly as to say a careful man and a great scholar.'' And that description also reflects the character of Senator Moynihan, a lifelong scholar who has never shirked from the sometimes unpleasant duty of informing the Senate and the nation and Presidents of the hard facts of this or that issue. His carefully studied analysis and his insight into complex issues ranging from poverty in America to the future of social security keep Senators on the floor and staff glued to C-Span, because we have all come to rely on the fact that when Senator Moynihan speaks, we all will learn something of importance, something that may fundamentally shift our thinking. His skill with words is equally finely honed, imbuing every thoughtfully parsed sentence with meaning and wit. He is, to hearken back to Shakespeare's description, ``fair spoken, and persuading,'' in speech and in the many books he has authored. In an age of ten second campaign slogans, bumper sticker rhetoric, and simplistic, feel-good legislation, Senator Moynihan is an anachronism, a throwback to the days of thoughtful consideration of complex issues and reasoned debate on the merits of different possible solutions. He thinks on a grander, a grander scale than do most people and, as a consequence, he is able to foresee problems long before they become costly, messy, politically dangerous quagmires that few people have the courage to tackle, let alone solve. When I have doubts about some new program being proposed, or some radical change being suggested without the benefit of hearings or committee consideration, and Senator Moynihan also voices concern, or briefly sketches possible unpredicted outcomes arising from the proposal, then I know that my hesitation is vindicated. In another sense, too, Senator Moynihan is a figure from a different, more polite age, for he is a gentleman. Edmund Burke has observed that ``A king may make a nobleman, but he cannot make a gentleman.'' ``A king may make a nobleman, but he cannot make a gentleman.'' The same can be said for politicians--elections can make a Senator--not always a good one-- but they can never make a gentleman. In this age of negative campaigns, of road rage, of obscenities masquerading as popular music, and of television that makes one blush while changing channels, there are few gentlemen to point to, but Senator Moynihan is surely one of those few. He listens carefully, respectful of the viewpoint of the speaker--which is in itself an increasingly lost art, it seems. I have never heard him raise his voice in anger, or comment rudely about another Member, and though his criticisms can be as witty and tart as an Empire apple--the Empire apple is something like the McIntosh apple, very flavorful, tart. I saw some up at Martin's store in Charlestown yesterday, some Empire apples. Despite the standing that he enjoys, he remains an approachable figure, unaffected by the grandeur of his surroundings in this majestic building. Were he to stop and look back at the Capitol, I suspect that he would be enjoying the simple pleasure of tulips and daffodils, nodding, tossing their heads in the sunshine, and not so much savoring the symbol of legislative power embodied in this marble and sandstone edifice. In the twenty-two years that Senator Moynihan has graced the Senate with his presence, he has brought to the Senate an intellectual puissance and an exalted level of scholarship that have raised the mental caliber of every one around him. He has been more than a Senator from New York, though he certainly has been a good representative of the people of that great State. He has also been an intellectual leader, a sage, and a prophet for the Senate and for the Nation. He has lifted us all up on his broad wings of scholarship. He is the possessor, the last time I looked at the Congressional Directory some few months ago, he is the possessor of 60 honorary degrees--60. I don't think anyone else in this body, probably in the other body, can equal that achievement. So he has lifted us all up on the broad wings of his scholarship, his experience and his wisdom, so painstakingly acquired only to be so freely and generously given away. Herman Melville observed in Moby Dick that ``. . . there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest stoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.'' The distinguished Senator from New York is just such a soul, a Catskill eagle, inspiring other birds of the sunlit Senate plain, including this Byrd. Mr. President, Erma and I offer our best wishes to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as he celebrates his birthday with his lovely wife Liz and his family. May he enjoy many, many, many more happy birthdays, and may we, his colleagues, have the high privilege of sharing in those birthdays with him over a period of many, many years away. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, what is the state of business at the moment?

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

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may speak for not to exceed 15 minutes and that the stated order for the Senate at 12 noon be delayed until I complete my remarks, which will not be longer than 15 minutes at most.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. That brings the total number of cosponsors to 54. Mr. President, I thank all cosponsors of our amendment who, in effect, were trying to force the government to live up to the commitment it made to the American people and require that money collected in gasoline taxes for the purpose of building roads actually be spent for that purpose. At various times over the course of the last several months, many of these cosponsors spoke on the Floor in an attempt to bring to the attention of the leadership the importance of bringing up the ISTEA II bill as expeditiously as possible, and I thank those members for their efforts. In addition to the support of these cosponsors, we had outstanding support from a large number of outside organizations ranging from the American Automobile Association to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I wish to thank all of these organizations, without whose support it would have been impossible to have been successful in our efforts to not only bring the bill up as quickly as we were able to, but to have adopted the Environmental and Public Works Committee amendment, which provides some 94 percent of the contract authority proposed in the original Byrd/Gramm/Baucus/Warner amendment. Indicative of the support received by these organizations was a very strong statement given before the National Governors Association by the President and CEO of the American Automobile Association, Robert L. Darbelnet, in which he expressed strong support for the Byrd/Gramm/Baucus/Warner amendment. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a list of the 54 co-sponsors of the Byrd/Gramm/Baucus/Warner amendment, a list of the organizations which assisted in our efforts to bring the highway bill to the Floor in an expeditious manner, and the aforementioned statement by Mr. Darbelnet, President and CEO of the American Automobile Association.