Mike DeWine

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. I yield.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 4, 2003 at 9:30 a.m., in open and closed session to receive testimony on the proposed lease of 100 KC-767 aerial refueling tanker aircraft by the U.S. Air Force.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak about an amendment I will be offering that will bring up the level of President Bush's international mother and child prevention of HIV initiative to the level which the President actually requested. Right now, the bill before us falls $60 million short of what the President requested. I believe we need to fix that. We need to get the numbers back up to what President Bush asked this Senate and asked this Congress to provide. The international mother and child prevention of HIV initiative is truly one of the most cost-effective ways that we can stop the spread of HIV/AIDS to children. This initiative very simply allows doctors and nurses to give drugs to pregnant women who are HIV positive, or who have AIDS, to lessen the chance that this disease is then passed on to their unborn babies. For as little as $3, doctors and nurses can give these mothers the drugs they need to lessen the likelihood that their babies are born HIV positive. In fact, when treated with drugs, we are seeing HIV/AIDS transmission rates from the mother who has AIDS to a child about to be born drop from 30 percent to 5 to 10 percent. It is almost a miracle. Less than a week ago, I returned from a 10-day trip to southern Africa, along with Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senators Warner, Enzi, Coleman, and Alexander. We traveled to South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, and Namibia to assess the HIV/AIDS crisis in each one of these nations. On this trip, we saw firsthand how well these mother-to- child transmission programs are working in these countries and how important they are to saving the lives of these unborn babies. There are already many programs in place in these countries and in other countries around the world--programs that are working and programs that are saving lives. We heard so many times people saying, Thank you--thank you to the United States, thank you to President Bush--for helping set up these programs and for making these programs work. The bill in front of us provides additional resources for the continuation of these programs and the creation of more programs. The problem is that it does not go far enough. I simply will be asking in this amendment to fulfill the commitment and the request that President Bush made of this Congress to provide a specific amount which he has asked us to provide. These programs work. We need to get them fully funded. On our recent trip, for example, we visited a mother-to-child prevention program run by Catholic AIDS Action in Namibia, a nation with a 22.5-percent HIV rate for pregnant women--the fifth highest in the world. At St. Mary's Hospital in Rehoboth, Namibia, Catholic AIDS Action is doing a very good job in enrolling pregnant women in the Women-To-Infant Program. The program has an excellent success rate and is making a difference. We could see that difference. We heard about it. We met with and talked with a HIV-positive mother. She told us about how this program had reached out to her. She was so very happy and so very proud that, even though she was HIV positive, she had given birth to a child who was healthy and was not HIV positive. She was so very happy. What a miracle it was. What a great thing it was to see. We saw so many more examples of this throughout our trip. We saw so many good programs out there. People are already doing so much good work to stop the spread of this disease from mother to child. There are many more good programs ready to go. We just need to get them funded with all the funds they truly need. One of the most important things I took away from this trip is that we don't have time to delay in helping these people. Each day we delay, people die--real people, not statistics, real parents and children and babies. And there are things we can do now to start saving these lives. Time, as the President of the United States told this Congress, is simply not on our side. We need to move forward and provide the proper levels of assistance. So I will be asking my colleagues to support the amendment I will be offering, an amendment to provide the President of the United States with the level of funding he requested for the mother and child initiative. Doing so will help save countless lives and offer hope to the next generation for a life free from HIV. It is the right thing to do. I thank the Chair and yield the floor. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DeWINE

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

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I returned this past Friday from a 10-day trip to southern Africa with Majority Leader Bill Frist as well as Senator Warner, Senator Enzi, Senator Coleman, and Senator Alexander. We traveled to South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, and Namibia. We traveled there to assess each of the HIV/AIDS crises in these countries. We wanted to see where things are now and where we need to go in the future to help them deal with the terrible crisis they face. The fact is we are in a critical stage in this attempt to help them and other countries fight this global AIDS battle. We passed the global AIDS authorizing legislation a few months ago and shortly we will pass the appropriations bill to fund these programs. As we start to plan how to spend this significant amount of money, we are now at a critical stage. We are at a critical stage because it is so very important that this be done right, that it be done correctly, and that it be done quickly, because millions of lives are at stake. All four countries we visited have, of course, been designated by the President and now by Congress to be recipients of our global AIDS assistance. So these Members of the Senate wanted to find out how we could most effectively and efficiently give this assistance to these nations, how we could make sure our money would be well spent. In doing so, we wanted to know specifically what these countries' respective governments were doing. We wanted to know what the nongovernment organizations, the NGOs as they are referred to, are currently doing; what the church groups--we refer to them as faith-based groups--are doing; and what the businesses, the private sector groups, are doing as well. We wanted to know what was the state of the health infrastructure, the public health sector in each of these countries. We also wanted to assess where our own Government was. We wanted to talk to our embassy officials and see how their planning was coming along. Finally, and certainly most important, we wanted to ask the leaders of these countries--we wanted to talk to their health professionals and social workers, actually the people out in the field in these nations-- what their needs were, what they thought they needed. We asked them: What do you need from us? What can we do to help you do your job to help save lives? We went to the very people who every single day watch the AIDS victims die--the people who try desperately to treat, to help, and to save them, and the people who try to prevent people from coming down with AIDS. We have some answers. The spread of HIV/AIDS in poor countries is, as we know, rampant. It is a grave human tragedy. When it comes to the HIV/AIDS crisis, the sheer numbers are staggering. We can't let these numbers numb us. We have to keep reminding ourselves that these are statistics; that behind each one of these statistics are human beings; and that these statistics represent real people, real mothers, real fathers, children and babies. These are real people and real lives. The statistics are unbelievable. In South Africa, 5 million people are HIV positive. In Mozambique, 13 percent of the people have HIV or AIDS. The disease has created by some estimates 370,000 to 425,000 orphans, and by the year 2010, it is estimated that in Mozambique the life expectancy is estimated to plummet to only 39 years. There are only 524 doctors in the whole country, a country of 18.6 million people. In Botswana, a nation of 1.7 million people, there is a 38.8-percent HIV rate among those between the ages of 15 and 49. It is a staggering figure. There are 330,000 people, it is estimated, HIV positive, and 18 percent of the deaths in that country are the result of AIDS. Thirty- five percent of pregnant women are HIV positive. By the year 2010, it is projected that the life expectancy rate will be 31.6 years, if nothing is changed, if the situation is not changed, and if there is no intervention. The next country we visited was Namibia, a nation of 1.8 million people. Twenty-two percent of the adult population has AIDS or are HIV positive. Twenty-three percent of pregnant mothers are HIV positive. By the year 2010, the life expectancy rate is expected to be 39.6 years of age. We know the statistics. We certainly can learn from them. We can see the victims and we can talk to them and talk to those who care for them. We can do all of these things and still not comprehend the gravity of this human tragedy. One of Africa's great leaders is Graca Machel, a woman we met within Mozambique. We had a delightful meeting with her for over an hour. She is one of the most articulate persons I have ever met with in my life. When we met with her in Mozambique, she was talking about a country that she loves so well. This is what she said: I can know the statistics, but I don't really understand what it means to have 13 percent of my people HIV positive * * *. [Our countries] are facing extinction * * * and we still face the worst. The mind cannot comprehend the gravity of this tragedy. This certainly was for me, and I am sure for all of my colleagues, a deeply troubling, gut-wrenching trip. But it was a very productive trip. We were accompanied on the trip by President Bush's AIDS adviser, Dr. Joseph O'Neal. His experience and his expertise proved invaluable to us on our trip. Our ability to talk with him, share ideas, go back and forth and compare notes of what we had seen was very valuable. Each one of us on the trip, I am sure, has come back with different impressions but with a lot of the same impressions. This afternoon I would like to take a few minutes to share with my colleagues some of my thoughts. They are, of course, my thoughts and my thoughts alone. I would guess that there will be a lot of similarities between my thoughts and other colleagues'. But these are mine. These are my impressions and my thoughts from this trip to Africa. First, time is clearly not on our side. It is not on the side of victims in Africa nor on the side of victims of these four countries. We don't have time. We don't have much time. We don't have time to wait. Facing this global AIDS crisis cannot be business as usual. It cannot be bureaucracy as usual. We cannot treat this crisis the same way we have done with others. We don't have the luxury of time. For each moment that we delay, obviously people die. People are dying as we speak today. They die every moment. We saw groups in each country, and organizations and individuals, that are ready now to receive our money and our assistance and our help and who are ready to go into action to deal with the problem. We need to get them the money and allow them to get about the business of saving lives. That is good news. And it was heartwarming to talk to them, to see them. These are groups that have a proven track record. These are groups that are already doing good work. We just need to give them more resources so they can expand what they are already doing. Mr. President, Members of the Senate, as we do this, we cannot be timid. Quite frankly, we need to take chances. We need to be willing to say that once in a while we will fail with some of these groups, so we need to say to our own bureaucracy: Do not be afraid of failure. There will be some failures. There will be some foul-ups. But we need to move forward. Lives are at stake. And we will hold you--those of us in the Congress--accountable for being timid. Do not be timid. Move forward. We need to find these groups that can move forward. We saw many of them on our trip. We need to find these groups, these individuals. We need to fund them, and we need to move on. For example, Dr. Donny McGrath, who is with the Africa Centre, is ready to go. He has a plan for a 5-year program to establish a model HIV/AIDS treatment prevention program in a rural part of South Africa. He has the structural support necessary to pull off this program that could deliver and will deliver care and treatment to this remote area. We met with him. I think everyone was impressed. And he has the structure of the Africa Centre behind him. Dr. Tammy Meyers, we met with her. She would like to begin providing treatment for children with AIDS out of South Africa's biggest hospital in Johannesburg. We were told actually it is the biggest hospital in the world. The tragedy is, today they are not--with the exception of a handful of kids--giving kids treatment because they do not have the resources to do it. We are told that in the area of Johannesburg, South Africa, there are 6,000 or 7,000 children who right today are dying, children who should be on treatment for HIV, children who have AIDS, who could be receiving treatment but yet cannot get these drugs. Dr. Tammy Meyers would like to move forward. We need to get her that help. We need to give that hospital that help. The Salvation Army is also doing great work in many of these countries. We were so impressed when we went into a Salvation Army orphanage that was providing drug treatment for children they had under their charge in that orphanage. As an organization, the Salvation Army has a proven track record. As I said, they are involved in many of the countries in the world where HIV is a problem, where AIDS is running rampant. We need to say to groups such as the Salvation Army, who have a proven track record: Tell us what you need. What are the resources you need? Tell us what you can do. Let's work together. Let's save lives. So there are many things we can do, and we can do quickly, and we need to do it. We need to save lives. Second, in all four nations we visited, when we asked what the No. 1 need was, almost invariably, no matter who we asked, the answer we got back was: We need training. From the doctors to the nurses, when we talked to people who were delivering services right down at the grassroots level, people pled with us: Give us more training. Train our doctors. Train our nurses. Help us. The fact is, AIDS treatment and prevention is a specialized field of medical care. We need to put more and more specialists in place, doctors who can train other doctors to fight this disease and provide treatment. Now, I do not have all the answers as to how to do this, but we need to think about it. And as we do the things we can do quickly and relatively easy--as I said before, plug into the existing groups, the existing organizations that are ready to go right now--at the same time, we have to look at what we do in the long run over the next year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years to deal with this crisis, to answer the call of these countries when people say: We need doctors, specialists. We need the training. So we need to develop a cadre of doctors. Do we use our Peace Corps? Maybe we use our Peace Corps to do this. Maybe we use the U.S. Public Health Service Corps, revamp it in some way to do this. Maybe what we do is take residents, when they finish their residency in this country, and work out some way so that it is advantageous to them to interrupt their career, in a sense--or really maybe a better way of looking at it is enhancing their career--and give them the opportunity to go and spend a few years working in these African countries, specializing in this area, taking that specialization then and training doctors in these countries--the multiplier effect--so that these countries will then have trained specialists of their own who will stay in their countries and we will help save lives. That is the type of multiplication and training of doctors we are going to have to think through and figure out over the long run as to how we are going to help them answer that call that we heard time and time again: How are we going to get the training? That is the long run. No. 3, clean water. On our trip it became very clear just how essential clean water is to fighting AIDS, and also it is essential just to save lives. It is essential to keeping young children alive worldwide. Some 60 percent of all infant mortality worldwide is linked to infectious and parasitic diseases, most of them water related. Furthermore, diseases from dirty water are killing more than 5 million people each year--that is one figure, and I think other estimates, frankly, are much higher than that--while an additional several billion people get sick from unclean water each year. In just one country, Mozambique, for example, diarrheal diseases are the third largest cause of death in children under 5 years of age. That is the equivalent of 55 deaths per day. Potable water is accessible to only 26 percent of the rural population in Mozambique. Imagine that. Get outside the city, and only one in four of the population has good water, and only 40 percent of the urban population in Mozambique. The reality is that we cannot effectively treat and fight AIDS without clean water supplies. In impoverished nations, up to 90 percent of AIDS patients suffer from chronic diarrheal diseases, which contribute to an increase in these deaths. One of the complications of AIDS is the development of thrush, which can be alleviated by drinking sufficient quantities of water. Caregivers need to be able to wash their hands before and after caring for an infected person. Mothers infected with HIV/AIDS may choose to use formula to feed their infant children and would need clean water to mix formula. Providing access to clean water is about the most cost-effective use of our AIDS money because it would provide a double benefit. Digging wells in a village provides the whole village with clean water, not just those stricken with HIV or AIDS. Providing clean water is a cheap thing to do, and good groups are already doing it. We saw some of those groups during our trip. For example, Lifewater International, a group that we saw, is a partnership of U.S.-based organizations working globally to improve drinking water supplies, hygiene, and sanitation in Third World nations. They are making a difference, and they can do more if we just give them the resources they need. This is a simple and cost-effective strategy, and it is the right thing to do. There are groups such as this all over the world. All we need to do is to take some of these resources, plug into these groups, let them multiply already what they are doing, and we will save hundreds of thousands of lives. No. 4 of the thoughts I have: Care for the dying. As we focus on saving and prolonging lives, we must not forget the millions who, despite our best efforts, will surely die. Precious little is being done to help them die with dignity. We talked with people who deal with these individuals. We talked with people who see them die. We talked with people who watch them die every day. Those people whose job it is to deal with the dying looked us in the eye and pled with us; they said: Give us the tools, the drugs to allow these people who are dying not to suffer so much and to die with dignity. The global AIDS bill we passed this May allows us to do this. There are groups out there ready to help, groups capable of helping. We should give them the ability to help the suffering and to help the dying. No. 5, let me just talk for a moment about government attitude and political leadership in regard to the issue of AIDS. We visited four countries. The governments of Namibia, Mozambique, and Botswana are all fully engaged in this struggle against AIDS. That political leadership is essential in the battle against AIDS. We can only hope the recent public statement by the fourth country, South Africa, in favor of the use of antiretroviral drugs will be followed by an aggressive government attack on the problem. For those who have not followed this, this is a change in policy. The government in the past had not embraced the use of antiretroviral drugs to treat the AIDS problem. So this has been a change. We can only hope this is a profound change. We can only hope the Government of South Africa will now become much more aggressive in this endeavor. Some local units of government from South Africa have been aggressive, but unfortunately the tragedy is the central government has not been as aggressive. And while we talked to many people in South Africa who are doing wonderful things, unfortunately there are some people in the South African Government who still would appear to be in a form of denial about this problem. It would appear that progress is being made. We would hope progress will continue to be made. The sixth point I would like to make is the killing power of stigma. We cannot underestimate the killing power of stigma, people's feelings of shame and disgrace with this disease. Stigma kills. Stigma prevents pregnant women from getting tested for HIV/AIDS. Stigma prevents people from getting treatment. Stigma prevents us from dealing with this crisis head on. There is tremendous denial. People hide the fact they are sick, even if that means risking their lives or even if it means risking the lives of their unborn children. On our trip we heard doctors speak of women with AIDS who were told they could take drugs that might prevent their child who was about to be born from testing HIV-positive, drugs that could reduce the odds of the children being born with AIDS by 50 percent. Yet despite hearing this news, we heard about some women who left the clinic never to return because of the stigma attached to having AIDS, never to return because of the ridicule their husbands, their family might inflict upon them. That is a horrible tragedy--a stigma so powerful, so powerful these women would risk the lives of their unborn children, something it is hard for us to understand. I heard a story that was also hard to understand. I talked to a doctor in South Africa who was intimately involved in drug treatment, who had set up a program of drug treatment. He told me a story about a woman who worked in his house. She had worked there for some time. One day she left, disappeared. He couldn't figure out where she had gone. The days went on. Then the weeks went on. After about 7 weeks, he decided he was going to go look for her. So he got in his car and drove to her village. It turned out it was a drive of 7 hours. He drove and drove and got to her village. When he got there and started asking about her, he found that she had died the day before. This is a woman who died from AIDS, a woman who died rather than acknowledge she had AIDS, who worked for a doctor who was treating people with AIDS. As the doctor said to me: I would have paid for her drugs. I would have taken care of her. I would have done anything. But she wouldn't tell him. That is the power of the stigma that is attached to this. It kills people. She preferred to die alone, hiding her disease. What is the solution? I don't know that we have a solution, but there are some things we know. First, in these nations, wherever it occurs, we need to educate people, whether it is in this country or any other country. We need to educate people about AIDS. Second, political leaders need to talk openly about the disease. Leaders in Botswana and Namibia and Mozambique have been forthright and up front and open to public discussions about the disease. Third, we need to have treatment available so people have hope. No one is going to get tested for HIV/AIDS if there is no treatment and you are told to just go home and die. As Graca Machel said: There is ``no effective prevention without treatment.'' People must be able to see that they are getting something themselves. By treating people, it offers hope, and it offers incentive for more and more people to get tested. That, by itself, will save lives. That is the reality, Mr. President. My seventh thought has to do with children. In the four nations we visited, really we are just barely getting started in providing treatment for children who are HIV positive or who already have AIDS. There are--and it is a good news story--some mothers-to-children transmission preventive programs in the early stages. We have heard from people who are very thankful to the United States, people who are thankful to President Bush, thankful to us and our country, about these programs. Some of these programs are programs we put in place. We heard some very good success stories about many of these programs. They show very promising results. With these programs and the drugs they provide, we are seeing HIV/AIDS transmission rates from a mother who has AIDS to a child about to be born, and then born, drop from 30 percent to 5 to 10 percent. What do we mean by that? Well, the doctors tell us that if a mother is HIV positive and she is not treated, the odds are approximately 30 percent that she is going to give birth to a child who will be HIV positive. In these developing countries, with treatment--and usually a fairly simple treatment and it costs about $3--we can reduce those numbers to about 5 to 10 percent. That is a dramatic drop in the number of children who would be born HIV positive. If given the proper medication, the odds go dramatically down. The challenge, of course, is getting these mother-to-child transmission programs going and then getting the pregnant women into the program. We also have to face the challenge of treating children who do develop AIDS. That is a different ball game, a different problem. Treatment for these kids is, as I said when I referenced South Africa-- and it is true of all the other three countries--is virtually nonexistent, just like the treatment for adults. In Johannesburg, to take one example--and you can replicate these numbers or use similar numbers across all of Africa, or at least all the countries where HIV is prevalent--there are 6,000 to 7,000 kids in need of antiretroviral treatment, yet fewer than 100 kids are getting any treatment at all. The good news is that there are good people in the hospitals who are ready now to treat these kids. Dr. Tammy Meyers is ready now to start a program to provide drug treatment for these children. In conclusion, on this trip we saw the human face of Africa. We saw the human face of AIDS. I have seen this face before in Haiti and Guyana. That human face will remain with all of us who went on this trip after all the specific statistics have faded. I will always remember Graca Machel telling us about her going out in the rural area visiting a grandfather and his two wives. He is 83 and his wives are 73 and 76. They lost their eight children. They saw them die one by one, each one claimed by AIDS. Now these elderly people are caring for their 30 grandchildren after having lost each 1 of these 8 children. I will remember that. I will remember watching a young teenager as he described losing his parents to AIDS and then having to go from home to home to home, relative to relative, to see others of his relatives die of AIDS, being handed from one family to another. I will remember an HIV-positive mother describe giving birth to a child who developed AIDS, a little baby, who died shortly after birth. I will remember watching her describe that child as that child died. I will also remember an HIV-positive mother who described getting the help she needed, having someone reach out to her, getting the drug treatment she needed before giving birth to her child, and described the joy she felt to know her child was not HIV positive, that her child was a healthy child. We listened to her joyfully describe that child and the future that child now has. Her baby was born HIV free. Her story doesn't need to be the exception. With our HIV/AIDS money, more and more babies can be born free of AIDS. We need to move quickly. Time is not on our side. We need to move now. We need to invest in the people who are ready to go and in the programs that already work. We need to do all we can to address the human tragedy of global AIDS. We have the ability to ease this suffering, and it is our moral obligation to lead this fight. We are at a critical time in world history. I believe history will judge us well by what we are doing today. It is our obligation at this critical time to make sure that we not only begin this fight--and we have--but that we carry it out, that we stay with it, that we do it effectively, that we do it correctly, and that we stay with it day after day after day. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period for morning business.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate adjourn under the previous order after the remarks of Senator Byrd.

Mr. DeWINE

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

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 1571.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to; that the preamble be agreed to; that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to this resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 218, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, September 3. I further ask that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved, the time for the two leaders be reserved and the Senate then resume consideration of H.R. 2660, the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for the weekly party lunches.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, tomorrow the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2660, the Labor- HHS-Education appropriations bill. There are two pending amendments that were offered and debated during today's session. It is hoped that we will be able to schedule votes in relation to these amendments as early as possible tomorrow. The leader would like to alert all Members that rollcall votes can be expected at approximately 12 noon on Wednesday. Therefore, Senators should expect the possibility of votes prior to the party lunches and Members will be notified when the first vote is scheduled.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Con. Res. 63.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Banking Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 659 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the substitute that is at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed; that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following protocol transmitted to the Senate on September 2, 2003, by the President of the United States: Protocol to Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation with Denmark, treaty document 108-8. I further ask that the protocol be considered as having been read the first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the President's message be printed in the Record.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that H.R. 6, as passed by the Senate on July 31, 2003, be printed.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I understand there are five bills at the desk which are due for a second reading. I ask unanimous consent that the bills be given a second reading, en bloc, and I object to further proceedings on the measures at this time.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to Birute Smetona--an exceptional woman and an exceptional Ohioan who passed away recently at the age of 91. Birute was a gifted musician, who lived a life of great courage and perseverance. She was a beloved figure and an inspiration to all who knew her in her Cleveland- area community. Birute, born in Subacius, Lithuania, began her distinguished career as a concert pianist by soloing with the symphony orchestra in Kaunas-- then the capital of Lithuania. She went on to graduate from the Lithuanian National Conservatory in 1935, where she met her future husband Julius, an athlete and an assistant law professor who was also the son of Lithuania's President Antanas Smetona. After the start of World War II, she had to leave a respected music conservatory in Paris to return to Lithuania with her husband and infant son, Anthony. During the trip, they sometimes had to get off their train and walk alongside because sections of track had been destroyed as a result of the War. When they arrived in Lithuania, the Smetona family found their native land changed. Birute's life, which up until that point may have seemed like a modern-day fairy tale to some, was about to be thrown into a state of upheaval. Amidst the ever-present dangers of a war creeping closer and closer to home, Birute and her family made the difficult decision to leave Lithuania--the home they loved so dearly--in search of a better life. Birute and her family left Lithuania in June 1940, just as the Soviet army was entering the country. While Russian troops initially stopped them at the border, they ultimately allowed them to pass into Germany. From there, the family was constantly on the move, living in Switzerland, France, Spain, and Brazil all in the space of a little over a year. Eventually, Birute and her family arrived in Chicago in 1941, before finally settling in Cleveland, where Birute's husband found work as a factory laborer for just 65 cents an hour. The Smetona family was living on the second floor of a house on Ablewhite Avenue when a sudden fire consumed it. Tragically, Birute's father-in-law, the former President Smetona, lost his life in the blaze, unable to escape from where he lived in a converted attic on the floor above them. These were difficult times for Birute and her family. After all that Birute and her family had been through--from having to leave their homeland of Lithuania to losing Julius's beloved father and having their home destroyed--Birute and her family started over yet again. As a testament to her strength of character, Birute endured at a point in her life when many others less determined and courageous than she would have crumbled under the sheer pressure of all the adversity her young family suddenly faced. Birute held steadfast, however, and truly flourished in Euclid, Ohio. To help support her family, Birute took buses for a time from her family's public housing in Euclid to homes in Shaker Heights to give piano lessons. But eventually, she was able to build a full schedule at her own home. She soon returned to the concert stage and went on to perform in major cities, including New York, Chicago, and Washington. In Cleveland, she belonged to and performed for the Fortnightly, Cecilian, and Music and Drama clubs of Cleveland. While living in Cleveland Heights, Birute shared her gift with the community and taught for years at the Cleveland Music School Settlement and Ursuline College. Birute was also a visiting instructor at Youngstown State University, Appalachian State University, and the School of Fine Arts in Willoughby. While known as a gifted performer, Birute Smetona was also a devoted mother and exceptional teacher. Her two surviving sons, Anthony of Cleveland Heights and V. Julius of Medina, both followed in their mother's footsteps to become concert pianists and teachers. Birute was dedicated to her students. She taught them to avoid a stiff appearance when playing by using a supple, flowing motion of hand, wrist, and forearm. Most of all, Birute was well known for her unique ability to clearly explain difficult musical concepts in a way that even children could understand. Birute was a strong, courageous, and exceptionally talented mother, instructor, and pianist. She was a vibrant member of the Cleveland community, and I am proud to honor her life--a 91-year journey and adventure. I extend my condolences to her entire family--to her two sons, her nine grandchildren, and to all who knew and loved her. She will be truly missed, but will remain forever a testament to the character and depth of courage of the Lithuanian community in Ohio.

Mr. DeWINE

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise today to honor and remember the life of an extraordinary woman--a woman who experienced events that exist to most of us merely as stories in our history textbooks. I am proud to call this woman a fellow Ohioan--one who, as a teenager, fought in the Warsaw Uprising against the invading Germans. This woman, Halina Grabowski, lived her life with a rare courage and loyalty, and her level of service to humanity is something to which we all should aspire. Halina recently passed away in Cleveland at the age of 75. I would like to share her amazing story with my colleagues in the Senate. Halina was born in 1928 to a homebuilder and his wife in Warsaw, Poland. She grew up as one of 12 children living comfortably in the city. However, the outbreak of World War II changed forever the kind of life she and her family knew. The German army swept through Poland in September 1939. As we know all too well, the atrocities the Nazis inflicted on the Polish people were truly horrific. Halina and her family were unable to escape the occupiers. Her house was burned to the ground and her brother died in her arms following a brutal beating by German soldiers. Halina's mother was killed when German planes bombed the church in which she was seeking refuge. At this point, most of us would give up--but not Halina. In the midst of this devastation, she decided to join the resistance movement in Warsaw. The Warsaw Uprising erupted out of the city's ghettoes on August 1, 1944. After the Jews resisted early efforts to quell the rebellion, masses of German reinforcements entered the city with an order to kill all of its inhabitants. Despite the threat, Halina joined the Armia Krajowa, or Home Army. Even though the Home Army was greatly disadvantaged, they fought fiercely and bravely. Halina was assigned to duties as a messenger, nurse, and guard. During the resistance, her foot and arm were severely injured by German shells. However, rather than succumbing to her injuries, Halina bandaged herself and returned to her unit. Several times, she and her comrades escaped enemy troops by crawling through sewers and fighting off rats. Despite their courageous efforts, the Home Army eventually ran out of food, medicine, and ammunition. The Germans captured Halina and her unit and sent them to concentration camps in Germany. The resistance engaged the German occupiers for 63 days of intense fighting--the longest Polish resistance battle fought during World War II. In addition to its length, the Warsaw Uprising was the greatest military operation undertaken by any resistance movement in Europe at the time. It was an amazing act of courage and overwhelming valor. When it was over, more than 200,000 Polish people had lost their lives fighting for their freedom. Halina survived the War. She survived the ghetto, the resistance, and a German concentration camp. Throughout this, she also managed to find the love of her life--George Grabowski. They married in England in 1948 after they left Germany. In 1952, Halina and George moved to Cleveland, and although she lived as an American for the next 50 years, her ties to her home country were never severed. Halina served as an officer in the Polish American Congress, PAC, an umbrella organization of 3,000 Polish-American organizations and clubs. The PAC promotes civic, educational, and cultural programs designed to further not only the knowledge of Polish history, language, and culture, but also to stimulate Polish-American involvement in the United States. Additionally, Halina served as a member of the organization of Polish Veterans Combatants and the SPK Polish service organization. While much of her new American life was dedicated to Polish causes, Halina was also a devoted mother and wife. She had a daughter and a son, who she raised while working for twenty years in the payroll department of Society National Bank. Halina lived through one of the most harrowing events the world has ever seen. However, she did not let it overwhelm her. Rather, she courageously fought for her freedom and never gave up. Halina was awarded Poland's A.K. Cross and four other medals for her service in the Home Army. I offer my condolences to her entire family--especially to her husband George; their two children, Theresa and John; and their seven grandchildren. Halina Grabowski was an amazing woman--we will never forget her.