Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. We will do our best. Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me indicate that we now have had our first vote. We would like to complete action on the concurrent resolution authored by Senators Hutchison, Nickles, and others and then have that vote very quickly if we can. I know a lot of people want to talk, but I think it is general debate. We would also like to have the vote on my joint resolution, the Dole-McCain joint resolution, sometime, hopefully by 6 o'clock this evening. So that gives us about 5 hours of debate. We have already had a number of Members, I would say about 20 Members, each requesting from 10 minutes to 15 minutes to 90 minutes. Now, we are not going to be able to accommodate everybody, or I hope they can accommodate us, and I hope we can, as much as we can, keep our remarks limited to 5 or 7 or 8 minutes, because if I just add up these requests, this will take us beyond 6 o'clock, probably 7 or 8 o'clock. And I would say as the Republican leader, we are trying to accommodate the President of the United States. So, hopefully, we will have cooperation on both sides. I think the Senator from Texas would like to have a vote about what, midafternoon, on her concurrent resolution?

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate resume consideration of Senate Concurrent Resolution 35 and it be in order for this Senator to offer my Senate joint resolution and that no amendments or motions to commit be in order to either vehicle.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I do not have a problem with that, unless somebody has already made plans on voting at 12:30 and then doing something else off the Hill on either side.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, during the past several days, we have heard a number of important legal arguments, but there has been very little talk about the history of the flag itself. On June 14, 1777, the Revolutionary Continental Congress decided to create an official and distinctively American flag, passing a resolution declaring that, ``The flag of the United States be 13 stripes alternate red and white, and the Union be 13 stars, white in the blue field representing a new constellation.'' The colors of the flag were carefully chosen: The red for the sacrifices in blood made for the cause of national independence. The white for the purity of this cause. And the blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice. Our Nation was barely 30 years old when it went to war a second time against the British Empire in the war of 1812. As the British fleet attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, the flag waved undaunted throughout the night until the dawn's early light, inspiring Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the words of the our national anthem. The most tragic chapter in our Nation's history began when the American flag was lowered at Fort Sumter, after a 33-hour bombardment. The Civil War that ensued gave us Barbara Frietchie, whom the poet John Greenleaf Whittier tells us stood face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball, with Stonewall Jackson: ``Shoot if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country's flag, she said.'' Eighty years ago, in 1915, as Europe stood ravaged by World War I, President Woodrow Wilson established June 14 as National Flag Day. The purpose of Flag Day, President Wilson wrote, was to help us ``direct our minds with a special desire of renewal to the ideals and principles of which we have sought to make our great Government the embodiment.'' One of our most enduring national images comes from the Second World War--the famous picture of six American brave soldiers raising Old Glory at the top of Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. Nearly 6,000 Americans gave their lives during their deadly ascent up that hill. And just 25 years after Iwo Jima, the flag made history again, as it was planted on the Moon by America's astronauts, some 239,000 miles away. So, the flag itself has a unique and rich history, a history of great sacrifice and great triumph, and one that is the birthright of every American. Mr. President, there is another point I want to emphasize today: Contrary to what some of my colleagues have said, this debate is not about amending the bill of rights or carving out an exception to the first amendment. It is about correcting a misguided Supreme Court decision that itself amended the bill of rights by overturning 48 State statutes and a Federal law banning the act of flag desecration. Many of these statutes had been on the books for decades, without in any way diminishing our precious first amendment freedoms. And if we learned anything in 1989, when we first began this debate, it is that we cannot overrule a Supreme Court decision on a constitutional matter simply by passing a statute. Fixing the Supreme Court's red-white-and-blue blunder requires a constitutional amendment. This is the only serious and honest way to correct the Texas versus Johnson decision. I respect the efforts of my distinguished colleague from Kentucky, Senator McConnell, who has proposed a flag-desecration statute. But as I said back in 1989, the statutory quick-fix just will not work. It failed in 1989, and it will fail again today. Of course, amending the Constitution should not be taken lightly. This is serious business. That is why the framers intentionally made the amendment process a difficult one, requiring the assent of two- thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the State legislatures. But once these legislative hurdles have been cleared, the American people have spoken. In fact, amending the Constitution is as American as the Constitution itself. Mr. President, I will conclude today by telling the story of a man named Stephan Ross, who testified earlier this year before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1940, at the age of nine, the Nazis seized Ross from his home in Krasnik, Poland. For the next 5 years, he was held in 10 different Nazi death camps and barely survived. The U.S. Army eventually liberated Ross from Dachau. As Ross traveled to Munich for medical care, an American tank commander jumped off his vehicle to lend his help to Ross and to the other victims of Nazi brutality. As Ross recounts: ``He gave me his own food. He touched my withered body with is hands and heart. His love instilled in me a will to live, and I fell to his feet and shed my first tears in 5 years.'' The American soldier then gave Ross what he thought was a handkerchief, but he soon realized it was a small American flag, the first I had ever seen. Stephan Ross still keeps that same cherished flag at his home in Boston, where he works as a psychologist. Ross says: It became my flag of redemption and freedom. . . . It represents the hope, freedom, and life that the American soldiers returned to me when they found me, nursed me to health, and restored my faith in mankind. . . . Even now, 50 years later, I am overcome with tears and gratitude whenever I see our glorious American Flag, because I know what it represents not only to me, but to millions around the world. . . . Protest if you wish. Speak loudly, even curse our country and our flag, but please, in the name of all those who died for our freedoms, don't physically harm what is so sacred to me and to countless others. And, I might add, to those who are now heading for Bosnia. Stephan Ross is right: We must protect that which is sacred to us as citizens of this great country. Our flag is sacred because it stands alone as the unique symbol of the principles and ideals that President Woodrow Wilson knew bound us together as one nation, one people. Throughout our country's history, thousands of brave Americans have followed the flag into battle to defend these principles and ideals. Twenty thousand Americans will serve under our flag in Bosnia. As a testament to the great sacrifices made by our fighting men and women, the flag--America's national symbol--should receive the constitutional protection it so richly deserves.

Mr. DOLE. Is all time yielded back?

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I raise a point of order that the pending Hollings amendment dealing with a balanced budget amendment violates the consent agreement of December 8, which states that all amendments must be relevant to the subject matter of flag desecration.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, one of the true pleasures of serving as a U.S. Senator is the opportunity to cross paths with the dedicated public servants employed by the Senate. No doubt about it, one of the most dedicated I have known during my years in the Senate is Julian Grayson. Grayson, as everyone called him, retired last Friday after serving the Senate in four different decades. From 1950 to 1964, Grayson moonlighted from his job as a Methodist minister by waiting tables here in the Capitol. In 1964, Grayson left the Capitol to work full time in the pulpit. But when he retired from the ministry in 1983, he returned to the Hill, and he remained here until last Friday. On this last day of service, Grayson spoke with pride about waiting on seven Presidents of the United States, and he said that the Senate was ``almost a second home to me.'' The high regard in which Grayson is held by all Senators could be seen when our entire Republican caucus gave him a standing ovation at our policy lunch several weeks ago. There are countless others who would have joined in that standing ovation had they been there, including a number of Senate food service employees who have returned to college classes because of Grayson's urging and encouragement. Mr. President, I know I speak for all Senators in extending our thanks to Julian Grayson, and in wishing him a happy and healthy retirement. I yield the floor. Mr. CHAFEE addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, last month, two thugs squirted a bottle of flammable liquid into a subway token booth in Brooklyn's Bedford- Stuyvesant neighborhood. They then lit a match, igniting an explosion that blew the token booth apart. Engulfed in flames, the booth's operator, 50-year-old Harry Kaufman, suffered second- and third-degree burns over nearly 80 percent of his body as well as severe lung injuries. Mr. Kaufman was subsequently taken to the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. The two men who committed this vicious crime continue to remain at large. The Brooklyn attack closely resembled two scenes depicted in the new move ``The Money Train,'' a Columbia Pictures production starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes. Since the movie's November 22 debut, there have been a total of seven separate copycat fire attacks on New York City subway token booths. Yesterday, after a 14-day fight for his life, Harry Kaufman passed away. I take this opportunity to publicly express my deepest condolences to Stella Kaufman, Harry Kaufman's wife, to their 17-year-old son Adrian, and to the rest of the Kaufman family.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, last month the distinguished senior Senator from Alaska, Senator Stevens, led a delegation of our colleagues-- Senators Inouye, Glenn, Bingaman, Hutchison, Snowe, and Thomas--to Europe to carefully evaluate the plans for a possible NATO mission to the former Yugoslavia. The result of their travels to Brussels, Sarajevo, and Zagreb are contained in a report, for which I ask unanimous consent to be printed in the Record. This report addresses the four central questions of the Bosnian NATO mission--how soon, how many, how long, and how much. As for cost, officials admitted that it will mount to $2.0 billion--not including the costs of the no-fly zone or enforcing the naval embargo in the Adriatic. With respect to how long, that remains a question that this Chamber will have to address as no one presented the codel with an effective exit strategy for NATO forces. In closing, Mr. President, I would like to thank the Members and staff of codel Stevens. Their fine work on a timely and important report will help further illuminate our upcoming debate on Bosnia.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, was leaders' time reserved?

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, when Americans changed the party in control of Congress last November, they also changed the relationship between Capitol Hill and our 50 State capitols. The Washington, DC-knows-best attitude that was the hallmark of the Democrat Congress has been replaced by a return to the 10th amendment. Paternalism has been replaced by a new partnership between Congress and America's Governors. One of the most talented of those Governors is William Weld of Massachusetts, who has provided innovative solutions in the areas of health care reform and welfare reform--reducing government spending, and cutting taxes while he was at it. Governor Weld is now helping to lead the fight in the Republican effort to return power to the States, and I wanted to call my colleagues' attention to an outstanding column he wrote for today's Wall Street Journal. Entitled ``Release Us From Federal Nonsense,'' Governor Weld makes the point that President Clinton and his liberal allies simply do not understand that State governments are better able than Washington, DC in providing solutions that work. As Governor Weld wrote: All across the country, creative Governors are aggressively dealing with problems Washington is just beginning to wake up to. So if the question is whether State governments are responsible enough to dispense welfare and Medicaid funds in our own way--we're more than ready. I know I speak for the Republican majority here on Capitol Hill in saying to Governor Weld that we are more than ready to continue our mission of returning power to the States and to the people. I congratulate Governor Weld on an outstanding article, and I look forward to working with him in the future--whether that be in Boston or in Washington, DC.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Again, let me indicate that I hope to take it up before Christmas. I would like to complete action before Christmas. If not, we will do it as quickly as we can when we are back here. But I think we need to take a look at the calendar. A week from today will be the 15th. One week later is the 22d. Next week we have this State Department reorganization, Bosnia, and rangeland reform. Again, it is a question of whether we can do it. I am advised by the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee that he does not know of any amendments to the START II Treaty. There may be amendments. But it may not take more than a couple of hours. So, certainly, I would like to dispose of it before we leave from here this year. We will make every effort to do so.

Mr. DOLE. Madam President, if the Senator will yield, I will just say, as I did yesterday, that it is certainly my hope that we can clear everything on the Executive Calendar before we leave this year. I cannot give a 100 percent guarantee. Somebody might have a hard hold on something. They may not be able to get it up, and we might not be able to get cloture. But my view is we ought to accommodate where we can the executive branch, and I have always tried to do that.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I further add that there will not be any votes tomorrow. There will be debate tomorrow. Then tomorrow, if we can reach an agreement for Monday, there may be two or three amendments to Senate Joint Resolution 31. If we can agree on the amendments and final passage, then we could do that on Tuesday morning. There would be no votes on Monday. If we cannot agree, then there will be no votes before 6 o'clock on Monday. But I think we can agree. We have had a discussion between the two leaders. Finally, I would say there are a couple of colloquys that Senator Daschle and I were going to enter into, and I think I pretty much responded to the one on START. The others I think can be printed in the Record at the appropriate point if we initial each. Is that satisfactory with the managers? I thank the Senators. Mr. HELMS addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. If there is not, I ask at this time then that the cloture vote scheduled for Friday be vitiated, and I [[Page S 18229]] now ask unanimous consent that at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 8, the Senate turn to the consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 31, the constitutional amendment concerning the flag desecration.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DOLE. You are not going to New Orleans, are you? I think we may have a vote in the next few minutes, and then we can probably arrange at least an hour.

Mr. DOLE. How close are you?

Mr. DOLE. We have a cloture vote scheduled on the constitutional amendment on the desecration of the flag. That could be resolved if we get an agreement on State Department reorganization. If we do that, then we can vitiate the vote on cloture and probably have debate only tomorrow on the flag amendment, but no final disposition.

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

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I have been asked to indicate what may be in store for the rest of the evening. It is not certain that these are all the amendments, but we have an amendment by Senator Bingaman on shutting down the Government; an amendment by Senator Feinstein which, as I understand it, is similar to the Boxer amendment just disposed of; a Brown amendment on deadbeat dads; then we have [[Page S 18199]] the pending amendment of Senator Pryor, which Senator Smith will second-degree. There may be additional amendments. I think it is safe to say there will be votes well into the evening. I yield the floor.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, earlier this year, America recoiled in horror as we heard the tragic story of Stephanie Kuhen, a 3-year-old girl who was shot dead in her family's car after the car took a wrong turn and drove down a gang-infested alley in Los Angeles. Stephanie's grandparents have remarked, ironically and unfortunately with some truth, that their family would probably be safer in Bosnia. In September, we read about 42-year-old Paul McLaughlin, a Massachusetts State prosecutor, devoted to his job, who was shot dead at point-blank range outside a commuter train station while returning home from work. At the time of the murder, police speculated that it may have been a gang-ordered assassination. Several officials remarked that ``the slaying was the kind of event that might happen in Italy, Colombia, or other nations where prosecutors, judges, and police are kidnapped or assassinated.'' And last August, three employees of a Capitol Hill McDonald's restaurant--18-year-old Marvin Peay, Jr; 23-year-old Kevin Workman; and a 49-year-old grandmother named Lillian Jackson--were all herded into the restaurant's basement freezer late one Saturday night and shot in the head. All three died instantaneously. Mr. President, what I have just described did not take place in Bosnia or Italy or Colombia or some other country, but right here in America. These are real people. With real families. Feeling real pain. And dying real deaths. They are citizens of our country. Some facts about crime We must put an end to this madness. If America wants to continue calling itself a civilized society, we can no [[Page S 18178]] longer accept an annual crime tally of nearly 24,000 murders, 100,000 forcible rapes, 670,000 robberies, and more than 1 million aggravated assaults. We must stop tolerating the intolerable. Listen to these facts. Fact: For the first time in our Nation's history, the FBI estimates that a majority of all murders are committed by persons who are strangers to their victims. In a very real sense . . . no matter where we live or where we work. Americans are hostage to the vicious, random acts of nameless, faceless strangers. Fact: More and more young people are resorting to violence. According to the Justice Department, the murder rate among 14-to-17 year-olds has increased by 165 percent during the past 10 years, fueled in large part by crack cocaine. If current trends continue, juvenile arrests may double by the year 2010. Fact: Violent crime is destroying America's minority communities. The Justice Department estimates that a staggering 1 out of every 21 African-American men in this country can expect to be murdered, a majority rate that is twice the rate for U.S. soldiers during World War II. Fact: The revolving prison door keeps swinging and Americans keep dying. At least 30 percent of the murders in the United States are committed by predators who should be behind bars, but instead are out on the streets while on probation, parole, or bail. law enforcement block grant Now, Mr. President, this conference report will not solve the crime problem. The best antidote to crime is not a prison cell or more police, but conscience--that inner voice that restrains the passions and enables us to recognize the difference between right and wrong. To put it simply: values count, not just in our lives, but in our society. There will never be enough prisons or police to enforce order if there is growing disorder in our souls. But, of course, we have to start somewhere. Last year, I opposed the so-called crime bill because I believed it was a flawed Federal policy--too light on punishment and too heavy on pork, spending billions and billions of dollars on untested social-programs. This conference report tries to correct some of these excesses. The report also rejects the ``one-size-fits-all approach'' of the current COPS Program by giving local communities more flexibility to determine what best suits their own unique law-enforcement needs. Is it more police? Better training? More squad cars? Or perhaps modern crime- fighting technology? As the Washington Post recently editorialized: Because community policing has proved to be so effective and so popular with the public, many areas will spend the money as Washington intends. But if new technologies, more cars or a social service unit trained with juveniles are needed, why shouldn't local authorities have more choice? Word processors, a modernized telephone system or better lab equipment may not have the political appeal of 100,000 new cops. But for some cities, they may be a much better deal. And let me emphasize that if a local community wants more police officers--needs more cops--it can use the block-grant funds for this very purpose. truth-in-advertising Mr. President, in the coming days, we will no doubt hear President Clinton denounce the Congress for attempting to repeal his so-called 100,000 COPS Program. But what the President will not say is that this program never existed in the first place. The current program fully funds only 25,000 new police officers, not the 100,000 we hear so much about. That is not just my opinion. It is the opinion of experts like Princeton University Prof. John Diiulio. So, when it comes to the COPS Program, it is time for a little truth- in-advertising. other provisions This conference report contains other important provisions: $10 million for the innovative police corps program; truth-in-sentencing grants that will help the States abolish parole for violent offenders; the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which will go a long way to reduce the number of frivolous claims file each year by litigation-happy inmates, the so-called frequent-filers; and $500 million to reimburse the States for the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens, including those who have committed crimes while in the United States. Finally, I want to commend Senator Judd Gregg, the manager of this bill, for his skill in developing this conference report and bringing it to the floor. Senator Gregg just recently assumed the chairmanship of the Commerce, Justice, State Subcommittee, and with today's action, he has proven that he is a very fast learner indeed.