Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

Mr. DOLE. I ask for the yeas and nays on final passage.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate agree to a request for a further conference with the House and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar No. 203, S. 1309.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I understand why the chairman made the decision to delete title III from the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. A determined minority--at the urging of the White House--was able to prevent action on the legislation. Mr. President, 94 percent of Republicans voted to invoke cloture, and 17 percent of Democrats voted for cloture. I commend the Members of both sides of the aisle willing to bring debate on this measure to a close. I know for the Democrats it is not easy to stand up to the kind of White House blitz that has occurred. Once again, the White House says one thing and does another. The White House talks about toughening the embargo on Cuba, and then works to undermine the sanction Castro fears most. The White House says it wants bipartisanship in foreign policy--in fact they are pleading with us on Bosnia--and then uses partisan arguments to derail this legislation. Policy toward Castro's Cuba has been a perfect example of three decades of bipartisan cooperation. In the House, 67 Democrats supported a tougher version of this legislation. Nine Senate Democrats support cloture, and I expect many more would without the kind of pressure coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Let there be no mistake--White House inflexibility has forced the change made today. As I said last week, the Dole-Helms amendment--we already made 10 changes to address administration concerns. We were willing to make more to address issues raised in this debate--raising the threshold for legal action from $50,000 to $100,000 for example, or extending the effective date from 6 months to 2 years after enactment. These are changes that will presumably be considered in conference on H.R. 927. I supported title III as drafted in the Dole-Helms substitute. Yes, it does give a new right of legal action that could bring more suits before American courts. But if clogging up the court system is a concern of the White House or of opponents of this bill, I call on them to join with me to enact comprehensive tort reform. Opponents of this bill say title III would create a right for Cuban-Americans not enjoyed by Polish-Americans. They are right. And there is one critical distinction--today, Poland is free while Cuba suffers under the boot of Castro's repression. That is what it really comes down to--the Cuban people continue to suffer while Castro searches for ways to finance his dictatorship. There are legitimate differences over the best way to bring democratic change to Cuba but we should be very clear about one thing: It is the chilling effect on investment in Cuba caused by the provisions of title III that worries Fidel Castro the most. I expect the Senate to conclude action relatively quickly on this legislation. The international embargo on Cuba will be strengthened, and important provisions for the eventual transition to democracy will be enacted. I remain hopeful--and I say this in a spirit of bipartisanship; we had it work in some other areas, not as many as we should--that we can continue to work out a solution to the issue of property stolen by Fidel Castro so that is acceptable to at least 60 Senators. Again, I commend my colleagues on this side and the others on the other side, and I hope, now that title III has been deleted, we could have an overwhelming vote for cloture, let us go to conference, let us work in a reasonable way--with the White House, if they would like to. I am certain the Senator from North Carolina would be willing to do that.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if I could use a little bit of my leader time?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I have a consent agreement which has been cleared by both sides. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes H.R. 927, the following amendments be the only amendments in order postcloture: Helms amendment No. 2936; Bradley amendment No. 2930 or 2931; Dodd amendment No. 2906; Dodd amendment No. 2908; Simon amendment No. 2934.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all listed amendments be considered second-degree amendments to Helms amendment No. 2936.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me indicate we believe we can have debate on the Simon amendment yet this afternoon. I understand the Senator from North Carolina will offer an amendment which will be accepted on behalf of Senator Bradley. That will leave the Helms amendment and the two Dodd amendments. We are hoping to start at 10:30 tomorrow morning on the bill and recognize Senator Dodd, with, if there is not a time agreement, a short period of debate. We are trying to accommodate Senator Dodd's schedule, so I hope he will accommodate ours tomorrow. I want to congratulate the Senator from North Carolina. I regret we were one vote short, 59 to 36. So it was necessary, as the chairman has indicated, to delete title III. It is the hope of everyone when we get into conference we can work out some consensus so we can come back with a conference report and pick up that additional vote and maybe more. It seems to me there are good points to this bill. The strength of this bill was title III, and we will revisit it. There will be some version of it in the conference report. Again, I think the chairman is to be commended. We will go to conference and see what happens. Also, it is my hope tomorrow--I discussed this briefly with Senator Kerry from Massachusetts--that we could move to the State Department reorganization bill. They indicate they will make an offer to Senator Helms this afternoon.

Mr. DOLE. If that is acceptable under a 4-hour time agreement, we can complete action on that, too. After the debate on the Simon amendment, and anything else being done with reference to this, I think it is my intention to recess so the Senate Finance Committee can meet and complete its work, because they may be going late into the evening. Mr. HELMS addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk that are due for their second reading. [[Page S 15262]]

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, is the Senator from Wyoming seeking recognition?

Mr. DOLE. I object to further proceedings on this bill at this time.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I object to further proceedings on this matter at this time.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I thank the Senator, my colleague.

Mr. DOLE. Let me announce to my colleagues we have morning business until the hour of 2 p.m. today, and then at 2 p.m. there will be a cloture vote on the substitute amendment to H.R. 927, the Cuba sanctions bill. Yesterday's vote was 59 to 36. It is our hope that we can invoke cloture today. This will be the third effort. And if we do, we will continue consideration of the bill until disposed of. Second- degree amendments to the substitute amendment may be filed up until 1 p.m. today. If cloture is not invoked, the Senate may turn to any of the following items: NASA authorization, which I understand is not controversial. We are close to having some consent agreement on that. Amtrak authorization, which may be referred to the Finance Committee because it has some tax provisions. Hopefully, if it is referred, it can be done on a limited basis so it would come back here within 2 or 3 weeks. Labor, HHS appropriations. We have been precluded from bringing that bill to the floor. It is my hope that Senators Specter and Harkin, the managers of the bill, can get together to see if they cannot work out some agreement so we can pass Labor, HHS appropriations. Senator Cochran will be working on that as sort of the expediter of the appropriations bills. This is the last appropriations bill to leave the Senate, and we are locked up over a number of provisions dealing with abortion, others dealing with striker replacement. It is my hope we can resolve some of those issues, bring it to the floor, have the votes, and go to conference. State Department reorganization. Hopefully, they are about to reach an agreement between Senator Kerry of Massachusetts and Senator Helms, the chairman of the committee. It was our hope that we could have disposed of this matter by now. And I know there was a meeting yesterday. I hope we can follow up and maybe dispose of that today, and any available conference reports. I might ask the Senator from Mississippi, are there any additional conference reports that may be coming to the floor on appropriations bills?

Mr. DOLE. And the Agriculture appropriations bill has gone to the President?

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, Washington can be a scary place sometimes and pretty scary around the time of Halloween. But yesterday's announcement from Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin about expiration of the debt ceiling on October 31 brings Halloween scare tactics to a whole new level. I was dismayed to see the administration resort to this sort of game- playing on the debt ceiling and the budget situation. And I am sure many in the financial community were as dismayed as I was. Mr. President, investors around the world are watching our performance here in Washington and they are particularly watching how we Republicans are handling the Nation's financial situation. So far the reaction has been very positive. Look at U.S. long-term interest rates, a key sign of investor confidence in the U.S. economy. The bond market has been strong and the rates have been steadily declining as the financial community sees our determination as a Republican Congress to finally deal with the problem of the Federal budget deficit once and for all. Last December--right after the Republicans swept the 1994 congressional elections--the interest rates on 30-year bonds began their decline from 8.0 percent to 6.29 percent today. The interest rate on long-term bonds has declined steadily since this spring when we passed our budget resolution to get on a path to a balanced budget by the year 2002. It is our actions as a Republican Congress that have spurred confidence in our country's future economic security. Today we find ourselves in the ironic situation of a Secretary of the Treasury--the U.S. Government official with the primary responsibility of promoting confidence in the economy--actually trying to disrupt the financial markets. Secretary Rubin has politicized this debate. His actions yesterday to reduce normal, previously scheduled borrowing next week can only be interpreted as designed to disrupt the market. No Secretary of the Treasury should try to be destabilizing our financial markets. As Secretary Rubin said in his letter--about the only sentence in it I agreed with--``This is no way for a great Nation to conduct its financial affairs.'' I hope that no one will be fooled by these Halloween scare tactics from the administration. In fact, even after yesterday's announcement the bond market was strong. The American people want us to do the job of getting the deficit under control. Mr. President, no one wants a default. And scare tactics are no way to prevent such a default. I can guarantee that we in the Congress will work hard to see to it that there is no default by the U.S. Government on its obligations. But make no mistake: We will not retreat in our battle to end the stranglehold that the Federal deficit has on future generations of Americans. This is the year to do the heavy lifting necessary to get our Nation's financial house in order and I trust the administration will choose to be helpful in the serious work ahead of us in the coming weeks.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I understand that we are on automatic pilot. When I finish, we will go out?

Mr. DOLE. I will say, the Senate Finance Committee will resume markup of the $245 billion tax reduction bill. I am not certain precisely when that will be. I think somewhere around 5 o'clock. The chairman, Senator Roth, will be in contact with the committee members.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I move the Senate stand in recess under the previous order.

Mr. DOLE

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

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I thank the Chair.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. I now ask for its second reading.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask for its first reading.