Eliot Engel

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, fellow colleagues, I rise in support of the Bond Price Competition Improvement Act of 1999. The Committee on Commerce and Subcommittee of Finance, of which I am a member, has held a number of hearings to review the process and competition in mutual fund fees and bond prices. Witnesses repeatedly testified that transparency of corporate bonds was poor. Witnesses also revealed that individual purchasers of the same bond from the same dealer at approximately the same time may be given widely divergent prices. Mr. Speaker, fellow colleagues, improved transparency of the bond market would lead to improved bond prices for investors, and increased transparency would assist the relevant regulators with development of an audit trail. In today's ever changing global economy, information is our most valuable resource. By improving the information available to investors, leading to more competitive prices for bonds, we hope to eliminate price discrimination and promote a more fair and competitive market. The Bond Price Competition Improvement Act, which is supported by the NASD, SEC and Bond Market Association has many advantages. However, the three economic benefits that I am mostly enthusiastic about are: 1. It will bolster investor protection by providing investors with better opportunities to monitor the behavior of the entities that make markets in secondary securities; 2. It will help improve market liquidity by boosting investor and market confidence in a market; and 3. It will enhance market efficiency by boosting the price discovery process of moving toward the ``optimal price'' for a particular security. Market power invested in one bond dealer enables the dealer to charge prices that are higher than those that would be available in a fully competitive market. Due to the lack of transparency in the current bond market dealers sometimes offer the same bond to different customers at significantly different prices. This price discrimination is facilitated by the lack of pricing information to investors. I am convinced that improved transparency in the corporate debt markets as addressed in the Bond Price Competition Improvement Act will eliminate this practice. I would like to commend my fellow colleagues on the Commerce Committee, committee staff, and legislative staff on working together to draft this important bill and I hope that we can continue to work together in this spirit of bipartisanship in the future. Mr. Speaker, Congress is at its best when we work together to solve problems such as these. The American people deserve nothing less. The Bond Market Price Competition Act of 1999 is an important piece of legislation that will preserve this country's place as a leader of bond market transaction in the international marketplace. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to praise a woman who has accomplished much. Rhonda (Randi) Weingarten is the new president of the 130,000-member United Federation of Teachers, the largest local union in the United States. She is also vice president of the 960,000 member American Federation of Teachers, the UFT's national affiliate and is a member of the Board of Directors of both the New York State United Teachers and the New York City Central Labor Council. From 1986 to 1998 Randi served as counsel to UFT President Sandra Feldman, taking a lead role in contract negotiations for teachers and other school employees. When Ms. Feldman became president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi was selected to serve as president. She has a B.S. from Cornell and graduated cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She was also an adjunct professor at Cardozo from 1986-91. She first became affiliated with the UFT when working for a prestigious law firm which had the union as a client. She has served as legislative assistant for the New York State Senate Labor Committee and as a mediator on disputes originating in the New York Criminal Court. She has served as a member of the board and then as chairperson of the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York. She is also a certified teacher of social studies and American History. Randi continues to advance the cause of education in New York. I look forward to working with her to keep that education of our youth as the highest priority of the people and our governments at every level.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, Sylvia Lask, a tireless advocate for her community and a woman who has worked with me for all of my elected life, is celebrating her 65th birthday, an occasion to celebrate her and all the wonderful things she has done. She has worked with me from my start in the New York State Assembly, but even more, she has been a great friend. She developed a specialty in the area of mental health while at my Assembly office and her dedication led her to join me in late night visits to State psychiatric hospitals to check on the care of the patients. Currently she is Chair of the New York State Board of Visitors of Psychiatric Hospitals and is a member of the Board of Bronx Municipal Hospital. She also led her building in the Co-op City rent strike. Her caring and concern have won her the affection and appreciation of virtually everyone she has come in contact with. She is also a State Committeewoman for the 82nd A.D. She is a committed Zionist and Jewish causes are her passion. She is an ardent supporter of the Kibbutz movement. She dearly loves her two children, Marc and Vicki. When I picture Sylvia in my mind I see her dancing around a campfire at a Kibbutz. She is a very dear friend and I join all in wishing her a very special birthday.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, this year, the good parishioners of the Mount Vernon Heights Congregational Church celebrate the church's 100th anniversary. The history of the church is actually longer when we remember that it was in 1892 that its meetings began in the Garden Avenue School. The church became fully organized in 1896 with the Rev. F.B. Kellogg named pastor of the new church. By the following year the congregation had grown so large that it moved to a barn on Bedford Avenue and, on July 4th of that year, the new church was dedicated. By 1910 the church has become self-supporting and in 1916 construction on the current building was started. The church, a New England colonial design reflecting a post Civil War spirit of unity and self determination, was completed by 1922. Subsequently a sanctuary was added as well as tower chime. The Mount Vernon Heights Congregational Church has always practiced community activism as well as charitable works and community projects, such as its youth seminars and elderly centers. The church also is part of the annual pulpit exchanges in which ministers from 19 churches deliver sermons at sister churches. The church is justly proud of its fellowship of many denominations and its ministers of many differing ethnic and social backgrounds. The Rev. Maximilian Bernard Surjadinata, pastor since 1988, was born in Indonesia. I warmly congratulate the Mount Vernon Heights Congregational Church on its centenary and for its wonderful accomplishments in those hundred years.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give tribute and thanks to Stephen Lieb who is retiring as Director of the Northeast Bronx Education Park. For many years he taught our children, before rising to administrative posts in the school district. He was born and raised in New York City, educated in its public schools and has a B.S. from Hunter College, his M.S. from Fordham University and additional graduate work at Pace University and the University of Washington. His initial assignment was teaching science at J.H.S. 163. In 1970 he transferred to I.S. 180 as Science Chairman and he was named Planetarium Director when that facility was completed. Among his accomplishments was the full air conditioning of the five schools in the Park, and the installation of the data communications system. He has worked for 30 years with the Greater New York Council, Boy Scouts of America and takes 30 fatherless boys to camp every year. He also founded a scholarship program. In his retirement as Director of the Education Park, he leaves a hole that will be difficult to fill. I congratulate him for all of his good work and wish him the very best in retirement.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) for yielding. Let me just say that I certainly endorse everything that he has said about violence and about the terrible tragedies taking place in our country, in our schools today. As the father of three children, I know that every parent grieves when we hear of these tragedies at our schools. We obviously need to put our heads together, Democrats, Republicans, Americans all. There are no easy solutions, and none of us has the magic answer. We certainly cannot legislate these things. I think as leaders of our great country we need to have a dialogue and we need to put our heads together and come up with something with which all Americans can identify. So I thank my friend from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) for his leadership in this regard. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to speak a bit about violence that is happening on the other side of the world in Europe, and that is the situation in Kosova. I had not intended to speak but I earlier heard the remarks of our colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), and I just felt that some of the things he said really should not be left unchallenged. I believe what the United States is doing in Kosova is noble, and I believe what the President has attempted to do is noble. We could have easily stood by and let the genocide and ethnic cleansing continue and not done a thing and that would have been the easier thing for us to do, but I think to the President's credit and to our great country's credit we decided that we just could not stand idly by 55 and 60 years after the Holocaust and see another tragedy going on on the continent of Europe. To those people who say, well, why is the United States involved when there is genocide going on all over the world, obviously we are involved with our NATO allies. NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and so NATO is primarily concerned with what goes on in Europe, and this has a terrible destabilizing effect in the Balkans and indeed on the whole continent of Europe. So we, as one of the lead nations in NATO, as the lead nation in NATO, I believe we need to be very responsive to genocide and ethnic cleansing. Mr. Speaker, there seems to be a tendency in some quarters to unfortunately equate the victims of genocide with the oppressors who are carrying out the genocide. We cannot equate those two. It is very, very clear what is going on in Kosova today. The ethnic Albanians are the victims and Mr. Milosevic and his Serbian government are the oppressors. That is clear. There were two million ethnic Albanians routed from their homes. I think when we get into Kosova we are going to see 100,000 or more people in mass graves ethnically cleansed. There are already at least 100,000 missing, and we get reports day in and day out of mass graves. We cannot allow that to happen. There are some people that say, well, this did not happen until the bombing started. That is nonsense. This has been going on for years. We have called it slow ethnic cleansing. It is true that the pace has accelerated since the NATO bombing but ethnic cleansing has been going on against the Kosovar Albanians for many, many months and years, a systematic campaign and every negotiated attempt was made to try to get Milosevic to come to his senses, and only when that failed did the bombing start. I went to Rambouillet during the negotiations in France to speak with our American officials and to try to help convince the Kosovar Albanians to accept Rambouillet. They accepted the Rambouillet Accords. Even though it was far short of what they would like, they believe and I believe that they are entitled to independence and to self- determination. When the former Yugoslavia broke up, and it broke up because of Milosevic, every other group in the former Yugoslavia was given the right to independence and self-determination. The Croatians, the Bosnians, the Macedonians, the Slovanians all were given that option and opted for independent nations. Why are the Kosovar Albanians not given the same option? Why do they have to live in second class status? I think it is very, very clear that Serbia has lost any moral authority ever again to govern the people of Kosova. They have no right to it. The people of Kosova have the right to independence and self-determination. Ethnic cleansing cannot be tolerated, and I think the principles with which we lay down to stop the bombing remain firm and must remain firm. There should be no erosion of those principles. Milosevic knows what he needs to do. In order for the bombing to stop, the Kosovar Albanians need to return to their homes and they need to be protected by international armed forces led by NATO and they ought to have the right of independence and self-determination. We ought to, in my estimation, be arming and training the KLA, the Kosova Liberation Army. They are the only counterbalance to the Serbs on the ground. If we do not want American troops on the ground, and many people do not, then they are the only counterbalance to the Serbs. I have introduced a bill along with my colleague the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford) that says that we ought to be arming and training the KLA. In the long-term and in the short-term, we ought to be airlifting and air dropping anti-tank weaponry to them because they want to turn to us. The KLA wants to work with the west. The KLA wants to work with NATO. If we continue to rebuff them, they are going to go elsewhere for their arms. They may go elsewhere, Iran and other places that we do not like, and then if they do that we cannot then point and say, aha, because it will have been a self-fulfilling prophecy. They want to be pro-west. They want to work with us. They want to defeat the Serbs. They want to aid NATO and we have been rebuffing them. It is ashame. It is wrong. It is morally wrong, and it is wrong in terms of what we should be planning. I also believe, Mr. Speaker, that if we are going to fight this war, all options ought to be on the table, including the possible option of ground troops. I do not say this lightly, but I think we cannot tell Milosevic in advance what we will do and what we will not do, because if we tell him what our game plan is he can plan accordingly. That is why he has dispersed his military, he has dispersed his armaments because he does not fear a ground evasion. If we keep him guessing, we will take away a number of options from him. Let me say this about Milosevic: We continue to treat him as if he is somehow the solution, we are going to negotiate with him, we are going to deal with him. I read reports where Milosevic supposedly is ready for a deal as long as we state first and foremost that Kosova will remain part of Serbia. That would be a disgrace to give him that. That would be a disgrace to say that we are somehow pretending that since Rambouillet nothing has happened, when we know there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people executed and ethnically cleansed. So we should not give in to Milosevic's demands. We should hold firm and adhere to those principles. Again, all options should be on the table. We have Apache helicopters in Albania. In my estimation, we ought to be utilizing them. We ought to be doing humanitarian air drops, dropping food to half a million starving Kosovar refugees who are trapped in Kosova, who are in the mountains and do not have enough food. I was at Kennedy Airport last week, welcoming the first round of Kosovar refugees coming home to the United States, to be with their families, and they were tears streaming down people's eyes, hugging and kissing. It was something really to behold. These people are suffering. Milosevic is a war criminal who ought to be indicted by the International Tribunal in the Hague. We should not be giving in to him, capitulating to him or in my estimation even negotiating with him. We need to win this war. We need to guarantee that those people come back to their homes and we need to put those responsible for genocide on trial, and we need to be very, very firm and, again, I believe that we need to arm and train the KLA. I want to enter into the Record two letters. One is from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which states that the veterans of foreign wars of the United States is resolved that in order to bring this conflict to a rapid and successful conclusion on terms favorable to NATO we will support the United States acting as part of the NATO alliance, taking decisive action with the full range of overwhelming military power to eject, remove or otherwise force the withdrawal of Serbian military and paramilitary forces and to restore Kosovars to their homes. Mr. Speaker, I would like to enter into the Record the Kosova Coalition, which is signed by many, many people, Christians, Muslims, Jews, all kinds of ethnic groups in this country to Members of Congress urging our support for NATO's efforts to stop the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. One paragraph says, ``We, therefore, call on Congress to request that it take all necessary steps to end Serbia's campaign of ethnic cleansing, force the withdrawal of all Serb forces, create a secure environment for the return of Albanians to their homes, and allow them to govern themselves and to rebuild Kosovo.'' Finally, I want to say that the smears that have been leveled in some quarters against the KLA talking about them using drug money and whatever have no basis in fact. Intelligence reports and everybody else say that it is nothing but a political smear campaign, and again today in the Wall Street Journal it says, The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency says claims that the KLA raises money from drugs quote, ``have not been corroborated and may be politically motivated.'' So I am tired of the smears. This country is doing the right thing, the noble thing. We are to make sure that the Kosovar Albanians get their legitimate rights. We are to stay the course; we are to be firm, and I am proud of the United States of America standing up at this very important point in time. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. April 20, 1999. The President, The White House, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. President: The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the Untied States is gravely concerned about the worsening situation in the Balkans. As the combat veterans who for the last 100 years have fought all of our country's wars, we have until now opposed the deployment of U.S. forces to the former Yugoslavia. Our opposition was based on our concern for the safety of our servicemen and women in the midst of the Yugoslav civil war. Also, we have been uncertain what vital U.S. national security interests were at stake in that country's conflict. Since we took that position, however, the situation has changed. In the past few weeks Serbian leaders have used their military and paramilitary forces to overrun Kosovo, destroy the social and economic fabric of the province and terrorize the populace into flight. Despite, and in defiance of NATO's diplomatic efforts and its air campaign, Serbia now has achieved its objectives in Kosovo. By doing so it has raised the stakes in this conflict. Having waged unrestricted war on the people and province of Kosovo, NATO's credibility and U.S. leadership have been directly challenged by Serbia. NATO will neither continue as a credible, unified alliance, nor will the U.S. retain its world leadership role if the Serbian challenge goes unmet and Serb aggression is not stopped. Many of our members are deeply troubled by the situation we face. Some realize the long history of this conflict, the skill of our adversaries, the inhospitable weather and terrain and the political difficulty of maintaining alliance unity are important factors that will affect our actions and their outcomes. Others are mindful of the lessons of past wars. The gradual applications of force that allow adversaries to seize objectives before our power peaks and the limits placed on the use of our military power which can prolong conflicts, increase casualties and erode public support are lessons that seem to some to apply equally to today as to yesterday. Nonetheless, in consideration of the current situation, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is resolved that in order to bring this conflict to a rapid and successful conclusion on terms favorable to NATO, we will support the United States acting as part of the NATO alliance, taking decisive action with the full range of overwhelming military power to eject, remove or otherwise force the withdrawal of Serbian military and paramilitary forces and to restore Kosovars to their homes. We also believe that careful consideration should be given to the formation of a NATO peacekeeping force to guarantee Kosovars' freedom from further oppression and the right to its self-determination. Finally, Mr. President, with such important questions before us we believe and urge you to ensure first that the American people are behind this effort and then to take this issue to the United States Congress for its advice and consent. Sincerely, Thomas A. Pouliot, Commander-in-Chief, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak in praise of a man who has devoted himself to his community. Judge Ascher Katz is not only Administrative Town Judge of Greenburgh, serving on the bench for 23 years, but a man who has immersed himself in the judicial profession as a Director of the County Magistrates Association and as a Chairman of the state Bar Association Committee on District, City, Village and Town Courts. Judge Katz is also in Who's Who in American Law and a senior partner in his law firm. But he also serves the community as a whole; as a Charter Member of the U.S. Holocaust Commission, in the Jewish War Veterans, as a board member of the American Cancer Society, and in the Rotary and B'nai B'rith. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and he and his wife have three daughters. On his retirement I want to thank him for all he has done for his community and to wish him the very best.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, a church can be the mainstay of a community, the bond which holds its people together in common purpose. In the Bronx, the Co-op City community is fortunate to have such a church, the Community Protestant Church of Co-op City. And today I rise to congratulate that wonderful institution and its worshippers who are celebrating the church's 30th anniversary. The Community Protestant Church started humbly enough with the organizational meeting of co-operators, as residents of Co-op City are called, in the spring of 1969. Initially services were held in the homes on a rotating basis before moving to a community room. Visiting ministers were provided by the Council of Churches on a weekly basis. The following year Temple Beth-El shared its space with the Church and the Rev. Julius Sasportas volunteered to serve as pastor. It was on March 21, 1971, that the church was officially incorporated. That same year the church acquired and renovated space at 2053 Asch Loop North and in May of the following year moved into its new quarters. In December, 1972, the Rev. Daniel Ward was sent by the Southern Baptist Convention to serve as Pastor. In the following years more space was acquired and in 1976 the Rev. Dr. Calvin E. Owens became the spiritual leader of the church. New land was acquired for a permanent home and in November 3, 1994, groundbreaking ceremonies were held. I congratulate the Community Protestant Church on its 30th anniversary and wish the church many more years in the community.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, just over forty years ago a young man came to our country who, like so many before him, was seeking a better life. And like so many before him, he not only found that better life but made our country better for his coming here. John Peter Calvelli is one of those individuals. John was born in Vico, Aprigliano in the province of Cosenza, Italy. On January 24th, 1958 he married his wife Rose and they were blessed with two children, Louis and John. Upon his arrival in the United States in August of 1958, John began working for G.A.L., an elevator company currently located in the Bronx and in 1971 joined the New York City Transit Authority as a car inspector, where he received many commendations for his job performance. During his spare time he devoted many hours to the betterment of our local community through his active involvement in many worthwhile charitable organizations. He is an active member and Past President of the San Fili Fraternity Club, an organization dedicated to promoting the Italian heritage organization as well as providing needed funds to students to help defray the increasing cost of higher education. His active participation as a lay leader for the Salesian Cooperators has served as a source of religious, spiritual and financial support for the students and faculty of Salesian High School. This spirit of community concern is manifested in his children: Louis serves as the Vice President for Development of Salesian High School and John serves as my Administrative Assistant. On the evening of Friday, May 14, 1999 members and friends of the NYC Transit Authority will be hosting a dinner to celebrate a new chapter in John's life: his retirement. I am confident that he will spend the coming years to continue his work on behalf of our community and spend time with his new grandchild, John Domenico. I salute him and thank him for his work on behalf of the entire community and look forward to sharing many special events in the coming years with him and the entire Calvelli family.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, there are people who accomplish so much that even when viewed over the course of a lifetime, it seems larger than life. Jim Draddy is such a person. He left Manhattan College in 1942 and joined the war effort, serving in the Army Signal Corps doing cryptanalysis on German and Japanese codes. He left the service in 1946 and went into the music business at Columbia Records. There, in 1954, he rose to become National Director of Promotion. Between 1956 and 1975 he served as Sales Manager for Philco, Magnavox, Motorola and Packard Bell and for the next six years he was Vice President of Liberty Music. He then moved from bringing music to peoples' ears to using his golden tongue as Director of Public Relations for the New York Medical School from 1981 to 1984 and then brought his talent to Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center as Director of Public Affairs from 1984 to 1996. He then served for two more years as Consultant for Public Affairs. But Jim did not limit himself to mere work. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daytop Village, a member of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, a member of Community Board #12, a Board Member of the Dominican Sisters in Ossining, and, of course, a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Westchester. He and his wife Patricia have seven children and nine grandchildren. Jim has been a great and dear friend of mine for many years. A retirement party is usually joyous, but for me, and all Jim's colleagues, our joy in knowing him is tempered by his leaving. We can only wish him well.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor Edna Skeete Mitchell, a marvelous lady from Barbados, who is celebrating her 100th birthday. She was born October 10, 1898, the second of seven children born to Gertrude and Charles Skeete. She came to the United States in 1922 and soon after met and married K. Claude Mitchell. They had two children, both of whom have enjoyed professional success. Mrs. Mitchell acquired from her grandmother a recognition that a good education is a necessity. She and her siblings were all educated and her children continued that fine tradition here in the United States. Her son Claude, Jr. received his MSW from City University and her daughter Joan is active in the Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. After her husband died, she raised her children while working at New York Cornell Hospital as a dietitian assistant. At her family birthday party in October of last year, family members came from as far away as Barbados, Canada, Massachusetts and Virginia as well as the tri-state area to celebrate her centenary. One nephew from Barbados, who is Consul to Sweden, brought her a gold heart as a symbol of the kind heartedness she showed him and others of the family. Another, a Dean at Howard University, served as emcee. Mrs. Mitchell still is a member of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church. She epitomizes what immigrants have done for America. Giving all and raising children who, with every generation, contribute still more. We are fortunate that she came to us and I congratulate her on this special birthday.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday night, I was at JFK airport in New York to welcome the first group of Kosovar-Albanian refugees who were coming to the United States to be reunited with their families. A number of those families reside in my district in Bronx, New York; and a number of those families have told me about the atrocities that have gone on in a firsthand basis. This morning I had the pleasure of listening to President Clinton deliver a speech on the whole situation in Yugoslavia. It was an excellent speech. Essentially what the President said was that we will stay the course, as we must, and that we have already told Mr. Milosevic what he needs to do in order for us to stop the bombing. I cannot understand some of our colleagues who say that we ought to unilaterally stop the bombing when ethnic cleansing and genocide is still going on, when people are being raped and murdered and ordered from their homes, when an entire people is trying to be wiped out. They want to make Kosovo free of Albanians when Albanians have lived there for years and years and years. I will include for the Record President Clinton's speech. I want to particularly read a couple of things that the President said, because some of my colleagues previously have said certain things. The President said: ``There are those who say Europe and its North American allies have no business intervening in the ethnic conflicts of the Balkans. They are the inevitable result, these conflicts, according to some, of centuries-old animosity which were unleashed by the end of the Cold War restraints in Yugoslavia and elsewhere.'' The President says, ``I, myself, have been guilty of saying that on an occasion or two, and I regret it now more than I can say. For I have spent a good deal of time in these last 6 years reading the real history of the Balkans. And the truth is that a lot of what passes for common wisdom in this area is a gross oversimplification and misreading of history. ``The truth is that for centuries these people have lived together in the Balkans and Southeastern Europe with greater or lesser degree of tension, but often without anything approaching the intolerable conditions and conflict that exist today. And we do no favors for ourselves or the rest of the world when we justify looking away from this kind of slaughter by oversimplifying and conveniently, in our own way, demonizing the whole Balkans by saying that these people are simply incapable of civilized behavior with one another.'' He goes on, ``There is a huge difference between people who can't resolve their problems peacefully and fight about them, and people who resort to systematic ethnic cleansing and slaughter of people because of their religious and ethnic background. There is a difference. There is a difference.'' I say to my colleagues there absolutely is a difference. We need to show Mr. Milosevic that ethnic cleansing will not be tolerated. We need to stay the course. We need to keep the bombing until he agrees to the demands of NATO. All options ought to be on the table, including the options of troops on the ground. We ought not to tell this dictator what we will or will not do. We ought not to give him a plan of what we intend to do. All options should be on the table. We must win this war. It goes beyond what is happening in the Balkans today. It goes beyond the ethnic cleansing. The entire credibility of the United States and NATO is at stake. If NATO is to have any relevance in the world, we need to show that NATO can win this war.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Rhode Island for his kind words, and I appreciate his comments very, very much. My colleague previously, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) said, ``What are the Kosovars afraid of?'' That is an easy question. They are afraid of being killed. They are afraid of being ethnically cleansed. The are afraid of their women being raped. They are afraid of wiping out their whole history, burning their villages, shooting children, destroying any kind of papers that they have so they are a people that do not exist. That is what they are afraid of. We thought we saw an end to that in the Nazi era. We are seeing it again. Let me just say in conclusion, I think we must stay the course. I think we must win this war. I am proud of the United States of America. I am proud of President Clinton for standing up and saying we will not tolerate ethnic cleansing. We will not stand idly by while genocide is going on. Mr. Speaker, the President's speech that I referred to is as follows: Washington, May 13/U.S. Newswire--Following is a transcript of remarks made by President Clinton today to veterans groups on the Kosovo situation (Part 1 of 2): Eisenhower Hall Ft. Mc Nair The PRESIDENT: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Commander Pouliot, I am grateful to you and to Veterans of Foreign Wars for your support of America's efforts in Kosovo. General Chilcoat, Secretary Albright, Secretary Cohen, Secretary West, National Security Advisor Berger, Deputy Secretary Gober, General Shelton and the Joint Chiefs, and to the members of the military and members of the VFW who are here. I'd also like to thank Congressman Engel and Congressman Quinn for coming to be with us today. I am especially honored to be here with our veterans who have struggled for freedom in World War II and in the half- century since. Your service inspires us today, as we work with our allies to reverse the systematic campaign of terror, and to bring peace and freedom to Kosovo. To honor your sacrifices and fufill the vision of a peaceful Europe, for which so many of the VFW members risked your lives, NATO's mission, as the Commander said, must succeed. My meeting last week in Europe with Kosovar refugees, we allied leaders, with Americans in uniform, strengthened my conviction that we will succeed. With just seven months left in the 20th century, Kosovo is a crucial test: Can we strengthen a global community grounded in cooperation and tolerance, rooted in common humanity? Or will repression and brutality, rooted in ethnic, racial and religious hatreds dominate the agenda for the new century and the new millennium? The World War II veterans here fought in Europe and in the Pacific to prevent the world from being dominated by tyrants who use racial and religious hatred to strengthen their grip and to justify mass killing. President Roosevelt said in his final Inaugural Address: ``We have learned that we cannot live alone. We cannot live alone at peace. We have learned that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.'' The sacrifices of American and allied troops helped to end a nightmare, rescue freedom and lay the groundwork for the modern world that has benefited all of us. In the long Cold War years, our troops stood for freedom against communism until the Berlin Wall fell and the Iron Curtain collapsed. Now, the nations of Central Europe are free democracies. We've welcomed new members of NATO and formed security partnerships with many other countries all across Europe's East, including Russia and Ukraine. Both the European Union and NATO have pledged to continue to embrace new members. Some have questioned the need for continuing our security partnership with Europe at the end of the Cold War. But in this age of growing international interdependence, America needs a strong and peaceful Europe more than ever as our partner for freedom and for economic progress, and our partner against terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and instability. The promise of a Europe undivided, democratic and at peace, is at long last within reach. But we all know it is threatened by the ethnic and religious turmoil in Southeastern Europe, where most leaders are freely elected, and committed to cooperation, both within and among their neighbors. Unfortunately, for more than 10 years now, President Milosevic has pursued a different course for Serbia, and for much of the rest of the former Yugoslavia. Since the late 1980's he has acquired, retained, and sought to expand his power, by inciting religious and ethnic hatred in the cause of greater Serbia; by demonizing and dehumanizing people, especially the Bosnian and Kosovar Muslims, whose history, culture and very presence in the former republic of Yugoslavia impede that vision of a greater Serbia. He unleashed wars in Bosnia and Croatia, creating 2 million refugees and leaving a quarter of a million people dead. A decade ago, he stripped Kosovo of its constitutional self- government, and began harassing and oppressing its people. He has also rejected brave calls among his own Serb people for greater liberty. Today, he uses repression and censorship at home to stifle dissent and to conceal what he is doing in Kosovo. Though his ethnic cleansing is not the same as the ethnic extermination of the Holocaust, the two are related--both vicious, premeditated, systematic oppression fueled by religious and ethnic hatred. This campaign to drive the Kosovars from their land and to, indeed, erase their very identity is an affront to humanity and an attack not only on a people, but on the dignity of all people. Even now, Mr. Milosevic is being investigated by the International War Crimes Tribunal for alleged war crimes, including mass killing and ethnic cleansing. Until recently, 1.76 million ethnic Albanians--about the population of our state of Nebraska--lived in Kosovo among a total population of 2 million, the others being Serbs. The Kosovar Albanians are farmers and factory workers, lawyers and doctors, mothers, fathers, school children. They have worked to build better lives under increasingly difficult circumstances. Today, most of them are in camps in Albania, Macedonia and elsewhere--nearly 900,000 refugees-- some searching desperately for lost family members. Or they are trapped within Kosovo itself, perhaps 600,000 more of them, lacking shelter, short of food, afraid to go home. Or they are buried in mass graves dug by their executioners. I know we see these pictures of the refugees on television every night and most people would like another story. But we must not get refugee fatigue. We must not forget the real victims of this tragedy. We must give them aid and hope. And we in the United States must make sure--must--make sure their stories are told. A Kosovar farmer told how Serb tanks drove into his village. Police lined up all the men, about 100 of them, by a stream and opened fire. The farmer was hit by a bullet in the shoulder. The weight of falling bodies all around him pulled him into the stream. The only way he could stay alive was to pretend to be dead. From a camp in Albania, he said, my daughter tells me, ``Father, sleep. Why don't you sleep?'' But I can't. All those dead bodies on top of mine. Another refugee told of trying to return to his village in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. ``On my way,'' he said, ``I met one of my relatives. He told me not to go back because there were snipers on the balconies. Minutes after I left, the man was killed--I found him. Back in Pristina no one could go out, because of the Serb policemen in the streets. It was terrible to see our children, they were so hungry. Finally, I tried to go shopping. Four armed men jumped out and said, we're going to kill you if you don't get out of here. My daughters were crying day and night. We were hearing stories about rape. They begged me, please get us out of here. So we joined thousands of people going through the streets at night toward the train station. In the train wagons, police were tearing up passports, taking money, taking jewelry.'' Another refugee reported, ``the Serbs surrounded us. They killed four children because their families did not have money to give to the police. They killed them with knives, not guns.'' Another recalled, ``The police came early in the morning. They executed almost a hundred people. They killed them all, women and children. They set a fire and threw the bodies in.'' A pregnant woman watched Serb forces shoot her brother in the stomach. She said, ``My father asked for someone to help this boy, but the answer he got was a beating. The Serbs told my brother to put his hands up, and then they shot him ten times. I saw this. I saw my brother die.'' Serb forces, their faces often concealed by masks, as they were before in Bosnia, have rounded up Kosovar women and repeatedly raped them. They have said to children, go into the woods and die of hunger. Last week in Germany, I met with a couple of dozen of these refugees, and I asked them all, in turn, to speak about their experience. A young man-- I'd say 15 or 16 years old--stood up and struggled to talk. Finally, he just sat down and said, ``Kosovo, I can't talk about Kosovo.'' Nine of every 10 Kosovar Albanians now has been driven from their homes; thousands murdered; at least 100,000 missing; many young men led away in front of their families; over 500 cities, towns and villages torched. All this has been carried out, you must understand, according to a plan carefully designed months earlier in Belgrade. Serb officials prepositioned forces, tanks and fuel and mapped out the sequence of attack: what were the soldiers going to do; what were the paramilitary people going to do; what were the police going to do. Town after town has seen the same brutal procedures--Serb forces taking valuables and identity papers, seizing or executing civilians, destroying property records, bulldozing and burning homes, mocking the fleeing. We and our allies, with Russia, have worked hard for a just peace. Just last fall, Mr. Milosevic agreed under pressure to halt a previous assault on Kosovo, and hundreds of thousands of Kosovars were able to return home. But soon, he broke his commitment and renewed violence. In February and March, again we pressed for peace, and the Kosovar Albanian leaders accepted a comprehensive plan, including the disarming of their insurgent forces, though it did not give them all they wanted. But instead of joining the peace, Mr. Milosevic, having already massed some 40,000 troops in and around Kosovo, unleashed his forces to intensify their atrocities and complete his brutal scheme. Now, from the outset of this conflict, we and our allies have been very clear about what Belgrade must do to end it. The central imperative is this: The Kosovars must be able to return home and live in safety. For this to happen, the Serb forces must leave; partial withdrawals can only mean continued civil wars with the Kosovar insurgence. There must also be an international security force with NATO at its core. Without that force, after all they've been through, the Kosovars simply won't go home. Their requirements are neither arbitrary nor overreaching. These things we have said are simply what is necessary to make peace work. There are those who say Europe and its North American allies have no business intervening in the ethnic conflicts of the Balkans. They are the inevitable result, these conflicts, according to some of centuries-old animosity which were unleashed by the end of the Cold War restraints in Yugoslavia and elsewhere. I, myself, have been guilty of saying that on an occasion or two, and I regret it now more than I can say. For I have spent a great deal of time in these last six years reading the real history of the Balkans. and the truth is that a lot of what passes for common wisdom in this area is a gross oversimplification and misreading of history. The truth is that for centuries these people have lived together in the Balkans and Southeastern Europe with greater or lesser degree of tension, but often without anything approaching the intolerable conditions and conflicts that exist today. And we do no favors to ourselves or to the rest of the world when we justify looking away from this kind of slaughter by oversimplifying and conveniently, in our own way, demonizing the whole Balkans by saying that these people are simply incapable of civilized behavior to one another. Second, there is--people say, okay, maybe it's not inevitable, but look there are a lot of ethnic problems in the world. Russia has dealt with Chechnya, and you've got Abkhazia and Ossetia on the borders of Russia. And you've got all these ethnic problems everywhere, and religious problems. That's what the Middle East is about. You've got Northern Ireland. You've got the horrible, horrible genocide in Rwanda. You've got the war, now, between Eritrea and Ethiopia. They say, oh, we've got all these problems, and therefore, why do you care about this? I say to them there is a huge difference between people who can't resolve their problems peacefully and fight about them, and people who resort to systematic ethnic cleansing and slaughter of people because of their religious or ethnic background. There is a difference. There is a difference. And that is the difference that NATO--that our allies have tried to recognize and act on. I believe that is what we saw in Bosnia and Kosova. I think the only thing we have seen that really rivals that, rooted in ethnic or religious destruction, in this decade is what happened in Rwanda. And I regret very much that the world community was not organized and able to act quickly there as well. Bringing the Kosovars home is a moral issue, but it is a very practical, strategic issue. In a world where the future will be threatened by the growth of terrorist groups; the easy spread of weapons of mass destruction; the use of technology including the Internet, for people to learn how to make bombs, and wreck countries, this is also a significant security issue. Particularly because of Kosovo's location, it is just as much a security issue for us as ending the war in Bosnia was. Though we are working hard with the international community to sustain them, a million or more permanent Kosovar refugees could destabilize Albania, Macedonia, the wider region, become a fertile ground for radicalism and vengeance that would consume Southeastern Europe. And if Europe were overwhelmed with that, you know we would have to then come in and help them. Far better for us all to work together, to be firm, to be resolute, to be determined to resolve this now. If the European community and its American and Canadian allies were to turn away from, and therefore reward, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, all we would do is to create for ourselves an environment where this sort of practice was sanctioned by other people who found it convenient to build their own political power, and therefore, we would be creating a world of trouble for Europe and for the United States in the years ahead. I'd just like to make one more point about this, in terms of the history of the Balkans. As long as people have existed there have been problems among people who are different from one another, and there probably always will be. But you do not have systematic slaughter and an effort to eradicate the religion, the culture, the heritage, the very record of presence of the people in any area unless some politician thinks it is in his interest to foment that sort of hatred. That's how these things happen--people with organized political and military power decide it is in their interest that they get something out of convincing the people they control or they influence to go kill other people and uproot them and dehumanize them. I don't believe that the Serb people in their souls are any better--I mean, any worse--than we are. Do you? Do you believe when a little baby is born into a certain ethnic or racial group that somehow they have some poison in there that has to, at some point when they grow up, turn into some vast flame of destruction? Congressman Engel has got more Albanians than any Congressman in the country in his district. Congressman Quinn's been involved in the peace process in Ireland. You think there's something about the Catholic and Protestant Irish kids that sort of genetically predisposes them to--you know better than that, because we're about to make peace there, I hope--getting closer. Political leaders do this kind of thing. You think the Germans would have perpetrated the Holocaust on their own without Hitler? Was there something in the history of the German race that made them do this? No. We've got to get straight about this. This is something political leaders do. And if people make decisions to do these kinds of things, other people can make decisions to stop them. And if the resources are properly arrayed it can be done. And that is exactly what we intend to do. Now, last week, despite our differences over the NATO action in Kosovo, Russia joined us, through the G-8 foreign ministers, in affirming our basic condition for ending the conflict, in affirming that the mass expulsion of the Kosovars cannot stand. We and Russia agreed that the international force ideally should be endorsed by the United Nations, as it was in Bosnia. And we do want Russian forces, along with those of other nations, to participate, because a Russian presence will help to reassure the Serbs who live in Kosovo--and they will need some protection, too, after all that has occurred. NATO and Russian forces have served well side-by-side in Bosnia, with forces from many other countries. And with all the difficulties, the tensions, the dark memories that still exist in Bosnia, the Serbs, the Muslims, the Croats are still at peace, and still working together. Nobody claims that we can make everybody love each other overnight. That is not required. But what is required are basic norms of civilized conduct. Until Serbia accepts these conditions, we will continue to grind down its war machine. Today, our allied air campaign is striking at strategic targets in Serbia, and directly at Serb forces in Kosovo, making it harder for them to obtain supplies, protect themselves, and attack the ethnic Albanians who are still there. NATO actions will not stop until the conditions I have described for peace are met. Last week, I had a chance to meet with our troops in Europe--those who are flying the missions, and those who are organizing and leading our humanitarian assistance effort. I can tell you that you and all Americans can be very, very proud of them. They are standing up for what is right. They are performing with great skill and courage and sense of purpose. And in their attempts to avoid civilian casualties, they are sometimes risking their own lives. The wing commander at Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Germany told me, ``Sir, our team wants to stay with this mission until it's finished.'' I am grateful to these men and women. They are worthy successors to those of you in this audience who are veterans today. Of course, we regret any casualties that are accidental, including those at the Chinese Embassy. But let me be clear again: These are accidents. They are inadvertent tragedies of conflict. We have worked very hard to avoid them. I'm telling you, I talked to pilots who told me that they had been fired at with mobile weapons from people in the middle of highly- populated villages, and they turned away rather than answer fire because they did not want to risk killing innocent civilians. That is not our policy. But those of you who wear the uniform of our country and the many other countries represented here in this room today, and those of you who are veterans, know that it is simply not possible to avoid casualties of noncombatants in this sort of encounter. We are working hard. And I think it is truly remarkable--I would ask the world to note that we have now flown over 19,000 sorties, thousands and thousands of bombs have been dropped, and there have been very few incidents of this kind. I know that you know how many there have been because Mr. Milosevic makes sure that the media has access to them. I grieve for the loss of the innocent Chinese and their families. I grieve for the loss of the innocent Serbian civilians and their families. I grieve for the loss of the innocent Kosovars who were put into a military vehicle that our people thought was a military vehicle, and they've often been used as shields. But I ask you to remember the stories I told you earlier. There are thousands of people that have been killed systematically by the Serb forces. There are 100,000 people who are still missing. We must remember who the real victims are here and why this started. It is no accident that Mr. Milosevic has not allowed the international media to see the slaughter and destruction in Kosovo. There is no picture reflecting the story that one refugee told of 15 men being tied together and set on fire while they were alive. No, there are no pictures of that. But we have enough of those stories to know that there is a systematic effort that has animated our actions, and we must not forget it. Now, Serbia faces a choice. Mr. Milosevic and his allies have dragged their people down a path of racial and religious hatred. This has resulted, again and again, in bloodshed, in loss of life, in loss of territory, and denial of the Serbs' own freedom--and now, in an unwinnable conflict against the united international community. But there is another path available--one where people of different backgrounds and religions work together, within and across national borders; where people stop redrawing borders and start drawing blueprints for a prosperous, multiethnic future. This is the path the other nations of Southeastern Europe have adopted. Day after day, they work to improve lives, to build a future in which the forces that pull people together are stronger than those that tear them apart. Albania and Bulgaria, as well as our NATO ally, Greece, have overcome historical differences to recognize the independence of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and others have deepened freedoms, promoted tolerance, pursued difficult economic reforms. Slovenia has advanced democracy at home, and prosperity; stood for regional integration, increased security cooperation, with a center to defuse land mines left from the conflict in Bosnia. These nations are reaffirming that discord is not inevitable, that there is not some Balkan disease that has been there for centuries, always waiting to break out. They are drawing on a rich past where peoples of the region did, in fact, live together in peace. Now, we and our allies have been helping to build that future, but we have to accelerate our efforts. We will work with the European Union, the World Bank, the IMF and others to ease the immediate economic strains, to relieve debt burden, to speed reconstruction, to advance economic reforms and regional trade. We will promote political freedom and tolerance of minorities. At our NATO Summit last month we agreed to deepen our security engagement in the region, to adopt an ambitious program to help aspiring nations improve their candidacies to join the NATO Alliance. They have risked and sacrificed the support of the military and humanitarian efforts. They deserve our support. Last Saturday was the anniversary of one of the greatest day in American history and in the history of freedom--VE Day. Though America celebrated that day in 1945, we did not pack up and go home. We stayed--to provide economic aid, to help to bolster democracy, to keep the peace--and because our strength and resolve was important as Europe rebuilt, learned to live together; faced new challenges together. The resources we devoted to the Marshall Plan, to NATO, to other efforts, I think we would all agree have been an enormous bargain for our long-term prosperity and security here in the United States--just as the resources we are devoting here at this institution--to reaching out to people from other nations, to their officers, to their military, in a spirit of cooperation are an enormous bargain for the future security of the people of the United States. Now, that's what I want to say in my last point here. War is expensive; peace is cheaper. Prosperity is downright profitable. We have to invest in the rebuilding of this region. Southeastern Europe, after the Cold War, was free but poor. As long as they are poor, they will offer a less compelling counterweight to the kind of ethnic exclusivity and oppression that Mr. Milosevic preaches. If you believe the Marshall Plan worked, and you believe war is to be avoided whenever possible, and you understand how expensive it is and how profitable prosperity is, how much we have gotten out of what we have done--then we have to work with our European allies to rebuild Southeastern Europe, and to give them an economic future that will pull them together. The European Union is prepared to take the lead role in Southeastern Europe's development. Russia, Ukraine, other nations of Europe's East are building democracy--they want to be a part of this. We are trying to do this in other places in the world. What a great ally Japan has been for peace and prosperity, and will be again as they work to overcome their economic difficulty. Despite our present problems, I still believe we must remain committed to building a long-term strategic partnership with China. We must work together with people where we can, as we prepare--always--to protect and defend our security if we must. But a better world and a better Europe are clearly in America's interests. Serbia and the rest of the Balkans should be part of it. So I want to say this one more time: Our quarrel is not with the Serbian people. The United States has been deeply enriched by Serbian Americans. Millions of Americans are now cheering for some Serbian Americans as we watch the basketball play-offs every night on television. People of Serbian heritage are an important part of our society. We can never forget that the Serbs fought bravely with the allies against fascist aggression in World War II; that they suffer much; that Serbs, too, have been uprooted from their homes and have suffered greatly in the conflicts of the past decade that Mr. Milosevic provoked. But the cycle of violence has to end. The children of the Balkans--all of them--deserve the chance to grow up without fear. Serbs simply must free themselves of the notion that their neighbors must be their enemies. The real enemy is a poisonous hatred unleashed by a cynical leader, based on a distorted view of what constitutes real national greatness. The United States has become greater as we have shed racism, as we have shed a sense of superiority, as we have become more committed to working together across the lines that divide us, as we have found other ways to define meaning and purpose in life. And so has every other country that has embarked on that course. We stand ready, therefore, to embrace Serbia as a part of a new Europe--if the people of Serbia are willing to invest and embrace that kind of future; if they are ready to build a Serbia, and a Yugoslavia, that is democratic, and respects the right and dignity of all people; if they are ready to join a world where people reach across the divide to find their common humanity and their prosperity. This is the right vision, and the right course. It is not only the morally right thing for America, it is the right thing for our security interests over the long run. It is the vision for which the veterans in this room struggled so valiantly, for which so many others have given their lives. With your example to guide us, and with our allies beside us, it is a vision that will prevail. And it is very, very much worth standing for. Thank you, and God bless you. (Applause.)

Mr. ENGEL. I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. ENGEL. Yes.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that we proceed with the amendment.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Chairman, first of all I want to thank the chairman of the committee, my classmate, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss); we came to Congress the same year together; and the ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dixon) for their kindness, and I rise to offer this amendment which is very, very simple. I was at a speech that the President gave this morning on the current hostilities in Yugoslavia, and the President said that he feels very strongly that we must stay the course and must put an end to the ethnic cleansing and the atrocities being committed. I concur wholeheartedly. I think it is very important that we do that. Mr. Chairman, I have a bill which I am sponsoring along with my colleague, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford) which provides money to arm and train the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army. It is identical to the McConnell-Lieberman bill which is in the Senate, and I believe very strongly about it because I think that in order for the bombing to be successful we need to have a counterbalance on the ground, and the Kosovo Liberation Army is right now the only counterbalance to the Serb atrocities on the ground, and I think that in Bosnia, when we had the bombing, we had the Croatian Army on the ground to help, and I think it would be helpful for us to arm and trade and aid the Kosovo Liberation Army. There have been a series of reports in papers talking about the Kosovo Liberation Army, and they have unidentified sources, I think, of dubious veracity saying all kinds of negative things about the Kosovo Liberation Army. In my discussions with people, with the intelligence community and others, there seems to be no substantiation whatsoever about negatives being put forward trying to, I believe, smear the Kosovo Liberation Army. So I think it would be very helpful, and what my amendment does is it says that not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this act the director of the CIA shall submit to Congress, to the appropriate congressional committees, both in classified and unclassified form, everything it knows on the organized resistance in Kosovo known as the Kosovo Liberation Army. The report shall include a summary of the history of the KLA, the number of individuals currently participating in or supporting combat operations of the KLA, the types and quantity of each type of weapons that they have, minimum additional weaponry and training required to improve substantially the efficacy of such military operations. Talking about the smears, and I believe they are smears and there is no substantiation to them, but I want to know that somehow or other there are members participating in terrorist activities or illicit narcotics. Again, there seems to be no scintilla of evidence, but I think it is important that we know a description of their leadership, their political philosophy, and the sentiment of their leadership towards the United States and other things that are relative. I think that that would go a long way in helping this Congress to understand what the KLA is, and who they are and whether or not it will help us to decide whether or not to help them. Again, Mr. Chairman, I think that they are a force on the ground in opposition to the Serb atrocities of ethnic cleansing, and I believe we should aid them, and that is simply what my amendment does.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Chairman, I was one of those Democrats in 1991 that voted to support President Bush. President Bush was right in the Persian Gulf War and President Clinton is right today. In fact, when President Bush did come before us, he had all his ducks lined up. That is true. But it was basically a fait accompli. The troops were there, and we voted to support the President. We should not pull the rug out from under the President now. A lot of my colleagues say, ``We shouldn't fight this war with one hand behind our back. Vietnam was fought with one hand behind our back. We shouldn't let the politicians control the war. We should let the military people fight the war.'' Then let us let the military people fight the war. All options should be on the table. We do not announce to a tyrant like Milosevic what we will do and what we will not do ahead of time. The only thing he understands is force, and the only thing he understands is unity. This man is an absolute tyrant. And so we need to have all options on the table, in my estimation, including the use of troops on the ground. I hope the bombing campaign will work. I have my doubts, but I hope it will work. But isolationism is not the way to go. Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, there is a sense of isolationism in this Chamber in some quarters, and that is why this amendment should be absolutely defeated. The votes in my estimation last week were irresponsible not to support the bombing war, irresponsible to want to micromanage every aspect of the war. We should not be doing that. It is absolutely wrong. Now, ethnic cleansing. This is not a civil war. People say it is a civil war. This is ethnic cleansing. This is genocide. This is a tyrant like Milosevic killing people because of their ethnicity, driving them out because of their ethnicity. This should not be allowed. I hear my colleagues talk about the KLA and Bin Laden. There is no evidence, believe me, from the highest sources, there is no evidence that Bin Laden or any of those Islamic fundamentalists have infiltrated the KLA. That is a smear, just because the Albanians happen to be Muslims; and, frankly, I resent the smear because it is not what we should be doing. This is about ethnic cleansing. This is what we really ought to be concerned about. I had an amendment which I am not offering which would give more money to the Economic Support Fund because I believe that the countries in the area like Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro need our help and we are going to need to come there and help. Because this is, again, a crisis of paramount proportion. In my estimation, we should be aiding the KLA. They are the only counter to the Serbs on the ground. When we bombed in Bosnia, we were successful, in my estimation, because the Croatian army was on the ground as a counter force to the Serbs. We ought to be helping. If we do not want NATO troops on the ground or U.S. troops on the ground, then we ought to be helping the people that are on the ground and that is the KLA. I think we should be dropping antitank weaponry to them. The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford) and I have a bill that would arm and train the KLA as Mitch McConnell and Joe Lieberman have in the Senate. We cannot have our cake and eat it, too. Ultimately, the situation for Kosovo I believe is independence. I think that the Serbs have ceded any moral authority to ever govern the ethnic Albanians again. There is no future for the ethnic Albanians under Serbian rule. Kosovo ought to be independent. There ought to be no partition of Kosovo. We should not reward Milosevic for his campaign of ethnic cleansing. Saying that somehow the bombing brought on ethnic cleansing, Mr. Chairman, this ethnic cleansing against the Albanians has been going on directed by Milosevic for years and years. I called it slow ethnic cleansing and quiet ethnic cleansing, and 3 years ago I took to the floor and I said what Milosevic is doing to the Bosnians, he will do to the Kosovars and make Bosnia seem like a tea party. He will drive a million over the border and try to kill another half million. I was right about the million over the border. I hope I am wrong about the half million. But when we finally get into Kosovo and we see the mass graves, we are going to see tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people being butchered by this butcher, Milosevic. I commend President Clinton for having the courage to stand up and say no. It would have been politically easier for him to sit back and do nothing. Mr. Chairman, this amendment ought not to be supported. All options ought to be on the table. I am going to vote for the finished product of this bill even though it is laden with pork, but we need to be firm, and we need to be united.

Mr. ENGEL. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words; and I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Mississippi for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, I was one of those Democrats in 1991 that crossed party lines to support President Bush in the Persian Gulf War. In my estimation, President Bush was right then and President Clinton is right now. And I wish my friends on the other side of the aisle would give President Clinton the same flexibility that we wanted to give President Bush back in 1991. This bill sends the wrong signal to Milosevic, the absolute wrong signal. I have met with Milosevic. I know what he is all about. I have seen him face to face. The man is a liar and a tyrant. And this will encourage him to hunker down. This will encourage him to hold out. This will encourage him to think that, somehow or the other, the Congress will step in and deny the President the right to win this war. We hear from our friends on the other side of the aisle that the President, once he moves in, ought to be allowed to win, that our people should not be fighting these wars with their hands tied behind their backs. And I agree. So why would we want to do this? Why would we want to make it difficult for the President to be the Commander in Chief? Why would we want to tie the hands of the President? Why would we want to hurt our men and women in the area? Because that is what this will do. Instead of authorizing the way we did with President Bush, this is negative, this places negative restrictions. This is exactly the wrong signal that we should be sending. I am co-chair of the Albanian Issues Caucus. I have dealt with Kosovo for years and years and years. We hope the bombing will work. But if it does not, in my estimation, all options should remain on the table, including the option of ground troops. If not, if those options do not remain on the table, we tell Milosevic just hunker down, wait us out and he will win, because we are announcing ahead of time what we will not do. This, in my estimation, aids and abets Milosevic. Ethnic cleansing should not be allowed. Ethnic cleansing and genocide should not be allowed on the Continent of Europe or anywhere in the world in 1999. The previous speaker mentioned that the bombing somehow was responsible for the genocide. This ethnic cleansing was going on for the past 10 years by Milosevic and his people. Oh, it was slower. It was what I call slow ethnic cleansing. But make no mistake about it, my colleagues, it was going on and would continue to go on. He has accelerated it now because I said on the floor of the House 3 years ago that Milosevic wanted to drive a million Albanians over the border and kill half a million Albanians. I am right about the million Albanians. I hope I am wrong about the half a million. But I think when we finally get into Kosovo, we are going to see mass graves and tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people will have been ethnically cleansed. I introduced a bill last week with the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford) to arm and train the KLA. The KLA is the only counterbalance to the Serbs on the ground. In my estimation if we do not want American troops on the ground for years, we ought to be strengthening them and drop them antitank weaponry. The only solution in my estimation long-range for Kosovo will be independence, because it is clear that ethnic Albanians have no future in Serbia. This is ill- timed, it undermines the President, and it ought to be rejected.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, today, along with the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford), I am introducing a bill which will provide $25 million to arm and train the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army. It is similar to a bill put forward by Senators McConnell and Lieberman in the Senate. If we do not want to have the NATO troops on the ground, and let me say I think troops should be an option here, because we must win the war and show Milosevic that genocide and ethnic cleansing will not prevail. But the only alternative to NATO troops or perhaps to supplement NATO troops on the ground right now is the KLA. In my opinion, we ought to be air dropping anti-tank weaponry to them. In the long run, we need to build them up as a viable force to fight the Serbs and to drive the Serbs out of Kosovo. Ethnic cleansing cannot prevail. Milosevic is the problem. He is not the solution. We should not be negotiating with him. He is going to try to widen this war. We have to win this war. We must do it now. In the long range, independence for Kosovo is the only solution. No partition of Kosovo. I was one of the Democrats that supported President Bush in the Persian Gulf War. We need to have great support right now for the President. I regret the remarks of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts). We need to rally around the President, not divide ourselves.