Jim Gibbons

Mr. GIBBONS

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, last night on national television, millions of Americans tuned in to watch the NBC mini-series, ``Atomic Train.'' This movie attempts to portray how serious and potentially disastrous a nuclear waste carrying train accident would be for America. Well, Mr. Speaker, just the prospect of this movie has made the nuclear power lobbyists more nervous than an alligator in a luggage factory. So much so, that they pushed NBC into making script changes in an effort to hide the real dangers of transporting nuclear waste on trains. So tonight, as this mini-series concludes, Americans should know the dangerous reality that exists in transporting nuclear waste through American neighborhoods. Members of Congress should know that this type of disaster could be a reality in their district, in their hometowns, next to their children's schools and playgrounds. I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 45 and tell the special interests no to an atomic train coming through their districts. Do not let them pull the wool over your eyes. I yield back the balance of my time to NBC to tell the American people the truth about transporting nuclear waste.

Mr. GIBBONS

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, when the fierce tornadoes recently ripped through Oklahoma and Kansas, many Americans stared in horror at the severe devastation tearing apart our Nation's heartland. In fact, many of us stopped to think what we could do just to help. Such is the case with a dedicated group of people from my home State of Nevada. Four residents of Reno are presently gathering donations from area residents, such as clothes, blankets, baby diapers, and more, all loaded on triple trailer trucks, to be delivered in Oklahoma today as we speak. Russell Rapon, his wife Holly, and Joey and Bonnie Blough have picked up donations all throughout the Truckee Meadows and Carson City so that they can show up with a message that Nevadans want to help. Along with over 1,000 individual donations, local businesses have also chipped in to make this trip worthwhile for the Nevada foursome. This charitable spirit of the community volunteerism is certain to make the healing process of these tornado-ravaged victims just a bit easier. I commend the efforts of these four Nevadans and wish upon them safe and prosperous travel this coming week. In speaking for the rest of my Nevada constituents, we wish for the strength and healing for all of those who were affected by this disaster.

Mr. GIBBONS

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, Katherin Whitehorn once said, ``The easiest way for our children to learn about money is for you to have none.'' Well, if Katherin Whitehorn is right, then the first 130 days of this year America's children have earned their doctorate on money because during this time every penny earned by the hard-working men and women of this Nation has been taken away by local, State and Federal Government taxation. It did not go to pay for kids' education, it did not go to pay for the home mortgage, and it did not go to pay medical expenses. Instead, it all went to expanding government bureaucracies. Mr. Speaker, fully one-third of this year's effort of these hard- working Americans was spent just to pick up the tab of this bloated government bureaucracy. Decades of unchecked growth and deficit spending by the tax and spenders has left hard-working men and women of this country with this crushing tax burden. The vast majority of Americans do not object to paying their fair share of taxes, but they do object to the suffocating level of taxation that exists today. Mr. Speaker, for our children's sake let us allow hard-working families to keep more of their money, not less. I urge all of my colleagues to support meaningful tax reform this year.

Mr. GIBBONS

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, today the President assembled the second national summit on school violence in an effort to prevent further tragedies from occurring on our school grounds. Today I would like to praise Nevadans in their efforts to see that our schools remain safe for our children. Numerous meetings and public forums involving community leaders, parents, and teachers have taken place and have been televised during prime time hours throughout the State of Nevada. Just last Friday, a Nevada volunteer program called ``Parent Patrol'' celebrated its third anniversary by honoring those parents who volunteer their time to monitor activities in and around Nevada school yards. Our Nevada State Legislature is also establishing a special commission to investigate the causes of school violence and how Nevada may be able to provide the necessary resources to detect threats before they are carried out. Like every other State, Nevada is not immune to the threat of school violence. But where there is a committed pursuit for answers and actions, we are bound to make progress. Many questions, though, remain to be answered by the ills of our society; but as our kids are taught in school, there are no stupid questions. In this case, the answers may save lives.

Mr. GIBBONS

Mr. GIBBONS. That is correct. And so all we did was broaden out a little bit the applicability and who would be in there helping to decide this very important objective. So it seems so far that, of the four we have talked about, we have almost got parallel if not word-for-word concurrence with what this agreement that we worked on over the weekend says. Let us take number five. Number five states, the safe and free return of all refugees and displaced persons and unimpeded access to Kosovo by humanitarian aid organizations.

Mr. GIBBONS. And the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Don Sherwood) a freshman who entered this Congress this year but with a great deal of enthusiasm, a great deal of respect for the process, serves on the Committee on Armed Services and made an ideal partner in all of this as we went forward during this time.

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, first of all, if I can just repeat that my colleague down here from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) was the head of this delegation. It was a bipartisan delegation, as he has already stated. On our side we had the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Jim Saxton) who is a wonderful contributor to the process, brought a great deal of insight to the committee, both his position on his committee assignment, as well as having traveled to Yugoslavia earlier in the week in an effort on his own as an individual to learn more about the process and meet and be able to inform us of his findings, as well. We had also the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Roscoe Bartlett) as my colleague has said, one of the gentleman who has a defined point of view, as we say, but yet contributed very well to the whole process as we go. We had the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joe Pitts) a wonderful colleague who came into the same Congress as I did in the same class in the 105th Congress, a remarkable individual, very renowned for his work in education and a great member of our bipartisan delegation, as my colleague has already stated.

Mr. GIBBONS. And if the gentleman will yield, as we have gone down these seven principles that were established in the G-7 plus Russia or commonly known as the G-8, I think it is very clear upon a reading of the document that we worked out over the weekend, a reading of the principles that they have stated here and a comparison of the two shows that there is a direct, an almost word-for-word influence of their statement, which has come about to be, as stated in the press, a new framework for the peaceful solution of the Kosovo crisis. So I can only applaud and congratulate the gentleman here publicly for his effort in this, because I think it was directly because of our working agreement, our working relationship between the Congress of the United States and the Duma of Russia that we were able to bring about a higher public awareness of the willingness on terms that are satisfactory to the United States, and including many of the NATO countries, if not all of the NATO countries, for a peaceful solution of the Kosovo crisis. I just could not be more proud of the gentleman, and I could not be more pleased to be part of this effort. Certainly, as the gentleman mentioned earlier in the evening, we do have a resolution which is going to come about next week and is going to pretty much give a sense of Congress and stating an outline of the important work that was done here, the reason for it, and sort of giving congressional support to the framework that the gentleman worked so very hard to achieve.

Mr. GIBBONS. It is almost word for word. Let me take number two. Let us see how similar we can get with number two. Withdrawal from Kosovo of military police and paramilitary forces.

Mr. GIBBONS. I would like to be the G-8, if he wants to respond to what our agreement said. Let me take the first one. Number one, immediate and verifiable end of violence and repression in Kosovo.

Mr. GIBBONS. That is absolutely correct. And if the gentleman will continue to yield, I just wish to say that I could not be more pleased at the hard work the gentleman has done over the past few years in building that important relationship, because it came to fruition when the gentleman reached out and asked for them to meet with us on this very important document at this very important time in this Balkans crisis. They willingly came because of the great respect they have for the gentleman and his hard work, and that was evident throughout the meeting. I have to say that every one of us, whether we are in Congress or just ordinary citizens, are diplomats of this country when we travel abroad. So it is impossible to separate ourselves from our American heritage. It is part of us. And we have even a higher responsibility when we are an elected official, especially those of us in Congress, in dealing with our counterparts, for example in the Russian Duma, to reflect American policies, to reflect American ideals. And we did that without negotiating, without breaching fundamental trust with the administration. This was something that was established and has been established, as the gentleman said, over a number of years, and it has absolutely proven to be one of the most important relationships, one of the most important things that we can do as Members of Congress, to build trust between countries so that we never have to realize conflict, never have to go back to the days of the Cold War. I think we are teetering today on the brink of entering another cold war. If we lose the elections in Russia, if we lose that confidence, if we end up having the cynicism about U.S. relationships with Russia that are now starting to grow, we could very well end up back in that same old Cold War that we all celebrated the end of in 1989.

Mr. GIBBONS. I thank the Speaker; and, Mr. Speaker, I would hope that I can remind you that the level of distrust and mistrust of our Russian brothers and sisters toward the United States has never been at a lower point except for the time of the Korean War. We have an obligation, we have a duty, and yes, indeed, we have an opportunity to sort of melt part of that iceberg that is out there so that we can get on with having a safer and more peaceful world. I was most impressed with the gentleman's effort, his energy and his willingness to continue this fight. As I listened to the historical recitation of what he went through to ensure that we had an opportunity and a voice to bring forth those Russian ideas, those Russian concerns, that cannot be overstated. It is so important for everyone to understand that much of this diplomatic process that we go through has a foundation, has a start somewhere, and it can only start when we reach out, reach across the sea to our Russian friends, and the gentleman has certainly done that on more than one occasion, but this is a very important time. As I said, Mr. Speaker, I would enter into the Record at this time a copy of the report of the meetings between the United States Congress and the Russian Duma that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) and I have talked about here this evening. Report of the Meetings of the U.S. Congress and Russian Duma, Vienna, Austria, 30 April-1 May, 1999 All sessions centered on the Balkan crisis. Agreement was found on the following points: I. The Balkan crisis, including ethnic cleansing and terrorism, is one of the most serious challenges to international security since World War II. II. Both sides agree that this crisis creates serious threats to global and regional security and may undermine efforts against non-proliferation. III. This crisis increases the threat of further human and ecological catastrophes, as evidenced by the growing refugee problem, and creates obstacles to further development of constructive Russian-American relations. IV. The humanitarian crisis will not be solved by bombing. A diplomatic solution to the problem is preferable to the alternative of military escalation. Taking the above into account, the sides consider it necessary to implement the following emergency measures as soon as possible, preferably within the next week. Implementation of these emergency measures will create the climate necessary to settle the political questions. 1. We call on the interested parties to find practical measures for a parallel solution to three tasks, without regard to sequence: the stopping of NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, withdrawal of Serbian armed forces from Kosovo, and the cessation of the military activities of the KLA. This should be accomplished through a series of confidence building measures, which should include but should not be limited to: a. The release of all prisoners of war. b. The voluntary repatriation of all refugees in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and unhindered access to them by humanitarian aid organizations. NATO would be responsible for policing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's borders with Albania and Macedonia to ensure that weapons do not reenter the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the returning refugees or at a later time. c. Agreement on the composition of the armed international forces which would administer Kosovo after the Serbian withdraw. The composition of the group should be decided by a consensus agreement of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in consultation with Macedonia, Albania, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the recognized leadership of Kosovo. d. The above group would be supplemented by the monitoring activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). e. The Russian Duma and U.S. Congress will use all possiblities at their disposal in order to successfully move ahead the process of resolving the situation in Yugoslavia on the basis of stopping the violence and atrocities. 2. We recognize the basic principles of the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which include: a. wide autonomy for Kosovo b. a multi-ethnic population c. treatment of all Yugoslavia peoples in accordance with international norms 3. We support efforts to provide international assistance to rebuild destroyed homes of refugees and other humanitarian assistance, as appropriate, to victims in Kosovo. 4. We, as members of the Duma and Congress, commit to active participation as follows: Issue a Joint U.S. Congress-Russian Duma report of our meetings in Vienna. Concrete suggestions for future action will be issued as soon as possible. Delegations will agree on timelines for accomplishment of above tasks. Delegations will brief their respective legislatures and governments on outcome of the Vienna meetings and agreed upon proposals. Delegations will prepare a joint resolution, based on their report, to be considered simultaneously in the Congress and Duma. Delegations agree to continue a working group dialogue between Congress and the Duma in agreed upon places. Delegations agree that Duma deputies will visit refugee camps and Members of Congress will visit the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Members of Congress: Curt Weldon, Neil Abercrombie, Jim Saxton, Bernie Sanders, Roscoe Bartlett, Corrine Brown, Jim Gibbons, Maurice Hinchey, Joseph R. Pitts, Don Sherwood, Dennis J. Kucinich. Duma Deputies:

Mr. GIBBONS. First, let me say that there is a real important reason for us to work together. Of course, we all know the fact that proliferation of nuclear weapons around this world is primarily something that we have a deep and abiding interest in, and being able to work together with countries that are nuclear powers oftentimes sheds light on how we can better preserve the peace, even build a little security for everyone around the world. The relationship that I came away with from meeting with our Russian counterparts was one that struck me as something we should all take to heart. They were very concerned about the fact that NATO's attack on a small country, Serbia, was one that was envisioned as being 19 countries versus one single small country like Yugoslavia. They were concerned that such countries, when they are threatened by a massive force such as NATO, would oftentimes reach back into an arsenal of weaponry that may include either biological, chemical, or even nuclear weapons which could end up escalating a war into something that no one, not in this body, not in the administration, in fact, I daresay no one in America would want to have happen. And it is the relationship that the gentleman has with the Russians and the relationship that was developed in this meeting in Vienna that I think helps avoid conflicts like that, avoids the fact that they know that that is not what we want, that we do not want to face an escalation of military violence of that level. So the working relationships bridges gaps, builds friendships, and builds confidence. And I think one thing also that we ought to help our American viewers who are watching tonight understand is that the level of distrust, of mistrust----

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, for yielding to me a little bit of time here to join with him in this very important process. Mr. Speaker, I would hope that we can enter into the Record a copy of the agreement, the report of the meeting between the U.S. Congress and the Russian Duma that took place over the time frame of April 30 through the first of May that we have already been discussing, and I hope maybe later on if we have a little bit of time, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) and I can go over some of the similarities between the G-8 declaration and the principles that were brought forward in our Congress and Duma process. Before I do that I want to take just a moment, and not often does America realize the significance or the importance of the work the gentleman has been doing for the last 5 years, trying to bridge the gap, build better and more personal relationships with our counterparts in the Russian Duma, and of course the Russian Duma is similar to the House of Representatives that we have here in Congress. It has been through the gentleman's hard work over the last several years that we have been able to call on them, to establish a working relationship that has resulted in what I think may be some of the most historic work to date from this study group.

Mr. GIBBONS. Identical. Number three, the deployment in Kosovo of effective international civil and (armed) security presences, endorsed and adopted by the United Nations, capable of guaranteeing the achievement of the common objectives.

Mr. GIBBONS. That is correct. Finally, number seven, comprehensive approach to economic development and stabilization of the crisis region.

Mr. GIBBONS. Just reworded.

Mr. GIBBONS. I guess they could not get more creative than to copy us word for word, could they? Let us look at number six. Number six says, a political process towards the establishment of an interim political framework agreement providing a substantial self-government for Kosovo, taking full account of Rambouillet Accords and principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and other countries in the region, and demilitarization of UCK, which is the KLA.

Mr. GIBBONS. Does not get much closer. Let us go to number four. Number four says, the establishment of an interim administration for Kosovo to be decided by the U.N. Security Council to ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all inhabitants in Kosovo.

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, perhaps the gentleman from Pennsylvania and I can go over a little bit of the similarity between our document dated the 1st of May here and the G-8, or the G-7 plus Russia announcement today. As I look at the calendar, today is May 6, so it has been a full 5 days, and that is time enough, as I see it, for them to have an opportunity to review the good work and the hard work that we put forward in that meeting and the statement of the G-7 plus Russia principles here. I would just like to take the first one.

Mr. GIBBONS

Mr. GIBBONS. Well, I thank the gentleman for, of course, his interest in looking into this issue. It is on the forefront of the minds of a great number of Americans, and I applaud him for his interest in keeping all of us apprised of this and looking into it on behalf of the committee and on behalf of the American people.

Mr. GIBBONS. Well, I do express the same concerns that my colleague has over this issue because once our nuclear weapons technology has spread to other countries, of course, as we know, there is a likelihood that that will even progress further in the proliferation of that technology to Third World countries or even rogue states. I know that China has an ongoing participation with countries like Iran, Pakistan and others who are in the process today of building up their nuclear arsenal. So from the standpoint that America has lost a great deal of its internal security, we have also lost a great deal of our national security from the fact that now these weapons, the design of which was obviously transferred to the Chinese through some process like the gentleman is describing here, now can be directed toward us by the Chinese or other countries who possess this technology.

Mr. GIBBONS. Is the gentleman suggesting that through inadvertence or maybe intentionally disregarding the danger here, the FBI and the Justice Department failed to take an active role in the investigation of this espionage once it was found out in 1995 and 1996?

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleague who was just at the podium addressing the issue of Chinese espionage at our nuclear facilities and would, of course, like to engage the gentleman from Indiana, if I may. And certainly a question that would have to be raised at this point in time is, can America feel secure today with its nuclear weapons secret intact now? Have we solved this problem yet? Or is there something we should be doing?

Mr. GIBBONS

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, there are those who would say that involvement by Congress or private citizens in U.S. foreign diplomacy in the Balkans is not necessary and we can only complicate matters. Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, we do not have to look very far to see these naysayers could not be farther from the truth. They could not be farther out of touch with America's wishes for peace and the quick and safe return of our military men and women. We need only to look at the Reverend Jesse Jackson and his very successful campaign to free our U.S. POWs, and we need only to look no farther than this House, where numerous delegations, bipartisan delegations, have traveled great distances to observe firsthand U.S. military involvement in the dire refugee situation in the Kosovo region. I commend and salute my colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, and the leadership of both parties for supporting our effort to build a better understanding and working relationship with our counterparts in the Russian Duma. This information gathered by these bipartisan delegations provides all of us with a clear picture on how we can better do our job representing the American people on global issues.