Judd Gregg

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 17, 1998, at 9 a.m. in room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office building to hold a hearing on: ``Drug Abuse Among Our Children: A Growing National Crisis.''

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent on behalf of the Governmental Affairs Committee to meet on Wednesday, June 17, 1998, at 9:30 a.m. for a business meeting.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the sessions of the Senate on Wednesday, June 17, 1998, at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. to hold two hearings.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, the Finance Committee requests unanimous consent to conduct a hearing on Wednesday, June 17, 1998, beginning at 10 a.m. in room 215 Dirksen.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 17, and Thursday, June 18, 1998, to conduct a hearing on H.R. 10, the Financial Services Act of 1998.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Communications Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet on Wednesday, June 17, 1998, at 9:30 a.m. on Spamming and S. 2107.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Constitution, Federalism, and Property Rights, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 17, 1998, to hold a business meeting, off the floor, in the Capitol Building, following the first vote.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I make a point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet in Executive session during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, 1998 at 2:30 p.m. to consider possible amendments relating to Bosnia.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Committee on Foreign Relations be granted permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, for purposes of conducting a joint committee hearing which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The purpose of this oversight hearing is to receive testimony on the subject of Iraq: Are Sanctions Collapsing?

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the full Committee on Environment and Public Works be granted permission to conduct a business meeting to consider pending business Thursday, May 21, 9:30 a.m., Hearing Room (SD-406).

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, 1998, at 10 a.m. to hold a hearing.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, 1998 at 2 p.m. to hold a hearing.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, 1998 at 1 p.m. to conduct an oversight hearing on the Unmet Health Care Needs in Indian Country. The Committee will meet in room 106 the Dirksen Senate Office Building. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. committee on the judiciary

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary, be authorized to hold an executive business meeting during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, 1998, at 10 a.m., in room 226, of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Labor and Human Resources be authorized to meet for a hearing on ``Genetic Information and Health Care'' during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, 1998, at 10 a.m.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, 1998, at 11 a.m. to hold a hearing on the nomination of Joan A. Dempsey to be Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Community Management.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Energy Research, Development, Production, and Regulation of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be granted permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 21, for purposes of conducting a subcommittee hearing which is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on S. 1141, the Biodiesel Energy Development Act of 1997 and S. 1418, the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 1997.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent on behalf of the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services to meet on Thursday, May 21, 1998, at 10 a.m. for a hearing on ``Benefits of Commercial Space Launch for Foreign Satellite and ICBM Programs''.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. It would be my intention to respond to a number of points made by the Senator from Utah and the Senator from Massachusetts. I see the Senators from Nebraska and Minnesota are here. I know they have been waiting, so I will wait for my response.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination on the Executive Calendar, Calendar 562, David R. Oliver of Idaho, to be Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology; I further ask unanimous consent that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the nomination appear at this point in the Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate immediately proceed to legislative session.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I understand the regular order is that I am recognized, and then the Senator from Arizona is to be recognized for a tabling motion.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, a lot of folks have spoken today, and I reserved commenting on each speech until this time. I recognize that we want to get on with a vote--I don't want to delay that process--but I believe a few points need to be made to clarify the ground, to blow the smoke away, if I may use that metaphor, from the issue. Let's begin with the question of immunity and whether or not immunity is granted in this bill. Immunity for the purposes of this debate has become a term of art. Like so many terms that we use here in the Senate, it may not be the most precise term but it is the term that accurately from the political standpoint defines the event here. The fact is that under this bill the tobacco industry is going to be given a special preferential position in the order of American commerce, a position which no other industry will have, a position which is totally outside of the traditional manner in which we have managed our marketplace under our capitalist system. The limitations in this bill on the ability of individuals who have been harmed by the tobacco companies are considerable. They are significant and they will impact people. Pure logic tells you this, because, obviously, if the argument is being made that the only way you can get the tobacco company to come back to the table is if you give them these protections, there must be something pretty darned substantive to these protections. So very obviously the limitations which are being placed on the capacity of the American consumer to recover for the damage that has been caused to him or her by the tobacco companies are significant, if this bill passes. Let me list a few of them. There will be limitations on the amount of recovery on punitive damages because there is a cap. There will be limitations on the amount of damages recovered from compensation damages because there is a cap. There will be a preemption of actions by States, municipalities, and counties for future claims. There will be immunity for wholesalers, retailers, insurers, and the ingredient suppliers for past and future claims. There will be, most importantly, a structure set up where the tobacco companies will pick who is going to be the winner and who is going to be the loser on the issue of lawsuits brought against them. What an ironic situation, as I have said before on this floor. The way this cap works, it is the first person to the courthouse to get a settlement who gets the money. And the tobacco companies, since they are the ones being sued, can pick who is going to win. If they are sued by three different groups--a group of schoolteachers from New Hampshire, a group of kids from Pennsylvania, a group of friends from Ohio, and another group of friends from Illinois--they can settle with the friend from Ohio, and the friends from Illinois. If the cap is used up, the schoolteachers and the kids are out of it. They are out of it for that year, and they well may be out of it forever depending on how much the cap is used up, and in the next year, also. So the people who are injured who have brought the lawsuit find themselves in the impossible position, or the ironic position, at a minimum, of having to go to the tobacco companies on bent knees and say, ``Please settle with me first so I can get into the fund before somebody else,'' which means that you inevitably create not an adversarial relationship but a supplicant relationship between those who are suing and those who are being sued, which is not in the tradition of the American jurisprudence system, to say the least. Equally important, the concept that an industry will have protection from lawsuits in the marketplace is antithetic to the American concept of a free market. The protection that consumers have today, no matter what product they buy, is they can go into the courtroom, if they are harmed by that product, and get redress. There are a lot of other ways they can get redress, too. But the primary redress is that they can go into that courtroom or one of the primary redresses, if they have been physically damaged, or if somebody in their family has been killed, and they can get a recovery, if they can make their case. That is called the free market system. It is called the capitalist system. Under this proposal, that doesn't work.

Mr. GREGG. No, I am going to make my statement. I know the Senator from Massachusetts has made his on a series of occasions, and then we are going to go to a vote. I am not going back and forth carrying this on any further. I am going to make my statement. I have maintained a fair amount of reservation. So I didn't extend this debate for a lengthy period. I would like to get us to a vote.

Mr. GREGG. I expect to speak for about another 10 minutes.