Jesse Helms

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Just those two?

Mr. HELMS. I suggest we go to the vote.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. I now ask that at 10:30 a.m. the Senate immediately resume consideration of S. 903, the State Department reauthorization bill, with the time until 12 noon divided with the Senator from North Carolina in control of 30 minutes, Senator Biden in control of 30 minutes, and Senator Lugar in control of 30 minutes. Originally it was to have been divided equally between Senator Biden and me, and I thought in fairness to Senator Lugar it ought to be made equal between Senator Lugar, Senator Biden, and me. Further, Mr. President, at the hour of 12 noon, the Senate proceed to a vote on or in relation to the DeWine amendment No. 383, to be immediately followed by a vote on or in relation to the Lugar amendment No. 382, with 2 minutes of debate equally divided before each vote. Following those votes, the Senate will recess until the hour of 2:15 p.m. for the weekly policy luncheon meetings.

Mr. HELMS. Now, as I was explaining to the young people a while ago, the final act in the Senate session is what we call the wrap-up which takes care of the extraneous details. To begin, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today it stand in adjournment until the hour of 10 o'clock a.m. on Tuesday, June 17. And I further ask unanimous consent that on Tuesday, immediately following the Chaplain's prayer, the routine requests through the morning hour be granted and the Senate then be in a period of morning business until 10:30 a.m. with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes with the following exceptions: Senator Hagel and Senator Leahy who will have 30 minutes jointly.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. HELMS

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I do not know whether the distinguished occupant of the Chair has noticed, but we have 20 new pages as of today. Every year I say they can't get any better, but they do. They are fine young people who come here from all across the country. They work hard, as they will discover as the days go by and the temperature gets hot in the debate, and messages will be floating back and forth like Tennyson's brook. But I want you to know that here is one Senator who welcomes you. I am proud of you. I think you are going to enjoy your time in the Senate. Mr. President, I hear from the pages, former pages, of years ago, with some regularity. They send me pictures of their new babies. They send me pictures of themselves and in their wedding gowns. It is interesting to track all these young people as they have moved into maturity and have become good citizens. I even know of two who are serving in State legislatures now. So, tempus fugit. When I came on to the Senate floor from the cloakroom, I was told that the wrap-up material would be presented in about a minute. It will be here. And I am not going to suggest the absence of a quorum. So there. These young people are lucky, I might add, because there is no school in the summertime, is there? But the rest of the year, they start school at 6:15 in the morning. Classes begin then. And unless the Senate runs past--what is it?--10 o'clock in the evening--the 6:15 a.m. time is still in effect for the pages. So now I feel like I am back in television with producers standing in the background saying ``Stretch it. Stretch it.'' I guess I may as well suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Special Committee on Aging be permitted to meet on June 16, 1997 at 2 p.m. for the purpose of a hearing.

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Monday, June 16, 1997 at 10 a.m. to hold a hearing on: ``State- Sanctioned Discrimination in America.''

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. the Senate will be in a period of morning business. Following morning business, by previous consent, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 903, the State Department reauthorization bill. By previous consent there will be two stacked votes beginning at 12 noon tomorrow. The majority leader has also announced that following the policy luncheons on Tuesday, the Senate will resume the State Department authorization and hopefully complete action on the bill at a reasonable hour tomorrow. In addition, this week the Senate may begin consideration of the defense authorization bill following disposition of S. 903. I thank all Senators, including the one in the Chair, for their attention.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. HELMS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

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

Mr. HELMS. Right. In any case, Mr. President, despite the American taxpayers being required to put up the money to prop up the Haitian Government with U.S. troops, and the expenditure of something like $2 billion, the Haitian Government has rebuffed all of the attempts by our Government to investigate these murders. The human rights situation has disintegrated to such a point that last year President Clinton had to rush diplomatic security officers to Haiti to protect Aristide's replacement, President Preval, from his own palace security guards whom the United States had trained and equipped. Here is one example of so-called justice in Haiti today. Michel Gonzalez lived next door to Mr. Aristide. Mr. Gonzalez was gunned down in May of 1995 outside of his home after refusing to sell his property to Mr. Aristide. The Haitian Government claims that the autopsy report was lost and the Haitian Government refuses to turn over critical evidence to the U.S. Government. One of those implicated in orchestrating the assassination is Dany Toussaint, who got a U.S. green card as an ``agricultural worker''--and I wish I knew how to put oral quotation marks around agricultural worker. In any case, he has been allowed to roam free in the United States, and in Haiti. It seems to me that spending $2 billion on a regime that protects murderers is bad enough, but allowing these assassins to come into the United States is quite another thing. It is not only asinine; it is breathtaking in its stupidity. In 1993 and 1994, I took some flak as a Senator because I warned that when Aristide and his cronies were fully disclosed, the record would be clear that they are or were anti-American thugs. There is no other way to put it. Aristide himself rose to prominence making hate-filled diatribes against the United States of America. He accused the United States of having some strange diabolic design on Haiti. Now, I noticed in yesterday's Washington Post a report that Mr. Aristide is engineering a bid to resume power in Haiti even though it is against Haiti's Constitution for him to be President again. According to this article, and I quote from the Washington Post: ``Arrested is rallying his militants by blaming U.S. imperialism for the woes of Haiti's poor.'' That is some thanks, I guess, for the billions of dollars of American taxpayers' money spent in Haiti or on behalf of Haiti. There is no getting around the fact that the lives of American servicemen and women were put at risk and billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted to prop up a government run by corrupt cronies of Arrested--people who hate America and who sanction assassinations against political opponents. Mr. President, it boils down to this: If the Haitian Government will not prosecute these assassins, the least we can do is deny them U.S. visas. I wonder if Senator Biden is available. I would like to get the yeas and nays. I presume the Senator wants the yeas and nays? Mr. DeWINE addressed the Chair.

Mr. HELMS. The distinguished Senator from Delaware will have to be on the floor in order to get them, but we will get the yeas and nays and have a rollcall vote, probably an early vote tomorrow morning. I thank the Senator. I have received no further information from the leaders about how late we should go, so I think it is time to hear from the distinguished Senator from Indiana again, Mr. Lugar. I yield the floor.

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, what does constitute a sufficient second? I am carrying Senator Biden's proxy. Could we just have a gentleman's agreement on that?

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, inasmuch as the amendment now pending by Senator Durbin has been approved by both sides, the pending amendment modifies the amendment relating to Peru. There being no objection to that amendment, I propose that it be accepted.

Mr. HELMS. Certainly, as long as the Senator from Indiana wishes to stay. But I did not recognize the very distinguished remarks of the Senator to be pro or con on his amendment, at least as they were written. But to respond to the Senator's question, I will stay here as long as he will.

Mr. HELMS. Very well.

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I have had several inquiries about how late we are going. My response has been, of course, that that is up to the leadership of the Senate. For the time being, I hope that the distinguished Senator from Ohio would be recognized to offer an amendment, and that the pending amendments be laid aside temporarily, at the conclusion of which I would appreciate the Chair recognizing me for any further comment that I may have received from the majority leader in regard to how late we will stay here tonight.

Mr. HELMS. I thank the Senator.

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I support this amendment and I have a hunch that most Senators will. I will be surprised if there are many Senators who will not support the amendment. Since the United States returned Aristide to power in Haiti, there have been dozens upon dozens of politically motivated assassinations carried out by Haitian security forces trained by the United States. These people who have been assassinated in almost all cases, as I understand it, have been opponents of Mr. Aristide. Does the Senator agree with that?