Jesse Helms

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 10 a.m., Friday, December 8, that following the prayer, the Journal of the proceedings be deemed approved to date, no resolutions come over under the rule, the call of the calendar be dispensed with, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then proceed to the consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 31, the constitutional amendment regarding the desecration of the flag.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I have enjoyed working with both of these Senators--a little longer with Senator Hollings, because he and I have been around here longer. But the Senators from New Hampshire and South Carolina are remarkable Senators. And I appreciate your comments, Senator Hollings. I thank Senator Gregg.

Mr. HELMS. I certainly appreciate being yielded to by the distinguished Senator from New Hampshire. I thank the Chair. Actually, I came to the floor at this moment to pay my respects to Chairman Gregg, who is our distinguished colleague from New Hampshire, for his having brought the Commerce, Justice, State appropriations conference report to the floor. I know he enjoys working with our distinguished friend from South Carolina who has been here 29 years and who is still the junior Senator from North Carolina, but Fritz Hollings is a wonderful friend, as well. Both Chairman Gregg and Chairman Gramm, who recently inherited the CJS issues, have done outstanding work in consulting and actively cooperating with the authorizers of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Now, Senator Gregg served on the Foreign Affairs Committee before accepting his current responsibilities on the Appropriations Committee. I have to say to him, we miss the distinguished Senator from New Hampshire on the Foreign Affairs Committee, but we are grateful, as a member of the Senate Appropriations, he remains a strong and steadfast advocate for the concern of the American people relating to foreign policy. While the CJS conference report does not contain everything that I wanted, it is consistent with the thrust of S. 908, the State Department reauthorization bill. A great many of us have worked hard to craft the legislation to prepare the Department of State for the challenges of the future. I confess, from time to time, Mr. President, I have been discouraged that the administration and many of our colleagues on the other side have deliberately blocked every effort to permit the Senate even to debate and vote on this important reorganization legislation. I have been encouraged by recent events that we may finally see a Senate vote on a State Department authorization bill, perhaps as early as this evening or tomorrow. We shall see about that. The actions of the CJS appropriators have been instrumental in causing the administration to recognize that the issue of reorganization and consolidation is not going to go away. I am very appreciative of the actions of Senator Gregg and Senator Hollings and others to stipulate that this appropriations conference report waives authorization only until April 1, 1996. Now, this key provision will require the administration and the Congress to act on an authorization bill for 1996. Without an authorization bill, the authority to spend appropriated funds for the State Department and other related agencies will expire on the first of April next year. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the issue of reorganization and consolidation of the foreign policy apparatus of the United States is not going away. Every day that the administration refuses to plan for the future, the State Department is going to pay a price for it. I hope that we can move the authorization bill into conference to provide the administration with the authority and the flexibility needed for a successful restructuring of its operations. If President Clinton does not find this legislation acceptable, he will provide the Senate with yet another opportunity to revisit the consolidation issue on this appropriations bill. In any event, it is my understanding that the administration opposes this conference report because, first, it provides $223 million less for international operations spending; second, it reduces the President's request for peacekeeping operations by $220 million; third, it cuts the State Department salaries and expenses spending by $50 million; and, fourth, the President does not like it because it reduces the State Department's foreign building spending by $36 million, including a $60 million rescission. The fact is, this conference report requires the administration to cut spending, and that is what the President does not like. That is what the whole argument has been about all along. I wish it could also force the President to reduce the size of the Federal bureaucracy, but we can work on that later. However, as a practical matter, Senator Gregg's initiatives to reduce funding levels in this bill will require the administration to restructure its efforts so as to meet reduced funding levels. H.R. 2076 is approximately $500 million below the authorization levels of the Senate Foreign Relations bill. At a time when the Federal Government is approaching the $5 trillion Federal debt mark, the work of Senators, like Senator Gregg and Senator Hollings and others, is most encouraging. At my request, and I am so grateful to him, Senator Gregg included a 4-year extension of the Au Pair Program. There is a similar provision in S. 908, the State Department reorganization bill. The Au Pair Program expired on September 30, and that has caused great hardship among many working parents. Senator Gregg agreed to include the extension of the program in the appropriations bill, since Au Pair enjoys wide support. So, in summation, I come here to thank the two managers of the bill. My friend, Senator Gregg, has particularly been helpful, working with me. He has made some very wise and reasonable decisions in this bill. I congratulate him. I congratulate Senator Hollings, and I urge our colleagues to support the CJS conference report. Mr. President, if I have time remaining, I yield it back and I thank the Senator.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Already done.

Mr. HELMS. I thank the Chair.

Mr. HELMS. Madam President, I am happy to respond to the inquiry by the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts. He has correctly stated that I and several other members of the committee have what we believe to be critical unanswered questions concerning the implications of the Convention on Chemical Weapons coming into force and whether the treaty is in the best interests of our Nation. So it is not possible for us to move as expeditiously concerning it as we can move on the START II treaty. However, I would say to the Senator that the Foreign Relations Committee will immediately establish a hearing schedule on the convention which will begin hearings in February 1996. The committee will complete its hearings on the convention by April 30, 1996. By April 30, the committee will meet in a business session to consider the Chemical Weapons Convention. Prior to the final committee vote on whether to report the treaty to the Senate, the committee could adopt any or all of the following: recommendations to amend the treaty; reservations and understandings; modifications of the resolution of ratification; or direction for the renegotiation of the treaty. The final committee vote could allow that the treaty be reported favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation.

Mr. HELMS. They are now a part of the Record. I will ask the Chair to confirm that.

Mr. HELMS. That is correct.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 1431 and further that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. HELMS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be deemed read the third time, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table and that any statements relating to the bill be placed at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, almost 4 years ago I commenced these daily reports to the Senate to make a matter of record the exact Federal debt as of the close of business the previous day. As of the close of business Wednesday, December 6, the Federal debt stood at exactly $4,988,640,469,699.34. On a per capita basis, every man, woman, and child in America owes $18,936.97 as his or her share of the Federal debt.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, it is not exactly a secret that I introduced legislation many months ago to reform the foreign affairs apparatus of the United States by abolishing three wasteful, anachronistic Federal bureaucracies--the Agency for International Development, which we call AID around this place; the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, which is called ACDA; and the U.S. Information Agency, USIA--and folding their functions into the State Department, thus saving billions of dollars. Senators know the history of what has transpired since that day early this year when I offered that bill. There has been one delay after another. But I am hopeful that late this afternoon Senator Kerry and I will complete an agreement that will lead to a consummation of the activities so that we can have some ambassadors confirmed and some other things accomplished by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. Senate, which could have been done months ago had it not been for the objection to our having a vote on my bill. That is all I ever asked. I did not ask that there be a victory or that the bill be passed. I asked only that there be a vote. But that was denied me. And the media, of course, do not make that clear. That is all right with me if it is all right with them. They are not very accurate about many things anyhow. Many Senators are aware that Vice President Gore has been one of the most vigorous opponents of my proposal to abolish the Agency for International Development as an independent entity and place it directly under the purview of the Secretary of State--a proposal, I might add for emphasis, that has been supported from the very beginning by a majority in the U.S. Senate and endorsed by five former U.S. Secretaries of State. As I understand it, Vice President Gore is in South Africa today. And while Al Gore, as we called him when he was a Senator, is there, I do hope that he will take the time to visit the South African mission of the Agency for International Development. Let me point out that the Agency for International Development was created more than three decades ago as one of those temporary Federal agencies--temporary, don't you know. Well, Ronald Reagan used to say that there is nothing in this world so near eternal life as a ``temporary'' Federal agency. And AID, the Agency for International Development, is one of them. Let me get down to business. I have before me documented information disclosing that the Agency for International Development's inspector general has just completed an extensive investigation into abuses in U.S. foreign aid programs in South Africa involving millions upon millions of dollars of the American taxpayers' money. This investigation raises, obviously, serious questions about the contracting and hiring practices within the Agency for International Development's mission in South Africa, as well as the headquarters here in Washington, DC. These questions range from whether AID officials unlawfully awarded multimillion-dollar Federal contracts to politically connected U.S. organizations, and they range from that point to whether AID also attempted to hire personnel on a basis other than the question, were the persons being hired qualified for the job? This is not Jesse Helms talking. This is the inspector general of the Agency for International Development. Whether the laws have been broken will be decided after careful review of information that led the inspector general of the Agency for International Development to request the Department of Justice and the Office of Management and Budget to review the many, many pages of information already transmitted to the Justice Department and to OMB. I will add, Mr. President, that this matter will be carefully examined by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the earliest practicable time. Interestingly enough, the Agency for International Development operation in South Africa has been extolled and praised by Mr. Brian Atwood, whom President Clinton appointed to head the Agency for International Development. Now, Mr. Atwood calls the operation in South Africa AID's flagship program in Africa--a program that has spent, I might add, Mr. President, more than $450 million of the U.S. taxpayers' money in the past 5 years. All right. Now, Mr. Atwood, in defending his agency explains that AID employees were simply overtaken with ``enthusiasm''--and that is his word--in awarding contracts in South Africa. And AID management suggests that this multimillion-dollar problem can be solved simply by giving a little ``sensitivity'' training to AID employees in South Africa. That is Mr. Atwood's, and AID's, position as of now, as I understand it to be. It remains to be seen, of course, whether the American public will buy that explanation. My own view is that the American people have a right to know exactly what is going on with AID's giveaway program in South Africa. Congress has an obligation to get to the bottom of it, and I for that reason have asked the distinguished Senator from Kansas, Mrs. Kassebaum, who chairs the African Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which I am chairman, to schedule a hearing on this matter on December 14 at 2 p.m. Senator Kassebaum has indicated that she shares my concern about the inspector general's report, and she has readily agreed to schedule such a hearing. We will request the presence of members of AID's South Africa management as well as AID officials in Washington who directly oversee the South Africa program in order to give them an opportunity to explain to the Senate and to the American people precisely what has been going on in South Africa. Mr. President, I thank the Chair and I yield the floor. Mr. MURKOWSKI addressed the Chair.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. That is correct. And it will be made a part of the Record.

Mr. HELMS. That is correct.

Mr. HELMS. That is correct, Madam President.

Mr. HELMS. That is correct.

Mr. HELMS. That is correct.

Mr. HELMS. That was my intent all along, Madam President.

Mr. HELMS. That is customary.

Mr. HELMS. That is customary. The Senator will be a member of the conference committee.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that following the disposition of H.R. 1561, as amended, the Senate then proceed immediately, without intervening action or debate, to executive session to consider the following list of nominations, and if the nominations are not on the Executive Calendar at that time the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of these nominations, and the Senate proceed to their consideration en bloc; that they be confirmed en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session; that if the nominations are on the calendar at that time, they still be considered and confirmed in accordance with the above provisions. Now, the list of nominations I shall send to the desk, and ask the clerk to report.

Mr. HELMS. I thank the clerk.

Mr. HELMS. I further ask unanimous consent that immediately following the resumption of legislative session, the Senate insist on its amendment to H.R. 1561, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees. Further, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that on a date to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Democratic leader, but in any case no later than the last day of the first session of the 104th Congress, 1 hour after the Senate convenes, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the START II treaty; that if the committee has not reported the treaty by that time, the treaty be discharged from committee and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. HELMS. I thank the Chair. I further ask unanimous consent that immediately after the Chair appoints the conferees on H.R. 1561, the Chair then lay before the Senate the message from the House on H.R. 927, the Cuban Liberty and Solidarity Act; that the Senate insist on its amendment, agree to the request for a conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees.

Mr. HELMS

Mr. HELMS. We have reached the point now this evening that we could have reached back in August, but better late than never.