Fritz Hollings

Mr. HOLLINGS

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, NECA is the National Exchange Carriers Association. Mr. President, this association was formed at the breakup of AT&T back in 1984, and it is a private entity, whereby the different carriers, through their trade associations, self-impose, in an intermittent fashion, the amounts due and owing in order to constitute what we call the universal service fund. It is a private entity. There is no Federal law that says you can be a member or shall be a member or you cannot be a member. It is not under the Federal law; it is under this particular entity that it was associated with and together at that particular time of the breakup. It depends on the volume of business, obviously. If you get a greater volume and more burdens and so forth--for high-cost areas is really what it was for, initially. It is now being extended to rural, being extended for the schools and the hospitals. But the high-cost areas are being taken care of under this universal service fund. Mr. President, what we are seeing here--and I hope the conferees on reconciliation get the message--this is the epitome of the national loot. In 1994, this Congress passed, President Clinton signed into law the Pension Reform Act. Under that Pension Reform Act, it provided certain penalties, whereby you can't loot the pension funds of the particular corporate America. They wanted to make sure that a person in this particular corporation who had worked over the years and everything else, didn't have a newcomer in a merger or buyout or whatever it is, abscond with all the moneys and all of a sudden your pension was gone. Now, it so happens that in the news here, about 6 weeks ago, now 8 weeks ago, that a famous American, Denny McLain, the all-time all-star pitcher, I think it was, for the Detroit Tigers, became a president of the corporation and he used the corporate pension fund in violation of law to pay the company's debt, and he was promptly sentenced to an 8- year jail sentence. We do it at the Federal level and get the good Government award. We loot the Social Security pension fund, the Medicare trust fund, the civil service pension trust fund, the military retirees' trust fund. They even had in the reconciliation bill --and I put in an amendment--the looting of the airport and airways improvement fund, whereby the moneys that are supposed to go to the improvement of the airways instead is going to the deficit. Now the cabal, the conspiracy that they call a conference committee has the unmitigated gall to provide as follows, and I read: The Senate recedes to the House with modifications. 3006 of this title provides that expenditures from the universal service fund under part 54 of the Commission's rules for the fiscal year 2002 shall not exceed the amount of revenue to be collected for that fiscal year, less [blank] billion dollars. Section 3006(B) further provides that any outlays not made from the universal service fund in fiscal year 2002 under subsection (A) are immediately available commencing October 1, 2002. The conferees note that this subsection shall not be construed to require the amount of revenues collected under part 54 of the Commission's rules to be increased. What in the world, how else is it going to be done? If you take the amount of the funds necessary to keep universal service constant, less X billion dollars or million dollars, whatever, that they want to fit in here for a budget fix, then the companies and the associations through their companies that make the contributions are going to have to immediately either cut out the service under the service fund and the rules and regulations of the entity that controls it or raise the rates, and then the politicians will all run around saying, ``I'm against taxes, I'm against rate increases,'' when they are causing it in a shameful, shameless way in this particular provision and not even put in the amount. They have a blank here, and they are going to fill in the amount, and it is another smoke and another mirror and another loot. Oh, yes, wonderful. We pass overwhelmingly the Pension Reform Act to make sure that it is a trust and it can be depended upon, and here, in the very same Congress, we come around and we loot all the particular funds, and now we find a private one. Maybe they will get the Brownback fund before they get through, if they can find it, and add that to it, too. They can get anybody's fund and put something down in black and white and they say, ``Oh, what good boys we are. We put in our thumb and pulled out a plum, and we balance the budget.'' Turn to page 4 on the conference report on a so-called balance budget agreement and report for the 5-year period terminating fiscal year 2002, and on page 4, line 15, the word is not ``balance,'' the word is ``deficit,'' $173.9 billion deficit. Yet, the print media--I am glad this is on C-SPAN so the people within the sound of my voice can at least hear it, because they are not going to print it--the media goes along with the loot, and then they wonder why the budget is not balanced. If we only level with the American people, they would understand you can't cut taxes without increasing taxes. We have increased the debt with that particular shenanigan to the tune now of $5.4 trillion with interest costs on the national debt of $1 billion a day. So when you cut down more revenues to pay, you increase the debt, you increase the interest costs, so you get reelected next year, because I stood for tax cuts, but they won't tell them that with the child tax cut that they have actually increased the tax for the child. Now that is at least in the Congressional Record in black and white. I yield the floor.

Mr. HOLLINGS. I, too, share the concerns of the Senator from New Jersey about the escalating costs of firearm violence in our country. I agree with the chairman that, within the available resources, BJA should continue to support the Trauma Reduction Initiative. technical corrections

Mr. HOLLINGS. I join my colleagues in recognizing the value of this language. I would like to ask if the Senator from California knows of any situations where this change in law would serve immediate benefit?

Mr. HOLLINGS. I too want to assure the Senator that our Subcommittee will closely monitor any actions on the FTC's part to change the ``Made in the U.S.A.'' designation. The ``Made in the U.S.A.'' label should continue to assure consumers that they are purchasing a product wholly made by American workers.

Mr. HOLLINGS. I too, thank the Senators from Louisiana and believe that this is a project worthy of attention in conference.

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I join the Senator from Washington in supporting this exhibits and lecture series at the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center and believe the National Marine Fisheries Service should provide $250,000 through the Information and Analyses, Resource Information account. I too feel this series will provide a fitting tribute to the former Senator from Washington and an important learning tool for young people.

Mr. HOLLINGS. That is correct.

Mr. HOLLINGS. I, too, share the concerns of the Senator from New Jersey about violent crime in our society. The Violence Institute's research in this area makes a significant contribution to the Department of Justice's efforts to address this problem, and I agree with the chairman that programs like the Violence Institute are worthy of the Department's support. communications assistance for law enforcement act

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I agree with the response by my friend from New Hampshire. nist funding for texas tech university wind research

Mr. HOLLINGS. The Senator from Iowa has been working this issue hard, and I agree with the chairman. Ketchikan Shipyard

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. HOLLINGS. It has been cleared.

Mr. HOLLINGS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I am really grateful to the distinguished chairman, the Senator from New Hampshire, for his leadership. His staff has been very professional and cooperative. It is truly a bipartisan measure. It has been a privilege and pleasure to work with him. Obviously, my staff has been working around the clock, and I am really indebted to them. I thank the distinguished chairman.

Mr. HOLLINGS. On behalf of Senator Dorgan and others, I send an amendment to the desk and ask the clerk to report.

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. HOLLINGS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendments Nos. 999 through 1021, En Bloc

Mr. HOLLINGS. Yes. I agree with Senators Leahy and Gregg.

Mr. HOLLINGS. How many?

Mr. HOLLINGS. I move to lay that motion on the table. Mr. GRAHAM addressed the Chair.

Mr. HOLLINGS. The question is on the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, if the distinguished Senator will yield. The Senator from Rhode Island has done a valuable service to the Senate in bringing this to our attention. The FCC has just promulgated a rule relative to slamming just this past week. This sense-of-the-Senate resolution is consistent with it, in the sense that it would require the mandating of the evidence itself, civil fines, and a civil right of action. I think it really emphasizes the concern that all of us have had in the communications field of this particular malpractice. I hope we can help, with this sense-of-the-Senate resolution, emphasize the need to expedite the rulemaking on the part of the FCC. I thank the distinguished Senator from Rhode Island and I join in his resolution.

Mr. HOLLINGS

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I want to convey my strong support for the Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act, H.R. 1585. I may have created confusion on this point by voting last week against an amendment offered by my friend Senator Feinstein of California when the Senate was considering the Treasury-Postal Service-general Government appropriations bill. I was concerned about initial reports that the Postal Service would have technical problems raising the projected funds. However, passage of today's legislation both solves those problems and properly authorizes the program. As a supporter of the war on cancer 26 years ago and the author of the pilot program which grew into the Centers for Disease Control's breast and cervical cancer screening program, I am very pleased to see this legislation enacted. The bottom line is that we need public awareness and research funds, and this legislation provides both. Again, I commend my friend Senator Feinstein for her energetic efforts on this front and am pleased to support this bill.

Mr. HOLLINGS

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, you know now why, in my opening statement on this particular measure, I said I was so enthused about working with the distinguished chairman, the Senator from New Hampshire--he laid it on the line. Last December we had a NATO conference in Paris whereby we elected the distinguished Senator from Delaware the president of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Council. Senator Roth is now the president. Pamela Harriman, the distinguished Ambassador, was there, and she knew that I was ranking member and had been the chairman. The word had gotten around of our attempt to try to bring the State Department from the Third World into the first world. I am aghast here that those who chaired foreign relations would put in such an amendment, to tell you the truth. I feel just as strongly as the Senator from New Hampshire. Because Pamela Harriman came to me and said, ``Can I meet you in the morning?'' Then we met for the entire morning. We spent the morning together. Exactly what the Senator from New Hampshire said was pointed out. Although the Embassy in Paris was nice, their equipment was outdated. Their computers were totally obsolete. They couldn't even get replacement parts for it. Their communications had broken down. They had a premier facility, an embassy, with hundreds of Americans coming in daily--I don't know how you handle a post of that size--but I wouldn't even volunteer for it. It wouldn't be an honor; it would really be a drag, because trying to keep up with national policy while dealing with the visiting firemen and repairmen and all the other problems, the problems that ensue in a wonderful city like Paris. It is really hard work--she was doing an outstanding job. I said to her--the Assistant Secretary, Dick Moose, who used to head up our Foreign Relations Committee, and I have been trying to increase funding for the capital account to modernize telecommunications, to modernize computerization and other equipment in hopes of doing all the good things that the distinguished Senator from Kentucky says that NED does. Let's assume it is true, and I can tell you, I opposed this in the very beginning and then finally said, ``I'm wasting my breath.'' The one time I actually supported it was when the current Secretary of State, the distinguished Secretary Albright, came to me and said, We've got an election in Budapest, Hungary, and we can buy some old printing presses out in Indiana and print up voting bills to be handed out and ballots to help conduct an election. Now everyone is bothered about foreign governments trying to influence our elections? Heavens above, the other day we had, I think, 99 votes commending Mexico on its elections because it was the first time the United States stayed out. We have been funding activities through Wall Street or otherwise down there with the PRI. That is a big financial fix. Paying off the Mexican debt was just a refinancing. Nothing went to the Mexican people. It all went back up to the banks on Wall Street. It is time we sober up and understand. My colleagues should get the American Chamber of Commerce report in Mexico City 60 days ago and see what it says: Unemployment is down, the economy is down and the forecast is no recovery for several years to come. NAFTA hasn't worked. It has worked for the financial crowd, and it has worked for those who want to export the industrial backbone of America. I reviewed, as a member of the Hoover Commission in the fifties, the Central Intelligence Agency. That was our primary function. I can see Sonny Purfoy in the Guatemala election. I can see him in the Greek election. His job was to run elections the world around. So the Chinese learned to do a little bit of that, and now we are going to have a big Federal program and spend millions of dollars, all to get on national TV to express our horror and surprise. Mature individuals ought to quit acting like children, and let's move on and let's get the work of the Government done. Now that is what I want to speak about, the work of the Government, namely the State Department. Assume everything said by the distinguished Senator from Indiana, everything said by the distinguished Senator from Kentucky is absolutely true and ought to be done without apology by the Department of State. What is wrong with that? What is wrong is under communism, we said, ``Well, we couldn't do that.'' We always apologized because of our democracy and our freedom and our individual rights. The Department of State ought to be around as the foremost lead organization, not the Department of Defense, now with the fall of the wall. We ought to be selling democracy. To Secretary Christopher's credit, he finally got them doing business. I started back 37 years ago as Governor of South Carolina. I went down in Rio de Janeiro and, like the distinguished Senator from North Carolina, Chairman Helms, I thought of them in that same vein. Why? Because the United States Ambassador, standing up with the Governor of Guana Bera, in the Embassy in Rio in Brazil, reached over into my glass and pulled the ice out of it and threw it on the floor and said, ``Don't drink that, Governor, the ice is dirty in this country.'' How do you think I felt? I said, ``That fellow doesn't have any manners.'' But a lot has happened in 37 years. Our Department of State has outstanding personnel the world around, and they are trying to work in the business field to help spread capitalism. In my opinion that is what really prevailed with the fall of the wall. It wasn't the CIA or anything else. It was capitalism. I served on the Intelligence Committee, and they never briefed us that the wall was about to fall. So be that as it may, let's bring our Department of State in and put in a billion more. They gave a billion more in foreign aid and less to the Department of State. The distinguished chairman, the Senator from New Hampshire, comes around and finds some money here, and we put it in the infrastructure to try to build up the Department of State. We come around and we have a crowd that says, ``No, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO, the chamber of commerce''--now, by gosh, they have their minions all over this Capital City, and so they can fix the vote and tell what wonderful work it does. Well, if it is wonderful work, let's let the Department of State, without embarrassment or apology, perform it. I yield the floor. Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.