Kay Hutchison

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Maryland for her kind remarks. We are all in this, and one of the things we are trying to do is help our colleagues who still are out of their offices, who have not received mail for over a week, who do not have the places. We are happy to do that and especially because my colleague from Maryland has had two postal workers who have died at the Brentwood Station. At a time of huge crisis in her State, she is left without an office. We all want to back her and help her and help her constituents in every possible way. I will take a few moments, because I deferred to the Senator from Maryland, to talk about some of the statistics in Afghanistan that have caused us to highlight this issue. We have seen repression of women in other countries, but we have never seen the repression that is happening in Afghanistan today. The pictures of women being beaten on the streets because their burqa was opened a little bit by the wind, or beaten on the streets because the religion police heard a clicking of heels of shoes on the sidewalk and believed the woman must be wearing high-heeled shoes--this is unbelievable. In one account I read in a journal, a widow who did not have a male relative to escort her to the hospital watched her small son die of dehydration. She tried to make the journey to the hospital by herself but was beaten by the religion police as she left her home. This is not a country that should be allowed, with the Taliban, to do this to its own people. That is why we are standing here today to say we want to come in and make sure the women and children of this country have opportunities for health care, for education. We are not trying to put our religion on other people. We are not trying to say you have to do it our way. But there are some basic human rights that everyone accepts, and they are that a woman is equal to a man, that a woman should be able to have basic health care, she should be able to take her children to see a physician, she herself should be able to go to a physician. That is not the case today in Afghanistan. She can't see a physician because she is not allowed to see a male physician and the woman physicians are gone because the Taliban will not allow women to work. Afghanistan today has a 16-percent infant mortality rate and a 25- percent children mortality rate. We cannot allow that to stand. That is why the women of the Senate are standing together to say when the aid comes in that we want to make sure the women get the aid in health care, that they are allowed to be educated, and that they will be allowed to support themselves and their children in a respectful way, and not be required to beg on the streets and sell themselves into prostitution, which is happening today. That is why we feel so strongly abut this and why we are standing together and hoping that we can pass this bill with the help of the Foreign Relations Committee very quickly--so the women and children in the refugee camps in Afghanistan know that when America helps, it will be help for them too because they are also equal people. I yield up to 3 minutes to the Senator from Michigan.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I object to my own request.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I send a bill to the desk and ask it be placed on the calendar, and I ask for its first reading.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask for the second reading.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, no one in America can have read a newspaper or seen a television report about the plight of women in Afghanistan, and children, without being horrified. All 13 women of the Senate, led by myself and Senator Mikulski, are introducing a bill today that would authorize the President to give education, health care benefits, and other help to the women and children of Afghanistan, and to those in refugee camps, at the first opportunity we possibly can. Women are not able to be educated under the Taliban. Women are not able to get health care under the Taliban. They are not able to work. I am going to talk about some of the things that have happened. But my colleague from Maryland and my colleague from the State of Washington have other commitments, and I want to yield to my colleague from Maryland who is a cosponsor of this bill. Every woman in the Senate is sponsoring this bill: Senator Boxer, Senator Collins, Senator Landrieu, Senator Feinstein, Senator Stabenow, Senator Clinton, Senator Cantwell, Senator Snowe, Senator Murray, Senator Lincoln, Senator Carnahan, and of course my key cosponsor, Senator mikulski from Maryland. Mr. President, I yield the floor to the Senator from Maryland.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, this is something we must do. We have been working with Mexico on the drug issue for a long time, and we want to put forward a comprehensive program that will be a sharing of responsibility. We will do that, but at this time we do not want the deadline to come on us and not be able to certify Mexico. We are working with Colombia. They are trying very hard to rid themselves of their drug problem. We want to help them, not hurt them. I thank the Senator from Connecticut for taking the lead on this issue. I yield the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor of the amendment.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank all Senators who supported this very important legislation. Senator Feinstein and I are very appreciative of the support of Congress. This bill is now on its way to the President. It will provide support to our men and women in the field in their quality of life, quality of their equipment, and in the quality of their training. We can do no less. I appreciate the support of the Senate.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I fully endorse the comments made by our subcommittee chairman, Senator Feinstein. I am pleased to recommend the military construction conference report for fiscal year 2002 to the Senate. We have worked very hard, Senator Feinstein and myself, with our House colleagues, to bring this conference report to a successful conclusion. I thank our colleagues from the House side, the chairman, David Hobson from Ohio, and John Olver from Massachusetts, the ranking member, for working with us in such a collegial way. As Senator Feinstein said, there were many disagreements and, frankly, some different priorities when our two bills passed respectively in the House and the Senate, but we worked hard and in a very productive way to resolve those differences and keep the priorities of each House but within a responsible budget. Everybody gave a little, but I think everyone did the right thing, and I am very pleased with the product. We sought a balanced bill, one that provides funding for planning, design, construction, alteration, and improvement of military facilities worldwide, both for Active-Duty and Reserve Forces. I think this is a very important point because we know our Reserve Forces are stepping up to the plate as we speak. Our President has called 40,000 of them to service, and there could be more. So we are very cognizant of the need for our Reserves to be supported and, in fact, there is a total of almost $1 billion for Guard and Reserve facilities in this military construction bill. Additionally, we have focused on military housing. This has been a priority for all of us. Quality of life for our men and women in the services is very important to us, and we are making a transition in our military, frankly, from a force that used to be mostly single men, some single women, to now families of men and women. For that reason, we have had to adjust military construction priorities in recent years. We have $1.2 billion for barracks improvements; $44 million for child care centers; $199 million for hospitals and medical facilities and $4 billion for family housing. This intensifies the effort to improve the quality of military housing and accelerate the elimination of substandard housing. I am very pleased with those priorities. I also concur with the comments of Senator Feinstein on the issue of access roads. A number of colleagues expressed to me their concern about the need for upgrading access roads near chemical demilitarization sites. A defense access road must be appropriately certified by the Department of Defense, legislatively authorized, and then it is eligible for funding in the military construction appropriations bill. As Senator Feinstein said, we have provided the Department of Defense the ability to conduct a feasibility study on requirements for Defense roads at chemical demilitarization sites. We think this is the right and responsible approach to determine what the needs are of the Department of Defense and also determine what the responsibilities of the State or local governments should be in that regard. I also want to make the point this bill will soon be going to the President of the United States for signature. This bill includes some very important upgrades of facilities in support of the Operation Enduring Freedom effort in which we are now engaged. Operation Enduring Freedom, of course, is our war on terrorism. In support of these operations this bill includes an upgrade for a runway in Oman and a base supply warehouse in Turkey, one of our strongest allies. I am very proud that Turkey stepped up to the plate early and said: Whatever you need to protect freedom and democracy is going to be our cause as well. Further, we included a special operations training range in Okinawa. Japan also stepped up to the plate--the Japanese Prime Minister was one of the first to say: We are with you to protect democracy in this part of the world. And lastly, we included a war reserve storage facility in Guam. We are very pleased to provide these projects that will directly support our ability to stage this war on terrorism. I thank my chairman, Senator Feinstein, for working with me to assure even though we had the bill on the drawing boards before September 11, nevertheless we could react to the immediate needs of the Department of Defense in these areas. This bill is on its way to the President, and it will provide the support to our men and women in the military who have pledged their lives to protect our freedom. They have pledged their lives to protect freedom throughout the world. This is the test of our generation, and our young men and women are stepping up to the challenge. They deserve the support we are giving them in this bill. We are doing our duty and fulfilling our responsibilities here today. I am proud to say, once again, the prowess of our military is going to shine through and we are going to show the military of a freedom-loving country is the strongest in the world, with the full support of the Congress. I yield the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, as my distinguished chairman, the Senator from California, is preparing to speak about the conference report accompanying the military construction appropriations bill, I want to make a few comments about what is going on today. I am very pleased to say the Senate is open for business, and we are preparing to take up very important legislation as it relates to the U.S. war on terrorism. Before we talk about that, I want to say that what we are doing is important as an example to our country. We have had severe threats to the people who work in the U.S. Capitol. The Capitol is the symbol of freedom and democracy for the whole world. It represents the United States. Our people made the decision that we would close the office buildings so our staff would be protected. We are checking the office buildings to see what kind of anthrax might be present. We are doing the prudent thing. We are trying to take care of our people. On the other hand, we are also keeping the Capitol open as the symbol that the business of Government is going on, and many of us are working out of our Capitol offices. We have our staffs with us. They are very happy to be here. There is a spirit of comradeship up and down the halls of the Capitol where people are spilling out from the various small offices to make room in the tiny little offices from where we are now operating. But everybody is happy to do it because we know this is important for our country. It is our way of saying to those who are in the field representing us in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan that we are here, too, and we are taking care of your needs. I am very proud we are in session. Our staffs are happy to be here, and we are doing our duty for our country. The people of America should know we are going to do everything that is on our agenda for this week--business as usual--and the House did the same thing. They passed the bills yesterday. We passed them yesterday, and we will pass them today. With that, I welcome the chairman of the Military Construction Subcommittee and thank her in advance for the leadership she has provided to this very important committee.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, along with my colleagues Senators Cochran, Miller, and Feinstein, the Agricultural Bioterrorism Countermeasures Act of 2001. Due to the growing concerns about threats aimed at America's food supply and vital agricultural economies, I am introducing this legislation to identify, prepare for, and respond to such bioterrorist threats to our farms, ranches, livestock, poultry, crops, and food processing, packaging, and distribution facilities and systems. As we continue the fight against terrorism, it is critical that we dedicate sufficient resources to bioterrorism, a growing threat which has the potential of putting the safety of the U.S. food supply at risk. The United States currently boasts the world's safest and most abundant and affordable food supply, which benefits our citizens and helps bolster our economy. Clearly, it would be devastating for the public to lose confidence in the safety of our food. We, as a Nation, must respond by developing the technology and implementing the countermeasures necessary to identify and quickly control these risks. The potential threat of bioterrorism to the U.S. population and to our food supply has been recognized over the years, from the cold war to the gulf war. During the cold war, it was known that the former Soviet Union had a bio-weapons program that included bio-agents aimed at agriculture, while during the gulf war our own soldiers have shown evidence of possible use of biological weapons. Meanwhile, in Japan, terrorists have already tried once to use chemical and bioagents on the subways. In addition, the recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in Europe and ``mad-cow disease'' have increased public awareness and concern about exotic diseases that may affect the public through agricultural infection. The Agriculture Bioterrorism Countermeasures Act of 2001 will authorize the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, to strengthen its capacities to identify, prepare for, and respond to a bioterrorist threat including an attack on the United States' food supply and agriculture. This bill will expand the capacity of the USDA to enhance inspection capability, implement new information technology, and develop methods for rapid detection and identification of plant and animal disease. This legislation will also strengthen America's research and development capacity by promoting collaboration between organizations that are addressing the use of agricultural bioterrorism, such as the federal government, universities, and private sector. The USDA will establish a Consortium for Countermeasures Against Agricultural Bioterrorism to form long-term programs of research and development to enhance the biosecurity of U.S. agriculture. America's institutes of higher education that have a demonstrated expertise in animal and plant disease research, strong linkages with diagnostic laboratories, and strong coordination with state cooperative extension programs will provide the resources and expertise that will prove invaluable in the war on agricultural bioterrorism. Protecting our agriculture is critical to my home state. Food production and agriculture make up some of Texas' largest and most diverse economies. Countless amounts of food products, grains, livestock, and poultry travel across our 1200 mile border with Mexico and through our ports of the Gulf of Mexico. We--along with other major agriculture states included Mississippi, Georgia and California--are vulnerable to a bioterrorist attack. However, we will also serve as the first lines of defense for our entire country. To protect our food supply, our citizens, and our economy, I urge my colleagues to support the Agricultural Bioterrorism Countermeasures Act of 2001.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, along with my colleagues Senators Cochran, Miller, and Feinstein, the Agricultural Bioterrorism Countermeasures Act of 2001. Due to the growing concerns about threats aimed at America's food supply and vital agricultural economies, I am introducing this legislation to identify, prepare for, and respond to such bioterrorist threats to our farms, ranches, livestock, poultry, crops, and food processing, packaging, and distribution facilities and systems. As we continue the fight against terrorism, it is critical that we dedicate sufficient resources to bioterrorism, a growing threat which has the potential of putting the safety of the U.S. food supply at risk. The United States currently boasts the world's safest and most abundant and affordable food supply, which benefits our citizens and helps bolster our economy. Clearly, it would be devastating for the public to lose confidence in the safety of our food. We, as a Nation, must respond by developing the technology and implementing the countermeasures necessary to identify and quickly control these risks. The potential threat of bioterrorism to the U.S. population and to our food supply has been recognized over the years, from the cold war to the gulf war. During the cold war, it was known that the former Soviet Union had a bio-weapons program that included bio-agents aimed at agriculture, while during the gulf war our own soldiers have shown evidence of possible use of biological weapons. Meanwhile, in Japan, terrorists have already tried once to use chemical and bioagents on the subways. In addition, the recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in Europe and ``mad-cow disease'' have increased public awareness and concern about exotic diseases that may affect the public through agricultural infection. The Agriculture Bioterrorism Countermeasures Act of 2001 will authorize the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, to strengthen its capacities to identify, prepare for, and respond to a bioterrorist threat including an attack on the United States' food supply and agriculture. This bill will expand the capacity of the USDA to enhance inspection capability, implement new information technology, and develop methods for rapid detection and identification of plant and animal disease. This legislation will also strengthen America's research and development capacity by promoting collaboration between organizations that are addressing the use of agricultural bioterrorism, such as the federal government, universities, and private sector. The USDA will establish a Consortium for Countermeasures Against Agricultural Bioterrorism to form long-term programs of research and development to enhance the biosecurity of U.S. agriculture. America's institutes of higher education that have a demonstrated expertise in animal and plant disease research, strong linkages with diagnostic laboratories, and strong coordination with state cooperative extension programs will provide the resources and expertise that will prove invaluable in the war on agricultural bioterrorism. Protecting our agriculture is critical to my home state. Food production and agriculture make up some of Texas' largest and most diverse economies. Countless amounts of food products, grains, livestock, and poultry travel across our 1200 mile border with Mexico and through our ports of the Gulf of Mexico. We--along with other major agriculture states included Mississippi, Georgia and California--are vulnerable to a bioterrorist attack. However, we will also serve as the first lines of defense for our entire country. To protect our food supply, our citizens, and our economy, I urge my colleagues to support the Agricultural Bioterrorism Countermeasures Act of 2001.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I agree with my colleague, Senator McCain. I support much of what is in the Carnahan amendment, but this is not the right vehicle for it. It has not yet been determined how much we need to do and how we should do it. We need to work that out. I will be working with Senator Allen, Senator Carnahan, and others to assure we have the help we need for displaced workers. Right now, if we are going to keep jobs in the aviation industry, we need to pass the Aviation Security Act. If something is going to keep the bill from having the strong support of the Senate, then we will get bogged down in that amendment. Let's get these people back to work. The way we get them back to work is for people in America to be secure in flying again. That is what our bill will do. It is going to provide a security system that gives people confidence that they will be safe when they fly. If we can bring the people back to flying again, we will bring the jobs back on the market. That is what these people want. They want to work for the same airline, the aircraft manufacturing company or the hotel that they left. The way to keep those jobs is to bring the public back to flying again. We want business as usual in our country. We want the economy to stabilize. We want to get those people back on the job. They would rather work than collect unemployment benefits. We can put them to work if we can pass this aviation security bill. We are very close. If we can keep from starting a process of having extraneous amendments on this bill, we will be able to pass it because we will be able to take amendments, vote on them, and pass the bill. I hope we will be able to do that tonight. I thank everybody who has cooperated so much on the bill. I look forward to working on passage of the bill after we have taken the stand that we will not allow extraneous amendments. I ask the distinguished Senator from Arizona if it would be proper to yield back the time and start the vote.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, is there time remaining on our side?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. If I could have some time following the Senator from California, I agree to that.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I will agree to that if following the 8 minutes I will have the opportunity to give Senator Allard 10 minutes, and then I will take the rest of my time according to--let me just ask how much time is remaining on my side?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I yield 10 minutes of my remaining time to the Senator from Virginia.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the Senate has done a terrific job of doing something on the 1-month anniversary of this tragedy for America that will begin to rehabilitate the economy of our country, and that is with aviation security we can begin to assure the American public they can fly in safety. The Senate has passed its bill. I think it is a terrific bill. It will augment the cockpit. It will give better quality screening. It will put air marshals in the air. The American public needs to know the flying system is safe, and this aviation bill is a good start in that direction. I hope the House will follow suit and pass its bill. I know there are some differences, but I hope they will act expeditiously so we can send a bill to the President that will begin to rehabilitate the whole aviation industry and the industries that depend on it. So I thank the distinguished chairman of the committee, Senator Hollings, Senator McCain, Senator Rockefeller, my counterpart on the Subcommittee on Aviation. We could not have done it without the total support and the total bipartisanship that produced the 100-0 vote.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I say to our colleagues who have suggestions or amendments on this bill, that we want to encourage them to come down because we have the cloture vote on the Carnahan amendment scheduled, and once that is disposed of we hope we can move to the relevant amendments that people have to offer and finish this bill today. I think it is the intention of the majority leader, and the minority leader as well, to have an aviation security bill passed today. I think we can do it because we only have a few amendments, and there are qualified legitimate differences of opinion and we can take those up and go forward. So I hope everybody will come down. What we have is 95-percent agreement on the basics of this bill. The Carnahan amendment has a lot of positives, and I think we will pass something for our airline workers who have been laid off and workers in other industries who have been laid off because of the economic downturn. I do not think it should go on this bill because, frankly, I do not think we are ready yet. I do not think we have all of the relevant information we need to know about what is not covered in unemployment compensation and COBRA to determine how much the Federal Government needs to step in. So I hope we would not go to the Carnahan amendment. I hope we would be able to go to the rest of the bill and the legitimate differences on the aviation security issues so we can move down the road. We will deal with the employees who have been laid off, and it is my hope that many of the people who have been laid off in one industry will be able to go into the areas where we know we are going to increase employment. We are going to increase employment in the defense area. We are going to increase employment in airline security and airport security. That is the bill we are trying to pass right now, which we think will create many new jobs. The way we are trying to pass this bill is as a quality aviation security package that assures we have a qualified workforce to do this law enforcement responsibility, and we are trying to make sure there is a clear standard in every airport. We need a uniform standard. That is why our bill tries to make sure we have screeners who have the qualifications and standards that would be required to have this uniformity. I think we are making great progress. I am very pleased that we are. I hope everybody will cooperate. I hope we can keep extraneous amendments off, even if they have a lot of merit, because we have not finished passing emergency legislation yet from what happened on September 11. Sad to say, we are now memorializing the 1-month anniversary of this terrible tragedy to our country, but I would also say we are making great progress since September 11. We have already passed $40 billion in authorization for emergency expenditures to help clean up New York and the Pentagon and to help the victims in their earliest needs. We have already allocated money for emergency needs for our Department of Defense, and I can not think of anything more relevant and more urgent than the needs of our military today as we know we are in a mobilization that is required to win this war on terrorism. We have already allocated the billions of dollars that will be required for that. At the same time we are also trying to take care of the Afghan people, who are fleeing their homes, by trying to make sure we have humanitarian aid for them. We need to add aviation security as an accomplishment. We need to add the aid to the terrorism bill that gives our intelligence agencies the capabilities they need to continue their extraordinary investigation of the terrorist cells that have tentacles throughout our country and throughout other countries around the world. So I hope the antiterrorism bill and the aviation security bill will be passed by the Senate this week. We could be very pleased with that accomplishment on the 1-month anniversary of this tragedy. That, coupled with progress on aviation security and antiterrorism would be the right approach to continue moving down the road and meeting our responsibility to deal with this emergency. What has come out every day since September 11 is the spirit of the American people. From the horrible tragedy of September 11, we are seeing extraordinary heroism displayed every day by the American people--a spirit seen especially when you go home. I have gone home every single weekend since September 11. The flags are flying in people's homes, the flags are flying in people's businesses, the flags are flying on people's cars and people are doing added things for their neighbors and friends. All of these things have certainly bonded Americans. In 1 month, we have come of age in our generation. We are dealing with a crisis that has not presented itself to our generation in our live time's, and now we have it. I think we are responding very well. I am proud of the progress we are making. I look forward to continuing work on aviation security and antiterrorism this week. I hope we will then go on to the economic stimulus package, dealing with the displaced employees, for next week's accomplishments. We are making progress, and I am proud of America today. I think we are going to be filled with pride as we move down the road to see how America is coming together to meet the crisis of our generation. I yield the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the Senator from New Hampshire is asking that we object to every unanimous consent request regarding offering of amendments. Will the Senator withhold to let me see if I can get a procedure by which the Senator from Alaska can offer the amendment.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, if the Senator will withhold, I suggest the absence of a quorum.