Jim Inhofe

Mr. INHOFE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, what is the pending order?

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to present a second-degree amendment to the Harkin amendment number 2438 for the purpose of debate only.

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I would be happy to accommodate that. However, our time has expired so it would take unanimous consent. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. INHOFE. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. INHOFE

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I inquire as to the regular order and the time remaining on both sides.

Mr. INHOFE. On both sides.

Mr. INHOFE. Let me say that I think with any program, in the case you mentioned of Rush Limbaugh, you mentioned two things you found to be offensive and you questioned whether they were appropriate. The service people requested all 3 hours every day. They ended up with some stations giving them 1 hour, nobody giving them more than 1 hour. So if you take 1 hour for some of these stations every day and you can find two instances of something that in, your interpretation, is lewd, and you compare that to Howard Stern whose programming is based on this type of thing--the profanity and the things that we find offensive and would not want to be throughout the world, the Arab world, or the rest of the world--then I think that is a real stretch. The bottom line is, we have an opportunity. Right now it is working well. As I say, I don't know how many times the Senator from Iowa has been to Iraq. In his last 20 seconds, he might mention how many times he has been there. I have been there almost every month. I carry on a dialog with these people. I know they tell me the type of programming they want, the complaints they have. We have yet to receive any complaints saying they think the current system of programming is wrong in any way. I yield the floor.

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I had an opportunity prior to the break to talk a little bit about my amendment to the Harkin amendment. There is criteria that has been used, and used successfully, for a long period of time. There are two criteria. One is, it must be a syndicated type of a program. The program has to be syndicated. No. 2, it has to have at least a million listeners by the ratings. Now, there are some other exceptions, when they are extreme things. Obviously, there are some things that anyone making any evaluation would not want to have our people subjected to. But by and large that is the way it has worked. Now, for a long period of time it just happens that the conservative programs have been asked for by our troops over there, so they have received them. However, if I were to stand here and say I am happy with the programming as it has been, I would not be. Right now I guess the name you hear more often than anybody else is Rush Limbaugh. His is the second most highly requested program. They want all 3 hours, although only some of the 33 stations give him 1 hour. No one gives him more than 1 hour. So that is not as much as I would like to have them go and as much as I think the market demands. I think it has worked well. I would think it would be very bad policy for us to believe we should sit here in this august body of the Senate and make the determination as to what we think--what we think--our troops should be watching and listening to. I believe this is true: I have been to Iraq more than any other Member. I have gone just about every month. I have yet to hear the first complaint over the programming as it has been, nor have I ever received a communication in any of our offices either in Washington or in the State. I retain the remainder of my time.

Mr. INHOFE. That is the policy they have been using. It is not mandated. It is a policy they have stated has been their policy, and the programming has reflected that that is the case.

Mr. INHOFE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Vote on Amendment No. 2438

Mr. INHOFE

Mr. INHOFE. I agree.

Mr. INHOFE. I would respond to the Senator from Virginia that the only reason I used these two charts, the accusation was made that there somehow is a mechanism here that would exclude that more liberal philosophy in terms of programming. This demonstrates clearly that it doesn't because once they have reached that criteria, they are able to be heard.

Mr. INHOFE. I think that is right. I believe that is the case. The 33 stations have program directors. Their goal is to maximize their audience. If they hear that something is in demand that might not be consistent with what is in demand throughout the United States, I can assure you, under the current system, they will have that program.

Mr. INHOFE. That is exactly right.

Mr. INHOFE

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

Mr. INHOFE. I ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I have an amendment to be considered. I consider it to be perhaps one of the most important amendments. It is referred to as the train and equip amendment. What I am not going to do is take a lot of time today talking about it because in the event there is opposition to it, I want an opportunity to respond to that opposition. Primarily, this is what our amendment would do: Under sections 1201 and 1204 of Title XII, it would allow the military to train and equip some of these countries where we see an opportunity to be using their resources and their militia as opposed to sending our troops there. Right now, in order to get it done, the process is one has to go through the State Department and then the Department of Defense. A good example is when the U.S. Government wanted to train and equip some of the Georgia forces for counterterrorism. Seven different authorities for funding and sources had to be stitched together to make this effort. It took 8 months. By the time 8 months goes by, the problem is no longer the same problem it was 8 months before. What we would do is take existing O&M moneys, $750 million, that we would be able to use to train and equip in a streamlined way of doing this. I will share some personal experiences and then I will yield the floor. We have been talking about the five African brigades, that we would be training and equipping various countries in regional areas in Africa to take care of some of the problems. I am sure I am not the only one who has been in Djibouti and worked with our marines there. I have been very much concerned that they are not able to do as good a job and as fast a job at training some of the African forces as they could otherwise. I have talked to President Museveni of Uganda. There are problems in the northern part of Uganda where they have adequate troops, but they are not trained and equipped to protect themselves against the global war on terrorism and would be dependent upon our troops if that should happen. It is far better for us to be able to train them than it is for them to have to be in a situation where they are going in untrained. I say to my chairman, I visited with my counterpart in Angola. He is the second ranking member on the armed services committee there, although it is called something different. His name is Paiza. As we all know, in Angola they have been undergoing a civil war and there are endless numbers of troops. They have been bush troops. They have not been trained to do the kind of defense that would be necessary in our global war on terrorism. Consequently, what they say they need--they have the Unita forces, they have their forces on both sides of the civil war. They need to have an opportunity to train these people. I also spoke with the President of Burundi 2 weeks ago when I was there. They had the fighting, as we all know, for a long period of time between the Hutus and the Tutsis, but they are now united. What they need, though, is to be able to be trained. I know that General Jones and others, and certainly Secretary Rumsfeld, feel very strongly that we need to have a streamlined process where we can go in and train these guys to do the job that otherwise American troops are going to have to do. That is essentially what this is all about. I will wait until Monday to give a little more complete description of it. At this time I would like to officially call up the amendment, No. 2432. I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up amendment No. 2432 for its consideration.

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

Mr. INHOFE. Can you tell me how much time has been used?

Mr. INHOFE. Parliamentary inquiry: Since we have this in proper form to be treated, are the comments I made to be used as time for the amendment?

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

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I just made a presentation on my amendment No. 2432. I ask unanimous consent to add cosponsors--Senators Stevens, Roberts, Sessions, Ensign, Graham, Thune, and Kyl.

Mr. INHOFE. So it will be 20-some minutes. At this point I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. INHOFE

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that privilege of the floor be granted to Carlos Hill, an Air Force congressional fellow on my staff, during consideration of S. 1942.