Daniel Inouye

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to provide for appointments to the military service academies by the Resident Representative for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. I think it is important that students from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have an opportunity to be trained at our military academies and serve in our Armed Forces. This bill would enable that to occur. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill appear in the Record.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on an issue of great importance to Hawaii's leasehold homeowners. In fiscal year 1992, at my request, the Congress appropriated $400,000 to study the feasibility of reforming the Internal Revenue Code to address ground lease rent payments and to determine what role, if any, the Federal Government should play in encouraging lease to fee conversions. The nationwide study was conducted by the Hawaii Real Estate and Research Center. The legislation I am introducing today is based on the recommendations of this study. The bill would: First, provide a mortgage interest deduction for residential leasehold properties by allowing the nonredeemable ground lease rents to be claimed as an interest deduction; and, second, include a tax credit for up to $5,000 for certain transaction costs on the transfer of certain residential leasehold land for a 5-year period, ending on December 31, 1999. Transaction costs include closing costs, attorneys' fees, surveys, and appraisals, and telephone, office, and travel expenses. In most private home ownership situations in this country, a homeowner owns both the building and land. Under a leasehold arrangement a homeowner owns the building--single-family home, condominium, or cooperative apartment--on leased land. The research conducted under the leasehold study shows that residential leaseholds are not uncommon in other parts of the United States and elsewhere in the world. Residential leaseholds exist in places such as Baltimore, MD, Irvine, CA, native American lands in Palm Springs, CA, Fairhope, AL, Pearl River Basin, MS, and New York, NY. The study further indicates that there are few States that regulate residential leaseholds. Of those that do, the most common requirement applies only to condominium or time share units and is one requiring adequate disclosure of the lease terms. For the most part, States are unaware of any leasehold problems in their jurisdictions. However, residential leaseholds have proven to be problematic for the State of Hawaii. The formation of Hawaii's land tenure system can be traced back to 1778 when British Capt. James Cook made his first contact with the Hawaiian civilization. Leasing was the preferred system to maintain control and retain a portfolio asset value. Residential leaseholds were first developed on the Island of Oahu after World War II. Population increases created a demand for housing and other types of real estate development. Federal income tax policy encouraged the retention of land to avoid payment of large capital gains taxes. Hawaii's land tenure system is now anomalous to the rest of the United States because of the concentration of land in the hands of government, large charitable trusts, large agriculturally-based companies and owners of small parcels or urban properties. High land prices and high renegotiated rents continue to create instability in Hawaii's residential leasehold system. In 1967, the Hawaii State legislature enacted a land reform act which did not become effective until the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 1984 decision, Hawaii Housing Authority versus Midkiff. The act and the Supreme Court decision basically divided the market into a ``single-family home market in which leaseholds were subject to mandatory conversion, and a leasehold condominium market which did not come within the scope of the law.'' Mandatory conversions on the single-family home market occurred from 1979 to 1982, and 1986 to 1990. As of 1992, there are approximately 4,600 single-family homes remaining in residential leaseholds. However, resolution over condominium leasehold reform remains uncertain. In 1990, the Honolulu City Council enacted legislation that would cap lease rent increases. The law was challenged in Federal district court as to its validity and eventually ruled as unconstitutional because the formula it used to arrive at permitted lease rent was irrational. In 1991, due to the State legislature's unwillingness to address the leasehold problems, the Honolulu City Council again enacted a mandatory leasehold conversion law for leasehold condominiums (Ordinance 01-95). The law is currently being challenged in the Federal courts as to its constitutionality. Another bill which linked lease rent increases with the Consumer Price Index and the level of disposable income available to condominium owners was also considered. This bill, similar to the one enacted in 1990, was found to be unconstitutional. The uncertainty in the residential leasehold market continues to create emotional distress for the leasehold residents of Hawaii. Voluntary conversion has helped to ease the situation and substantially reduce the stock of leasehold residential units in Hawaii. Yet, voluntary conversion is not enough to resolve the residential leasehold problems. My legislation will help reduce the economic hardship due to the uncertainty in Hawaii's residential leasehold system. The leasehold study contains an analysis of the tax revenue effects of this legislation by allowing individual tax deductions for residential ground rent. The analysis suggests that there is potential revenues to the Federal Government if this legislation is enacted into law. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of my bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I wish to join my colleague from Alaska in assuring all those who support the measure that it is not our intention to let it die at this stage. We will most certainly, as conferees, insist that this matter be discussed and, hopefully, we will be able to convince our colleagues in the House and the Senate to adopt it. So, reluctantly but I believe necessarily, I will concur with the action that is about to take place. Mr. PRESSLER addressed the Chair.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. On behalf of the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. Robb], I call up Amendment No. 1280 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, the amendment Senator Stevens and I are introducing provides an essential mechanism for achieving a central goal of this bill--to open the local exchange to competition for the first time. Today's highly competitive long distance market has its roots in a 1976 order by the Federal Communications Commission that ushered in the unrestricted resale of AT&T's telecommunications services by its competitors. The FCC order allowed competitors to purchase AT&T's excess long distance capacity in bulk, at non-discriminatory and often deeply discounted rates, and then resell those services to their own customers at competitive retail rates. Three companies--Sprint, MCI, and LDDS-- exploited this resale capability to grow and eventually build their own state-of-the-art national networks. Those networks now allow nationwide, long distance competition with AT&T. What's more, excess capacity in the three new national networks has given birth to an entire industry of more than 500 resellers around the country. The benefits of this new competition among carriers and resellers have been enormous--rapid technological innovations, greater consumer choice, and lower consumer prices. If our Nation's experience with competitive long distance service is any model--and I am convinced it is our best model--resale will be the essential first step in developing competitive local exchange markets. Given the enormous cost of building sophisticated communications networks throughout the country, local exchange competition will never have a chance to develop if competitors have to start by building networks that are comparable to the vast and well-established Bell networks. For this reason, affordable resale opportunities are the key to stimulating local competition. But these resale opportunities must be based on economically reasonable prices that reflect the actual cost of providing those services and functions to another carrier and not monopoly mark-up prices. The amendment we are offering today will ensure that resale opportunities in the local exchange will in fact stimulate the development local competition. Make no mistake--we want to be sure that the Bell companies are compensated for the actual cost of providing these facilities, services, and functions to competing carriers. We are not asking them to subsidize their competitors. But neither should these competitors be asked to subsidize the Bell companies. Therefore, resale prices must reflect the very substantial savings that will be realized by the Bell companies by selling their facilities on a wholesale, rather than a resale, basis. As a wholesaler, a Bell company is relieved of the obligation to provide a wide variety of services to the retail customer, such as billing and maintenance, that add to the cost of service. Similarly, the costs associated with marketing, advertising, and collecting on receivables are eliminated when the Bell company acts as a wholesaler. By ensuring that these cost-savings are accurately reflected in the resale prices charged to competing local carriers, we can guarantee a viable resale industry that will serve as an early stimulus for local competition. The amendment also leaves undisturbed pricing structuring that benefit residential consumers of local exchange service. As the Bell companies have told us, to keep residential prices affordable, they sometimes sell these services below their actual costs and recover the shortfall, where it occurs, by pricing other services above their costs, thereby indirectly subsidizing their residential retail rates. The amendment we offer today will not affect those subsidies, which will be counted towards the recovery of costs in setting resale prices. We believe the amendment properly balances the interests here in permitting the Bell companies to recover their costs and indeed to make a reasonable profit while assuring that a viable resale business can jump-start local competition. We simply cannot expect competitors to build out their own networks before they can provide full, unrestricted competition to current local exchange service providers. Nor can we expect them to enter the market if the wholesale rates offer them no margins for profit, such as in the Rochester experiment. The creation of full-scale, vigorous competition in the market for local exchange services is critical if our Nation's telecommunications industry is to provide a wide array of the best technology at low costs to consumers. Resale is a proven policy for achieving that competition. I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment. Mr. STEVENS addressed the Chair.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. Amendment No. 1280 (Purpose: To encourage steps to prevent the access by children to obscene and indecent material through the Internet and other electronic information networks)

Mr. INOUYE. I thank the Chair.

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

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this amendment be in order to be taken up tomorrow.

Mr. INOUYE

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

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, on Saturday, May 20, 1995, Senator Strom Thurmond received the honorary degree of doctor of medical jurisprudence honoris causa during the 16th commencement ceremony of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences [USUHS]. Our Nation's only military medical school recognized the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee for his ``uncompromising commitment to excellence in military service and in particular, to military medicine.'' Through his vision and efforts, 2,148 USUHS physicians have been commissioned into the uniformed services; and, of those fine, uniformed doctors, over 81 percent remain on active duty in the service of their Nation beyond their initial service obligation. Senator Thurmond's leadership and foresight played a major role in the conception of USUHS. Through his consistent support and recognition of the importance of pre-war and wartime knowledge of military medical requirements, the Congress established USUHS and the scholarship program [HPSP] as complementary sources of accession for military physicians. In 1972, Public Law 92-426 established the HPSP program to be a flexible source for the quantity of doctors required by the Armed Forces. USUHS was established to provide a corps of military medical officers--presently 14 percent of the total physician force--who would provide continuity and leadership to the medical services. It was Senator Thurmond's sound and correct judgment that without continuity and leadership, the lessons learned in military medicine from past wars are forgotten and must be relearned at the expense of the fighting forces. Senator Thurmond has continuously understood that it is essential for military medical readiness to maintain enough physicians in the military services to ensure that the lessons learned in military medicine during both combat and peacetime will be safeguarded. Because of his tenacity, the USUHS military medical personnel, faculty, active duty alumni and programs continue to serve as the institutional memory for military medicine. During four major assaults attempting to close USUHS, Senator Thurmond's fortitude and mettle have provided the steadfastness of purpose to thwart those who do not understand that there is a vast difference between a civilian doctor in the military and a military physician. Senator Thurmond's military physicians have demonstrated immediate deployability and played key roles in numerous military and humanitarian operations at home and abroad, including: Operation Just Cause (Panama); Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm; Operation Provide Comfort (Kurdish relief); Somalia, Bosnia, Croatia, and Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew relief operations; the 1993 Midwestern flood relief; the operations to restore democracy in Haiti, and in operational planning support provided in response to the 1995 bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma. Without a doubt, through the passage of time, the immediate deployability of USUHS physicians to military and humanitarian operations, the extraordinary retention rates of the USUHS graduates, the testimony of military medical combat experts during congressional hearings in March and April of 1994, the exceptional support from both military and civilian medical leadership and associations, the documentation from economic analyses that verifies USUHS is a wise investment for the Federal Government, and the renewed recognition of the need for military medical readiness in support of those whom we send into harm's way, have all combined to illuminate the foresight and leadership of Senator Strom Thurmond. He has truly proven himself to be a visionary for the special needs of military medicine. I sincerely thank Senator Thurmond for his magnificent service to the Senate and to the Nation and join in the standing ovation of the 2,000 attendees at the USUHS commencement ceremony in recognition of his outstanding leadership. I ask to have printed in the Record the citation conferring the honorary degree upon Senator Thurmond. Senator James Strom Thurmond, Doctor of Medical Jurisprudence Honoris Causa Senator Thurmond, over 70 years ago you unselfishly answered your nation's call for service. Since that time, your commitment to patriotism and concern for those who serve their nation has won you the undying respect of all Americans. Tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines have benefitted from your uncompromising commitment to excellence in military service and in particular, military medicine. To provide the care to those who serve when called is sometimes more perilous in the legislature than on the battlefield. You are a luminary of health care delivery and support of those who serve. Your vision has been tested and proven from the battlefields of Vietnam, Grenada, Lebanon, Panama, Haiti, Somalia, and the Persian Gulf to the clinics and health centers that serve the American people. Your spirit and humanity, together with your legislative acumen, have left a legacy for this nation which is unmatched and truly enviable. Through your efforts, this University is now a part of that legacy. Doctors, nurses, and scientists are now serving their nation because of your vision and commitment to purpose. Your nation's health care University takes great pride in awarding you the degree of Doctor of Medical Jurisprudence Honoris Causa.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 1181 (Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate regarding funding for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation)

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I join my esteemed colleague, the chairman [[Page S6817]] of the Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator John McCain, in the sponsorship of a measure that is intended to initiate discussion in the Senate of the means by which the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is to be accomplished. Mr. President, I am aware that there is some concern amongst my colleagues that they have not sufficient time to review this measure prior to its introduction, and I want to assure these members that I too have questions about the mechanics of the proposed reorganization process, as well as the scope of the proposed reorganization--but I believe that it is important that we begin somewhere--and that we have a legislative vehicle that will engender discussion and consideration of the specifies or reorganization. For instance, it will be important, I believe, that reorganization at the agency, area and central offices proceed in some orderly fasion-- given the interdependency of the functions and responsibilities of each of these offices. In the absence of some order--reorganization of agency offices prior to reorganization of area offices culminating in the reorganization of the central office, for instance, as one possible means--there will undoubtedly be a predictable chaos if reorganization plans and compacts that have significant impacts on other organizational units are attempted to be implemented--all at the same time. Mr. President, I am also aware of the concern expressed by some members as to what impact the proposed reorganization may have on the Bureau's responsibilities in the areas of education, tribal justice systems, and other centrally administered programs. But I believe that this discussion draft will, at a minimum, provide us with a framework for addressing these concerns, and I look forward to working with the chairman of the committee--our colleagues on the Indian Affairs Committee and the leaders of indian country--to refine this discussion draft into an effective instrument for the implementation of the recommendations of the joint Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and tribal task force on the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I would like to share with my colleagues and all Americans a poem, ``Korea--Both Sides of the Line,'' written by Mr. Ernst E. Banfield, a former sergeant in the United States Marine Corps who served in the Korean conflict. I believe Mr. Banfield's poem poignantly depicts our Nation's commitment to this conflict, and ask that it be printed in the Record. The poem follows: Korea--Both Sides of the Line It's over now or so some may say. Will silence prevail while some turn to prayer? Some will cheer, others a disbelief will share. Is it true no bugles will sound this day? We had our differences, Army . . . Navy . . . Marines But we stood or fell together blood red, All feeling anger, pain and warm tears when our brothers bled, Knowing for them this day there would be no future dreams. We made the landing and headed north, Most with our inner thoughts and a touch of fear. Some will swagger while their hearts ache for loved ones dear, But now's the time to put it aside and prove our worth. We were all of one purpose that brief space in time, And I'll always remember my brothers and sisters. Yes, you heard right when I said, ``Sisters'', For the women were there too, doing their share to hold the line. It's long past time to mourn our fallen comrades I say, But praise is overdue for the sacrifice they made. Forgive me, my friends, for the long delay, and may a wreath in honor of you be laid, And finally a lasting tribute is dedicated to all this day. For freedoms sake, let this valiant band Remember how we prevailed, . . . Both sides of the line.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, this private relief bill that I am introducing would authorize a certificate of documentation and coastwise trade endorsement for the vessel Evening Star, a small boat to be used for interisland charters. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, Senator John Stennis will long be remembered as the ``conscience of the Senate'' for his personal religious convictions and his many years of work on the Senate code of ethics. I will always think of him as a friend, and as one of the most effective chairmen of the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. We shared many of the same beliefs in that the United States should always strive for the most effective Armed Forces in the world, and his leadership was always deserving of respect and admiration. Despite physical ailments and the death of his beloved wife of 52 years, Senator Stennis remained committed to this body and to his countrymen. He could always be found in his offices, never leaving until the Senate had adjourned for the day. He never gave up when he believed that he was right. We need men and women who will fight for what they believe, and we should look to John Stennis as an excellent example of the forthrightness and dedication necessary to be effective leaders today. Since Senator Stennis retired from this body in 1989, the Senate has been denied his wisdom and his leadership. Our entire country mourns his loss.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, my distinguished colleagues of the Senate have spent much time this afternoon sharing their words of gratitude, their words of affection, their words of admiration for that gentleman from Alabama, Howell Heflin. Everything that has been said is fully justified. He is a man of distinction, one of the great jurists of our Nation. He is a great legislator, successful and effective. But whenever I see my dear friend, Howell, I think of another occasion when another great American gave his farewell address. This happened about 30 years ago and his name was Douglas MacArthur. General MacArthur in his farewell address to the cadet corps of West Point uttered three words that have become part of America's bright pages: Duty, honor, country. Whenever I think of Howell Heflin, I think of that moment 50 years and 9 months ago when, as a captain of the Marine Corps, he lead the first wave of marines on the island of Guam. He will never be forgotten for that. On that first attack, he was wounded. And at that point, most men would have said, ``I have done my part.'' But, no, Captain Heflin, though seriously wounded, continued to lead his men up the steep hill until he was once again wounded. This time he had to be evacuated. For Captain Heflin, duty was an important word. Honor was part of his character. And country was his first love. For that, he received two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star for bravery. And so on this day, I would like to remember him as one old soldier of World War II to another old soldier. Godspeed, sir.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. INOUYE. I ask unanimous consent that 10 additional minutes be allocated for this debate, 5 minutes under the control of the Senator from Texas and 5 minutes to the Senator from Montana.

Mr. INOUYE. Five?

Mr. INOUYE. Yes, Mr. President. This is to accommodate the Senator from Nevada and the Senator from New Jersey. Would you like to have an additional 8 minutes?

Mr. INOUYE. I ask unanimous consent that 8 additional minutes be allocated to the Senator from Montana.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, what is the time situation?