Daniel Inouye

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. I believe that assessment makes sense.

Mr. INOUYE. That is correct. And contrary to some reports, this provision is permissive in nature. I believe this provision provides the right solution at the right time to address the Air Force's needs.

Mr. INOUYE. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Michigan.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate considers Calendar No. 161, S. 1214, the port security bill, the only amendment in order be the Hollings-McCain-Graham substitute amendment, which is at the desk; that there be a time limitation for debate of 17 minutes to be divided as follows: 5 minutes each for Senators Hollings, McCain, and Murkowski, and 2 minutes for Senator Hutchison; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no further intervening action or debate.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise to strongly oppose the Gregg amendment, which would essentially abolish the sugar program and place the remaining two sugarcane producers in my state out of business. Hawaii cannot afford the dramatic increase in unemployment that will result from the shutdown of the remaining sugar operations. Sugar supports much of the employment base on the Islands of Kauai and Maui. If there is no relief to sugar prices, approximately 300 to 400 sugar and related workers will become unemployed. For a small island economy, this would be an enormous loss of jobs at a time when there are few alternative employment opportunities in the state. The sugar industry in Hawaii has declined to about one-third of its size compared to five years ago, and the remaining operations can remain globally competitive only as long as the U.S. sugar program is in place. The U.S. sugar program provides a cushion against imports from the world dump market, where prices have run about half the world average cost of producing sugar for most of the past two decades. U.S. producer prices for sugar have been running at 20-year lows for the last two years, and it is extremely difficult for our producers to compete because sugar production around the world is heavily subsidized. Because of foreign subsidized surpluses the world dump market price has averaged, for the past decade and a half, only about half of the price it would have been in the absence of subsidies. For example, the European Union (EU) has transformed itself from one of the world's biggest sugar importers to one of the world's biggest exporters with extremely generous producer subsidies. The EU subsequently unloaded its surplus sugar onto the world dump market with massive export subsidies. Some 6 million metric tons of subsidized sugar is dumped on the world market each year, for whatever price it can bring in. The U.S. sugar policy was a net revenue raiser of $279 million from 1991 to 1999. The sugar provisions in S. 1731 allows American sugar farmers and producers to compete on a level playing field against foreign sugar farmers. I urge my colleagues to defeat the Gregg amendment.

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I say to Senators Stevens, Inouye, and Nickles that I appreciate their attention and continued support on this matter. consolidated interactive virtual information center

Mr. INOUYE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendments Nos. 2386 through 2395, En Bloc

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that section 8132 on page 117 of the substitute amendment be stricken.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, on the behalf of the leader, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, this has been a long day. I wish to thank all of my colleagues for their patience and their cooperation. The measure that we have just adopted, I have been told, is the most expensive appropriations bill ever adopted by the U.S. Senate. I wish to thank the staff, Mr. Charles Houy and his team. Without Mr. Houy and Mr. Steve Cortese, we would not be here at this moment. We thank them. I yield the floor.

Mr. INOUYE. I am happy to recognize the value of the CIVIC project. While there are other worthy distance learning programs, it is important that sufficient funds be made available to the CIVIC project for its continued development at a level at least as great as last year. In addition, as stated in the committee report, I hope this worthy project will be funded in next year's budget. transit Capital Investment Grants

Mr. INOUYE. I assure the Senator we will do all we can. hybrid electric vehicle technologies

Mr. INOUYE. I agree with my colleague that Buffalo is an ideal location for a Center of Excellence in the important emerging field of bioinformatics.

Mr. INOUYE. I am aware of the potential of Project Alpha and of the participation of the Maui High Performance Computing Center as another key partner. You can be sure I will give careful consideration to this project as we guide this bill through conference. bioinformatics

Mr. INOUYE. As we know well, all weapon development programs involve significant risk. The NetFires--FOGM example is instructive. We will continue to monitor the Future Combat System program as the required technologies mature, and the Senator can be sure we will continue to pay close attention to alternative capability programs.

Mr. INOUYE. I thank the Senator for his support as a member of the subcommittee and for his work on this bill. Army transformation is ambitious, and, while we are all very supportive of the Army's efforts to transform, I know we are equally sensitive to the technology challenges facing the Army.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I will be glad to engage in a discussion with Senator Clinton.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, my colleagues are correct in stating that the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers have played, and will continue to play, a critical role as a vital part of our naval fleet. The DDG-51 program is a mature and highly successful major acquisition program providing front-line state-of-the-art combatants for the fleet. At the same time, we need to make a smooth transition from the DDG-51 to a next generation destroyer. Our committee will continue to support the DDG-51 program and the transition to building a next generation destroyer.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I join with the Senator from Maine in recognizing the critical need for us to acquire and modernize our naval fleet in order to strengthen our Navy and Marine Corps for the 21st century. The Senator from Main has been a real advocate for the Navy's shipbuilding programs and I look forward to this and future discussions on these very important issues.

Mr. INOUYE. I yield the floor. naval shipbuilding

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, on behalf of the managers of the bill, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consider, vote on, and agree to the following amendments, en bloc: an amendment for Senator Stabenow, community service projects; an amendment for Senator Stevens, NOAA; an amendment for Senator Gregg, date change; an amendment for Senator Durbin, legislative branch, technical; an amendment for Senator Specter, intelligent transportation system; an amendment for Senator Landrieu, dirty bombs; an amendment for Senator Murray, apples; an amendment for Senator Domenici, waste isolation; an amendment for Senator Durbin, Nutwood Levee; an amendment for Senator Domenici, electrical energy systems; an amendment for Senator Harkin, essential air service; an amendment for Senator Stevens, GSA provision; an amendment for Senator Stevens, Postal Service product rates; an amendment for Senator Bond, Smithsonian Institution artifacts; an amendment for Senator Daschle, Kennedy Center; an amendment for Senator Stevens, Cook Inlet Housing Authority; an amendment for Senator Domenici, dam safety; an amendment for Senator Stevens, Alaska Native contracting; an amendment for Senators Biden and Hollings on the National Railroad Passenger Corporation; and an amendment for Senator Daschle on mining.

Mr. INOUYE. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. INOUYE. For the managers of the bill, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to consider, vote on, and agree to, en bloc: an amendment for Senator Cochran, domed housing units on the Marshall Islands; an amendment for Senator Rick Santorum, National Tissue Engineering Center; an amendment for Senator Santorum, M107 HE 155 millimeter; an amendment for Senator Santorum on Integrated Medical Information Tech System; an amendment for Senator Santorum on modular helmet; an amendment for Senator Santorum on information operations; an amendment for Senator Kennedy on NULKA; an amendment for Senator Harkin on health protection of workers at Iowa AAP; an amendment for Senator Shelby on low-cost launch vehicle technology; an amendment for Senator Bunning on study of the Army trainee barracks; an amendment for Senator Hutchinson on pilot program for efficient inventory management; an amendment for Senator McCain, strike Section 902 of Division B for funding certain military construction projects; and an amendment for Senator Stabenow on advanced safety tether operations.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, if I may proceed further, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consider, vote on, and agree to, en bloc: an amendment for Senator Landrieu, Gulf States Initiative; an amendment for Senator Collins, laser fabricated steel reinforcement for ship construction; an amendment for Senator Dodd on report on progress of CTR to India, Pakistan; an amendment for Senator Dodd on the M4 carbine; an amendment for Senator Dodd on the AN/AVR-2A; an amendment for Senator Dodd on the F-16 batteries; an amendment for Senator Dodd on the four hushkits for C-9; an amendment for Senator Sarbanes on Operating Room of the Future; an amendment for Senator Torricelli on Coalition for Advanced Biomaterials; an amendment for Senator Torricelli on advanced digital recorders for P-3; and an amendment for Senator Bingaman on Big Crow, Defense Systems Evaluation.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, if I may proceed further, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consider, vote on, and agree to, en bloc: an amendment for Senator Carnahan on Rosecrans Memorial Airport; an amendment for Senator Nelson of Florida on the Center for Advanced Power Systems; an amendment for Senator DeWine on collaborative technology clusters; an amendment for Senator Cleland on Army live fire ranges; an amendment for Senator Cleland on Aging Aircraft Program; an amendment for Senator Snowe on Navy Pilot Human Resources Call Center; an amendment for Senator Snowe on compact kinetic energy missile; an amendment for Senator Cleland on engineering control and surveillance systems; and an amendment for Senator Bunning on Navy Medical Research Center.