Daniel Inouye

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, this amendment earmarks funds for the Operational Field Assessment Program. It is to provide our commanders an innovative, flexible and timely response in the innovation of solutions to war-fighting identified deficiencies. This has been cleared by both sides, Mr. President.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Heflin, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. INOUYE. I certainly do. I am pleased that we were able to provide the funding necessary to ensure that there be no question that B-52's should not be retired, or prepared for retirement, during fiscal year 1997.

Mr. INOUYE. In light of the stress that this delay must be inflicting on this year's graduates, I would hope that the Defense Department would expedite action in this matter. I look forward to a favorable response to the letter my friends from North Dakota have sent to Secretary Perry, and would hope that Senators Conrad and Dorgan would not hesitate to let me know if I can be of assistance.

Mr. INOUYE. Has the Defense Department responded to your letter or taken action in light of your very understandable concern?

Mr. INOUYE. I would be happy to do so.

Mr. INOUYE. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, this amendment has been cleared by both sides. We are pleased to support it.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I send to the desk an amendment on behalf of Senator Feinstein and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. INOUYE. I move to table the motion. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Privilege of the Floor

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, the managers are pleased to support this amendment.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, of course, I commend my colleague from Arizona for bringing this matter to the attention of the Senate. Every Member of this body is desirous of providing the finest defense at the least cost. There are a few things that we should remind ourselves. First is the Constitution of the United States. Mr. President, it is not the President who is responsible to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a Navy, to make rules for the Government on regulations of land and naval forces. That is the power of the Congress of the United States. We, the Members of the Congress, were not elected by our constituents to serve as rubber stamps of the Secretary of Defense or, for that matter, of the President of the United States. As my distinguished colleague from Alaska pointed out, if it were not for the initiative taken by this committee, the C-17 would not be in existence, the V-22 would be a thing of the past, the Patriot upgrade would not have helped our troops in Desert Storm. For that matter, I think we should recall, in early 1990, when the seas were calm and the Middle East seemed to be a tranquil place, the Pentagon was considering doing away with the central command. That is fact, Mr. President. They were about to break up the central command and retire General Schwarzkopf. When this subcommittee heard about that, we called upon the Secretary of Defense to delay that decision for at least a year because we, on this subcommittee, felt the seas were not tranquil in the Middle East, that the air was not calm in the Middle East, that something was brewing, and within 8 months, we were shooting and they were shooting at us. If we had served as rubberstamps for the President of the United States and the Department of Defense, General Schwarzkopf would now be retired and Desert Storm would have been a disaster. The weapon that most people credit with the great successes of Desert Storm is the F-117, the stealth fighter, the fighter that was able, in a stealthy fashion, to knock out all of the radar positions of the Iraqis. I believe we should recall that the administration did not want any more F-117's. For that matter, our companion committees in the Congress of the United States did not favor the F-117. Thank God for this subcommittee; we got the F-117. Mr. President, I think we should always remind ourselves that the Congress shall have the power to raise armies, to support armies, to provide and maintain a Navy, to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the law of the Union against suppressions and insurrections, and to repel invasions. We are the people who are responsible for the Defense Department. We are the people who are responsible to declare war. Mr. President, we take our responsibilities very seriously. We will do our very best to help our Senator from Arizona to bring down the costs of defense. This is not the way to do it, sir.

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

Mr. INOUYE. There is no objection, Mr. President.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, this amendment has been cleared and approved by both managers.

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

Mr. INOUYE. This amendment is in response to the great number of mergers that we have found in the business community, and this amendment calls for a report to be issued by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Labor, and that report shall include an analysis and breakdown of restructuring costs paid by or submitted to DOD, analysis of the specific costs associated with work force reductions, analysis of the services provided to the workers affected by business combinations, an analysis of the effectiveness of the restructuring costs used to assist laid-off workers in gaining employment. This amendment, Mr. President, has been approved by both managers.

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

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, in behalf of the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. Bradley], I ask for the immediate consideration of amendment No. 4569.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, at first blush, one must conclude this is a good amendment. In general, it says we Americans will purchase American goods. It is a very patriotic amendment. However, Mr. President, it is not a realistic amendment. As the chairman of the subcommittee has pointed out, we sell our allies and other friends over $14 billion worth of defense products. In return, we have purchased $1.8 billion. As everyone in this Chamber will say, trade is a two-way street. We cannot insist our allies purchase everything from us and we not purchase anything from them. If we were the only producers in the world, we may be able to dictate terms and impose our will on the rest of the world, but there are many other countries that are involved in defense production. This amendment of my friend from Illinois does provide the Secretary of Defense the authority to waive provisions of this amendment for NATO allies--for Israel, for Egypt, for Japan, and for Korea. But we do a lot of business with countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, all of South America, and all of Central America, and we may reach a point where we may find these friends of ours responding to our strict restrictions by saying: Well, if that is the way you feel about it, Mr. U.S., we will buy our aircraft from France. The Mirage is just as good. Or we might buy it from Britain. They are just as good. So, Mr. President, though at first blush this may seem like a very patriotic amendment, the effect may be one that none of us would want to happen to our industry. We may be the loser. So I join my chairman in this motion to table this amendment. I ask for the yeas--

Mr. INOUYE

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

Mr. INOUYE

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, this amendment calls for a report on DOD procurement of propellant raw materials such as nitrocellulose.

Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

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 amendment No. 4550 be called up for immediate consideration.