Carl Levin

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I will yield some of the time to Senator Smith to control. Apparently, I control the time. Why don't I yield 5 minutes to Senator Smith under his control, and then yield to Senator Kennedy for 12 minutes, and then yield to Senator Jeffords for 10 minutes. That is just about right.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I believe the Senator from Washington needs 5 minutes, and Senator Jeffords has agreed to withhold his comments until after the vote, which is very helpful. Senator Smith has 5 minutes, and I believe Senator Thomas wants 8 minutes.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I yield myself 4 minutes on this amendment. Then if no one else wishes to speak on the amendment, it will be up to the author of the amendment if he wishes to speak further. I would suggest that the time that remains between now and 5:45 then be used for other purposes, if there is nobody who wishes to speak further on this amendment. I yield myself 4 minutes on the amendment.

Mr. LEVIN. Is the Senator from Iowa here to speak on this amendment?

Mr. LEVIN. With that understanding, I will proceed and yield myself 4 minutes. Mr. President, I strongly support the amendment of the Senator from New Hampshire to prohibit the requirement or the encouragement that our female service members serving in Saudi Arabia wear an abaya when they leave their military bases. From 1991 until January 2002, U.S. military authorities required female service members leaving military bases in Saudi Arabia to wear the abaya, a traditional religious garment for Saudi women. The rationale for this policy was force protection, respect for host nation customs, and preventing conflicts with the Saudi religious police. This issue came to a head in December 2001, when Lt. Col. Martha McSally, an Air Force pilot stationed at Prince Bandar air base, initiated a lawsuit against DoD seeking a court order declaring the policy unconstitutional. In January 2002, the military announced a change in the uniform policy, making wearing of the abaya ``not mandatory, but strongly encouraged.'' Lt. Col. McSally claimed this was insufficient and did little to change de facto pressure on military service women to conform to the old policy. Mr. President, Lt. Col. McSally is the highest ranking female Air Force jet pilot. She is an Air Force Academy graduate with a Masters degree, a Desert Storm veteran, and has over 100 hours as a rescue pilot. When she refused to wear the abaya, Lt. Col. McSally was criticized for her unprofessionalism and lack of leadership. When she told her commanding officer ``I cannot, will not put that thing on,'' she risked her career for the rights of America's female service members and, I suggest, for the rights of all of us. Lt. Col. McSally is an officer who has patrolled the no-fly zone in Iraq and led search-and-rescue missions in Afghanistan. She is asked every day to be ready to save the lives of her fellow service members. Yet we deny her and all female service members serving our Nation in Saudi Arabia the same rights as their male counterparts as soon as they leave the base. The Department's decision to change the requirement for female service members stationed in Saudi to wear the abaya off-base to a ``strong encouragement'' is, at best, a superficial change. A ``strong encouragement'' is practically the same as an order in military terms. The State Department doesn't require female foreign service officers to wear an abeya in Saudi Arabia. Forcing service members to conform to a religious code not of their own violates their religious freedoms. Requiring, or ``strongly encouraging,'' female service members to wear the abaya is oppressive, and it is demeaning to people who do not believe in the same religion as those presumably putting pressure on the U.S. to require wearing an abaya. At the same time we are asking our female service members to risk their lives to fight for the liberties we cherish, we are denying them the very freedom they are defending, simply because they are stationed in a country with different cultural norms. This is not acceptable. The amendment before us would correct this policy by prohibiting, requiring, or encouraging our female servicemembers to wear an abaya when serving in Saudi Arabia. It would also prohibit taking adverse action against servicemembers for choosing not to wear an abaya while assigned or on temporary duty in Saudi Arabia. Further, it would prohibit the use of Department of Defense funds to procure abayas for military personnel serving in Saudi Arabia and would require the military to inform female servicemembers of these prohibitions when they are ordered to duty in Saudi Arabia. Mr. President, this is simply the right thing to do for our servicemembers who so loyally serve our country wherever we ask them to serve. I congratulate Senator Smith for his initiative in this matter. I think it is a very significant statement about what we are all about and what our military is all about. I hope the Senate will adopt this amendment.

Mr. LEVIN. I wonder if I could ask the Chair, is there a time agreement on this amendment?

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, we made some very good progress on the national Defense authorization bill last week, and I am optimistic, with the continuing good help that is always available from our leadership and the cooperation of Senators, that we can complete action on this bill in a timely manner this week. We debated the bill for over 18 hours last week, and we disposed of 29 amendments. We still have some amendments that will require debate and rollcall votes, and we will be working with the sponsors of those amendments to try to get them before the Senate as promptly as possible. We were able to clear a number of amendments last week. We have a package of cleared amendments. I am looking at my good friend from Virginia. He is nodding his head, so we believe we can act on a number of cleared amendments later today. We expect to move shortly to an amendment from the Senator from New Hampshire and the Senator from Minnesota prohibiting the chain of command from requiring female servicemembers to wear an abaya in Saudi Arabia. We are going to vote on that amendment. It is currently planned at approximately 5:45 p.m. Following the disposition of that amendment, it is our hope that we can have another amendment offered for debate and schedule a vote for sometime tomorrow morning. Finally, I note that the Defense Department and the Nation lost a great public servant this weekend. Doc Cooke, whose official title was Director of Administration and Management, but who was more widely and affectionately known as the mayor of the Pentagon, passed away on Saturday following an automobile accident several weeks ago. There was no one more dedicated to the people of the Department of Defense than Doc Cooke. He will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and our prayers are with his family. I know my good friend and colleague from Virginia also knew Doc Cooke a lot better than I did, and I am sure he will want to add a few words.

Mr. LEVIN. Does the Senator from Massachusetts wish to speak on this amendment?

Mr. LEVIN. Does the Senator from Vermont wish to speak on this amendment?

Mr. LEVIN. On the pending amendment?

Mr. LEVIN. It is surely our hope we conclude the bill as early as possible this week, but I will reserve judgment on the amendment relative to missile defense that Senator Warner shared with me until after we have had a chance to read it and study it. I thank Senator Warner always for his courtesy. He is wonderful to work with. We will try to get back with him either tonight by phone or first thing in the morning relative to a possible procedure tomorrow. As he stated, after Senator Thomas and Senator Kyl have completed their remarks tonight relative to the Kennedy amendment--I ask unanimous consent that after these two Senators have finished their remarks relative to the Kennedy amendment, there be a period for morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, if I may have a colloquy with Senator Warner for a moment. Mr. President, I wonder if Senator Warner and I can agree on the following order: That after Senator Thomas has finished, then Senator Kyl be recognized perhaps at about 7 o'clock, and after Senator Kyl has finished, we go into a period for morning business with Senators to be recognized for not more than 10 minutes each; that as soon as Senator Kyl is recognized, that will be it for the day. We will do our cleared amendments in the morning rather than trying to do them tonight. We will try to proceed in the morning after we have had an opportunity to review the amendment that Senator Warner has shared with me now relative to missile defense.

Mr. LEVIN. Senator Reid is not in the Chamber. The agreement is we will vote at 5:45 p.m. If we provide time for those two Senators, it will be 5:40 p.m. Do we know whether there is any objection to voting at 5:50 p.m. instead of 5:45 p.m.? None. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Cantwell speak for 5 minutes, then Senator Thomas speak for 7 minutes, and then we will vote at 5:50 p.m. instead of 5:45 p.m.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that James Clapsaddle of the Air Force, a legislative fellow in Senator Carnahan's office, be granted the privilege of the floor for the duration of the debate on S. 2514.

Mr. LEVIN. I ask unanimous consent that Pat Manners, a fellow in Senator Jefford's office, be given the privilege of the floor during the pendency of S. 2514.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Nelson of Florida and Senator Allard, I offer an amendment which sets forth the sense of the Senate that maintaining assured access to space is in the national security interest and that the Under Secretary of the Air Force should evaluate all options to maintain such access. I send that amendment to the desk.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senators Akaka and Inhofe, I offer an amendment which would authorize, as a force protection measure, the replacement of a public road at Aviano Air Base, Italy.

Mr. LEVIN. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senators Akaka and Inhofe, which would extend the authorization for a fiscal year 2000 military construction project at Lackland Air Force Base, TX.

Mr. LEVIN. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Virginia. I will also be available in the event someone with an amendment does come to the floor. I have to leave also for a few minutes, but I will be available for some time to join you and welcome anybody who does come to the floor with an amendment.

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

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senators Akaka and Inhofe, I offer an amendment to make a correction to a fiscal year 2001 military construction project authorization in Korea. This is a different amendment. I send that to the desk.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, yesterday was the second annual National Asking Saves Kids Day or ASK Day. ASK is a national public health campaign that urges parents to ask their neighbors and community members if they have a gun in the home before sending their child over to play. The ASK campaign helps to enable parents to protect their children from the danger of a gun that is not safety stored. This is a sensible step toward preventing gun violence. According to PAX, a non- political organization that promotes solutions to the problem of gun violence and sponsors the ASK campaign, over 40 percent of American homes with children have guns. Many of these weapons are kept unlocked and loaded. Child access to these firearms is one reason why children in the U.S. are more likely to die of gun violence than from all natural causes combined. In recognition of National ASK Day, parents, children, community leaders, and neighbors across the nation planted flowers as a symbol of the more than 3,000 children that PAX estimates could be saved through the simple message of the ASK campaign. It is critical that we do all we can to keep children from gaining unsupervised access to firearms. That is why I cosponsored Senator Durban's Child Access Prevention Act. Under this bill, adults who fail to lock up loaded firearms or an unloaded firearm with ammunition could be held liable if a weapon is taken by a child and used to kill or injure him or herself or another person. The bill also increases the penalties for selling a gun to a juvenile and creates a gun safety education program that includes parent-teacher organizations, local law enforcement and community organizations. This bill is similar to legislation President Bush signed into law as Governor of Texas. I support this bill and hope the Senate will act on it. I know my colleagues will join me in recognizing National ASK Day, and I urge them to support Senator Durban's common sense gun safety legislation.