Mary Landrieu

Ms. LANDRIEU

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 5 minutes to speak on the underlying bill and another unrelated subject.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Whatever time is remaining.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I stand here today to pay tribute to a group of Americans who have worked tirelessly to protect all of us. Following the tragic events of September 11, Al Lenhardt, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and Chairman of the U.S. Capitol Police Board recognized the value of bringing together a group of experts from outside the legislative branch to provide the expertise necessary to respond to this unprecedented attack on America. He brought in a team of experts and created the Legislative Branch Emergency Preparedness Task Force to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the Capitol Complex and provide recommendations that would enhance our security . This extraordinary group of experts could quite easily have taken a simplistic approach and recommended turning the Capitol into an armed camp. Fortunately, they recognized that this building, known throughout the world as a symbol of freedom and democracy, is first and foremost the public's domain and must remain so. Instead of taking the easy route, they developed a carefully crafted series of measures which enhanced the security of everyone who walks through these doors Members of Congress, staff and visitors alike without denying the American people their right to see and meet with their elected representatives. They ensured that the Capitol remained ``the People's House.'' Mr. Gary Quay of the Department of Defense, Colonel Richard Majauskas, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Salo and Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Tunstall of the Army, Lieutenant Commander David Klain of the Navy, Deputy Chief Chris McGaffin and Captain Edward Bailor of the U.S. Capitol Police, Mr. Michael DiSilvestro of the Office of Senate Security, Mr. Michael Johnson of the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Mr. Kevin Brennan of the House Sergeant at Arms, and Mr. Bill Weidemeyer and Mr. Jim Powers of the Architect of the Capitol dedicated themselves to the task of looking at every aspect of emergency preparedness on Capitol Hill. All of us remember the confusion that reigned on September 11. In light of what happened, that confusion was perfectly understandable. After all, never before had someone turned one commercial airliner into a weapon of mass destruction, let alone four. I am convinced that the rapid implementation of the Task Force's recommendations by Jeri Thomson, the Secretary of the Senate, Alan Hantman, the Architect of the Capitol, and Jim Varey, Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, has significantly enhanced our ability to respond to emergencies and will prevent a repeat of that day's confusion. In a world where cynicism and selfishness rule the day for some, I am proud to say this is not the case for these dedicated Americans. The safety of our nation's Capitol, and all who work in and visit it, is enhanced by their efforts. On behalf of Americans everywhere and the 107th Congress in particular, I am proud to stand here today and say ``Thank you--job well done!''

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts for those kind remarks and I thank Senator Kennedy and Senator Gregg for their extraordinary effort that has not gone unnoticed by the Members of this Senate and all the people who have followed so closely the tireless efforts to get to this point where we can support such a solid, principled compromise that all Members can be proud of passing today. It is a great victory for our school system and our Nation and for the Presiding Officer, in the role played as a former Governor of Indiana. I thank also Senator Lieberman, Senator Collins, and Senator Sessions. It was a really bipartisan effort. And to the President, I say thank you. Through all of the efforts, along with the war in Afghanistan and our defense, trying to stand up and defend our homeland, the President stayed focused on education. We stayed focused on education. I think that speaks well of the work we have done. I am proud to be a part of it. This bill works for our Nation to strengthen our schools and to build on a promise that every child deserves a quality education and the belief that we can fund it and strengthen it so that every child can learn and so that every child should have an opportunity--not a guarantee but an opportunity--to be all that God created them to be and all their parents and loved ones hope for them to be. That is why I am excited about this bill. It outlines some new goals and objectives that are going to be difficult and challenging. But we need to lift those expectations for our children. We need to challenge our Nation. We need to fund it. That is why I thank Senator Kennedy, our leader from Massachusetts. He fought like a tiger to say: Yes, we want accountability. Yes, we want flexibility. Yes, we want to work in partnership with the Governors, but we want to give them the resources to fight the battle. That is what this bill does. It is the single largest investment in education in a single year. I also thank the Governors who are our partners--the 23 Governors who are on the front line with mayors and school boards around the Nation leading this fight for their support. Let me focus on three issues. First, accountability. We say if you are going to run a school, run it right. If not, we are going to reconstitute it so that every child has a chance. Second, the flexibility issues that we fund at the Federal level, but we allow the local jurisdictions to make those decisions. Third, targeting. Senator Kennedy mentioned this. I want to say for Louisiana that this will mean $100 million more for title I to help with the resources to make these classes really work for children. It will help us with technology and will make sure kids really have an opportunity. It is going to help us with afterschool programs. It is not just given out by a grant but a formula, so we get it to the parishes that really need the most help. This will give them the helping hand. I am proud to join my colleagues. I could speak for hours and days. I congratulate our leaders for doing such a fine job. It was a joy for me to work on this bill. It will mean a lot to the kids in Louisiana and their families.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Massachusetts what order we are in, and I am happy to take whatever order he deems appropriate.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I thank both of the Senators from Arkansas and the Senators from Mississippi. Senator Breaux and I join with them in sponsoring this provision in the Agriculture appropriations bill. I thank my colleagues for wisely defeating this amendment. Allow me to take a few moments to say that for Louisiana this is a very important industry. Catfish farmers in Catahoula Parish, Franklin Parish, and other parishes throughout our Mississippi Delta have spent years and a lot of money, as the Senator from Mississippi knows, in developing these farms and investing their hard-earned dollars in marketing this product to a nation that was somewhat reluctant some years ago to accept this. Now catfish is commonplace in restaurants across the country. Speaking for a State that represents the greatest restaurants in this Nation, let me say it is not only the farmers who benefit, but also our restaurants and our consumers. I thank the Senate for their wise tabling of the McCain amendment. I am for free trade but fair trade, and tabling this amendment was a step in that direction.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I join my colleagues, who have spoken so eloquently and forcefully on this subject, in urging the Senate to defeat the Gregg amendment. Mr. President, Louisiana is a sugar State. There are 18 sugar mills and two sugar refineries in Louisiana and we have more acreage devoted to sugarcane than any other State. Many of our parishes rely on the sugar industry for their economic vitality. It is an important industry that is hundreds of years old in the State of Louisiana and throughout many parts of our Nation. Nationwide, the sugar industry directly and indirectly affects 37,200 jobs in 42 States. It is a $21 billion industry. At this time in our Nation's history, with a recession underway, and with our efforts to try to build ourselves out of this recession, we want to do things in Congress that help, not hurt. The Gregg amendment is taking us in the wrong direction. We need to be creating jobs, not eliminating them. The sugar industry means thousands of jobs to Louisiana. Are consumers harmed by our national sugar policy? Absolutely not. Sugar prices have been relatively stable because of this sugar mechanism in the farm bill. There are different provisions in this farm bill, but the sugar provision is unique in that it is a provision that can actually return money to the Federal Treasury. It is a self-help mechanism. From 1991 to 1999, this policy was a net revenue raiser of $279 million. Sugar loans last year amounted to only a little over one percent of federal commodity expenditures, and this negligible cost will be defrayed as that sugar is gradually sold back into the market. In addition, between 1997 and 2001, the government rightly spent $90 billion to save rural America from other commodity forfeitures. None of that money went to sugar producers. Because the sugar industry does not enjoy the same types of price supports as other commodities, we have developed over many years in Congress a program that both maintains low retail prices and provides support to an industry that must compete with heavily subsidized foreign sugar programs. The Senator from New Hampshire's Amendment would replace production by efficient, unsubsidized American sugar farmers with sugar from less efficient, heavily subsidized producers from Brazil and Europe. I believe the American sugar program is one worth supporting. It has been carefully crafted, and helps retain jobs in Louisiana and around the Nation. It is something we need to continue to support, not one to move away from. Let me also add, I am particularly pleased with the vote the Senate had yesterday on the dairy provisions. By a one-vote margin we came to a compromise that will help strengthen the underlying farm bill. Rejecting the Senator from New Hampshire's amendment gives additional strength to a farm bill that helps keep price supports in place, that appropriately subsidizes certain crops, that enables the sugar industry to continue to flourish in Louisiana and throughout the Nation and, most importantly, protects jobs that are so important to our Nation at this particular time. We have other challenges. We have trade issues that have to be worked out, but this amendment offered by Senator Gregg should be defeated. I am happy to join my colleagues in support of that effort. I yield the floor.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, with all due respect, I rise to oppose the amendment offered by the Senator from Idaho and urge my colleagues to table this particular amendment. I congratulate the chairman of the committee, the Senator from Iowa, Mr. Harkin, for his hard work. It is not easy to put together any major piece of legislation, let alone, as I have learned in my few years in the Senate, legislation regarding agriculture because, in different ways, all of our States participate in the infrastructure of agriculture, some of us more as producers but all of us as consumers. Weighing those interests between the consumers, the producers, and the processors, and all the international trade implications is quite complicated. So I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their extraordinary work in trying to put a bill together to which we can generally agree. Representing the South and Louisiana, and speaking for the dairy farmers, let me say that when the original bill came out, it did not work for southern dairy farmers. The national pooling concept was really not very fair to many regions, including the dairy farmers in Louisiana. And we have been suffering. We have lost over 25 percent of our farms. If we do not do something, we are going to lose even more. It is not right to not address this issue. So we proposed a compact-- the same as the Northeast has--for the South that would have worked beautifully. But, unfortunately, there were other regions of the country where that did not work. So we came up with yet another compromise. In the underlying bill that we are considering, the Harkin-Lugar proposal, this compromise shows itself, and it is a countercyclical plan for dairy that will resemble the way we do countercyclical plans and proposals for other commodities that will work well for the majority of our dairy-producing States.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 30 more seconds to wrap up.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Some of us have large dairy farms. Some of us have small and medium-sized dairy farms. I suggest that the proposal in the Harkin bill is one that benefits most of us most of the time, and I urge my colleagues to table the Crapo-Bingaman amendment. I support the committee compromise. I thank the Chair.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I would like to take this opportunity to note for the record a few important points. As you may know, the fiscal year 2002 Appropriations Act for the District of Columbia, which is on its way to the President's desk as we speak, included a total of $24 million dollars for the purpose of funding the reforms provided for under the Family Court Reform Act of 2001. As Chairman and Ranking Member of the DC Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator DeWine and I felt very strongly that these funds were a necessary prerequisite for the kind of change we envisioned. This money was provided to the Courts with the expectation that it would be used to affect this reform in the most immediate and effective way possible. Having worked with the Courts for the better part of this past year, we are confident that they will work diligently towards implementing a unified family court, staffed with highly trained and experienced judges, attorneys and court personnel. We expect that they will do their best to ensure that the this family court is structured in such a way as to reflect its founding principle, ``One family, One Judge'', a critical component in an effective child welfare system. And finally, we hope that the chief judge, the Child and Family Services Agency and others will go beyond the letter of the law and embrace its spirit, that the safety and well being of our children must remain our paramount concern. With that said, I would like to make clear our intent in including language which restricts the total distribution of the $24 million until the family court reform plan is received and reviewed by Congress. It should be noted that one hundred percent of the DC Superior Court's operating budget is paid for with Federal funds. Therefore, Congress has a unique obligation to ensure that the day-to- day operations of this court reflect the best practices in each and every area of law under its jurisdiction. The Family Court Reform Act of 2001 lays out a broad set of guidelines for the reform of the family court in the District. Under the provisions of the DC Appropriations bill, within 90 days of the date of its enactment, the Courts are to submit to congress a plan for the immediate transition to a unified family court system. Within 30 days of receipt of this report, the General Accounting Office is to provide Congress with an independent review of this plan. Finally, after a 30 day review period in Congress, the funds earmarked for family court reform are to be distributed to the Court and to the Mayor to implement these reforms. Our intent in arranging the distribution of funds in this way was to ensure that the money added to the Court's budget for the purpose of family court reform would remain available to carry out the reform plan. In the short time since the congress passed the DC Appropriations conference report, modification to the authorization bill have expedited the time in which the Court's are required to hire magistrate judges and their support personnel. The DC Courts have the ability to use funds from their general operating budget to hire magistrates, their staff, or any other activity, before the family court reform funds are available. We recognize that certain requirements of the family Court Reform Act of 2001 require immediate action and we encourage the Court to take the necessary steps to provide for a seamless transition. If the constraints on family court reform funds contained in the DC Appropriations bill prove to be unfeasible, I am committed to revisiting those constraints when Congress reconvenes in January. The Senate Appropriations Committee does not intend to hinder the implementation of the Family Court Reform Act in any way. We hope that we can work with our colleagues in the House to clarify this issue if necessary.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I want to say, on behalf of the senior Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Breaux, and myself, how grateful we are for their remarks and the help our distinguished colleague from Hawaii, Senator Inouye, and our distinguished colleague from Alaska, Senator Stevens, have provided to us. They have both been so instrumental in helping support the development of this museum in New Orleans, LA. I say to both Senators who were going to have the opportunity to be there this morning, and to see their great work firsthand, this museum, this dedication, has exceeded all expectations. We are a city and a town used to hosting thousands of visitors. This museum, the World War II Museum, and now the opening of Pacific Rim Theater have exceeded all expectations. Today as we speak, Stephen Ambrose and a long list of distinguished dignitaries are there. With the support of these two Senators and our entire Congress, we have had contributed $5 million toward the development of this museum and the creation of the Institute of the American Spirit. It is not just our weapons, our tanks, our airplanes, and our assets, it is the American spirit that protects and leads this world for liberty and justice. These two Senators know that. They have contributed mightily. I thank them on behalf of Senator Breaux and myself.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 1 minute as in morning business just to acknowledge the remarks of Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Ten minutes.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Connecticut and my colleague from North Carolina because this truly is a very important debate, one of the important aspects of the underlying bill. But because I had not been able to speak earlier on the underlying bill, and as a member of the Armed Services Committee, I wanted to take a few moments to talk about some of the important components of the Defense appropriations bill we are considering, particularly on this very special day which is commemorating the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and particularly because of the tremendously challenging circumstances we face as a nation. I am aware that in a few minutes we will vote on this particular amendment. It is really a very important matter we will decide concerning this International Court, but I want to take a moment to share with my colleagues, to remind them, of another historical event, and that was in the month of August of 1814. One hundred eighty-six years ago, this Senate and most of the public buildings in Washington were burned to the ground. It was the grimmest moment for our young Nation. We had won our freedom from England and now, during the second war of independence, we experienced in some ways complete humiliation. Adding to this humiliation, it occurred under the Presidency of James Madison, the father of the Constitution and one of the greatest minds the United States had ever produced. An observer of the attack described the scene. He said: It was a sight so repugnant to my feelings, so dishonorable, so degrading to the American character and at the same time so awful it almost palsied my faculties. That means caused them to tremble. I think everyone knows exactly today, in hindsight of September 11, how President Madison felt. When we watched the World Trade Center, the center of our economic vitality, destroyed, when we could see from some rooftops in Washington and actually from some of the vistas from this exact building the fires burning over the Pentagon, I think we can all know exactly how President Madison and this man who gave us this quote felt on that day. Yet we also know, for the second time in our history, this building again was the target of attack. Although it was not hit, it was a target, and we might have piled horror upon horror to see this exact building burn to the ground again. The War of 1812 was divisive. It divided North and South as well as the emerging constituency of the West. Yet when our Capitol was burned, the American people knew we could no longer delay and divide. We had to unite and prevail. We could spare no resource, ignore no strategy, reject no talent in that effort to preserve the American experiment in democracy. We are engaged in a similar struggle today. We must unite and prevail, and we should spare no resource in doing so. That is why I have been a strong advocate for the Byrd amendment, and that is why I am a strong proponent of this underlying Defense bill. I know at this exact moment the leaders are engaged in a negotiation that will hopefully help us support a strong Defense bill, one that funds the men and women in uniform and gives them the supplies, equipment, technology, research, housing, schools, health care, weapons, and ammunition they need to fight a war in Afghanistan and to protect us at home. There are a number of provisions I support in the underlying bill, and I also support Senator Byrd's gallant, valiant, courageous, and visionary efforts to add to that underlying bill some resources for our homeland defense and homeland security. In the underlying bill, there are a number of provisions which I support. First and foremost is the support for the cooperative threat reduction program. That phrase did not really mean much to anybody before September 11, ``cooperative threat.'' It was hard for people to grasp what it was exactly, but now that we know and we can see we have still enemies willing to use powerful weapons against us to destroy Americans and our way of life, we understand the cooperative threat reduction program, which is a partnership with Russia to contain weapons of mass destruction, most certainly should be funded and most certainly supported. Our Capitol, our White House, and our Federal buildings burned in 1814, and we saw them again targets earlier in September. We know our enemies want to gain access to weapons of mass destruction. We know they want them. We know they have tried to get them, and we know that they will try to use them if they gain access to them. So in the underlying bill that has been carefully crafted by Mr. Inouye, the Senator from Hawaii, and the Senator from Alaska, with the support of many on the Democrat and Republican side, we provided $357 million to complement the $300 million in the Department of Energy funding this year. It represents a $49 million increase over last year. That is the good news. The bad news is if we had allowed the Byrd amendment to go forward, we would have had an additional $256 million investments in the cooperative threat reduction program, spending more money in an urgent fashion, in a transparent and accountable fashion, to make sure we get to those weapons of mass destruction before our enemies do. We know it is not just nuclear materials. We know there are chemical weapons, there are biological agents and, again, they have said they want them. They have said if they get them, they will use them. We know this building we stand in today is a target of their negative feelings toward our country and all for which it stands. So I am very hopeful that in the negotiations we are not leaving on the table some extra money, so important to the cooperative threat reduction and as a testimony to the great work done by Senator Lugar from Indiana and Senator Nunn, the former Senator from Georgia who did a magnificent job helping this Senate and this Congress come to grips with the fact that these weapons were out there and that it was not a foreign aid program for Russia, it was a protection program for the citizens of the United States of America. I hope that does not fall on the floor in the scraps of the amendments and the debate. A second area I endorse is our continued funding of the national missile defense program. I know this program has its critics, and I know some of its champions claim it can do more than it can, but I will say with continued persistence and with dedication and with careful, deliberate testing, I am convinced that this Nation can develop a limited missile defense system, perhaps land-based or Navy-based, that can protect this Nation in the future against threats from Iran and North Korea or other such nations that have advanced missile technology. Again, there is going to be one city in their target, and that target is going to be Washington, DC. So as a supporter of national missile defense, I support the $7 billion of investments that we make in this bill. I also support the compromise that was deftly crafted and I think smartly crafted to say that the President, in addition to the $7 billion, can have $1.3 billion to add to missile defense if he sees fit, but if not, he can also use this money for counterterrorism efforts. I urge the President to be careful in his deliberations, to be delicate, to be thoughtful in his deliberations about how to divide that $1.3 billion. It is a lot of money. It can do a lot of good. Also, a great deal of the effort could be wasted. We have to make sure we know not only what the possible threats are but what the probable threats are, what the likely threats are, and take our precious treasures and resources that the American people pay in taxes--as wealthy people, middle-class people, and poor people--that contribute to the Treasury of this United States and make sure that money is spent investing in what will help keep them safe from these weapons of mass destruction and these asymmetrical threats that terrorists are now using effectively today in the world. This is a good compromise on the underlying bill. I urge the President to think about the transformation necessary and spend that money for counterterrorism efforts. There are any number of good ways to do that. Finally, we cannot forget our most effective weapon, whether in 1814 or 2001 or whether it was as Senator Inouye so beautifully said this morning, 60 years ago when Pearl Harbor was bombed, the American men and women who serve this country in uniform. It is not just the generals; it is not just the sophistication of the weapons; it is not just that our technology is so advanced that our private sector can respond more quickly. The real genius of our Nation lies in the spirit, in the humanness of the American men and women in uniform, the 18-year- olds in the foxholes, the 22-year-old young men and women who serve this country. This bill helps to honor that great American truth by funding an increase in their pay, by providing the health care that we promise, by making sure that when they are sick there is a veterans hospital for those who have served admirably. We have also started to focus on housing. In conclusion, in the underlying bill we also honor our service men and women by supporting them in their housing, their schools, and their hospitals. I cannot think of anything I would want my country to do more for me if I had to ship off than to know my country was doing what it could to care for my spouse and my children, knowing if my child got sick, there was a clinic for them to go to; if my husband was stressed, there was a phone he could pick up with a friendly voice on the other end. So if I were in Afghanistan or if I were in India or Somalia, I could fight with all the courage and strength because I knew my Government was doing its part for my family back home. That is what men and women in uniform want. They don't need essential food. They don't even need a comfortable place to sleep. They want to know their families are secure. That is what this bill does. It was done in a bipartisan way, and I am proud to be part of that effort and hope we can do more in the future. Finally, our country has come a very long way since the dark days of August 1814. Almost 200 years later we face a similar danger. I am proud we are reacting as we did then, with unity and purpose of determination. I thank the Senators for their strong work on this bill, and I look forward to the passage of this legislation.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I would like 3 minutes.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, on this day in 1941. our Nation was ``suddenly'' and ``deliberately'' attacked by an enemy who sought to conquer our homeland and destroy our way of life. Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a day which saw 2,388 Americans perish and 1,178 wounded. Many though that American shores would never again be breeched by enemies, but that most tragic day in September visited sadness on our Nation again. I would have liked to have been in the city of New Orleans today, as the National D-Day Museum opens up a new wing dedicated to the war in the Pacific. The D-Day museum is a fitting tribute to all of those who stormed the shores of foreign nations to ensure that future generations, would enjoy the fruits of liberty and democracy. The sneak attack on American Naval and Air Forces in Hawaii marked the end of a distinct period in American history, and the beginning of another. In the years that followed that fateful day, America help up the mantle of Liberty for all civilized and freedom loving people and she still does today. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting the Senate amendment, which pays tribute to all the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who gave the ultimate sacrifice to the Nation 60 years ago today at Pearl Harbor. It also pays tribute to the American spirit that triumphed over enemies in two theaters of the world in the most horrible war man had ever known. This amendment will also commemorate the opening of an institute dedicated to commemorating the unique and powerful spirit of America at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. Victory in the Second World War by the United States and her allies will probably be known as one of the greatest achievements in all of history. The ultimate victory over enemies in the Pacific and in Europe is a testament to the uncommon valor of American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. The years 1941-1945 also witnessed an unprecedented mobilization of domestic industry which in large measure contributed to our safety at home and supplied our fighting men on two distant fronts. As the generation that faced this challenge takes its final lap, it is important that we take the time this day and every day to honor them for the many sacrifices they made. These men and women can always be remembers in the promising words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he proclaimed in a 1942 fireside chat: ``We are going to win the war, and we are going to win the peace that follows.'' It was the gallantry of American troops abroad and the tireless devotion of workers at home that made these words come true. Though our Nation has seen war many time, the strength of American democracy has ensured that war is an aberration and not the norm in our society. The conflict we now face will put great strains upon our Nation and will ask of us to sacrifice in unprecedented ways. In times of peace, it is the natural order that children live to bury their parents. War violates this National order. War causes parents to bury those children who have been cut down in their prime by the arrows of conflict and discord. War makes young men and women widowers and widows long before the proper time, and deprives our youth of parents to teach them the wonders of life. This conflict has already deprived our nation of so many brave men and women, and many more will perish before it is concluded. Indeed, the valorous acts of veterans are normally remembered in bronze and stone on battlefields both at home and abroad. American orators have been inspired by their deeds to utter words of uncommon elegance. Today in this Chamber and in many places across the Nation, the events of Pearl Harbor will be remembered. But the greatest honor we can give to our veterans is the unwritten memorial of memory, etched not on stone but in the hearts of all who survive and gladly toil on liberty's behalf.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Senator. Madam President, I have come to the Chamber to support the Senator from West Virginia and to associate myself with the remarks that he has made and the Senator from Massachusetts has made. This is a very critical time and a very critical consideration. I was given a most magnificent book yesterday--it is appropriate that I would have this book in the Senate Chamber today--which says, as the Senator from Alaska and the Senator from Hawaii beautifully called to our attention this morning, December 7, that 60 years ago our Nation became one. On September 11, our Nation became one again. I wish the camera could pick up the opening of this Time Life book that is on the stands today as we speak: A firefighter from New York and Mayor Giuliani, one of the great leaders of this tragedy. The book details in some of the most graphic, horrific pictures of the Twin Towers that no longer exist, the devastation of that day, New York, the great symbol of economic freedom and justice in the world. The television cameras cannot grasp the significance of the devastation, but in these still pictures in this book, one can see the slight wing of the plane as it comes to hit the World Trade Tower, and then again the next picture of this plane coming from this direction, planned this way, 20 minutes later, so the world could catch the terrorists destroy the symbols of power and might of capitalism in the world because they do not like it, because it lifts millions of people out of poverty and gives hope where there is despair. They do not like what it stands for so they destroyed it. Look at these flames. There is the body of one man burned beyond recognition. He chose to jump rather than be burned alive. There is another man crawling out of the window desperately hoping to reach the bottom from the 83rd floor which, of course, was not going to happen. I do not know how quickly we forget--all of Manhattan up in smoke; one of the greatest cities not just in America but in the world in smoke, in flames. We think this is not going to happen again? It very well can. In addition, not only is this an attack and a threat against our well-being, but it is an attack against our economy. Senator Byrd brings to us a responsible proposal to not only help make us more secure at home but create jobs in the spending and investments of these funds. Today in the newspaper, anthrax was found again in the Fed's mail, anthrax found in the Federal Reserve Board of the Washington, DC, headquarters. This is what the Senator's amendment is trying to fund. I know there are disagreements about some of the details. In conclusion, I hope we do not forget Pearl Harbor, I hope we do not forget September 11, and I hope we come together to find some kind of way to say, yes, it is important to fund the war in Afghanistan. But it is as important to contribute to the security of our buildings, our energy, our health care system at home. I commend the Senator from West Virginia for his great work and am proud to support his efforts in the Senate.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I am pleased to present this conference committee report on behalf of myself and my most able ranking member, the Senator from Ohio. We have worked closely together over the last several months. We are proud to present a conference report that truly is a bipartisan, bicameral compromise on the District of Columbia, which is a very important center, a very important capital, a very important symbol for our Nation, home to almost 500,000 people who live here, but a center where millions of people work and where even more millions visit and, in some ways, call home because it is the Capital of our Nation. I am pleased to present this conference committee report. I will briefly highlight a couple of the most significant provisions of this conference agreement. The first is that this bill reflects for the first time in 5 years a budget that is no longer under the control of the control board. That control board did an excellent job under tremendous leadership, and I commend them for their great work over these 5 years, working with us in Congress and with the Mayor and the city council to reshape and reform the District's finances, which for the time are in pretty good shape. There are no deficits at this present moment. But as my colleagues know, there are some challenges ahead and the trends would cause us to be very alert on that score. This is the first budget we are presenting with the control board behind us. I urge the authorizing committees of both Houses to quickly reconvene next year to pass legislation that will create a more sound transitional framework for the postcontrol period. I pledge this morning my full and complete support towards that effort, and this conference committee report somewhat lays a foundation for that effort. I look forward to working to that good conclusion. In addition, I am very proud that this bill has as one of its hallmarks a reform of the child welfare system. Senator DeWine will probably give more detail about this matter because he has been one of the leading sponsors of this legislation and this effort. I know he will go into greater detail. Suffice it to say, the District's foster care system and child welfare system was broken. It was in shambles. It was a disgrace; it was a national tragedy. We all have challenges in our respective States in this regard, and no State is perfect. Many States have a long way to go. But the District's system had unraveled. This bill gives the courts the reorganizational mandate that is necessary and the financial support and resources, as well as some new tough guidelines and standards that, hopefully, will protect children, save their lives, restore dignity to families, and promote adoption when necessary to give children the families they need to grow up to be whole, complete, and full adults. In addition, this bill works with the Mayor to ensure public safety of the District and to respond to whatever emergencies might occur. September 11 has given us all the push we needed to make sure we are investing correctly in public safety. This bill is a beginning--not an end but a beginning--towards that end. It is the intention of the ranking member and myself to make sure the emergency response plan that is ultimately crafted for the District not only works for Washington, DC, but it works for the residents of Maryland and Virginia. We have to work together as a unified region when it comes to protecting the lives and property of the millions of people who live here in the event we are attacked again. And this region, unfortunately, is going to be a target because of this magnificent building in which we stand. Finally, this bill improves public education, and that is going to be one of the focal points of my tenure as chair of this committee. I believe it is all about economic development, hope, and jobs. The mayor has indicated this is going to be a strong thrust of his. This bill lays down some foundations for public education, for charter schools, for early childhood and early reading programs. So I submit this report. I thank our colleagues on the House side. I thank Congresswoman Norton for her tremendous effort. I thank the staff: Chuck Kieffer, Kate Eltrich Kathleen Strottman, Kevin Avery; and Mary Dietrich and Stan Skocki of Senator DeWine's staff. Again, I am pleased to present this conference for a vote this morning.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I want to speak to the Senate for a few minutes on a different subject, but one that is equally important and deserves our attention and focus. I had hoped to get to the Chamber last week when it was actually November to speak about this subject because November is National Adoption Month. I want to spend a few minutes talking about what that means to us as a nation and what adoption has meant and continues to mean and will mean in the future to so many of our families in the United States and around the world. I also want to talk about all the great successes and celebrations for us to be proud in a bipartisan way. This truly has been one of the issues on which there is unanimous consent and a truly deep commitment on the part of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. I want to spend a few minutes, even though it is December 5, because the schedule was so hectic in the last week, talking about what National Adoption Month means. Since 1993--so it has been almost 10 years--by Presidential proclamation, the 30 days in November have been declared to be a special recognition of National Adoption Month. During this month, communities, States, and local governments, not-for-profit organizations and adoptive families come together from the east coast, the west coast, the north, and the south to sponsor activities and events to help raise the awareness of the joys of adoption. My husband and I do not have to attend any of these events necessarily because we live with this joy every day. Our two children are adopted. They are now 4 and 9 years old. It has been the greatest joy of our life. I know the specific stories of hundreds of families. I have held these children in my arms. I have read to them. I have played with them. I have seen them in so many different settings and at so many different ages and in many different physical, emotional, and mental health states; some very healthy, other children with great challenges that God has given them who now have loving parents and the great opportunities these children now have in homes where they can be provided and cared for. We do not have to go far to these events, but I never tire speaking about it with our colleagues and sharing the importance of it and how proud we are of our success. We recommit our efforts in the month of November to make the way easier, to reduce the barriers that still exist, to recommit our energies to the fact that it should be a God- given right, I believe, and one that we should support for every child to have a family. God did not create human beings to raise themselves. It just is not possible to do that. Every human being needs to be raised by another human being in a very loving and nurturing way. For many years, unfortunately, we have had this idea that governments can raise children. Governments cannot raise children; families raise children. Or that some children are damaged goods and they can just raise themselves. No child is damaged goods. Or that children in some way can wake themselves up in the morning even at 3, 4, 5 years old, get themselves dressed, get themselves off to school, feed themselves, care for themselves, protect themselves. It does not happen without a nurturing adult. Our idea is to talk about the fact that every child deserves a family on which they can count, a family with at least one loving adult, if not two, who will love them, nurture them, protect them, raise them, and give them the opportunities to which they are entitled. We recognize that while we have a lot of successes, we have a long way to go. Let me share just a few successes. Last year, in 2000, nearly 50,000 children were adopted out of foster care, a record number. That success is built squarely on the shoulders of what President Clinton and Vice President Gore, and now what President Bush and Vice President Cheney, have committed, which is to help invest resources and help write policies and laws that promote adoption in this Nation. This represents a 78-percent increase over 1996. There are not many programs run by the Federal Government, the State governments, or, for that matter, private-sector initiatives or enterprises that can boast of a 78-percent increase. We are proud of our work at the Federal level working with our State governments and, in many instances, faith-based organizations and nonprofits promoting adoption. Second, because of the work this Senate did, we passed the first international treaty on adoption last year called the Hague Treaty, which is now being ratified and signed by many nations in the world. I specifically thank Senators Helms and Biden for their extraordinary leadership. While many of the children who are adopted in the United States are born in the United States and then come to families through a domestic system, a growing number of children are coming into this country from other countries, such as China, Russia, countries in South America, and countries in the Mideast. As this treaty is adopted and embraced by many countries, we are hoping the world--some developed nations, some underdeveloped nations, some nations that are Christian in their outlook, some that have other religious leanings--say with one voice: We believe the world community has a responsibility to see that every child in this world has a home. We wish that every child could stay with the parent to which they were born. That is our greatest hope. We wish we could fix every problem that a family has so those children can be raised in that home into which they were born. There are terrible circumstances. There is alcoholism, drug addiction. There is abuse and neglect and mental illness and war and famine that separate children from their birth parents. So we cannot leave those children. We cannot say to them: Raise yourself. We have to have international laws in place and policies in place that help to heal that, to give those children, if they cannot stay with their own parent, to be able to have some kind of family to call their own. I cannot imagine living without having a mother or a father, someone to pick up the phone, even at my age, at any age, to be able to not have someone you can rely on to give you a reference point and stability in your life. Without this Hague treaty we passed, there are millions and millions of children who will never find a home. Our great hope is this treaty will be implemented with all haste. The State Department is, unfortunately, quite busy with the war effort now, but as soon as it can give its attention, Secretary Powell has assured me he is going to provide the resources necessary to the State Department to get this new system set up. I think it would be welcomed around the world. The third success we have had, and on which we continue to work, is an adoption tax credit. If we can give tax credits to some major corporations in this world worth millions and hundreds of millions of dollars, we can most certainly provide tax credits to families who are not wealthy, who live paycheck to paycheck, whose paychecks might be small but their hearts are large, who have loving homes and they want to take a child in. It is very expensive to raise a child. So the $10,000 tax credit we can give by doubling the current tax credit and making it permanent will say the Government believes if a private citizen or a family takes a child in through adoption, they are entitled to have some of those expenses written off and we thank them for the contribution they are making to that child's life and we thank them as taxpayers because the taxpayers have to pick up the tab for the raising of that child at higher rates of reimbursement, sometimes as much as $100 a day for emergency placement or extraordinary fees paid through government agencies. So we are saving ourselves money. The Senator from Texas, Mr. Gramm, was wonderful when he spoke about this. When I said the scoring mechanism made us say this tax credit would cost the taxpayers money, he and I entered into a colloquy and we rejected that notion, although technically we were not successful in that, by saying for every dollar we give out in a tax credit, it probably saves $10 to the taxpayer because these children come off the public roll, come into the loving arms of a family willing to spend the time and basically put sweat equity into the raising of this child, and we are forever grateful. Our tax credit is passed and we now need to make it work for foster care children. Additionally, the Presidential candidates in this last election, I think for the first time--in my lifetime for pretty certain, and maybe in the history of the country--made adoption a central component of their Presidential platform. So this issue is gaining in strength and is becoming part of the American psyche and conscience, and we are very grateful for that success. Secondly, while we are very excited and passionate about these successes, we also have a great challenge ahead of us. There are still today 570,000 children in foster care in the Nation, more than half a million children. These are children who have been taken away from their birth parents for many good reasons. Hopefully, many of them will return to their birth parents in an atmosphere of safety and security, but the parental rights of some of these children must be terminated because they are at risk, their life is at risk, unfortunately. There are about 130,000 of these children of all ages and shapes and sizes and colors who are waiting to be adopted today. I want to share in a couple of weeks from now that we are going to host a major national event in New Orleans. We are pleased to host this event. We are excited about hosting it. I am going to be there, along with my senior Senator from Louisiana, at the Super Bowl. We are going to be in a stadium. It is called the Dome Stadium. We are proud of it. It is one of the finest stadiums in America. Eighty-five thousand people can fit into this stadium, and there is going to be a record crowd for that event. There will probably even be a few people standing in the aisles. The only thing that would make it better is if the Saints were playing in the playoffs and the championship. Maybe that will happen. Anyway, this event is going to take place. When it does, I want people to hear this message and my colleagues to think about the fact there are more children waiting to be adopted in the United States than could fit in every seat in the Dome Stadium, in the aisles, and crowding around the concessions. So when my colleagues see that panoramic, beautiful view of the Dome Stadium, I want them to think about the fact that in every seat there could be a child saying: All I want is a mother or a father or a family to call my own. I am alone in the world. I need someone to help me. I want to show some pictures and tell some stories of two of these 130,000 children. This is Joshua and Tiffany. They are twins. They are fraternal twins. They are 5 years old. They are beautiful children. They were born premature, as many millions of children are born premature, some extremely so. They have some developmental delays, but they are generally healthy children. Their favorite cartoons are Barney and Teletubbies. I understand 5-year-olds. I have Mary Shannon who watches not too much television but enough to know who Barney and Teletubbies are. They say in their bio their favorite snacks are cookies and they love ice cream, but what they really want is a mother and a father to adopt them. They are available for adoption. They would love a family. These children are born healthy and they would be two of the children sitting in those seats in the Dome Stadium. I hope somebody will want to take them in. The government has to do a better job of connecting these children to the waiting families who are out there, and I think we are on the track to do that. Let me show another picture. This is a precious little girl, as are these two. Her name is Cheyenne. She is from Louisiana. Cheyenne is 6 years old. She was born in 1995. She is bright and charming. She wants to be part of a family. She has beautiful blue eyes. They say in her bio she is a little shy, but if I did not have parents, I might be a little shy, too, because it is your mother and your father who help you to learn how to communicate, learn how to talk to people. She enjoys active sports. She does not have a family. So if we could be a little more enthusiastic and committed to helping in terms of all the things we are doing, we can help Cheyenne find a family perhaps in Louisiana. I see my colleague from Arkansas who has done some beautiful work in this area, as well as my colleague from Virginia. If we can find a family for Cheyenne so she has somebody to count on and depend on, that is what this is all about. One of the things we are working on--and, again, there are 160 members of our coalition on adoption; that number is growing--one of the projects we hope to have funded this year is an extension of what we call Faces of Adoption. It is an Internet site. Anyone can log on the Internet at www.adopt.org. This site is funded by the Government in partnership with all of our State agencies, with a nonprofit organization out of Philadelphia, the National Adoption Foundation, which has been sort of the lead nonprofit. I thank the President for putting money in his budget so by the year 2005, if we fund it, we will have pictures and information about every child waiting, like Cheyenne, like the twins, like the other children, some of whom are perfectly healthy, some of whom have challenges. There is not one who would not be wanted by some family in this country. I am very excited about new technologies that can help connect these children to families. We say there are no unwanted children, there are just unfound families. We should thank the Lord for the new technologies that enable us to tell these children's stories to families and to say that while everybody thinks they want to adopt an infant, and it is wonderful to adopt infants--and we did that in our situation--there are children of every age, every race, every background who could fit beautifully into a family. I want to share one of the other great successes with my colleagues. It is called Angels in Adoption. So many in the Senate, and I think so many of the people in my State and around the Nation, are angels because they do help to find homes for children and take children into their homes. We call them angels. I don't know if the camera can show my angel pin was designed by an artist in Louisiana, Mignon Faget. We give this pin to the Members of Congress and to our award winners in our States. I will talk about Angels in Adoption. We were scheduled to do this event on September 11. It was planned a year ahead of time. We had thousands of people in Washington that night for this event. We were going to present these awards to these people. I see my colleague from Idaho; he was going to be cohosting the event on September 11 with me. Of course, we know what happened on September 11. I spend just a moment to say what would have been said that day, but events prevented going forward with the event. For the record, let me cite some of the people who would have received the angels award. The idea is for every Member of Congress to find one person in their district--it could be a parent who adopted a child; it could be a judge who works overtime and gets into the office early or stays late or takes a couple of cases extra to help make sure that child gets the home they deserve; it could be a local attorney who does it pro bono but really believes in adoption so he or she gives their time; it could be a church that has taken this as a special mission in their community. The Members of Congress give out these awards I cite for the record. My award would have been given to Volunteers of America in north Louisiana, a nonprofit that has placed 2,500 children in homes in Louisiana and actually some in Arkansas and in our surrounding region. The reason I decided to give my award to the volunteers was that their board created a video which I saw. I was very moved. It was a story of a birth mother and father, a young couple who just were not quite ready, didn't have the resources or the maturity to raise a child. They made a courageous, selfless, and loving decision to give their child to a family who was desperately wanting a child, to provide a home. That video was so moving and would be such a good example for so many young people to see, I thought they should be given an award so we could distribute that video to communities around the country. Second, Representative Jim McCrery from Louisiana would have given his award to Lillie Gallagher who is an angel in the outfield in Baton Rouge, LA. She is director of St. Elizabeth's, a foundation that was created because an individual--a man--went on a retreat. He believes in prayer. God gave him a vision to create an agency. He did it with his own money and his friends. That agency, without government support, has helped place hundreds of children. Lillie contributes tremendously as the original founder and director of that agency. So she was presented an award. This is just an example. Senator John Breaux would have presented his award to Linda Woods, a birth mother and an adoption advocate in Louisiana. She has been active on many boards and commissions. Linda is an Angel in Adoption. And finally, one of my favorites, although it wasn't my award, was the award given by the Congressman from my State, Chris John from Lafayette, to Kaaren Hebert. I want to talk a minute about Kaaren because she is an angel whom I hope others emulate. Kaaren is a young woman. She works for the State of Louisiana. She is a government employee. She is fabulous. She worked in a small parish in Louisiana and was so recognized for her work that she was awarded and given a promotion to be a regional director. So she moved up to be the regional director in Lafayette, which is in south Louisiana. It is a beautiful city. About 250,000 to 350,000 people live in the region. Kaaren, under her leadership, had in 1997 35 adoptions in that region. In 1998, there were 43 completed adoptions. In 1999, there were 66 completed. Under her leadership, she has placed over 459 children out of the Louisiana foster care system into homes in Louisiana. Some of them were placed out of State. If every government worker did the job that Kaaren did--just 85 percent of her work, not 100 percent--I would estimate there wouldn't be any children waiting in this country, if everyone were as conscientious and as gung ho and as wonderful as Kaaren. She most certainly deserved an award, and she got it, although not publicly because of what happened that day. I wanted to share a few of the angel stories. But there are remarkable stories from every place in the Nation. We hope the press will write about the stories so it will encourage other people to join in and help. Finally, several Saturdays ago was National Adoption Day. On that day, 1,000 adoptions were finalized in capitals all across the Nation because the judges and family courts have decided to come together and try to promote adoption on one day. Finally, I end by thanking my colleagues for their work, acknowledging my wonderful partner, Larry Craig, a Senator from Idaho, as we cochair the adoption caucus in the Senate, and I thank the Senator from Arkansas, the Senator from Virginia, and the Senator from Indiana for their good work and say as we celebrated Thanksgiving last week and as we celebrate Christmas, let us recommit ourselves to the idea that these celebrations aren't really worth having, if you think about it, if you don't have a family with whom to celebrate. Nothing, to me, would be sadder than to have no place to go on Thanksgiving or Christmas. I guess because I come from such a large and loving family, the thought of it is so alien to me, I cannot quite grasp it. But I know there are in this world millions of children who not only have no place to go on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but they have no place to go any day. They put themselves to bed and sleep at night by themselves. I hope we will remember them. Think about their pictures, like Cheyenne. Think about so many of them who just need our people and every government official in this Nation, at the Federal, State, and local level, to do more than we do, including myself. I recommit myself to do this work even harder during this next year. I thank my colleagues for their work in this area and I yield the remainder of my time.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 15 minutes.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, before the Senator from New Mexico leaves the floor, I wish to thank him for his leadership on the issue of energy policy for this Nation and thank him for the way he has worked with me and Senator Breaux representing Louisiana, which is a producing State but also a State that is very interested in alternative energy sources, particularly from agricultural products, which we think holds a lot of promise. Many of our universities are engaged in alternative fuel developments, as well as environmental cleanup. I thank the Senator particularly for his willingness to put in this bill significant authorization for the first time for $450 million for the seven producing States, much of that production being off our coastline. Because of current law, which has been in place for many years, as the Senator knows, Louisiana and other coastal States have been shortchanged because of the impacts that affect our States. We will be able to use this money to help restore our wetlands which we are losing at an alarming rate. It will help us to provide the critical investments to protect our infrastructure-- our pipelines and other facilities--that not only helps Louisiana but supports the whole Nation, which the Senator from New Mexico mentioned. I thank the Senator on behalf of all the people of Louisiana and many people in the coastal parts of our Nation for his insight and leadership in including that provisions. I wanted to go on record this afternoon about this bill and to thank the Senator from New Mexico. There are a number of other good provisions in this bill.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Senator. National Adoption Month