John McCain

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent for 3 additional minutes, if necessary, for me to complete my statement.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I yield such time as the Senator from Wisconsin may consume.

Mr. McCAIN. I am intrigued at the prospect of exercising our constitutional responsibility through a letter to the President. I yield 15 minutes to the Senator from Connecticut.

Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I ask that the Chair recognize the Senator from Washington for 10 minutes.

Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I yield 30 minutes to the Senator from Texas, Senator Hutchison.

Mr. McCAIN. I yield 15 minutes to the Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to control the time until such time as an opponent of the resolution arrives. At that time, I will control the time for the proponents of the resolution, and at a later time a designee of the opponents of the resolution will be designated.

Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I yield myself 60 seconds. Madam President, I will next yield to Senator Lugar for such time as he may consume. I tell my colleagues that the list I have after him is Senator Boxer for 10 minutes, Senator Specter for 15 minutes, Senator Hutchison of Texas for 30 minutes, Senator Gorton for 10 minutes. We also have requests from Senators Shelby, Inhofe, Domenici, Lieberman, Biden and Kerry of Massachusetts. I ask my colleagues to come over and get in the queue as they can. Clearly, with that number of speakers, I think it would be both inappropriate and unfortunate if we had a tabling motion before every Senator who wishes to speak would be allowed to speak on this issue. I will strongly resist an effort to table before every Senator who wants to speak on this very important issue can do so. I remind my colleagues that in the case of the Persian Gulf resolution, there were two opposing resolutions, with two up-or-down votes, and a full day of debate. On Bosnia, there were opposing measures by Senators Dole and Hutchison of Texas, with separate up-and-down votes, and a full day of debate on final passage. We are not giving this resolution nearly the attention the previous resolutions got. I yield such time as he may consume to the Senator from Indiana, Senator Lugar.

Mr. McCAIN. I yield 15 minutes to the Senator from California.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the Senate will convene on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. Following a brief statement by Senator McCain, the majority leader will make a motion to table S.J. Res. 20. Therefore, Senators can expect the first rollcall vote of the day at approximately 9:35 a.m. If S.J. Res. 20 is tabled, the Senate will immediately begin debate on S. 900, the financial modernization bill, under the provisions agreed to this evening by unanimous consent. It is hoped that significant progress will be made on the banking bill. Therefore, Senators can expect further rollcall votes throughout Tuesday's session of the Senate. The Senate will recess for the weekly party caucus luncheons from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Hutchison, Chairman of the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee in the introducing the Maritime Administration Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000. The bill was developed along with administration officials and provides a firm base to build on in coming weeks. While I do not fully agree with all aspects of this measure. I look forward to an open debate in formulating final legislation. The bill authorizes appropriations for the Maritime Administration[MarAd] for fiscal year 2000 covering operations and training along with the loan guarantee program authorized by title XI of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936. MarAd's oversight of the operations of U.S. Government-suppored maritime promotion programs are as important toady as ever. With increasing pressure on our nation's military resources, MarAd's administration of the Martime Security Program provides an important link in insuring that our troops world wide receive essential supplies in a timely and efficient manor. This bill will streamline several administrative processes associated with the Title XI Loan Guarantee Program. The measure provides the Secretary of Transportation with additional authority to secure loan guaranteed by allowing collateral collected to be held in the U.S. Treasury. This will not only save time and money associated with negotiating depository agreements but will provide greater security for tax payers funds appropriated for this program. Further, the bill amends Title IX of the Merchant Marine At of 1936 to provide a waiver for eliminating the three year period bulk and breakbulk vessels newly registered under the U.S. flag must wait in order to carry government-impelled cargo; reauthorize the War Risk Insurance Program through June 30, 2005; reduces the requirement for an annual report to Congress by the Maritime Administration detailing its's activities to be a biennial report; and makes clear the ownership status of the vessel names the Jeremian O'Brien. I am pleased that the Subcommittee is taking this action today and will join Senator Hutchison and the other sponsors in expeditiously moving this authorization through the legislative proceeds.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Hutchison, Chairman of the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee in the introducing the Maritime Administration Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000. The bill was developed along with administration officials and provides a firm base to build on in coming weeks. While I do not fully agree with all aspects of this measure. I look forward to an open debate in formulating final legislation. The bill authorizes appropriations for the Maritime Administration[MarAd] for fiscal year 2000 covering operations and training along with the loan guarantee program authorized by title XI of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936. MarAd's oversight of the operations of U.S. Government-suppored maritime promotion programs are as important toady as ever. With increasing pressure on our nation's military resources, MarAd's administration of the Martime Security Program provides an important link in insuring that our troops world wide receive essential supplies in a timely and efficient manor. This bill will streamline several administrative processes associated with the Title XI Loan Guarantee Program. The measure provides the Secretary of Transportation with additional authority to secure loan guaranteed by allowing collateral collected to be held in the U.S. Treasury. This will not only save time and money associated with negotiating depository agreements but will provide greater security for tax payers funds appropriated for this program. Further, the bill amends Title IX of the Merchant Marine At of 1936 to provide a waiver for eliminating the three year period bulk and breakbulk vessels newly registered under the U.S. flag must wait in order to carry government-impelled cargo; reauthorize the War Risk Insurance Program through June 30, 2005; reduces the requirement for an annual report to Congress by the Maritime Administration detailing its's activities to be a biennial report; and makes clear the ownership status of the vessel names the Jeremian O'Brien. I am pleased that the Subcommittee is taking this action today and will join Senator Hutchison and the other sponsors in expeditiously moving this authorization through the legislative proceeds.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I note the belated appearance of my dear friend from Kansas. I yield him however much time he may consume.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I thank my friend, the Senator from Michigan. May I just point out, he made the point that it took a month or two to get the Apaches there. The reason I am urging that preparations be made in case we have to exercise the option is exactly the reason he stated concerning the Apaches. It would take 6 to 8 weeks now for us to assemble ground forces if we decide to use the option. I am told by some military experts that we now have to worry about the onset of bad weather in the fall, but I do appreciate the remarks of the Senator from Michigan, and I appreciate the results of his trip that he made and the information that he brought back, which I think was very helpful to the entire Senate.

Mr. McCAIN. I thank the Senator from Georgia for his always very perceptive and enlightening debates. I yield the Senator from Michigan, Mr. Levin, 10 minutes.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I continue to be pleased and proud of the Senator from Connecticut for his intellect, his insight, and his courage. I thank him for his remarks tonight, but also his steadfast adherence to lessons of history. May I point out that he is joined in his views by former Secretary of State Eagleburger, former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, former Secretary of Defense Weinberger, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and a broad array of other leaders who have led this country throughout the last three decades. I am proud Senator Lieberman is one of those as well. I yield 10 minutes to my dear and beloved friend from Georgia, Senator Cleland.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I yield 3 additional minutes to the Senator.

Mr. McCAIN. I yield 15 minutes to the Senator from Connecticut, Senator Lieberman.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Warner for his always insightful and well-thought-out debate and discussion. We appreciate his outstanding work as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized for 20 minutes. Mr. NICKLES addressed the Chair.

Mr. McCAIN. Those are Margaret Thatcher's remarks. They were delivered at the Institute for Free Enterprise on the 20th anniversary of her becoming Great Britain's Prime Minister. I hope that all of my colleagues before voting tomorrow will read her remarks--Brent Scowcroft, Lawrence Eagleburger, and virtually every person who has held a position of authority on national security matters, both Republican and Democrat, for more than two decades. Mr. President, the hour is late. I will move to the closing remarks in just a moment. We have had a good debate today. I wish it had been longer. I think it should go on for several more days. But it won't. Tomorrow we will have a tabling motion which may be one of the more bizarre scenarios that I have seen in my 13 years here in the Senate, with an administration lobbying feverishly to defeat a resolution which gives it more authority. I have never seen that before in my years in the Senate. I believe we could have carried this resolution if the administration had supported it. I can only conclude that the reason for it is that the President of the United States is more interested in his own Presidency than the institution of the Presidency. Mr. President, that is indeed a shame.

Mr. McCAIN. Finally, Mr. President, a person that I know the Senator from Kansas and I and the Senator from Illinois have enjoyed and appreciated over many years, Margaret Thatcher, who once counseled during the Persian Gulf war for President Bush not to ``go wobbly''--I believe she said, ``Don't go wobbly now, George''--made a speech the other night for ``Project for the New American Century.'' I ask unanimous consent that her statement be printed in the Record.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, may I say to my dear young friend, who I see as one of the rising stars in this Senate--and I can say that with confidence because I have watched very closely, as a member of the Commerce Committee, his involvement with a number of issues--I respect his dissatisfaction with the failure to get an answer to certain fundamental questions that he and, frankly, the people of Kansas and of this country have a right to get the answers to. I understand his position on this issue, and I am in deep sympathy with it. He makes a compelling case that we should be better informed before we embark on a ground war or consider the likelihood of a ground war. I appreciate his views. The realities on the battlefield, I say to my friend from Kansas, are that it requires a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks to get some forces assembled. So if we don't begin preparations--and I am not saying we would have to use them, but it is of the utmost importance that we do that; otherwise, we will lose the opportunity. A person that Senator Brownback and I respect enormously, Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. I quote him saying: On the issue of ground forces, my view is as follows: I have no way of judging what will ultimately be necessary. That is a military decision. But first, it is a mistake to preclude any category of forces and to turn the conflict into an endurance contest. Secondly, even if one believes that air power will ultimately succeed, which it well may, we nevertheless should make clear not only that we are planning to use ground forces; we should assemble the ground forces that will be needed. This will put a safety net under the bombing campaign because under present circumstances, it is a question of endurance. Thus, Milosevic and the Serbian leadership believe that they can simply outlast us. If they know that at the end--not even at the end, at some stage in this process--we will insist on using ground forces, I think it will shorten the air campaign. That was the testimony last week of Dr. Kissinger before the Armed Services Committee. I know of no wiser man than Henry Kissinger, a person who has a great appreciation for history and its challenges. Because of our failure to even plan, much less prepare ground forces, as Dr. Kissinger, Larry Eagleburger, Brent Scowcroft, et cetera, seek us to do, this gives rise to articles such as were in the New York Times this morning by William Safire. William Safire, who I think is one of the most thoughtful and informed columnists in America, states: Congress is not only ambivalent about buying into ``Clinton's War,'' it is also of two minds about being ambivalent. That is because the war to make Kosovo safe for Kosovars is a war without an entrance strategy. By its unwillingness to enter Serbian territory to stop the killing at the start, NATO conceded defeat. The bombing is simply intended to coerce the Serbian leader to give up at the negotiating table all he has won on the killing field. He won't. He will make a deal. By urging that Russia be the broker, Clinton knows he can do no better than compromise with criminality. That means we are not fighting to win, but are merely punishing to settle. * * * Clinton has so few followers in Congress because he is himself the world's leading follower. He steers not by the compass but by the telltale, driven by polls that dictate both how far he can go and how little he can get away with. The real debate, then, is not intervention vs. isolation, not sanctity of borders vs. self-determination of nations, not Munich vs. Vietnam, not NATO credibility vs. America the globocop. The central question is: Do we trust this President to use all force necessary to establish the principle that no nation can drive out an unwanted people? It goes on, Mr. President, in this article to describe exactly the deal that will be cut over time. * * * Perhaps Britain's Tony Blair will prod Clinton to do better, and all Serbian troops and paramilitary thugs will be invited out of Kosovo. But the returning K.L.A will find mass graves and will likely lash out at Serbs; after an indecent interval, Belgrade will assert sovereignty with troops in police uniforms. And what will happen to the principle of no reward for internal aggression? It will be left for resolution to our next President, who, in another test, will have the strength of the people's trust. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this entire article, along with these other documents, be printed in the Record.

Mr. McCAIN. I decline to yield.

Mr. McCAIN. I have to call for the regular order here. The Senator from Virginia has 10 minutes, and the Senator from Oklahoma and others are waiting. So we have to proceed with the regular order.