Samuel Nunn

Mr. NUNN

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I urge the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NUNN. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4304 (Purpose: To provide for preventive health care screening of military health care beneficiaries for colon or prostate cancer)

Mr. NUNN. On behalf of Senator Wellstone, I offer an amendment which would authorize male service members and former members who are entitled to medical care to receive preventive screening for colon cancer and prostate cancer at intervals prescribed by the service Secretaries. I believe this amendment has been cleared by the other side of the aisle.

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

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I urge approval of the amendment.

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

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, Senators Santorum, Kyl, and I are offering today an amendment to provide $2 million for fiscal year 1997 for the computer emergency response team associated with the Software Engineering Institute at the Carnegie-Mellon University. The computer emergency response team [CERT] has operated since 1988 under the sponsorship of the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency [DARPA]. Its missions are to respond to computer security emergencies and intrusions on the Internet, to serve as a central point for identifying vulnerabilities to hackers, and to conduct research to improve the security of existing systems. The number of computer emergencies handled by CERT has grown from 132 in 1989 to nearly 2,500 in 1995. In addition to this rising tide of incidents, the severity of the incidents and the damage caused by the intrusions has increased significantly. During a hearing which I chaired last month before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, we learned that DARPA had decided that the CERT operation is not the kind of cutting-edge research project on which they are focused, and that they were planning to reduce their funding to CERT for fiscal year 1997 by 75 percent. While we agree with DARPA's view of its priorities, a funding reduction of this magnitude would have devastated the ability of CERT to respond to the growing volume of inquiries, and we do not wish to see the CERT capability disappear. Therefore, we are introducing this amendment to provide necessary funding for the CERT activity to continue through fiscal year 1997. The Armed Services Committee will find an appropriate long-term source of funding for the CERT function during its deliberations on the fiscal year 1998 defense budget request. So as not to increase the funding level of the overall bill, our amendment reduces the funding already contained in S. 1745 for project Athena within O&M, Navy by $2 million. These funds represent hollow budget authority, as both appropriations committees have reduced funding for project Athena by more than the amount of the reduction in this amendment. I urge the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NUNN. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4295 (Purpose: To correct an error made in the reporting of the bill)

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Dorgan and Senator Conrad, I offer an amendment which would authorize the conveyance of the William Langer jewel bearing plant to the Job Development Authority of Rolla, ND. I believe the amendment has been cleared on the other side of the aisle.

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

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, this amendment has been cleared, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. NUNN. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4300 (Purpose: To require information on the proposed funding for the Guard and Reserve components in the future-years defense programs)

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Robb and Senator Warner, I offer an amendment.

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I urge passage of the amendment.

Mr. NUNN. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4302 (Purpose: To require that the Secretary of Energy request funds in fiscal year 1998 for the U.S. portion of the cost of the Greenville Road Improvement Project, Livermore, CA)

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Feinstein, I offer an amendment which would ask the Secretary of Energy to include sufficient funding in the budget for fiscal year 1998 to pay for the Government's cost of transportation improvements at the Livermore lab site. I believe the amendment has been cleared on the other side of the aisle.

Mr. NUNN. I urge the adoption of the amendment.

Mr. NUNN. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4309 (Purpose: To strike section 2812 relating to the disposition of proceeds of certain commissary stores and nonappropriated fund instrumentalities and to amend section 634 to sunset the authority under that section to pay annuities)

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

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senators Kennedy and Coats, I offer an amendment which would provide a sense of the Senate that military and civilian child care providers could benefit from a greater exchange of information and a closer relationship between military installations and the local communities that support them. I believe this amendment has also been cleared by the other side of the aisle.

Mr. NUNN. Let me make sure I know which amendment we are talking about now. We are talking about amendment No. 4316--this is the Smith- Gregg amendment? This amendment has been cleared. I urge its adoption.

Mr. NUNN

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the church burning provision of the previous unanimous-consent request made by the Senator from South Carolina alone be renewed. So I am asking unanimous consent that that portion of the overall request propounded by the Senator from South Carolina which was objected to, the church burning part of that, alone be renewed.

Mr. NUNN

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I strongly endorse the remarks of Chairman Thurmond in the great sympathy that we express in this Chamber on both sides of the aisle to the service people involved in this tragedy in Saudi Arabia, and I certainly endorse President Clinton's strong statement of determination to find the perpetrators of this act and bring them to justice. I am confident that the Saudi Arabian Government has the same view. This is a constant reminder of the kind of dangers and risks that our military personnel are under everywhere in the world. We are in a different era now. We are not in an era where we are threatened by massive annihilation from nuclear war, but we are in an unstable era where terrorism rears its ugly head in unexpected places. All of our military forces abroad and their families are under this kind of risk. So as we join the families and express our great sympathy to those families, I think we ought to bear in mind that all of our military personnel all over the world are basically risking their own lives to defend this great Nation. I am informed there are 19 dead, 80 hospitalized, and 60 seriously wounded. I am also informed that they have not completed the identification of the remains and that the families have not yet been notified. Certainly that will be done in a timely fashion as quickly as they possibly can. The Air Force is working on that. We sent medivac teams there with our aircraft. We sent all of the personnel that we can, and of course the President announced last night that we are sending FBI agents to help find the perpetrators of this terrible tragedy. Mr. President, I am also informed that the families will begin being notified sometime around noon today. Certainly I know that there are a lot of anxious families in the Air Force community and military community all over the country. So I join Senator Thurmond in expressing great sympathy to the families and absolute determination to prevent this kind of tragedy from recurring in every way that we possibly can.