Paul Sarbanes

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. How much time remains?

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

Mr. SARBANES. I will take the 1 minute at this point. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. It has been hard work. We think it is good, balanced legislation. I join with Senator Enzi in thanking the staff: Steve Harris, Marty Gruenberg, and Laurie Better of my staff; Katherine McGuire has done a wonderful job; and Joel Oswald and Kara Calvert of Senator Enzi's staff; Naomi Camper and Paul Nash of Senator Johnson's staff; and Wayne Abernathy and Amy Dunathan from Senator Gramm's staff. I thank Senator Gramm. We worked very closely on this bill. I pay tribute to Senator Enzi and Senator Johnson who worked together so assiduously, so skillfully, in helping to develop and evolve this legislation. I would be less than fair if I did not take a moment to say to Senator Enzi I think his dedication in working this legislation through and his very strong commitment and willingness to talk to everyone at great length, over and over and over again, contributed significantly to shaping legislation that we are finally going to be able to move through the Senate, with a very sizable consensus. I say to the opponents, I think we engaged this in a proper Senate fashion in terms of our debate and our efforts to respond to some concerns. We consulted with everyone--the administration, of course, perhaps first and foremost. My own view is we have brought together a good package. I urge my colleagues to support it when we go to the vote at 4 o'clock. I yield the floor.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SARBANES. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I send a managers' amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Tennessee for his very positive and constructive contributions throughout. Amendment No. 1530

Mr. SARBANES. Certainly.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SARBANES. I withhold the request.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum. Mr. THOMPSON addressed the Chair.

Mr. SARBANES. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SARBANES. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for his contribution throughout this debate. As he said, we have listened and considered carefully. I am perfectly prepared to accept this amendment. And I think introducing this quality concept about which he spoke yesterday is an important improvement and addition to this bill. I am happy to be supportive of it.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, the managers' amendment consists of provisions intended to clarify, correct, and improve the bill. Section 211: This provision amends the term ``interested party'' in Section 211 (foreign availability and mass market status) to ensure its consistency with terms used in the rest of the bill. Sections 205, 302, and 307 all refer to ``interested person(s)''. The managers' amendment corrects the references in Section 211 by replacing ``interested party'' with ``interested person''. Sections 214 and 701: This provision clarifies the duties of the Office of Technology Evaluation. Section 214 of the bill establishes an Office of Technology Evaluation to analyze information and provide assessments for use in export control policy. The managers' amendment clarifies that when assessing the effect of foreign competition on critical US industrial sectors, the Office is to consider imports of manufactured goods. It also modifies Section 701 (annual report) to ensure that the Commerce Department's annual report to Congress includes a description of such assessments. The managers worked closely with Senator Hollings to include this provision. Section 311: The next provision modifies Section 311 (crime control instruments). Section 311 preserves authority contained in existing law (Section 6(n) of the Export Administration Act of 1979) to ensure that crime control and detection instruments and equipment may be exported only subject to an export license. The managers' amendment further provides that any item or technology that the Secretary of Commerce determines is a specially designed instrument of torture or is especially susceptible to abuse as an instrument of torture can be exported only pursuant to an individual export license. In addition, the Annual Report of the Bureau of Export Administration must describe the aggregate number of licenses approved during the preceding calendar year for the export of any such items by country and control list number. This provision was included in the Managers Amendment at the request of Senators Leahy and Biden. Section 401: The next provision makes a technical correction to Section 401 (export license procedures). Section 401 requires Commerce to take four actions--hold incomplete applications, refer applications to other agencies, confirm commodity classification, and return application--at the beginning of the license review process. As drafted, however, some of these actions are mutually incompatible (for example, Commerce cannot hold an incomplete application while simultaneously referring the application to another agency). The managers' amendment revises the language to correct this inadvertent incompatibility. Section 506: This provision amends the term ``interested parties'' in Section 506 (enforcement) to ensure its consistency with terms used in the rest of the bill. Sections 205, 302, and 307 all refer to ``interested person(s)''. The managers' amendment corrects the references in Section 506 by replacing ``interested parties'' with ``interested person''. Section 506: The next provision makes technical amendments to Section 506. Sections 506(h), (i), (l), and (o) all contain funding authorizations for personnel or activities of the Bureau of Export Administration. The managers' amendment clarifies that the funding is to remain available until expended. Section 602: This provision clarifies a provision in Section 602 (confidentiality of information). Section 602 outlines the treatment of confidential information obtained after 1980. The managers' amendment clarifies that the provision applies to not only to information obtained through license applications, but to information obtained through enforcement activity or other EAA operations. Section 602: This provision further clarifies Section 602 (confidentiality of information). Section 602 provides that information obtained through licenses, classification requests, investigations, treaty, or the foreign availability/mass-market process shall be kept confidential unless its release is in the national interest. It goes on to provide penalties against those who violate this prohibition. The managers' amendment makes three changes: it (1) clarifies the investigations referred to are those carried out by Department of Commerce officials; (2) ensures that penalties on violators are imposed with the agreement of the violators' employing agency; and (3) allows violators to be denied further access to confidential information and to be removed from office. Section 603: The next provision adds a technical provision relating to the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSRA). TSRA established restrictions on sanctions dealing with agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices. The managers' amendment adds a new Section 603 that is intended to hold TSRA harmless by (1) ensuring that no authority in this Act may be exercised contrary to TSRA; (2) clarifying the limitations on national security controls; and (3) clarifying the application of TSRA procedures to foreign policy controls. Senators Roberts and Dayton were instrumental in crafting this language, and worked with bill managers to perfect the text. Section 702: This provision corrects a technical reference in Section 702 (technical and conforming amendments). As drafted, the reference would have affected the Forest Resources Conservation and Shortage Relief Act of 1990. The managers' amendment removes the reference and thus any inadvertent impact on the Forest Resources Act. Section 702: The next provision corrects a drafting error in Section 702 (technical and conforming amendments). Section 702(j) preserves authority contained in existing law (Section 17(c) of the Export Administration Act of 1979) to ensure that standard civil aircraft products remain subject to the EAA. As drafted, Section 702(j) inadvertently departed from current law by breaking the original paragraph into subparagraphs. Because this structure could cause confusion in interpretation, the managers' amendment returns the text to its original structure. Section 702: This provision addresses a humanitarian issue. U.S. aircraft manufacturers cannot export critical aircraft safety parts to countries subject to U.S. embargo. Without those parts, the planes may crash, with terrible humanitarian implications. A presidential waiver to export such parts is available, but is rarely invoked and takes years. The managers' amendment provides that exports of civil aircraft equipment to comply with flight safety requirements for commercial passenger aircraft may be authorized on a case-by-case basis. Senators Dodd, Bond, Murray, and Roberts expressed particular interest in addressing this problem.

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

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, this managers' amendment has been carefully worked over. I do not think there is any matter of controversy in it. I am prepared to go to adoption of the managers' amendment.

Mr. SARBANES. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, we are prepared to go to third reading of the bill, and then there are going to be some comments. If we can go to third reading of the bill.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. SARBANES. Certainly.

Mr. SARBANES. Certainly.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, with respect to S. 149, which is before the Senate, it is our anticipation that upon returning from the joint meeting and going back into session at noon, we would be able then to move expeditiously. There are a couple of amendments that I presume Senator Thompson and Senator Kyl will offer. We have had an opportunity to review those amendments. We think they strengthen the bill. We are prepared to accept those amendments. There is a question of the blue ribbon commission on which an agreement has not been reached. I do not know whether Senator Shelby, who authored that amendment, will proceed to offer it or not. If he does, we will have to take it up and, of course, be open to amendment. We hope to be able to resolve that issue rather quickly. We have a managers' amendment to be adopted. And then we anticipate going to final passage. So that is the sequence that we envision. We think that could be done in short order. I don't think that it will really take a lot of time to do all of this, maybe an hour at most, and we could get this bill completed and off the floor. I say to the majority whip, we would be able then to move on to other legislation in the early afternoon. But that is my expectation of how we will proceed. I want to acknowledge and thank Senator Thompson, Senator Kyl, and Senator Enzi--Senator Gramm was involved in the discussion that Senator Enzi had with the other two Senators--for moving this matter along.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for not to exceed 15 minutes each.