Paul Sarbanes

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I especially thank Senators Schumer and Smith for their leadership on this issue. We are very appreciative of the very vigorous effort they mounted with respect to this issue. The existing ILSA legislation expires on August 5 of this year. Therefore, we need to move quickly to approve this legislation. This will extend ILSA for another 5 years. It will lower the threshold for foreign investment in the Libyan energy sector from $40 million to $20 million to trigger sanctions. That puts Libya on a par with Iran at the existing requirement, and it closes a loophole in the existing legislation making it clear that modification or addition to an existing contract would be treated as a new contract for purposes of evaluating whether such amendment or modification would invoke the sanctions. There has been a loophole with respect to companies operating in Libya, and we need to address that. With respect to the Iran portion of ILSA I wish I could come to the Chamber and report there has been a significant change in Iranian conduct that warrants a response from the Congress in terms of when we consider whether to extend these sanctions forward. Unfortunately, Iran's support for terrorism continues unabated. The latest State Department Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000 states: Iran remains the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2000. Its revolutionary guard corps, the IRGC, and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, MOIS, continue to be involved in the planning and execution of terrorist acts and continue to support a variety of groups that use terrorism to pursue their goals. Iran is also stepping up efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The latest unclassified CIA report to Congress on worldwide weapons of mass destruction acquisition notes: Iran remains one of the most active countries seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction and advanced chemical weapons technology from abroad. In doing so, Iran is attempting to develop an indigenous capability to produce various types of weapons--chemical, biological, and nuclear-- and their delivery systems. In June of this year, when the Justice Department handed down indictments in the Khobar Towers bombing case, a case in which 19 of our airmen in Saudi Arabia were killed in 1996, the Attorney General stated publicly that Iranian officials ``inspired, supported, and supervised members of Saudi Hezbollah,'' which is the group that carried out the attack. As for Libya, very briefly, it has fulfilled only one aspect of the U.N. Security Council resolutions relating to the Pan Am 103 bombing; namely, the handing over of the suspects for trial. Libya has not fulfilled the requirement to pay compensation to the families of the victims, to accept responsibility for the actions of its intelligence officers, and to renounce fully international terrorism. In fact, President Bush on April 19 of this year stated: We have made it clear to the Libyans that sanctions will remain until such time as they not only compensate for the bombing of the aircraft, but also admit their guilt and express remorse. Because Iran and Libya have not clearly fulfilled the requirements of ILSA, I believe that not to extend ILSA for a full 5 years would send the wrong signal. Failure to do so would be seen as a sign of lack of resolve on the part of the United States. I also believe that placing Libya on a par with Iran with regard to ILSA's conditions sends a strong signal to Libyan leader Qadhafi that the pressure will be kept on until he fulfills all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions concerning the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which I remind my colleagues killed 270 people, including 189 Americans. This legislation had overwhelming support in the committee in being brought before the Senate. It has been endorsed by a clear majority--a very substantial majority--of Members of this body, and I urge my colleagues to support the legislation. I yield the floor. Exhibit 1 ILSA Cosponsors Senators Schumer, Smith (OR), Hollings, Rockefeller, Reed, Levin, Durbin, Carnahan, Johnson, Gregg, Cleland, Campbell, Murray, Allard, Mikulski, Ensign, Collins, Bob Smith, Lieberman, Harry Reid. Senators Corzine, Sessions, Kyl, McConnell, Boxer, Santorum, Shelby, Voinovich, Breaux, Torricelli, Clinton, Stabenow, Harkin, Kohl, Daschle, Bob Graham, Inouye, Thomas, Helms, Brownback. Senators Feinstein, Kennedy, Grassley, Craig, Warner, Biden, Bingaman, McCain, Sarbanes, Bennett, Wyden, Hutchinson, Bunning, Dorgan, Crapo, Bill Nelson, Edwards, Kerry, Hatch, Lott. Senators Cochran, Frist, Akaka, Conrad, Bayh, Dayton, Allen, Snowe, Miller, Wellstone, Landrieu, Dodd, Cantwell, Ben Nelson, Leahy, Bond, Lincoln, DeWine, and Murkowski.

Mr. SARBANES. Fine. I will hold my time down because I do want to get to the Murkowski amendment and the Senator from Alaska is in the vicinity. Mr. President, I rise in strong support of S. 1218, the renewal authorization legislation for the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, commonly known as ILSA. This legislation was reported favorably out of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs by a vote of 19-2. We made some modifications. Therefore, a committee print served as the vehicle for the committee markup, but this committee print paralleled closely with the renewal legislation introduced by Senator Schumer of New York and Senator Smith of Oregon which garnered 79 cosponsors. I am including in the Record the full list of the 79 cosponsors. I ask unanimous consent that the list be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, what is the parliamentary situation?

Mr. SARBANES. I yield 7 minutes to the Senator from New York, after which it is the intention we go to the amendment of the Senator from Alaska.

Mr. SARBANES. It is important. The list of cosponsors was sent to the desk and the Senator is included in the list. The reason the bill came out of the committee this way, when you do a committee print, is that is how it had to be presented. We did a committee print instead of the original bill that was introduced because there were some relatively minor changes that were made, and we laid down a committee bill, as it were, for markup purposes.

Mr. SARBANES. Has the amendment been withdrawn?

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I wanted to take a few minutes to address some of the comments of the Senator from Alaska. We have time on the amendment. Then I would be happy to yield back the time. I assume the Senator would yield back his time on the amendment. Then we would just be left with completing the bill. If I may now be recognized to speak on the time allotted with respect to the amendment.

Mr. SARBANES. I yield back the time we had on the amendment.

Mr. SARBANES. I think the Senator from Texas has time.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I am going to put in a quorum call and alert my colleagues if there is anyone else who wishes to speak on this bill, they should let us know and come to the floor promptly. Otherwise, we will yield back all of our time and schedule this matter to go to a vote at 6:30 this evening. I will get further guidance on that, but for the moment I will put in a quorum call with the alert to other colleagues, if there is anyone else who wishes to speak on this bill, they should let us know and come at once. Otherwise, we are going to draw this debate to a close. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the bill.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote on final passage of S. 1218, the Iran-Libya sanctions bill, occur this evening at 6:30.

Mr. SARBANES. There is a total of 31 minutes remaining?

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I close with this thought. It is indicative of her wonderful accomplishments with respect to the Washington Post that one can say, as I say now with confidence, that the Post will continue to be a great newspaper. Kay Graham institutionalized the Washington Post as a great organ for truth and for responsible journalism. As one thinks back on her legacy, perhaps one of its most significant aspects is that we can look forward in the expectation that the newspaper she built will continue to be one of the world's great newspapers because of the standards she established and the legacy she has left. I yield the floor. Exhibit 1 [From the Baltimore Sun, July 18, 2001] Katharine M. Graham Industry titan: Publisher's courage and judgment made one newspaper great, others stronger U.S. newspapers are better and stronger because of what Katharine M. Graham did at the Washington Post. Her death at 84 deprives the industry of a giant. The core of her achievement was in three gut-wrenching, high-risk decisions made from 1971 to 1975. In the first, she agreed over legal advice that the Post would print the Pentagon Papers, prepared from government documents detailing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, after the New York Times was enjoined from doing so. Other papers followed, and the precedent of prior censorship was undone. The second was to support dogged investigative reporting of the burglary of the burglary of the Democratic National Committee, in behalf of President Richard Nixon, as it turned out, during the 1972 election campaign. What the Post, courts and Congress learned forced Mr. Nixon's resignation. The third, in 1975, was to respond to sabotage of presses by striking pressmen with a determination to publish with nonunion pressmen and defeat such tactics. The decision were connected. Without the first, she might not have stuck with the second, or without that triumph, the third. Katharine Meyer, born in 1917, never intended such a role in national life. Her financier father bought the failing newspaper in 1933. She married a brilliant young lawyer, Philip Graham, whom her father made associate publisher, later publisher. His progressive mental illness and suicide in 1963 propelled her timidly into his shoes if only to save the newspaper for the family. The rest is not merely history; it is her 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Personal History. As publisher and chief executive until turning power over to her son, Donald, in 1991, Mrs. Graham built a media empire. At its heart was a newspaper that penetrated its market as no other and that grew into one of the world's best. Mrs. Graham was a power in Washington, and a force in publishing--positive in both spheres--until her death following a fall in Sun Valley, Idaho. Her good works survive her.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a wonderful American, an absolute giant in the field of journalism, and someone who broke through barriers for women all across this country, Washington Post publisher Katharine Meyer Graham. There is little that has not been said over the last few days about Kay Graham and the remarkable life she led as a citizen of the Nation's Capital and the world. Although she was born into a well-off family and attended exclusive schools, Kay Graham did not retreat into a world of privilege and leisure. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1938, she worked as a reporter for the San Francisco News. Not able to stay away from Washington for long, she returned the following year and took a job in the editorial and circulation departments of the Washington Post. Kay Graham then began the next phase of her life, marrying Philip Graham who had clerked in the Supreme Court. Soon after their marriage, Phil Graham joined the Army Air Corps and Katherine followed him to military posts in South Dakota and Pennsylvania. A devoted wife and mother, she dedicated the next 20 years to her family as she brought up her four children: Lally, Donald, William, and Stephen. Tragedy thrust Kay Graham into a role she never envisioned for herself. After the death of her husband in August of 1963, she took over the helm of the Washington Post and then proceeded to build the company into one of the finest news organizations and businesses in our country. When she took over as president of the Post, it was still a relatively small organization consisting of the newspaper, Newsweek magazine, and two television stations. It was Kay Graham and her associates who built the company into the publishing giant it is today. By emphasizing both scrupulous news reporting and attention to the bottom line, she was able to attract advertisers, investors, and readers alike, all while adhering to the highest journalistic standards. Kay Graham built the Washington Post into a Fortune 500 company and she was the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 enterprise. Despite, or perhaps because of, her dedication to the family business, Kay Graham was willing to risk it all in pursuit of a news story that needed to be told. Many have spoken of the courageous editorial decisions she made when the Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers, and later when it led the investigation into the Watergate break-in. In both cases, Kay Graham bravely stood up to pressure and, indeed, intimidation from the highest levels of Government, risking in a sense her livelihood to ensure that the public learned the truth. It is sometimes now difficult, being beyond that period, to appreciate the import and significance of those decisions. But at the time, her decision to pursue those critical stories was filled with peril, and she set an example for the country by coming through that difficult period like the true champion she was. Kay Graham was an irreplaceable participant in the Washington community and on the world stage. She formed close friendships with political leaders on both sides of the aisle, with business leaders, with world dignitaries. Many of us had the privilege, on occasion, to discuss complicated and complex policy issues with Kay Graham, and we deeply appreciated her keen intellect and her thoughtful insights into the problems of the day. And throughout her life, she maintained a grace and sense of humor that endeared her to all that had the privilege of knowing Katherine Graham. She will be missed, not only as a reporter of the news but also as someone who truly contributed to the dialog of world affairs. In 1991, she stepped down as chief executive of the Washington Post, and in 1993 resigned her position as chair. Yet even ``in retirement'' she remained an active member of the Post's board of directors, chairing its executive committee and maintaining an office at the Washington Post until her death last week. She also found time during this period to write her memoirs, an exceedingly moving story entitled ``Personal History,'' which won the Pulitzer prize for biography in 1998. The achievements of Kay Graham were tremendous and her dedicated service to the Washington Post, to our Capital City, and to our Nation, are great indeed. She will be sorely missed by all of us. She kept us informed, led our community, shared her wisdom, and was our friend. I extend my deepest sympathies to her family and her many devoted colleagues at the Washington Post. Mr. President, I have an editorial which appeared in the Baltimore Sun about Kay Graham entitled ``Industry Titan, Publishers courage and judgment made one newspaper great, others stronger.'' It is a wonderful tribute, as it is from a peer. I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Will the distinguished Senator yield?

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I thank the leader for offering this moment of silence in honor of Detective Gibson and Officer Chestnut and the sacrifice they made. It represents the sacrifice so many men and women make each day in the Capitol so that the Nation's business is transacted. I know both their families, of course, and I know how much the loss impacted them, how deeply they felt it. It is very fitting and appropriate that we should just bring our business to a halt, pause, and remember their tremendous contribution, their tremendous sacrifice, and that of many others who work here each and every day. I thank the leader for doing this.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: Is the Senate now in morning business?

Mr. SARBANES

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

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with my colleague, the very able Senator from Nevada, Mr. Reid, in cosponsoring this amendment to the fiscal year 2002 Transportation appropriations bill which calls for a study of the hazards and risks associated with the transportation of hazardous chemicals or radioactive material on our rail and highway network. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, more than 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials, or hazmats, occur each day on our highways, railroads, and waterways. The total volume of hazardous materials such as flammable liquids and corrosive chemicals exceeds some 3 billion tons a year. While the vast majority of these shipments are transported safely, without any release, the number of hazmat incidents reported to the Department of Transportation has nearly doubled in the past decade. As Senator Reid has already noted, last Wednesday a 60-car freight train, including several cars containing hazardous chemicals, derailed and caught fire in the Howard Street tunnel right through downtown Baltimore. The cause of the derailment and fire are still under investigation, but according to news reports, some fire officials speculate the fire started in a car carrying tripropylene, a caustic and flammable chemical used for making detergents and plastics. I take this opportunity to commend the members of the Baltimore City Fire Department for their heroic efforts in managing the fire and protecting the health and safety of the citizens of our city. For nearly 5 days, the city firefighters undertook tremendous risks, courageously entering the dark tunnel, vision impaired by smoke, to face the fire and the volatile chemicals and hazardous materials that burned within. During the height of the incident, over 150 of the city's firefighters were on the scene and many more obviously reported for duty throughout the course of this incident. The fact that injuries were kept to a minimum is a testament to the skill and professionalism with which the Baltimore City firefighters performed their jobs. I also express my appreciation to the Coast Guard Strike Force, the Maryland Department of Environment, and all the other members of the team who worked around the clock to protect public health and the environment. Firefighters' activities were largely completed last night. This morning, the last of the 60 railcars was pulled out of the tunnel. The tunnel is now free of the train and examination will now take place with respect to the structural status of this tunnel. As Senator Reid and I discussed last week on the Senate floor, this accident underscores the potential dangers to public health and safety, the environment and the economy in connection with the transportation of hazardous materials, but it also makes clear the need to invest in our Nation's infrastructure. I very much welcome the amendment of my colleague. I want to underscore this is an issue in which he has taken considerable interest. In fact, he held a hearing this morning which had been scheduled, as I understand it, well before this incident took place. Senator Reid and others who have been concerned about the infrastructure, and I know it is a concern the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Byrd, shares with us, have for quite some time tried to focus attention on the necessity to improve the Nation's infrastructure. Later in the consideration of this bill I will join with my colleague, Senator Mikulski, in offering an amendment to specifically begin to address the aging rail infrastructure in the Baltimore area. Our amendment would provide up to $750,000 in Federal matching funds for the Department of Transportation, in cooperation with Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, CSX, the State of Maryland, and the City of Baltimore, to conduct a comprehensive study to assess the existing problems in the freight and passenger rail infrastructure in the Baltimore region. The study would assess the condition, track, limitation, and efficiency of the existing tunnels, bridges, and other railroad facilities owned and operated by the railroads. It would also examine the benefits and costs of various alternatives, including shared usage of track. It would make recommendations regarding improvements to the rail infrastructure in the Baltimore region or the construction of new facilities to reduce congestion and improve safety and efficiency. The availability of the funds would be contingent upon CSX, Norfolk Southern and the State of Maryland providing equal amounts to conduct the study. Next year marks the 175th year of railroad in America commemorating the history of railroading that actually began in Baltimore with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. While it is an honor to have this historic commemoration, this commemoration also serves to date our railroad infrastructure in Maryland as amongst the oldest, of course, in the country. Indeed, major rail improvements made in the latter part of the 19th century, including rail corridors, bridges and tunnels, continue even to this day to serve by providing routes for significant inner- city passenger and freight traffic moving up and down the east coast, as well as providing links from the ports to the Midwest and points beyond. Two major main line corridors traverse Baltimore. Amtrak operates more than 100 trains a day through Baltimore, traversing through two sets of major tunnels, the Union tunnel and the Baltimore and Potomac tunnel, immediately northeast and southwest of Penn Station. These tunnels were built in the 1870s when the Pennsylvania Railroad extended its reach south to Washington. A second parallel Union tunnel was built in the early part of the 20th century. Amtrak's corridor is also used by MARC commuter rail trains linking Baltimore and Washington and Norfolk and Southern freight trains. While a number of improvements have been made to the corridor since the 1970s, the basic infrastructure of the route, including the tunnels and bridges over the numerous rivers north of Baltimore, is virtually the same as that in place some 75 to 100 years ago. CSX, the descendent of the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad also operates its main line through Baltimore. The main line serves traffic traveling north and south up and down the east coast and traffic which is ultimately headed west to the Ohio River Valley. Both movements converge between Washington and Baltimore and use the main line through the latter city. It is CSX's main line which passes through Baltimore by the 1.7-mile- long Howard Street tunnel where the accident occurred on Wednesday night. Most of this was built in the 1890s on a single track. Numerous other short tunnels and bridges are also along the route north and east of the central city. The physical condition of the rail infrastructure and the mix of trains that use it cause various problems for the movement of freight and passengers. There are inadequate vertical clearances for the passage of certain types of freight since high-cube, double-stacked container trains. There are numerous chokepoints and there is capacity- related congestion on the Northeast Corridor and the CSX main line. So the purpose of this study, this additional amendment that Senator Mikulski and I will offer, is to assess these and other problems in the freight and passenger rail infrastructure in the Baltimore region, and to identify potential solutions to those problems. We need to get some sense of what the possibilities are, what the costs associated with them are, and what might be a reasonable course of action in order to address this situation. I very much hope when that amendment is offered our colleagues will be supportive of it. I do want to have printed in the Record at the end of my remarks an editorial from the Baltimore Sun about the effort of our firefighters and other authorities who responded to this emergency entitled, ``There when you need them.'' I ask unanimous consent that be printed in the Record.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I want to conclude by, again, underscoring the very important contribution that my colleague from Nevada has made in alerting us, not just now but over a sustained period of time, to the importance of addressing the much broader issue. I, of course, have focused today on this Baltimore tunnel problem, but that is only illustrative, as it were, simply an example of the kind of situation we are confronting in many, many parts of the country. My colleague from Nevada, Senator Reid, has repeatedly stressed the importance of addressing this question. His amendment, which I join in cosponsoring, to require a study of the hazards and risks to the public health and safety, the environment, and the economy flowing from the transportation of hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials, and the improvements necessary to our infrastructure, I think, is a very important contribution. I strongly support it, and I trust when it comes to a vote it will receive the overwhelming support of this body. I yield the floor. Exhibit 1 [From the Baltimore Sun, July 20, 2001] There When You Need Them Without warning: Emergency responses were generally good, but luck was better, the worst did not happen. Baltimore had a close call Wednesday. It could have been so much worse. Industrial chemicals that caught fire, or that did not, might have sent toxic fumes into the downtown atmosphere, damaging lungs and skin, invading work places and residences. On the whole, the ugly billows from both ends of the tunnel proved to be benign. The whole metropolitan population is in debt to the courageous firefighters who entered the tunnel, into the unknown, to deal with a fire they could not locate. Also the police, hazardous materials experts and public works workers who toiled on no notice through the night to cope with the fire, train mishap, water main break and power outage that paralyzed a great city. They had other plans for the evening. But this was their job and they did it. City, state and federal authorities were right to err on the side of caution in closing roads, waterways, baseball, business and normal life until public safety was secured. The one thing that did not work well was the civil defense siren. In nearly a half-century it has been tested but never before used for a real emergency. Those who heard it did not know what it conveyed. Were they to duck beneath desks in event of nuclear attack? If not, what was the loud siren saying? For those who were just trying to go home in the evening rush hour, the best response was to carry on doing it, assuming they heard a mere malfunction. People have long since learned to turn on radio, television or the Internet--or battery-operated radios in the event of power outage--to learn if something big is happening. The siren probably did not alert anyone who did not already know about it. The emergency showed just how interconnected modern society is, how dependent we all are on everyone else functioning normally. The disruptions to city life and to East Coast commerce will go on for some time, More lessons will be learned in ensuing days. New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Norfolk and the rest had better pay attention. Here, but for the grace of God, go they.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, will the Senator yield?

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the CBO cost estimate with respect to S. 1218, a bill to extend the authorities of the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, be printed in the Record.