Richard Shelby

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, I rise in support of the Thomas amendment. I believe competitive sourcing is an important process for the Federal Government. I believe it will help to improve the overall performance and efficiency of certain activities carried out by the Federal Government. Allowing these competitions to move forward is important to improve the value of service provided by the Federal Government to all Americans. Whether the contract is won by the incumbent Federal workers or private sector bidders, the Federal Government wins by encouraging greater efficiency and a more focused workforce. That improves service. I believe we must be careful to clarify that competitive sourcing, as proposed, doesn't apply to those activities considered inherently governmental. Those jobs will be reserved solely for the Federal workforce, and no one is proposing otherwise. Our goal is clear. What we are trying to do is make the Federal workforce more efficient and competitive. At some point, the Federal Government is going to have to demand that it get a greater return on its investment. I believe that allowing public-private competitive sourcing is a step in that direction. At the proper time, I will urge adoption of the Thomas amendment.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, the managers have no objection to the amendment offered by the Senator from Iowa. I urge the amendment be adopted. Mr. President, we need to check something. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I urge adoption of amendment.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I want to say again the managers have no objection to this amendment, and I urge the amendment be adopted.

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

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I have an amendment on behalf of the Senator from California, Mrs. Feinstein. It has been cleared on both sides.

Mr. SHELBY. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, I am pleased to present to the Senate the Transportation, Treasury, and general government appropriations bill for the fiscal year 2004. The reorganization of the Appropriations Committee earlier this year substantially changed the jurisdiction of this subcommittee. While the jurisdiction of this subcommittee is not as wholly different as the new Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, the bill before the Senate is quite different from the bill the Senate has considered in the past. For the first time, programs outside the Department of Transportation have to directly compete against certain Transportation programs. This bill is within the subcommittee's 302(b) allocation. Despite being $300 million below the President's request, I believe we have included adequate resources to meet our responsibilities in a balanced and responsible manner. The goal of the subcommittee is to allocate scarce resources to the administration and our Members' highest priorities, to glean out savings where possible, and to apply those savings to programs that save lives, improve America's competitiveness, and programs that create jobs. I am pleased to report that the bill before the Senate does just that. I wish to provide a brief overview of the highlights of the bill. The budget request proposes an 8-percent raise. I am proud to report that the bill rejects the proposal and has included a historically high $33.8 billion for highway infrastructure investment. It will come as no surprise to anybody that my highest priority for the Transportation portion of this bill is to provide adequate investment in our highway system. Highway investment creates jobs through infrastructure development, fuels economic growth by reducing the transportation costs associated with American goods and services, and improves the quality of life of our citizens and enhances their ability to move around this country easily. The bill before us also includes $20 million for AMBER Alert grants to expand and improve the Nation's ability to quickly recover missing children. We know the alert system has worked in Texas. This investment will provide additional infrastructure across the country to notify the public to immediately begin looking for missing children and suspects. While many of Treasury's law enforcement functions were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security, Treasury continues its important responsibility for combating terrorist financing and other financial crimes both domestically and abroad. The bill includes funding to establish the Office of Terrorist and Financial Crimes. We have also included additional resources to support Treasury's policy responsibilities pertaining to counterterrorist financing and financial crimes. I believe these are essential functions in our Nation's war against this fight on terrorism. The bill includes an additional $20 million for the HIDA Program. Over the years, the HIDA Program has been effective in coordinating Federal, State, and local law enforcement to disrupt drug trafficking. We have also included language to, once again, make the National Youth Antidrug Media Campaign an effective investment for the Federal Government. While a few of my colleagues may disagree with the direction the bill proposes to take in regard to the media campaign, there are many more who believe a more stringent approach is necessary. I believe this bill strikes the appropriate balance between responsible congressional oversight of the campaign and allowing it to move forward in an attempt to effect change among our Nation's youth. Further delay in the courthouse construction process would only hamper the effort to meet the growing caseload demands on the Federal judiciary. The bill includes $500 million to fund the Help America Vote Act. This funding, in addition to the $830 million appropriated in fiscal year 2003, will allow more than $1.3 billion to be distributed to States in fiscal year 2004. I am pleased the administration has finally sent up its nominations for the commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission. It is my understanding the Rules Committee plans to hold a hearing on these nominees next Tuesday. I believe it is important that the Senate expedite this process so the resources we appropriate can be distributed to the States in a reasonable manner. The recommendation also includes funding to continue the student and parent mock elections. I know many of my colleagues are very interested in this important program and truly believe in the merits of this valuable hands-on civic lesson. That is precisely why we have included the money. The bill retains the so-called pay parity provision for Federal employees and uniform personnel and sets the adjustment at 4.1 percent. Finally, the bill includes $1.3 billion for Amtrak. I reiterate what I said during the committee consideration. I am deeply concerned about the offsets that have been included in this bill to pay for the additional $400 million above the budget request. We are barely keeping up with the demand for transit, highway, and airport infrastructure investment and maintenance. Amtrak, on the other hand, can hardly keep up passenger demand for its current routes. That is not just rhetoric. Amtrak provides roughly the same number of passenger trips as it did 20 years ago, while all other modes of transportation have more than tripled. I hope we can move this legislation quickly through the Senate and into the conference with the House. I look forward to working with the Senator from Washington, the former chairman of the committee, and also the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations, and with interested Members, to consider and pass this important legislation.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the substitute amendment be adopted and considered original text for the purpose of further amendment, with no points of order being waived.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I have an amendment on behalf of the Senator from Georgia, Mr. Chambliss. I send it to the desk and ask for its consideration.

Mr. SHELBY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, I send a substitute amendment to the desk at this time.

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

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a dear friend, Jean Elizabeth Rodgers Sutton, of Linden, AL. Jean Sutton died on Tuesday, September 16, at the age of 62. Jean was born in Jackson, MS, and attended Hinds Junior College in Raymond, MS. She received a Junior College Press Association Scholarship to continue her education at the University of Southern Mississippi. It was at the University of Southern Mississippi that she met her husband, Goodloe Sutton, and they were married in 1964 after Jean had graduated and worked for a year as editor of the Tylertown Times in Tylertown, MS. After moving to Linden, Jean worked as a reporter for the award- winning Democrat Reporter, the weekly newspaper owned by her husband. She also taught girls physical education and journalism at Linden High School. After teaching at Linden High School for two years, she began working full time for the Democrat Reporter where she served as managing editor. Together, Jean and Goodloe worked as a husband-and-wife reporting team. In the 1990s, they successfully exposed corruption and a drug ring involving the Marengo County Sheriff's office, amid death threats and intense pressure throughout their community. Their investigative reporting led to an FBI investigation and the conviction of the county's sheriff in 1997. Jean also found time to raise a family. She and Goodloe raised two exceptional sons. Their son, Howard Goodloe, is a graduate of Auburn University and I am pleased to have him as a member of my staff. He has served as my State Director since 2000. And, William Robert Sutton attends Southern Union Community College. Jean Sutton was a good friend, a leader in the Linden community, and a role model for investigative journalists. Her tremendous courage, her hard work and sacrifices on behalf of her readers, and her dedication to her family serve as an example of excellence for every reporter, parent and citizen. She will be greatly missed by many.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate for S. 300, the Jackie Robinson Congressional Gold Medal bill, be printed in the Record.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today in honor of Mrs. Nancy Gardner Sewell, a library media specialist/coordinator and head librarian at Selma High School in Selma, AL. After 36 years of exemplary commitment and dedicated service to the Selma City school system, Mrs. Sewell plans to retire on October 18, 2003. Mrs. Sewell is an educator, media specialist, civic leader, and strong advocate for children. Since 1993, she has tenaciously served the City of Selma, AL, as the first black female elected to its city council. Mrs. Sewell is multi-talented and has excelled in every avenue of her life, as indicated by the numerous honors and awards bestowed upon her by her peers and community. She has never been content with the status quo. Each endeavor throughout her rich life has been met with new and innovative ideas, insurmountable energy, and the ability to motivate people. Born and raised in Alabama, Mrs. Sewell married her college sweetheart, retired Coach Andrew A. Sewell, and became the mother of three children, Terri, Andrew, and Anthony. Her distinguished educational background includes a bachelor of science degree from Alabama State University, a masters degree from Purdue University, and advanced course work in other graduate studies at Atlanta University and the University of Alabama. Among many of Mrs. Sewell's outstanding achievements and honors, she pioneered the development of elementary libraries in the Selma City Schools, was instrumental in maintaining accreditation status for their libraries, implemented the ``Accelerated Reader's Program,'' revitalized the Selma-Dallas Youth and Government Council, and lobbied for grants to improve literacy through school libraries, just to name a few. Alabama is honored to be home to Mrs. Sewell. It is no secret that she is a woman who, day in and day out, goes above and beyond the call of duty. She is to be commended for all of her extraordinary efforts on behalf of Selma, AL, and everyone whose life she has touched.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today in support of passage of the Defense Production Reauthorization Act of 2003. This bill will reauthorize the Defense Production Act of 1950 for an additional 5 years. Mr. President, the Defense Production Act of 1950 was originally passed in response to the outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. defense industrial base that had provided the fighter planes, tanks and ships that were so crucial to the outcome of World War II had been largely scrapped following the end of that horrific conflict. The prevailing view, of course, was that such an industrial base was no longer needed in light of the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and the introduction into the American arsenal of atomic weapons. As we learned literally within hours of the crossing of the 38th Parallel by the first North Korean Army units, that view was catastrophically wrong. The Defense Production Act was the recognition by the executive and legislative branches of Government that a large industrial base oriented toward national defense was still vital to our national security and that the usual process by which weapons and other equipment are procured would not suffice in a genuine crisis. As in June 1950, the United States remains dependent upon the ability to respond to crises in a manner appropriate to the circumstances. That is where the Defense Production Act of 1950 continues to play a vital role in providing for the national defense. Its authorities allow the President to prioritize and reallocate contracts when the United States is confronted by an imminent threat to its well-being, and to respond to those threats after they've materialized. It provides the authority for the Department of Defense to go into factories that can not afford to maintain a critical capability due to insufficient demand and provide the means for that factory to continue to produce the required item. It indemnifies contractors against legal actions taken as result of U.S. Government directives issued under Defense Production Act authorities, as was needed during the first Persian Gulf War when Civil Air Reserve commercial aircraft were drafted into the war effort at the expense of their commercial obligations. Over time, the Defense Production Act has been expanded to include natural disasters as well as man-made events like terrorist attacks, and disasters resulting from accidents and equipment failures that can result in large sections of the United States being blacked-out by a major utility failure. In short, it is an emergency capability that we keep in our back pocket and hope it is never needed. But the Defense Production Act is routinely needed. I have alluded to the Transportation Security Administration's use of it in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It has also been used by the Department of Defense in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to procure vital military equipment like Predator UAVs and military satellite communications technology vital for the conduct of joint operations. And with the scale of contraction in the U.S. defense industrial base over the past decade, the act's authorities will remain as vital as ever for the foreseeable future. In drafting reauthorizing legislation, it was the committee's intent to modernize the Defense Production Act to take into account the dramatic changes that occurred since the act's last update in 1994. The emergence of terrorism, evident in the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden, and the tragic events of 9-11, as the central focus of U.S. national security planning has created an imperative that the Defense Production Act be adapted to that reality. That is why the Banking Committee-passed bill includes new findings and a declaration of policy: because the war on terrorism and the growth in scale of threat to the nation's critical infrastructure of telecommunications, transportation, energy, banking, and other sectors of society the security of which are vital to our national security and our economic and social well-being. The committee-passed bill, in line with the recommendations of the President's Report to Congress on the Modernization of the Defense Production Act and the Report of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, included in its findings and declaration of policy this emphasis on the war on terrorism and critical infrastructure protection. In addition, language was added intended to further strengthen the linkage between critical infrastructure and the authorities provided by the Defense Production Act during committee consideration of this bill. Unfortunately, this modernization of the act was more than the other chamber could swallow right now. That is why the ranking member of the Banking Committee, Senator Sarbanes, and I will offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Because the Defense Production Act expires today, there would be no time for a protracted conference. Consequently, the Banking Committee and its House counterpart have agreed to a more modest update of the Act. The amendment by the ranking member and me does the following: Reauthorizes the Defense Production Act for five years, as requested by the Defense Department; Provides funding the department requested for hardening electronics against the effects of radiation; Clarifies the President's authority to obtain information needed for the performance of assessments of the U.S. defense industrial base--a provision requested by the Department of Commerce; and Formally incorporates the concept of critical infrastructure protection under Defense Production Act authorities by including it under the definition of ``national defense.'' Mr. President, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the Senate passing the amendment in the nature of a substitute and then voting on final passage as soon as possible. The minute the Defense Production Act lapses, vital authorities for the conduct of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq disappear. I urge my colleagues' support for the amendment and for final passage of the bill.

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I appreciate the words of the distinguished Senator from Connecticut and look forward to continuing work with my colleagues on these important issues concerning the needs of our military industrial base. The Defense Production Act is an important piece of legislation that provides vital authorities to the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Energy to prepare for and respond to crises. These provisions are particularly important during this time as the nation prosecutes its war on terror. The act's authorities allow government agencies to allocate contracts and re-prioritize contracts to meet emergency requirements. And it also provides authority to these agencies, especially the Defense Department, to work with private industry to ensure they have the industrial capabilities required to meet national security requirements that economics alone would otherwise allow to atrophy. I am pleased the Senate will act on this legislation before it expires at midnight tonight. My hope is that it will be passed by the other body and signed into law by the President shortly.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today in support of H.R. 3087, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2003. This bill, which was crafted in a bi-partisan, bicameral fashion will extend the Federal transportation programs for an additional 5 months to February 29, 2004. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century expires on September 30 of this year. Legislation is necessary to carry on the essential functions of the highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit and other programs that are recipients of highway trust fund money. This bill accomplishes just that. It funds the programs at five-twelfths of the fiscal year 2004 budget conference report level. H.R. 3087 is a clean reauthorization of these programs. This bill contains no new projects and no new programmatic changes. It simply extends TEA-21 and current provisions of transportation law. As the chairman of the Banking Committee whose jurisdiction includes the reauthorization of the transit title of TEA-21, I was hopeful that, working with the chairman of the relevant committee, we would have achieved passage of a multiyear bill. As funding levels and an appropriate source for those funds have yet to be identified, that proved to be impossible. While I am not overly confident that 5 months of negotiating will resolve this problem, I support this piece of legislation. I believe it is essential that we continue to authorize our Nation's highway and transit infrastructure. I think this necessary stop-gap measure is the way to achieve that. I recommend the bill to my colleagues and ask for their support.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of Mr. Harland Meredith, a resident of Tuscaloosa, a Navy hero, and a leader in our community. Over the Independence Day holiday, a friend of mine, Charlie Land, read the following tribute about Mr. Meredith. I ask that Charlie's comments be printed in the Record in celebration of Harlan Meredith. The material follows: Once upon a time a young man of this church, freshly graduated from the University of Alabama, faced the world and pondered the future. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal. New college graduates are always doing that. No doubt some are right now. But this was a special time. It was May of 1941. He was 20 years old and war loomed uncertainly on the horizon. He already had tried to get into military service through the University's advanced Army or Army Air Corps ROTC programs. Both had turned him down. Something always seemed to be wrong when he took the required physical examinations, although nothing ever showed up in his regular physicals. ``I guess the Lord was just looking after me,'' he would muse many years later. ``I figure He just didn't want me to be in those.'' Within a few months, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. War wasn't just on the horizon anymore. He really had always wanted to serve in the U.S. Navy, anyhow. He applied for a direct commission as a naval officer and was accepted. He was ready to go fight for his country, for freedom. But the Navy sent its new ensign to Chicago to oversee the hydrographic office that served the Great Lakes. It was not an unimportant job and he did it well. His commanding officer in Detroit was pleased. He pronounced his ensign a lucky young man; he could hydrograph his way through the whole war right there in Chicago. He liked Chicago okay, but that wasn't at all where he wanted to be or what he wanted to do. He wanted to go to sea and fight. It took a while, and he had to find his own replacement, but finally he was off to San Francisco to train for sea duty. Now he was 21, but he was still single, his wife-to-be yet unmet. And he was all steamed up to go to the South Pacific. ``You know how you are at that age,'' he says. He got there, although in a sort of roundabout way. His first sea duty was on the seaplane tender Hulbert, a converted destroyer, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. It was no pleasure cruise. The Aleutians were hostile waters; Japanese forces occupied some of the islands. There was combat, although not the heavy action to be found in the South Pacific. One night the Hulbert dragged anchor off a point in the Aleutians, ran aground and sank. He transferred to a small new escort aircraft carrier based in Portland, OR. Typical of her class, the ship was named for a bay. Her namesake, Kalinin Bay, was in Southeast Alaska. But she would take her new gunnery officer from Tuscaloosa to the South Pacific at last. And there would be some action. The Kalinin Bay, with her 27 aircraft and 860 crew members, sailed about the South Pacific, doing her chores. A lot of them involved combat. There were enemy air attacks to fend off. There was the occasional torpedo to dodge. There were air strikes to be made. There were invasions to support- Sapan, Guam, the Southern Palaus, islands in the Leyte Gulf and finally the invasion of Leyte itself as Gen. Douglas MacArthur made good on his promise to return to the Philippines. So the Kalinin Bay was no stranger to combat as she steamed some 60 miles east of the Philippine Island of Samar early on the morning of October 25, 1944. She already had operated off Leyte for more than a week. Her planes already had flown 244 sorties, destroying enemy installations and airfields on five different islands. She was part of a small naval battle group nicknamed ``Taffy 3.'' It included 5 other escort carriers, plus a screen of 3 destroyers and 4 destroyer escorts. The carriers of ``Taffy 3'' were preparing to launch their first air strikes of the day when its commanding admiral learned that a sizable Japanese naval force was approaching. It was 0647 hours. By 0658 hours, ``Taffy 3'' was under fire from part of the largest Japanese surface fleet to fight since the Battle of Midway, coming to keep the Americans out of the Philippines. The ``Battle Off Samar'', as it would be called, was under way. It would be described by historians as one of the most memorable engagements in U.S. naval history. The ships of ``Taffy 3'', slower, outnumbered and outgunned, soon were fighting for their lives against a force of four Japanese battleships, eight cruisers and 12 destroyers. The Kalinin Bay took the first of 15 direct hits at 0750 hours, a 14- or 16-inch shell from one of the battleships. It struck one side of the hangar deck near the forward elevator. A later hit penetrated the deck and destroyed all of the ship's radio and radar equipment. Fortunately, some of the shells went right through the ship without causing significant damage. And even more fortunately, there were a great many near misses. The Kalinin Bay fought back hard. She launched her aircraft while under fire from three cruisers. She dodged behind a timely rain squall, then maneuvered behind chemical smoke. She traded fire with the cruisers for a while, then shot it out with Japan's Destroyer Squadron 10. Her 5-inch gun stayed busy. It scored two hits on one heavy cruiser and hit a Japanese destroyer amidships. And her planes inflicted heavy damage, striking the enemy ships with bombs, rockets and gunfire. The Japanese naval vessels turned away for ``Taffy 3'' after 2\1/2\ hours, but not before their destroyers launched a torpedo attack. The torpedoes were launched from far enough away to begin to slow before reaching their targets. So a U.S. Avenger torpedo- bomber from a sister ship was able to explode two torpedoes in the Kalinin Bay's wake about 100 yards astern, and the ship's 5-inch gun deflected another from a collision course with her stern. Battered and bloody, the U.S. force sailed south, but there still would be little respite for the Kalinin Bay and her surviving sister ships. Little more than an hour later, at 1050, they cam under concentrated attack from kamikzae aircraft, the suicide bombers of World War II. Four kamikazes dived at the Kalinin Bay. Two of the airplanes were shot down at close range. The third crashed into one side of the flight deck, damaging it badly. The fourth destroyed the aft port stack. It was finally over by 1130 hours. The ships and planes of ``Taffy 3,'' with some help from the planes of another unit, ``Taffy 2'', had cleared the air of enemy planes and had denied the powerful Japanese force entry into the Gulf of Leyte. MacArthur's beachhead was safe. The price had been high. Five of ``Taffy 3's'' 13 ships had been sunk--two carriers, a destroyer and two destroyer escorts. Hundreds of American sailors had died. The Kalinin Bay counted five dead among her 60 casualties, plus considerable structural damage. During the hours of intense, furious fighting, the gunnery officer of the Kalinin Bay never wished he was back in that office in Chicago. The Kalinin Bay managed to make it to New Guinea for temporary repairs. The ship was back in the States by late November and he transferred off as it awaited further work. Shipmates had died in several battles. He had been frightened at times and his faith in God had been tested. But he had come through without a scratch and with his faith stronger than ever. ``You realized your Christian faith was the most important thing you could have,'' he would say. ``In combat I felt like I was sent there for a purpose. I felt like God's hand was holding me the whole time; I really did.'' He was ready for his next assignment. It was to the Midway, a much larger aircraft carrier that soon was to be commissioned at Newport News, VA. The idea was for the Midway to sail around the Horn and into the Pacific, where it would be a powerful additional force. By the time the Midway was commissioned September 10, 1945, that assignment was unnecessary. Gen. MacArthur had accepted Japan's unconditional surrender on September 2 aboard the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The war was over. The Midway would have a lasting impact on his life, though. A fellow naval officer needed tickets to the commissioning ceremony for house guests, and he was glad to oblige. Among the guests he met the lovely young woman from Tuscaloosa who would become his wife. They married shortly after he got out of the Navy. Duty done and a bit older, the young man who had loved his country so much that he was determined to fight for it turned his attention to a successful business career; helped raise two beautiful daughters, and became a highly respected community leader. He became a stalwart of this church, a wise, practical leader who has given of himself, grown and thrived on his ability to seek and receive more insights. His faith has been unwavering, even during the painful ordeal of one daughter's untimely death. People who know him will tell you he is a man of high intelligence, great character, impeccable integrity, calm consistency and complete credibility. They will also tell you he hard-working, caring, considerate, loyal and a Southern gentleman in the best sense of that definition. He's a man who still greatly loves his family and his hometown and the United States of America and what it stands for, what he fought for. A patriot. A man who reminds us in his modest, unassuming way that patriotism isn't some mysterious, exotic condition. It is simple and fundamental and powerful. It springs from fervent love for your country, love for freedom. It is in your heart and spirit and actions, just like it always has been in his. This sanctuary hasn't lacked for patriots and heroes to sit in its pews to worship God over the decades. Many who fit that description are here today, as you are most Sundays. I salute you. And I salute Harlan Meredith, who story I'm sure some of you recognized. I also thank him for his graciousness in sharing it with me, at my request, so I could share it with you today. Incidentally, Harlan and Mary Anne have been married for 57 years now. That's worth a salute, too. Our church, community and country has been blessed to have people like Harlan, and you. This, too, is a special time in our country's history. Again we are at war. Almost every day more of our soldiers pay the ultimate price for our country, leaving saddened survivors to live with the aftermath. It makes this Independence Day weekend all the more meaningful. I pray it also makes us all the more thankful for our blessings. And the United States of America truly has been blessed these 227 years, perhaps most of all with the courageous, hard-working, God-loving people who have built and maintained this great country of liberty and justice. People who have been willing to sacrifice and fight for it, as so many continue to do today. Patriots. We aren't perfect as a country. But to the extent mere humankind can be, the good part of the United States of America is both the light and the hope of the world. May God bless you; may God continue to bless America; and may we never forget from Whom our blessings flow. I don't think Harlan Meredith ever has.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I want to associate myself with the statement of Senator Voinovich regarding the importance of the M1A2 System Enhancement Program. I strongly support providing the necessary funding to modernize the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) tank fleet. I would ask Chairman Stevens and Senator Inouye to work with us to find a way to address this important issue in conference.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I am reminded that both the distinguished chairman and the ranking member have been strong proponents of the JASSM program in the past. The JASSM program is less than 30 days from completing operational test and is scheduled for a full rate production decision in November of this year. Both DOD and the Air Force have sufficient confidence in JASSM that they have proposed to use fiscal year 2003 Iraqi freedom funds to procure additional missiles. In addition, I would note that the Navy is scheduled to join the Air Force in future JASSM procurements and this production ramp is critical to meeting both the Navy and Air Force inventory requirements. I hope that we can work in conference to find a path that will protect the existing contract while at the same time provide the Air Force these vitally needed ``go-to-war'' assets.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the outstanding accomplishments and distinguished career of Mr. Arthur G. Stephenson upon his retirement as the Director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. It has been a privilege for me to get to know Art. While retirement announcements are things that we do not like to hear when it involves someone who has been as vital to the success of an organization as Art has been to Marshall's, I would like to say how much I have enjoyed working with Art and his staff during his tenure as the Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center. As the Director of one of NASA's largest field installations, with more than 6,500 civil service and contract employees and an annual budget in excess of $2 billion, Art successfully managed a very broad range of activities for the U.S. space program. Some of these critical NASA initiatives included development of new reusable launch vehicles, space shuttle propulsion, advanced space transportation systems, second and third generation propulsion technology development programs, research in microgravity, and science payload operations aboard the International Space Station. He also oversaw the establishment of the National Space Science Technology Center, a partnership with universities and Federal agencies to conduct cutting-edge research. Art also oversaw the planning and establishment of the Propulsion Research Laboratory, a world-class laboratory for research into future space transportation and propulsion technology. Art has led the Marshall Center in numerous successful space shuttle launches in which Marshall was responsible for all propulsion elements. Under Art's direction, the Marshall Center has completed testing of the truss and pressurized modules for the International Space Station, and provided support for the construction and operation of the International Space Station, including Marshall's Payload Operations Center which controls all the science experiments aboard the space station. Art brought more than 35 years of experience in the space industry to NASA and used it to the great benefit of the Marshall Center and the U.S. space program. I could list many additional achievements and professional accomplishments, and I believe that success is directly attributable to Art's record as an extraordinary leader throughout his career. Art has been an important and respected member of the Huntsville community. I know that I speak for many people in Huntsville and everyone in the NASA family when I say that we all thank Art for his tireless commitment to NASA and to Marshall. We sincerely hope that he and his family will remain part of the Huntsville community for many years to come.

Mr. SHELBY

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate for S. 498, the Joseph A. De Laine Congressional Gold Medal bill, be printed in the Record.