Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

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

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I might state for the Record, it sort of proves my point. I yielded time on the appropriations bill for 5 minutes, and here we are 2 hours later. I do hope that Members will understand if we are not very cooperative any further on this bill. Further, however, I might say to the Senator from Georgia, who was yielded specific time so he could have time comparable to that used by the Senators from Massachusetts and Connecticut--and I understand he only had 5 minutes of that 25, 26 minutes--he is not included in the prohibition against having some time on this bill when I manage it, as far as I am concerned. Madam President, I have a series of amendments. I would like to proceed with them. I do have one of them that is cleared already. It is an amendment to the pending supplemental appropriations bill. Amendment No. 2067 (Purpose: To prohibit the Department of the Army from moving forward with civilian personnel reductions and the offer of Voluntary Separations Incentive Pay (VSIP) and Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) benefits at all Army Test Ranges until such time as the Congress has the opportunity to consider the merits of such actions during the Fiscal Year 1999 Appropriations process; and to require that the VERA and VSIP benefits being currently offered will continue to be available if necessary)

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, all time is expired now, is that correct?

Mr. STEVENS. I move to table the amendment of the Senator from Arizona, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, if the Senate can be in order, the distinguished President pro tempore wishes to make remarks about this bill at this time.

Mr. STEVENS. I yield to the Senator from South Carolina and ask unanimous consent I reclaim the floor when he is finished with his statement so I may deal with some amendments that we have agreed to on both sides. As has been noted, there will be no more votes tonight, but we will try our best to have a vote early in the morning.

Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Senator for those remarks. He is absolutely correct. We do need this bill. We need it for the men and women in the armed services who have already been deployed. I, too, have trouble with some of these deployments, but I never have any trouble voting and asking people to vote for money to keep and support our men and women who have been sent in harm's way because of command decisions. Amendments Nos. 2069 through 2076, En Bloc

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we have a series of amendments that have been agreed to on both sides. I would like to just review them and make sure the Democratic members of the committee and their staffs concur that these are the ones that have been cleared. Let me read them. Then I will send them all to the desk at one time. First, I propose an amendment to make technical corrections to section 405 to the bill that pertains to the Forest Service transportation system moratorium. That has been cleared on both sides. I offer it on behalf of Senator Craig. It has been also cleared by the chairman of the subcommittee involved. I have a second amendment. This is offered on behalf of the distinguished minority leader, Senator Daschle. It deals with emergency river and shoreline repairs along the Missouri River. That has been cleared on both sides. I have another amendment on behalf of Senator Cochran, Senator Bumpers, Senator D'Amato and Senator Boxer. It deals with assistance to replace and rehabilitate trees and vineyards damaged by natural disasters. I have an amendment on behalf of Senator Boxer that deals with emergency levee repairs at Suisun Marsh in California. That has been cleared on both sides. Mr. President, I have another amendment on behalf of the Senator from Hawaii, Mr. Inouye. It deals with Apra Harbor in Guam. That is another emergency amendment and has been cleared. Another amendment on behalf of Senator Cochran and Senator Bumpers, that deals with additional boll weevil eradication loans. It is for the amount of $222,000. This is to the natural disaster bill and emergency defense bill, but it is to correct a shortfall in the fiscal year 1998 appropriation due to an interest rate subsidy miscalculation. So it is to correct an error in the previous law. I have another amendment that has been cleared on both sides. It is on behalf of Senator Boxer. It deals with not applying changes in a prior act of Congress to the projects that are resulting from fall and winter flooding. Mr. President, there is another amendment here that I offer on behalf of the majority leader and Senators Lieberman, Gregg, Hollings, Kyl, myself, McConnell, Helms, Shelby, Brownback and Kerrey. It deals with the availability of funds for the activities in connection with the Iraqi Democratic opposition; the second portion of this deals with the establishment of Radio Free Iraq. That has been cleared on both sides. To my knowledge, those are all the amendments that we have cleared. I now send these to the desk. I ask unanimous consent they be reported and the amendments be considered en bloc.

Mr. STEVENS. Due to the fact that I read the intent and purposes, I ask the amendments not be read any further and they be considered en bloc at this time.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider that action and I move to lay my motion on the table.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Senator from Michigan has an amendment that we have previously discussed. I encourage him to raise it at this time. Mr. LEVIN addressed the Chair.

Mr. STEVENS. I offer my apologies to the Senator from Michigan. I have discussed this matter, Mr. President, and I would like to make certain that the amendment of the Senator from Michigan does not reflect approval or disapproval of the benchmarks concept in the President's certification transmitted to Congress. Amendment No. 2078 to Amendment No. 2077

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have an amendment in the second degree which I send to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this amendment is necessary because of the problems we had with the Bosnian money in this bill already. Many people oppose Bosnian deployment, as the Senator from South Carolina has just stated. I want to make certain we are not going to get into a debate over the benchmarks when we get to conference, and I am grateful to the Senator from Michigan. I believe he will agree to this amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. We are prepared to accept the amendment as amended.

Mr. STEVENS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2079 (Purpose: To provide contingent emergency funds for the enhancement of a number of theater missile defense programs)

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I send to the desk an amendment on behalf of the Senator from Arizona, Mr. Kyl.

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have asked this be presented at this time so that other Members may see it and have a chance to discuss it with me or with Senator Kyl before the time tomorrow when we will seek to have it either adopted or voted on. I ask now that that amendment be set aside in order that Senator Ashcroft may offer his amendment at this time.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, today the Senate will consider the supplemental appropriations bill. It is a bill for emergency disaster needs and for overseas military operations. Our Committee on Appropriations reported this bill, S. 1768, along with S. 1769, on Tuesday, March 17. S. 1769 provides funds for the International Monetary Fund. We reported both of these bills by one roll call vote, and that vote was 26-2. I call that to the attention of the Senate because it indicates a substantial agreement within our committee on the terms of these two bills. Prior to the date we reported this bill, the administration had transmitted four supplemental or rescission messages to the Congress for 1998. This bill addresses each of those requests and makes other adjustments based on our committee's review of agency needs and priorities. Our committee originated this bill ahead of the House Committee on Appropriations in order to complete action on these two urgent measures prior to the April recess. We have also done it to get ahead of some of the problems that are involved in the cloture votes before the Senate, because we just don't want this bill to be held up by the period of time that has to run if we do vote cloture on any other measure. We have consulted with the House committee, and particularly the House committee chairman, on this approach, and I am pleased that the House understands what we are doing. The House committee will take up these two matters later this week. It is our hope that both of the bills will be in conference by the last week of March. We have to have these bills passed before the recess. That is necessary, as I will explain later, as far as military implications and the disaster moneys that are involved. In order to do that, we must start this bill today and finish the bill before the cloture vote tomorrow, which is scheduled for 5:30 tomorrow evening. S. 1768 makes appropriations for natural disaster relief and military operations. It provides $2.5 billion in emergency funds. Pursuant to the budget agreement and the administration's request, these amounts are not offset by rescissions. Additionally, there are approximately $190 million in new, nonemergency appropriations offset by specific rescissions or reductions in contract authority that are also addressed in this bill. Most of those amounts are directed to meet the ``Year 2000'' computer crisis faced by several Federal agencies. Additional funds to ensure Federal computer systems are ready for the year 2000 will be provided in the 1999 fiscal year bill. We will present the bill later this year. For Department of Defense operations, the committee recommends $1.8 billion in emergency funding for ongoing missions in Bosnia and in Southwest Asia and for the natural disaster response. The supplemental request for Bosnia was mandated by section 8132 of the 1998 defense appropriations bill, along with certifications and other submissions on the Bosnian mission. The committee also received a fiscal year 1999 budget amendment for Bosnia. We will consider that amendment in the context of the fiscal year 1999 defense bill for the full year of 1999. We will not deal with 1999 funds for Bosnia in this bill. The request for operations in Southwest Asia is approximately $1.3 billion. That amount sustains the current force structure and operating tempo through September 30 of this year. Let me say that again. The amount we have requested is sufficient only to maintain the existing deployment that has been made to contain Iraq. Should additional units be sent, we would have to once again ask for additional money. Secretary Cohen, the Secretary of Defense, has not made any request for funding for the fiscal year 1999 yet; that is, no money has been requested for fiscal year 1999 for the deployment that is ongoing to contain Iraq in Southwest Asia. As was discussed at our hearing on Friday, it is essential that our allies and regional partners in the gulf contribute more to this mission. Both Senator Byrd and I have spoken out on this before. At our committee markup before the Appropriations Committee, Senator Byrd offered his amendment, which is section 203 of this bill. The Byrd amendment establishes a process for the administration to seek fuller participation by our allies and regional partners for the Southwest Asia mission and the costs associated with that mission. The recommendation from the committee also includes $672 million for disaster relief efforts by several Federal agencies including the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Transportation. These amounts reflect the most recent estimates available to the committee from the Office of Management and Budget and increases that have been advocated by Senators for ongoing flooding in the Southeast and other needs. Some of these instances took place after the submission by the administration. The administration has not yet requested additional funds for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We may still receive such a request today or tomorrow as better estimates are prepared for flooding, ice storm and tornado damage across the country. Based on the recent devastating tornadoes in North Carolina and Georgia over the weekend, I have urged the administration to forward any such request now so it will be considered during action on this bill. On Tuesday, the committee also reported S. 1769, as I indicated. That appropriates $17.9 billion for the International Monetary Fund. I hope the Senate will consider that bill this week as well. And we may well consider it as an amendment to this bill. At this time, there are discussions underway concerning the package proposed for IMF reforms. That was in the second bill, S. 1769, as reported by the committee. It is my hope that those talks will result in a new IMF package that will receive bipartisan support here in the Senate as we debate this bill. Our committee did not recommend at this time additional funding to pay arrears at the United Nations. The fiscal year 1998 Commerce- Justice-State appropriations bill included $100 million pursuant to the budget agreement for arrears. This amount was made available subject to authorization of the U.N. budget and management reforms. That authorization bill has not yet passed nor has a firm agreement been reached between Congress and the administration concerning this matter. We do believe that the administration should conclude an agreement with Congress on U.N. reforms. And we hope, on that basis, to deal with the U.N. funding in the fiscal year 1999 State Department appropriations bill. However, Mr. President, it is also possible that the House of Representatives may address the U.N. funding and the matter could be considered in conference. It would do so on the basis of the House passing the authorization bill and, based upon such action by the House, it would send us a bill to be considered here in the Senate. And of course it is possible we might consider that in conference without the necessity of an authorization bill in the Senate if that is agreed to by appropriate Members of the Senate. Any resolution, of course, hinges on securing an agreement on U.N. reforms. The committee reported these two bills separately at the request of the House. We, however, want to ensure that defense and disaster relief amounts are enacted prior to the April recess. It is my intention to do everything I can to achieve passage of not only this bill but the IMF bill before that deadline. Let me ask every Member of the Senate to be on notice that we are going to do everything we can to work with them on amendments today. We will do everything possible to complete action on this bill tomorrow before the cloture vote that is already set, as I indicated. Now, once again, I just have to urge Members to come here today and offer their amendments. We hope that we will have some of them voted on tonight. There will be at least one vote tonight; that is for sure. And I think that Senator Byrd will join me in working to achieve reasonable time agreements wherever it is necessary to assure that we can debate and dispose of all amendments to this bill in a timely manner. It will be my intention to move to table extraneous amendments that are not urgent for action prior to September 30. The committee will begin the markup of the fiscal year 1999 bill early this year. We hope to do so in May or early June. I implore Senators to reserve amendments that pertain to issues that can be funded after September 30, to reserve those amendments for the fiscal year 1999 bill. This is an emergency supplemental. It deals with the disaster funding and it deals with the amounts necessary to support our forces which are overseas at this time. Now, Senators may disagree with the President on the deployment to Bosnia and may have some question about the size of the deployments to Kuwait and in the Southwest Asia area. All I can tell them is that the forces are there. The men and women in our armed services deserve support. If we do not support this bill now, the Department of Defense, under the Food and Forage Act, will simply have to take money out of the readiness accounts and we will see our forces here at home not receive the amount of money they need to continue to maintain their expertise and to maintain their readiness and to keep our defense systems in the shape that is necessary for any contingency. When we, as the superpower of the world, have deployments of the level we already have overseas, it is just not possible to neglect the readiness of these people here at home. We are turning over the forces in the Iraq deployment every 6 months, Mr. President. That means that forces that are here at home must be ready to go on active duty and in a deployment mode when their time comes. To be forced to take money from their readiness account in order to support those that are already deployed overseas is wrong. We need this money now. As I said, it must be done before April 1. The Joint Chiefs joined together to come to our committee and explain to us in detail the impact that not having these moneys available by April 1 would have on the readiness of forces stationed right here at home. Mr. President, this is a bill that is necessary because of these emergencies. All amendments that are offered making additional appropriations must either qualify for the emergency as is described in this bill or must have appropriate budget authority and outlay offsets. So we will be examining every amendment that comes forward to see whether it would delay the passage of this bill. Again, I can only plead with Senators to keep in mind the absolute necessity to assist us to get this job done before April 1. Now it is my pleasure to yield to my good and distinguished friend from West Virginia. I know he has a statement to make as well as an amendment to offer. I look forward to working with him throughout the consideration of the bill. I thank you, Mr. President. Mr. BYRD addressed the Chair.

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the amendment that is pending is the Byrd amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. This amendment now has been cleared on this side of the aisle. I am prepared to accept that on behalf of the committee, and I urge Senators to request its adoption.