J. Thurmond

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to hold an executive business meeting during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 10, 1997, at 9:30 a.m., in room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Labor and Human Resources Subcommittee on Employment and Training be authorized to meet for a hearing on vocational rehabilitation during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 10, 1997, at 9:30 p.m.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be granted permission to conduct a hearing Thursday, July 10, 9:30 a.m., hearing room SD-406, on climate change.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 10, 1997, at 2 p.m., in room 562 of the Dirksen Senate Building to conduct an oversight hearing on the administration's proposal to restructure Indian gaming fee assessments.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be granted permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 10, for purposes of conducting a Subcommittee on National Parks, Historic Preservation, and Recreation hearing which is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. The purpose of this oversight hearing is to review the preliminary findings of the General Accounting Office concerning a study on the health, condition, and viability of the range and wildlife populations in Yellowstone National Park.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I thank the able Senator from Kansas. The name of the courthouse for Bob Dole is purely a Kansas matter, but I just want to say that no finer person in the United States deserves a courthouse or any other building named for him than Bob Dole. He is a great American. He has rendered this country great service. He was an outstanding leader here in the Senate for many years. We are all proud of him and we will be delighted to have a courthouse named for him.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Adopt the Dorgan-Lott second-degree amendment.

Mr. THURMOND. Madam President, I yield back my time.

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

Mr. THURMOND. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be 10 minutes equally divided, prior to a vote on the Dorgan second- degree amendment to the McCain amendment.

Mr. THURMOND. Madam President, I yield my 10 minutes to Senator McCain.

Mr. THURMOND. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. THURMOND. Madam President, I ask that Janice Nielsen, a legislative fellow working in Senator Craig's office, be granted the privilege of the floor during the duration of the debate on S. 936, the defense authorization bill.

Mr. THURMOND. Madam President, I ask unanimous-consent that the remaining rollcall votes in this series be limited to 10 minutes each.

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

Mr. THURMOND. I yield back any time I have.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I had previously moved to table the Wellstone amendment. It seems there is some misunderstanding, but I so move to table the Wellstone amendment and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 9, 1997 at 2:30 p.m. to hold a closed hearing on intelligence matters.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be granted permission to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 9, for purposes of conducting a joint oversight hearing with the House Committee on Resources which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. The purposes of this hearing is to receive testimony on the Final Draft of the Tongass Land Management Plan as the first step in the congressional review process provided by the 1996 amendments to the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent on behalf of the Governmental Affairs Committee Special Investigation to meet on Wednesday, July 9, at 9 a.m. for a hearing on campaign financing issues.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Regulatory Relief and the Subcommittee on Housing Opportunity and Community Development of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 9, 1997, to conduct a hearing on the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act [RESPA], the Truth in Lending Act [TILA] and problems surrounding the mortgage origination process.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 9, 1997 at 3 p.m. in room S211 to hold a hearing on: ``Encryption, Key Recovery, and Privacy Protection in the Information Age.''

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Rules and Administration be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 9, 1997, at 2:30 p.m. until business is completed to hold a business meeting for a briefing on the status of the investigation into the contested Louisiana Senate election. This meeting will continue at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, July 11, 1997.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, the amendment offered by the Senator from Michigan, Senator Levin, would seriously damage the functioning of the Federal Prison Industries, Incorporated known as FPI. FPI is the Bureau of Prisons' most important inmate program. It keeps inmates productively occupied and reduces inmate idleness and the violence and disruptive behavior associated with it. Thus it is essential to the security of Federal correctional institutions, the communities in which they are located, and the safety of Federal correctional staff and inmates. Eliminating FPI's mandatory source status in law would dramatically reduce the number of inmates FPI would be able to employ. The inmate idleness this would create would seriously undermine the safety and security of America's Federal prisons. In addition to the general benefit of keeping our prison population employed, the Federal Prison Industries Program has the added benefit that 50 percent of the wages paid to prisoners employed under the program are used to pay off fines and provide restitution to the victims of their crimes. This is an important benefit that must not be impeded. FPI has no other outlet for its products than Federal agencies. The constraints within which FPI operates cause it to be less efficient than its private sector counterparts. While private sector companies specialize and become highly efficient in certain product areas, FPI, in an attempt to limit its market share in any one area, has diversified its product line. Private sector companies strive to obtain the most modern, efficient equipment to minimize the labor component of their manufacturing costs. FPI, on the other hand must keep its manufacturing process as labor intensive as possible in order to employ the maximum number of inmates. Since FPI operates its factories in secure correctional environments, it faces additional constraints that limit its efficiency. For example, every tool must be checked out at the beginning of the day, checked in before lunch, checked out again in the afternoon, and checked in at the end of the day. In addition, Federal Prison Industries factories are occasionally forced to shut down because of inmate unrest or institutional disturbances. The costs associated with civilian supervision and numerous measures necessary to maintain the security of the prison add substantially to the cost of production. It should be noted that the average Federal inmate has an 8th grade education, is 37 years old, is serving a 10-year sentence for a drug related offense, and has never held a steady job. According to a recent study by an independent firm, the overall productivity rate of an inmate with a background like this is approximately \1/4\ that of a civilian worker. FPI must have some method of offsetting these inefficiencies if it is expected to acquire a reasonable share of Government contracts and remain self financing. The offsetting advantage that Congress has provided is the mandatory sourcing requirements in section 4124 of title 18, United States Code. This section requires that Federal agencies purchase products made by FPI as long as those products meet customer needs for quality, price, and timeliness of delivery. If the product is not currently manufactured by FPI, or if the FPI is not competitive in quality, price or timeliness, Federal Prison Industries will grant a waiver to allow the Federal agency to purchase the product from private sector suppliers. The amendment proposed by Senator Levin would force the Attorney General to require that Federal agencies purchase FPI products on a case-by-case basis, increasing paperwork and administrative expense unnecessarily. The current FPI mandatory source requirement provides a steady flow of work to the inmate population and reduces the requirement for FPI to expend large amounts of money on advertising and marketing. If such expenses had to be incurred, sales levels and market share would have to be expanded to cover them. This would have an adverse impact on private sector companies in the same businesses as FPI. I urge my colleagues to reject the Levin amendment. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter from the Council of Prison Locals of the AFL-CIO be printed in the Record.

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