J. Thurmond

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, no.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I move to table Wellstone amendment 670.

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. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 5:30 p.m. today, there be 15 minutes of debate equally divided between Senator Wellstone and Senator Thurmond, or his designee, and 15 minutes of debate between Senator Gorton and Senator Inouye; and, immediately following that debate, the Senate proceed to vote on or in relation to the Wellstone amendment 670, to be followed by a vote on or in relation to the Gorton amendment 424, to be followed by a vote on or in relation to the Dodd amendment 765; and, finally there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided before the second and third vote.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that no other amendments be in order to the above-listed amendments.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Jeanine Esperne of Senator Kyl's staff be granted privileges of the floor during consideration of S. 936.

Mr. THURMOND. The floor is available. Any Senator who now wishes to express himself on the other side of this issue has the opportunity. We are going to be voting here in just a little bit.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I rise to support the Dorgan-Daschle amendment. I think that is the logical step to take at this time. I wish to commend the majority leader, Senator Lott, the assistant majority leader, Senator Nickles, for their excellent talks that they made on this subject. I wish to commend all others who took that position or the opposite position for participating in this debate. This is a very important subject. I am very pleased that so many Senators have taken part in this debate, which is very helpful to our country. Mr. President, I am not going to make a long talk. We have had a lot of talk the other day. I expect to speak less than 5 minutes. Mr. President, in my judgment, and that of many of my colleagues, the Secretary of Defense has not made a sufficient case for additional base closures. The one point that has been a common theme throughout the debate on additional base closures rounds has been the extent of actual overcapacity in the existing infrastructure. I am not satisfied that we have accurate data on this matter and should not vote for any additional rounds until we have an independent assessment of the overcapacity. As a second concern is that I believe that the desire for supposed savings is becoming the sole driving force for additional base closure, without consideration of continuing requirements. The Department has not identified the up-front cost of doing another closure round and I am worried that, based on experience, most of the claimed savings will not materialize, or be used for modernization. Mr. President, it is also important that the Congress understands on how the Department plans to proceed with the next BRAC and whether it will focus on facilities where excess capacity truly exists. I do not need to remind my colleagues that we have had four rounds of base closures, and that many of our communities have endured tremendous turmoil and great losses because of them. These communities were under the impression that the closures they endured would resolve the overcapacity problem. I recall the Department's claiming that BRAC 95 would be ``The Mother of all BRACs.'' In facts, this was a gross overstatement. I suggest that the Presidential campaign had a role in limiting the scope of BRAC 95, and the communities and the Nation are now bearing the consequences of that action. Despite the stated good intentions of my colleagues, I oppose taking action at this time. We must have a better understanding of the excess capacity, what the future military requirements will be and how the Department will pay for this expensive undertaking. Until we have that information, I urge the Senate to vote against this amendment.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I oppose the amendment offered by Senator Wellstone in regard to the School Breakfast Program. I remind my colleagues that the President proposed the repeal of these startup grants during last year's welfare debate. In addition, the Democratic substitute welfare reform bill contained a provision to repeal these grants. Obviously, people across the political spectrum believe this grant program to be unnecessary. I also remind my colleagues that this requirement was not identified in the budget request, and presently, about four in every five low- income children already attend a school with a school breakfast program. The breakfast program has expanded to the extent that it is not clear additional funds are necessary or would have the effect of bringing more schools into the program. The last point I want to make is that transferring funds from the Department of Defense, even making the authority discretionary, is bad precedent. We shouldn't make this a precedent. We, in the Congress, should make these decisions and not delegate them to the Secretary of Defense. Mr. President, we have a budget agreement. We should not void this agreement and our responsibilities to make these decisions. I urge my colleagues to defeat this amendment. I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Sessions and Senator Inhofe be added as cosponsors to amendment 420 offered by Senator Cochran.

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

Mr. THURMOND

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

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, we are now back on the defense authorization bill, S. 936. We are ready to take up amendments. I want to inform my colleagues, if you have an amendment, come to the floor and present it. We are ready to act on these amendments. We have to finish this bill this week. We have lots of amendments. If you want your amendment acted on, you better come to the floor and see about it, otherwise we are going to proceed. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I commend the able Senator from Nebraska, who incidentally is the only Member of Congress who is a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, for the excellent statement he just made. It will be very beneficial to the country to hear a statement like that. Privilege of the Floor Mr. President, while I am on my feet, I ask unanimous consent that Ron Moranville, a legislative fellow on Senator McCain's staff, be granted privileges of the floor during the debate of S. 936.

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

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 8, 1997, at 9:30 a.m. to hold a hearing in room 226, Senate Dirksen Building, on: ``Oversight of the administrative process for disposing of Government surplus parts and equipment.''

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the African Affairs Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 8, 1997, at 10 a.m. to hold a hearing.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations to authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 8, 1997, at 2:30 p.m. to hold a hearing.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry be allowed to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 8, 1997, at 9 a.m. in SR-328A to receive testimony regarding rural electric loan portfolio and electricity deregulation.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet on Tuesday, July 8, 1997, at 2:15 p.m. in executive session, to consider the nomination of Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA, to be Commander-in-Chief, U.S. European Command.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent on behalf of the Governmental Affairs Committee special investigation to meet on Tuesday, July 8, at 10 a.m. for a hearing on campaign financing issues.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, the amendment has been cleared on our side.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, the amendment has been cleared on our side.

Mr. THURMOND

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