J. Thurmond

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, on behalf of the majority leader, I announce that tomorrow the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 11 a.m. At 11 a.m, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 936, the Defense authorization bill. Under a previous consent, at 2:15 p.m. the Senate will proceed to cloture vote on the Defense authorization bill. As a reminder, under rule XXII, Senators have until 12:30 on Tuesday in order to file second-degree amendments to the defense bill. Following the cloture vote, the Senate will continue debating amendments to the bill in the hope of making substantial progress on the bill.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. THURMOND

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

Mr. THURMOND. On behalf of Senator Shelby, I offer an amendment which would convey 5 acres of land to Hale County, AL. The property was originally donated to the Federal Government for the construction of an Army Reserve Center which, due to a change in priority, was canceled. I believe this amendment has been cleared by the other side. I urge the Senate to adopt it.

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

Mr. THURMOND. I move to reconsider the vote.

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

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, the amendment has been cleared. I urge the Senate to adopt the amendment.

Mr. THURMOND. I urge the Senate to adopt this amendment.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent from the hours of 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. the Senate stand in recess for the weekly policy luncheons to meet.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, for the Committee on Armed Services, I report favorably 17 nomination lists in the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and the Navy which were printed in full in the Congressional Records of January 9, February 5, April 7, May 15, June 2, 6, 10, and 11, 1997, and ask unanimous consent, to save the expense of reprinting on the Executive Calendar, that these nominations lie at the Secretary's desk for the information of Senators.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. I want to commend the able Senator from West Virginia on his devotion and dedication to his State. He has just paid a wonderful eulogy to that State and the people of that State. I am sure the people of the United States are very proud of West Virginia and the people of West Virginia and the able Senator who represents them here in the Senate.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Grams and Cochran amendments be temporarily set aside and it be in order for Senator Coverdell to offer an amendment No. 423 to the bill on behalf of himself and Senators Inhofe and Cleland. I further ask that following 2 minutes for explanation by Senator Coverdell, the amendment be set aside, and further, that the call for regular order with respect to the Inhofe-Coverdell amendment only be in order after the concurrence of the chairman and ranking member and Senators from the following States: Georgia, Utah, Oklahoma, California, and Texas.

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I consider this a matter of national security and, therefore, I support the efforts of the Senator from Mississippi to require export licenses for computers --in short, supercomputers to tier 3 countries, such as Russia, China, India, and Pakistan. For several years, both the Strategic Subcommittee and the Acquisition and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by the Senator from New Hampshire, Senator Smith, have conducted hearings on the administration's export policies on dual-use technologies with military applications. The concerns expressed by Senators Cochran and Durbin is one of the issues which Senator Smith was concerned about, and which he explored during his hearings. The export of the high-performance computers to countries of concern could have a significant and potentially detrimental impact on United States and allied security interests. The alleged export of the high-performance computers to Russia and China recently causes me great concern. The computers are more capable than any computer known to have been in use in those countries. The export of these computers was accomplished without export licenses. Evidently, the Russian Government told the companies that sold the computers that they would be used for modeling of Earth water pollution. However, subsequent to the sale, officials from the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy stated that the computers would be used to maintain its nuclear weapons stockpile, to confirm the reliability of its nuclear arsenal, and to ensure the proper working order of the nuclear stockpile under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Mr. President, according to U.S. export policy, the sale of high- powered computers that would directly or indirectly support nuclear weapons activities is prohibited. Mr. President, I believe the Senator's amendment to require a license to export high-powered supercomputers with a 2,000 million theoretical operation range is appropriate. I ask unanimous consent that I be added as an original cosponsor of the amendment offered by the Senator from Mississippi.

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

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

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, what is the pending business? Amendment No. 422

Mr. THURMOND

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

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Janice Nielsen, a legislative fellow with Senator Craig's office, be granted floor privileges during debate on S. 936, the Defense Authorization Act.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Madam President, I would like to remind the Members of the Senate if they have amendments to this bill, the Defense authorization bill, they come down and offer them. Now is the time. There is no use to put it off. We have set aside this morning to consider these amendments, and we hope they will not delay. I yield to the able Senator from West Virginia.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, if there be no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 10 a.m. on Friday, June 20. I further ask consent that on Friday, immediately following the prayer, the routine requests through the morning hour be granted and the Senate then resume the DOD authorization bill.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, tomorrow it is the hope of the majority leader that the Senate will be able to consider amendments to the DOD authorization bill. Following the DOD bill, the Senate will conduct a period for routine morning business. Votes will not occur on Friday of this week. On Monday, the Senate will begin the reconciliation bill. However, all votes with respect to that bill on Monday will be stacked to occur on Tuesday, June 24, at 9:30 a.m. Therefore, rollcall votes will occur beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. I remind all Members that there is a lot of work to be done before the Senate adjourns for the July 4 recess. Therefore, I would appreciate all Senators' cooperation in order to complete our business in a responsible fashion.

Mr. THURMOND

Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 5 minutes each.