Frank Wolf

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word, and I rise in support of the amendment. We did this several years ago for the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler). In fact, I believe, if my memory serves me, that we actually carried it in the bill. I think we should defer to a Member who known firsthand their own congressional district. Each member knows their Congressional districts needs. This was the same principle we used with regard to Mr. Nadler in the past, and it is the same principle we would use here. So I rise in support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Rogan).

Mr. WOLF. I would give the gentleman the same type of commitment, Mr. Chairman, as with the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lazio), and I appreciate the gentleman bringing it to my attention. Both gentlemen have talked to me about it a number of times, and we will do everything we can to help.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt).

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman once again yield?

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Cook).

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, today the House considers the third appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2000, the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. This bill includes appropriations for our Nation's highways, transit systems, funding for the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, and several other smaller agencies both within and separate from the Department of Transportation. The bill totals $12.7 billion in discretionary budget authority, an increase of over $400 million over the fiscal year 1999 freeze level. Several of my colleagues have sought reductions to previous appropriations bills to bring those bills more in line with the levels provided in fiscal year 1999. Mr. Chairman, it is important for the House to understand that more than 70 percent of the funding provided in this bill as discretionary spending is not within the control of the Committee on Appropriations. Funding of $28.8 billion for the highways and transit programs, though included in this bill, is mandatory. This committee has no control over the spending levels. The bill does include increases for highway and transit programs, but the committee had no other choice. The bill presented to the House in no way alters the funding levels contained in TEA21. Let me also note, Mr. Chairman, that the House recently passed the authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration. That bill contains provisions which had the effect of increasing funding for the FAA by $14 billion over the levels assumed in the budget resolution. It guarantees $3 billion a year in general fund subsidies for aviation programs within the discretionary caps. Next year, if the FAA authorization bill were enacted, the only truly discretionary program over which this subcommittee would exert any control would be the Coast Guard. Creating new mandatory programs, whether they are off-budget or within the discretionary caps, creates more Federal spending, not less. Such mandatory spending is uncontrollable and makes the Congress' job of balancing the budget and reducing the national debt doubly difficult. If the committee were required to reduce program levels within the bill to the levels provided last year, the House would be asked to do one of three things: One, reduce funding for the Federal Aviation Administration just days after passing an authorization containing $14 billion in new spending above the budget resolution and a few weeks after an aviation accident in Arkansas; two, reduce funding for the Coast Guard search and rescue operations and drug interdiction activities; or three, nearly eliminate all the Federal funding for Amtrak. The reported bill is a lean and balanced bill given the TEA21 aviation needs and one that should be supported by the House. To briefly summarize, $4 billion for the Coast Guard, including $521 million for drug interdiction; $10.5 billion for the FAA, including $2.25 billion for the AIP program; $27.7 billion for the Federal-aid highways program, the same level as guaranteed by TEA21; $368 million for NHTSA, again the same level as authorized; $718 million for the Federal Railroad Administration, including $571 million for Amtrak; $5.8 billion for the Federal Transit Administration, the same level as guaranteed by TEA21; and several smaller appropriations for other modal administrations and independent agencies. The bill has been developed in cooperation with the minority and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo). We have had a good close working relationship over the past several years, and this year was no different. The bill has encountered no significant disagreements, passing through both the subcommittee and the full committee markups with only minor amendments. The administration has also indicated its support for the bill. The overarching priority for the committee in developing this bill has been safety, and I would like to bring several initiatives to the attention of the Members. Recently, the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation found that the Office of Motor Carriers, the office responsible for keeping trucks on the roads safe, had less than an arm's length relationship with the industry it regulates. Last year, the committee tried to transfer the Office of Motor Carriers from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The committee was unsuccessful. This year the bill provides a total of $70 million more for inspectors but includes a limitation that none of these funds are available if the Office of Motor Carriers remains within the Federal Highway Administration. Hopefully, this limitation will encourage the administration and others to have legislation or to change the current placement and management of the Office of Motor Carriers as they have indicated they will do. I would just tell the Members, on Monday I went out on a highway truck inspection. A large number of the trucks that were inspected off of Route 50 in my Congressional district were in such violation of the law that they were pulled off the road, meaning they could not move until they were either fixed there or towed away. One out of every five trucks on the major interstates that my colleagues and their constituents and their families are driving on are very, very unsafe. This is an issue of safety. Fourteen to 15 people die every day with regard to accidents involving trucks. The bill provides a total of $4 billion for the Coast Guard, an increase of $150 million over the 1999 enacted level. Within the funds provided for the Coast Guard is $521 million for drug interdiction activities, a 40 percent increase over last year's level. All in all, Mr. Chairman, it is a balanced bill, and I urge its adoption. Mr. Chairman, I include the following for the Record. [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH23JN99.000 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH23JN99.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH23JN99.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH23JN99.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH23JN99.004 Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman bringing this to my attention, and also the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney). I have also spoken to the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) about the same thing. The gentleman has my commitment to do everything we can to attempt to make this the way it should be with regard to fairness. We have never been into punishing one State over another, so I can assure the gentleman we will work with the gentleman, and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney), and the other members of the New York delegation, and also the California delegation who have come to me again, as I said, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) and others, to make sure that there is fairness.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in very strong support of this amendment. As a father of five children and as a grandfather, we all know that content labeling is not working. Just watch the television or see a movie and try to figure out PG, PG 13, R ratings. It is not working. We know that the industry will not regulate itself. I was one of the Republicans that broke with my party several years ago in support of the V-chip. I remember one Member said the answer is for parents to take care of it, and it is. But there are some people that cannot do it. There are some people whose children are home alone. There are some people that need help. It is violent content. Every Member should look at the video, Doom. Every Member should read the article about ``Killology'' that the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) sent around. This amendment is a good idea. This makes a lot of sense. Sometimes what concerns me is that the powerful interests, the lobbyists that control some of these issues can mislead and say whatever and get us to postpone and postpone. The Wamp-Stupak amendment will help parents, and, even more importantly, I believe it will save a lot of lives. I strongly urge all Members on both sides to support this amendment by an overwhelming vote.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to welcome Father Stephen Planning and to thank him for delivering our opening prayer this morning. Father Planning is a member of the Society of Jesus and was ordained to the priesthood this past Saturday, June 12. He and his family are longtime residents of northern Virginia, where he began his Catholic education. Following his novitiate experience at Wernersville, Pennsylvania, Father Planning taught high school in Nigeria and ministered in a nearby leprosy village. Upon returning to the United States, he received a master's degree in philosophy from Fordham University and spiritually advised indigent AIDS patients at a nearby Bronx hospital. Father Planning also has ministered and taught English in Santiago, Chile, studied at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, where he completed a master's of divinity degree, and served in a local parish, and spent this year in Chicago, Illinois, where he finished a master's degree in education at Loyola University and worked at Christo Rey Jesuit High School, where he now will return to serve as assistant principal. Our colleagues would be interested to know that this inner city high school has a unique corporate intern program which requires students to attend classes 4 days a week and hold down an 8-hour-per-week job with a corporate sponsor to help pay their tuition. Christo Rey's pioneering concept this past year saw 89 percent of its seniors graduate, 73 percent enroll in college. Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues join me in congratulating Father Planning on his ordination and wish him continued success wherever he is led in the future to serve the cause of Jesus Christ.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 75, a resolution condemning the National Islamic Front government in Sudan for its support for terrorism, its human rights abuses and its genocidal war in Southern Sudan. I commend Representatives Don Payne for his leadership in sponsoring this resolution. I also want to applaud Mr. Payne and Representative Tom Tancredo for taking the time to visit Sudan during the Memorial Day recess. It is not an easy trip--it is in fact one of the most difficult places to visit in the entire world. But, people need to go there and see for themselves the suffering of the people. Once you have seen it--the desperate looks in their eyes, their utter destitution, the starvation, homelessness and disease--you cannot forget it. The willingness of Representative Payne and Tancredo to go to Sudan gave the people there hope that they are not forgotten. This resolution is another message of hope. The war in Sudan has gone on longer than almost any current conflict today. It has killed more people than in any war since the second World War--more than in Kosovo, Somalia, Rwanda, Chechnya and Bosnia combined. Some 2 million people or more have died in Sudan since the current phase of the war began in 1983. Most of the fallen are black Southern Sudanese. They have lost an entire generation to the fighting--probably two generations by now. The January edition of the New York magazine contained an excellent article about the war in Sudan. It was titled The invisible War--an appropriate way to describe this conflict. At the end, the author William Finnegan asks a question we should all be asking ourselves: ``The hard question is why the international community--the Western powers, really, led by the United States--is willing to invest so heavily in humanitartian relief and, at the same time, invest almost nothing in the diplomatic effort that might compel the warring parties to make peace.'' The war in Sudan has gone on for over 15 years, virtually unnoticed by the international community. The United States has been and continue to be one of the largest country donors to the United Nations humanitarian relief effort in Sudan, Operation Lifeline Sudan. In FY 1998 along, the United States provided $110 million in aid to humanitarian agencies providing assistance in Sudan and additional $150 million in surplus wheat. I applaud these efforts. But, what has been lacking on the part of the U.S. government and the international community is the political will to engage itself in a substantive and aggressive effort to promote peace in Sudan. That is what is needed--peace in Sudan. H. Con. Res. 75 describes the atrocities taking place--slavery; religious persecution; genocide against the Muslims and Christians in the Nuba Mountains and the people of Southern Sudan; high-altitude bombing of civilian targets like hospitals, churches and feeding centers. The government restricts humanitarian groups to desperately needy areas of the country, thereby allowing hungry people to become starving people. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people have died of starvation in the war years. The government of Sudan has banned all international aid groups from going into the Nuba Mountains region since 1989. Meanwhile, government troops have slashed and burned the entire region, leaving thousands homeless, naked, starving, orphaned, diseased and without hope. Sudan is a humanitarian nightmare and a human rights disaster. The majority of the suffering is caused by the government of Sudan's war policy, its intransigence in negotiations, it radical philosophy and its brutal tactics. The real problem is the war and the United States must turn its attention to bringing peace to Sudan. If it does so, many of these other issues will take care of themselves. I support all the provisions in H. Con. Res. 75. The United States must increase support for non-governmental agencies working outside Operation Lifeline Sudan. It must provide aid for capacity-building in Southern Sudan so the areas outside the government of Sudan's control can learn to administer themselves and create some semblance of order. It must work to strengthen the independence of Operation Lifeline Sudan to prevent Khartoum from using aid as a weapon against people it opposes. These provisions will help save lives and make the lives of people of Southern Sudan a little better. The United States must do more to support the National Democratic Alliance--the coalition of northern and southern parties in opposition to the NIF government. The time has also come for the U.S. to provide diplomatic and material support for the Southern People's Liberation Army (SPLA). However, I also believe strongly that the United States must appoint a special envoy for Sudan. It should be a person of stature such as former Senator Paul Simon or Nancy Kassebaum or a similar kind of person. Former Senator George Mitchell want to Northern Ireland some 60 times in pursuit of peace in that region. Aren't the people of Sudan worth the same kind of effort? Achieving a just peace in Sudan should be the goal of the U.S. government and the international community. I want to be clear on one point. I believe that the government of Sudan is one of the most evil governments of earth. Its policies have devastated the lives of the people of Northern and Southern Sudan alike. It sponsors international terrorism, allows slavery to take place, uses food as a weapon, engages in coercive practices to force people to change their religion, tortures political opponents and commits many other egregious human rights abuses. The NIF government has done very little to show themselves serious about peace and have thus made themselves one of them most isolated regimes on earth. The government of Sudan must understand that it will never become a full-fledged and respected member of the international community unless it gets serious about peace and stops its support for international terrorism. But, the international community has continued to hide behind a flawed peace process, called the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which has produced a laudable Declaration of Principles but very little other real progress. All the parties in Sudan must work for peace, but the International community must do more to force them to the table. It's time to do more. For the sake of the people of Sudan, we must do more. I urge this administration to appoint a special envoy for Sudan. We must get serious about peace in Sudan and put some diplomatic muscle into it. In my office I have a picture of a young boy from Southern Sudan. It was taken 10 years ago by a member of my staff during my very first trip to Sudan in 1989. The boy is probably dead by now. But if he is not, what kind of life do you think he has been living? This resolution lays out some excellent steps which must be taken immediately by the United States, the United Nations and the government of Sudan. I hope they will be taken seriously and implemented as soon as possible. But, I hope the administration will go one step further and appoint a special envoy for Sudan.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Young amendment. I cannot believe that this Congress, let me put my words to this side, is ready to do what they may be going to do. There are 144 trust funds. We are not going to do anything for cancer research. We are not going to do anything for juvenile diabetes. We are not going to do anything for Alzheimer's disease. Read the Concord Coalition letter. They say this bill is an assault on fiscal discipline. Spending is spending. It is this kind of spending, it is that kind of spending. Spending is spending. My colleagues are going after Medicare, they are going after Social Security, they are going after cancer research, and they are going after, as the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Archer) said, the tax cut. For the integrity of our party, we have worked hard to bring about a balanced budget. Let us not slip back. I strongly urge support of the Young-Kasich amendment.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I apologize to the Members to come, but I have been listening to the debate, and I support the bill, and I support the gentleman's efforts, but I just found out that the administration is getting ready to lift the gum arabic restrictions that are currently on Sudan. This is a picture of a young boy that I took in 1989 in southern Sudan, and this young boy is probably dead, but if he is not dead, he has had a terrible life because almost two million people have died in Sudan since that time. I supported this administration's efforts, some of their efforts in Kosovo with them going to the refugees. I voted to increase the amount of money for the refugees. But what about the Christians in Sudan? There is slavery in Sudan. This young boy's parents may have been in slavery and others. I now find out that this administration and, I understand, John Podesta at the White House and powerful lobbyists that have been hired by special interests, are now trying to get this administration to lift this embargo with regard to gum arabic in Sudan. So I urge, whenever this administration thinks of doing it today, not to do it on behalf of this boy, who is probably dead, but may be alive. Do not lift the embargo on gum arabic, because it is fundamentally immoral if they do. If they care about Kosovo and do not care about Sudan is doubly immoral. I apologize to the Members, but I just heard this was coming up. I do rise in support of the bill.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 178, a resolution concerning the massacre at Tiananmen Square on June 3 and June 4 of 1989. Next week marks the 10th anniversary of that historic tragic event, and so the Chinese Government ought to know we are not going to forget about it. But more importantly, we want the men and women who are still in jail to know. And I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith). He and I visited Beijing Prison Number One, where we saw 40 Tiananmen Square prisoners working on socks to export to the United States. Also, by us doing this and the Congress voting this way, it sends a message the same way we did to Sharansky. When Sharansky was in Perm Camp 35, he told us he knew every time the United States Congress spoke out on behalf of him and other Soviet dissidents. It encouraged them and emboldened them and let them know that the West cared and was going to stand with them no matter what. So it has been a decade since the crackdown, but we are not going to forget. Also, Mr. Speaker, it is important to know that the persecution of the church and the persecution in Tibet still continues unabated in China. They have Catholic priests in jail, Catholic bishops in jail; they have plundered Tibet, they are persecuting the Buddhist monks, they are persecuting the Muslims in the northwest portion of the country. So in addition to commemorating the 10th anniversary, to letting the Tiananmen Square demonstrators know we stand in solidarity, it also sends a message that this government has not changed. I am convinced that the Chinese Government cannot last much longer. I am convinced they will go the way of the Ceausescu administration. In fact, they must have found Ceausescu's playbook because everything Ceausescu did against the church they are doing against the church. Everything Ceausescu did against the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Bucharest, they are doing. And so this government and all of us here, all of us in this body, will live to see the day that they fall. And one day in China, in the not too distant future, the good people of China, and they are good people, will be free, able to choose their leaders in democracy and free elections and they will free the press and have freedom of worship. Until then, we applaud all those fighting inside China to keep the struggle for human rights and democracy alive. We call on the Chinese Government to show its respect for human rights by releasing all of the prisoners of conscience. If we were to wake up tomorrow or in celebration of the anniversary and were to see they were to release all of the prisoners of conscience, that may make a big difference in this country. But until they do that, we will remember. Lastly, for the administration and Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to talk about giving this country Most Favored Nation trading status is absolutely crazy. And after the Cox report, released today, if we have a vote on MFN, it ought to go down overwhelmingly. And, quite frankly, the administration ought not even send anything up. But more importantly, back to the brave young men and women and their families, we will remember and stand with them in solidarity and will celebrate in victory in Tiananmen Square when freedom comes to China.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, in the last Congress, the Congress voted to have a national commission to study terrorism; and to date the Congress has not acted on the funding on that commission. Today I will be offering an amendment in the supplemental to have the funding for that commission. With all the terrorist activity that is taking place, the CIA killings in my congressional district, the World Trade bombing, the bombing of embassies by Osama Bin Laden and others, for Congress not to act on putting the funding in at this time would absolutely be a disgrace. This is so important that we ought to have a bipartisan commission that looks to making sure that everything that possibly can be done to deal with the issue of terrorism is being done.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, although I would not have taken the actions of the Clinton administration, which has led us where we are today in the Balkans, the question has now become, we are here; now what do we do? I want to rise today to set forth my concerns and my thoughts on America's response to the terrible things that have taken place in the Balkans. I, of course, address my remarks to everybody in the Congress but especially to my Republican colleagues here in the Congress. Last Thursday afternoon, May 6, while listening to the debate on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill, I was struck by two notions. The first was that some in the House apparently believe that the U.S. and NATO can negotiate and then continue to coexist with Serbian President Milosevic as though the terrible, brutal, and criminal acts inflicted upon the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo as daily fare did not even take place. The second notion is that many are acting as if this Balkan conflict just got under way or began a short 8 weeks ago. I am convinced that neither of these are true. So are many, many others. In fact, Milosevic's bloody pursuit of ethnic cleansing began in 1991 with the military assault on Vukovar, Croatia, near the Serbian border. This assault signaled an ethnic cleansing, and I might say there were mass graves found outside Vukovar once the West was able to get there of many, many people who have been killed as a result of Milosevic's effort to take Vukovar. This assault signaled an ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina that lasted for years under the benign eye of the United Nations and casual disinterest of much of the free world. By the time the world could no longer look the other way, about a quarter of a million, 250,000, people were killed, and almost 2 million more were homeless and displaced refugees. Kosovo is only the latest chapter in this dark history. Most of the nearly 2 million ethnic Albanian population are now homeless and on the run within Kosovo or are refugees languishing in camps outside the border. Most have hopes of someday returning. But to what? To homes that no longer exist and towns and villages that are largely destroyed and to families which have been brutalized and torn apart and with many killed or missing? There seems to be a mood that we can ignore these hard facts of what actually is taking place, that we can negotiate an honorable truce with Milosevic where people can go home and everything can be nice. But this is a fantasy. More, it is a dangerous fantasy. The world simply cannot ignore the fact that Milosevic and many others in his employ are war criminals. They meet the test by any historical yardstick one could use to measure them. As long as he is in power, it will not be possible to have a lasting peace in the Balkans. Let me paraphrase two experts from Peter Maass' book, ``Love Thy Neighbor, A Story of War''. Maass, writing about war crime indictments, relates accounts so horrifically graphic that I cannot read them verbatim but will include them for the Record. In one account he says that the Serb forces put the gun up against a father's head and tells the father to rape your daughter. The father says, no, I cannot do that. Then he puts the gun up to the daughter's head and says to the father, now rape your daughter. The father says, oh, no. Then, according to the account, and I will not go any further, but I now would have like to have Peter Maass' account of what took place, beginning on page 51. Then on page 53 he goes on to tell of other atrocities and brutalities that are so graphic that I will not read them on the floor of the House but will insert them whereby they will appear in the Record at this very, very point. Beginning on page 51 while writing about war criminal activity, Maass says: ``You can, for example, barge into a house and put a gun to a father's head and tell him that you will pull the trigger unless he rapes his daughter or at least simulates the rape. (I heard of such things in Bosnia.) The father will refuse and say I will die before doing that. You shrug your shoulders and reply, Okay, old man, I won't shoot you, but I will shoot your daughter. What does the father do now, dear reader? He pleads, he begs, but then you the man with the gun, put the gun to the daughter's head, you pull back the hammer and you shout Now! Do it! Or I shoot! The father starts weeping, yet slowly he unties his belt, moving like a dazed zombie, he can't believe what he must do. You laugh and say, That's right, old man, pull down those pants, pull up your daughter's dress, and do it!'' Continuing on page 53: ``Three days after her arrival at the prison, she went with a huge number of women and other girls to fetch water from a well about 50 meters from the prison gates. Returning from the well Trnopolje guards held back six girls, including the witness, and stopped them from reentering the prison gates. They were then joined by four more female prisoners. The guards took the 10 girls to a house across the meadow. They were taken to the side yard of the house, out of sight of the roadway. Thirty Serbian soldiers--including ``some dressed like a tank crew''--were there and they taunted the girls, calling them ``Turkish whores.'' The girls were ordered to undress or have their clothes pulled off. Three girls resisted or hesitated from their fear. Their clothes were cut off with knives. The Serbian soldiers told the naked girls to parade slowly in a circle. The men sat outside the circle--smoking, drinking and calling out foul names. The witness estimates the ``parade'' lasted about 15 minutes. Three soldiers took one girl--one to rape her while the two others held her down. The three men took turns. A soldier approached the witness and mocked her, saying he had seen her before. Though she did not recognize him, he pulled out a photo of the witness with her 19-year-old Muslim boyfriend, whom he cursed for being in the Bosnian Territorial Defense Forces. The man with the photograph raped her first. The witness said she fought and pulled his hair, but he bit her and hit her face. Her lips bled. He hit her hard with the butt of his gun on her cheek, causing extreme pain. Another rapist ran the blade of his knife across her breasts as if to slice the skin off, leaving bleeding scratches. After that, she was raped by eight more men before losing consciousness.'' Keeping those atrocities and brutalities in mind, and some want to resume normal relations with an individual who allowed these atrocities to take place, an individual who continues to allow them to take place today, even today right now in Kosovo, once people know about these things, once the depth and breadth of Milosevic's brutality sinks in, no one can entertain the idea of normal relations or pursue a no-fault peace with him. Last week, in the Wall Street Journal, last Thursday, which I include for the Record, Margaret Thatcher wrote of the thousands of slaughtered in unmarked graves around Srebrenica, Bosnia, victims of, and I quote, ``depravities of human wickedness, what depths of human degradation, those endless columns of refugees have fled. Mass rape, mass graves, death camps, historic communities wiped out by ethnic cleansing, these are the monuments to Milosevic's triumphs.'' During the fighting in Bosnia, I had an opportunity with one of my staff to visit a Serb-run POW camp, and it was very, very brutal, if you could see the way the Muslims were being treated in that camp. Margaret Thatcher went on to write that appeasement has failed in the 1990s as it failed in the 1930s. I believe she is right, just as I believe she is right when she goes on to write that it would be both cruel and stupid to expect the Albanian Kosovars to now return home and live under any form of Serbian rule. Also in Sunday's New York Times, which I include for the Record, Blaine Harden writes about the dangers of allowing Milosevic to retreat from Kosovo with his dictatorship intact. Harden predicts that if the pattern holds, Milosevic will continue to inflame Serbs and preserve his power by reassuring them that they are the victims, as he is doing today in Kosovo and as he did earlier in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. I am going to insert the entire Blaine Harden article from Sunday's New York Times in the Record, and I would urge all of my colleagues to read his record. Blaine harden had covered the war in Sarajevo and Bosnia and many other places throughout the early and mid 1990s for the Washington Post. I think he writes with a lot of wisdom. As I listened to last Thursday's debate and as I read and watched the TV talk shows, Milosevic hopefully will not pull it off. He could, however, unless we recognize Milosevic for what he is, a war criminal of the highest order. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record articles I referred to as follows: [From the Wall Street Journal, May 6, 1999] The West Must Answer Evil With Strength (By Margaret Thatcher) Last September I went to Vukovar, Croatia, a city destroyed and its inhabitants butchered by the soldiers of Slobodan Milosevic. The place still smells of death, the widows weep, and the ruins gape. Around Srebrenica, Bosnia, where neither I nor many other Westerners have gone, the bodies of thousands of slaughtered victims still lie in unmarked graves. In Kosovo, we can only image what depravities of human wickedness, what depths of human degradation, those endless columns of refugees have fled. Mass rape, mass graves, death camps, historic communities wiped out by ethnic cleansing--these are the monuments to Milosevic's triumphs. They are also the result of eight long years of Western weakness. When will Western leaders ever learn? Appeasement has failed in the 1990s, as it failed in the '30s. Then, there were always politicians to argue that the madness of Nazism could be contained. Likewise, there has never been a lack of politicians and diplomats willing to collaborate with Milosevic's Serbia. In both cases, the tyrant carefully laid his snares, and naive negotiators obligingly fell into them. For eight years I have called for Serbia to be stopped. Even after the massacre of Srebrenica I was told that my calls for military actions were mere ``emotional nonsense.'' There were good reasons for taking action early. The West could have stopped Milosevic in Slovenia or Croatia in 1991, or in Bosnia in 1992. But instead we deprived his opponents of the means to arm themselves, thus allowing his aggression to prosper. Even in 1995, when at last a combination of air strikes and well-armed Croat and Muslim ground forces broke the power of the Bosnian Serb aggressors, we intervened to halt their advance into Serb-controlled Banja Luka. Western political leaders believed that the butcher of Belgrade could be a force for stability. So here we are now, fighting a war eight years too late, on treacherous terrain, so far without much effective local support, with imperfect intelligence and with war aims that some find unclear and unpersuasive. But with all that said--and it must be said, so that the lessons are well and truly learned--let there be no doubt: This war must be won. I understand the unease many people feel about the way in which the operation began. But those who agonize over whether what is happening in Kosovo today is important enough to justify military intervention, gravely underestimate the consequences of doing nothing. There is always method in Milosevic's madness. He is a master at using tides of refugees to destabilize his neighbors and weaken his opponents. This we simply cannot allow. The surrounding countries can't absorb two million Albanian refugees without provoking a new spiral of violent disintegration, possibly involving NATO members. But the overriding justification for military action is quite simply the nature of the enemy we face. We are not dealing with some minor thug whose local brutalities may offend our sensibilities from time to time. Milosevic's regime and the genocidal ideology that sustains it represent something altogether different--a truly monstrous evil, one that cannot be merely checked or contained, one that must be totally defeated. When that has been done, we need to learn the lessons of what has happened and of the warnings that were given but ignored. But there has already been too much media speculation about targets and tactics, and some shameful and demoralizing commentary that can only help the enemy. So I shall say nothing of detailed tactics. But two things more I must say. First, about our fundamental aims. It would be both cruel and stupid to expect the Albanian Kosovans now to return to live under any form of Serbian rule. Kosovo must be given independence, initially under the international protection. And there must be no partition. Partition would only serve to reward violence and ethnic cleansing. It would be to concede defeat. And I am unmoved to Serb pleas to retain their grasp on most of Kosovo because it contains their holy places. Coming from those who systematically leveled mosques and Catholic churches wherever they went, such an argument is cynical almost to the point of blasphemy. Second, about the general conduct of the war. There are, in the end, no humanitarian wars. War is serious and it is deadly. Casualties, including civilian casualties, are to be expected. Trying to fight a war with one hand tied behind your back is the way to lose it. We always regret the loss of lives. But we should have no doubt that it is the men of evil, not our troops or pilots, who bear the guilt. The goal of war is victory. And the only victory worth having now is one that prevents Serbia from ever again having the means to attack its neighbors and terrorize its non-Serb inhabitants. That will require the destruction of Serbia's political will, the destruction of its war machine and all the infrastructure on which these depend. We must be prepared to cope with all the changing demands of war--including, if it is required, the deployment of ground troops. And we must expect a long haul until the job is done.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, on March 10, 1999, the House Appropriations subcommittee on Transportation held a hearing on the topic of aviation safety. At that hearing, Jane Garvey, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) testified, as did Ken Mead, Department of Transportation inspector general (IG), and Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Last year, domestic air carriers had an excellent safety record: no passengers died on U.S. commercial flights. Many worked diligently to make safety a priority, and in the transportation appropriations subcommittee we have focused our efforts on aviation safety as well as all transportation modes. In listening to the testimony prepared by each agency, it appeared that there was a difference of opinion in some areas with regard to the progress being made in aviation safety. Therefore, I requested that the IG and NTSB review the FAA's testimony and the FAA review the testimony of the IG and NTSB. In addition, I asked each to respond to the comments made by the others. I have provided this information for the Federal Register. In general, the oversight agencies (NTSB and IG) believe that the FAA could be moving more aggressively in the referenced areas of aviation safety. For example, the NTSB noted that the FAA should be moving more quickly to ensure that aircraft registered in the United States have new flight data recorders. Similarly, the IG points out that draft regulations seeking to reduce the number of runway incursions have not yet been published while the number of runway incursions continues to rise. Both oversight agencies suggest that the FAA should use more realistic measures of aviation safety. For example, the IG notes that a good measure of airport security is not the number of new explosive detection machines purchased and distributed, but the number of bags screened by the machines. After all, it's one thing to purchase and place explosive detection machines and it is quite another to put them into service and screen bags. For its part, the FAA agrees that more should be done in the areas of runway incursions, airport security and project oversight. Mr. Speaker, it is my hope that the FAA will continue to work with the IG, NTSB and the aviation industry to fund and implement additional safety initiatives. The safety record of the industry last year was good, but we must remain vigilant in our efforts to improve the safety of the traveling public. As chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee, I am committed, as I know all members of the subcommittee are, to do what we can to make sure that transportation safety remains a priority. OIG Comments on FAA's Statement We have the following comments on FAA's statement before the Subcommittee on Transportation, Committee on Appropriations. I. Air Traffic Control Modernization FAA's statement gives the impression that final deployment of the HOST and Oceanic Computer System Replacement for Phase 1 hardware has been completed. However, final deployment has not yet occurred and is currently planned to be complete by October 1999. II. Security FAA's testimony on deploying explosives detection systems state that FAA has been very effective in getting advance explosives detection systems up and running. FAA's statement cites the fact that security equipment for checked baggage has been installed at over 30 airports, and that trace explosive detection devices for carry-on bags are being used at more than 50 airports. The issue is not whether security equipment has been installed at more than 30 airports or whether the equipment has been ``procured'', ``installed'' or is ``operational.'' In our opinion, the true measure of effectiveness is the number of fully operational, FAA-certified bulk explosives detection machines in use at Category X and I airports that are screening at or near the demonstrated mean capacity of 125 bags per hour per machine. In our opinion, this usage rate is reasonable as it includes time to resolve alarms and is just more than half of the certified rate of 225 bags per hour. Accordingly, our message to Congress in the past 2 years has focused on the underutilization of explosives detection equipment at this country's largest airports. In our opinion, it is ultimately the number of bags screened that makes the difference in aviation security, not the number of explosives detection machines installed. FAA also stated that it continues to expand the use of realistic operational testing of the aviation security system. While FAA may be expanding the use of realistic operational testing, much of the testing to date has not been ``realistic.'' In our recneltly completed audit of Secretary of Checked Baggage, we found that checked baggage security testing by over 300 FAA security field agents assigned to FAA regions was limited to air carrier compliance with manual profiling and positive passenger bag marching requirements. Also, at the time of our audit, only a few ``red team'' \1\ security agents assigned to FAA Headquarters were testing the new automated passenger profiling systems, explosives detection equipment, and equipment operators. Therefore, red team testing of the new checked baggage security requirements has been infrequent, limited to specific testing criteria, and applied to only a few air carriers. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ Red team refers to a group of security agents assigned to FAA's Civil Aviation Security Special Activities Office. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In prior audits, we found similar conditions. For example, in 1993 and 1996, we reported that FAA testing of airport access control was ineffective (not realistic or aggressive) and, in 1998, we reported that FAA testing of air carrier compliance with cargo security requirements was not comprehensive. We ntoed certain compliance requirements were omitted from the test plans. Current OIG efforts indicate little improvement. For example, in our current audit of airport Access Control, we found FAAs airport access control assessments were limited in scope, included little testing of controls, and were conducted without using a standard testing protocol. Our test results confirm the importance of a standard test protocol that includes realistic and aggressive testing procedures. In a majority of our tests involving airport access control, we successfully penetrated secure areas and boarded a large number of passenger and cargo aircraft. The majority of individiuals we encountered failed to challenge us for unauthorized access. FAA recognizes that improvements are needed and, on March 3, 1999, issued a letter to Airport Security Consortiums to take immediate action to fix the problems. III. Safety FAA's testimony states that Runway Incursion Action Teams have helped Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport reduce its incursion rate to an all-time low. However, data provided by FAA staff in the Runway Safety Office indicate that the incursion rate at the airport is not at its all time low. In 1995, the runway incursion rate at the Cleveland airport was 0.375 per 100,000 operations. The rate climbed in 1996 and has remained steady over the last three years at just over 1.9 per 100,000 operations. The number of runway incursions (six occurrences) has also remained steady in the past 3 years. IV Financing FAA's statement suggests that the proposed performance- based organization (PBO) for air traffic control will be funded in FY 2000, in part, by $1.5 billion in new, cost- based user fees. This estimate is highly optimistic because the proposed user fee system will require FAA's cost accounting system to be in place and operating. Although FAA plans to being implementing its cost accounting system this summer in the oceanic and enroute environment to support overflight fees, other types of air traffic under fees will require further deployment of the cost accounting system and concurrence of both Congress and users. FAA's statement also suggests that the proposed PBO will make air traffic control more accountable for good performance. Accountability for performance was also a main tenet of personnel reform and part of the impetus behind exempting the agency from most Federal personnel rules in 1996. In our September 30, 1998, report on the status of FAA's personnel reform, we found that even with the new flexibilities provided by reform, accountability for performance had not been uniformly instilled throughout the agency. Accordingly, in our opinion, there is no guarantee that reorganizing air traffic control into a PBO will provide the necessary catalyst to ensure greater accountability for performance within that organization. FAA's Response to the Inspector General's Comments on FAA's Testimony nas modernization HOST and Oceanic System Replacement (HOCSR): The FAA did not mean to imply that final deployment of the HOCSR hardware is complete. We are on schedule and anticipate final deployment to be complete by October, 1999. aviation security Explosive Detection Equipment: We agree with the IG that the utilization rates should be significantly higher and we are working with air carriers to do that. Recent data indicates an upward trend. Airport Access Control: We agree that airport access control needs improvement in many areas. We have initiated an aggressive plan with our industry partners at 78 of the Nation's largest airports. Over the next 6 weeks, we will conduct inspections and tests to identify vulnerabilities systematically. We will use the information to direct appropriate corrective action. The FAA issued a letter, on March 3, 1999, to Airport Security Consortiums to take immediate action to fix the problems. aviation safety Runway Incursions: Specific reference by FAA that Cleveland runway incursions ``dropped to an all-time low'' is, regrettably, incorrect information. Financing We agree with the IG that the estimated $1.5 billion in new, cost based user fees for FY 2000 is optimistic. However, we believe that ultimately moving to a cost based system is essential to the development of a more independent, more businesslike and more efficient air traffic service. FAA's Response to the Inspector General's Testimony At the FY 2000 House Appropriation hearing on March 10, Chairman Wolf asked the FAA to respond to testimony from the Department of Transportation's Inspector General (IG) and the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). This is the FAA's response to the IG testimony on NAS Modernization, Security, Safety and Financing. nas modernization Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS): The Inspector General recommends that FAA defer decisions on the full range of software development needed for human factors on full STARS until testing on the DOD system is completed. Although we understand the IG's concern about software development, we disagree with their recommendation. We have worked very closely with NATCA to identify and find mutually agreeable solutions to the human factors issues for the Early Display Configuration. These changes will be incorporated into the Initial System Capability (ISC), or full STARS. We believe that NATCA is fully committed to STARS as the system for the future and wants to work with FAA to successfully field a STARS product with minimally agreed to human factors additions as soon as possible. Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS): The Inspector General indicates that the program continues to experience schedule slippage. The FAA was under pressure several years ago to accelerate the WAAS schedule. Considering the many uncertainties and unknowns with this type of cutting edge technology, we knew there was a great deal of risk with such a compressed, aggressive schedule. We would like to point out that even with the 14-month schedule slip that we now project, the WAAS program is well within the initial (pre-accelerated) schedule. What caused the 14-month delay was a greater than expected challenge in developing a critical software package that monitors the performance and safety of the WAAS. All the other major software modules have been completed, the ground- based master and reference stations are in place, and the two leased geostationary satellites are in orbit providing service. With regard to the Hopkins risk assessment study, the Inspector General discusses several issues that are unresolved and that considerable work remains to be done. The Inspector General may have left the impression that nothing is being done by way of follow-up to the Hopkins study. In fact, the FAA is addressing the various items in the Hopkins study and will have a plan completed by this summer. The FAA is working on a ``Satellite Navigation Investment Analysis Plan,'' also due out this summer. This will include an analysis of the alternatives of backups to WAAS. The FAA discussed these alternatives in a public Satellite Navigation User Forum here in Washington, the first of three such forums to get user input in the investment/alternatives analysis process. HOST and Oceanic System Replacement (HOCSR): The Inspector General's comments suggest that meeting the HOCSR deadline was a relatively modest accomplishment. The Inspector General testimony from a year ago before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said with regard to HOCSR, ``the FAA faces significant challenges and risks.'' The testimony also said ``Rehosting in less than 2 years at all centers is extremely optimistic. It is unlikely that FAA can completely replace the HOST hardware at all 20 enroute centers in less than 2 years.'' HOCSR phase 1, while being a hardware replacement only, is not simple. Host is connected to almost everything else in the NAS and the transition strategy [akin to changing a tire on a moving car] is fairly involved. Complex networks of cables and switches were installed, tested and connected to the existing NAS with no disruption of service. Centers were able to switch back and forth between old and new systems seamlessly. This was a major accomplishment, and we are within cost and on schedule. Display System Replacement (DSR): The Inspector General's testimony minimizes the DSR accomplishment because it did not involve large-scale development of software. DSR should fit the definition of a software-intensive system. DSR required development, integration and test of almost 800,000 lines of operational software and also required integration of over 70 commercial, off-the-shelf software packages as part of the support system. Data Link: The Inspector General raised concerns about a prolonged transition and the associated impact on cost, schedule, and human factors. We believe that our current plans adequately address the Inspector General's concerns. Rather than a transition to data link, the FAA will be conducting an insertion of data link technology into the NAS. Benefits will be realized immediately, both by data link and non-data link users, because of a reduction of frequency congestion on conventional voice frequencies. Data link will never completely replace voice communications especially in conditions of aircraft or system emergencies, rapidly changing severe weather, and similar high communications workload environments. From the standpoint of cost, only those users who derive a supportive cost/benefit analysis will equip; those that don't will derive the operational benefit of greater access to conventional communications frequencies. FAA costs are offset as data link provides a solution for current and future bandwidth problems. Those users that will equip will do so as the business case dictates. Human factors suggests that data link be used for routine messages; voice messages will still be available for time critical communications, and, because of the use of data link in routine traffic, a higher level of safety and efficiency will be maintained through reduced frequency congestion. aviation security Explosive Detection Equipment: The Inspector General raises concerns about the underutilization of explosive detection equipment and recommends that the machines be used more aggressively. The Inspector General indicates that FAA's goal is to have air carriers ultimately screen all checked baggage. We want to emphasize that the long-term goal to screen all checked baggage is very long term. With the technology that exists today, we have more confidence in the process of screening CAPS selectee bags rather than trying to screen as many bags as possible. aviation safety Runway Incursions: The Inspector General stated that the FAA has made limited progress in implementing the Runway Incursion Plan. The FAA has made significant progress but we realize there is much more to do. We are finalizing the program implementation plan, which establishes tasks, schedules and funding required to accomplish prevention strategies. We expect to publish this plan in April, 1999. We are well aware that we must provide appropriate funds for these priority initiatives. We have on-site evaluations underway. Runway incursion action teams are focusing on airports experiencing an unusually high rate of incidents. We have completed 6 and plan to complete at least 14 additional evaluations by September 30, 1999. The FAA is currently in the final stages of investment analysis that is addressing the validity of a wide range of technical and non-technical solutions, such as: improved controller, pilot, vehicle operator education and training; procedural changes; and improvements in airport signs, lighting, surface marking and other equipment (such as low cost ASDE, loop technology). The FAA is focusing on immediate initiatives to reduce runway incursions and prevent surface accidents. We are in the process of implementing 18 separate actions, which are all funded. Some examples follow: ``Awareness blitz'' targeted for operators and users. Monthly Air Traffic/Airport Operator/User meetings at top 20 runway incursion airports. Develop and distribute videos to address controller and pilot awareness. Develop and safety related brochures and materials to aviation organizations. The FAA's Safer Skies also identifies runway incursions as one of the focus areas for commercial and general aviation. A commercial and general aviation analysis team that includes FAA, NASA, industry and aviation union representatives [the Joint Safety Analysis Team (JSAT)] was chartered and met on February 11-12, 1998. A schedule over the next 6-month period was established to analyze commercial and general aviation runway incursions and develop intervention strategies based on this data analysis. This effort is fully coordinated with and complements the efforts in the Runway Incursion Program plan. The Inspector General indicates that FAA has completed only two of the eight recommendations included in the February, 1998 OIG report. We continue to work towards completion of all of the 1998 recommendations from the IG. With regard to the IG's emphasis on completing the AA/AOPA education project, we would like to point out that the final part of the project is underway--the distribution of educational materials (videos, posters and brochures). Clarification on Runway Incursion Data included in the Inspector General's Statement: With regard to the chart on page 5 of the Inspector General's statement, the data is accurate. This data was obtained from FAA through the National Airspace Information Monitoring System. Specific reference by FAA that Cleveland runway incursions ``dropped to an all-time low'' is, regrettably, incorrect information. Flight Operations Quality Assurance: The Inspector General raised concerns about the status of rulemaking to obtain air carrier safety data that would be used to proactively identify risks. The statement discusses the protection of safety data and the ability of FAA to move forward with FOQA. The FAA is addressing the safety data protection concerns in a separate notice of proposed rulemaking which we hope to release for public comment in the near future. The Inspector General suggests that an option for gaining industry and Government acceptance of FOQA would be to include a ``sunset provision'' in the final rule. The FAA disagrees. The FAA has already gathered ample documentation of the value-added safety benefits that FOQA will provide, including improvements to air traffic procedures, pilot training, and airport equipage. The FAA wants accelerated industry-wide implementation of FOQA in the interest of public safety. Given the investment required by both the airlines and the FAA to achieve that goal, a ``sunset provision,'' which automatically terminates the program by a set date seems inappropriate. Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS): The Inspector General raises concerns about budget reduction and the impact on ATOS. The FAA has made difficult choices this year in order to manage within a very constrained budget. We have deferred hiring ATOS data analysts his year. However, in order to keep the program on track with Phase I, we have reprioritized work plans to support ATOS until additional analysts can be hired. We have fully funded the ATOS baseline training. This includes initial indoctrination training and travel for air carrier specific training needed by the certificate management team (CMT). Some of the flight training and air carrier systems training needed by team members has been deferred. Regardless of the budget situation, we believe that a slower approach to ATOS is prudent. It is important to note that we will evaluate ATOS Phase I before a decision is made to expand the program. The IG indicates that the FAA will complete an evaluation of ATOS implementation by June 30, 1999. FAA will begin an evaluation of ATOS Phase I implementation by June 30, 1999, and we expect to complete this activity September 30, 1999. Air Tour Operations: The Inspector General urges the FAA to issue rulemaking to extend more stringent safety and oversight of air tour operators. FAA has developed a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) that will establish a set of national safety standards for those operators. The rule will require that each operator obtain an air carrier certificate and associated operations specifications. The rule would also make operational information on air tour operators more readily available. Both the IG and NTSB have insisted on the need for a data base on air tour operators. They have provided no rationale as to how a data base will improve safety. The FAA disagrees and believes establishment of such a data base is costly and unnecessary and would provide no safety benefit. Once all air operators are certificated, FAA will have sufficient information in its operation specifications data base to provide safety oversight. financing and cost control Rising Operations Costs: The Inspector General indicates that FAA will need to contain increases in Operations costs in order to fund other critical functions. FAA is also concerned about rising Operations costs because our ability to actually control payroll-related increases in extremely limited. Approximately 75% of the Operations account is payroll related. Payroll cost increases are based on mandatory pay raises as well as increases in government contribution rates for retirement, social security, health insurance and medicare. The recent NATCA agreement does cost more than we budgeted for but represents less than 25% of our total mandatory increases this year. The best way the FAA can control payroll costs is through staffing reductions. We have made significant staffing reductions since 1993. Even though the safety workforce has grown in recent years, the staffing levels in Operations are 4,500 lower than in 1993. These reductions have resulted in annual cost avoidance of $250 million and cumulative cost avoidance of over $2 billion. We have also reduced our costs by contracting out low level air traffic control facilities and realigning the Airway Facilities field organizations. In the context of rising Operations costs, the Inspector General questions an FAA funding policy that has been in place for over six years. We do not consider first year maintenance costs of a new system to be a ``mask'' for rising Operations costs. The use of F&E funds to pay for maintenance for up to one year following commissioning new systems can be compared to a service contract for a newly acquired product, or a warranty period. These are appropriately considered part of the cost of fielding new systems. This policy was coordinated with and approved by the House and Senate Appropriation Committees. Cost Accounting: The Inspector General points out schedule slippages in implementation of cost accounting. While the IG is correct in noting there have been schedule slippages, we have made significant changes in how the agency approaches this critical initiative. The revised plan calls for an incremental approach to cost accounting that allows us to build on success as each piece is implemented. For example, in the first phase, FAA will have the initial cost information available this summer for the Oceanic and En Route portions of Air Traffic Services. Once this is completed, other parts of Air Traffic Services and then other Lines of Business will be brought into the System. We anticipate having the entire agency covered by the cost accounting system by the end of FY 2001. When compared to private sector entities that have built similar cost accounting systems, FAA's new time schedule and cost estimates compare favorably with best business practices. [Enclosure 2] Response to FAA's Comments on Our Statements We have the following response to FAA's comments on our statements. I. Air Traffic Control Modernization FAA disagrees with our recommendation that FAA defer decisions on the full range of software development needed for human factors on full STARS until the testing on the Department of Defense system in completed. FAA states that it has worked closely with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to resolve the human factors issues with the Early Display Configuration. These human factors changes will be incorporated in full STARS. We agree that the human factors issues identified for the Early Display Configuration should be incorporated in full

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Istook amendment; and I rise in strong support of the supplemental amendment. I listened to the debate in my office, and I just wanted to be sure that the record was clear when historians went back and looked at what we are doing today. This activity in the Balkans began in a little village called Vukovar in 1991 where Milosevic sent in his people, and after we later got in we found actually mass graves all over Vukovar. They went into the hospitals, took the people out, and they shot them. Two hundred fifty thousand people died in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the war. They died at the hands of Milosevic. This is not a recent action. This has been going on for years. Do Members remember that cold Saturday afternoon when the shell hit in the Sarajevo marketplace, and only then finally did the United States and the West do something there. Read Peter Moss's book, the Washington Post reporter, Love Thy Neighbor, where he talks about the rape houses; that the Serb forces would come in and rape young girls 14, 15, and 16. Read the portion where he says that the Serb forces put the gun up against a father's head, and tells the father, rape your daughter. And the father says, no, I can't do that. And then he turns the gun and he puts the gun up to the daughter's head, and then he says to the father. And the father says, oh, no, and he knows what is happening. This just did not begin 30 days ago or 42 days ago. What we do in this body today, we are setting a precedent for future presidents, hopefully future Republican presidents, but for future presidents. We are also sending a message to the Chinese as to whether or not they will deal with Taiwan and North Korea, whether or not they will deal with South Korea, and many other nations. I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Milosevic was not just bad for what he has done for the last 42 days, but he is bad for what he has done for the last years. I, too, for my party do not think that our party should be an isolationist party. We are the party of Ronald Reagan, who down in Orlando called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire. And many people who were liberal criticized Reagan, but Reagan had a vision for the future, to make sure that we did what we could to make the world safe for people. I rise in strong support of this bill. Let us pass it to help the troops. I rise in strong opposition to the Istook amendment.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to comment on the votes we are casting in the House today concerning U.S. military involvement in Kosovo. That the U.S. is mired in a Balkan conflict, not of our choosing, is not in doubt. I have been and remain critical of the course of action pursued by the White House that led to today. The White House simply did not think things through. What has happened, however, is that while attempting to bomb Milosevic into oblivion and crushing the infrastructure of his country, a horror show of catastrophic proportions involving as many as 1.5 million ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo has been created. These refugees, about half remaining in Kosovo and half fleeing or being driven to Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and elsewhere have been brutalized by Milosevic forces. They are fearful, homeless, without adequate food, water, sanitation, medical care and without much hope. Many have had family or friends killed and many more are injured or ill. What has happened is exactly what NATO intervention had hoped to prevent. And exactly what many informed sources available to NATO and to the Administration predicted. But the Clinton Administration did not listen. I have visited the Balkans a number of times to see things for myself. In February, just before the breakdown of the Rambouillet peace talks which led to NATO bombing of Serb targets, I traveled to Albania, to Macedonia and to Kosovo where I met with all parties--Serbs, KLA, representatives of the Rugova shadow government, men and women in the street, diplomats, NGO's and United Nations officials. Many predicted that ethnic cleansing would begin as Western officials left Kosovo in advance of NATO troops arriving had the peace accords been signed. Even they must be shocked at the degree their prediction have been fulfilled by the brutality unleashed by Milosevic. Yesterday, I heard for the first time that refugees reported Serb forces have used flame throwers to kill and torture ethnic Albanians. As reports of refugees streaming out of Kosovo filled the airways, I returned to Albania earlier this month to visit the Kosovo border crossing at Kukes and Morina to meet and talk with refugees. What has happened is so terrible I see no way the world can turn its back on them. Immediate care is a critical problem and so is the longer term need to provide for them. Nearly all wish to someday return home to Kosovo. But for too many, there is no home to return to. As they were driven away from their towns and villages, their burning and destroyed homes were visible behind them. And now the world tries to work its way out of this mess. The White House and NATO have not found the answer. Last week on April 21 here on the House floor I called on the President to convene a group of experienced and proven wise men and women to develop a workable Balkan strategy. Thus far, the White House only continues to bomb and hope and bomb and hope. Today the President announced a 33,000 reservist call- up. His response to the question of what to do if bombing didn't work was to bomb some more. Congress and the American people are wondering what should be done. I'm not sure Congress has found the solution among the four measures being voted on today. I am convinced that it is important for the world, for the U.S. and for NATO that we prevail in today's Balkan conflict. If NATO were to walk away it would be inhumane to the million-plus refugees. It would dangerously destabilize eastern Europe, leaving a huge refugee problem. It also would permanently stain and call into question the credibility and will of the U.S. and NATO emboldening rouge governments around the globe to rise up for their own gain and power. If we walk away, what would that say to China, which is eyeing Taiwan? What would that say to Iraq, with its arsenal of biological and chemical weapons? What would that say to Iran, which could think the time was ripe to strike Israel? What would that say to North Korea, looking to its south? More than that, it would just be wrong. Terrible crimes against humanity are being committed that cannot be allowed to continue. The world, including the U.S., must bring them to an end. Today, Congress considers H.R. 1569, which provides that no funds will be used for ground troops in Yugoslavia unless the funding is authorized by Congress. It is critical that Congress be involved in any decision to insert ground forces in any military campaign, and the administration has an obligation to come to Congress, similar to President Bush's involving Congress in the Persian Gulf war. President Clinton has stated to the congressional leadership that he will consult with Congress on the use of ground forces. That's the time for this vote. To vote now to ban the use of ground troops when there are currently no plans for this action sends the wrong message. How this question is handled will establish a precedent for future administrations, so we must be careful and thoughtful. H. Con. Res. 82, calling for the removal of the U.S. military pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, is an equally bad proposal and I do not support it either. If the purpose is to question the constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution which has been ignored by all presidents and congresses since it was enacted in 1973, a better test must be found that will not jeopardize U.S. forces, U.S. interests and the lives of all those refugees. Men and women in U.S. uniform are in combat now risking their lives. Three of them are being held as prisoners. I also do not support H.J. Res. 44, declaring war on Yugoslavia. Calling for this vote is both frivolous and mischievous and serves no useful purpose. The world is faced with a serious problem in the Balkans which merits thoughtful consideration and action. S. Con. Res. 21, authorizing air and missile strikes, acknowledges what is now taking place in Yugoslavia. While support of this measure could send to the White House the message that Congress endorses the present ``bomb to oblivion'' strategy without regard to whether or not it works, not to vote for it would take away from the men and women now engaged in air combat in Serbia. America stands behind our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and a ``yes'' vote reaffirms this support. Additionally, it would be wrong to send any message that could in any way provide aid and comfort to Milosevic. My ``yes'' vote is a vote in support of our men and women in uniform now risking their lives in the Balkans. Again, I call on the President to assemble a group of wise men and women skilled in world affairs, diplomacy and the application of force to find resolution and keep an intractable Balkan problem from becoming an Achilles' heel to world peace. The U.S. must find a winning strategy and unite behind it. Today's debate and votes are both healthy and necessary and a start to finding a solution. Had the President involved Congress and the American people in this matter at the outset, we might be closer to a resolution than we are. The President needs to come to Congress and the American people and tell us what is needed to achieve our goal and why.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, 6 months ago today President Clinton signed the International Religious Freedom Act into law. The law mandates that within 120 days of enactment individuals shall be named to the Commission on International Religious Freedom created by the bill. It has been 6 months since enactment of the bill, 2 months past the deadline, and the White House has still not named its three commissioners. Congress has done its part, but we are still waiting for the administration. When will the White House get serious about implementing this legislation? In early February, the President spoke before a crowd of religious and political leaders from around the world at the National Prayer Breakfast. He praised the bill and he said he was proud to have signed it. But where is the implementation? Where is the enforcement? Where is the commitment? The commission's first report on the condition of religious freedom around the world is due on May 1, this Saturday. Because the administration has wasted so much time in making the appointments, there is no way that the commission will meet that date, and it is unlikely that we will see a report this year. Another year wasted while people are being maimed, tortured, beaten, jailed and killed on account of their faith. I believe it was the administration's intention to miss the May 1 deadline for the commission's report. This ensures this issue will not get a serious examination by an independent entity as the bill intends. It ensures that the administration can continue to fudge the facts instead of taking serious actions against countries that refuse to protect the human rights of religious believers. The administration never really liked this bill. Secretary Albright spoke out against the bill. Assistant Secretary Eizenstat criticized the bill. But once Congress overwhelmingly, Republicans and Democrats, passed the bill and sent it to the White House, the President had no choice but to sign it. Then he praised it. Now they are stonewalling it on the implementation. All talk, no action. That is how I would describe the action of this administration with regard to human rights: All talk and no action. The administration's record on promoting human rights is miserable. China's Catholic priests and bishops are still in jail today and have been in there for decades, for decades, and nobody has been appointed to this commission; Protestant pastors and lay people, decades, and nobody has been appointed to the commission. Worshippers being imprisoned, fined. Freedom House has said the already intense persecution of the underground church in China has intensified since mid-1998. There was no mention of this during the recent summit with the Chinese Premier. Neither was there any discussion about the fact that China has stopped all dialogue with the Dalai Lama over the future status of Tibet, or the Chinese Government-sponsored campaign to encourage Tibetan Buddhists to become atheists. And I was in Tibet last year, and the persecution of the Buddhists in Tibet is horrible. It is more horrible than anybody realizes. And yet no one from this administration has taken the time to go to Tibet to see how the conditions are. The church in Hong Kong is being squeezed. The war in Sudan, very little diplomatic effort, 2 million people, mainly Christians, who have been killed for their faith in the last 15 years, and this administration has done nothing. They cannot even appoint the people to the commission that we all passed in a bipartisan manner. In Vietnam the situation is no better. And the administration has done nothing, nor have they appointed the people. In India, Pakistan, Indonesia, East Timor, atrocities taking place, and they do nothing. There is so much going on around the world. There is no excuse for this commission not to be given a chance to do its work. That is what Congress, Republican and Democrat, wanted, that is what the American people wanted when it passed the International Freedom Religious Freedom Act, which has strong bipartisan support. The House leadership, both majority and minority leadership, found time to name the 6 commissioners, and the leadership on both sides of the aisle supported this commission. Why cannot the administration find time to appoint these people? I hope the administration will at least move to appoint people to the commission, 120 days late, on International Religious Freedom. Too much time has been wasted. The lives of innocent people are at stake every day in China, every day in the Sudan, every day in East Timor, every day in Indonesia, and yet 120 days they have missed the deadline. They are basically in violation of the law. They have had 6 months. Because this administration has taken so long, my guess is that they will appoint people who are weak and ineffectual on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I hope I am wrong. And if I am wrong, I will be glad to say they have appointed good people and decent people who care deeply about this. But please appoint someone. Appoint someone so the Commission can begin its action.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express concern over the conditions in the Balkans. I am particularly concerned with the continued deterioration in the lives of ethnic Albanian refugees ripped from their homes in Kosovo at the direction of Serbia President Milosevic. I have been concerned enough to visit this troubled region twice in the past 2 months. I watched conditions get worse and worse and worse. Reports indicate that half a million refugees have fled Kosovo for Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, with many more than that uprooted and hiding in terror in Kosovo. And the free world has found no way to stem this fall into despair for over a million men, women and children. Relief efforts are underway to help the refugees. Mr. Speaker, while it may be too late and too little, help is beginning to be provided. But nothing has worked to date to overturn the root cause. Milosevic has campaigned to drive ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo in a manner so evil that fear will linger in their hearts forever. NATO and Clinton administration efforts thus far have not stopped the brutality. Despite daily briefings to the contrary, bombing in Serbia is just not going that well. At the rate things are going, it may take a long time to stop Milosevic, and the refugees do not have forever. For too many, time has already run out. The Clinton administration has so many times ruled out the use of ground troops that Milosevic may have been emboldened by what he perceives as a lack of commitment by the other side to win. I fear that the Clinton administration has no clear strategy or idea as to what it will take to win in the Balkans. Last Friday I called the White House and spoke with someone on the National Security Council about this issue. I asked if they had sought outside thinking from knowledgeable and previously experienced people, such as Warren Christopher, George Shultz, Larry Eagleburger and others, including battle-proven former military commanders. I was told they had not, but this idea might be an idea they would entertain. To my knowledge they have not followed up. I personally would have chosen a different plan than the current effort of trying to bomb Milosevic into compliance. I believe a fiercely enforced embargo might have been a better first step. An effort to induce Milosevic to step aside by telling him he would have been forcibly pursued and taken and tried as a war criminal would have also been worth trying. But NATO and the Clinton administration chose another course that has led to where we are today. Even though the results are so far not what we would like to see, we are committed to the effort and cannot back off. We must win, not only for the sake of the refugees and for stability in Eastern Europe, but now for the credibility of both the U.S. and NATO. If credibility is lost, will there not follow a host of other tyrants eager to challenge the will of the free world in pursuit of their own gain? Today I call on President Clinton to assemble a group of American leaders knowledgeable of and with proven ability in foreign affairs, diplomacy, warfare and statecraft to provide counsel and direction to the Balkan effort which now seems to be stalled. I hope he considers men and women of high stature and achievement such as George Shultz, Warren Christopher, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Senator Sam Nunn, Casper Weinberger, Bob Zoellick, Morton Abramowitz, William Perry, Frank Carlucci, Max Kampelman, Paul Wolfowitz, Lee Hamilton, Robert Hunter, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Admiral William Crowe, former General Schwarzkopf and former General Colin Powell. These would be men and women who would sit at the table with their President not to criticize what has or not been done, but to suggest a workable plan for the future. They would offer privileged counsel to the President rather than critical critique to the press. They would help define an acceptable way to end the Balkan strategy. All Americans want to bring peace to the Balkans and help the refugees from Kosovo. Mr. President, I call on you and I urge you to call on some of the best people in America to help show the way, and please, please do it soon.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, April 18, David McCall, Penny McCall and Yvette Pierpaoli died in a car accident while on their way to assist the refugees in Northern Albania. David and Penny McCall were on assignment for Refugees International. Ms. Pierpaoli was their Albanian driver. I insert into the Record a press release from Refugees International detailing their mission. Having traveled the same road myself just weeks ago, I know how dangerous it can be. The road--the only route between Tirana and Kukes--is crowded and crumbling. David, Penny and Yvette gave their lives to serve others and bring some desperately needed relief to the displaced Kosovar Albanians. Their death should serve as a stark reminder of the daily risks faced by aid workers and the heroic efforts of all those risking their lives to help the world's needy. My sympathy goes out to the families of the McCalls and Ms. Pierpaoli. Refugees International--April 19, 1999 It is with deep pain that we must confirm the deaths of David B. McCall, his wife Penny McCall and Yvette Pierpaoli in a car accident Sunday on the road heading towards Kukes, Albania. Their Albanian driver was also killed. David and Penny were Board Members of Refugees International, and Yvette was RI's European Representative. The three were in Albania on a humanitarian assessment mission. They were heading from Tirana, the capital, to Kukes, the primary reception point for Kosovar refugees, when their car apparently slid off the mountain road in bad weather. David, Penny, and Yvette gave their lives for refugees they never met, but for whom they cared deeply. Refugees International is an advocacy organization which seeks to identify failures or gaps in the refugee protection and assistance system and then presses for corrective action. David, Penny and Yvette had made numerous such missions in the past, including a humanitarian assessment mission to Albania last June. This time, a part of their mission was to explore the possibility of providing region-wide help through radio broadcasts to refugees seeking to locate missing family members. The widespread separation of families is a problem with profound human consequences, and David, Penny, and Yvette wanted it solved as quickly as possible. It was not the first time these three took matters into their own hands for refugees around the world. David, Penny, and Yvette personally brought water pumps, sought to improve the system for clearing land mines and provided basic assistance for refugees in Thailand, Cambodia, and numerous countries in Africa. Their humanity was deep, abiding and selfless, and inspired us all. We will miss them terribly.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, an exodus from Kosovo of biblical proportions is taking place. Thousands upon thousands of refugees stream across the border 24 hours a day. There was a newspaper headline in Europe that said ``Europe's turn in the killing fields.'' That writer must have seen what I saw, a catastrophe that should have been anticipated. Ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo are now paying a heavy price for this poor judgment. I just returned from a 4-day visit to the Balkans. I went to focus on humanitarian conditions and the massive numbers of refugees flooding out of Kosovo each day. I traveled to Kukes and Morina on the Kosovo- Albania border. And when I left, an estimated 270,000 to 300,000 refugees had crossed the border. The scene there is heart-wrenching. Our first introduction was the stench, the overpowering smell of urine and feces from refugees with no place to go to the bathroom. In many places the ground was covered with feces. It will not be long before disease breaks out, especially among the people who are already dehydrated, malnourished, and sick. Four cases of measles had been confirmed as of last Tuesday. Refugees are everywhere, camped on hillsides, along the road, in parks and plazas, and in parking lots. Most arrive as an extended family in carts and trailers being pulled by farm tractors or, in some cases, by horses. Some arrive in cars, but many are on foot, an unending procession of people who had been threatened; and many have been separated from their families. Everyone had a bad story. There is no need to document the reports, but every report was different: ``I lost my husband.'' ``I lost my wife.'' ``I lost my son.'' ``I lost my daughter.'' And we should now have people documenting that for a war crimes trial but also for history. The country of Albania has responded admirably to this entire crisis. It is a poor country but it has opened up its heart and its homes. Still, in spite of the tremendous effort of people on the scene, the refugee situation is still a disaster. The Clinton administration, the international community, and NATO were ill prepared to deal with this crisis they should have anticipated. The information was there, but those who decided the course of events, particularly the Clinton administration, did not listen. People on the ground in Kosovo before the bombing campaign began warned that the Serbs could begin to brutalize ethnic Albanians. Some comments and suggestions: The brutality has been taking place for too long. Serbian President Milosevic is the father of the Kosovo tragedy, as he was in Bosnia and even before. Beginning in the fall of 1991, when Serbs shelled and bombed and laid siege to Vukovar, he has continued this pattern of destruction. This is just another chapter. Two, Milosevic is an evil man who has directly caused nearly a decade of terror and killing. Nine Serb generals have just been warned that they may be named as war criminals. Should Milosevic head the list? And the answer is ``yes.'' Three, there is a life-and-death crisis in Albania. President Clinton should immediately send a high-level delegation of NSC, State Department, and Defense to go on the scene, people who can make decisions. Four, massive amounts of infrastructure supplies and communications equipment are needed at the border, along with people to assemble and operate. Five, there is a huge shortage of food and people are starving today. But once the influx of refugees ends, the problem of sustaining them for a longer period is no less critical. Six, refugees report that a vast number of houses and buildings and infrastructures have been destroyed. Every family said, ``My house had been burned.'' ``My house had been destroyed.'' We need to help them rebuild, and that will take a long time for them to return. Seven, it is doubtful that Kosovo can ever again be part of the Yugoslav Federation. It will take a long time to implement workable solutions. In time, Albanians will tire of having to deal with the refugees who infringe upon their normal life. Most Kosovo refugees have no documentation, no identity cards, no medical history, no records. This will take a long time to reconstruct. And everyone I spoke to said they want to go home. Lastly, we must do everything possible to help the suffering refugees. These victims of war have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and in many cases their identities. Additionally, having witnessed firsthand their struggle to survive and having seen their fear and their tears, I believe our country, the United States of America, and NATO's resolve with our partners must be to stop once and for all the brutality of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the following report of our visit to Albania: Report by U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf of Virginia, Visit to Albania: Refugees--An Exodus of Biblical Proportions, April 4-7, 1999 This report provides details of my trip to Albania on April 4-7, 1999. I met briefly with Albanian leaders in Tirana and spent the bulk of my time at the Kosovo-Albanian border near Morina and the nearby town of Kukes. Thousands upon thousands of refugees streamed across the border, 24 hours a day. They desperately need lifesaving care now and will require sustaining aid for a long time until all the problems resolving around Kosovo are solved, and they can once again return home. An exodus from Kosovo of biblical proportions is taking place, I saw a newspaper headline yesterday, ``Europe's turn in the killing fields.'' That writer must have seen what I saw, a catastrophe that should have been anticipated. Ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo are now paying a heavy price for this poor judgment. I just returned from a four-day visit to Albania--my second since mid-February. I went this time to focus on humanitarian conditions and needs with tens of thousands of refugees streaming across the border from Kosovo each day. By the time we left on Wednesday, an estimated 270,000- 300,000 refugees had cross the border from Kosovo. They have added about 10 percent to the Albanian population in a matter of only a few days. We arrived in Tirana on Eastern Sunday courtesy of Americares--one of the many non-governmental organizations (NGO's) saving lives, delivering food, water, blankets, medicine and other items desperately needed in large quantities. Our airplane, a Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules, seconded to Americares, was loaded with baby food, flour, and other emergency supplies. About 20 passengers were on board, mostly print and TV journalists and Americares staff and volunteers. A few NBC people from the TODAY show were there. We crowded in amid relief supplies, wherever there was room to sit. The Tirana airport is just beginning to come alive with relief supplies and equipment arriving from many nations. U.S. Air Force personnel, with their positive attitude and ``can do'' spirit, have set up a tent city to get the planes off-loaded and the goods dispersed. They are doing a great job, and planes do not linger on the ground. We left Tirana very early the next morning for Kukes, a northern Albania town nearest the border crossing. It is a drive of six to nine hours or more, depending on traffic, weather and luck. We travelled with USAID's Disaster Response Team (DART) which was going to assess and coordinate relief efforts. It is the only road to Kukes. It is the only road available to transport relief supplies to Kukes. It is the only road for newly arriving refugees to travel out of Kukes to the villages, towns and cities throughout Albania where they will stay, or be moved to other countries. It is a treacherous road--a dangerous road through mountains and valleys with steep drop-offs of hundreds of feet. It is barely two lanes wide with no barriers to prevent going over the edge. The roadway is dotted with flower adorned memorials to earlier accidents and fatalities. We bounced from pothole to pothole around tight S curves, dodging traffic going in both directions. Worse, the roadbed in a number of places is being undercut by the passage of heavy trucks. Chunks of road are just falling off. As more and more relief trucks make the trip, the roadway may deteriorate to the point where it is impassable. Officials are looking at creating an airstrip near Kukes capable of handling up to C-130 Hercules aircraft. They need to hurry. In Kukes we joined with Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Like other NGO's, CRS is doing a remarkable job with what they have to work with. The overall relief effort was late in getting started, is slow in coming up to speed and, thus far, is overwhelmed by the vast number of refugees. Our first introduction to the area was the stench--the overpowering smell of urine and feces from the enormous numbers of refugees with no place to go to the bathroom. In many places, the ground was covered with feces. It won't be long before disease breaks out under these conditions, especially among people who are already dehydrated, malnourished and sick. Four cases of measles had been confirmed by Tuesday and the NGO's were trying to arrange a massive inoculation program. The number of people in Kukes was startling. This is a town of 23,000 inhabitants which is growing by tens of thousands each day. About 30,000 refugees are estimated to cross the border every day, 24 hours a day. Only about 15,000 to 20,000 refugees are transported from Kukes daily to other places. The population continues to swell. The most common estimates are that about 80,000 refugees were in Kukes on Tuesday and Wednesday. They are everywhere, camped on hillsides, along the road, in parks and plazas, and in parking lots. Most arrive as an extended family in trailers being pulled along by tractors, or in some cases, by horse. Some arrive in cars, but many are on foot. Their only possessions are carried on their back. Our time at the Morina border crossing was an overpowering, emotional experience. We saw an unending procession of people and families, each with a horrific story to tell. Many had been travelling for days under constant threat of being harmed or killed by Serb militia. Perhaps just reaching the border was an emotional release for them. There were many more women, children and elderly than younger men. Tears were streaming down their faces--many sobbed uncontrollably. We had an interpreter and the tales they told were chilling. An 18-year-old boy from the village of Blac was randomly pulled out of line and shot to death--in front of his mother and family. They wouldn't even let his mother kiss him goodbye. An elderly paralyzed woman was given 10 minutes to leave her home. There wasn't even time to get her medicine. As they moved away, the family home was set afire--blazing behind them. Everyone has a story. Most have had their homes destroyed. There is a need to document these reports while they are still fresh, not only for war crimes, but for history as well. The refugees have little food, water, shelter, sanitation or medical care. We went with a CRS feeding mission on Monday night. It was scheduled after dark to keep the hungry people from seeing what was going on and getting out of hand at food distribution points. But it didn't work. As soon as the distributors showed up, starving people began clamoring and struggling for food. The trucks were overwhelmed and had to speed away to keep people from being injured. Police were helping as much as they could but they are too few. We saw individual policemen on duty for 24 hours straight. Many Albanian families, and especially some in Kukes, were warm, welcoming and generous. Many opened their homes to refugees they did not know and had no earlier connection with. I visited two apartments in Kukes to see for myself. In one, the residents vacated their two-room apartment so that a Kosovar family of 17 could have a place to stay. The grandfather was blind and just sat facing a wall. There was a baby girl, just weeks or perhaps a few months old. They had been a thriving family in Kosovo, but now have nothing, not even an idea of what the future holds. In the next two-room flat, 10 refugees stayed in one room and 17 in the other. The host Kukes residents stayed with them, all sleeping on the floor. Albania is a poor country in wealth, but rich in generosity. We also sat in on a coordinating meeting of NGO's who are struggling to cope, many themselves on the edge of exhaustion and sickness. The room was filled with coughing and sneezing--respiratory cases about to happen. The talk was of how to provide the most help. Who could do what? Who could best ease the shortfall of supplies? The overall conclusion was one of inadequacy, of being overwhelmed, of having too little to share among too many. And the talk was especially about poor logistics and communications. The refugees situation in Albania, in spite of the tremendous effort of people on the scene, is a disaster. I think the Clinton administration, the international community and NATO were ill-prepared to deal with this crisis they should have anticipated. The information was there, but those who decided the course of events, particularly the Clinton administration, did not listen. Satellite imagery could detect the large lines of refugees forming along the way to the borders, but this information has not been available to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with overall coordinating responsibility. People on the ground in Kosovo before the bombing began warned of the possibility that Serbs would begin to brutalize ethnic Albanians. I visited Kosovo in February, a few days before Rambouillet talks broke down ending hope for a truce with NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo. Many Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UNHCR and NGO representatives and diplomats predicted then that ethnic Albanians would be attacked before NATO troops could arrive. In Kosovo, nearly every Serb family is armed, not with Saturday-night specials, but with Kalishnakov automatic rifles. The Serbs Army and Police are heavily armed, too. Real concern existed that, hidden from western observers, helpless and unprotected ethnic Albanians would be brutalized. That is exactly what happened. Had this been anticipated by decision-makers, measures to provide relief and the basis for survival of refugees could have been put in motion. Shiploads, and caches of relief supplies then could have been positioned nearby. Even now, when it is clear that enormous problems exist, too little is being done. There is much talk of providing for the long run. But people are dying today. Massive amounts of life-giving supplies are needed now. I would like to close with a few comments and recommendations. 1. This brutality has been taking place for too long. Serbian President Milosevic is the father of the Kosovo tragedy as he was in Bosnia and even before. Beginning in the fall of 1991 when Serbs shelled, bombed and laid siege to Vukovar, Croatia, Milosevic has continued a pattern of destruction. Kosovo is just the latest chapter. 2. Milosevic is an evil man who has directly caused nearly a decade of terror, killing and destruction. Nine Serb generals have just been warned that they may be named as war criminals for their actions in Kosovo. Shouldn't Milosevic head the list? 3. There is a life and death crisis in Albania. President Clinton should immediately send high level people from the National Security Council, State and defense department-- people who can make decisions on the scene--to the border crossings in Kukes. A decision-maker/policy person has yet to visit there. And that's where you have to go to see what is really happening. Too many visitors stop briefly in Tirana and quickly move on, thinking they know what is taking place. They don't. Today, the refugee problem is hemorrhaging at the border. That's where the compress now needs to be applied. Once the influx of refugees ends, and they are placed throughout Albania, the same amounts of massive help and support must be re-targeted to provide long-term assistance. 4. Massive amounts of infrastructure supplies and communications equipment are needed at the border along with people to assemble and operate them. It is not enough to ship a load of tents. People to erect them, dig toilets and purify water must be there as well. Equipment alone is insufficient. Operators and technicians must be there, too. When refugees stop coming to the border, these needs will continue throughout Albania where massive numbers of refugees will be housed. 5. There is a huge shortage of food, and people are starving today. Once the influx of refugees ends, the problem of sustaining them for a longer period will be no less critical. Albania can't feed itself. Food is the country's largest component of imports. Albania is going to need help. 6. Albania also has difficulty maintaining law and order, even in Tirana. In many remote areas, police protection is non-existent. Unemployment is very high, and there is no capacity to provide work and economic sufficiency for refugees. The Albanian government will need to be propped up and the economy improved. 7. Refugees report that a vast number of houses, buildings and infrastructure have been destroyed in Kosovo. Rebuilding will take a long time and care for refugees must be worked out while this take place. 8. Little is known about the refugee situation in Montenegro, but it will undoubtedly add to the overall problem. 9. It is doubtful that Kosovo can ever again be a pat of the Yugoslav federation. It will take a long time to implement workable solution. In time, Albanians will tire of having Kosovo refugees to deal with and infringe upon normal life. Most Kosovo refugees have not documentation, no identity cards, medical histories or necessary records. Even the license plates were ripped from cars as they crossed the border. This, too, will take time to reconstruct. 10. And lastly, let me say a word about the press. Without their coverage as refugees began to pile up, it would have taken even longer to recognize the crisis at hand. The press has done a good job of telling the world what is happening and in mobilizing people to come to the aid of hundreds of thousands of the neediest people. Members of the press should be proud of their work.