[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 61 (Monday, April 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5048-S5049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me say for the information of our 
colleagues, I have been talking with Senator Daschle, the Democratic 
leader, to see if there is some agreement we can reach on this 
supplemental appropriation bill. Right now I understand on that side of 
the aisle there are at least 70 amendments and on this side 27. That is 
almost 100 amendments. If we are to complete action on the bill and go 
to conference yet this week, today is Monday, we do not have a great 
deal of time. It was our hope to be in recess on Friday. I think the 
House also hopes to go out on Friday.
  So, I have been talking with the White House. If they do not want to 
finish this bill, then they ought to let us know, because we may not 
want to finish the Defense supplemental. We are prepared to make the 
readiness argument with this President any time he wishes on why we 
need the supplemental appropriations. The President sent me a letter. I 
think I received it Saturday morning, and I responded Saturday 
afternoon to the President's letter.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent those two letters be printed 
in the Record at this point just so we would have a record made.
  There being no objection, the letters were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                   Port-au-Prince, March 31, 1995.
     Hon. Robert Dole,
     Republican Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. Leader: I am writing to urge you to take prompt 
     action on the supplemental appropriations bill for the 
     Department of Defense. I know that you and all Members of 
     Congress have been working at a heavy pace the past three 
     months and that you have many issues on your agenda. But I 
     know you share the view that it is extremely important that 
     the defense supplemental be addressed before Congress 
     adjourns next Friday.
       Both the House and Senate have passed defense supplemental 
     appropriations to pay for ongoing contingency operations. I 
     applaud those actions and agree with the Senate's decision to 
     meet our full commitment to Jordan, in furtherance of the 
     Middle East peace process, in this legislation. 
     Unfortunately, these matters seem tied up in the Conference, 
     and a deadline is looming that requires immediate 
     congressional action to recognize the emergency nature of 
     this supplemental bill and minimize offsetting reductions.
       Secretary Perry and General Shalikashvili have repeatedly 
     told me and have reported to Congress that unless 
     supplemental funds were appropriated by March 31, the 
     readiness of our Armed Forces would be adversely affected. 
     That deadline has not been met. As you know, Secretary Perry 
     has told Congress that he will be forced to take specific 
     actions that will impair the readiness of our forces if 
     Congress fails to act by April 7. I realize the respective 
     committees are meeting and are making some progress, but the 
     Conference is still not resolved and time is very short.
       I am also concerned about reports that the emergency 
     defense supplemental may be combined with rescission 
     legislation now pending before you. I know you will not 
     permit the Congress to hold the readiness of our Armed Forces 
     hostage to other debates. It is imperative that the Congress 
     approve the supplemental before you adjourn for the Easter/
     Passover recess.
           Sincerely,
     Bill Clinton.
                                                                    ____

                                                      U.S. Senate,


                                Office of the Majority Leader,

                                    Washington, DC, April 1, 1995.
     The President,
     The White House,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: As you know, many of my colleagues in 
     the Congress have long voiced concerns about the declining 
     readiness of our Armed Forces and its impact on the brave men 
     and women who so proudly serve. We have warned that the 
     severe defense cuts imposed by your Administration compounded 
     by costly ``peacekeeping'' operations, neither authorized nor 
     approved by Congress, will drain the readiness accounts and 
     strain our military preparedness. Indeed, these pressures 
     have already manifested themselves in unacceptable readiness 
     ratings for three Army divisions as early as last November. 
     Further, I remind you that several of my colleagues began 
     exhorting Secretary Perry and General Shalikashvili to send 
     us their defense request as early as possible, but for some 
     unexplained reason your Administration delayed that action 
     until mid February with the submission of your budget. Our 
     continued warnings have consistently fallen on deaf ears. Now 
     that a severe readiness crisis is upon us, I am hard pressed 
     to see this as the fault of the Congress. Your decision to 
     blame the Congress for any delays and the impending readiness 
     crisis is unfortunate.
       Although we have been hampered by a laundry list of 
     amendments offered by members of your party, the House and 
     Senate have taken quick action on your defense supplemental 
     request. The delay in submission coupled with Congressional 
     desires to pay for these costs rather than add them to the 
     debt has made our job more difficult. However, as you point 
     out, we are now in conference and I am hopeful to bring final 
     action before the Easter/Passover recess. As to whether the 
     Congress will choose to combine your defense supplemental and 
     your domestic supplemental request will be a matter that we 
     will decide early next week. The readiness of our Armed 
     Forces is important to all of us as is reducing the deficit, 
     responding to emergency needs in California, and supporting 
     the peace process in the Middle East. Your leadership on 
     these matters would be useful in helping to limit the number 
     of extraneous amendments offered and in bringing all of these 
     issues to an early and acceptable conclusion.
           Sincerely,
                                                         Bob Dole.

  Mr. DOLE. It may be that the White House has no interest in the 
pending supplemental legislation. If they do not, I do not know why we 
are here, why we are going to debate 97 amendments so certain people 
can score political points. On every amendment offered on that side 
from now on there will be a second-degree amendment. It seems to me 
that is about the only way to make certain both sides are protected 
here. Because we have had all this talk about how the Democrats are so 
concerned about children and we do not care about children, we are not 
sensitive to children. I wonder where they were on the balanced budget 
amendment when we asked just one more Democrat to vote for a balanced 
budget amendment so we might protect our children over the next 5, 10, 
15, 25 years, but we did not have any response to the argument then.
  So now we are seeing efforts to put a little back here and a little 
here, even though there are increases in all these programs, so the 
liberal press will write the right spin on the story that the Democrats 
are protecting children and, of course, we are depriving children of 
food and medication and about anything else you could believe. I am 
certain the liberal press will put that spin on it, as it always has in 
the past.
  So it is my view there should not be anything else happening on the 
bill unless there is going to be debate on the primary amendment from 
that side, the amendment offered by the distinguished Senator from 
South Dakota, Senator Daschle, and the amendment offered by this side, 
by the Senator from Missouri, Senator Ashcroft, and others.
  I am prepared to get consent that we have the debate, time divided 
equally between now and 6 o'clock. Then at 6:15 we debate whether or 
not elephants can come to the Capitol. We may have to take a rollcall 
vote. But that will be 1 hour of debate, and the vote--we have not 
determined yet, hopefully it will not come until tomorrow morning.
  I know the Senator from Massachusetts was here on Friday. He is here 
again today. He wants to offer his amendment even though I do not think 
it is necessary. I think we are all for the amendment.
  But if it is offered, it probably will be second-degreed and then we 
will be right back in the same predicament we are in now. I hope the 
Senator from Massachusetts will let me and the Democratic leader try to 
work out some agreement where the Senator from Massachusetts would be 
permitted to offer the amendment. I do not have any problem with that. 
In fact, I support the amendment. So I do not want to be misunderstood.
  Is there any way we could accommodate the Senator from Massachusetts 
and not offer the amendment today but let us proceed on the debate so 
at least we could have the debate? We are now working with the White 
House, with the Democratic leader, with our office 
[[Page S5049]] to see--if we cannot get any agreement, then none of the 
amendments will pass in any event.
  So I hope we could be permitted to have general debate equally 
divided between now and 6:15, by sponsoring of the two major 
amendments. And then at 6:15, the Senator from New Hampshire, Senator 
Smith, will be recognized to offer his amendment on House Concurent 
Resolution 34.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. DOLE. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I say to the majority leader that I know 
the majority leader had said on Thursday evening that he was hopeful 
the amendment of the Senator from South Dakota would be up and he 
thought at that time it might have been disposed of on Friday. There 
was certainly no objection from me on that. I thought that was probably 
going to be the case. Now the Senator has pointed out that we have both 
the Daschle and the Dole amendments before the Senate.
  I have indicated that I was quite prepared to just send my amendment 
to the desk, have it printed, and after we had disposed of the 
principal amendments of Senator Dole and Senator Daschle, I would hope 
that we would be able to consider my amendment. But I would obviously 
respond to the request of the joint leadership in terms of working out 
an appropriate time. I am more than glad to do this, recognizing that 
we have a great deal of business before the Senate prior to the recess.
  Mr. DOLE. If the Senator will yield, I understand the Senator will 
have it printed today but it will not be offered today.
  Is that correct?
  Mr. KENNEDY. I have talked on it quite a bit, Mr. President. I am not 
sure that I really have to take any more time on it. I would be glad to 
send the resolution to the desk. Obviously, it would be a matter before 
the Senate. I would like to get it printed. I would send it to the desk 
and have it printed, and then I would be glad to work out with the 
majority leader and the minority leader the time when we could consider 
it. I am more than glad to accommodate. If we wanted to do it at the 
conclusion of the other two amendments, that would be fine.
  I can assure the leader that I do not think it will take any more 
than 5 or 10 minutes equally divided to dispose of it. I will be glad 
to give an assurance to the leader and to Senator Daschle that we would 
not consider it until after the disposition of at least the two current 
amendments. They really are the heart and the thrust of the issue here, 
and they are our first priority. I think they are enormously important, 
and we ought to consider them.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, will the Senator yield further? The 
Democratic leader indicated to me that he was prepared to vote on the 
D'Amato amendment, which indicates that he must have the votes to 
table. Would there be any objection to having it follow the vote on the 
D'Amato amendment, because his amendment was pending prior?
  Mr. KENNEDY. I understand from the floor staff that Senator Daschle 
has indicated willingness to go to the vote on D'Amato tomorrow, and it 
is entirely acceptable to me to vote right after the D'Amato amendment 
on this amendment, if that is agreeable.
  Mr. DOLE. The caveat, Mr. President, would be if we decided to pull 
the bill down because there are so many amendments. I do not want 
anybody to be blindsided. But it could happen, with 97 amendments, 
which would take quite a while, that we might just pull the bill down 
until after the recess. As long as the Senator understood that, I think 
we have an agreement. He could send it to the desk now, and have it 
printed with an understanding that following the vote on the D'Amato 
amendment, disposition of the D'Amato amendment, the Senator be 
recognized for a vote on his amendment.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I send the amendment to the desk, and ask 
that it be printed in the Record for the information of Senators.
  It is my understanding that we will have the vote on the D'Amato 
amendment.
  There being no objection, the amendment text was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

       At the appropriate place in the amendment, insert the 
     following:

     SEC.  . SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING TAX AVOIDANCE.

       (a) In General.--It is the sense of the Senate that 
     Congress should act as quickly as possible to amend the 
     Internal Revenue Code of 1986, to eliminate the ability of 
     persons to avoid taxes by relinquishing their United States 
     citizenship.

  Mr. KENNEDY. That is satisfactory.
  Mr. DOLE. As I said, the only exception would occur----
  Mr. KENNEDY. I understand what the Senator said. It could be 
withdrawn.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I think there is a serious effort by the 
Democratic and Republican leaders and the White House to try to see if 
we can bring this to closure. If we cannot, we will pull the bill down. 
If we can, we will try to finish it tomorrow evening. There is no way 
we can finish it with 97 amendments. That would take the rest of this 
week and all of next week, and I have something else planned for next 
week. In any event, many other Senators have plans for next week.
  I wonder if it would be all right, between now and 6:15, the time 
equally divided.
  I thank the Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent--this has been cleared by the 
Democratic leader--that all time between now and 6:15 p.m. be equally 
divided between the Democratic leader and Senator Ashcroft, or their 
designees, for debate on the Daschle and Dole amendments.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOLE. I further ask unanimous consent that at 6:15, whenever the 
Senator from New Hampshire is available, during that timeframe, that we 
proceed to House Concurrent Resolution 34, and that Senator Smith be 
recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________