[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15077-S15079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY [LIBERTAD] ACT OF 1995

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now 
resume consideration of H.R. 927, which the clerk will report.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 927) to seek international sanctions against 
     the Castro Government in Cuba, to plan for support of a 
     transition Government leading to a democratically elected 
     Government in Cuba, and for other purposes.

  The Senate resumed consideration of the bill.

       Pending:
       Dole amendment No. 2898, in the nature of a substitute.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina is recognized.
  Mr. HELMS. I thank the Chair. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further 
proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I am about 6 minutes late in reaching the 
Senate floor because of my responsibility of presiding this morning 
over the Foreign Relations Committee, at which our former Senator 
Sasser from Tennessee appeared as President Clinton's nominee to serve 
as U.S. Ambassador to Communist China.
  It was good to see so many people from Tennessee, including Senator 
Sasser's attractive family. I listened with great interest to his 
testimony.
  Mr. President, we now resume consideration of the Libertad bill 
involving the question of whether the United States will continue to 
tolerate a Communist tyrant 90 miles off our shore, the tyrant being, 
of course, Fidel Castro.
  We have a lot of friendly activity around this place from time to 
time, bipartisan some of it, but much of it intensely partisan. But 
after all is said and done, most of the times those who participate in 
partisan exchanges leave the Senate Chamber with friendships intact. 
That is what I so often do with the distinguished Senator from 
Connecticut [Mr. Dodd].
  Senator Dodd is an interesting gentleman. He is the son of a 
distinguished U.S. Senator whom I knew. And I think it is fair to say--
and I know that Chris Dodd, the present Senator, would acknowledge the 
fact--that he and his father differed very sharply in their 
philosophical views, their views about foreign policy, and so forth. 
That is certainly the case with respect to the pending legislation, the 
so-called Helms-Burton bill.
  This Libertad bill has already been passed by the House. Yesterday, 
the distinguished majority leader, Mr. Dole, made the judgment that it 
was time for the Senate to act on the Senate version of the bill. They 
are almost identical. But Senator Dole realized that the Senate would 
have to confront another filibuster by our Democrat friends.
  Now, our friends across the aisle here have filibustered just about 
everything that has come up this year. A filibuster is not unusual 
because it is done by both sides. As a matter of fact, I must confess 
once or twice at least in my years in the Senate I have raised 
questions at some length about various pieces of legislation.
  But as I listened to Senator Chris Dodd yesterday while he spoke at 
some length about the pending Cuban Libertad bill, I frankly could not 
tell which bill he was talking about. He certainly was not talking 
about the bill pending at that time, which in fact is pending now, the 
Libertad Act. He was talking about some imaginary bill that was totally 
unrecognizable to me. I decided it was mostly tongue-in-cheek on his 
part. But it is hard to tell.
  Anyway, Mr. President, I thought about it last night as I was driving 
home, and again this morning. I wish that Senator Dodd were here now. 
He may presently be, because he, like me, is a member of the Foreign 
Relations Committee, and he attended the Sasser hearing this morning.
  But, as I listened to Senator Dodd's oratory talking about a 
nonexistent bill, I made the judgment that I would like to join him in 
opposing the bill that he was condemning--a fictional bill that does 
not exist, a bill that has nothing to do with the pending legislation 
which the clerk has just reported.
  That said, let us talk about what is before the Senate, the pending 
Cuban Libertad bill. It goes by various names. The Senate version is 
known as the Dole-Helms Libertad Act.
  When I first introduced my version early this year--with Congressman 
Burton offering very similar legislation in the House, it became the 
Helms-Burton bill.
  I don't care whose name is attached to it or who gets the credit for 
it; I believe that the U.S. Government and the American people had 
better make clear that we are not going to kowtow to Fidel Castro, a 
Communist who has murdered literally thousands of his own people, a 
tyrant who has imprisoned his political enemies for as long as 30 
years.
  And yet there are some voices in this country, and in this Senate, 
who say, well, we need to get along with Fidel Castro and we need to 
trade with Castro. Well, that reminds me of the distinguished Prime 
Minister of England, Neville Chamberlain, who went over to Munich to 
meet with Adolph Hitler. Chamberlain returned to London exuberant. 
Boasting, in effect: ``We can do business with this fellow Hitler. We 
can have peace in our time.'' And the press in England, the London 
Times and all the rest, put Lord Chamberlain all over their front 
pages, praising Chamberlain to the skies.
  But there was one patriot who dared to stand up to be counted, who 
said: ``Wait a minute. I will not be a party to this.'' That voice was 
Winston Churchill, and as Paul Harvey says, now you know the rest of 
the story.
  Neither the British nor anybody else had peace in their time. Adolph 
Hitler was a bloody tyrant. World War II put an end to Hitler and 
Winston Churchill led the free world to victory over tyranny. Winston 
Churchill has gone down in history as a hero. Neville Chamberlain is 
all but forgotten.
  But what is before this body, Mr. President--let us call it the Dole-
Helms Libertad Act--is simply a proposal to perfect and improve a bill 
that passed the House of Representatives by a margin of 294 to 130 
earlier this year.
  So what is now before the Senate is a bill that has been improved to 
reflect the legitimate concerns of the Clinton administration and 
others who support the pending Libertad Act.
  Now, let me try to focus in on some of the details of the pending 
bill. Title I of the Dole-Helms Libertad Act is designed to be the next 
logical step in building on the Cuban Democracy Act.
  The Cuban Democracy Act was passed by Congress and signed into law in 
1992. It was intended to strengthen the U.S. embargo against Castro. It 
was intended to seek, aggressively, international sanctions against 
Fidel Castro's repressive regime, and it was intended to support 
directly the Cuban people who were being brutalized by Fidel Castro and 
his henchmen.
  Mr. President, some of the provisions of the Dole-Helms substitute:
  First, to authorize the President, whoever he may be, to furnish 
assistance to support democracy-building efforts and to assist victims 
of political repression and to facilitate visits of international human 
rights monitors;
  Second, to prohibit loans, credits or other financing for 
transactions involving U.S. property that has been confiscated by the 
Castro thugs;
  Third, condition any U.S. aid that may be contemplated to any 
republics that belonged to the former Soviet Union. Such conditions 
will be based on whether these former republics are now subsidizing the 
Castro economy or are benefiting from Cuban intelligence facilities 
directed against the United States. The Dole-Helms bill authorizes the 
President to implement a fully reciprocal exchange of news bureaus 
between the United States and Cuba. 

[[Page S 15078]]
Some of these sections already speak to actions the President has 
already taken. Nothing in the pending bill--nothing--prevents the 
exercise of lawful Presidential authority. What it does is place the 
Congress of the United States--the House of Representatives and this 
Senate--on record as being concerned with the direction of certain 
executive branch activities.
  Now let us get to what is identified as the spending Dole-Helms bill. 
Title III of the substitute is the most misunderstood part of the bill, 
and it is the most important section.
  What title III does, Mr. President, is protect the interests of U.S. 
nationals whose property was wrongfully confiscated by Fidel Castro and 
his henchmen. It does this by making persons or entities that knowingly 
and intentionally exploit stolen properties--United States properties, 
that is--in Cuba liable for damages in United States district court.
  The intent, of course, is to deter third country nationals from 
seeking to profit from wrongfully confiscated properties--and to deny 
Fidel Castro what he needs most to survive: hard cash.
  Title III specifically establishes the private civil right of 
action--that is, a right to sue in U.S. courts--for any U.S. national 
having ownership of a claim to commercial property confiscated by 
Castro against a person or entity who is knowingly benefiting from the 
use of such confiscated property. In other words, making profit off 
stolen goods. That is the simple term.
  The intent of this provision is to create a deterrence so that 
foreign investors do not unjustly benefit from American property 
confiscated by Fidel Castro and his henchmen.
  But there are a number of conditions that an American claimant must 
satisfy before he can even get into court. The Libertad Act now pending 
provides a 6-month period between this provision's enactment and the 
ability of a claimant to use the remedy. It requires an affirmative 
duty to notify a potential defendant about the claim to the confiscated 
property, and it provides treble damages only after an additional 
notice has been given.
  It requires that the claim meet a minimum amount in controversy, a 
minimum amount of $50,000 exclusive of court costs. It requires service 
of process in accordance with existing laws and rules, including that 
any actions brought against a State entity must be in accordance with 
the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. That was the reason I was puzzled 
by some of the things Senator Dodd was saying yesterday, and I am sorry 
he is not here to discuss them with me.
  Finally, it provides that certified claimants who use this right of 
action are not denied U.S. Government espousal if they do not receive 
full compensation, but it reduces any responsibility to espouse by the 
amount of any recovery, and it discharges the United States from 
responsibility with respect to the certified claim if the claimant 
receives equal or greater compensation through this right of action.
  Now then, I think it is essential to make it clear what title III 
does not do. It does not require, nor does not authorize, the United 
States Government to espouse the claims of a naturalized person in any 
settlement with a future Cuban Government. All sorts of legalistic 
meanderings have insinuated that this bill does that. Strike it, it 
does not do that.
  Title III is the most important part, in my judgment, of the Libertad 
Act because, in addition to protecting our own citizens' property 
rights, it will deny the Castro Government access to the taking of 
foreign hard cash that Castro has been using to prop up his tottering 
regime, and to continue his enslavement of the Cuban people.

  Oh, yes, I can understand that these thieves in the night, who 
operate in the dark shadows of international commerce, are upset that 
our action might end the free ride that they have been enjoying while 
pocketing a great deal of blood money. But it is time for simple 
justice; it is a moral duty and responsibility that we do this.
  We become a part of what we condone, Mr. President. If we further 
condone Fidel Castro, we are a part of Fidel Castro's tyranny. And I do 
not intend to be a part of that. It is time that we serve notice on our 
principal trading partners that they should be ashamed of themselves--
ashamed of themselves--for having anything to do with such activity by 
any of their own nationals, or to stand idly by without speaking out 
when it is done by others.
  They have a moral duty. We have a moral duty, and that is what this 
bill is all about.
  What it does not do, contrary to what the distinguished Senator from 
Connecticut was implying yesterday, is, it does not adversely affect, 
in any way, the rights of any certified American claimants. Not one.
  What it does not do is create an open door for voluminous Federal 
litigation. It will not happen. Henny Penny can quiet down, the skies 
are not going to fall. What it also does not do is create new burdens 
for this or any future Cuban Government. The target is international 
traffickers, and the remedy has been designed to achieve that goal.
  Once again, despite insinuations, suggestions, allegations, whatever, 
that no certified claimants support this bill, the fact is that 
countless hundreds of them do indeed support the Libertad Act--for 
example, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Chrysler, Consolidated 
Development Corp., and many others.
  Frankly, Mr. President, what the Libertad Act also does not do is 
burden the executive branch of our own Government, in a time of 
transition, from fashioning effective agreements with a Cuban 
transition government. It should enhance the ability of the President 
of the United States to fashion effective remedies, discouraging 
trafficking in property owned by U.S. citizens.
  Now, lest it escape the understanding of anybody, let us be clear 
about how Castro and his cronies acquired these ``confiscated'' 
properties. He stole them. He stole them from their rightful owners, 
and now that he is desperate for hard currency to sustain his regime, 
Castro is offering foreign investors a subjugated labor force. He is 
offering foreign investors a low-cost use of this property, the same 
stolen properties that belong to American citizens.
  If there ever was unjust enrichment at the expense of U.S. citizens, 
this is it, and it has to stop. We must, in my judgment, as a 
responsible U.S. Senate, vote to throttle Fidel Castro. That is why the 
Libertad Act is more important than ever before.
  Since the introduction of the Libertad Act, the news media have 
reported on numerous occasions that foreign investments in Cuba are 
slowing down because of concerns that the bill will be enacted. The 
Miami Herald reported in June of this year, ``One Canadian firm called 
off plans to expand its involvement in Cuba, and other investors have 
slowed down their plans to avoid committing any cash before the fate of 
Helms-Burton is decided.''
  In July of this year, 3 months ago, the National Law Journal 
reported: ``The chilling specter of lawyers enforcing the embargo has 
led more than one foreign investor to conclude that investing in Cuba 
may not be worth the risk of having their U.S. assets attacked by 
companies that once did business on the island.''
  Many foreign investors are leaving Cuba because Castro continues to 
confiscate property. A German investor wrote an op-ed piece in USA 
Today in September, saying ``My trust in the Cuban marketplace has been 
severely shattered, and I want to issue a warning to eager potential 
investors from the United States: In Cuba, you have to learn to live 
with out-of-control communism. I have learned my lesson.''
  Mr. President, this German investor was taken by Castro's security 
agents to their headquarters and was later put on a plane back to 
Germany. Cuban officials confiscated much of his belongings.
  Now, that is the way the Castro regime operates; that is the way it 
has always operated. It used to be that Americans stood united about 
this Communist threat 90 miles off our shore. But now we are changing, 
ala Neville Chamberlain, who went over to Munich and consulted with 
Adolf Hitler and came back and said, ``We can have peace in our time. 
We can do business with Adolf Hitler.'' But nobody could do business 
with Adolf Hitler, and we should not be doing business with Fidel 
Castro. They are two peas in the same pod. 

[[Page S 15079]]

  The Libertad Act is certainly worth the support of every Senator. 
Every Senator will not support it; but I ask support for this bill, as 
does Senator Dole, because it is the right thing to do for America. I 
ask support for the bill because it is the right thing to do for the 
Cuban people. Ask the Cubans how they feel about it. The ones still in 
Cuba, the ones who are in exile in this country and elsewhere.
  I have received countless letters of support, Mr. President, from 
Cubans still in Cuba, pleading for this Senate to enact the Libertad 
bill into law. Their hope for freedom is at stake. These people are 
supporting this bill, fully aware that for having done so, they are 
risking persecution by Fidel Castro.
  As far as I am concerned, they are the heroes of the Libertad Act. I 
think Senators ought to bear that in mind when the time comes, if it 
comes, to vote.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I rise with all due respect to my good 
friend, the Senator from North Carolina, whom I have worked with over 
many, many years. And certainly in the days of his chairmanship of the 
Agriculture Committee, we had many good times working together.
  However, I oppose this bill for many reasons. I was in the service of 
the United States Navy at the time that Fidel Castro assumed control of 
Cuba and have done everything since that time to try to bring about a 
change in that Government.
  I have a strong difference of opinion on the approach which is 
important for this Nation to take at this time to bring about the 
change of government there.
  For over 30 years, we have maintained an embargo against Cuba with a 
stated purpose of bringing about the demise of the totalitarian regime. 
However, our embargo has not brought about the political and democratic 
change legitimately desired by the Cuban people.
  I support the Cuban people in their desire to do that. It is just a 
question of how you do it. It is not a question of the goal here. It is 
a question of how we reach that goal. It harms a majority of the Cuban 
people without affecting the ruling elite, and the Cuban Government is 
a major impediment to the United States exerting positive pressure for 
change in Cuba.
  Further, Cuba today poses no strategic or political threat to our 
Nation. We ask ourselves, then, will the provisions of this bill hasten 
the change we all desire? I think the answer is clearly no.
  I believe the provisions of this bill are, in fact, harmful to U.S. 
interests. Many of our closest allies--Canada, Great Britain, and 
Mexico--vehemently oppose the extraterritorial provisions in this bill 
as infringing on their sovereignty. They oppose this bill even though 
they share our unstinting commitment to bring democratic change to 
Cuba.
  The bill would have little impact on non-United States investment in 
trade in Cuba, which is growing despite our embargo.
  Mr. President, the provisions of this bill regarding property 
confiscations set a dangerous precedent, moving far beyond any existing 
law we have had in the history of this Nation. Under this bill, 
claimants could sue individual companies or government entities--
foreign as well as domestic--regardless of whether the claimants were 
United States nationals at the time of the alleged confiscation. This 
bill attempts to confer retroactive rights of suit upon individuals and 
companies that were not U.S. nationals at the time their Cuban 
properties were taken.
  The ramifications of this in all other situations similar around this 
world are staggering. This bill would confer a right to sue upon a 
specific national-origin group, which has never been done before. The 
United States has never conferred such rights on any such group.
  The group that we refer to if this is opened up would be those that 
lost their property in China and Vietnam, Korea or anywhere else, who 
now came to this country--that is, those who fled the nations and came 
here, Vietnamese, too--and now have become United States citizens could 
go back as United States citizens to make claims. This has never 
happened before.
  This bill would dilute the certified claims. We will talk here about 
a pot of money, if there ever is one. And what it would do is dilute by 
so much those legitimate claims under existing law, it would be totally 
unfair to the legitimate rights of the U.S. citizens at the time.
  It would swamp the U.S. courts with thousands upon thousands of 
lawsuits, causing an explosion of litigation, costing programs billions 
of dollars. This possibility alone virtually ensures that the measure 
would be completely unwieldy. Citizens could have a hard time bringing 
any other matters before the courts.
  This measure could also wreak havoc with some of our most important 
allies and trading partners by exposing their nationals to a flurry of 
lawsuits in U.S. courts.
  The bottom line, Mr. President, is that this bill does nothing for 
our efforts to promote a democratic Cuba. It does nothing for U.S. 
economic interests. Most importantly, it does nothing but create a 
potential benefit for a small group of people at potentially great cost 
to the American taxpayers.
  Therefore, I must say I vehemently oppose this bill as being contrary 
to the interests of the United States and the citizens of the United 
States. I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, there are a number of committees meeting 
now, and I think it might be in the best interest if we recess for a 
few moments.

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