[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 113 (Monday, July 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9037-S9038]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
USING TIME ON THE SENATE FLOOR TO DEMEAN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I feel compelled to make this statement at
this time on the Senate floor. First, I want to express my profound
dismay that after an attack of terrorism that occurred at the Olympics,
colleagues on the other side of the aisle would use 1 hour of time to
degrade and demean the President of the United States. We only have one
President at a time, and we may not think that everything he does is
perfect. But at such a time when we are trying to unite as one, in the
face of an act of terror and, perhaps, an act of terror on TWA flight
800 not long ago, that we would use the Senate floor in such a blatant
partisan way is offensive to me.
The junior Senator from Georgia made a few very appropriate remarks
in the beginning of his statement. He called for a moment of silence
for those who perished, and that was most appropriate. But, after that,
we descended into something that I could describe as a blatant attack
on this President. It seemed to me as if it was almost scripted, that
this is what they had planned to do, and it did not matter what
happened over the weekend.
I come to the floor to call on our country to come together in the
face of what has occurred, not to find issues that divide us. Does that
mean that I am pleased with the progress made on the war against drugs?
No, I am not. Does that mean that I do not share my colleagues' view
that we must do more? I do agree with that. We must do more. We all
applaud the appointment of General McCaffrey to head this war on drugs.
We must do more on that. We must do more in curbing alcohol
abuse, because these things bring tragedy to families. But, today, I
hope that if we are going to discuss the war on drugs, we will keep it
elevated at a level that could bring us together and not pull us apart.
To me, it was extraordinary that Senators on the other side of the
aisle, over and over again, alluded to individuals who worked for the
President who admitted to using marijuana. But they omitted something
in their partisan attack. What about the Speaker of the
[[Page S9038]]
House, who admitted that he did the same thing? What about the keynote
at the Republican National Convention admitting over the weekend that,
sure, she did it? But this place is so partisan that you never hear any
of that. Look, many individuals in our society have made mistakes, have
done things they should not have done. We know more now than we knew
then, true. So rather than attack one particular individual, as they
did on this floor, or members of one particular party, as they did on
this floor, let us get past it and let us work together.
Terrorism
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, now, in the remainder of my remarks, I am
going to talk about what I think we should be doing in a constructive
way. The first thing I want to do is compliment Senator Nunn from
Georgia for leading the fight on this floor to ensure that, in fact, we
have a military presence at the Olympics--in plainclothes, but
thousands and thousands of personnel are there. This Federal Government
is supplying that. There was a fight on this floor, and 20 Senators
thought it was wrong. I am glad that, in a bipartisan fashion, we
prevailed, because that presence is needed and is important.
Second of all, I want to commend the President for his remarks, for
bringing us together, for vowing, along with so many others on the
Olympic committee, that the Olympics would continue in the face of this
cowardly act, and for calling congressional leaders to the White House
to fix the antiterrorism bill that we passed that we could not get
support for in certain areas where we should have gotten support:
A provision increasing the statute of limitations for making bombs,
sawed-off shotguns, and silencers. That happens to be a provision I
authored, was passed in the Senate and dropped by the House. It is not
the law of the land. The police sometimes need more time to go after
people who make a bomb. We should fix that.
A provision requiring the placement of taggants on black and
smokeless powder. We need to get that passed.
A provision prohibiting the dissemination of bombmaking instructions
when the instructor knows that the information will be used for
criminal purposes. We need to get that passed.
A provision that changed wiretapping authority so criminals cannot
use modern technology to evade court-approved wiretaps.
A provision making terrorism an offense for which a wiretap can be
authorized on an emergency basis. There is no reason that Republicans
and Democrats cannot come together with the President and get that done
immediately.
Mr. President, we could be taking more security measures at our
airports. I keep focusing on the fact that this Congress gave the
military $12 billion more than the military asked for. I think we have
to be prepared to fight terrorism. It is a threat against our people.
And if we took a small portion of that $12 billion, we could put the
most up-to-date scanners at every single airport in this country. If we
took a portion of that money that the Pentagon did not want, we could
make sure there are bomb-sniffing dogs at every airport where the
airport asks for that kind of assistance. These are very effective
tools. There is no reason why, in the greatest country in the world,
the greatest democracy in the world, the strongest country in the
world, we have airports that don't have those tools available to them,
and we have a military that says, ``You gave us $12 billion too much.''
We can do it through the military budget--just make sure it is under
civilian control. But we should act to do those things.
Mr. President, when I was in the House, I sat as the Chair of a
subcommittee that oversaw the FAA, and then we saw problems that
haven't been remedied. So there are things that we can do. Now, we know
that Vice President Gore is heading a Presidential commission, and in
45 days we are going to have his report. I hope we will pull together.
I hope we will not see the kinds of things we saw here on the Senate
floor this morning. I hope we will pull together and do what it takes.
We know that the European Union countries have much stronger
screening techniques than we have here. There is no reason that our
people should not have that sense of confidence. Yes, it may take us 15
or 20 minutes more to get that flight off the ground. I don't know one
individual in this U.S. Senate, be he or she a Republican or a
Democrat, that would believe another 15 minutes would hurt
them. Fifteen minutes is not going to hurt anybody.
In closing, Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for allowing me to
address the U.S. Senate over the subject matter of the bill. But I hope
we will all be moved to come together in a spirit of bipartisanship and
set aside our partisan bickering, that we will work together, that we
will send our sympathies as one to Alice Hawthorne's family, 44 years
old, killed at the bombing, and to the Turkish cameraman, Melih
Uzunyoz, who died from a heart attack while rushing to the scene; and,
of course, to every single family member who lost people in the TWA
crash.
I hope that we will come together and that we will do what it takes
to take every step we can in a democratic society to guard against
terrorism, be it terrorism from within our borders or terrorism from
outside our borders. These are cowardly acts, and we should put a stop
to them to the extent that we can within our democratic framework.
We can take the steps that I mentioned without giving up any of our
freedom. We can take the steps that I mentioned without spending too
much. We have those resources in this country, and I urge us to work
together. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
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