[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 117 (Friday, August 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9641-S9644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          READY FOR THE WORLD

 Mrs. KASSEBAUM. Mr. President, the Honorable Edward W. Brooke, 
our distinguished former colleague from Massachusetts, recently 
delivered an outstanding speech entitled ``Ready for the World'' at the 
First Alpha Scholarship Forum in New Orleans. His remarks were 
befitting of the inaugural Charles H. Wesley Memorial Lecture.
  Mr. President, I trust that our colleagues will benefit from Senator 
Brooke's thoughtful remarks as I have, and I ask that the text of his 
speech be printed in the Congressional Record.
  The speech follows:

                          Ready for the World

                     (By Brother Edward W. Brooke)


                     1. wesley's example and legacy

       Dear Brothers and guests, I cannot tell you how privileged, 
     honored and humbled I feel to have been chosen by our General 
     President, Brother Milton C. Davis, to deliver this First 
     Charles H. Wesley National Lecture. When I was initiated into 
     Alpha Phi Alpha nearly six decades ago, Dr. Wesley was our 
     General President. I came to love him and admire him. He was 
     my brother, my leader, my teacher and my friend. I have never 
     stopped trying to follow his example and, God willing, I 
     never shall.
       Let me take a few minutes to remind all of you just who 
     Brother Dr. Charles H. Wesley was and why his is a name, and 
     why his was a life, that you should always remember.
       Brother Dr. Wesley was born nearly 105 years ago and lived 
     some 95 years. He graduated from Fisk, where he had been a 
     star student, athlete and singer, and entered graduate school 
     at Yale at age 19. He was the fourth African American to earn 
     a Ph.D. at Harvard. He traveled and studied in Europe. He 
     taught history at Howard University and rose through the 
     ranks to become Dean of Liberal Arts and Dean of the Graduate 
     School. As a scholar, he published 12 books and 125 articles. 
     He served as president of Wilberforce College and of Central 
     State University in Ohio. He was an ordained minister in the 
     African Methodist Episcopal Church. He wrote the history of 
     our fraternity and served as its General President for nine 
     critical years between 1931 and 1940. He served as president 
     of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and 
     History for 15 years.
       But, in his own words, he gave his best to Alpha. And we 
     should be thankful that he did.
       There is more to know about Brother Wesley, however.
       First, he was a loving and caring husband and father.
       Second, despite his considerable talents and 
     accomplishments, there was no arrogance about him. If at 
     times he was first of all, he was, nevertheless, always a 
     servant of all. ``One's attainments,'' he said, ``can serve 
     as object lessons for others. There is no need to draw 
     attention to them.''
       Third, he believed, correctly, that notions of racial 
     superiority and inferiority explain very little, if anything, 
     in human history.
       Fourth, instead of talking about what America owed black 
     people, he talked about what America owes itself and all of 
     its people, and about what black people owe themselves.
       Fifth, his interests and his horizons were never limited by 
     the waters which separate North America from the rest of the 
     world. His concern and his love were for all mankind.
       Sixth, he made the nurturing of young people an integral 
     part of his life.
       And, to his everlasting credit, he never turned a deaf ear 
     to any call to duty.
       So perhaps you can understand why I feel compelled to say 
     today that Brother Dr. Charles H. Wesley--scholar, athlete, 
     teacher, musician, preacher; and Alpha man--was as American 
     as they come. He knew the truth of that, even if most 
     Americans didn't. And instead of giving up on, or giving in 
     to, Americans who would deny his American-ness, he stood up 
     for America and worked as hard as he could to make America 
     own up to what it says it stands for.
       With the kindness and courtesy of Dr. Wesley's accomplished 
     daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Wesley Holloman, I have been 
     privileged to read some of Brother Wesley's papers and 
     original drafts of speeches. In the one which he delivered in 
     Charleston, South Carolina, in 1977--the 201st year of 
     American independence and the 71st year of alpha history--I 
     found a message which gives meaningful insight into Charles 
     H. Wesley, the man and philosopher. And I want you the hear 
     his thoughts and his words as he delivered them to Alpha men 
     there assembled. He said:
       ``It has become very necessary that thinking should be used 
     in all our individual endeavors, for it is one of the 
     powerful forces operating in our lives. America was built by 
     its thinkers both in 1776 and subsequently as a great nation 
     in 1976, and the method of this achievement and our own have 
     been indicated very cogently in his familiar statement:

     Back of the hammers beating,
     By which the steel is wrought
     Back of the workshop's clamor
     The seeker may find the thought.

     The thought that ever is master
     Of iron, of steam and steel
     That rises above disaster
     And tramples it under its heel.

     Back of the motor's humming
     Back of the cranes that swing
     Back of the hammers drumming
     Back of the belts that sing.

     There is an eye that scans them
     Watching through stress and through strain
     There is a mind that plans them
     Back of the brawn the brain.

       ``In the long run,'' Brother Wesley continued, ``whether it 
     is in 1776 of 1976, the world is in the keeping of its 
     idealists. . . . It is in the hands of men and women who with 
     revolutionary impatience walk the lanes of the villages, with 
     their feet on the ground opposing unjust laws with a song on 
     their lips and with their hearts in the stars. . . . Such a 
     one is never defeated until he gives up within. . . .''
       This is Brother Wesley's legacy and our inheritance. Our 
     duty today is to pick up where he left off and to stay the 
     course in to the next century and the next millennium.


                             2. the moment

       There could hardly be a more appropriate moment than this 
     one--with the dusk of the twentieth century descending upon 
     the global village and the dawn of the Third Millennium 
     hovering somewhere just beyond the horizon--to pause and 
     consider the state of this world and our place and our 
     possibilities in it. Regrettably, both the world and our 
     place in it are in many respects in a perilous state.
       Our is called a new age. The Cold War is over. The Soviet 
     Union no longer exists. Totalitarianism, Marxism and 
     socialism are in full retreat. Capitalism, democracy and 
     freedom are everywhere the rage.
       Feedom is something about which we African Americans know a 
     great deal. We know what it's like to be deprived of it, to 
     hunger and thirst for it, to fight and die for it, even 
     though the Creator never intended for men and women to be 
     either slaves or masters. As the 18th century English poet 
     William Cowper wrote:

     They found them slaves: But who that title gave?
     The God of Nature never formed a slave!
     Though pride or force may acquire a master's name
     Nature and justice must remain the same;
     Nature imparts upon whate'er we see
     That has a heart and life in it--be free!

       And so, here in the age of freedom and democracy, we 
     ought--all things being equal--to be dancing in the streets 
     and on the crumbling walls of political, economic and 
     cultural oppression.
       But, for many, things seem to have gone terribly awry; 
     everything new seems old again. In so many places and 
     situations, we and many of our brothers and sisters in the 
     human race find ourselves in an all-too-familiar situation: 
     marginalized--excluded from the fun if not the games; 
     victimized by poverty, politics, disease, famine, war, 
     corruption, indifference, malign neglect and outright 
     bigotry.
       Major challenges confront us. But, as we know, challenges 
     offer opportunities. And so there are, today, even in our 
     relatively small sector of this world, abundant opportunities 
     for us to demonstrate not just our loyalty and devotion to 
     our country but also, as all Alphas are sworn, our love for 
     all mankind.
       So let us not fail to find inspiration in the many beacons 
     of hope in the world and in our country. In South Africa, 
     President Mandela and the African National Congress have not 
     only taken command of the ship of state; they have skillfully 
     guided it toward the open seas where the economic and social 
     possibilities seem limitless.
       Even in poor Haiti hope is alive. And here in the United 
     States, a million black men, including many Alpha brothers, 
     marched in support of individual and parental responsibility.
       Nor should we fail to recognize our dear sister, the highly 
     motivated Marian Wright

[[Page S9642]]

     Edelman, who only recently led her own march on Washington on 
     behalf of this nation's children, and who has made it clear 
     that she will never stop fighting for our young people--
     black, brown, yellow, red or white--who, after all, our most 
     precious natural resource and the link between our past and 
     our future.


                         3. america's missions

       Of course, the United States has its troubles; but is still 
     a special and sometimes wondrous place. Over the centuries 
     many people have believed, and many still believe today, that 
     Almighty God provided for the establishment of the United 
     States--a new nation in a new world--to give man and woman an 
     opportunity nearly unique in history to experience, and on 
     the basis of that experience to cherish, peace, freedom, 
     justice and brotherhood on Earth.
       So far, that vision--whether it is God's or man's, whether 
     it is legitimate or not--has not been fully realized. America 
     has not yet lived up to its promise. But if we take the long 
     view of history, we can see that the United States has served 
     for more than two centuries as a shining example to many 
     millions of people around the world, and has grappled 
     successfully with certain enormous challenges both at home 
     and abroad.
       In the 19th century, for example, Americans had no choice 
     but to decide once and for all whether human slavery had a 
     legitimate place in the Republic. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln 
     said, ``A house divided against itself cannot endure 
     permanently, half slave and half free * * * I expect it will 
     cease to be divided. It will,'' he said, ``become all one 
     thing, or all the other.'' And after a terribly bloody and 
     destructive civil war, the United States emerged as a country 
     in which slavery had no place--even if, tragically, de jure 
     as well as de facto racism did.
       Freed from the albatross of slavery, the United States 
     enjoyed in the last quarter of the 19th century rapid 
     economic growth and political as well as economic expansion 
     into the larger world. And before long it became impossible 
     for America's leaders to continue to heed George Washington's 
     advice to avoid foreign entanglements. Indeed, by 1916, the 
     midpoint of the First World War, it could no longer be argued 
     that American security and freedom were somehow separate from 
     western Europe's. As he dispatched American forces to the war 
     ``over there,'' President Woodrow Wilson spoke of the 
     imperative to make the world, not just the United States, 
     safe from would-be global emperors. At no time since then has 
     this country been able to remain aloof from international 
     politics without exposing itself, not to mention its 
     brothers, cousins and friends, to powerful and sometimes 
     ruthless antagonists who wish them, and us, ill.
       This reality became indisputable when, during our 
     isolationist period, would-be emperors of the world came into 
     power in Germany, Italy and Japan and undertook to conquer, 
     subjugate or intimidate those who dared to resist them. Only 
     massive and sustained, if somewhat belated, intervention by 
     the United States prevented those tyrants from achieving most 
     if not all of their aims.
       After the Second World War, yet another imperial threat 
     emerged in the form of our former ally against the Axis 
     powers, namely Josef Stalin's Soviet Union. I need not 
     recount here today the details of the half-century-long Cold 
     War fought by American presidents from Truman to Reagan. But 
     I must say that prevailing in that struggle, as well as the 
     Second and First World Wars, was indeed an essential 
     component of America's mission in the 20th century. And to 
     all those--and I am proud to be one of them--whose efforts 
     and sacrifices made it possible for us to live in a world 
     over which no would-be emperor's shadow falls, we should be 
     thankful.
       As you recall, there was another tyrant who was overthrown 
     during this century. He went by the name of Jim Crow. And 
     under his authority millions of African Americans, and many 
     white Americans, were deprived of their most basic civil and 
     human rights. But since 1954 segregation has been illegal in 
     America. And to all those whose efforts and sacrifices made 
     it possible for us to live in a land in which no ``whites 
     only'' sign can legally be erected, we should be thankful.
       Now, I do not want to give the impression that I believe 
     for a moment that all of the national and international 
     atrocities served up by the 19th and 20th centuries have been 
     completely or even satisfactorily eliminated. I do not, and 
     you should not.
       However, some of the most horrendous of them have been, and 
     for that we should be thankful.
       We know, of course that the 21st century will serve up 
     horrors of its own; and although we are confident that good 
     and capable men and women will rise up to grapple with them, 
     we can afford to be neither complacent nor mentally 
     unprepared. Quite the contrary; we should, and must, be 
     alert; we must be ready for the world. And that means having 
     principles, if not a plan, to guide us.
       I believe we need look no further for ideals upon which to 
     base our actions than the precepts of our fraternity and the 
     examples set by Brother Wesley and so many other 
     distinguished Alpha men over these last ninety years. I 
     refer specifically to manly deeds, scholarship and, 
     especially, love for all mankind, with special emphasis on 
     ``all.'' It was Brother Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream 
     that one day this nation would rise up and live out the 
     true meaning of its creed--``that all men are created 
     equal''. And, lest we be tempted to reserve our love only 
     for those who are easy to love, let us not forget that 
     Jesus Christ said, ``Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
     of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
     me.''


               4. what you can do and where you can start

       Just as we do not have to look any farther than to our 
     beloved and renowned Alpha to find precepts and principles on 
     which to base our actions, neither, unfortunately, do we have 
     to look any farther than down the street or across town to 
     find tragic conditions that cry out for human attention, 
     ingenuity and love. but on top of that, television and the 
     other mass media bring into our homes on a daily basis 
     stories of untold suffering and dehumanization--much of it 
     done to, and even by, people of color. These stories tug at 
     our heartstrings and, too, cry out for human attention, 
     ingenuity and love.
       Caught between the local and the global, between what's 
     happening over there and what's happening over here, we may 
     be tempted to focus on one and ignore the other, or simply to 
     pretend to see neither. But I believe, and I pray that you 
     will come to share my belief--if you don't already--that 
     there is only one race, only one place, and only one God who 
     made them both. I pray, too, that if you do come to share my 
     belief, then you will accept, if you have not already 
     accepted, some measure of responsibility, no matter how 
     small, for bringing to bear, on the afflictions which burden 
     humankind and our planetary home, whatever attention, 
     ingenuity and love you can muster.
       Now, some of you may be wondering what you can do and where 
     you can start. The best answer is that you should do what you 
     feel you reasonably can, given your talents and resources; 
     and you should start wherever your interests and your concern 
     lead you.
       Allow me, if you will, to share with you some of my 
     thoughts about some of the issues that the American people 
     and our government, among others around the world, should be 
     thinking about and acting on.
       It seems to me that we face three kinds of problems: Those 
     that are traceable to, and best addressed by, individuals in 
     their personal, family and community lives; Those that are 
     traceable to, and best addressed, by private industry; and 
     Those that are traceable to, and best addressed by, 
     governments.
       Concerning problems which I think of as being attributable 
     and amenable mainly to the action or the inaction of 
     individuals in their personal, family and community lives, 
     Ten Deadly Sins, as I have labeled them, come to mine.
       First, there is child abuse in all its forms, including 
     neglect and physical, psychological and sexual abuse;
       Second, there is the abuse and misuse of alcohol and other 
     drugs, both legal and illegal;
       Third, there is domestic violence, which takes place behind 
     the closed doors of too many homes;
       Fourth, there is gang violence, often related to the 
     marketing of illegal drugs. Let me say that I include in my 
     definition of gang violence the illegal hazing of young men 
     who are pledges of our fraternity and quite a few others in 
     these United States.
       Fifth, there is the epidemic of teen pregnancy or premature 
     parenthood, which obviously involves young men as well as 
     young girls and young women;
       Sixth, there is prejudice and discrimination, often 
     accompanied by hate crimes, against our fellow men and women 
     because of their race, creed, color, national origin or 
     sexual orientation. In this regard, we must condemn 
     unequivocally the cowardly and dastardly burning of African 
     American and other churches. We must condemn hate crimes 
     against Jewish people, their places of worship and their 
     cemeteries. we must condemn hate crimes against homosexuals, 
     which include assault, battery and even murder. and we must 
     condemn the tendency of white America to blame either black 
     men or people of Middle Eastern heritage for nearly every 
     criminal or terrorist event in this country.
       Seventh, and along the same line, there is the unforgivably 
     unfair and costly tradition of subordinating the welfare of 
     women and girls to that of men and boys. This is unacceptable 
     in all its aspects, though especially so when girls' minds 
     are neglected or their bodies mutilated, and when women are 
     prohibited by government from exercising their right to 
     terminate legally, safely and affordably an unwanted or 
     health- and life-threatening pregnancy;
       Eighth, there are the many unhealthy behaviors in which so 
     many of us engage. I refer specifically to smoking, chewing 
     tobacco, the overconsumption of food--especially foods with 
     high fat, salt and calorie content. And perhaps most 
     important in this age of AIDS, the highly irresponsible 
     practice of unsafe sex by adults and teenagers who know, or 
     ought to know, better.
       Ninth, there is the regrettable and ominous mixture of 
     apathy, cynicism and disrespect for law, government and 
     politics;
       And tenth, there is the stifling isolationism which has 
     overtaken so many individuals, families and communities. I 
     refer to our growing lack of interest in people, places and 
     issues with whom and with which we may not have everyday 
     contact. It is right to be worried about average Americans' 
     lack of interest, and even hostility, toward foreign people 
     and places. But we should be downright alarmed about average 
     Americans' lack of interest in, and interaction with, their 
     neighbors and fellow citizens.

[[Page S9643]]

       Next, let us consider problems which are traceable mainly 
     to, and best addressed by, the private sector in this country 
     and in others. But before I focus on troubling aspects of 
     contemporary private enterprise, let me make at least two 
     things clear: First, the private sector is not an enemy of 
     whom we should wish to be rid; in fact, because the private 
     sector is the principal source of employment, innovation, 
     growth and progress, we should, and do, want it to grow and 
     prosper Second, many companies, large and small, are models 
     of corporate social responsibility. You don't have to be a 
     Republican or a conservative to acknowledge this fact and 
     give credit where it's due. The President did it a few weeks 
     ago when he invited some of the more praiseworthy companies 
     to send representatives to Washington and tell their stories 
     to the country and the world.
       Now, concerning private sector problems to be addressed, I 
     have five in mind.
       One--and for me the most important one today--is the 
     problem of the violent images and antisocial ideas 
     disseminated so broadly by the media and the entertainment 
     industry, especially through movies, television shows and 
     certain kinds of music. I don't necessarily advocate more 
     regulation at this time, but the entertainment industry has 
     to show allegiance to some moral principle other than ``give 
     them whatever they want, so long as it sells.''
       A second problem, similar to the first, is the lack of 
     corporate social responsibility demonstrated by companies and 
     industries which target advertising for alcohol, tobacco and 
     games of chance at the most vulnerable segments of society, 
     namely children and poor people.
       A third important problem is the widely varying performance 
     of companies and industries, especially in the United States, 
     with respect to equal employment and affirmative action for 
     women and underrepresented minorities. It is unacceptable 
     that a person is subject to harassment or denial of a job or 
     promotion because of physical traits or beliefs.
       A fourth is the insensitivity of some large corporations to 
     the genuine human needs and just deserts of their employees 
     and communities. It doesn't seem unreasonable that a 
     corporation can be compassionate and commercially viable at 
     the same time. But it does seem unreasonable that 
     a corporation can be in a community but not of it.
       And, fifth, is the problems of corporate respect for this 
     planet and for its wondrous ecological systems. One would 
     expect business-people to know that there is a relationship 
     between nature and the economy, even if, sadly, their 
     knowledge is based solely on pragmatism. The overfishing of 
     our oceans, for example, isn't just a crime against Mother 
     Earth; it puts thousands of people out of work.
       I come now to my third set of concerns, namely problems 
     which are traceable to, or at least best addressed by, 
     governments around the world.
       Our federal government, and other national governments, 
     face both inward and outward as they strive, we hope, to 
     promote the general welfare, insure domestic tranquility, 
     provide for the common defense and help secure, for any one 
     who hungers for them, the same blessings of liberty and 
     justice that we ourselves seek and sometimes enjoy.
       Even if some Americans don't think so, there still are some 
     things that our federal government, and national governments 
     in developed and developing countries ought to be doing, or 
     doing better, to improve conditions in their own societies. 
     Several things come to mind.
       First, government can do a much better job of educating 
     young people. No nation that fails to educate its children 
     will have much of a present or a future.
       Second, government can do a much better job of insuring 
     that as many people as possible, especially children, have 
     the best health care that a society can reasonably provide.
       Third, government can do a much better job of insuring 
     employment and decent and affordable housing for low and 
     moderate income people.
       Fourth, government can do a much better job of making our 
     streets, neighborhoods and commercial districts safe for 
     everyone, not just the wealthy and the politically 
     influential.
       Fifth, government can do a much better job of taking 
     responsibility for protecting our natural environment and 
     preserving it for future generations as a cultural and 
     economic resource. Let me elaborate just a bit. When I say 
     environment I don't mean just protecting the ecology from 
     destructive people; I also mean protecting people from 
     environments that are unhealthy because the air is dirty, 
     toxic wastes have been dumped there, or the water is unsafe 
     for human consumption.
       Sixth, governments can do a much better job of governing. 
     Too often, governments and the people who run them conduct 
     themselves in ways that a are highly deficient when it comes 
     to honor, morality and integrity. They should be on notice 
     that their people's patience has its limits and that they 
     should either conform, reform or perform, or else expect to 
     be informed that their time in office has expired.
       Now, as I said earlier, governments face not only inward 
     but outward, toward other government. And there are some 
     things that outward-looking and forward-looking governments 
     ought to be doing or doing better. I label these Ten 
     Expressions of Love for Humankind.
       One is to take effective steps to head off interstate and 
     intrastate armed conflict.
       A second is to take effective steps to stop any fighting or 
     killing if prevention should fail.
       A third is to prohibit, in law and in fact, ethnic 
     cleansing, or anything that resembles it.
       A fourth is to come to the aid of people displaced by 
     conflict or natural disasters.
       A fifth is to find ways to make war--if it is 
     inevitable,and I pray that it isn't--less lethal, especially 
     for innocent civilians during and after violent episodes. One 
     of the great tragedies of our time is the killing and maiming 
     of unsuspecting children, mothers an fathers by landmines 
     encountered in their perfectly legitimate and innocent daily 
     life.
       A sixth thing that government ought to be doing better is 
     coming to the aid of people and nations who have overthrown, 
     or want to overthrow, tyranny and are likely to choose the 
     path of democracy, freedom and tolerance.
       A seventh is to treat the international AIDS epidemic more 
     seriously. No person of any ethnicity should be indifferent 
     to the fact that African American men have been harder hit by 
     the virus than other groups of Americans, or that HIV and 
     AIDS infection rates in Africa, where some 14 million men, 
     women and children have contracted the virus, are the highest 
     in the world and still rising. Nor should anyone fail to be 
     greatly concerned that the AIDS epidemic has become 
     established in the Caribbean and especially in Asia, where 
     its explosive infection rate will soon overtake Africa's.
       An eighth is to work harder to insure that the world 
     economy operates fairly and justly for all nations, not just 
     a fortunate few. As we race ahead toward the high-tech 
     information economy of the twenty-first century, let us 
     consider how we might bring up to 20th century living 
     standards the three billion or so of the world's people left 
     behind in 18th and 19th century conditions.
       A ninth is to build on the work begun four summers ago at 
     the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 
     by following though on national and international commitments 
     and agreements to address critical environmental problems.
       And the tenth is to work harder to make the United Nations 
     the place where all nations meet not just to talk--which is 
     valuable, of course--but also to resolve conflicts peacefully 
     and work together to elimiante the problems which threaten 
     all, many or some of our fellow human beings.


                             5. Conclusion

       Brothers, three years ago, when I spoke to many of you here 
     in New Orleans at the 87th Anniversary General Convention, I 
     said: ``We have, and will always have, a further contribution 
     to make, a place to fill, a work to perform.'' I suspect that 
     the litany of concerns which I have just sumamrized--most of 
     them not only serious but painfully complex as well--will 
     serve to confirm the continuing truth of that statement. And 
     although this reality is in many ways a said commentary on 
     the state of the nation and the world, it should also serve 
     as a reminder of why we as men of Alpha Phi Alpha are needed 
     more and more in the community, in the nation, and in the 
     world.
       My Brothers, I call on each of you--as Americans, as 
     Americans of African Heritage, and as children of God, sent 
     by Him to dwell temporarily on this Earth--to do whatever you 
     can to improve the quality of life on this planet.
       You don't have to be a politician; you don't have to be a 
     diplomat; you don't have to be a general or an admiral; nor a 
     scholar or a preacher. All you have to be is someone who 
     cares abut his family, his community, his environment and his 
     fellow human beings, wherever they may be, whatever their 
     language, whatever their religion, and whatever the color of 
     their skin.
       I think the great 19th Century American philosopher and 
     poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, put it best:
     So near is grandeur to our dust
     So near is God to man
     When duty whispers low ``thou must''
     The Youth replies, ``I can!''
       My dear Brothers in Alpha, that is the message I bring to 
     you today. That is the message I thank you for listening to. 
     And that is the message in the spirit of Charles Harris 
     Wesley that I ask you to accept an respond to as men worth of 
     being Alphas.
       Good luck and godspeed.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I rise today to support final passage of 
H.R. 3060 as amended by S. 1645, the Antarctic Science, Tourism, and 
Conservation Act of 1996, which I introduced earlier this year. This 
legislation will enable the United States to implement the Protocol on 
Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. The Protocol was 
negotiated by the parties of the Antarctic Treaty System and signed in 
October, 1991. The Senate gave its advice and consent to the Protocol 
on October 7, 1992. In August 1993, I introduced the precursor to this 
bill and the Senate Commerce Committee reported it to the full Senate 
in early 1994. Unfortunately, continuing disagreements among 
scientists, conservation groups, and the Administration about the 
legislative changes needed for the United States to carry

[[Page S9644]]

out its responsibilities under the Protocol prevented further action on 
that bill. Passage of this bill today brings to a close a long, arduous 
process in which all of the parties mentioned above have finally 
reached agreement.
  The bill Senator Hollings and I introduced is supported by all the 
parties engaged in this somewhat lengthy, but ultimately successful, 
consensus-building process. The Commerce Committee held a hearing on S. 
1645 in June and ordered the bill to be favorably reported. During 
committee consideration of the bill, members agreed to work with 
Senator Stevens on a floor amendment addressing polar research and 
policy. That amendment offered today to S. 1645 requires the National 
Science Foundation to report to Congress on the use and amounts of 
funding provided for Federal polar research programs. There is no 
opposition to this amendment.
  Mr. President, S. 1645 builds on the existing U.S. regulatory 
framework provided in the Antarctic Conservation Act to implement the 
Protocol and to balance two important goals. The first goal is to 
conserve and protect the Antarctic environment and resources. The 
second is to minimize interference with scientific research. S. 1645 
amends the Antarctic Conservation Act to make existing provisions 
governing U.S. research activities consistent with the requirements of 
the Protocol. As under current law, the Director of the National 
Scientific Foundation (NSF), would remain the lead agency in managing 
the Antarctic science program and in issuing regulations and research 
permits. In addition, the bill calls for comprehensive assessment and 
monitoring of the effects of both governmental and nongovernmental 
activities on the fragile Antarctic ecosystem. It also would continue 
indefinitely a ban on Antarctic mineral resource activities. Finally, 
S. 1645 amends the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships to implement 
provisions of the Protocol relating to protection of marine resources.
  As one of the founders of the Antarctic Treaty System, the United 
States has an obligation to enact strong implementing legislation, and 
is long overdue in completing ratification of the Protocol.
  In closing, Mr. President, I would like to thank Senator Hollings for 
all of his assistance in getting agreement on this legislation. The 
House passed similar legislation, H.R. 3060, by a vote of 352-4 in 
June. I urge my colleagues' support for final passage of the Antarctic 
Science, Tourism, and Conservation Act of 1996.

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