[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 57 (Tuesday, May 6, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3988-S3990]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND RESCISSIONS ACT OF 1997
The Senate continued with consideration of the bill.
Amendment No. 54
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous agreement, the Senator from
Minnesota is reserved 2 minutes 30 seconds.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, we are going to be voting in a few minutes
on the Grams-Johnson amendment that will help complement disaster
relief efforts currently underway now in my home State of Minnesota, as
well as North and South Dakota, by making it easier for farmers,
homeowners, small businesses and local governments to help rebuild from
the devastation that has been brought on by the floods.
Our amendment, simply put, will permit Federal regulators to provide
temporary and targeted modifications to current banking regulations. It
will permit homeowners, farmers, and small businesses to have faster
access to a larger pool of credit. It will also help banks and credit
unions to reopen their doors faster to serve their communities.
Also, Mr. President, the Grams-Johnson amendment is supported by the
Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,
and also the National Credit Union Administration.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter from NCUA in
support of the amendment be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
National Credit Union
Administration,
Alexandria, VA, May 5, 1997.
Hon. Rod Grams,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Grams: Thank you for the opportunity to review
the Depository Institution Disaster Relief Act of 1997 (S.
652). I want to applaud you and Senator Tim Johnson for
introducing this disaster relief legislation and NCUA
supports its quick passage.
The legislation is similar to bills passed by Congress in
1992 (P.L. 102-485) and 1993 (P.L. 103-76) to address the
devastation wrought by natural disasters and make credit more
easily available to farmers, homeowners and others through
temporary exceptions in the Truth in Lending Act and
Expedited Funds Availability Act, among others. Just last
Friday, the NCUA Board took action to waive the requirement
that natural person credit unions and corporate credit unions
establish reserves on total loans of up to $50 million that
will be made to members in disaster areas. We believe this
policy change will enable credit unions to make loans at well
below market rate.
The NCUA Board's recent action and already announced policy
of postponing scheduled examinations, encouraging loans with
special terms as well as reduced documentation and
guaranteeing lines of credit through the National Credit
Union Share Insurance Fund and the Central Liquidity
Facility, dovetails your legislative efforts and hopefully
will provide a measure of relief to credit unions and their
members in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota affected
by the catastrophic flooding. Thank you again for the
opportunity to comment on S. 652.
Sincerely,
Norman E. D'Amours,
Chairman.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, the Grams-Johnson amendment has the
[[Page S3989]]
support of the Senate Banking Committee chairman and ranking member.
I ask unanimous consent that Senator D'Amato, Senator Daschle, and
Senator Bond be added as cosponsors to this amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, when I served in the House of
Representatives, I authored similar legislation back in 1993 during the
Mississippi River flooding. My legislation then received bipartisan
support. It was signed into law by President Clinton as part of the
supplemental appropriations bill for disaster relief. Since this
legislation worked well to help those flooded communities rebuild in
1993, I urge my colleagues to support it today.
Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise in support of the amendment
offered by Senator Grams and Senator Johnson. I am pleased to be a
cosponsor.
Mr. President, the Congress is moving swiftly to provide emergency
assistance to the victims of the winter flooding in Minnesota, and
North and South Dakota. The Supplemental is an appropriate and
compassionate response by the administration and the Congress to the
suffering of our fellow citizens.
Mr. President, this amendment addresses some of the important
regulatory steps that can be taken to expedite overall efforts by
communities, families, homeowners, farmers, and small businesses to
recover from the devastation of the floods. This amendment would
authorize the Federal financial regulators to make temporary exceptions
to various Federal laws in order to maximize the availability of credit
in these flood afflicted areas and expedite its delivery. The amendment
will complement measures already instituted by some of the regulators
to deal with financial stress in the flooded area. For example, the
Federal Reserve Board has indicated that it may be appropriate for
lenders to ease credit terms and restructure debts in certain cases. It
is similar to legislation approved by Congress in 1992 and 1993.
Mr. President, I commend Senator Grams and Senator Johnson for
developing this amendment and urge support for this helpful addition to
overall flood relief efforts.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The yeas and nays have previously been
ordered.
Under the previous order, the Senator from Minnesota has 25 seconds
remaining.
Mr. GRAMS. I yield back the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is on
agreeing to amendment No. 54, offered by the Senator from Minnesota.
The yeas and nays have been ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Texas [Mrs. Hutchison],
is necessarily absent.
Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico [Mr. Bingaman],
is necessarily absent.
The result was announced--yeas 98, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 56 Leg.]
YEAS--98
Abraham
Akaka
Allard
Ashcroft
Baucus
Bennett
Biden
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bryan
Bumpers
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Chafee
Cleland
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Coverdell
Craig
D'Amato
Daschle
DeWine
Dodd
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Enzi
Faircloth
Feingold
Feinstein
Ford
Frist
Glenn
Gorton
Graham
Gramm
Grams
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Helms
Hollings
Hutchinson
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kempthorne
Kennedy
Kerrey
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lott
Lugar
Mack
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Moseley-Braun
Moynihan
Murkowski
Murray
Nickles
Reed
Reid
Robb
Roberts
Rockefeller
Roth
Santorum
Sarbanes
Sessions
Shelby
Smith (NH)
Smith (OR)
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Torricelli
Warner
Wellstone
Wyden
NOT VOTING--2
Bingaman
Hutchison
The amendment (No. 54) was agreed to.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which
the amendment was agreed to.
Mr. LEAHY. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Amendment No. 57
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment
offered by the Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, we have an agreement on the floor. Let
me thank especially Senator Hollings from South Carolina for his
assistance.
Mr. President, I want to give a little bit of context for this
amendment because I think it is important for people to know what has
happened and what had to happen. This is about Toradol, which is
manufactured by the Hoffman-La Roche Co.
By the way, I would like to thank the company. We had a very good
discussion in my office yesterday with my staff. I appreciate their
coming by. I understand exactly what they have been trying to do.
Also, Mr. President, I want to make it clear that this went through
the process. This was an effort that many people thought was a worthy
one. So this is not a bashing on my part at all.
Mr. President, the problem is as follows: This drug is an anti-
inflammatory drug; very important. It can be taken orally, or it can be
injected--very important--dealing with, for example, postoperative
pain. It is a very important medication for pain reduction. About two-
thirds to 80 percent of the market was in the injectable form.
The effort in this supplemental appropriations bill was to go ahead
with a 14-month patent extension, which would have been for 14 months
of market exclusivity for Toradol, this one drug. That means there
would have been only one drug available; no alternatives. There is
every reason to believe that, as a matter of fact, there is a generic
alternative which would have been the same kind of assistance for
people but at much less cost.
Mr. President, when we were making some projections about this, we
felt that, on the basis of looking at the data, this would have been
about a $350 million cost for consumers. I felt as a Senator that the
one party that was left out of the negotiations was the consumer. I
could say with a twinkle in my eye, in many ways I have always tried to
be a Senator that pushes hard on the consumer end. While I think the
company--I want to make this clear--Hoffman-La Roche Company has made
some important arguments about the delays in getting drug approval,
about some of the problems it had with GATT, and all of the rest, the
fact of the matter is--this was my perspective, and this is the
consumers' perspective--a 14-month patent extension would have been
maybe $50 million to $60 million--maybe it was the injectable part,
two-thirds of that--in additional cost passed on to consumers. I think
we ought to be doing our very best to make sure that we get this kind
of medication to consumers in the most cost-effective way possible.
So, Mr. President, I think the only unfortunate part was--not the
process; I think people worked hard, and they worked in good faith--but
I don't think there was the representation for the consumers.
This amendment knocks out this patent extension. Senator Hollings
joins me in this amendment. We agreed. I believe that Senators on both
sides of the aisle are now comfortable with this agreement. This
amendment knocks out that patent extension. I think this is the right
thing to do for consumers.
This was an amendment that I offered for consumers in Minnesota and
consumers in the country. I am very pleased that now, after some
negotiation and discussion, we have agreement on this on the floor of
the Senate.
I understand the position of the pharmaceutical companies in this
particular case. Again, I appreciate their work. But ultimately I think
my job is to represent not so much the pharmaceutical companies but the
consumers. On this point, I think there was divergent interest. I
wanted to come down on the side of consumers. I am really pleased that
Senator Hollings and other Senators have joined in this effort.
Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor. We can go further. I
think we can proceed.
[[Page S3990]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment
of the Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. STEVENS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. I apologize to the Chair. I had a discussion about
further proceedings.
Which amendment did the Senator call up?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Amendment No. 57 by the Senator from
Minnesota.
Mr. STEVENS. Thank you, very much.
I now have a copy of it. It is my understanding that the Senator from
South Carolina is not going to object to this at this time. I will not
oppose the amendment either. But I do want to say that, as a result of
the amendment of the Senator from South Carolina, there have been a
series of pharmaceutical groups that contacted us concerning the
inequities of the long delay in the processing of Federal permits for
the pharmaceuticals in this country. I believe this is a matter that
should be taken care of in the legislative proposal, but, if it is not,
we will address it further this year in the Appropriations Committee.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment
of the Senator from Minnesota.
The amendment (No. 57) was agreed to.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which
the amendment was agreed to.
Mr. WELLSTONE. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. STEVENS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. I am informed that 110 amendments have been filed to
this bill. We have assigned task forces from the staffs of the various
subcommittees to review those amendments.
Mr. President, we will notify Members if we find amendments we would
object to. But I ask all Members to notify us when they would like to
call up their amendments. It is the leadership's hope that this bill
will be finished by tomorrow evening. Obviously, with 110 amendments,
it is going to be a long night. But I would appreciate it if we could
have some idea of when those amendments would be called up. I am
hopeful they will be called up soon.
Amendment No. 143
(Purpose: To provide for dredging and snagging and clearing of the
Truckee and San Joaquin Rivers and the dredging of shoaling on the
Chena River)
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask the clerk to lay before the Senate
amendment No. 143.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Alaska [Mr. Stevens], for Mr. Reid,
proposes an amendment numbered 143.
On page 18, line 15, following ``fund:'' insert the
following: ``Provided, That the Secretary of the Army is
directed to use from available balances of the funds
appropriated herein to perform such emergency dredging and
snagging and clearing of the Truckee River, Nevada, and the
San Joaquin River channel, California, as the Secretary
determines to be necessary as the result of the January 1997
flooding in Nevada and California; and dredging of shoaling
which has occurred downstream from the federal Chena River
Flood Control Facility:''.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this is a direct use of funds that are
already available. There is no budgetary impact on it. It deals with
issues that the corps has informed us it needs authority for in three
States. It has been cleared on both sides.
I urge adoption of the amendment.
Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, we have no objection on the Democratic
side.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment
of the Senator from Nevada.
The amendment (No. 143) was agreed to.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I want to state that this amendment is by
the Senator from Nevada that I called up. So it is not my amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Record will be corrected to show that the
amendment just agreed to was offered by the Senator from Nevada.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which
the amendment was agreed to, and I move that that motion be laid on the
table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kempthorne). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. 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. REID. Would the Chair inform the Senator from Nevada what the
pending business is.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is no pending amendment.
Amendment No. 171
(Purpose: To substitute for the Endangered Species Act waiver a
provision agreed to in the House Appropriations Committee)
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid], for himself and Mr.
Baucus, proposes an amendment numbered 171.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent reading of the
amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
Beginning on page 50, strike line 15 and all that follows
through page 51 and insert the following:
The policy issued on February 19, 1997, by the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service implementing emergency
provisions of the Endangered Species Act and applying to 46
California counties that were declared Federal disaster areas
shall apply to all counties nationwide heretofore or
hereafter declared Federal disaster areas at any time during
1997 and shall apply to repair activities on flood control
facilities in response to an imminent threat to human lives
and property and shall remain in effect until the Assistant
Secretary of the Army for Civil Works determines that 100
percent of emergency repairs have been completed, but shall
not remain in effect later than December 31, 1998.
Mr. STEVENS. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. REID. I am happy to yield to the Senator.
Mr. STEVENS. I seek to inquire whether the Senator would be willing
to enter into a time agreement on his motion to strike?
Mr. REID. Yes, I would. The ranking member of the committee wishes to
speak. Other than that, I had no requests for time.
What does the manager of the bill suggest?
Mr. STEVENS. I am sure there are others interested in speaking. We
have 110 amendments pending, so I will try to seek a time agreement on
each amendment. I will defer this for a few moments until others
involved are here. I would like to enter into a time agreement to vote
on this amendment no later than 5:30, if possible.
Mr. REID. I will begin debate, I say to the distinguished chairman of
the full committee, and while I am doing this, you will have the
Cloakroom call to see how much time the ranking member and others wish
to speak.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we will contact Members to talk about
that.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative
clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________