[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.

                          ____________________