[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 14, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2655-H2656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     AN ISSUE RELATIVE TO H.R. 1469

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Olver] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow this House is going to take up H.R. 
1469, which in its major part is an emergency appropriation bill to 
help the flood victims in the western part of the States, particularly 
North Dakota, deal with a very tragic situation.
  Within that bill, in title I of that bill, section 601 of that 
legislation makes a major change in the procurement policy under which 
our Bureau of Engraving and Printing operates which has never been 
considered by either the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 
under the leadership of the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] nor the 
Committee on Banking and Financial Services under the leadership of the 
gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Leach].

                              {time}  1645

  Neither of the authorizing committees dealing with this subject has 
held so much as a single hearing on the issue that is before us and, 
therefore, it has no place in an appropriations bill and is clearly not 
an emergency matter related to the victims of national emergencies.
  Now, the provision involved in section 601 requires that the Treasury 
Department must give capitalization subsidies to companies that are 
interested in becoming new suppliers of currency paper to the Bureau of 
Engraving and Printing. Capitalization subsidies, Mr. Speaker, are cash 
payments for new equipment or new facilities in order to manufacture 
paper. The amount of such cash payments could reach as much as $100 
million.
  The manner in which this change in our law would be imposed, a 
change, remember, that has never been considered by either of the 
authorizing committees, the Committee on Government Reform and 
Oversight nor the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, the law 
would apply special provisions of our longstanding procurement laws of 
this Nation that were designed to induce proposals where there is no 
willing supplier of a commodity or a product that the Government needs 
and provide these cash subsidies, these capitalization subsidies, in 
order to induce such suppliers.
  Well, there are and have been over the years willing suppliers. There 
is a willing supplier now and there have been on other occasions other 
willing suppliers. So we do not have the circumstances of the 
Government not having a willing supplier, and so the proposal to change 
the law is before us.
  Section 601 also makes another change. It changes the Conte rule that 
had been promoted and established in 1989, under my predecessor in the 
first district in Massachusetts, which set the foreign ownership that 
could be involved in the manufacture of the American currency at 10 
percent and changes that so that it can be anything up to 50 percent.
  Now, our American currency is right at the very core of our national 
security and, actually, our sovereignty.

[[Page H2656]]

 And most Americans, I think, believe that we should be very careful 
about how we deal with our currency. Well, what is the purpose of a 
change in the Conte law? Well, it is not as has been suggested, that no 
American company can vie for the contracts because they have greater 
than 10 percent of foreign ownership.
  There is absolutely no evidence that a change in the Conte law is 
necessary for American paper companies to qualify as Bureau of 
Engraving and Printing suppliers based on their own percentage of 
foreign stockholders. There have been no hearings held on that. There 
has been no evidence taken before either the Committee on Government 
Reform and Oversight or the Committee on Banking and Financial Services 
to suggest such a thing and, in fact, the latest RFP to go out from the 
Treasury Department on this point has said 56 American manufacturing 
companies have been invited to make bids on the next set of contracts 
on American currency paper. All of our U.S. currency paper contract 
solicitations are already open solicitations and anyone can bid.
  In fact, what the change in the Conte law would do is allow joint 
ventures with foreign national currency maker paper suppliers to get 
into the American currency manufacturing business.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional minutes.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bateman). The Chair is not permitted to 
entertain the gentleman's request. The rules do not permit me to do 
that.

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