[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 107 (Friday, July 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8139-S8140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS-CONSENT AGREEMENT--S. 39

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
entered July 24 with respect to S. 39, order No. 11, which is with 
regard to the tuna-dolphin issue, be vitiated.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. I further ask that the majority leader, after consultation 
with the Democratic leader, may turn to S. 39, and one managers' 
amendment be in order, and time for the amendment and the debate on the 
bill be limited to 30 minutes, equally divided in the usual form, and 
following the conclusion or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed 
to vote on the amendment, to be followed by third reading and passage 
of S. 39, as amended, if amended.
  Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object, and I shall not object, I 
want to say to our majority leader that I thank him for his patience. I 
want to use this time in reserving my right to object, which I shall 
not, to thank the majority leader for his patience in allowing us the 
time we needed to come to what I think is a good compromise on this 
bill.
  I want to say that Senator John Kerry stepped into the breach at the 
moment we needed him to do so, and in working with Senator McCain and 
Senator Snowe, Senator Breaux, Senator Biden, myself, Senator Stevens--
it was a big group of us, and a group that is pretty much known for 
some very strong opinions. I want to thank him. And the administration 
was at the table. It was not easy.
  But in the end, what we are going to do basically is keep the label 
the way it is and give some time for a study to begin, put all the 
other wonderful parts of that bill into place, and then when the 
preliminary results are known, we will make a decision--the Secretary 
of Commerce will--on whether or not to change the definition of what 
constitutes ``dolphin safe'' tuna. So I think it is a victory for 
American consumers.
  Just in concluding my brief remarks here--and I will not object to 
the unanimous-consent request--I want to thank the more than 44 
Senators who stood with us, who were going to vote with us, so we were 
able to have the strength to negotiate this compromise.
  I will not object to the request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
  Hearing none, without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. Let me wrap this up right quick because Senator McCain 
needs to be able to comment on this, too.
  For the information of all Senators, in light of this agreement with 
respect to the tuna-dolphin legislation, the cloture vote was vitiated; 
therefore, there will be no further votes to occur today. The next 
votes will occur in stacked sequence on Tuesday, July 29, beginning at 
9:30 a.m.
  I want to thank all Senators for their cooperation, especially the 
Senator from Maine, Senator Snowe. She did outstanding work. She did 
not always receive the type of consideration she should have, but she 
has risen above that. Without her agreement, this would not have been 
possible. Also, of course, Senator McCain has been diligent in his 
work, as always, and also Senator Kerry, who got involved to help us 
work this out.
  I would like to make sure now that Senator McCain has a chance to 
speak and put the proper perspective on all of this.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I received a letter from the National 
Security Adviser. I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                              The White House,

                                        Washington, July 25, 1997.
     Hon. John McCain,
     Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 
         U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. Chairman: I want to thank you for your hard work 
     and support to find an acceptable compromise on S. 39 the 
     International Dolphin Conservation Act. I am writing to 
     inform you that we accept the agreement that has been struck 
     between yourself and other Senators involved with the 
     discussions on the legislation. I also want to inform you 
     that we have consulted with the Government of Mexico and that 
     they do not object to the agreement. They, in turn, are 
     discussing this with the other signatories of the Panama 
     Declaration in order to secure their acceptance of this 
     compromise. I am hopeful that all the signatories will be 
     able to accept this compromise as well.
       Again, thank you for your efforts to bring about a 
     successful conclusion to the discussions on S. 39.
           Sincerely,

                                             Samuel R. Berger,

                                        Assistant to the President
                                    For National Security Affairs.

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, this letter indicates that negotiations we 
have entered into making changes to the legislation will keep the 
International Dolphin Conservation Program intact. That has been our 
sole objective. With the administration's assurance, I believe we are 
prepared to enter into a time agreement for final passage of the bill.
  Again, President Clinton has asked us to pass this legislation. 
Greenpeace, the Center for Marine Conservation, the Environmental 
Defense Fund, the World Wildlife Fund, and the National Wildlife 
Federation have asked us to pass this bill. My only test for accepting 
changes to the bill is that the conservation agreement remains intact.
  The agreement, which still must be put into legislative language, 
lifts the embargo on tuna from the eastern tropical Pacific, and would 
require the label change after the Secretary of Commerce makes a 
finding on implementation of the international agreement does not 
adversely affect dolphin in any substantial way, by a time certain. We 
have had months of negotiations on this issue.
  Mr. President, I want to make one thing perfectly clear. This 
agreement would not be where it is today without the Senator from 
Maine, Senator Snowe, the subcommittee chairperson, who conducted weeks 
and months of negotiations on this issue. The Senator from Maine is the 
one that made this happen. Whenever there is a victory, there are all 
kinds of people that like to take credit for it. The Senator from 
Maine, Senator Snowe, entered into a months-long series of 
negotiations, and has accepted amendments and reservations that she 
would not otherwise want to. I am sorry that the thing that held up 
this agreement was extreme partisanship, which motivated people to vote 
for cloture on a bill that the administration and the environmental 
community supported, and the characterization of this bill as some kind 
of cave-in is wrong. We demanded that the international signatories 
would agree to any compromise that was made. That was done so in this 
bill. There will be, at a time certain, a labeling which will allow 
this Nation--and the other nations who are signatories--to have the 
importation of tuna into this country. I am sorry that these issues, 
which are really in the best interests of the Nation, somehow get 
politicized so much, as this issue has been. The Senator from Maine has 
refrained from that all along.
  I yield the floor.


                         Privilege of the Floor

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a fellow in my 
office, Tom Richey, be permitted access to the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I want to make it clear that, from my 
perspective, this agreement on tuna-dolphin does not represent a cave-
in. It doesn't represent one side sort of being bullied by another 
side. Also, I certainly don't think it represents a partisan effort 
because Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire, and a number of our 
colleagues across the aisle, were also very interested in the outcome 
of this and were prepared to join in a rigorous debate.
  What I believe has happened is that, as it often does in the U.S. 
Senate,

[[Page S8140]]

when contentious views are brought together and people have a chance to 
be able to air those views and work at it over time, we have been able 
to arrive at what I believe is a very good, sensible compromise--not a 
cave-in, a compromise. It is a compromise which I think takes the very 
best of what was proposed originally by Senator Breaux and Senator 
Stevens and helps to amalgamate it with other people's ideas about what 
would make it even stronger. It is going to be a strong conservation 
ethic. It is going to guarantee that we take the cooperation of other 
countries that we are respectful of and grateful for their cooperation 
and utilize that in a way which is going to strengthen our relationship 
in the hemisphere and, at the same time, provide for a strong 
conservation capacity with respect to the dolphin stocks.
  I think everybody ought to be very pleased with the outcome. I am 
grateful to the Senator from Maine, Senator Snowe, for her efforts on 
this. I regret that, yesterday, there were some misunderstandings 
during the course of it. But she has exhibited great strength and 
willingness to help provide for our ability to move forward. I thank 
her publicly for that.
  I want to thank the chairman of the committee, Senator McCain, for 
his efforts and patience, particularly. I think he allowed people to 
work through this in a way that got us here. I particularly thank 
Senator Boxer for her tireless, tireless energy in fighting for what 
she thought was right in this situation and for helping to create the 
ability to come to this compromise. So I think it is positive for all 
concerned, and I think everybody ought to feel good about it, without 
any sense of partisanship or any divisiveness.
  I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who seeks time?
  Ms. SNOWE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. SNOWE. I thank the Chair. I rise to express my support for the 
agreement that ultimately was reached on this very important issue. I 
remind my colleagues that this was an issue that had been introduced in 
the last Congress by the Senator from Alaska, Senator Stevens, and 
unfortunately, we weren't able to get it through in the last Congress, 
for a lot of political reasons. I hope now that people recognize that 
this represents a very strong step toward preservation and conservation 
of the species and, at the same time, an important agreement with 11 
other nations on this issue, which I think ultimately will resolve the 
problems that we are facing with respect to tuna, as well as with 
dolphins.
  So I hope that our colleagues will ultimately support this agreement. 
I want to commend Senator McCain, who certainly forged an effort to try 
to create this, as well as Senator Boxer and Senator Kerry. Truly, the 
leadership was exemplified by Senator Stevens and Senator Breaux, who 
originally introduced this legislation in the last Congress. So I hope 
that we will take the steps necessary to implement this legislation 
and, ultimately, will ratify the agreement that was reached by this 
administration with respect to this issue.
  With that, I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who seeks time?

                          ____________________