[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S2506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume 
consideration of S. 1768, the emergency supplemental appropriations 
bill, with a hope of concluding action on the bill during today's 
session. Hopefully, we can do it by noon. In a moment I would like to 
address some questions to the manager of the bill, Senator Stevens, and 
get a feel for kind of where we are.
  As a reminder to all Members, the second cloture vote on H.R. 2646, 
the Coverdell A+ education savings account bill, was postponed 
yesterday and will occur at a time to be determined by the majority 
leader, as always, and we will notify the Democratic leader when a 
decision is made on that. And, as always, all Members will be notified 
when that vote will occur. It is still hoped that an agreement can be 
worked out with respect to an orderly handling of that bill. I expect 
we will not have the cloture vote until after we complete the 
supplemental appropriations, assuming we can get an early completion of 
that bill.
  Members can expect a busy day of floor activity, with votes to occur 
at least on the cloture and on the supplemental appropriations, perhaps 
on amendments to either one of those, and also the Senate may consider 
any executive or legislative items cleared for action.


                      SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  I thank the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee 
for his time and effort on this bill.
  Are we to the point where we, hopefully, can maybe complete this bill 
by noon today? Do you have a feel for that?
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. Leader, I am not certain we can finish by noon. We 
have probably three to four votes that we believe we will have to have 
on amendments that are coming, and we still have the problem of the IMF 
amendment, which is the last amendment to be cleared. But we are now 
down to a point where we think we have cleared most of the 
controversial amendments, with the exception of three to four, and I am 
still working on one of those.
  Mr. LOTT. Are you trying to get time agreements and actually go to 
votes if they are going to be required?
  Mr. STEVENS. Yes, I think we will be able to get time agreements on 
all amendments other than the IMF amendment. On the IMF amendment, the 
time has already expired. The question is how to dispose of that.
  Mr. LOTT. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, let's see 
if we can find some way to complete the supplemental appropriations 
bills. They are emergency appropriations for defense and disasters. Of 
course, the IMF issue is a separate issue, and I realize there are some 
disagreements about it and how it should be handled. I personally think 
that we should find a way to provide the funds, but only--only--if 
strong conditions are in place to make sure that the American people 
have confidence these funds are not being misused and we have a chance 
to see how they are being used.
  We have to draw this to a conclusion. We still have a conference to 
go through, and we have other issues that we desperately need to take 
up. So I would like again to ask for cooperation on both sides of the 
aisle so we can complete this legislation.
  Mr. STEVENS. If the leader will yield, the Senator from Texas, 
Senator Hutchison, will raise the issue of Bosnia here this morning in 
a minute. That will take some time this morning. We have, as I said, 
three other amendments, one dealing with the CDBG

[[Page S2506]]

issue, one with the FEMA issue that I am told we may have questions 
about. So I would say in all probability we will not get around to 
really dealing with the IMF until right after lunch.
  Mr. LOTT. I thank the distinguished manager of the legislation and 
urge him to keep up his good efforts. At some point I hope he will do 
as he has been known to do, get very aggressive and help bring this to 
a conclusion.
  I do want to say to the Senator from Texas and others who may speak 
on Bosnia that I think this is a very important issue and, frankly, I 
hope it will not be just kind of set aside or swallowed up by the 
supplemental appropriations bill. The supplemental appropriations bill 
is urgent. It is for 1 specific fiscal year. The Bosnia issue really is 
broader than 1 year's emergency appropriations. I agree with the 
Senator from Texas that we need to get a clearer understanding about 
what is our mission in Bosnia: Is there a mission creep occurring? How 
much is it going to cost? I do not think we can just give the President 
a time period with no end in sight, just an interminable presence. I 
saw one prediction the other day we might have to have troops in Bosnia 
for 10 years. Not with my vote.
  So I do think we need to have a full discussion about this. I try 
very hard to be bipartisan--nonpartisan on foreign policy issues. But 
in Bosnia I have never felt comfortable with what our situation is 
there, and I still do not.
  So I understand what she is trying to do. I hope we can work together 
to find a time when we can have a full debate on this issue this year. 
I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allard). The Senator from Alaska.


                           the imf amendment

  Mr. STEVENS. I do thank the leader for raising the issue and urging 
us to move forward. I urge Senators to come forward and discuss with me 
and Senator Byrd and our staffs any amendments they may wish to raise. 
We will insist on a time agreement on amendments that are going to need 
a vote.
  Let me state at the outset, however, the real difficulty with this 
bill now is the IMF amendment. I think the Senate should realize what 
the situation is. We had a time agreement on the IMF amendment. That 
time has been exhausted. At my request, it was set aside to consider 
other amendments. I have been notified by Members on both sides of the 
aisle that they will not allow this bill to come to final vote without 
a vote on that IMF amendment, and that there is some indication of a 
desire to have that amendment wait for a time when the House passes a 
separate bill dealing with IMF and other subjects.
  I want to state to the Senate that I am normally neutral on most of 
these subjects but I am not neutral on this subject. The Senator from 
Hawaii and I have traveled to the Pacific for many years together, and 
only in February I traveled through the Pacific with several other 
Members of the Senate. We heard, from New Zealand to Australia and into 
Hawaii, comments about the Asian flu, what was taking place in Asia. 
Just recently when I went home, I was exposed to headlines which said, 
``Market Sales for Salmon Falling Off.'' I talked to people involved in 
the coal industry, and they are worried about their markets in Asia. I 
talked to the people handling the great flow of freight through my 
State onto the Asian rim, people who handle freight that is on these 
wide-bodied airplanes. As my friend from Hawaii, Mr. Inouye, says, most 
people don't realize that four out of five wide-bodied airplanes that 
take cargo out of this country go west, not east.

  Everyone I have talked to is apprehensive of what is going on. We see 
our markets declining. We see our customers questioning whether they 
are going to buy in the future. The other side of the coin is that I 
had noticed we have already seen signs in Alaska of dumping of goods 
that are coming in from the Far East, where their markets are declining 
for consumer goods. They are bringing them to our country. It might be 
a good thing temporarily, but it is something that is very worrisome to 
those of us who live on the Pacific rim.
  Then I talk to my friends from the great grain belt of the country, 
and they tell me about the problem of the farmers who found a way to 
independence by opening up the global markets to our farm products, and 
the primary place where those farm products were sold, the increased 
production of our farms has been sold, in the Pacific rim.
  The Asian flu is the El Nino of economics. Unless we understand that, 
unless we understand the fear that is coming in our country, we are 
liable to make a great mistake. I do not want to see games played with 
the IMF. The IMF is serious to us, those of us who already have felt 
the touch of this wind that is coming to us from the Pacific rim. 
Unless we respond, and respond forcefully, and create the image of 
being willing to assist these people to come through this economic 
disaster, we will pay a high price. We will pay a price in not only our 
markets but in our prestige in the world.
  These people are expanding a private enterprise economy in a place 
where 15 years ago there really was not a private enterprise economy. 
They have had banks that have failed. So did we, 10 and 15 years ago. 
We should remember the savings and loan crisis and the other crises in 
banks we faced.
  The IMF reforms that Senator Hagel, Senator Roberts, and others have 
worked on--Senator Gramm--are good reforms, and they will bring 
transparency to the banks and the banking transactions. They will 
protect consumers in the area affected by the Asian flu. But they will 
also protect our people who want to sell to those markets and give them 
greater stability.
  The IMF money, to me, is money that creates the image of the United 
States being aware of what is going on and being willing to help, help 
in the sense of saying we will be there provided you reform. Crony 
capitalism cannot be allowed to spread throughout the world. The way we 
can stop that now is to act, and act forcibly, on IMF.
  I am one who is going to vote for IMF. It may be that others want to 
delay it, others want to handle it in different ways. I want to make 
sure that the first bill that goes to the President has IMF on it, and 
I hope the rest of the Senate will agree with me. We will have some 
discussions when we get to the House, but I want the House to know I am 
going to be arguing for IMF on the first bill that goes to the 
President. It should be something we act quickly on, for the benefit of 
this country.
  I am happy to yield the floor. The Senator from Texas has an 
amendment she wishes to call up, Mr. President.

                          ____________________