[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 36 (Thursday, March 26, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2658-S2660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-368. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the 
     Legislature of the State of Arizona; ordered to lie on the 
     table.

                          Senate Memorial 1001

       Whereas, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the fortieth president of 
     the United States, was one of this nation's greatest and most 
     beloved presidents and a true world leader; and
       Whereas, through his leadership and dedication to 
     principle, President Reagan ushered in a new era of sustained 
     peace, prosperity, optimism and freedom for both our nation 
     and much of the world; and
       Whereas, President Reagan established fiscal policies that 
     invigorated the American economy, stimulating growth, 
     employment and investment while curbing federal spending, 
     inflation and interest and tax rates; and

[[Page S2659]]

       Whereas, when confronted by increasingly tense relations 
     with the former Soviet Union, President Reagan implemented a 
     policy of ``peace through strength'' that restored national 
     security, ensured peace and paved the way for the successful 
     end of the Cold War; and
       Whereas, in 1986' President Reagan persuaded Congress to 
     end the inefficiency and expense resulting from federal 
     ownership of Washington National Airport and to transfer 
     control to an independent state-level authority. This paved 
     the way for long overdue airport modernization projects, 
     including construction of the airport's new terminal; and
       Whereas, legislation (H.R. 2625 and S. 1297) is pending in 
     both houses of Congress that would redesignate Washington 
     National Airport as ``Ronald Reagan Washington National 
     Airport''. Renaming the travel gateway into the nation's 
     capital after Ronald Reagan is a fitting tribute to his 
     legacy of leadership and prosperity.
       Wherefore your memorialist, the Senate of the State of 
     Arizona, prays:
       1. That the Congress of the United States redesignate 
     Washington National Airport as ``Ronald Reagan Washington 
     National Airport'' in recognition of President Reagan's 
     exceptional leadership on behalf of the citizens of this 
     nation and all freedom-loving people throughout the world.
       2. That the Congress of the United States expedite the 
     legislation that would effect this redesignation so that the 
     dedication can be completed before February 6, 1998. Ronald 
     Reagan's eighty-seventh birthday.
       3. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona 
     transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the 
     United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House 
     of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State 
     of Arizona.
                                  ____

       POM-369. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of Washington; to the Committee on Commerce, 
     Science, and Transportation.

                       House Joint Memorial 4039

       Whereas, Washington state has sought to leverage the 
     state's purchasing power in its procurements of 
     telecommunications and information services; obtain the 
     lowest prices for telecommunications services for state 
     agencies, local governments, and schools and libraries, and 
     avoid unnecessary duplication of resources; and
       Whereas, the legislature created the Department of 
     Information Services and directed it to aggregate the demand 
     for telecommunications services purchased from the private 
     sector, add value, and make such services available to public 
     entities at significantly reduced costs; and
       Whereas, through such efforts the Department of Information 
     Services has saved the taxpayers of Washington millions of 
     dollars each year; and
       Whereas, the Washington Legislature in 1996 authorized and 
     funded the development of the K-20 Educational 
     Telecommunications Network, a fifty-four and one-half million 
     dollar state-wide backbone network linking K-12 school 
     districts, educational service districts, baccalaureate 
     institutions, public libraries, and community and technical 
     colleges; and
       Whereas, this network will provide schools and libraries 
     with enhanced function and increased efficiencies in their 
     use of telecommunications services; and
       Whereas, the Federal Communications Commission, pursuant to 
     the Telecommunications Act of 1996, has begun implementation 
     of a two and one-quarter billion dollar universal service 
     fund program to discount the cost of telecommunications and 
     information services to schools and libraries; and
       Whereas, on December 30, 1997, the Federal Communications 
     Commission ruled that state networks, such as the K-20 
     educational network, may not recover directly from the fund 
     for telecommunications services, other than Internet services 
     and internal connections, provided and billed to schools and 
     libraries; and
       Whereas, by its order, the Commission also determined that 
     schools and libraries served by state telecommunications 
     networks will not be able to obtain discounts on the value 
     added by the state to these telecommunications services 
     procured from the private sector; and
       Whereas, this ruling potentially creates incentives for 
     Washington schools and libraries to forego the less costly 
     state-provided services, and instead buy more expensive 
     services directly from private providers in order to be 
     assured of federal subsidies; and
       Whereas, this ruling creates a severe administrative burden 
     on Washington state government, and will contravene 
     longstanding Legislative policy; and
       Whereas, this ruling could increase the costs to the 
     universal service fund since discounts will be based on 
     higher costs negotiated one-by-one between individual schools 
     and libraries and private telecommunications companies;
       Now, therefore, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that 
     the members of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
     Transportation of the United States Senate; and members of 
     the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer 
     Protection, Committee on Commerce, United States House of 
     Representatives urge the Federal Communications Commission to 
     review and amend its ruling barring direct reimbursement to 
     state agencies that provide telecommunications services.
       Be it resolved, That copies of this Memorial be transmitted 
     immediately to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of 
     the United States, the members of the Committee on Commerce, 
     Science, and Transportation of the United States Senate, the 
     members of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and 
     Consumer Protection, Committee on Commerce, United States 
     House of Representatives, the President of the United States 
     Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, each 
     member of Congress from the State of Washington, and the 
     members of the Federal Communications Commission.
                                  ____

       POM-370. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of Washington; to the Committee on Finance.

                       Senate Joint Memorial 8019

       Whereas, the policy of the state of Washington is to assure 
     the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens; and
       Whereas, an adequate supply of tax-exempt private activity 
     bond volume cap is essential and critically important in 
     financing affordable, decent first-time home ownership 
     opportunities and low-income and moderate-income rental 
     housing in this state and the nation, as well as several 
     other critically important purposes that contribute to the 
     well-being of the citizens of the state; and
       Whereas, an adequate supply of low-income housing tax 
     credits is essential and critically important to financing 
     affordable, decent, rental housing units that contribute to 
     the well-being of the citizens of the state; and
       Whereas, the United States Congress, in the Tax Reform Act 
     of 1986, established restrictions on tax-exempt private 
     activity municipal bonds, effective January 1, 1988, that 
     imposed a limit, based on each state's population, not to 
     exceed the greater of fifty dollars per capita per calendar 
     year, but failed to include an automatic inflationary 
     multiplier to ensure that the purchasing power of this 
     resource did not become dilute; and
       Whereas, the amount of tax-exempt private activity bonding 
     for this state is inadequate to meet the tax-exempt private 
     activity financing demands of the state of Washington, and 
     its agencies and political subdivisions; and
       Whereas, the United States Congress, in the Tax Reform Act 
     of 1986, established restrictions on the Low-Income Housing 
     Tax Credit that imposed a limit based on each state's 
     population to be equal to one dollar and twenty-five cents 
     per capita per calendar year, but failed to include an 
     automatic inflationary multiplier to ensure that the 
     purchasing power of this resource did not become diluted; and
       Whereas, since 1987 the effects of annual inflation have 
     diluted the purchasing power of Washington's tax-exempt 
     private activity bonding cap and the low-income housing tax 
     credits by forty-six percent; and
       Whereas, such loss has been devastating to the ability of 
     this state and the nation to provide adequate, affordable 
     housing opportunities to its lower-income constituents by 
     reducing nearly in half the number of single-family housing 
     units and multifamily rental housing units available and 
     affordable to the ever-increasing number of lower-income, 
     first-time home buyers and renters in Washington, thus 
     causing many of these families to remain in substandard or 
     expensive housing, among other negative impacts; and
       Whereas, if the state and its agencies and political 
     subdivisions continue to be unable to provide adequate levels 
     of tax-exempt private activity bond financing and low-income 
     housing tax credit financing for these purposes, the health, 
     safety, and welfare of the citizens of the state of 
     Washington will be further negatively impacted;
       Now, therefore, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that 
     the United States Congress increase immediately the tax-
     exempt private activity bond volume cap and the allocation of 
     low-income housing tax credits available to each state, 
     including Washington, to levels that would fully restore the 
     tax-exempt private activity bond volume cap purchasing power 
     and the lower-income housing tax credit purchasing power of 
     each state, including Washington, to levels that would offset 
     the diluted effects of inflation since 1987, and index 
     increases for these resources to inflation in future years.
       Be it resolved, That copies of this Memorial be immediately 
     transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of 
     the United States, the President of the United States Senate, 
     the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member 
     of Congress from the State of Washington.
                                  ____

       POM-371. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the 
     Legislature of the State of Michigan; to the Committee on the 
     Judiciary.

                       Senate Resolution No. 155

       Whereas, current laws governing foreign-child adoptions and 
     immigration are complex and necessary to provide certain 
     safeguards. Included in those safeguards is the stipulation 
     that a person entering the United States of America on a 
     Visitor's Visa cannot be enrolled in a public school; and
       Whereas, Wojtek Tokarcyzk spent nearly two years as a 
     member of the family of Walter and Teresa Tokarcyzk, Michigan 
     residents from the community of Alger. His adoptive parents, 
     Walter and Teresa Tokarcyzk, had enrolled him at Ogemaw 
     Heights High School. Wojtek Tokarcyzk was not allowed to re-
     enter this country following a 1997 Christmas visit to his 
     native Poland; and

[[Page S2660]]

       Whereas, using the seldom-used method commonly known as 
     Private Relief Legislation, the Congress can act swiftly to 
     allow Wojtek Tokarcyzk to re-enter the United States of 
     America, and be legally adopted by his aunt and uncle, Walter 
     and Teresa Tokarcyzk; and
       Whereas, Wojtek Tokarcyzk has become a boy without a 
     country. This is not an instance where the Immigration and 
     Naturalization Service has acted to protect the resources of 
     this nation from an undesirable illegal alien. He is missed 
     dearly by his family, his soccer teammates and friends, and 
     the community at large. Wojtek is also missed by the local 
     fire department where he served as a volunteer firefighter. 
     This is a matter of family values and a sense of community. 
     The prompt return of Wojtek Tokarcyzk would be one small 
     victory for the American notion that families are our most 
     important resource and that close-knit communities still 
     exist, now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate, That we memorialize the President 
     of the United States and the Congress of the United States to 
     take immediate and necessary action to provide for United 
     States citizenship for Wojtek Tokarcyzk; and be it further
       Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to 
     the President of the United States of America, the Speaker of 
     the United States House of Representatives, the members of 
     the Michigan congressional delegation, and the Immigration 
     and Naturalization Service.

                          ____________________