[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 49 (Tuesday, April 28, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3686-S3687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

PROTOCOLS TO THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY OF 1949 ON ACCESSION OF POLAND, 
                    HUNGARY, AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the treaty.


                      Executive Amendment No. 2312

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous agreement, there will be 2 
minutes equally divided on the Harkin amendment No. 2312.
  We will not proceed until the Senate is in order.
  Who yields time? If no one yields time, time runs equally on each 
side.
  Mr. BIDEN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the Harkin 
amendment. Everyone should understand one thing. This has nothing to do 
with the expansion of NATO. Under the resolution we are passing, we say 
we are not going to do anything beyond what we now do to contribute to 
the common budget of NATO, which, on average, is 25 percent.
  There are three common budgets. My friend from Iowa comes along and 
says: Look, we are not going to allow you to do what you were allowed 
to do now for Greece, Turkey, Germany. For example, when we passed the 
CFE agreement, we agreed we would get rid of a lot of materiel. That 
materiel was worth the sum total of about $185 million. We gave it to 
Turkey, Portugal, Germany, et cetera.
  Under this amendment, we would not be able to do that kind of thing 
for any of the new countries if they come in. In addition to that, we 
would be limited to be engaged in any foreign military sales to these 
countries. Nothing to do with common budgets.
  I urge you to vote no.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. The Senator 
from Iowa has 1 minute.
  Mr. HARKIN. As former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock warned:

       We're going to have a dilemma that we either encourage 
     them--new NATO members--to divert resources they don't have 
     or we end up fooling the American people about what it's 
     going to cost them.

  That is what this amendment is about, not fooling the American 
people.
  My amendment does two things. It requires a full accounting of all 
U.S. contributions, all for NATO expansion by including the U.S. 
contributions to the national governments when calculating the U.S. 
share of enlargement costs.
  Right now, we are limited to 25 percent for the common costs. That 
does not take into account the national costs. What I am saying with 
this amendment is, sure, we will provide our fair share, but why should 
we do more than 25 percent.
  And please do not fall for the argument that we could not have done 
this

[[Page S3687]]

for Greece and others in the past. The cold war is over. Europe is 
rich. These countries have money. We should not just stick U.S. 
taxpayers with the total bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  Mr. HARKIN. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a 
sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. 
The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 24, nays 76, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 106 Ex.]

                                YEAS--24

     Ashcroft
     Baucus
     Bond
     Bumpers
     Byrd
     Conrad
     Dorgan
     Feingold
     Graham
     Harkin
     Hutchinson
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kempthorne
     Kohl
     Leahy
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Smith (NH)
     Torricelli
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                                NAYS--76

     Abraham
     Akaka
     Allard
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bryan
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Cleland
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Faircloth
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Reed
     Reid
     Robb
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (OR)
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
  The executive amendment (No. 2312) was rejected.
  Mr. CAMPBELL. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay it on 
the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

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