[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 152 (Thursday, November 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13002-S13003]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        TARIFF AND TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS ACT OF 1998--H.R. 4342

 Mr. ROTH. Mr. President, on September 29, the Finance 
Committee reported unanimously H.R. 4342, the Miscellaneous Tariff and 
Technical Corrections Act of 1998. It was my hope that we would pass 
this legislation this year. Unfortunately, for reasons unrelated to the 
substance of the bill, this did not happen.
  The failure of this legislation is disappointing because it served a 
number of important practical purposes. For example, this bill would 
have temporarily suspended or reduced the duty on a large number of 
products, including a wide variety of chemicals used to make anti-HIV, 
anti-AIDS and anti-cancer drugs. Also included were certain organic 
pigments which are environmentally benign substitutes for pigments 
containing toxic heavy metals.
  In each instance, there were either no domestic production of the 
product in question or the domestic producers supported the measure. By 
suspending or reducing the duties, we would have

[[Page S13003]]

enabled U.S. firms that use these products to produce goods in a more 
cost efficient manner, thereby helping create jobs for American workers 
and reducing costs for consumers.
  The bill also contained a number of technical corrections and other 
minor modifications to the trade laws that enjoyed broad support. One 
such measure would have helped facilitate Customs Service clearance of 
athletes that participate in world athletic events, such as the 
upcoming Women's World Cup, the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, 
Utah, and the International Special Olympics. Another measure would 
have corrected certain outdated references in the trade laws.
  For each of the provisions included in this bill, we had solicited 
comments from the public and from the Administration to ensure that 
there was no controversy or opposition. Only those measures that were 
non-controversial and that had no opposition were included in the bill.
  The failure of this bill is also disappointing because of the amount 
of time and effort that the staff put into preparing this extremely 
technical piece of legislation. That is why I would like to give 
special thanks to Faryar Shirzad, Linda Menghetti, Tim Keeler, Lisa 
Lee, Marsha Moke, Matthew Sorenson, Bruce Anderson, Bob Merulla and 
Myrtle Agent from the Finance Committee staff, Polly Craighill, from 
the Office of Legislative Counsel, and Hester Grippando from the 
Congressional Budget Office, for their extensive work on this 
legislation.
 Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I rise today to commend Senator 
D'Amato, the Chairman of the Banking Committee, for his diligence in 
bringing this legislation dealing with credit unions to the floor in a 
timely manner. Although I have concerns with the commercial lending 
provisions in the legislation, I do support the underlying bill.
  I do have one question, however for the Chairman of the Banking 
Committee relating to the community credit union provisions in the act. 
Specifically, I am concerned with the way that the National Credit 
Union Administration (NCUA) will design their regulations dealing with 
the size and scope of community credit unions. Although I had initially 
intended to offer an amendment limiting the size of a federally-
chartered community credit union to three or four contiguous census 
tracts, after discussing the matter with the Chairman I decided that my 
amendment would be unnecessary.
  Mr. D'AMATO. I commend the Senator from Utah for his interest in this 
issue and thank him for refraining from offering this amendment. The 
Senator is quite correct when he states that his amendment would be 
unnecessary. The Banking Committee was very careful and direct in its 
instructions to the NCUA in Section 103 of the legislation, where the 
NCUA is instructed to define a ``well-defined local community, 
neighborhood, or rural district.''
  Additionally, in the Committee's report, language was inserted to 
make this point especially clear. The Committee intends for the NCUA to 
limit federally-chartered community credit unions to be subject to 
well-defined, local, geographic expansion limits.
  Mr. BENNETT. I thank the Chairman for his clarification on this 
issue. As I said previously, I had intended to offer an amendment on 
this issue, but I am satisfied by the Committee's report and by the 
remarks of the Chairman that such an amendment would be redundant and 
unnecessary.

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