[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7392-S7393]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2000 AND 2001

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, before we get into this traffic jam 
timewise, I want the Chair to state what the situation is with the time 
agreement so there will be no mistake about it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. At 11:35 a.m., we have a new time agreement 
that will begin with 40 minutes of debate equally divided between the 
two leaders, or their designees, on the cloture vote on the motion to 
proceed on H.R. 975.
  Mr. HELMS. So there are 5 minutes remaining.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are 5 minutes remaining.
  The Chair recognizes the Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I did not know that was the situation 
before us. As I understand, at 11:35 a.m., under a previous unanimous 
consent, there will be 40 minutes of debate equally divided.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Preceding the vote at 12:15 p.m.; the Senator 
is correct.
  Mr. BIDEN. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. HARKIN. I will be glad to yield.
  Mr. BIDEN. I suggest the Senator start, and if no one is here to 
speak on the steel bill, while he is still speaking, we might be able 
to ask consent for him to continue. Otherwise, he can pick up 
afterward.
  Mr. HARKIN. That makes sense.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I thank the chairman and ranking member, 
the managers of the bill, for including the amendment I had offered in 
the managers' packet. I thank Senators Wellstone, Kohl, Lautenberg, 
Kennedy, Dodd, Torricelli, Wyden, and Feingold for cosponsoring this 
sense-of-the-Senate resolution regarding the recent adoption in Geneva 
by the International Labor Organization of the Convention on the Worst 
Forms of Child Labor.
  June 17, 1999 marked a historic event in the battle to end the 
scourge of abusive and exploitative child labor. By a unanimous vote, 
the International Labor Organization's member states approved a new 
Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.
  For the first time in history, the world spoke with one voice in 
opposition to abusive and exploitative child labor. Countries from 
across the political, economic, and religious spectrum--from Jewish to 
Muslim, from Buddhists to Christians--came together to proclaim 
unequivocally that ``abusive and exploitative child labor is a practice 
which will not be tolerated and must be abolished.''
  Gone is the argument that abusive and exploitative child labor is an 
acceptable practice because of a country's economic circumstance. Gone 
is the argument that abusive and exploitative child labor is acceptable 
because of cultural traditions. And gone is the argument that abusive 
and exploitative child labor is a necessary evil on the road to 
economic development. The United States and the international community 
as a whole unanimously for the first time laid those arguments to rest 
and laid the groundwork to begin the process of ending the scourge of 
abusive and exploitative child labor.
  Mr. President, for the better part of a decade, I have been in my own 
capacity working to do what I can to end abusive and exploitative child 
labor around the globe, including in the United States. The ILO 
estimates that there are about 250 million children worldwide, many as 
young as 6 or 7, who are working, economically active. These are not 
just part-time jobs. Many of them work in dangerous environments which 
are detrimental to their emotional, physical, and moral well-being.
  Just last year, I traveled to Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh 
where I witnessed the travesty of abusive and exploitative child labor 
firsthand.
  This chart is a picture I took myself. This is in a small plant, a 
factory, to use the term loosely, hidden away on the outskirts of 
Katmandu. I was there on a Sunday, and Sunday evening I was accompanied 
by a young man who is a former child laborer. He took me to this place 
on the outskirts of the city where, because of friends working there 
who said the owner was gone and he knew the guard at the gate, we got 
in surreptitiously. In fact, the sign on the outside of the gate said 
no one under the age of 14 was permitted to work there. It was a big 
sign in both English and in Nepalese.

  Once we got in, we saw kids as young as 6 and 7. This is just one of 
the many pictures I took depicting these kids working full time, and 
this was in the evening. This was probably about 7 or 8 o'clock in the 
evening on a Sunday.
  In India, I met children who were liberated from hand-knotted carpet 
factories where they were chained--chained, Mr. President--to looms and 
forced to work as many as 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. These children 
were nothing more than slaves. They earned no money. They received no 
education. They had no hope for a future until they were freed by the 
South Asian Coalition Against Child Servitude, headed by Kailash 
Satyarthi. I can tell you that I myself have only glimpsed into the 
dark world of exploitative child labor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has----
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I ask the Senator, how much time does he 
need?
  Mr. HARKIN. I need probably 10, 15 minutes. I do not know if my 
colleagues are here to speak under the previous order. I will have to 
come back.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I will ask that the Senator be able to 
proceed after we vote on the cloture motion to proceed to the steel 
bill during the party caucus recess.
  Mr. HARKIN. As I understand, there will be 40 minutes of debate and 
then we will have a vote?
  Mr. BIDEN. Correct.
  Mr. HARKIN. Are we going to come back to this bill right after that 
vote?
  Mr. BIDEN. Yes. What we do not want to do is hold up the Holbrooke 
hearing. We will ask unanimous consent that Senator Dodd have 15 
minutes and that the Senator from Iowa have possibly another 10, 15 
minutes during the period of the party caucuses in order to meet the 
deadline of the Holbrooke hearing at 2:30 p.m., which we have been 
fighting to get for a year and a half. That is the objective.
  Obviously, the regular order is to move to steel. Unless my steel 
colleagues are willing to yield the Senator

[[Page S7393]]

from Iowa 15 minutes now, which he can request, I know of no other 
alternative. The Senator might ask.
  Mr. HARKIN. If my colleagues are not going to speak on the steel 
bill, then I will add the time to continue my remarks.

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