[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 34 (Thursday, March 23, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1669-S1671]
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--442. A concurrent resolution adopted by the 
     Legislature of the State of West Virginia relative to an 
     amendment to the Constitution regarding taxation; to the 
     Committee on the Judiciary.

                   House Concurrent Resolution No. 5

       Whereas, Separation of powers is fundamental to the United 
     States' form of government; and
       Whereas, Section eight, article one of the Constitution of 
     the United States of America vests the Congress, the 
     legislative branch of government, with the power to lay and 
     collect taxes; and
       Whereas, The duty and responsibility of the judiciary is to 
     interpret law, not to create law; and
       Whereas, Recent federal court decisions, including Missouri 
     v. Jenkins of 1990, have resulted in the judicial branch 
     levying taxes or increasing the amount of taxes imposed upon 
     our citizenry to raise revenue sufficient to support various 
     court orders or federal mandates; and
       Whereas, These federal courts, through their mandates, have 
     strayed from the provisions of the Constitution of the United 
     States of America and the separation of powers doctrine and 
     have intruded into the legitimate public policy making 
     function of the states; and
       Whereas, Taxation is and must remain the exclusive 
     prerogative of elected representatives in the legislative 
     branch of government, and not be subject to imposition by an 
     appointed judiciary; and
       Whereas, Numerous other states have petitioned the Congress 
     of the United States to propose an amendment to the 
     Constitution of the United States of America reiterating that 
     the federal courts are prohibited from levying or increasing 
     taxes without the representation of the people; and
       Whereas, The Legislature of the State of West Virginia 
     reaffirms in no uncertain terms that the power and authority 
     to levy or increase taxes is and should continue to be 
     retained by the citizens, who do delegate that power and 
     authority explicitly to their duly elected representatives in 
     the legislative branch of government, with such 
     representatives being responsible and accountable to those 
     who have elected them; therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia: That in 
     accordance with the provisions of article five of the 
     Constitution of the United States of America, the West 
     Virginia Legislature hereby petitions the Congress of the 
     United States to adopt an amendment to the Constitution of 
     the United States of America, for submission to the states 
     for ratification, a new article providing substantially as 
     follows:
       ``Neither the Supreme Court nor any inferior court of the 
     United States shall have the power to instruct or order a 
     state or a political subdivision thereof, or an official of 
     such a state or political subdivision, to levy or increase 
     taxes''; and, be it
       Further Resolved, That the West Virginia Legislature 
     requests the Legislatures of the states who have not yet done 
     so to make a similar petition to the Congress of the United 
     States; and, be it
       Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the house of Delegates 
     is directed to send copies of this resolution to the 
     presiding officers of both houses of the legislature in each 
     of the other states in the union, to the Clerk of the United 
     States House of Representatives, to the Secretary of the 
     United States Senate, to the President of the United States, 
     to the Vice president of the United States and to members of 
     West Virginia's congressional delegation.
                                  ____

       POM-443. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of Washington relative to Migratory bird predation 
     on salmonid stocks; to the Committee on environment and 
     Public Works.

                       House Joint Memorial 4026

       Whereas, The state of Washington has embarked on a major 
     salmon recovery effort as reflected in significant 
     legislation enacted in 1998 and 1999; and
       Whereas, The state of Washington has formulated a state-
     wide strategy to recover salmon; and
       Whereas, The state of Washington has spent and is prepared 
     to spend millions of dollars to protect and restore salmon 
     populations; and
       Whereas, The state of Washington is aggressively pursuing 
     salmon recovery through a comprehensive undertaking in 
     partnerships with federal agencies, Indian tribal nations, 
     local governments, nonprofit organizations, and others; and
       Whereas, The national marine fisheries service has listed 
     under the federal endangered species act a number of salmon 
     species that live in evolutionarily significant units within 
     Washington state; and
       Whereas, Predation by certain migratory birds such as the 
     Caspian Tern is widely viewed as a significant issue for 
     recovery of listed fish species throughout Washington inland 
     and coastal waters; and
       Whereas, The federal migratory bird treaty act of 1918, 16 
     U.S.C.A. Sec. 703 et seq., has proven ineffective in managing 
     migratory bird predation on salmonids; and
       Whereas, Washington's efforts toward salmon recovery, while 
     addressing nearly all the factors that have led to the 
     decline of salmon, cannot currently, because of federal law, 
     effectively address predation by these migratory birds; and
       Whereas, Public confidence and support of Washington's 
     salmon recovery efforts will be diminished unless the 
     interaction among migratory birds and salmonid populations is 
     better understood and site-specific conflicts are addressed;
       Now, Therefore, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that 
     Congress pass legislation that amends the federal migratory 
     bird treaty act of 1918, 16 U.S.C.A. Sec. 703 et seq., to 
     provide a more effective means to allow for the protection 
     and restoration of salmonid populations.
       Congress is further urged to:
       (1) Fund joint federal and state research on migratory and 
     resident predatory bird interactions with salmonids, 
     especially site-specific investigations to determine the 
     significance of migratory and resident bird predation on 
     adult and juvenile salmonids for stock recovery, and to 
     develop a cohesive conservation plan that balances protection 
     of both migratory and resident birds and salmonids;
       (2) Grant at least limited management authority for state 
     and federal agencies to remove those migratory and resident 
     birds preying on listed fish stocks at areas of restricted 
     fish passage;
       (3) Prohibit the relocation of predatory bird nesting areas 
     that could result in shifting predation to salmonid stocks 
     that need recovery in other geographic areas.
       Be it Resolved, That copies of this Memorial be immediately 
     transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of 
     the United States, the United States House of Representatives 
     Committee on Resources, the United States Senate Committee on 
     Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 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-444. A resolution adopted by the Legislature of the 
     State of Michigan relative to the low-income housing tax 
     credit; to the Committee on Finance.

                       Senate Resolution No. 138

       Whereas, The Congress of the United States created the low-
     income housing tax credit as an incentive for developers and 
     investors to provide affordable rental housing. Under this 
     program, states are authorized to allocate federal tax 
     credits in block grant form. The awarded tax credits may be 
     taken annually for 10 years by developers and investors to 
     offset federal taxes otherwise owed on their income; and
       Whereas, Low-income families cannot afford to construct and 
     rehabilitate apartments. The low-income housing tax credit 
     program leverages about $7 billion in investments each year 
     and produces approximately 75,000 apartments. These 
     apartments rent at prices affordable to low-income working 
     families, the elderly, and people with special needs; and
       Whereas, Low-income housing tax credit apartments help 
     stabilize neighborhoods by improving housing quality and 
     supply. They rent out quickly because the need for them is so 
     much greater than the supply created under the present 
     housing credit volume limit; and
       Whereas, Despite rapid growth in the economy and in states' 
     low-income housing needs, the present housing credit limit, 
     $1.25 per state resident, has not been adjusted for inflation 
     since the program was created in 1986. Consequently, states 
     are severely shortchanged in their capacity to produce badly 
     needed urban and rural low-income apartments. Every year, 
     another 100,000 low-cost apartments, more than the housing 
     credit replaces, are demolished, abandoned, or converted to 
     market rate use; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate, That we memorialize the Congress of 
     the United States to enact legislation to increase the cap on 
     the low-income housing tax credit and index it in accordance 
     with the Consumer Price Index; and be it further

[[Page S1670]]

       Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to 
     the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 
     the President of the United States Senate, and the members of 
     the Michigan congressional delegation.
       Adopted by the Senate, March 15, 2000.
                                  ____

       POM-445. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Arizona relative to federal redesignations of 
     land in Arizona; to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
     Resources.

                     House Concurrent Memorial 2003

       Whereas, efforts are underway within the current 
     administration to redesignate millions of acres of western 
     lands as National Monuments or Forest Service roadless areas, 
     including more than one million acres in Arizona alone. The 
     Secretary of the Interior has requested the President to 
     designate nearly a dozen sites in the West as National 
     Monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Additionally, there 
     is a recent proposal to redesignate forty million acres of 
     federal lands under a ``roadless areas'' policy within the 
     United States Forest Service; and
       Whereas, these proposals, which would bypass input and 
     consent from the public, the states and even the Congress, 
     would result in the redesignation of lands in Arizona without 
     any consideration of state or local interests. The people of 
     Arizona, the Arizona Legislature and the Congress of the 
     United States have not considered, debated or approved the 
     federal redesignations that are proposed by the 
     administration; and
       Whereas, instead of working as a partner to help local 
     communities define and achieve their conservation goals, the 
     federal government proposes unilateral actions that would 
     affect this state and exclude citizens from determining or 
     even having a voice in land management decisions in their 
     communities; and
       Whereas, land management and conservation efforts are best 
     administered and managed at state and local levels of 
     government. Failure by the federal government to recognize 
     and respect this basic tenet would leave this state no 
     recourse but to turn to the judicial system to halt the 
     further redesignations of federal land in this state.
       Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of 
     the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:
       1. That the President, the Secretary of the Interior and 
     the Congress of the United States take action to prevent the 
     designation of any additional National Monuments or Forest 
     Service roadless areas in this state without full public 
     participation and an express act of Congress.
       2. That the recipients of this Memorial convey to the 
     Arizona Legislature their plan to consider this request.
       3. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona 
     transmit a copy of this Memorial to the President of the 
     United States, the United States Secretary of the Interior, 
     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-446. A joint resolution adopted by the Assembly of the 
     State of California relative to Sudan; to the Committee on 
     Foreign Relations.

                    Assembly Joint Resolution No. 38

       Whereas, According to the United States Committee for 
     Refugees an estimated 2,000,000 people have died over the 
     past decade due to war and war-related causes and famine, 
     while millions have been displaced from their homes and 
     separated from their families; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government's war policy 
     in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the Ingessena 
     Hills has brought untold suffering to innocent civilians and 
     is threatening the very survival of a whole generation of 
     southern Sudanese; and
       Whereas, The people of the Nuba Mountains and the Ingessena 
     Hills are at particular risk, because they have been 
     specifically targeted and, as a consequence, they are 
     deliberately prevented from receiving international food aid, 
     resulting in manmade famine, and are the targets of routine 
     bombing of their civilian centers, including schools, 
     hospitals, and areas where religious services are being held; 
     and
       Whereas, The Convention for the Prevention and the 
     Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United 
     Nations General Assembly in 1948, defines ``genocide'' as 
     official acts committed by a government with the intent to 
     destroy a national, ethnic, or religious group, and this 
     definition also includes ``deliberately inflicting on the 
     group conditions of life calculated to bring about its 
     physical destruction, in whole or in part''; and
       Whereas, By that definition, the National Islamic Front 
     government is deliberately and systematically committing 
     genocide in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the 
     Ingessena Hills; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government has 
     systematically and repeatedly obstructed peace efforts of the 
     Intergovernmental Authority for Development over the past 
     several years; and
       Whereas, The Declaration of Principles put forth by the 
     Intergovernmental Authority for Development mediators is the 
     most viable negotiating framework to resolve the problems in 
     Sudan and to bring lasting peace; and
       Whereas, Humanitarian conditions in southern Sudan, 
     especially in Bahr al-Ghazal and the Nuba Mountains, 
     deteriorated in 1998, largely due to the National Islamic 
     Front government's decision to ban United Nations' relief 
     flights from February through the end of April in that year 
     and the government continues to deny access to certain 
     locations; and
       Whereas, an estimated 2,600,000 southern Sudanese have been 
     at risk of starvation in southern Sudan and the World Food 
     Program currently estimates that 4,000,000 people are in need 
     of emergency assistance; and
       Whereas, The United Nations-coordinated relief effort, 
     Operation Lifeline Sudan, failed to respond in a timely 
     manner at the height of the humanitarian crisis and has 
     allowed the National Islamic Front government to manipulate 
     and obstruct the relief efforts; and
       Whereas, The relief work in the affected areas is further 
     complicated by the National Islamic Front's repeated aerial 
     attacks on feeding centers, clinics, and other civilian 
     targets; and
       Whereas, Relief efforts are further exacerbated by looting, 
     bombing, and killing of innocent civilians and relief workers 
     by government-sponsored militias in the affected areas; and
       Whereas, these government-sponsored militias have carried 
     out violent raids in Aweil West, Twic, and Gogrial counties 
     in Bahr el Ghazal/Lakes Region, among others, killing 
     hundreds of civilians and displacing thousands; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government has 
     perpetrated a prolonged campaign of human rights abuses and 
     discimination throughot the country; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government-sponsored 
     militias have been engaged in the enslavement of innocent 
     civilians, including children, women, and the elderly; and
       Whereas, The now common slave raids being carried out by 
     the government's Popular Defense Force militias are 
     undertaken as part of the government's self-declared jihad 
     (holy war) against the predominantly traditional and 
     Christian south; and
       Whereas, According to the American Anti-Slavery Group of 
     Boston, there are tens of thousands of women and children now 
     living as chattel slaves in Sudan; and
       Whereas, These women and children were captured in slave 
     raids taking place over a decade by militia armed and 
     controlled by the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum--
     they are bought, sold, branded, and bred; and
       Whereas, The Department of State, in its report on Human 
     Rights Practices for 1997, affirmed that ``reports and 
     information from a variety of sources after February 1994 
     indicate that the number of cases of slavery, servitude, 
     slave trade, and forced labor have increased alarmingly''; 
     and
       Whereas, The enslavement of people is considered in 
     international law to be a ``crime against humanity''; and
       Whereas, Observers estimate the number of people enslaved 
     by government-sponsored militias to be in the tens of 
     thousands; and
       Whereas, Former United Nations Special Rapporteur for 
     Sudan, Gaspar Biro, and his successor, Leonardo Franco, 
     reported on a number of occasions the routine practice of 
     slavery and the complicity of the Government of Sudan; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government abuses and 
     tortures political opponents and innocent civilians in the 
     north and many northerners have been killed by this regime 
     over the years; and
       Whereas, The vast majority of Muslims in Sudan do not 
     subscribe to the National Islamic Front's extremist and 
     politicized practice of Islam and moderate Muslims have been 
     specifically targeted by the regime; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government is 
     considered by much of the world community to be a rogue state 
     because of its support for international terrorism and its 
     campaign of terrorism against its own people; and
       Whereas, According to the Department of State's Patterns of 
     Global Terrorism Report, ``Sudan's support to terrorist 
     organizations has included paramilitary training, 
     indoctrination, money, travel documentation, safe passage, 
     and refuge in Sudan''; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government has been 
     implicated in the assassination attempt of Egyptian President 
     Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995 and the World Trade Center 
     bombing in 1993; and
       Whereas, The National Islamic Front government has 
     permitted Sudan to be used by well-known terrorist 
     organizations as a refuge and training hub over the years; 
     and
       Whereas, The Saudi-born financier of extremist groups and 
     the mastermind of the United States embassy bombings in Kenya 
     and Tanzania, Osama bin-Laden, used Sudan as a base of 
     operations for several years and continues to maintain 
     economic interests there; and
       Whereas, On August 20, 1998, United States Naval forces 
     struck a suspected chemical weapons facility in Khartoum, the 
     capital of Sudan, in retaliation for the United States 
     embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam; and
       Whereas, Relations between the United States and Sudan 
     continue to deteriorate because of human rights violations, 
     the government's war policy in southern Sudan, and the 
     National Islamic Front's support for international terrorism; 
     and
       Whereas, In 1993, the United States government placed Sudan 
     on the list of seven states

[[Page S1671]]

     in the world that sponsor terrorism and imposed comprehensive 
     sanctions on the National Islamic Front government in 
     November 1997; and
       Whereas, The struggle by the people of Sudan and opposition 
     forces is a just struggle for freedom and democracy against 
     the extremist regime in Khartoum; and
       Whereas, On June 16, 1999, the United States House of 
     Representatives adopted House Concurrent Resolution 75, 
     introduced by Representative Don Payne (D-NJ), with only one 
     dissenting vote, condemning the Government of Sudan for 
     ``deliberately and systematically committing genocide''; and
       Whereas, In Congress, both the Senate and House of 
     Representatives have introduced the Sudan Peace Act, a bill 
     to facilitate famine relief efforts and a comprehensive 
     solution to the war in Sudan that would, among other specific 
     measures, condemn slavery and other human rights abuses by 
     the Government of Sudan; support the Inter-Governmental 
     Authority on Development sponsored peace process; increase 
     pressure on combatants to end slavery and human rights 
     abuses; and protect humanitarian operations, separating 
     civilians from combatants, and reducing food diversion; and
       Whereas, This act passed in the Senate by unanimous consent 
     on November 19, 1999; and
       Whereas, Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Chairman 
     of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human 
     Rights has written that, in addition to sponsoring terrorism, 
     mass murder, enslavement, and other grave crimes against its 
     own people, ``the regime has also been identified as among 
     the world's most egregious violators of the fundamental right 
     to freedom of religion''; and
       Whereas, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has stated 
     that the Sudanese regime has an ``. . . appalling human 
     rights record, including torture, religious persecution, and 
     forced imposition of sharia (Islamic) law. And it has 
     prolonged a vicious and inhumane war, not hesitating to 
     enslave, starve and bomb civilians in violation of 
     international humanitarian law''; and
       Whereas, The Los Angeles Times stated on October 23, 1999 
     that ``The Clinton Administration considers the Sudanese 
     government to be a brutal dictator and by far the worst 
     offender in an atrocity-filled regional, religious and ethnic 
     war that has claimed as many as two million lives''; and
       Whereas, The Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House, 
     a vigorous proponent of democratic values and a steadfast 
     opponent of dictatorships of the far left and far right 
     founded in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, and 
     others, declares that ``the religious and ethnic genocide now 
     occurring in Sudan has destroyed many . . .

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