[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 74 (Wednesday, June 14, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5063-S5064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SANCTIONS ON FOOD AND MEDICINE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, while we are waiting for the managers of 
the Defense authorization bill to continue--I understand they are 
trying to work out some arrangements on the bill itself--I wanted to 
make a couple of comments about an issue I intend to raise as an 
amendment on the Defense authorization bill. At the risk of being 
repetitious, which I think is probably advantageous in this Chamber, I 
want to speak again about the issue of using sanctions that are now 
being employed by the United States of America on the sale or shipment 
of food and medicine to other countries. Those sanctions are wrong. We 
ought not use sanctions on the shipment of food and medicine to other 
countries. Yet we are, so far, unable to repeal sanctions on the 
shipment of food and medicine.
  We almost got it repealed last year. Seventy Senators voted to repeal 
the use of sanctions by the United States on the shipment of food and 
medicine to other countries--70 Senators voted for that--but we went 
into a conference and we were hijacked, literally legislatively 
hijacked by the Members of the House. So we still have sanctions on the 
shipment of food and medicine to many parts of the world.
  I also have included this year in the Agriculture appropriations 
bill, a repeal of the use of sanctions for food and medicine shipments. 
That appropriations bill will come to the floor of the Senate at some 
point. But I understand, procedurally, the legislative leaders can 
hijack it once again with a number of parliamentary approaches. I may 
very well be in a situation where I, Senator Gorton, who cosponsored 
the bill in the Appropriations Committee, Senator Ashcroft, and others, 
would have a wide majority of Senators and Representatives who believe 
the sanctions that exist on the shipment of food and medicine to other 
countries in the world should be repealed. But despite the fact we 
perhaps have 60, 70, or 80 percent of the entire Congress who believe 
that, we have been unable to get it done. For that reason, I intend to 
offer it as an amendment on the Defense authorization bill.
  Let me describe just a bit what this issue is. First of all, this is 
very unfair to America's family farmers. I represent a farm State. Our 
family farmers are told you should have the freedom to farm. That is 
the title of the farm bill we have--Freedom to Farm. That all sounds 
good except farmers don't have the freedom to sell. Our farmers raise 
grain and they can't sell it in Cuba, they by and large haven't been 
able to sell it in Iran, they can't sell it in Libya, Iraq, Sudan, 
North Korea--why? Because we believe these countries are operating 
outside the international norms. We don't like these countries. We 
don't like what Cuba does. We don't like the behavior of Libya or Iraq 
or North Korea. So we say we are going to have a set of sanctions to 
penalize these countries--economic sanctions. That is fine with me. I 
am all for creating economic sanctions to try to hurt Saddam Hussein.
  But I would say this: Everybody in this Chamber knows when you take

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aim at a dictator by imposing sanctions on food and medicine, you aim 
at the dictator and you hurt hungry people; you aim at a dictator and 
you hurt sick people; you aim at a dictator and you hurt poor people. 
It is true in every one of these countries. Sanctions are fine, but we 
ought never include sanctions on the shipment of food and medicine.
  This country needs to understand that and learn that. The legislation 
I have introduced with my colleagues, Senator Gorton from the State of 
Washington, Senator Ashcroft, Senator Dodd, and others, is very simple. 
It says all current sanctions on the shipment of food and medicine 
shall be abolished within 180 days--gone. This country will not use 
food and medicine as a weapon.
  Second, no President will be able to impose sanctions on the shipment 
of food and medicine unless he comes to the Congress and gets an 
affirmative vote by the Congress to do so. In other words, this ends 
the sanctions on the shipment of food and medicine.

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
  Mr. DORGAN. Of course, I am happy to yield.
  Mr. WARNER. This is a subject in which I have been heavily involved, 
as have others. Senator Dodd and I on repeated occasions have put 
legislation up, I presume comparable to what the Senator has in mind. I 
clearly associate myself with the Senate's goals.
  As a matter of fact, on the authorization bill for the Department of 
Defense, there is a Warner-Dodd amendment which asks for the 
appointment of a commission, to be appointed by President Clinton, 
drawing on nominees from not only the President but the majority, the 
Democratic leader, and others in the Congress, to begin to focus on a 
broad range of policy considerations with regard to the relationship 
between the United States and Cuba. So I am highly supportive. I have 
listened to the Senator enumerate a few Senators, and with a lack of 
humility I ask my name be included among those who strongly support, as 
I have now for 2 years, with Senator Dodd and others, the lifting of 
particulars. If we are to make any inroads on the Government in Cuba, 
it has to be done people to people. What better way than food and 
medicine because if there is anything that does not have the taint of 
politics, it should be food and medicine. So I commend my colleague.
  Mr. DORGAN. The Senator from Virginia, of course, has been involved 
in this issue. I certainly agree the embargo has not worked. I mean, 40 
years of embargo with respect to Cuba, speaking only now of Cuba, ought 
to tell us that when a policy doesn't work, you should change the 
policy--especially that portion of the policy that deals with food and 
medicine. It is immoral, in my judgment, for this country to use food 
as a weapon. It is not only unfair to our farmers--I have talked about 
that at some length-- It is unfair to say to farmers we have the 
freedom to farm but not the freedom to sell. But it is immoral for this 
country to use food as a weapon. I want to change it.
  The Senator from Virginia described the support for this. I don't 
know if he heard me say I intend to offer it as an amendment on the 
Defense authorization bill. That will not be deemed a great pleasure by 
the Senator from Virginia, I am sure, but the only opportunity I have 
to get this done is to put it in legislation that is going to go to the 
President.
  The legislative leaders have the opportunity in the appropriations 
process to strip this from the appropriations bill. They did it last 
year and they are going to do it this year. This year I am not going to 
sit back and say: That's fine; we do all this work and we get rid of 
the food and medicine sanctions in appropriations, only to have you 
hijack it in conference or with some parliamentary procedure, and at 
the end of the day this country still prevents the sale of food and 
medicine to the poor people in Cuba and Iraq and Libya. That is not 
something I am willing to accept. It is not going to happen anymore.
  I mentioned previously I sat in a hospital in Havana, Cuba, last year 
when I visited Havana--sat in a hospital in an intensive care room and 
watched a 12-year-old boy in a coma. His mother, at a bedside vigil, 
was holding this boy's hand--and in an intensive care room--there was 
no beeping going on because there was no machinery or equipment there. 
This hospital had no equipment for a young boy in a coma in intensive 
care. The doctor at that hospital said, ``We are out of 250 different 
kinds of medicine; we don't have it. We are just out of it.''
  And our country says we cannot move medicine to Cuba? We cannot sell 
medicine to Cuba? We can't sell food to Cuba? It doesn't make any sense 
to me.
  I have been to many of the poor countries around the world. I do not 
want to be a part of a government that says we want to continue to use 
food as a weapon; we want to continue to use food and medicine as 
weapons. That is fundamentally wrong. It is a wrongheaded public 
policy.
  Again, I say to the Senator from Virginia, I do not think he heard 
me. He has been a strong supporter of these issues. I have great 
respect for him. He will not be pleased that I intend to offer this as 
an amendment to the Defense authorization bill at some point. I feel I 
must do that because it is the only way we will get it done. The 
legislative leaders intend to strip this out of the appropriations 
process. The only opportunity for the Members of the House and Senate 
to express their will is to put this in a bill that is going to be 
signed by the President.
  Do I understand the managers wish to do some business?
  Mr. REID. If the Senator will be kind enough to withhold, without 
losing his right to the floor, we have a unanimous consent agreement we 
would like to have entered.

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