[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 115 (Thursday, September 6, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9181-S9182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       EXPORT ADMINISTRATION ACT

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, what I would like to do is take some time, 
because I did not have an opportunity just before the vote, to thank 
all the people who worked on and participated in this bill that we have 
just completed, and that includes the people who are both for the bill 
and against the bill. Everybody made a contribution on this one.
  As I mentioned before, all 100 Senators are interested in national 
security--deeply interested, deathly interested in national security. 
That has been demonstrated by the work that has been put in on this 
bill. They are also extremely interested that the economy of the 
country advance. We just passed a bill that will allow both of those 
things to happen, and happen safely.
  We have been without the kind of a bill that we have needed for a 
long period of time. We just passed one that is considerably better 
than what we had in place, and is even better than the 1979 act when it 
was extended. So we are in a position now where we can go, with some 
real credibility, to the House side to ask them to move the bill 
forward and to join with the White House in getting this passed 
quickly, as the White House asked. And, of course, we will be asking 
for all the people who have an interest in this bill to also help work 
on the House side. We know they will take quick action and that we will 
get this huge problem to the United States solved.
  I would like to particularly thank those people who have worked 
closely on the bill. I will start with Senator Gramm, who allowed me to 
be the subcommittee chairman and get this assignment.
  I have to tell you, when I first got the assignment, I thought, this 
has failed about 12 times so I assume this is one of those tasks that 
freshman Senators get. I didn't expect much to happen on it, but we 
began the process of learning about it, and the Cox commission report 
came out. Of course, it was just a secret report at first, but it still 
got publicity that brought to the attention of the American people the 
problem of secrets being stolen from the United States.
  That raised the level of this bill so that I and Senator Johnson of 
South Dakota could work through our subcommittee to really find out 
what was happening with it, to see how those things in the Cox 
commission and other reports, as they came out, fit into this bill. We 
put them into that bill, worked together to find solutions, met--
``interminably'' might not be the right word, but it feels like the 
right word sometimes--with a number of groups and anybody who was 
interested in the bill and worked hard to heighten the interest of 
those people in the bill.
  Fortunately, Senator Johnson and I got to work under the direction of 
Senator Gramm and Senator Sarbanes, two vastly different personalities 
with different ways of working. I have to say that working under those 
two people on any piece of legislation is an education. They are very 
considerate in everything they do. They both study it to a very deep 
knowledge. They ask penetrating questions, and they have that ability 
and sense of when to move forward and when to hold back. Particularly 
when you have the combination of Senator Sarbanes and Senator Gramm, 
you have these two personalities that cover all aspects of the spectrum 
of dealing with people.
  Of course, with both of them, you have vast years of knowledge of 
doing this kind of work, which is different than any other job I think 
anybody can have.
  They recognize the ways to work with people and the mechanisms to do 
it and have just been tremendous in guidance as we have gone through 
this.
  I would be real remiss if I did not place some special thanks on all 
of the staff people who worked on this. Again, staff do a lot of the 
preparation, a lot of the study. They do meetings among themselves and 
then bring the results of those meetings to us for resolution. There 
were some real experts involved in this, people who really know how to 
network. And I would be surprised if there has been any other bill that 
had the kind of trust between staff and between Senators that this bill 
has had.
  We worked on it for a long time. Of course, that built up the trust 
as we slowly got to the point where we had a draft to put through.
  During that time, we did find out that it was an issue that affected 
everybody in the country. So then, of course, it affects both sides of 
the aisle. This is one of those examples of bipartisan effort. It 
results in a bipartisan vote and gives us some real strength as we 
continue this process.
  Again, I thank my fellow Senator, Mr. Johnson, for his efforts on 
this bill and all of the different presentations we had to give over 
the course of time to different groups as we got them to buy in. 
Everybody had to come to the middle on this one because previous 
efforts had gone too far in one direction or the other. As a result, it 
picked up a majority in opposition.
  One thing about passing a bill is that to pass it, you have to get it 
through all of the different steps. A ``no'' vote at any one of those 
steps kind of stops it dead in its tracks and sends you back to ground 
zero.

  We are at the halfway point on this one now. We have gotten it 
through several votes successfully. It is much easier sometimes to 
create confusion and pick up the votes on the other side. I appreciate 
the Senators who helped to promote and to clarify this. Again, the 
clarification came from both sides.
  Senator Thompson and Senator Kyl particularly are to be congratulated 
for their tenacity at bringing up different points. You will find on 
the list of meetings that we put in that a lot of those meetings were 
with those two individuals. And as I mentioned numerous times, we put 
in 59 changes. One of the biggest changes, of course, is the override 
that the President has. We gave a trump to the President on everything 
in the bill.
  We put in some new sections, and we said that the President has the 
right to set those aside in specific instances. It makes a huge 
difference in how this bill will work. It really will allow the limited 
resources that we have--and we are increasing those resources, but they 
are still limited--to concentrate on the worst situations and to make 
them better. That is what we are trying to achieve with the bill.
  I would also like to thank the Majority Leader, Senator Daschle, for 
his strong support and willingness to bring the bill to the floor for 
debate. Senator Reid was also instrumental in negotiating the bill to 
the floor for debate. His support and guidance was very much 
appreciated.
  Again, I thank everybody who worked on the bill. I particularly 
appreciate all of the hours Senator Sarbanes has spent on the floor 
this week, not only in debate, in clarifying things, which showed his 
vast depth of knowledge of the bill, but particularly with the 
administrative work he did as he helped to get people together who 
needed to talk about different parts of this bill. His steady hand 
certainly played a big role in the kind of vote we received.
  I again thank everybody who worked on the bill and congratulate 
everybody who worked on the bill. That is both those who were for and 
those who were against. We will see everybody on the House side.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we are in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. DORGAN. Will the Senator from Kentucky yield for a unanimous 
consent request?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I yield for that purpose.

[[Page S9182]]

  Mr. DORGAN. I understand the Senator from Kentucky and the Senator 
from California, Mrs. Feinstein, are going to seek recognition. I ask 
unanimous consent that I be recognized in morning business for 15 
minutes following their presentation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The 
Senator from Kentucky.
  (The remarks of Mr. McCONNELL and Mrs. FEINSTEIN pertaining to the 
introduction of S. 1409 are located in today's Record under 
``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield for a brief statement?
  Mr. DORGAN. Of course, I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Daschle, there will be 
no more votes tonight. The majority leader indicated in the morning he 
is going to move forward on some legislation. It is not for sure what 
it is. We are hopeful we will move to an appropriations bill. Senator 
Daschle has an important meeting tonight to see if that can be done. 
Senator Daschle asked I advise everyone there is a possibility of votes 
in the morning. Everyone should be prepared in that regard. There will 
be no more votes tonight.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.

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