[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 161 (Tuesday, November 27, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12029-S12030]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I note with some dismay that the majority 
leader now seeks to fill time, given the fact we are not proceeding 
with the debate on the stimulus package, with other matters, such as 
the railroad retirement legislation. It seems to me we have a perfect 
opportunity to do what we should be doing in this interregnum, and that 
is to consider all the President's nominees who are languishing. We 
have the time to debate these nominations and vote on them. Let's do 
it.
  Case in point: The majority leader talks about bringing up the 
railroad retirement legislation. This is the European-style, 
Government-backed occupational pension scheme. I think we would do 
better to complete the filling of the President's Cabinet.
  Mr. President, as you know, John Walters is the last Cabinet member 
awaiting confirmation.
  He is awaiting Senate confirmation to serve as Director of the Office 
of National Drug Control Policy, otherwise

[[Page S12030]]

known as the national drug czar. When did his nomination come to us 
from the President of the United States? Way back in June, over 5 
months ago. Finally, on October 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee held 
a hearing on John Walters. It lasted over 3 hours. It was very 
complete. Following the hearing, Mr. Walters answered over 100 written 
followup questions, including questions from Members who were not on 
the committee itself.
  Finally, on November 8 the committee reported out John Walters by a 
vote of 14 to 5, but we understand that his nomination cannot be 
brought up for us to debate and then vote because there are holds being 
placed on his nomination by unnamed Democratic Senators.
  I am calling upon the majority leader today to bring this nomination 
to the Senate. If there are objections to its consideration, let those 
who object stand up and voice their objection and explain to us why 
they object, even to the consideration of the nomination of an 
individual who, as I say, has been pending now for over 5 months and is 
the last person to complete the composition of the President's Cabinet.
  There is another reason to try to conclude this matter, because the 
Office of Drug Control Policy is one of the central parts of our 
Government that deals with drug trafficking around the world. Drug 
trafficking is one of the ways in which terrorists who we are fighting 
finance their terrorist activities. For the life of me, I cannot see 
how someone would stand in the way of the confirmation of a person who 
is in line to help fight this way of funding terrorism around the 
world.
  We are supposed to be pulling out all of the stops to fight 
terrorism. Apparently, it is all except for one thing, and that is 
their financing because we have some political problem with confirming 
the drug czar.
  Let me give a couple of examples. Afghanistan grossed an estimated 
$180 billion in the drug trade last year. The Taliban generates an 
estimated $50 million in annual revenue from heroin trafficking. The 
Taliban, which of course has been harboring Osama bin Laden, has 
overseen the world's greatest growth in poppy plant cultivation as well 
as heroin production and trafficking.
  According to the State Department, Afghanistan's poppy plant 
cultivation area has quadrupled since 1990. Just 2 weeks ago, the Wall 
Street Journal reported that an Italian Government official stated that 
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network is funded through 
trafficking.
  The bottom line is, if we are really going to pull out all the stops 
in fighting terrorism, we have to cut off their financing, and that 
includes their drug trafficking. One of the best ways of doing that is 
ensuring the office we have set up to do that is headed by the 
President's nomination; namely, John Walters. Yet we cannot get this 
nomination before the Senate for confirmation.
  John Walters has over 15 years of experience in drug prevention, 
beginning in the middle 1980s. He served with the Office of National 
Drug Control Policy for a total of 4 years in the 1989 to 1993 period. 
In his hearings, he made it very clear he would execute the policies of 
the President, which have been widely hailed as necessary for us not 
only to deal with the problems of drug use in the United States but to 
cut off the sources of drugs which, among other things, fund the 
terrorists. So I urge my colleagues, and I urge the majority leader, it 
is time to confirm John Walters as Director of the Office of National 
Drug Control Policy. Let us not delay this any longer. There apparently 
is no excuse in terms of time because the majority leader pointed out 
this morning we apparently have time to consider other matters. So let 
us finish the confirmation process for the President's Cabinet before 
we conclude our work in the first full year of the Bush administration. 
It seems to me that is only fair. It is good policy, and it would help 
us in fighting the war on drugs.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Clinton). The Senator from Arkansas.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator 
Helms from North Carolina and Senator Cleland from Georgia be added as 
cosponsors to S. 1278, the United States Independent Film and 
Television Production Incentive Act of 2001.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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