[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 22, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H2842-H2844]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3129, CUSTOMS BORDER SECURITY ACT
OF 2001
Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 426 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 426
Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this
resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule
XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of
the bill (H.R. 3129) to authorize appropriations for fiscal
years 2002 and 2003 for the United States Customs Service for
antiterrorism, drug interdiction, and other operations, for
the Office of the United States Trade Representative, for the
United States International Trade Commission, and for other
purposes. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed
with. All points of
[[Page H2843]]
order against consideration of the bill are waived. General
debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one
hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and
ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways and Means.
After general debate the bill shall be considered for
amendment under the five-minute rule. It shall be in order to
consider as an original bill for the purpose of amendment
under the five-minute rule the amendment in the nature of a
substitute recommended by the Committee on Ways and Means now
printed in the bill. The committee amendment in the nature of
a substitute shall be considered as read. All points of order
against the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute
are waived. No amendment to the committee amendment in the
nature of a substitute shall be in order except those printed
in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this
resolution. Each such amendment may be offered only in the
order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member
designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall
be debatable for the time specified in the report equally
divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent,
shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject
to a demand for division of the question in the House or in
the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against such
amendments are waived. At the conclusion of consideration of
the bill for amendment the Committee shall rise and report
the bill to the House with such amendments as may have been
adopted. Any Member may demand a separate vote in the House
on any amendment adopted in the Committee of the Whole to the
bill or to the committee amendment in the nature of a
substitute. The previous question shall be considered as
ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage
without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with
or without instructions.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fossella). The gentlewoman from North
Carolina (Mrs. Myrick) is recognized for 1 hour.
{time} 1130
Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings),
pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During
consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for purposes of
debate only.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Committee on Rules met and granted a
structured rule providing for consideration of the bill, H.R. 3129, the
Customs Border Security Act of 2001.
The rule waives all points of order against consideration of the
bill, and provides for 1 hour of general debate, equally divided and
controlled by the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Ways
and Means.
Finally, the rule provides for one motion to recommit, with or
without instructions.
Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 426 is an appropriate and fair rule,
and it is consistent with previous rules that our committee has
reported and the House has adopted on bills from the Committee on Ways
and Means.
This rule gives the chairman of the committee 10 minutes to debate
his manager's amendment, while it provides 60 minutes for the minority
substitute, plus the chance to offer a motion to recommit.
Mr. Speaker, the Customs Border Security Act of 2001 would authorize
the budget for the U.S. Customs Service, the International Trade
Commission, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It also
includes a number of critical new tools for fighting terrorism, drugs,
and child pornography.
H.R. 3129 will help the Customs Service close the gaps in our border
that allow illegal money to be taken out of the country. This
legislation will also significantly help the Customs Service's ability
to stop the flow of illegal drugs from crossing our borders and getting
into our children's hands.
This legislation also addresses an issue that is very important to
North Carolina, and near and dear to my heart. In the last year, 60,000
textile workers have lost their jobs, 20,000 of them in North Carolina,
and a large percentage of those in my district. The industry has done
its best through technology modernization to compete, but they have not
had a level and fair playing field in our international markets.
This bill will help fight that problem, and it will fight illegal
textile transshipments. Transshipments are illegal because some
countries ship their goods through another country illegally to avoid
the quotas, and they also give a false declaration, which allows them
to circumvent the law. Ninety percent of all illegal transshipments
originate out of China, so without extra agents to enforce these laws,
they get away with it.
H.R. 3129 provides the Customs Service with $9.5 million for
transshipment enforcement operations. These funds must be used to hire
72 new employees who will be stationed both here, at home, and abroad
to enforce our textile trade laws. Our textile workers are hurting, and
they are hurting bad, so I am pleased that the government is beginning
to take action.
H.R. 3129 also directs the Comptroller General to conduct an audit of
the system established and carried out by the Customs Service to
monitor textile transshipment. I look forward to their report, and will
be interested in their recommendation for improvements to the
transshipment monitoring system.
So to that end, I urge my colleagues to support this rule and to
support the commonsense underlying legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, as my good friend, the gentlewoman from North Carolina
(Mrs. Myrick) noted, H.R. 3129, the Customs Border Security Act of
2001, authorizes the budget for the U.S. Customs Service, the United
States Trade Representative, and the International Trade Commission.
These three agencies are vital parts of our government, as they police
our borders and promote the export of U.S. manufacturers.
The rule we are considering today allows for a Democratic substitute,
as well as a motion to recommit. I commend the majority for the
construction of today's fair rule, and I urge the majority to give
consideration for similarly fair rules in the future.
The underlying bill was originally considered by this Chamber in
December of 2001 under suspension of the rules, and it failed to gain
the two-thirds majority needed for passage. H.R. 3129 failed because
many of us on both sides of the aisle had grave concerns about the
damage this legislation does to our civil liberties, our right to
privacy, and bonus pay for Customs Service agents.
For example, under section 141 of this legislation, customs officers
are granted immunity from lawsuits stemming from personal searches of
people entering the country, so long as the officers conduct the search
in good faith. Additionally, under section 583 of this legislation,
customs officers are granted the right to stop and search at the border
without a search warrant any outbound mail being transported by the
United States Postal Service.
Last night in the Committee on Rules, the chairman of the Committee
on Ways and Means, my good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr.
Thomas), made the claim that the major sticking point in the bill last
December was the section concerning bonus pay.
Frankly, I am a bit troubled by the chairman's remarks. True, many of
us were concerned about the bonus pay provision in the initial bill.
However, it was not the gravest concern that some of us had, nor was it
the only concern that we expressed. Instead, as I said in this Chamber
last December, H.R. 3129 as written imperils some of our civil
liberties and some of our right to privacy.
The Rangel substitute offers a more balanced and fair compromise, and
I urge our colleagues to carefully consider it. It addresses all of the
concerns of our fellow legislators. The Rangel amendment, like the
Thomas amendment, includes a provision providing bonus pay to customs
agents. It includes a provision stating that the United States
government consents to be sued and be held liable for civil damages for
suits brought in connection with a wrongful personal search by a
customs agent.
The Rangel substitute also contains a provision that raises the
standard for searches of outbound mail to one of ``reasonable cause,''
as opposed to the lesser standard of ``probable cause.''
Mr. Speaker, make no mistake, my concerns for civil liberties and our
right to privacy do not blind me to the dangers of terrorism. My
district in south Florida is surrounded by 3 major ports and 3
international airports. Just this past week, it was reported by the
Coast Guard that 25 Islamic extremists
[[Page H2844]]
had snuck into this country by way of ports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale,
Savannah, and elsewhere. These individuals allegedly hid themselves in
cargo containers, and then walked away from the ports dressed as
stevedores.
This body must provide our customs agents with the tools they need to
defend our borders and wage a protracted war on terrorism. We should
not, however, give these same agents an incentive to violate our
privacy and our civil liberties, particularly when doing so will
provide us absolutely no extra security. If we allow our fears to goad
us into abandoning the Constitution, then the enemies of freedom and
democracy will have won.
Ostensibly, security measures such as the provisions of this bill I
have just discussed should be crafted in a manner to protect our
democracy. If those security measures actually end up imperiling the
democratic rights and freedoms their sponsors claim they protect, then
they should be abandoned.
I urge my colleagues to support the rule. I further urge them to
please support the Rangel substitute, and oppose the underlying bill if
the substitute is not adopted.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for bringing up the
fact that there were those 25 extremists who came in through the ports
in shipping containers. It just drives home again the need for this
bill and additional enforcement. I thank him for that.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, I yield back the
balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fossella). The question is on the
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not
present.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 386,
nays 32, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 188]
YEAS--386
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Aderholt
Akin
Allen
Andrews
Armey
Baca
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Baldacci
Baldwin
Ballenger
Barcia
Barr
Barrett
Bartlett
Barton
Bass
Bentsen
Bereuter
Berkley
Berry
Biggert
Bishop
Blagojevich
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehlert
Boehner
Bonilla
Bonior
Bono
Boozman
Borski
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brown (FL)
Brown (OH)
Brown (SC)
Bryant
Burr
Buyer
Callahan
Calvert
Camp
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Capps
Cardin
Carson (IN)
Carson (OK)
Castle
Chabot
Chambliss
Clayton
Clement
Clyburn
Coble
Collins
Combest
Condit
Conyers
Cooksey
Costello
Cox
Coyne
Cramer
Crane
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Culberson
Cummings
Cunningham
Davis (CA)
Davis (FL)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Tom
Deal
DeLauro
DeLay
DeMint
Diaz-Balart
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Dooley
Doolittle
Doyle
Dreier
Duncan
Dunn
Edwards
Ehlers
Ehrlich
Engel
English
Eshoo
Etheridge
Evans
Everett
Farr
Fattah
Ferguson
Flake
Fletcher
Foley
Forbes
Fossella
Frelinghuysen
Frost
Gallegly
Ganske
Gekas
Gephardt
Gibbons
Gilchrest
Gillmor
Gilman
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Goss
Graham
Granger
Graves
Green (TX)
Green (WI)
Greenwood
Grucci
Gutierrez
Gutknecht
Hall (TX)
Hansen
Harman
Hart
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Hayworth
Hefley
Herger
Hill
Hilleary
Hilliard
Hinojosa
Hobson
Hoeffel
Hoekstra
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Horn
Hostettler
Houghton
Hoyer
Hulshof
Hunter
Hyde
Inslee
Isakson
Israel
Issa
Istook
Jackson (IL)
Jefferson
Jenkins
John
Johnson (CT)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Keller
Kelly
Kennedy (MN)
Kennedy (RI)
Kerns
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind (WI)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kleczka
Knollenberg
Kolbe
LaFalce
LaHood
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Leach
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lofgren
Lowey
Lucas (KY)
Lucas (OK)
Luther
Lynch
Maloney (CT)
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (MO)
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McCrery
McGovern
McHugh
McInnis
McIntyre
McKeon
McNulty
Meeks (NY)
Menendez
Mica
Millender-McDonald
Miller, Dan
Miller, Gary
Miller, Jeff
Mink
Mollohan
Moore
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Morella
Murtha
Myrick
Nadler
Napolitano
Nethercutt
Ney
Northup
Norwood
Nussle
Oberstar
Ortiz
Osborne
Ose
Otter
Owens
Oxley
Pallone
Pascrell
Paul
Pelosi
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Petri
Phelps
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Pombo
Pomeroy
Portman
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Quinn
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reyes
Reynolds
Rivers
Rodriguez
Roemer
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothman
Roukema
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Ryun (KS)
Sanchez
Sanders
Sandlin
Sawyer
Saxton
Schiff
Schrock
Scott
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Shadegg
Shaw
Shays
Sherman
Sherwood
Shimkus
Shows
Shuster
Simmons
Simpson
Skeen
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (MI)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Souder
Spratt
Stark
Stearns
Stenholm
Strickland
Stump
Sullivan
Sununu
Sweeney
Tancredo
Tanner
Tauscher
Tauzin
Taylor (MS)
Taylor (NC)
Terry
Thomas
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Thune
Thurman
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Toomey
Towns
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Velazquez
Visclosky
Vitter
Walden
Walsh
Wamp
Watkins (OK)
Watson (CA)
Waxman
Weiner
Weldon (FL)
Weldon (PA)
Weller
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NAYS--32
Becerra
Bilirakis
Capuano
Clay
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
Filner
Ford
Frank
Hinchey
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jones (OH)
Kucinich
Lee
Lewis (GA)
Markey
McDermott
Meehan
Miller, George
Neal
Obey
Olver
Pastor
Payne
Rangel
Sabo
Schakowsky
Stupak
Tierney
Waters
Watt (NC)
NOT VOTING--16
Berman
Burton
Deutsch
Emerson
Hall (OH)
Linder
Mascara
McKinney
Meek (FL)
Peterson (PA)
Riley
Schaffer
Snyder
Solis
Traficant
Watts (OK)
{time} 1203
Ms. LEE, and Messrs. FORD, WATT of North Carolina and MEEHAN, Mrs.
JONES of Ohio and Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas changed their vote from
``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mr. GILLMOR and Mr. TOWNS changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated against:
Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote No. 188 on H. Res. 426,
rule providing consideration of H.R. 3129, I was unavoidably detained.
Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''
____________________