[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 19, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5767-S5793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will resume consideration of S. 
2400, which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2400) to authorize appropriations for fiscal 
     year 2005 for military activities of the Department of 
     Defense, for military construction, and for defense 
     activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe 
     personnel strengths for such fiscal year for the Armed 
     Services, and for other purposes.

  Pending:

       Lautenberg amendment No. 3151, to clarify the application 
     of Presidential action under the International Emergency 
     Economic Powers Act.

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, my understanding is that the pending 
business is the Lautenberg amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. WARNER. At this time, Mr. President, my colleague from Arizona is 
seeking recognition.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.


                Amendment No. 3191 to Amendment No. 3151

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 3191, which is at the 
desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Arizona [Mr. Kyl], for himself and Mr. 
     Cornyn, proposes an amendment numbered 3191 to amendment 
     numbered 3151.


[[Page S5768]]


  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading 
of the amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of 
Amendments.'')
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I pose an inquiry. I am prepared to discuss 
this amendment and move forward with it. I was advised that possibly 
the Senator from West Virginia wishes to use this time to make some 
remarks. I say to the Senator, if he wishes to do that, I would be 
happy to defer.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, that is correct. I thank the Senator from 
Arizona. It is my understanding that our distinguished Senator from 
West Virginia desires to address the Senate, in which case the pending 
business is the amendment in the second degree, and we will return to 
that.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, may I direct a question through the Chair to 
the chairman of the committee. Senator Lautenberg wishes to modify his 
amendment, which doesn't take unanimous consent. Can we get that out of 
the way?
  Mr. WARNER. Absolutely.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey is recognized.


                    Amendment No. 3151, As Modified

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I send a modification to my original 
amendment to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment is so modified.
  The amendment, as modified, is as follows:

       On page 184, between lines 16 and 17, insert the following:

          Subtitle F--Provisions Relating To Certain Sanctions

     SEC. 856. CLARIFICATION OF CERTAIN SANCTIONS.

       (a) Clarification of Certain Actions Under IEEPA.--In any 
     case in which the President takes action under the 
     International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 
     et seq.) to prohibit a United States person from engaging in 
     transactions with a foreign country, where a determination 
     has been made by the Secretary of State that the government 
     of that country has repeatedly provided support for acts of 
     international terrorism, such action shall apply to any 
     foreign subsidiaries or affiliate, including any permanent 
     foreign establishment of that United States person, that is 
     controlled in fact by that United States person.
       (b) Definitions.--In this section:
       (1) Controlled in fact.--The term ``controlled in fact'' 
     means--
       (A) in the case of a corporation, holds at least 50 percent 
     (by vote or value) of the capital structure of the 
     corporation; and
       (B) in the case of any other kind of legal entity, holds 
     interests representing at least 50 percent of the capital 
     structure of the entity.
       (2) United states person.--The term ``United States 
     person'' means any United States citizen, permanent resident 
     alien, entity organized under the law of the United States 
     (including foreign branches) or any person in the United 
     States.
       (c) Applicability.--
       (1) In general.--In any case in which the President has 
     taken action under the International Emergency Economic 
     Powers Act and such action is in effect on the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the provisions of subsection (a) shall 
     not apply to a United States person (or other person) if such 
     person divests or terminates its business with the government 
     or person identified by such action within 90 days after the 
     date of enactment of this Act.
       (2) Actions after date of enactment.--In any case in which 
     the President takes action under the International Emergency 
     Economic Powers Act on or after the date of enactment of this 
     Act, the provisions of subsection (a) shall not apply to a 
     United States person (or other person) if such person divests 
     or terminates its business with the government or person 
     identified by such action within 90 days after the date of 
     such action.

      SEC. 857 NOTIFICATION OF CONGRESS OF TERMINATION OF 
                   INVESTIGATION BY OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS 
                   CONTROL.

       (a) Notification Requirement.--The Office of Federal 
     Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403 et seq.) is amended by 
     adding at the end the following new section:

``Sec. 42. Notification of Congress of termination of investigation by 
              Office of Foreign Assets Control.''.

       ``The Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control 
     shall notify Congress upon the termination of any 
     investigation by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the 
     Department of the Treasury if any sanction is imposed by the 
     Director of such office as a result of the investigation.''.

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at the 
conclusion of Senator Byrd's remarks, I be recognized to get back on my 
amendment. Also, I inquire of the Senator approximately how long he 
wishes to take.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, in response to the distinguished Senator 
from Arizona, I expect to take 15 to 18 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from West Virginia is recognized.


                Commending the Armed Services Committee

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank all Senators for their courtesies. I 
especially want to take this moment to thank the chairman of the Senate 
Armed Services Committee and the ranking member for the splendid 
hearings they have been conducting.
  I have never sat on a committee through such a series of hearings 
that have been so well ordered and so well chaired by both Members, the 
distinguished Senator from Virginia and the distinguished Senator from 
Michigan, as I have experienced in these few days as this committee has 
been conducting its hearings into the serious matters that have 
confronted us in the Middle East. I just want to take this occasion to 
say I could never ask for a chairman to be more fair, more just, more 
reasonable than the Senator from Virginia.
  I marvel at his equanimity, at his good nature. He is always, always 
a man of good will. I count it a great privilege to serve on his 
committee.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank our distinguished colleague. 
Senator Levin and I have had 26 years on that committee, and we work 
side by side for the highest degree of bipartisanship achievable.
  I want to say to all members of the committee--and the distinguished 
Senator from West Virginia knows this--this is the third hearing, and 
it has been 100-percent attendance, except for one individual who is 
out of town, in each of the hearings, showing the intensity of the 
subject, the solemnity of the proceeding. I believe all members of our 
committee, both sides, comported themselves in the finest traditions of 
the Senate, given the seriousness of this problem. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. LEVIN. If the Senator will yield for a thank-you from me for his 
nice comments.
  Mr. BYRD. Yes.
  Mr. LEVIN. As always, the Senator from Virginia shares the kudos 
which properly belong to him. I am grateful to the Senator from West 
Virginia for bringing to the attention of this body the extraordinary 
chairman we have on the Armed Services Committee.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator. I have 
said along this line that it was a great pleasure serving on this 
committee with Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia. I thought he was a great 
chairman. He was. When he left the committee, I felt it would certainly 
be a long time before his shoes and his chair would be as well filled 
as one could hope.
  I find that the distinguished Senator from Michigan has done a 
splendid job. He handles himself preeminently well on television, and 
he approaches each problem on the committee in a very studious fashion. 
When he reads a bill, one can say that bill has been read. When he 
writes a bill, one can say it has been written well--every period, 
comma, semicolon, colon, en dash, em dash, whatever it is. He would 
have gone over it thoroughly. I thank him. He has certainly stepped 
into the shoes of Sam Nunn very ably. I have every confidence in him.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we wish to restore the time the Senator 
asked for, but I want to say I share that about Senator Levin. Senator 
Levin and I and Senator Nunn were taught by some of the greatest 
teachers in the Senate, foremost the Senator from West Virginia, Mr. 
Byrd, John Stennis, John Tower, Barry Goldwater, and Scoop Jackson.
  As I look back on my quarter of a century in the Senate, those were 
the teachers who set the course and speed of that committee, and the 
Senator from Michigan and I do our best to do that with the help of the 
Senator from West Virginia. We thank the Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank the Senator. Among those giants who walked these 
halls, may I add one name: the name of the illustrious Richard Brevard 
Russell of Winder, GA, who was chairman of that committee when I first 
came to the Senate.

[[Page S5769]]

               Securing Our Energy Future: A New Strategy

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, on another matter, a perfect storm has been 
brewing. Americans have already felt the leading edge of the 
approaching squalls. Today, we are more dependent upon imported oil 
than ever before. More than 54 percent of the oil that Americans 
consume comes from foreign countries, especially OPEC-producing 
nations. Instead of striving to disentangle ourselves from this foreign 
oil dependency, the Bush administration seems intent on sinking our 
military and energy fortunes deeper and deeper into the sands of the 
Middle East.
  Last week, gas prices in many regions of West Virginia were above $2 
per gallon. Within days, these prices could easily exceed the $2 per 
gallon average nationwide. The price of natural gas is at a historic 
high, and consumers and manufacturers in West Virginia and across the 
country are struggling to pay their bills. Though some advocate 
reducing this pressure by importing liquified natural gas in the 
future, we must also recognize that this will create a new and growing 
resource dependency. It is hard to believe that the energy and foreign 
policy decisions made in places elsewhere in the world are having such 
a dramatic impact on the lives and pocketbooks of our citizens, but 
that is today's reality.
  Another aspect of that gathering storm is the poor state of our 
electricity grid, the lifeline of our economy. However, decade-long 
efforts to deregulate electricity markets have, in some cases, led to 
market manipulation and fracturing rather than producing a more 
integrated, reliable system. Given the blackout last summer, few 
observers would doubt that our electric transmission system needs to be 
made more robust. Furthermore, economic and environmental regulations 
governing energy production and use are often in conflict with our 
disjointed energy policies. Continued uncertainties make investment 
decisions difficult and clearly demonstrate that these ongoing debates 
must be resolved. Due to the lack of political will, special interest 
entrenchment, and other constraints, policymakers have been unable to 
untangle this Gordian knot.
  These concerns are central to the long-term interests of our Nation, 
and they represent very ominous clouds on the horizon. Sadly, our 
energy problems are being addressed with Band-Aid solutions. In recent 
years, we have witnessed attempts to put a moratorium on Federal gas 
taxes, to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and to make secretive 
deals with Saudi Arabia to produce more oil. We have unnecessarily 
endeavored to treat the symptoms and not the core problem for far too 
long. Instead, our Nation needs to begin defining alternative pathways 
and new approaches that go beyond the extremist debates and simplistic 
solutions that define our very demanding energy and environmental 
challenges.
  Three years ago this week, the Bush administration released the 
National Energy Policy report. Unfortunately, Americans have yet to 
receive the benefits that this energy plan promised to provide. Given 
the plan's 3 year anniversary, I am announcing that I, along with other 
Senators, have asked the General Accounting Office to undertake a broad 
and comprehensive review of the Federal Government's energy funding, 
policies, and overall goals to determine whether the U.S. does, in 
fact, have strategic plan in place.
  The U.S. is without a serious energy policy, and no energy bill 
currently before this Congress can adequately rectify that problem. The 
U.S. faces the simultaneous challenges of an expanding energy appetite, 
a need to reduce its dependence on imported resources, and a decreasing 
tolerance for environmental impacts. Sadly, policymakers have time and 
time again failed to craft a comprehensive approach--a failure which 
continues to jeopardize our Nation's security, economic health, and 
environment. Too much is at stake to continue to ignore these looming 
problems.
  America's energy policies have been driven primarily by a reaction to 
supply shortages and crises. The energy policy approaches of numerous 
administrations are littered with false starts and abrupt shifts--
lurching first in one direction then in another. When it comes to 
securing America's energy future, the Bush White House is stuck in 
short-sighted, high-risk initiatives which seem largely guided by big 
dollar campaign contributors. Despite its rhetoric, this White House's 
lipservice and corporate coddling have been the sum total of its energy 
policy. It began with the Vice President's national energy policy task 
force and concluded with the exclusion of Democrats from the energy 
conference. As a result, the Bush administration appears to see energy 
policy as a way to reward its friends while sidestepping the serious, 
lingering challenges that face this country and, in fact, the world.
  In spite of our Nation's herky-jerky responses to energy policy, 
there have been some successful energy policy initiatives. Surely, the 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act, 
and the clean coal technology program have proved invaluable. However, 
for the most part, there has been little foresight, no coherent 
framework, and no clear objectives on which to base future decisions. 
The Nation needs a long-term energy plan that includes criteria and 
benchmarks by which to measure progress. In short, it requires a more 
integrated, cohesive roadmap.
  Now is the time for the cornerstones of our Nation's energy strategy 
to be solidly established. Opportunities exist for entrenched parties 
to come together on a more comprehensive and cohesive approach. This 
approach must integrate four fundamental principles: Diversity of 
energy sources to protect our Nation's security; fiscal soundness to 
ensure stakeholder support and increase economic growth; consumer 
protections to guard against fraud and manipulation; and safeguards to 
minimize energy's environmental footprint.
  A serious energy efficiency program, bolstered by the promotion of 
renewable energy and other clean home-grown energy sources, provides a 
compass point for a U.S. energy strategy. At its core, we must rely on 
our Nation's domestic energy assets, especially coal. Coal must become 
a primary fuel source for new energy demands into the 21st century. 
However, to do so requires that we think differently about coal. We 
must accelerate the deployment of commercial-scale technologies that 
move us away from simply burning coal toward the enhanced ability to 
transform coal into a variety of energy products. We can begin to meet 
this challenge by deploying advanced power generation and carbon 
sequestration technologies as well as by producing hydrogen and 
synthetic fuels for use in other sectors of the economy. Parallel 
efforts must also be initiated to resolve the outstanding environmental 
and regulatory issues attendant to coal production and reclamation. 
This broad approach also requires sending strong and clear regulatory 
and market signals which can significantly reconcile numerous 
environmental and climate change concerns, stimulate technology 
deployment, and set the stage for a renewed era for coal.
  Furthermore, our Nation must recognize the incredible impact that 
U.S. technologies and ideas can have in helping to meet other nations' 
energy needs in a more sustainable way. We must work to open and expand 
international markets for a range of U.S. clean energy technologies and 
simultaneously address global energy security, economic, trade, and 
environmental objectives.
  The path that I am proposing here today goes far beyond the so-called 
comprehensive energy legislation currently before us. Pursuing this 
course will take steadfast leadership, hard work, and American 
ingenuity to move forward in a responsible, balanced, and intelligent 
way. It is time for industry, labor, academic, environmental, and 
community interests to work with policymakers to find common ground. 
Commonsense market-based and regulatory approaches, emerging technology 
platforms, and new policy perspectives can bring these divergent groups 
together. By doing so, we can champion a new energy and environmental 
legacy that will benefit all the world's citizens.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.

[[Page S5770]]

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the distinguished ranking member, Senator 
Levin, and myself, together with Senator Lautenberg and Senator Kyl, 
are endeavoring to structure a program for the next 2 or 3 hours, 
hopefully.
  In the meantime, our distinguished colleague, the Senator from New 
Mexico, would like to respond to some earlier remarks made in the 
Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, first, I thank the chairman for 
accommodating me and I thank the Senate for listening for a few 
minutes.
  I was not here in person when Senator Byrd spoke about the need for 
an energy policy but I heard most of it. I will share with the Senate 
the reality of the energy problem in the United States.
  I heard the distinguished Senator from West Virginia speak about 
issues such as electricity, the blackout that occurred, the shortage of 
crude oil that we have to import, natural gas problems, and all of 
those kinds of issues. I suggest it is wonderful to have somebody come 
to the Senate, especially from that side of the aisle, and talk about 
these problems and the need to do something about it, because the truth 
is, they have prevented the Senate from doing it. The very things he 
spoke of are in one or the other of the Energy bills we have put before 
the Senate and been denied. Most of the time the denial was because 
very few Democrats would support it.
  So we did not get alternative fuels, so we did not get a fix to 
electricity blackout potential, we did not get a bill that produces 
huge quantities of American natural gas, we did not get a bill that 
fixed electricity so we would not have blackouts--on and on and on, all 
the issues and more that were spoken of by the distinguished Senator 
Byrd.
  To talk about the fact that our country needs them or that the 
President did not do them is to forget, in a short period of time--it 
did not take long to forget--that all of these proposals have been 
voted down by the Democrats in this Senate.
  Maybe there were other things in the bill they did not like, but I 
have never had anyone propose that if we change this and added that 
from that side of the aisle we could get a major energy bill. All we 
have heard is a filibuster and a vote against it.
  One time they claimed there was a provision that was onerous to them 
and we got 58 votes and lost a filibuster. We removed that provision 
which they said was onerous. We then tried the bill without it.
  And let's go again on the issues: huge production of American natural 
gas, some quick, some over time; a fix to the blackout problem; 
incentives for the electric grid to grow and prosper; incentives so we 
will have wind, which is right on the verge of becoming a major 
source--wind electricity--solar energy; and on and on. There are 
incentives for all those.

  When you add them up, it was a comprehensive bill that fixed what was 
broken, added things we needed, and ultimately said to the world: 
America is ready to do something. They have finally stood up. And where 
there are no solutions, they did not find them. Anybody who thinks we 
could have a solution to produce more crude oil, step up. The only way 
we know is to tell Americans to use small cars. That would save 
gasoline. We tried it. The Senate is not for it. The House is not for 
it. I tried it in crowds. People are not for it. So that is the only 
one. It is out of the way.
  So what can we do? We have to take care of the other energy sources. 
We have to make sure we do not get natural gas dependent, which we are 
about to be. We should tell the world we have alternatives to produce 
electricity. And we do, if we pass one of these bills. The problem is 
not that the President took too long, not that the President did not 
send us a proposal or that he did something in secret. We did our bill 
in public. So regardless of what you claim about him, we had an energy 
bill. We have an energy bill. As a matter of fact, I will offer it 
again before this session is out.
  I understand somebody wants to put energy on this Armed Services 
authorization bill. Have at it. We will let you vote on the Energy bill 
at the same time. We will let you do that, and we will stand up and 
say: Are you ready or do you want to talk? Do you want to increase 
natural gas or do you want to blame somebody? Do you want to increase 
wind energy in America or do you want to complain?
  I understand somebody around here wants to offer an amendment that we 
ought to fix this oil problem with the SPR, Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve. I was talking about that with my staff--and I would not do 
this, at least as of now--but I am thinking about it.
  I say to the Senator, Jon, what we ought to do is we ought to offer 
an amendment, when they offer that, and say that we want bin Laden to 
turn himself in; a resolution: We resolve that--after this, that, and 
the other--he ought to turn himself in to America. Why would I do that? 
Because that is about as apt to happen as we are apt to save anything 
on the price of gasoline with an amendment that says: Use SPR. We tried 
it once. It saved 1 cent.
  It is there because we are in jeopardy. If somebody has a major 
explosion, a terrorist action, we need that SPR to take care of us. 
That is what it is for. That is why it ought to stay there. That is why 
it ought to be filled.
  So if I sound like I am concerned, I am, because I get tired of 
people saying we need an energy policy and then voting against the very 
things they talk about.
  I understand some Senators are opposed to specific pieces. We are 
open minded and ready to talk. If there are people who say, the way to 
get what we are talking about and complaining about is this, that, and 
the other, we listen. But until they have one, we want to continue to 
ask them to vote for an energy bill that is almost the same as their 
rhetoric, that almost does as much as their rhetoric asks for.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
  Mr. DOMENICI. Every time this comes up, I will come down here and go 
through this laundry list, and ask them where they have been.
  I will be glad to yield.
  Mr. INHOFE. Is the Senator aware in the committee that I chair, the 
Environment and Public Works Committee, we have held several hearings: 
one on natural gas and the prices being spiked, one on fuel that we 
burn in our automobiles. We have had witnesses who have documented that 
we have two primary causes. One is all of these unreasonable 
environmental regulations these refiners are exposed to, and it 
directly relates to the cost of energy in this case. And the other is 
the Energy bill.

  I say to the Senator, as you point out, we had a good energy bill. 
The House has a good energy bill. In that energy bill we had the 
ability to drill for oil in places where we cannot right now that would 
open up ANWR. If you look at the production in States, such as my State 
of Oklahoma and your State of New Mexico, the marginal wells--those are 
wells that produce 15 barrels a day or less--the statistic has never 
been refuted that if we had all of the marginal wells that have been 
plugged in the last 10 years flowing today, that would equal more than 
we are currently importing from Saudi Arabia.
  So we have a solution to the problem. With all those people crying 
about the high prices, those are the major reasons we have high prices. 
I say to the Senator, you are right, we are going to have to have an 
energy bill to correct this situation. Do you agree?
  Mr. DOMENICI. I agree.
  I thank the Senator for his comments.
  Let me say again, for purposes of discussion, I think we ought to 
have a resolution--if the Democrats offer a resolution regarding SPR--
that says two things. I think the resolution ought to say: We think and 
we direct that Saudi Arabia pump more oil and sell more oil. The Senate 
says we resolve that they ought to do that. And, second, we think the 
terrorist we have been looking all over Afghanistan for should turn 
himself in. That should be the second part of our resolution.
  Why I say that is because we would do as much for the energy crisis 
with that resolution as we will with one that tries to convince the 
American

[[Page S5771]]

people that the way to do this is to play around with the Strategic 
Petroleum Reserve.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, before the Senator leaves, I say to the 
distinguished Senator from New Mexico, we are prepared to accept, on 
both sides, the important amendment you had yesterday.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Let me get it.
  Mr. WARNER. Actually, it is at the desk. We could ask for its 
adoption, to meet your convenience.
  Mr. President, I offered an amendment yesterday. Somebody said it had 
been withdrawn.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment has been withdrawn.
  Mr. DOMENICI. But does that mean it still might be up there?
  Mr. WARNER. Here we are.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I have it.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I think the Senator has his amendment.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Is it in order?
  Mr. LEVIN. You have to set aside the Lautenberg amendment 
temporarily.


                           Amendment No. 3192

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending 
amendment be set aside so that I can offer this amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I am shortly going to send the amendment 
to the desk. It has about 15 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. 
This amendment has to do with accelerating internationally the removal 
of fissile materials; that is, insecure radiological material and 
related equipment that cause us to be vulnerable to proliferation.
  Many of us have worked very hard to put together a program where we 
and other nations will go to work at ridding the world of proliferation 
of nuclear products from the nuclear age. We think it is an exciting 
approach. Eventually, we have to fund it and Presidents have to 
implement it. But the Senate would be saying today it is good policy to 
get the world concerned about getting rid of radioactive material that 
came from the nuclear age.
  My principal cosponsors are Senators Feinstein, Lugar, Biden, 
Bingaman, and a whole array of Senators. I send the amendment to the 
desk and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New Mexico [Mr. Domenici], for himself, 
     Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Biden, Mr. Alexander, Mr. 
     Bingaman, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Akaka, proposes an amendment 
     numbered 3192.

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further 
reading of the amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

 (Purpose: To accelerate the removal or security of fissile materials, 
   radiological materials, and related equipment at vulnerable sites 
                               worldwide)

       At the end of subtitle C of title XXXI, add the following:

     SEC. 3132. ACCELERATION OF REMOVAL OR SECURITY OF FISSILE 
                   MATERIALS, RADIOLOGICAL MATERIALS, AND RELATED 
                   EQUIPMENT AT VULNERABLE SITES WORLDWIDE.

       (a) Sense of Congress.--(1) It is the sense of Congress 
     that the security, including the rapid removal or secure 
     storage, of high-risk, proliferation-attractive fissile 
     materials, radiological materials, and related equipment at 
     vulnerable sites worldwide should be a top priority among the 
     activities to achieve the national security of the United 
     States.
       (2) It is the sense of Congress that the President may 
     establish in the Department of Energy a task force to be 
     known as the Task Force on Nuclear Materials to carry out the 
     program authorized by subsection (b).
       (b) Program Authorized.--The Secretary of Energy may carry 
     out a program to undertake an accelerated, comprehensive 
     worldwide effort to mitigate the threats posed by high-risk, 
     proliferation-attractive fissile materials, radiological 
     materials, and related equipment located at sites potentially 
     vulnerable to theft or diversion.
       (c) Program Elements.--(1) Activities under the program 
     under subsection (b) may include the following:
       (A) Accelerated efforts to secure, remove, or eliminate 
     proliferation-attractive fissile materials or radiological 
     materials in research reactors, other reactors, and other 
     facilities worldwide.
       (B) Arrangements for the secure shipment of proliferation-
     attractive fissile materials, radiological materials, and 
     related equipment to other countries willing to accept such 
     materials and equipment, or to the United States if such 
     countries cannot be identified, and the provision of secure 
     storage or disposition of such materials and equipment 
     following shipment.
       (C) The transportation of proliferation-attractive fissile 
     materials, radiological materials, and related equipment from 
     sites identified as proliferation risks to secure facilities 
     in other countries or in the United States.
       (D) The processing and packaging of proliferation-
     attractive fissile materials, radiological materials, and 
     related equipment in accordance with required standards for 
     transport, storage, and disposition.
       (E) The provision of interim security upgrades for 
     vulnerable, proliferation-attractive fissile materials and 
     radiological materials and related equipment pending their 
     removal from their current sites.
       (F) The utilization of funds to upgrade security and 
     accounting at sites where proliferation-attractive fissile 
     materials or radiological materials will remain for an 
     extended period of time in order to ensure that such 
     materials are secure against plausible potential threats and 
     will remain so in the future.
       (G) The management of proliferation-attractive fissile 
     materials, radiological materials, and related equipment at 
     secure facilities.
       (H) Actions to ensure that security, including security 
     upgrades at sites and facilities for the storage or 
     disposition of proliferation-attractive fissile materials, 
     radiological materials, and related equipment, continues to 
     function as intended.
       (I) The provision of technical support to the International 
     Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), other countries, and other 
     entities to facilitate removal of, and security upgrades to 
     facilities that contain, proliferation-attractive fissile 
     materials, radiological materials, and related equipment 
     worldwide.
       (J) The development of alternative fuels and irradiation 
     targets based on low-enriched uranium to convert research or 
     other reactors fueled by highly-enriched uranium to such 
     alternative fuels, as well as the conversion of reactors and 
     irradiation targets employing highly-enriched uranium to 
     employment of such alternative fuels and targets.
       (K) Accelerated actions for the blend down of highly-
     enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium.
       (L) The provision of assistance in the closure and 
     decommissioning of sites identified as presenting risks of 
     proliferation of proliferation-attractive fissile materials, 
     radiological materials, and related equipment.
       (M) Programs to--
       (i) assist in the placement of employees displaced as a 
     result of actions pursuant to the program in enterprises not 
     representing a proliferation threat; and
       (ii) convert sites identified as presenting risks of 
     proliferation regarding proliferation-attractive fissile 
     materials, radiological materials, and related equipment to 
     purposes not representing a proliferation threat to the 
     extent necessary to eliminate the proliferation threat.
       (2) The Secretary of Energy shall, in coordination with the 
     Secretary of State, carry out the program in consultation 
     with, and with the assistance of, appropriate departments, 
     agencies, and other entities of the United States Government.
       (3) The Secretary of Energy shall, with the concurrence of 
     the Secretary of State, carry out activities under the 
     program in collaboration with such foreign governments, non-
     governmental organizations, and other international entities 
     as the Secretary considers appropriate for the program.
       (d) Reports.--(1) Not later than March 15, 2005, the 
     Secretary shall submit to Congress a classified interim 
     report on the program under subsection (b).
       (2) Not later than January 1, 2006, the Secretary shall 
     submit to Congress a classified final report that includes 
     the following:
       (A) A survey by the Secretary of the facilities and sites 
     worldwide that contain proliferation-attractive fissile 
     materials, radiological materials, or related equipment.
       (B) A list of sites determined by the Secretary to be of 
     the highest priority, taking into account risk of theft from 
     such sites, for removal or security of proliferation-
     attractive fissile materials, radiological materials, or 
     related equipment, organized by level of priority.
       (C) A plan, including activities under the program under 
     this section, for the removal, security, or both of 
     proliferation-attractive fissile materials, radiological 
     materials, or related equipment at vulnerable facilities and 
     sites worldwide, including measurable milestones, metrics, 
     and estimated costs for the implementation of the plan.
       (3) A summary of each report under this subsection shall 
     also be submitted to Congress in unclassified form.
       (e) Funding.--Amounts authorized to be appropriated to the 
     Secretary of Energy for defense nuclear nonproliferation 
     activities shall be available for purposes of the program 
     under this section.
       (f) Definitions.--In this section:
       (1) The term ``fissile materials'' means plutonium, highly-
     enriched uranium, or other material capable of sustaining an 
     explosive nuclear chain reaction, including irradiated

[[Page S5772]]

     items containing such materials if the radiation field from 
     such items is not sufficient to prevent the theft or misuse 
     of such items.
       (2) The term ``radiological materials'' includes Americium-
     241, Californium-252, Cesium-137, Cobalt-60, Iridium-192, 
     Plutonium-238, Radium-226 and Strontium-90, Curium-244, 
     Strontium-90, and irradiated items containing such materials, 
     or other materials designated by the Secretary of Energy for 
     purposes of this paragraph.
       (3) The term ``related equipment'' includes equipment 
     useful for enrichment of uranium in the isotope 235 and for 
     extraction of fissile materials from irradiated fuel rods and 
     other equipment designated by the Secretary of Energy for 
     purposes of this section.
       (4) The term ``highly-enriched uranium'' means uranium 
     enriched to or above 20 percent in isotope 235.
       (5) The term ``low-enriched uranium'' means uranium 
     enriched below 20 percent in isotope 235.
       (6) The term ``proliferation-attractive'', in the case of 
     fissile materials and radiological materials, means 
     quantities and types of such materials that are determined by 
     the Secretary of Energy to present a significant risk to the 
     national security of the United States if diverted to a use 
     relating to proliferation.

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, 
I have recognized the danger posed by the potential risk of 
proliferation of materials or expertise from that nation. Through work 
with Senators Nunn and Lugar for the original Nunn-Lugar Cooperative 
Threat Reduction legislation, and later with the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici 
Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, I have worked to 
minimize this risk. Through these bills, and through several other 
initiatives, we have made progress on the nonproliferation front. But 
these are complex and difficult programs, success is measured in small 
steps. While we have come a long ways, we still have a long ways to go.
  Some of the programs we have established, such as materials 
protection control and accounting, the initiatives for proliferation 
prevention, and the nuclear cities initiative, are working fairly well 
to address some of the major threat issues.
  The HEU Deal is working to reduce stockpiles of highly enriched 
uranium, a prime concern for proliferation, although it has needed 
congressional help at times to keep it alive. The plutonium disposition 
deal is seriously stalled and needs attention at the highest levels in 
both the United States and Russia.
  Even though we are making progress, the focus on terrorism over the 
last few years has substantially amplified the level of our concerns. 
In the process, we have learned more about the complicated routes 
through which important equipment technologies, such as enrichment 
capabilities, have moved to unfortunate destinations.
  Our focus on Russia was appropriate a decade ago. But it is very 
clear today that proliferation must be viewed as a global problem. We 
must broaden our programs so that they have a global impact, not only 
focused on the former Soviet Union.
  The increased threat of terrorism should encourage us to seek new 
ways to expedite the management, security, and disposition of materials 
that could be dangerous to our national security if they were to fall 
into the wrong hands. These materials include a range of fissile 
materials, with highly enriched uranium and plutonium being the ones of 
greatest concern.
  Fissile materials and the specialized equipment to produce them 
aren't the only concerns. We have also heard concerns about 
radiological dispersion devices, or ``dirty bombs'' as they are usually 
called. Materials that would be useful in dirty bombs also need to be 
under far better control all around the world.
  The amendment I am offering today is aimed at expediting global 
cleanout of nuclear materials and equipment that could represent 
proliferation risks. It includes in one package a range of 
authorizations, all of which need acceleration toward the overall goal.
  Of greatest importance, it provides authorization for global 
activities, not only for activities focused on the former Soviet Union. 
And it encourages that we act in partnership with other governments, 
nongovernmental organizations, and other international groups that can 
assist us in this undertaking.
  Fissile materials are targeted no matter where they are located, from 
existing vulnerable storage sites to research reactors to other reactor 
systems. The highly enriched uranium that fuels many of these research 
reactors, including those supplied by both the United States and 
Russia, represents a major concern for proliferation. Recent operations 
have led to removal of some of these materials, but many more reactors 
need attention.
  As one example of a potential concern beyond the research reactors, 
the Russian ice breakers are powered with nuclear reactors using highly 
enriched uranium. I hope we can help to convert those reactors in the 
course of this program.
  Authorities are provided to transport materials to secure storage, 
either here or abroad, along with provision of improved security at 
vulnerable sites. In addition, attention is paid to the operation of 
improved security systems once they are installed.
  Technical support is authorized for the International Atomic Energy 
Agency or other countries to help in removal of material or upgrading 
of security. In addition, several initiatives address some of the 
current uses of highly enriched uranium.
  New fuels are to be developed to replace fuels that use highly 
enriched uranium. New reactor targets are to be developed to replace 
targets that involve highly enriched uranium. And assistance with 
conversion of both reactors and targets to these new alternatives is 
provided.
  Faster blend-down of highly enriched uranium is included in the new 
provisions. It is vital to get more of this material out of a weapons-
ready form more quickly than only relying on the rates of blend-down 
established in the existing HEU deal.
  The amendment also authorizes assistance in closure and 
decommissioning of sites of proliferation concern. In addition, 
programs are authorized for helping displaced employees from such sites 
and converting these sites to other uses. We have had similar programs 
in place for the former Soviet Union for years, but now with this 
amendment we can extend these programs to other countries as well.
  With this global cleanout amendment, we will take a giant step toward 
providing the Department of Energy, in coordination with other Federal 
agencies, with the tools they need to minimize proliferation risks from 
nuclear materials wherever they are found around the world. In the 
process, we can help to make this world a safer place.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague from 
New Mexico, Senator Domenici, to introduce an amendment to address one 
of the critical security issues in the post-9/11 world: the existence 
of weapons-usable nuclear materials at hundreds of vulnerable 
facilities around the world.
  President Bush has singled out terrorist nuclear attacks on the 
United States as the defining threat our Nation will face in the 
future.
  In making the case against Saddam Hussein, he argued: ``If the Iraqi 
regime is able to produce, buy, or steal an amount of uranium a little 
bigger than a softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a 
year.''
  What he did not mention is that with the same amount of uranium, al-
Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas, or any terrorist organization could do the 
same and smuggle a weapon across U.S. borders.
  And the fact that Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan's network put 
actual bomb designs on the black market only heightens the need to make 
sure these materials are not available.
  Nonetheless, there are hundreds of vulnerable facilities around the 
world that store from kilograms to tons of plutonium or highly enriched 
uranium. The State Department has identified 24 of these locations as 
high priority sites.
  In response to this threat, the administration has focused its 
efforts on removing vulnerable international nuclear materials through 
four projects: the take-back by Russia of highly enriched uranium fuels 
from Soviet-supplied reactors; the ongoing effort to convert Soviet-
designed research reactors from using highly enriched uranium to using 
non-bomb-grade fuels; the decades-long effort to convert U.S.-supplied 
research reactors from highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium 
and the on-going effort to take back U.S.-supplied uranium.
  These are important steps, but I am deeply concerned that these 
efforts are

[[Page S5773]]

not sufficient and do not adequately address the seriousness of the 
issue. For example, the current approach will take 10-20 years to 
complete at the current rate of about 1 facility per year. This time 
frame ignores the near-term dangers we face.
  Under the current approach to the take-back of Soviet-supplied 
uranium, there have been only two successful removals of highly-
enriched uranium in more than two years, at Vinca and at Pitesti. But 
the Vinca operation also required the additional contribution of $5 
million from the Nuclear Threat Initiative to complete, because of the 
Bush administration's claim of inadequate authority to pursue various 
actions to facilitate Serbian cooperation.
  The U.S.-Russian bilateral agreement on a broader take-back effort 
has taken years to complete--and even once final Russian government 
approval is secured, many obstacles remain. Indeed, Russia has never 
prepared certain types of environmental assessments related to these 
weapons. To move forward with this agreement, it will require 
sustained, high-level pressure.

  U.S. efforts to convert highly enriched uranium-fueled reactors 
within Russia are still moving slowly on the technical front, in part 
because of insufficient funding. And we are only now beginning to take 
the first steps toward providing incentives directly to facilities to 
give up their highly enriched uranium.
  The scope of the conversion effort in Russia is inadequate. It covers 
only research reactors, ignoring critical assemblies, pulsed powered 
reactors, and civilian and military naval fuels. This leaves numerous 
vulnerable HEU stockpiles scattered across the former Soviet Union.
  Under the current U.S. uranium take-back effort, if no new incentives 
are offered, tons of U.S.-supplied nuclear materials will remain abroad 
when the program is complete. And scores of U.S.-supplied reactors may 
continue to use highly enriched uranium indefinitely.
  If weapons of mass destruction, WMD, out of the hands of terrorists 
is the defining threat to our Nation, then removing weapons-usable 
material from facilities susceptible to terrorist theft should be a top 
priority for U.S. national security policy.
  Yet, currently there is no single, integrated U.S. government program 
to facilitate the removal of these materials. To address this problem, 
Senator Domenici and I have offered this amendment to: urge the 
President to establish a task force within the Department of Energy on 
nuclear removal; provide a specific mandate for a program to remove 
nuclear material from vulnerable sites around the world as quickly as 
possible, whether the material was supplied by the U.S. or the Soviet 
Union; provide flexible approaches, tailored to each site, to encourage 
facilities to give up their nuclear material, and; authorize funding to 
begin these efforts.
  Osama bin Laden has declared the acquisition of weapons of mass 
destruction a ``religious duty.'' After the Taliban was defeated, 
blueprints for a crude nuclear weapon were found in a deserted al-Qaida 
headquarters in Afghanistan. It is clear that obtaining a nuclear 
weapon is a top priority of al-Qaida.
  And a report released last year by the John F. Kennedy School of 
Government at Harvard University demonstrated the severity of the 
threat posed by a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists.
  The report described a scenario in which a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb is 
smuggled into Manhattan and detonated, resulting in the deaths of 
500,000 people and causing $1 trillion in direct economic damage.
  We must do everything in our power to prevent this from ever 
happening.
  This amendment will give our Government the direction and resources 
necessary to remove nuclear materials from vulnerable sites around the 
world in an expeditious manner.
  We have little time to spare. I urge my colleagues to support this 
amendment.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I am proud to co-sponsor the amendment 
offered by my colleagues, Senator Domenici and Senator Feinstein, which 
authorizes a program to accelerate U.S. efforts to remove, secure, 
store, or destroy fissile and radiological material that might 
otherwise be accessible to rogue states or terrorists.
  There could hardly be a higher priority--it is clear that terrorists 
seek to acquire materials to make a nuclear bomb. Many experts believe 
that terrorists would be capable of creating a nuclear weapon if they 
took possession of fissile material. Even the simpler, gun-type design, 
the type of bomb exploded at Hiroshima, could kill from tens of 
thousands to a million people if detonated in a large city.
  Terrorists are also known to be interested in radiological material 
for a so-called ``dirty bomb,'' also known as a radiological dispersion 
device. While an attack with a dirty bomb would not cause many 
fatalities, it could render large areas uninhabitable and cause long-
term economic devastation and psychological damage.
  I thank Senator Domenici, and Senator Feinstein for their work and 
leadership on this issue. Senator Domenici, in his role as Chairman of 
the Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, has done much to 
shape the nuclear non-proliferation programs at the Department of 
Energy. Senator Feinstein, also a member of that subcommittee, 
introduced legislation to facilitate the removal of nuclear material 
from vulnerable sites around the world. They have worked together to 
craft the bipartisan amendment before us today.
  While many raised the alarm about the possibility of terrorists using 
weapons of mass destruction before September 11, 2001, the events of 
that day made clear to all what devastation could have been wrought had 
the terrorists attacked with weapons of mass destruction.
  Witnesses at a hearing I chaired before the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee on March 6, 2002, emphasized the need for multiple layers of 
defense against nuclear terrorism and said that the very first priority 
must be controlling fissile and radioactive material in the United 
States and abroad.
  Since that time, there has been progress in securing, storing and 
destroying fissile and radiological material. But much more needs to be 
done.
  The Department of Energy's International Materials Protection, 
Control, and Cooperation Program and its Radiological Dispersion 
Devices Program seek to secure nuclear weapons, weapons-usable nuclear 
materials, and radiological sources by upgrading security and 
consolidating these materials.
  From fiscal year 1993 through this fiscal year, 2004, Congress has 
appropriated $1.58 billion for these Department of Energy programs, 
mostly to secure nuclear weapons and nuclear material in Russia. 
Because of them, and the related Cooperative Threat Reduction programs 
at the Department of Defense, hundreds of tons of bomb material is more 
secure and the nuclear material that could have been made into 
thousands of nuclear weapons has been destroyed.

  Why, when so much has been accomplished, is this amendment necessary?
  One answer is that while much has indeed been accomplished in Russia, 
highly enriched uranium, or HEU, and plutonium exist in many countries 
and in both military and civilian sites. There are 345 operational or 
shut research reactors that used HEU in 58 countries. Many of these 
countries have inadequate resources to operate or clean up these 
reactors. Few of them can afford to convert their HEU-fueled reactors, 
or their HEU targets used to produce medical isotopes, without outside 
assistance.
  Another answer is that even in Russia, only a fraction of its highly 
enriched uranium has been destroyed. Many experts, including those 
involved with the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University, 
have urged that efforts be accelerated to ``blend down'' highly 
enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium, which is usable for nuclear 
power, but not readily for weapons. At current rates, it could take 
decades to blend down Russia's excess HEU. The urgency of the potential 
threat from the tons of HEU in Russia argues for a more robust program 
that would blend down HEU in years, not decades. The amendment before 
us today wisely authorizes an acceleration of our HEU blend-down 
programs.

[[Page S5774]]

  In addition to authorizing accelerated HEU recovery and blend-down 
programs, this amendment would accelerate our efforts to help move 
nuclear facilities away from the use of HEU in nuclear reactor fuel and 
medical isotope production. It will also encourage increased efforts to 
recover and secure plutonium and radiological sources that might 
otherwise be accessible to terrorists.
  The Domenici-Feinstein amendment provides for a comprehensive program 
to: securely ship at-risk fissile and radiological materials; raise 
processing and packing standards; provide interim security upgrades and 
improve management of vulnerable sites; manage materials at secure 
facilities; provide technical assistance to the International Atomic 
Energy Agency, as well as to countries; and provide assistance in the 
closure of risky sites.
  This amendment will also improve our efforts to convert risky sites 
to, and place displaced nuclear workers in, activities that do not 
represent a proliferation threat. Both the Department of Energy and the 
Department of State have programs to help displaced workers, but there 
many worthy projects in this area go unfunded each year. We can and we 
must do more to ensure that nuclear weapons scientists and technical 
personnel are not left prey to the lures of contracts in rogue states 
or sales to terrorists.
  The Domenici-Feinstein amendment will not solve all the problems that 
our non-proliferation programs face. We also need sustained attention 
by the President to removing roadblocks that have hindered our existing 
programs in Russia. Whether the question is access to sites, or 
immunity from taxation, or immunity from liability for U.S. persons 
involved in these programs, we need effective intervention at the 
highest level to solve those problems. It would be ironic, indeed, if 
our authorization of accelerated efforts were to be undone by the 
inability of President Bush and Putin to work out the implementation of 
those programs.
  This amendment must do more than spur the Department of Energy to put 
more resources into our non-proliferation programs. It must galvanize 
the government at the highest levels to do more and do it quickly, 
before some terrorist group gains access to fissile our radiological 
material and uses it against us.
  I commend Senators Domenici and Feinstein for their important 
amendment and I urge my colleagues to support it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I commend our distinguished colleague. 
This is a very important, innovative approach to one of the serious 
problems facing the world. I ask unanimous consent to be added as a 
cosponsor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WARNER. I believe my distinguished colleague from Michigan has 
cleared it on his side and we are ready for action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I commend Senator Domenici. He has worked 
long and hard on this issue. I am proud to be a cosponsor of the 
amendment. The bottom line is there are a number of instances where the 
Department of Energy has run into situations where it does not have, 
nor do other agencies have, the authorities which are necessary to 
remove or otherwise deal with this nuclear material which is at risk. 
The Domenici amendment will provide those essential authorities in 
order to take some very strong antiproliferation steps. It is a very 
good amendment. We support it on this side of the aisle.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I urge adoption of the amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate on the amendment? If 
not, the question is on agreeing to amendment No. 3192.
  The amendment (No. 3192) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I thank the managers for their 
cooperation and their statements. I am not sure Senator Levin is 
presently a cosponsor. I ask unanimous consent that he be added as a 
cosponsor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOMENICI. And Senator Warner has already asked.
  Mr. WARNER. Yes, I have.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I yield the floor.
  Mr. WARNER. I see a Senator seeking recognition, so we will withhold 
a quorum call. My understanding is the Senator from Arizona wishes to 
talk about the proposal now under consideration, if that is agreeable.
  Mr. LEVIN. Of course. If I may ask the chairman a question, I have no 
problem with that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Mr. LEVIN. Is it still our intention to try to order the sequencing 
of two votes on these amendments?
  Mr. WARNER. The Senator is correct. We have under consideration by 
our respective leadership at this time a program you and I have put to 
them to continue debate this afternoon on the Lautenberg amendment and 
the second degree by my colleague from Arizona at which time votes will 
be scheduled in the 5 to 6 timeframe.
  I yield the floor.


                           Amendment No. 3191

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Arizona has been recognized to speak on his second-degree amendment.
  Mr. KYL. I am happy to yield to the Senator from New Jersey for a 
question.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. If the Senator from Arizona will yield for a 
question, is a second-degree amendment still the proposal?
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the terminology is being worked on right 
now. Nothing is agreed upon at the moment.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, what we have pending right now is a second-
degree amendment to the Lautenberg amendment, and there will be 
discussions about precisely how that will be treated when this 
amendment and the Lautenberg amendment are voted on at the end of the 
afternoon.
  Let me begin by noting what some of my objections are to the 
Lautenberg amendment. Then I will speak to the second-degree amendment 
which I have offered. The point of the Lautenberg amendment is to 
change the way in which sanctions are put on companies doing business 
abroad. The State Department has issued some objections to this 
amendment which I will speak to later. To summarize: That it would 
interfere with the President's discretion in conducting foreign 
affairs; that it would lead to a number of foreign policy problems for 
the United States; that it is unnecessary because the President 
exercises authority with respect to these foreign subsidiaries today.
  To be precise about a particular concern the State Department 
expresses, the amendment would actually only focus on ownership, which 
is a standard that could easily be circumvented by these companies 
against whom we would all want sanctions to apply, and would be less 
effective than the administration's current approach utilized by the 
President. By defining this under the definition of control to mean 
owning at least 50 percent of the capital structure of the entity, the 
test could easily be circumvented by manipulating the percentage of 
ownership so that it remains under 50 percent, but at the same time 
maintaining control in fact.
  Under current law, the U.S. Treasury Department considers both 
ownership and control so the President has the ability to exert this 
kind of sanction authority in a much more flexible way than would be 
the case under the amendment offered by the Senator from New Jersey. 
The Lautenberg amendment diminishes the President's authority and 
reduces the scope of the sanctions.
  Finally, its impact on existing sanction programs is unclear. The 
authority exists already. The Lautenberg amendment would raise 
questions, complications, and reduce the President's flexibility in 
ways we don't

[[Page S5775]]

think would be appropriate. That is one of the reasons we are offering 
this alternative, this substitute or second-degree amendment, depending 
upon how we agree to characterize it.
  This is an amendment which has been offered as a way to raise 
revenues for different purposes, but the revenues--perhaps $9 billion 
in revenues generated here, but in any event some amount, substantial 
billions of dollars--would be available for expenditures by the 
Secretary of Defense on a variety of equipment such as replacement of 
equipment lost in combat, ammunition, and selected items of high 
priority such as vehicles or night vision devices, Javelin missiles, 
sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles. In fact, to the degree that we would 
want to expand the existing program, which will be completed shortly 
for our own troops for additional add-on protection for shoulder and 
side-body areas or interceptor body armor for Iraqi troops, for 
example, or additional add-on ballistic protection for medium and heavy 
wheeled vehicles or multipurpose wheeled vehicles, all of those things 
could be paid for with the fees that would be generated out of this 
particular amendment.
  What is this amendment? I had actually offered versions of this 
before. The point was to try to prevent the tobacco settlement of 1998 
from resulting in a windfall to certain of the trial lawyers who were 
involved in that settlement. What we did is to utilize an existing Tax 
Code provision which says in cases of trusts, for example, where the 
trustee pays himself too much or an unreasonable fee, the IRS can 
impose an excessive tax. I say excessive because it is 200 percent of 
income. The purpose of it is to discourage the behavior of a trustee 
who would bilk the trust in effect by charging himself fees that are 
not deemed reasonable. And we utilize that same concept here, adding a 
second section immediately following that section of the Internal 
Revenue Code to provide similar treatment with respect to these 
unreasonable lawyer fees. So the concept is already in the Tax Code. We 
would simply apply it to the master settlement agreement for lawyer 
fees as well.
  I make it very clear that, first of all, the amendment does not apply 
to any fees that have already been judicially reviewed and approved by 
courts under appropriate standards. It does not apply retroactively. It 
is only prospectively, to fees paid in the future out of the tobacco 
settlement on which taxes have yet to be collected. And by the way, 
there are about $100 million in fees paid out of this settlement every 
year. The trial lawyers will still receive billions of dollars in fees 
under this amendment, far more than their actual legal work would 
justify.
  What we have done is to say that the cap on fees we had suggested 
before of $2,000 an hour--if you stop and think about it, that is a lot 
of money--we have scrapped that. Some people said, no, some lawyers 
might actually have been worth $2,000 an hour. Think about your plumber 
and what he charges per hour.
  But we said, OK, how about $10,000 an hour. And they said, no, that 
is still not enough. These lawyers need more than $10,000 an hour. So 
what we have done in this amendment is to say: OK, we will bend over 
backward here, be fair to these poor trial lawyers. We are going to let 
them earn $20,000 an hour for every hour they put in. I think that is 
enough.
  I am not sure that would meet most people's definition of reasonable, 
but we are going to say that that is reasonable, that they can earn 
$20,000 an hour. But that isn't enough. Some people have said this is 
the ``one yacht per lawyer rule.'' I am not sure what a yacht goes for.

  The bottom line is that there is a point at which the fees are 
obscene and unreasonable and unethical, and under the existing IRS 
Code, this kind of conduct is taken care of by a special tax that is 
imposed of 200 percent. The same thing would be true here. Obviously, 
what the lawyer would do is to limit his fee to $20,000 an hour and 
then return anything in excess of that, so he would not be taxed at 200 
percent--returning that money, in this case, to the Treasury of the 
United States of America.
  So the tobacco companies are still going to pay every dime they 
committed to pay in lawyer fees. But the money, instead of going to the 
trial lawyers, after they have collected $20,000 an hour, will go to 
the U.S. Treasury to pay for the military equipment that is the subject 
of the bill before us right now.
  Now, let me make a point about these fees being excessive. Some may 
dispute this, although, in view of the history, I cannot imagine 
anybody seriously disputing it. Let me give you some examples. I will 
start with reminding my colleagues exactly how the tobacco fees were 
awarded.
  In the State of Texas, for example, trial lawyers were awarded $3.3 
billion for their legal work--work that amounted in this case to filing 
a copycat lawsuit. The fee would amount to an effective hourly rate for 
these lawyers of over $100,000 an hour. Most people don't make $100,000 
in a year. I don't even know how many hours there are in a year, but it 
is a lot. This is $100,000 an hour. That is wrong. I don't think they 
would suffer too much if we cut them down to $20,000 an hour.
  My colleague from Texas, Senator Cornyn, was attorney general of the 
State of Texas and he had a firsthand relationship with this issue. In 
fact, it was a pretty difficult situation. Let me read to you some of 
the things he described about what happened in Texas. I am quoting the 
junior Senator from Texas:

       In my home State of Texas, trial lawyers have accused the 
     then Attorney General of demanding $1 million in campaign 
     contributions in exchange for their being included on the 
     State's tobacco litigation team. One prominent lawyer--a 
     former President of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association--has 
     since said that the attorney general's solicitation was so 
     blatant that ``I knew that instant . . . that I could not be 
     involved in the matter,'' and he even later wondered if the 
     meeting had been a ``sting operation.'' Another lawyer simply 
     characterized his encounter with the attorney general as a 
     bribery solicitation.

  He describes the rewards these trial lawyers reaped for their 
political investment:

       As for the five law firms that actually did represent Texas 
     in the tobacco litigation, they filed relatively late 
     lawsuits based on other lawyers' work--and were awarded $3.3 
     billion in attorneys fees. This award amounts to compensation 
     that, even had these attorneys worked all day, every day 
     during the entire period of the litigation, is well in excess 
     of $100,000 an hour. As one newspaper editorial has noted, 
     for the amount of money that these lawyers were awarded, 
     Texas could hire 10,000 additional teachers or policemen for 
     ten years.

  Senator Cornyn also described how these excessive and, I suggest, 
clearly unethical fees were obtained by lawyers in other States:

       In Maryland, [a tort lawyer, a billionaire] demanded a $1 
     billion fee for his work on that State's case, even though, 
     according to the State senate President, the State 
     legislature had retroactively ``changed centuries of 
     precedent to ensure [his] win in the case. [He] ultimately 
     received an accelerated $150 million payment for this no-risk 
     lawsuit.
       In Massachusetts, according to other tobacco plaintiffs' 
     lawyers, Massachusetts' suit piggybacked on the work of other 
     lawyers and was not pivotal to the outcome of the tobacco 
     litigation. Result: $775 million was awarded to the 
     Massachusetts lawyers in that [State's arbitration on the 
     tobacco case.]
       In Missouri, a State supreme court justice in Missouri 
     resigned his post in order to join one of the private law 
     firms expected to receive a portion of the [tobacco fee 
     award.] Ultimately, the firms representing the State spent 
     just 5 months on the State's lawsuit. They received a fee 
     award of $111 million. One State leader has described the 
     award as ``the biggest rip-off in the 180-year history of the 
     State.'' The law firms receiving these fees had donated more 
     than $500,000 to State politicians and parties in the years 
     leading up to their selection as the State's outside counsel.

  As I mentioned earlier, these fee contracts were awarded in a variety 
of ways, including through political cronyism, and really resulted in 
very little original legal work. That is my assertion to you. Don't 
take my word for it. On this tort reform issue, even many of the trial 
bar lawyers are in full agreement that the lawyers' fees here were 
excessive. They certainly should know; they are experts in this area. 
This is what some folks, including some tobacco lawyers, had to say:
  Michael Ciresi, a pioneer in tobacco litigation who represented the 
State of Minnesota in its lawsuit, and who is very familiar with these 
lawsuits, has said that the Texas, Florida, and Mississippi lawyers' 
fees awards ``are far in excess of these lawyers' contribution to any 
of the State results.''

[[Page S5776]]

  Washington, DC lawyer and tobacco industry opponent, John Coale, has 
denounced the fee awards as ``beyond human comprehension'' and stated 
that ``the work does not justify them.''
  Even the Association of American Trial Lawyers, the Nation's premier 
representative of the plaintiffs bar, has condemned attorneys' fees 
requested in the State tobacco settlement. The President of ATLA 
stated:

       Common sense suggests that a $1 billion fee is excessive 
     and unreasonable and certainly should invite the scrutiny [of 
     the courts.] [ATLA] generally refrains from expressing an 
     institutional opinion regarding a particular fee in a 
     particular case, but we have a strong negative reaction to 
     reports that at least one attorney on behalf of the 
     plaintiffs in the Florida case is seeking a fee in excess of 
     $1 billion.

  Perhaps the best gloss on the tobacco fee awards is that provided by 
Professor Lester Brickman, a professor of law at Cardozo Law School, a 
noted authority on legal ethics and attorney fees:

       Under the rules of legal ethics, promulgated partly as a 
     justification for the legal profession's self-governance, 
     fees cannot be ``clearly excessive.'' Indeed, that standard 
     has now been superseded in most States by an even more 
     rigorous standard: Fees have to be ``reasonable.'' Are these 
     fees, which in many cases amount to effective hourly rates of 
     return of tens of thousands--and even hundreds of thousands--
     of dollars an hour, reasonable? I think to ask the question 
     is to answer it.

  Let me emphasize one more point. Lawyers are universally held in the 
law to be fiduciaries. That is, they owe a duty of trust to their 
clients, a special duty of trust. One can easily understand why that is 
so. As such, as a fiduciary, under the legal ethics that apply to every 
lawyer, lawyers are not allowed to take advantage of their clients with 
regard to their fees. A contract for an unreasonable or unethical fee, 
for example, is unenforceable in the courts, and the excessive portion 
of the fee must be returned to the client. Numerous legal authorities 
confirm that lawyers are fiduciaries whose fees have always been 
subject to enforceable reasonableness requirements. I say this because, 
of course, that is what we are doing right here.
  We have done that with respect to other fiduciaries in the Tax Code--
the trustees I spoke of earlier--and we can obviously do it here also. 
One court said:

       We realize that business contracts may be enforced between 
     those in equal bargaining capacities, even though they turn 
     out to be unfair, inequitable, or harsh. However, a fee 
     agreement between lawyer and client is not an ordinary 
     business contract. The profession has both an obligation of 
     public service and duties to clients which transcend ordinary 
     business relationships and prohibit the lawyer from taking 
     advantage of the client.

  I will tell you what another court said:

       An attorney is only entitled to fees which are fair and 
     just and which adequately compensate him for his services. 
     This is true no matter what fee is specified in the contract, 
     because an attorney, as a fiduciary, cannot bind his client 
     to pay a greater compensation for his services than the 
     attorney would have a right to demand if no contract had been 
     made. Therefore, as a matter of public policy, reasonableness 
     is an implied term in every contract for attorney's fees.

  So the choice before the Senate is either to allow the tobacco 
settlements to be diverted to self-dealing billionaire tobacco lawyers, 
or to provide our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with additional combat 
equipment to help them perform their missions.
  The choice could not be more clear: We can either allow the de facto 
taxes imposed by the tobacco settlement to continue to be diverted to 
pay $100,000-an-hour fees to these politically connected billionaire 
lawyers or we can put those taxes to use providing our troops with 
additional equipment.
  We already have the precedent of doing this with respect to other 
fiduciaries in the Tax Code, specifically section 4958. This adds a new 
section immediately following, section 4959, that applies the very same 
concept to these particular fees. It is prospective only. It does not 
apply to anything that the court has already approved.
  I cannot imagine how this would not be a good idea. The amendment is 
a sense of the Senate to pass this proposition. I urge my colleagues to 
support it, assuming we have a vote on this perhaps in an hour and a 
half or so this afternoon.
  Mr. President, if there is no one else seeking recognition, I suggest 
the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, we have had some discussion about what 
we can do to help raise the funds to finance our fight against 
terrorism. At this point, we are spending $5 billion a month in Iraq. I 
think if we wanted to really get some money raised to continue that 
assignment, which we must, then perhaps we ought to consider repealing 
the top tax rate cut for all millionaires and raise even more money for 
our troops than what has been offered.
  I have an amendment. It has been modified. It is fairly obvious that 
we are talking around the issue. It is surprising that we cannot get 
together in an effort to dissuade companies, to prevent companies that 
are doing business with terrorist states from continuing to do that. My 
amendment says if a U.S. company owns 50 percent or more of a 
corporation, that it would be a violation of law for them to continue 
to do business with terrorist states.
  I do not know what the concerns are about this amendment. It is 
fairly clear we are spending so much money, so much effort, and so many 
lives to fight terrorism. When we register concern about American 
companies doing business with these terrorist states, we seem to have 
created a climate that has people objecting and, frankly, I don't 
understand why.
  When we talk about supplying revenue opportunities to Iran, we have 
to remember that they funded the 1983 terror attack in Beirut, killing 
240 U.S. marines. We are talking about an Iranian Government that funds 
Hamas, Islamic jihad, and Hezbollah. I ask my colleagues whether there 
is anyone here who would stand up and tell the American people why we 
should be helping Iran. Is there anyone here who can explain how it 
helps our soldiers to make sure that funds and potential profits are 
funneled to Iran? How does it help our troops to make sure Iran has 
more money to pass on to terrorists? We want to shut that down.
  My amendment offers a simple proposition: You are either with us or 
against us, and if we are serious about the war on terror, then we have 
to cut off every revenue source we can of those sponsors of terror. 
President Bush said himself, ``Money is the lifeblood of terrorist 
operations.'' He is right. We know that terrorist groups, such as Hamas 
and Islamic jihad, are funded by Iran and other rogue states, and we 
need to cut off that funding opportunity.
  Terrorist operations cannot survive without funds, and that is why 
our sanctions program is so critical. No American business should 
provide revenues to state sponsors of terror, and the nations that 
sponsor terrorism need to learn they will be denied business 
opportunities as long as they are funding terror groups.
  Right now, American companies are doing business with terrorist 
states through foreign subsidiaries, and we must stop this practice. As 
long as this loophole is in place, our sanctions laws have no teeth.
  We know that many companies find tax loopholes or regulatory 
loopholes that they exploit from time to time, but in this case, we are 
talking about companies exploiting loopholes just so they can do 
business with terrorists--sham corporations.
  I urge my colleagues to look at this chart because it demonstrates 
how companies utilize this loophole.
  If a U.S. corporation has a foreign subsidiary, they can send money 
to Iran. Iran can then send money to support Hezbollah or Hamas in 
their terror, suicide bombings, with their interests in developing 
weapons of mass destruction. We all believe that is in the works now. 
We should not in any way permit these companies--American companies 
created here, earning their living here, the executives earning their 
bonuses here--to be able to get some of that money as a result of 
sending funds to places such as Iran and other terrorist states.
  U.S. companies often have several subsidiaries, and most U.S. 
companies

[[Page S5777]]

and their subsidiaries do not cross the line that prevents business 
with terrorist states, but some do.
  President Bush also has declared that Iran is part of the ``axis of 
evil,'' and he couldn't be more right. My amendment says that if we are 
going to impose sanctions on rogue nations such as Iran, then let's be 
serious about it. Let's make sure Iran is isolated for their 
sponsorship of terrorism.
  In addition to the 240 marines who were brutally murdered in their 
sleep in 1983 in Beirut, Iranian-backed terror killed these 2 young 
American women, 22-year-old Sara Duker and 14-year-old Abigail Litle. 
They were traveling in Israel. Sarah Duker was a constituent of mine 
from Teaneck, NJ. A summa cum laude graduate of Barnard College, Sara 
was killed with her fiance when the bus she was riding on in Jerusalem 
was blown up in 1996 by Hamas. Again, Hamas receives funding and 
support from the Iranian Government.
  Last year, 14-year-old Abigail, originally from New Hampshire, was 
riding home from school in Haifa when her bus exploded as a result of a 
suicide bombing. That attack killed 15 people and was directly linked 
to terrorists funded by Syria and Iran.
  Iran sponsors terrorism, and they glow in that relationship. They 
love to let the world know they are out to harm Americans. The terror 
they help fund has killed hundreds of Americans and yet American 
companies are utilizing a loophole in order to do business with the 
Iranian Government. I want to close the loophole.
  It is inexcusable for U.S. companies to engage in any business 
practices that provide revenue for terrorism. The bottom line is that 
big businesses, even those with financial ties to the top members of 
our Government, do not get a free pass in this war on terrorism.
  I hope that when my amendment comes up for a vote later on that all 
of my colleagues will step up and ask the questions of themselves: Why 
do we want to promote anything that would send funds to Iran or other 
rogue terrorist nations? I cannot understand why that would be.
  There are laws that say it should not happen, but they lack teeth. 
The process does not work. So I urge my colleagues, when the 
opportunity comes a little later in the day, to pass this amendment to 
close a terrorist funding loophole.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I join Senators Lautenberg and 
Feingold in cosponsoring an amendment to the Department of Defense 
authorization bill.
  This amendment will close loopholes that have allowed some American 
companies to skirt U.S. law by working with and operating in countries 
that have been identified by the President as supporters of terrorism.
  Although Federal law prohibits U.S. companies from conducting 
business with nations that sponsor terrorism, a few firms have 
exploited a loophole in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 
and are doing business through foreign subsidiaries, thereby providing 
terrorist states with revenue and other potentially important benefits.
  Under the amendment we are introducing today, foreign subsidiaries 
are barred from engaging in commercial transactions with terrorist-
sponsoring states under the same standards and under the same 
circumstances as their parent companies.
  The definition of corporate entity would include not only U.S. 
companies and all foreign branches, but also foreign subsidiaries.
  Subsidiaries of certain companies have been using foreign 
subsidiaries to conduct business in countries such as Iran.
  Many of these foreign subsidiaries are often formed and incorporated 
overseas for the specific purpose of bypassing U.S. sanctions laws.
  This amendment does not change which countries are subject to U.S. 
sanctions or interfere with the President's ability to invoke the 
International Emergency Economic Powers Act; and it does not change the 
sanctions under the act in anyway.
  It simply clarifies who is subject to the sanctions when and if they 
are invoked by the President.
  Currently Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Libya have been targeted by 
the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 
all countries that we can agree deserve to be on the list.
  Despite the tens of billions of dollars that we are spending on the 
defense of our homeland, we still have a law on our books that allows 
U.S. companies to assist the very nations that support terrorist 
activities aimed at us. This is unconscionable.
  I want to applaud the efforts of New York City Comptroller, the New 
York Police Department, and the New York Fire Department to bring this 
problem to the Nation's attention.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, on behalf of the leadership, and working 
with my ranking member, the Senator from Michigan, I make the following 
unanimous consent request.
  I ask unanimous consent that the time until 5:30 be divided between 
the chairman and ranking member or their designees as follows: 55 
minutes to Senator Levin, 30 minutes to the Senator from Virginia; 
provided further that the Senate vote in relation to the Kyl amendment, 
which is to be drafted as a first-degree, to be followed by a vote in 
relation to the Lautenberg amendment; provided further that no second-
degree amendment be in order to either amendment prior to the votes. 
Finally, I ask unanimous consent that following the votes the Senator 
from Virginia or his designee be recognized in order to offer the next 
amendment, and following that, that the Senator from Michigan be 
recognized in order to offer the sequential amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, using what the Senator, the distinguished 
chairman outlined, we would vote at 5:30 or thereabouts; is that right?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. REID. No objection.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is so ordered.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I would like to say a few words about the 
underlying amendment. In the opinion of the Senator from Virginia, the 
amendment would make it more difficult for the President to impose 
sanctions on states that support terrorism. At present, the President 
must weigh the benefits of imposing sanctions against the costs of such 
sanctions, including costs to U.S. businesses that may be affected. 
Second, the amendment will introduce a new factor into this balance, 
weighing against the imposition of sanctions: the objections of foreign 
countries to the extension of U.S. sanctions laws to reach companies 
organized under their jurisdiction. European countries in particular 
have strenuously objected to U.S. actions they perceive to involve the 
extraterritorial application of U.S. law.
  Because the amendment leaves the President no discretion not to cover 
companies organized under the laws of other countries, and thus avoid 
such objections, the amendment introduces a new cost the President must 
overcome in any decision to use sanctions to fight terrorism.
  The amendment is unnecessary because existing law already provides 
the President the ability to prevent U.S. companies from evading U.S. 
sanctions through the use of foreign subsidiaries. Existing U.S. 
sanctions regulations prohibit actions by U.S. companies to evade or 
avoid U.S. sanctions. U.S. companies that create foreign subsidiaries 
for the purpose of evading U.S. sanctions laws may be prosecuted for 
such evasions. Existing U.S. sanctions regulations also prohibit U.S. 
companies from approving or facilitating actions by their foreign 
subsidiaries that would constitute violations of U.S. sanctions laws if 
undertaken by a U.S. company. Similarly, U.S. sanctions regulations 
prohibit any U.S. citizen employed by a foreign company from taking 
actions in violation of relevant U.S. sanctions.
  I yield the floor.

[[Page S5778]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  Mr. WARNER. I yield such time as the distinguished Senator from 
Kentucky may wish.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican whip.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I commend my friend from Arizona, 
Senator Kyl, for offering his important amendment. It seeks to remedy 
an unethical fee schedule and provide a way for us to protect the 
soldiers, the taxpayers, and the public treasury all at the same time.
  Lawyers, of course, have a fiduciary duty to their clients and one 
component of that duty is, to put it plainly, not to rip them off. But 
in the tobacco cases, as my friend noted, plaintiffs' lawyers got as 
much as $100,000 an hour for providing ``legal services,'' and I use 
the term ``services'' loosely. Their efforts were often duplicative of 
legal work others had done.
  I think the notion that those who file what are in large part copycat 
lawsuits should get paid as much as $100,000 per hour for such work is 
absurd on its face. Absolutely absurd.

  If anyone does not believe me, let's look at what some of the lawyers 
themselves have said about the situation I have described. Michael 
Cerisi, who pioneered the tobacco litigation and who represented the 
State of Minnesota in its lawsuit against the tobacco industry, said 
the fees of the lawyers who brought the lawsuits on behalf of Texas, 
Florida, and Mississippi ``are far in excess of these lawyers' 
contribution to any of the state results.''
  John Coale, Washington, DC, lawyer and noted opponent of the tobacco 
industry, has denounced the fee awards as ``beyond human 
comprehension'' and stated that ``the work does not justify them.''
  Even our friends at the American Trial Lawyers Association have found 
it very difficult to defend this practice. The past president of ATLA 
has said:

       Common sense suggests that a one billion dollar fee is 
     excessive and unreasonable and certainly should invite. . . . 
     scrutiny.

  That is the past president of ATLA. He goes on to say that ATLA:

       . . . generally refrains from expressing an institutional 
     opinion regarding a particular fee in a particular case, but 
     we have a strong negative reaction to reports that at least 
     one attorney . . . is seeking a fee in excess of one billion 
     dollars.

  The Tax Code already provides a remedy for abuses by certain 
fiduciaries. It requires trustees to disgorge themselves of ill-gotten 
gains that are due to the violation of their duty as fiduciaries. The 
Kyl amendment simply expresses the sense of the Senate that we ought to 
amend this section of the Tax Code so that it encompasses other 
important fiduciaries--namely, personal injury lawyers in mass tort 
cases. I would be shocked if my colleagues opposed it. If they do, they 
would be saying it is more important for personal injury lawyers to 
receive more than $20,000 an hour than it is to use excessive fees to 
protect our troops.
  The Kyl amendment notes some of the things that could be purchased by 
requiring the disgorgement of these ill-gotten gains: up-armored high-
mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles; add-on ballistic missile 
protection for medium and heavy wheeled vehicles; interceptor body 
armor including add-on protection for the shoulder and side body areas; 
unmanned aerial vehicles; ammunition; night-vision devices; sensors; 
Javelin missiles; and replacement of equipment lost in combat.
  This amendment does not turn personal injury lawyers into paupers. It 
only applies in mass tort cases where the judgment is over $100 
million, and it merely ensures that lawyers do not take advantage of 
their own clients.
  With respect to the tobacco litigation in particular, it provides 
that plaintiffs' lawyers are guaranteed to make no less than $20,000 an 
hour. That is right--not $20,000 a week, not $20,000 a day, but $20,000 
an hour. In short, it guarantees plaintiffs' lawyers a minimum wage of 
$20,000 per hour. If they can show somehow that it is appropriate for 
them to be paid more, then I suppose they could even get more than 
$20,000 per hour. What it will prevent, however, is personal injury 
lawyers being able to get, as a matter of course, unjustified and 
excessive fees from their clients to the tune of $100,000 per hour or 
even more. My friend from Arizona has referred to this as the ``one 
yacht per lawyer'' rule. With a minimum wage of $20,000 per hour, I 
think it is more appropriate to term it the ``one yacht per lawyer per 
week'' rule.
  I hope my colleagues will not choose trial lawyers over the troops.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask my friend to yield whatever time I may 
consume.
  Mr. LEVIN. I am happy to do that.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have been called upon in the past, as have 
other Members of this body, to interfere with what goes on in 
corporations--that is, to tell corporations they are limited in what 
they can pay their corporate executives. I have chosen not to become 
involved in that. I truly believe, even though some of these 
compensation packages are outlandish, in my opinion, it is not up to 
me. In our free enterprise system, it is up to the board of the 
directors of those corporations to determine what someone is worth. It 
is inappropriate, in this free enterprise system in which we are 
living, we take away the ability of corporations to run corporations.
  I have always looked at the salaries of ballplayers. We have a 14-
year-old boy named Freddie Adu, who is the highest paid player in the 
American Soccer League. Now, are they paying a 14-year-old boy too much 
money? He is making more than people who have played soccer for 20 and 
25 years. It is kind of up to them to determine how much money he 
should get.
  The average salary of a professional Major League baseball player in 
America today is around $2 million a year. That is a lot of money for a 
person who bats a ball, throws a ball, catches a ball, and runs around 
the bases, but that is what they get in our free market system. They 
get a lot of money.
  My friend Greg Maddux from Las Vegas made $15 million last year. He 
pitched about 30 times. I don't know how much that amounts to, but that 
is a lot of money he makes. This year he has taken a tremendous cut in 
pay. He is only making $8 million a year. However, Greg Maddux is being 
paid what the market determined he was worth. He was released by the 
Atlanta Braves and he shopped around. The Mets wanted him, the 
Baltimore Orioles looked at him, and he determined, rather than go with 
San Diego and the other teams I mentioned, he would play in Chicago for 
$7 million or $8 million a year. That is what America is all about, the 
free enterprise system.
  If we want to be picky and talk about how much is too much, we might 
want to take a look at a man by the name of Reuben Mark--Colgate-
Palmolive--who in 2003 was paid $149,970,000. That is a lot of money. 
That does not take into consideration a lot of the stock options he 
could have exercised if he had wanted to. I have the amount of money he 
could make from the stock options he could exercise if he chose to. It 
is, again, in the tens of millions of dollars. I cannot find it right 
now. Let's see if I can flip over to that. But it is a lot of money.

  George David, of United Technologies, last year made almost $71 
million. Again, it does not take into consideration the other money he 
could have made had he wanted to. Is United Technologies paying him too 
much money? It is none of my business, I believe, as a Member of 
Congress to tell United Technologies how much money they can pay George 
David.
  Is it my business to determine how much Lehman Brothers can pay 
Richard S. Fuld, Jr? Last year he made almost $68 million. I do not 
think so. I think it is up to this company. Even though I think this is 
a huge figure to be paid, and I think it is unfair to the stockholders, 
I am not on the board of directors, and they may know things I do not 
know. And, in fact, they do.
  Henry R. Silverman, with a company called Cendant, made over $60 
million last year. Should we interfere with this? The answer is no.
  Right here in the Washington, DC, area, there is a man by the name of 
Dwight Schar. I wish I had known this guy was as rich as he was. Or 
maybe I do not wish that. When we moved here 22 years ago, we bought 
the home that he lived in. He was living there. I went and met Dwight 
Schar, kind of a quiet guy. He did not say much. I understand now why 
he was unwilling to negotiate

[[Page S5779]]

the price of that home. He said that is what he wanted, and he was 
unwilling to change that. Obviously, he is a good negotiator because 
last year he made over $58 million from NVR. They build homes.
  Oracle Company paid Lawrence Ellison almost $41 million last year. 
And on and on, with these huge corporate salaries.
  Using the logic of my friend, the distinguished junior Senator from 
Arizona--a fine man; I have great respect for him, but using the logic 
he used today, then, the free enterprise system really must not apply 
to everybody, only to some. We know there are companies that are well 
known around here. As I indicated, Reuben Mark of Colgate-Palmolive was 
the champion last year, that we know of at least, at $148 million. He 
did quite well. He had, just from stock alone, $131 million last year. 
And he is just one of a number of people.
  But we have others who did quite well last year who are almost 
household names around here--not because they are known as good 
businesspeople, as are those people I have mentioned to this point; 
every one of these men I have talked to, Dwight Schar and all the rest, 
are known as extremely good businesspeople. But as we get down to some 
of these corporations, for example, we could take a look at David 
Lesar, who is the chairman and president of the Halliburton Company. 
Last year he did not do as well probably as some. He only made about $8 
million last year from Halliburton. But he has, of course, $26 million 
in unexercised stock options that he could have used. But I guess with 
all that is going on with Halliburton--and that, of course, is the 
basis for this amendment that has been offered by my distinguished 
friend from New Jersey, Senator Lautenberg.
  We do not, as Members of Congress, have the right, in my opinion, to 
interfere with the private sector. I have no right to say that Freddie 
Adu is making too much money playing soccer as a 14-year-old boy, or 
that Barry Bonds is making too much money, or that some guy who is 
batting .220 playing in the Major Leagues is making too much money 
being paid $15 million a year. Should we in Congress say that because 
he is not batting more than .240, his salary should not be more than $6 
million? I do not think so.

  Do we have any right to tell these companies that I have mentioned 
here that they are paying their people too much money and that Congress 
should step in and stop them from doing so? I do not think so. I have 
never felt that way.
  We have here before us now a situation where we have a sense-of-the-
Senate resolution. It was filed in that sense because had it been filed 
any other way there would be technical objections to it. So this is a 
so-called message amendment. It has no real impact. Even if it passed, 
it does not mean anything. But it is an attempt to embarrass people. It 
was offered because people are very uncomfortable with the amendment 
offered by my friend from New Jersey.
  The distinguished Senator from New Jersey has offered an amendment 
that directs attention to some of the things that are going on with 
American companies, saying their foreign subsidiaries should not be 
able to do business with terrorist organizations and countries that 
work with terrorist organizations.
  Mr. President, I was a lawyer. I am not ashamed, embarrassed, or 
concerned that in the past I have taken cases on contingent fees. What 
does that mean? It means someone came to me, and they had no money to 
prosecute their own case, and they said: Mr. Reid, here is what has 
happened to me.
  I can give you a couple examples that come to my mind. I can remember 
a woman by the name of Billie Robinson who came to me. I mentioned her 
name once before on this floor several months ago. Billie Robinson came 
to me. She was from Searchlight, NV, where I was born and raised. When 
she came to see me, I did not know her. I, of course, had been gone 
from Searchlight since I was a little boy. But she knew my mother who 
lived in Searchlight.
  She could not talk very well. I proceeded to visit with her, and her 
problem was this: Billie Robinson had headaches, and she would come 
over to Searchlight to see various doctors. They told her: The only 
thing wrong with you, Billie, is you need to sober up. You are a drunk.
  What they did not know and she tried to explain to these people is 
her headaches were so bad she drank a lot. By the time they realized, 
after about a year and a half, that she was having headaches because 
she had a tumor--they had misdiagnosed her condition--they operated. 
That is when it affected her a lot. She was not the same person after 
the surgery.
  So she came to me and said: What should I do? So I represented her. I 
took that case on a contingent fee. For every dollar I got for Billie 
Robinson, I got a third of it. That was a standard fee. It still is a 
fairly standard fee. I did not know if I was going to be able to 
recover anything because when you go against doctors sometimes these 
cases are very complicated and involve expert witnesses. They fought 
this case for a while. Finally, I was able to arrive at an agreement, 
and we settled the lawsuit for Billie Robinson. I got a third of what 
we recovered.
  Now, how much was I paid an hour? I really do not know. I was 
probably paid pretty good by the hour. But it was a case that she had 
shopped around, and other people would not take her case. I took a 
chance. I advanced fees for Billie Robinson, and I got her enough money 
that she led a comfortable life. She bought a new mobile home that she 
parked there in Searchlight. She had someone who could come in and help 
her. Now, does this Congress have the right to come in and say that the 
agreement she made with me was a bad deal, that I was paid too much 
money? I do not think so.

  I remember a woman by the name of Joyce Martinez who came to see me. 
She was a really nice woman. She had been all over town trying to find 
a lawyer to take her case. This woman was a cocktail waitress at the 
Hacienda Hotel on the Strip in Las Vegas. She was there in her little 
skimpy gown they have, serving drinks to people, and the Las Vegas 
Police Department came and arrested her, took her off to jail because 
of her having written bad checks. She had not written any bad checks.
  So I filed a lawsuit against Safeway Stores, and people, including 
the judge, said: What are you doing taking our time on this case? I 
demanded a jury. And I got a lot of money for Joyce Martinez. That was 
on a contingent fee. I took a chance on that case, and I won the case. 
I was paid pretty good by the hour. I do not have any reservations 
about having been paid a pretty good sum by the hour.
  This Congress has no right in our free enterprise system to second-
guess what Joyce Martinez did. What we are doing here is saying that 
attorneys, who entered into contracts to represent people--and 
sometimes not contracts, sometimes the State came in later and looked 
at the good works that they did--I do not know all the facts of this 
tobacco stuff, but I do know there were a number of lawyers, a handful 
of lawyers, in America who decided they would take on the tobacco 
industry.
  It took a lot of money to fight one of the biggest businesses in the 
world, tobacco. And after many years, they won. It is a benefit to 
everyone in America that they won because now they cannot at will go 
out and solicit young children to smoke cigarettes and to become sick 
and addicted to tobacco. We owe those lawyers a debt of gratitude, not 
to say they are making too much money. Had it not been for those 
lawyers, we would still be having children openly and notoriously being 
attacked by advertising and other means to start smoking. That is what 
they did. The lawsuits uncovered the fact that they knew how much 
tobacco was addictive, and they went after these children. These 
children now are dying of emphysema.
  I don't know for sure, but Smarty Jones' owner, I will bet, was a big 
smoker, and I bet he started as a kid. That is why you see him now 
being wheeled around and trying to breathe through that apparatus.
  At my home in Searchlight, Fritz Hahn had a place there and watched 
my home for 15 years. He started smoking as a teenager. He is dead now, 
having died within the past 6 weeks as a result of tobacco, cancer of 
the throat. He suffered and suffered, and he is

[[Page S5780]]

dead. Now as a result of the work of these tobacco lawyers, there are 
going to be fewer Fritz Hahns in the world. I don't apologize for how 
much money these lawyers made. They did me, my children, my 
grandchildren, and my children's children a favor.
  I also believe the pending amendment is discriminatory, 
unprecedented, unconstitutional, and just plain bad policy. This 
amendment endorses the idea that Congress should fix the rates 
attorneys are allowed to charge for providing services, not for 
everybody but certain types of clients. If a lawyer earns more than 
Congress allows, that person will have to pay back the extra or pay a 
200-percent penalty. A 200-percent tax on income is unprecedented in 
this great Nation. Our Nation's tax system has never had this before. 
Never in the history of this Nation have we assessed a 200-percent tax 
on income that is legally earned that I have heard of.
  Justice Marshall said it best when, in the infancy of this country, 
he declared the power to tax is the power to destroy. There could be no 
better illustration of that concept than this amendment.
  In this Congress, my friends on the other side pay a lot of 
lipservice to the free market. But they don't like the free market very 
much now in this case with this amendment. First of all, this amendment 
would interfere with legal private contracts just like the one I had 
with Joyce Martinez, just like the one I had with Billy Robinson. Legal 
fees are not assessed taxes. They are not assessed out of the control 
of the clients. When someone wants to hire a lawyer, they can generally 
choose from a variety of attorneys who will perform the necessary 
services.
  I gave two examples where these women couldn't find anybody else to 
represent them. I have taken a lot of cases, I am sorry to say--I am 
not sorry to say, it is part of the system. I have taken cases where I 
didn't get anything back, but I thought I was doing the right thing by 
taking them. I can remember a case where a little girl stepped off a 
schoolbus and was hit by a car on Russell Road in Las Vegas. I tried 
that case to a jury. I thought I deserved to win that case. I lost it. 
I felt bad about that. But that is what our free enterprise system is 
all about, the free market system.

  This amendment would interfere with legal private contracts. Clients 
don't have the power to negotiate rates with attorneys they retain all 
the time. If a client feels a rate is unfair, there is nothing to 
prevent that client from taking the business elsewhere.
  Beyond being bad policy, I oppose this amendment because it 
encourages constitutional taking of private property. By forcing 
attorneys to return their fees or suffer a 200-percent penalty without 
any semblance of legal process, this amendment demands these 
professionals simply hand over to others income they have lawfully 
earned.
  There may be some who believe a tobacco lawyer earned too much money, 
just as I feel Reuben Mark made too much money, just as I feel George 
David made too much money, Richard Fuld made too much money, Henry 
Silverman made too much money, and Dwight Schar made too much money. 
But it is not my right as a Member of this Congress to tell them they 
can't make that much money.
  It is no secret why Members of the other side of the aisle, in my 
opinion, are interested in passing this kind of amendment. This 
amendment uses the Tax Code and the full power of big Government to 
punish one particular kind of lawyer, the kind who tries to protect 
consumers from big corporations.
  A Republican governor in the State of Nevada, Kenny Guinn, my friend, 
established what is called in Nevada the millennial scholarships, 
giving scholarships to large numbers of children who have a B average 
when they graduate from high school. With what are those scholarships 
paid? Tobacco money. From where did the tobacco money come? From these 
lawyers who went to court and took a chance. That is where the money 
comes from.
  In Nevada, as in many other States, there are programs similar to 
that. We are saying, what did these lawyers do to earn their money? Ask 
a kid going to college in Nevada who wouldn't have the opportunity to 
go to college but for Kenny Guinn's millennial scholarships.
  These lawyers, the ones they are trying to castigate and punish here, 
are the lawyers who try to protect consumers from big corporations. 
These tobacco companies are big corporations, and due to the lawyers 
they are getting smaller all the time. The same people who want to cut 
taxes for the wealthiest corporations in our country now want to impose 
an unprecedented 200-percent tax on attorneys who hold these powerful 
companies accountable when they cause injury to ordinary Americans and 
their families.
  This amendment sets a terrible, horrible precedent that next we are 
going to be looking at these salaries. Next we are going to be looking 
at Freddie Adu's salary to see if he is making too much money or that 
man who plays baseball who is batting .210 and getting paid $18 million 
a year.
  If we look back, it is a dark chapter in the history of our Federal 
Government, but one of the articles of impeachment against President 
Nixon dealt with his abusive and discriminatory use of tax laws to 
harass his political enemies. I don't compare this to that, but I think 
it is something that draws reference, that what we have here is an 
effort to punish and use discriminatory tax laws to harass someone you 
don't like, the tobacco lawyers.
  This is a bad amendment. I am confident people of goodwill will join 
together, Democrats and Republicans, and resoundingly defeat this very 
un-American amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I would like to respond to the comments of my 
friend from Nevada. He had five basic arguments. I think they could all 
be dispensed with fairly quickly.
  His first argument is there are a lot of people who make money in 
this country, a lot of money, CEOs of businesses, sports figures, and 
others who receive very large salaries. He wondered if there is any 
difference between that and the tobacco lawyers who are billionaires 
because of the money they have made off the tobacco settlement. The 
answer is, yes, there is a huge difference. The CEOs and the sports 
figures are not fiduciaries. They are not in a trust relationship with 
the people who pay their salary. A sports figure, for example, uses a 
representative of the union and negotiates a fee with the baseball 
team, and they do pretty well. But it is all a contract negotiation.
  If George Steinbrenner is willing to take any New York Yankee player, 
whatever he is willing to pay him, that is what he thinks he is worth, 
that is what he brings in the gate, that player is not taking advantage 
of George Steinbrenner or the New York Yankee fans based upon any 
fiduciary responsibility.
  It is the same thing with respect to the boards of directors who set 
the salaries of CEOs of major corporations. What I quoted before from 
professors of law and others is that there is a special category of 
people who are in a fiduciary relationship. I know my friend from 
Nevada, as a good lawyer, knows this concept. Lawyers owe their clients 
a very special duty, a duty far and above what normal contract law is. 
You cannot take advantage of your client. Even if you can get your 
client to sign an agreement regarding fees, that agreement will be 
thrown out of court if the court determines it is unfair.
  That doesn't apply with the rich CEOs or the rich sports figures, but 
it applies in the case, for example, of lawyers, of fiduciaries who are 
trustees of a trust.
  That gets to the second argument--that this is unprecedented. No, it 
is not. I refer my colleague to section 4958 of the Tax Code. The 
section deals with an intermediate sanctions tax on fiduciaries, 
trustees who pay themselves too much money out of a trust. They are 
held to a standard of a reasonable fee. If they exceed that fee, they 
pay what? A 200-percent tax.
  We got the idea from the Tax Code. We didn't make this up. It is not 
unprecedented. So our section follows that section; it is 4959. So 
4958, existing law, says if you are a fiduciary, a trustee, and you 
charge your trust too much money for your salary so that the 
beneficiary is being hurt and it is unfair, then you are going to pay a 
200-percent tax to the IRS unless, of course, you give the excessive 
part back and the tax is waived. That is the whole idea. We never 
collect the 200-percent tax because nobody is foolish enough to take

[[Page S5781]]

the money and pay twice as much back.
  They just don't take the money in excess of what is fair. It is in 
the code and it applies to fiduciaries, people in this special trust 
relationship.
  The third argument was that the tobacco settlement was good, and it 
is good. There were scholarships, and a lot of people benefited from 
it. What bothers me is the fact that lawyers benefited unreasonably 
from it--not all lawyers; a lot of tobacco lawyers did a lot of work 
and got paid a lot for it, but they put the work in. Others rode along 
on the work of others and charged far in excess of what any reasonable 
fee would be.
  That gets to the next argument. My friend from Nevada talked about 
cases he took on a contingency fee, a one-third fee. He is correct. 
That is common for plaintiffs' lawyers. When they win, they get a third 
of the settlement. In many cases, that is a totally fair and reasonable 
fee. I know in the case of my colleague of Nevada, it was fair and 
reasonable because that is exactly the kind of person he is. If for 
some reason it would not have been, the court would not have allowed it 
because of this special fiduciary relationship with his clients. The 
court would not have allowed it if it exceeded that amount. I am sure--
and I would not ask my colleague--that none of those fees topped 
$20,000 an hour. That is the amount we have set forth in this bill.
  Again, these are not my words. I will quote a couple of people. John 
Coale, who is a big tobacco industry opponent in Washington, DC, 
denounced these fee awards as ``beyond human comprehension'' and stated 
that ``the work does not justify them.''
  The president of the organization to which these lawyers belong, the 
Association of American Trial Lawyers, said:

       Common sense suggests that a $1 billion fee is excessive 
     and unreasonable and certainly should invite the scrutiny [of 
     the courts.]

  The point is, a one-third contingency fee in a typical case is 
perfectly fine. But a one-third contingency fee in tobacco litigation--
the kind of reward these lawyers are receiving--is totally unreasonable 
by any standard, including that of the president of the organization to 
which these few lawyers belong. These lawyers have already received 
about $4 billion in awards. None of that will be touched. They are 
going to get another $\1/2\ billion a year under the settlement.
  All we are saying is that a reasonableness test has to apply, just as 
it does to other fiduciaries under the Tax Code. The excess refers to 
the Treasury so we can pay for things the Defense Department needs.
  Another argument was this would interfere with private contracts. No, 
it doesn't. It has no applicability between lawyers and clients--none. 
All this applies to is this master settlement agreement that 
automatically pays out a $\1/2\ billion in fees per year to these 
lawyers. It doesn't apply retroactively; it only applies if and when 
the collection by the lawyer gets to the point that it represents more 
than $20,000 an hour. These lawyers can be paid until the cows come 
home at $19,999 an hour. But when the level finally gets to $20,000, we 
say that is enough. Just as the Tax Code today makes the trustee pay 
the rest of it back, we say the rest of it gets paid back. It doesn't 
hurt the plaintiffs at all. The plaintiffs have received what they are 
going to receive out of the settlement. It doesn't help the tobacco 
companies. They still have to pay the money. But the tax--in effect, 
the money the tobacco companies pay goes partially to the trial 
lawyers, and the rest goes to the U.S. Treasury, rather than all of it 
going to the trial lawyers. So the tobacco lawyers get paid what is 
fair--more than fair--and the plaintiffs have already received their 
reward. The tobacco companies still have to pay what they had to pay 
originally. The benefit is to the U.S. Treasury, Department of Defense, 
and the people we put in harm's way to carry out their missions.
  The final argument made was one that I am not sure why it was made. 
My colleague acknowledged he knew this wasn't my motivation. Since I 
offered the amendment, it is unclear whose motivation therefore it 
would be--that it was a discriminatory tax policy to get at political 
enemies. This is what Nixon is alleged to have done. Of course, that is 
not the case here. I don't even know who these people are. I could not 
give you the name of one of them. I don't know how many there are. I 
don't know their politics or anything else. All I know is what others 
have said about them, which is that their fees are unconscionable, 
beyond human comprehension, that the work doesn't justify them, that 
the fees are excessive and unreasonable and should invite scrutiny, and 
so on and so on.
  The question the law professor asked after going through the ethics 
rules about lawyers fees always having to be reasonable, the kind of 
fee contracts that my colleague from Nevada had with his clients--he 
goes through that and says fees cannot be clearly excessive. The fees 
have to be reasonable. Then he asked:

       Are these fees, which in many cases amount to effective 
hourly rates of return of tens of thousands--and even hundreds of 
thousands--of dollars an hour, reasonable? I think to ask the question 
is to answer it.

  At the end of the day, the arguments raised against this amendment, 
frankly, are all fallacious. There is no relationship to CEOs or other 
people who make a lot of money. They don't have the same fiduciary 
relationship that a lawyer has to his client. A one-third contingency 
fee is a good thing. We all stipulate to that. But it still cannot be 
unreasonable.
  In this case, the amounts are so egregious that they go far beyond 
what the Senator from Nevada was talking about. Unprecedented? No. It 
is in the Tax Code today--the same 200-percent tax, the same 
application to the fiduciaries who charge more than reasonable fees.
  By the way, that also applies to another kind of fiduciaries--these 
particular tobacco lawyers. It would not interfere with other private 
contracts. By its terms, it doesn't apply to that.
  I think the bottom line here is that we are faced with the same 
choice we had before. We have an opportunity to generate some funds to 
pay for the things our troops need. We are on the Defense authorization 
bill. We are trying to authorize a lot of programs. Eventually, we are 
going to have to appropriate money for them. This amendment provides 
additional funds of, by my calculation, something on the order of about 
$9 billion, that we can apply toward the acquisition of this important 
equipment and the other things needed in our Defense bill.
  I suggest we need to give that stuff to our troops, that this is a 
way to pay for it, and that we have the added benefit of conforming our 
Tax Code to a situation here that is totally unreasonable and 
unconscionable, in the words of many, and that is that some of the 
tobacco lawyers are reaping a windfall.
  Money that is paid by the tobacco companies instead would be paid to 
the Treasury because it is far in excess of what is a reasonable fee. 
We have said, OK, we will not limit it at $2,000. Some people said a 
reasonable fee might be more than that. We said, how about $10,000 an 
hour? No, that might be a reasonable fee someplace. We said $20,000. I 
have not found anybody who can come on this floor and say to me that a 
legal fee, even in this case, of $20,000 an hour for all of these hours 
of work is reasonable and will meet the laugh test or the 
reasonableness test, which is the test all lawyers must meet and the 
test of the IRS Code with respect to fiduciary duties in the trustee 
context.

  It seems to me we have a great opportunity to help our troops. We are 
not hurting anybody by this amendment. I do not even think we can argue 
we are hurting these billionaire lawyers. I think it would be hard for 
them to spend all they have, and the little bit they are going to be 
denied here can do a whole lot more good in equipment in the hands of 
our troops. They cannot justify those fees coming to them in a 
prospective way under the settlement agreement they are taking 
advantage of today.
  This is the amendment we will vote on first. I urge my colleagues to 
vote for it.
  Then I urge my colleagues to vote against the underlying Lautenberg 
amendment. The easiest way to summarize the Lautenberg amendment--the 
Senator from New Jersey presented photographs and told some very 
disheartening stories of people who had been taken advantage of by 
other countries that harbor terrorists and that

[[Page S5782]]

the United States does not consider places where American companies 
should do business.
  I totally agree with the Senator from New Jersey. We need to have a 
provision for sanctions in a case such as that. If it were not for the 
fact we already have one, I would be supportive of the Senator's 
amendment. But we do already have a provision. It is being applied by 
the President of the United States.
  The point I tried to make earlier is that--and I am sure he did not 
mean to do it this way, but the language of the amendment of the 
Senator from New Jersey is even more restrictive than current law 
because it talks about ownership and control and defines it as at least 
50 percent when, in fact, you can keep the ownership under the 50 
percent and still have effective control of the corporation.
  In the case of the application of sanctions the way the President 
does it, he takes into account both factors so that a company that 
keeps the ownership at that level, under 50 percent, is not at all 
exempt from the application of sanctions imposed by the President of 
the United States because we also take into account the element of 
control.
  The Treasury Department and the State Department oppose the 
Lautenberg amendment because it restricts the President's authority in 
ways it is not restricted today.
  If there are any situations in which we need to apply these sanctions 
to countries where they are not applied today, I am perfectly willing 
to discuss that with anybody and urge the administration to do so. We 
have the authority today. The President is utilizing it. It does not 
seem to me, therefore, that the amendment of the Senator from New 
Jersey should be supported.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Kyl amendment, which will be 
voted on first, and oppose the Lautenberg amendment. That vote, I 
understand, will begin at 5:30 this afternoon.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada, the Democratic whip.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, Senator Levin is in the Chamber. I asked 
that he allow me to speak again, which he indicated he will.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I am happy to yield time to the Senator 
from Nevada. I do not know if we have other speakers. How much time 
remains?
  Mr. REID. There is 32 minutes left; is that right, Mr. President?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, will the Senator from Nevada yield for a 
question? Is there a division of time for both sides? Has the Chair 
announced how much time remains on both sides?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 8 minutes remaining on the majority 
side; 31\1/2\ minutes on the minority side.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, a great book, certainly a classic, was 
written in 1776 by Adam Smith called ``The Wealth Of Nations.'' This 
was the first time it was put down on paper that someone understood, 
from an economist's point of view, what the free enterprise system was 
and could be, and that is the basis for our country, this free 
enterprise system we hear so much about, capitalism, free markets. That 
is, in effect, what this debate is all about.
  It is about free markets; what people have the right to do and not 
do. We have given an illustration of baseball players and other court 
cases. The top 10 executives, as far as compensation in 2003, made 
about $14.6 million a month. That is what they made. I think my math is 
right. No, the top 10 executives made last year about $600 million. 
That is a whole lot of money, as we know. Is that too much money, more 
than half a billion dollars for the top 10 corporate executives in 
America to make?
  As I said before, I think so, but what right do I have to go to 
Nevada businesspeople--take, for example, the MGM corporation. MGM 
corporation, the vast majority of stock is owned by one of my former 
clients, Kirk Kerkorian, a great businessman, a wonderful human being. 
I have no idea how much Kirk Kerkorian makes, but he does not pay 
himself much money. He drives a relatively small car. He has a few 
things that appear to be luxurious, but not too many. He pays his 
corporate executives lots of money. Why? Because they deserve it.
  His No. 1 executive is a man by the name of Terry Lanny. Terry Lanny 
makes lots of money. According to the figures here, he did not make the 
top 10, but he is way up at the top. Why? Because the marketplace 
indicates that is what Terry Lanny is worth. It is no different than 
these lawyers. Terry Lanny has a contract. I have not seen it, but it 
calls for compensation today, next year, and I am sure years after 
that. If he left today, Kirk Kerkorian's company would keep paying him 
deferred compensation. That is what it is all about. That is what these 
lawyers have. We have no right to interfere.
  We are talking about some law professor. I have the highest respect 
for law professors, but they are some of the most underpaid people in 
America, and I bet they are so jealous of people making money that they 
could hardly wait to run to tell somebody they are being paid too much. 
Windfall--anything to a law professor is a windfall. So I am not 
impressed with a law professor saying some lawyer is making too much 
money.

  What I would like to say is that law professor should be out seeing 
how much money he can make, but I am not going to say that. What he is 
doing is second-guessing what the free market does.
  I understand the examples my friend from Arizona has given, how he 
thinks my argument is distinctive from the facts, but I think it is 
pretty clear what I am talking about, the points I have made.
  The example he has given with the fiduciary trust relationship is a 
totally different situation. The distinguished Presiding Officer is a 
lawyer who is certainly qualified to discuss legal matters, having been 
the attorney general of one of the most populated States in America. We 
know problems arise with people who have trust agreements. Many of them 
are not lawyers, and there has to be some control set because they do 
have a fiduciary relationship. Many of the people they represent are 
babes in the woods, so to speak, and there has to be some oversight 
there, and I agree with that. But I am not here to say corporate 
executives make too much money, or, I repeat, ballplayers make too much 
money, and lawyers make too much money. I think we should let the 
market control this situation.
  I hope this Congress, which talks so much about our capitalistic form 
of Government, this Senate which talks about it, I hope they will put 
their votes where their mouths have been in the past.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask that the time run against 
both sides.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Collins). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the distinguished Senator from 
Nevada, Mr. Ensign, be allowed to speak as in morning business and the 
time that he uses run equally against both sides.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The 
Senator from Nevada.


                       Honoring Our Armed Forces

  Mr. ENSIGN. Madam President, I rise to speak for a few minutes about 
the men and women in uniform who are serving this Nation in Iraq, 
Afghanistan, and around the world.
  I know the recent news has focused on the actions of a few of our 
service men and women, but I rise today because they truly are the 
exception.
  I want to thank the members of our armed services who continue to 
exhibit extraordinary bravery, integrity, and commitment. I want to 
remind them we are grateful for them each and every day as they defend 
our freedom and our security.
  My State of Nevada is proud and blessed to have many sons and 
daughters among the ranks of those on the front lines of our war on 
terrorism, people such as Jon Carpenter. Jon Carpenter is a 42-year-old 
marine reservist on his second tour in Iraq. Back in Las Vegas he has a 
wife and five children, and a proud community.

[[Page S5783]]

  Jon wrote a letter earlier this year to his friends and family 
explaining why he would return to Iraq with the First Marine Division.
  I ask unanimous consent that the entire letter be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       Why is Jon going back to Iraq?
       It is a question my wife and I have heard from quite a few 
     people recently after announcing that I am getting orders to 
     return to Iraq with the 1st Marine Division.
       Some have asked with a quizzical tone, assuming that I had 
     already done my duty for the country with my first trip to 
     Iraq last spring.
       Some have asked with expressed concern that I have a good 
     wife, five good kids, a good church and a good job here at 
     home that all need me, and that I should let the younger men 
     and women run off to war and serve their country.
       When people ask why I am going back to Iraq, I say 
     ``Because the country has asked.''
       Our country is at war, and even though the battlefields are 
     different than those of WWII, the dangers of not winning this 
     war are at least as great as those of our country's previous 
     wars.
       It is very easy to forget that we are at war, due to the 
     level of prosperity we have here and the lack of terrorists 
     attacks we have had since the beginning of this war on 
     terror. But we are at war, and during times of war, men and 
     women must make sacrifices.
       I look at the sacrifices that our fellow countrymen have 
     made during the world wars; and my previous deployments pale 
     in comparison.
       When people ask why I am going back to war, to fight on 
     foreign soil, to prevent the war from being fought on our 
     soil, endangering my family and friends, I say, ``Because I 
     can.''
       The next question is usually, ``What will Jon be doing 
     there?''
       I will be deployed with 1st Marine Division (Forward), when 
     they go back to an area near Baghdad. I will be part of the 
     Government Support Team, and assigned to the Police Training 
     team, responsible for retraining the Iraqi Police to retake 
     control of law enforcement functions and maintaining the 
     peace.
       The next question is usually ``How can we help you or your 
     family?''
       I usually say to pray regularly for my wife, family and I, 
     and to be supportive of the President and his policies in 
     Iraq. Both of these are extremely important, especially in 
     light of the relentless attack on the President, during a 
     time of war, by our country's own extremist citizens; i.e. 
     the liberals and media elite who hate that another socialist 
     country has fallen (Iraq), and that conservatives can take 
     credit for the tremendous successes we have had in the war on 
     terrorism.
       From experience, I can tell you how demoralizing all of the 
     criticism of the military and the dissension in the country 
     is on the troops in Iraq. It also encourages the radical 
     criminals and terrorists we are fighting over there to 
     continue fighting in hopes we will pull out.
       We are doing the right thing there, we are winning, and the 
     majority of the Iraqi citizens truly appreciate what we are 
     doing for them.
       So, thank you for your past support and thank you for your 
     future support of this next mission in Iraq.
       Sincerely--Jon Carpenter.

  Mr. ENSIGN. He states:

       When people ask why I am going back to Iraq, I say, 
     ``Because the country has asked.'' Our country is at war, and 
     even though battlefields are different than those of WWI, the 
     dangers of not winning this war are at least as great as 
     those of our country's previous wars.

  He continues on to write:

       But we are at war, and during times of war, men and women 
     must make sacrifices.

  Jon was wounded a few weeks ago when he was shot through the neck. He 
has recovered now, pinned with a Purple Heart, has returned to his work 
training Iraqi police officers. Actually, he could not wait to get back 
to his fellow troops.
  It is commendably common for our wounded troops to return to the 
front lines when given the option. That is because they are focused on 
the mission and determined to get the job done.
  Army PFC Sean Freeman, Sparks, NV, is another example of a determined 
soldier. He was wounded in a June 22 ambush last year in Baghdad where 
he was stationed as an artillery crewman. Sean suffered back, shoulder, 
and arm wounds and is stationed in Germany while he recovers. He is 
motivated to do so, so he can return to Iraq.
  The stories of bravery and heroism are truly inspiring and there is 
no shortage.
  Dr. Thom Merry in Douglas County, NV, volunteered for duty in Iraq as 
a flight surgeon and has since been decorated with a Bronze Star for 
entering a minefield, without regard for his own personal safety, to 
rescue a severely injured marine.
  TSgt William Kudzia, stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, 
was engaged in ground operations against an opposing armed force in 
Iraq and hand-excavated 226,000 pounds of high explosive bombs buried 
by fleeing Iraqi forces.
  With disregard for his own personal safety, he hand-removed a burning 
projectile, saving the lives of his team members and averting a 
catastrophic detonation. He was also awarded the Bronze Star with 
Valor.
  As brave as our men and women are, I think there is an equal amount 
of emotional bravery exhibited by the spouses, parents, and children 
left behind to wait for their loved one's safe return. Nevada Highway 
Patrol Trooper SGT Jim Olschlager's son, James Jr., is on an aircraft 
carrier. His daughter Laurie is in the Army and will be sent to Iraq in 
September, and his son-in-law Kendall is currently serving in Karbala, 
near Baghdad.
  In Fallon, NV, Juanita and Kevin Porteous got to visit with their son 
Jon for only a few days before his leave was cut short and he had to 
return to Iraq. I had looked forward to meeting and thanking Jon on a 
recent trip to Fallon, but was honored to deliver my appreciation via 
his parents. They are extremely proud of him, but that does not make 
the waiting or the worrying any easier.
  My prayers are with the Olschlager and Porteous families and every 
other family which is anxiously awaiting the return of a loved one. We 
all thank them for the sacrifices they have made to keep this Nation 
safe. The men and women of our Armed Forces are truly defending our 
security. Our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are critical to the 
continued ability to fight terrorism on foreign soil rather than on our 
shores.
  Make no mistake about it, a war on our homeland would be devastating. 
That is why it is so important for us to continue steadfastly 
supporting our troops. Although we cherish our freedom of speech and 
the opportunity to debate, our united voice of support is essential if 
we want our troops to continue giving 110 percent to the mission.
  It is easy to pretend what we as elected officials say is not heard 
by the men and women on the front lines, or for that matter by our 
enemies, but listen to what Jon Carpenter, the marine I talked about 
earlier, wrote before heading back to Iraq:

       From experience, I can tell you how demoralizing all the 
     criticism of the military and the dissension in the country 
     is on the troops in Iraq. It also encourages the radical 
     criminals and terrorists we are fighting over there to 
     continue fighting in hopes we will pull out. We are doing the 
     right thing there, we are winning, and the majority of the 
     Iraqi citizens truly appreciate what we are doing for them.

  God bless Jon Carpenter and all of the men and women who are willing 
to lay their lives down for this Nation. Our prayers are with you and 
your families. God bless America, truly the home of the brave.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I want to express my unwavering support 
for the men and women who wear this country's uniform and who are so 
bravely serving in dangerous areas throughout the world on our behalf. 
I have strongly supported and will continue to strongly support efforts 
to ensure that these courageous men and women continue to receive all 
of the resources they need to perform their duties. This is a serious 
issue that deserves serious focus. It should not be a part of gimmickry 
or a political sideshow and for that reason I oppose the amendment 
offered by the Senator from Arizona, Mr. Kyl.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, Senator Kyl has offered an amendment 
expressing the sense of the Senate that an excise tax should be imposed 
on any lawyer's contingency fees in tobacco cases when those fees 
exceed the equivalent of $20,000 per hour.
  I oppose this amendment because it singles out only one group of 
people who will be subjected to a government-

[[Page S5784]]

imposed salary cap--lawyers who go after the tobacco companies.
  The Kyl amendment does not apply to the CEO of Halliburton or Enron. 
It does not apply to the CEO of an HMO or a drug company. It does not 
even apply to lawyers who defend tobacco companies.
  I would be happy to consider a fair and balanced amendment. But this 
one-sided amendment that goes after lawyers because they go after the 
tobacco companies should be defeated.
  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I understand the vote is set for 5:30.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. WARNER. I see the distinguished Senator from Alabama, and I yield 
the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senator from Alabama is 
recognized.
  Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, how much time is left on both sides?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is no time left on the majority side. 
There is 3\1/2\ minutes left on the minority side.
  Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, is the Senator from Alabama speaking in 
opposition or in support of the amendment?
  Mr. SHELBY. I am speaking in opposition to the Lautenberg amendment.
  Mr. LEVIN. There is a chance Senator Lautenberg may be returning. If 
so, he would have wanted time. I have no problem agreeing to that.
  Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 3 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. If Senator Lautenberg wants to come, he can come.
  Mr. LEVIN. We ask unanimous consent, if Senator Lautenberg does 
return after Senator Shelby is finished, that Senator Lautenberg be 
recognized for 3 minutes immediately prior to the vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is 
so ordered.
  The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, I rise in strong support of the motion 
to table the amendment of the Senator from New Jersey, Mr. Lautenberg.
  As chairman of the Banking Committee which has jurisdiction over 
legislation pertaining to U.S. economic sanctions, I am more than a 
little familiar with the issue addressed by the amendment of the 
Senator from New Jersey. While his intent may be laudatory, the 
language of his amendment and the manner in which it has been proposed 
are not.
  There is a reason all administrations oppose legislation such as this 
amendment. Not only do they argue that it infringes on their 
constitutional right to conduct foreign policy--an argument we 
admittedly employ or ignore as the need arises--but, more importantly, 
the White House invariably recognizes the potential for the law of 
unintended consequences to come into play. There has been no 
opportunity for those consequences to be considered in a truly 
deliberative manner because the legislation has not been brought before 
the Banking Committee for any type of hearing.
  I take a backseat to no Member in this body in my support of strong 
economic sanctions as a vital tool in our foreign policy and national 
security arsenal, and I have been a strong advocate of closing 
loopholes that weaken those sanctions. My support for the Helms-Burton 
legislation was a case in point.
  In addition, as one of the few Members of the Senate who opposes 
weakening the Government's ability to prevent the flow of military-
sensitive technologies to countries with poor records in the areas of 
proliferation and support for terrorists, I believe my credentials in 
this area are quite strong.
  The intent, as I understand it, behind the amendment of the Senator 
from New Jersey is certainly meritorious. We all support the war 
against terrorism and the need to staunch the flow of dollars to 
terrorist organizations. Under my chairmanship, the Banking Committee 
has been investigating the issue of terrorist financing for over a 
year, and has additional hearings scheduled on the subject in the weeks 
ahead.
  We are taking this issue very seriously. We are examining the 
structure of the Federal Government to stem the flow of dollars to 
terrorist organizations. We work very closely with the Treasury 
Department Office of Foreign Assets and Control which is the 
Government's vehicle for enforcing U.S. economic sanctions to further 
prevent these organizations from gaining access to sources of revenue 
with which to fund their operation. OFAC, the Federal office 
responsible for enforcing sanctions, opposes the Lautenberg 
legislation.
  I stand ready to work with the Senator from New Jersey to ensure U.S. 
economic sanctions have the requisite team to accomplish the objective 
for which they are imposed. But this amendment is not the way to go.
  I urge my colleagues to support the motion to table.
  Mr. WARNER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays are ordered.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that after we vote on the Kyl 
amendment, there be 4 minutes equally divided prior to the vote on the 
Lautenberg amendment.
  Mr. WARNER. Reserving the right to object, I will not object, but 
that does not preclude a motion to table.
  Mr. REID. That is right.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The question is on agreeing to the amendment offered by Senator Kyl, 
as modified.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) 
is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 37, nays 62, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 100 Leg.]

                                YEAS--37

     Alexander
     Allard
     Bond
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Campbell
     Cochran
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Dole
     Domenici
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Kyl
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Roberts
     Santorum
     Sessions
     Snowe
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Warner

                                NAYS--62

     Akaka
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corzine
     Crapo
     Daschle
     Dayton
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Graham (FL)
     Graham (SC)
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Shelby
     Smith
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Voinovich
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Kerry
       
  The amendment (No. 3191) was rejected.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.


                             Change of Vote

  Mr. CRAPO. On rollcall vote 100, I voted ``yea.'' It was my intention 
to vote ``nay.'' Therefore, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted 
to change my vote since it will not affect the outcome.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, on rollcall vote 100, I voted ``aye.'' It 
was my intention to vote ``nay.'' Therefore, I ask unanimous consent 
that I be permitted to change my vote since it will not affect the 
outcome.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The foregoing tally has been changed to reflect the above order.)
  Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3151

  Mr. WARNER. Parliamentary inquiry, Madam President: Is not the 
Lautenberg amendment the pending amendment?

[[Page S5785]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are 4 minutes equally divided prior to 
the vote on the amendment.
  Who yields time?
  Mr. LEVIN. I think Senator Lautenberg has 2 minutes, and Senator Kyl 
has 2 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues please to permit 
us to have order in the Senate. We don't have much time to talk about 
this. I would appreciate the opportunity to speak.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Alexander). The Senate will be in order.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, please try to help us maintain order.
  This is very quick, very simple. My amendment is straightforward. 
Current sanctions law has a loophole that permits foreign subsidiaries 
of U.S. companies to do business with nations that sponsor terrorism, 
such as Iraq. My amendment closes the loophole. It is that simple. It 
only applies to foreign subsidiaries in which U.S. parent companies 
have a majority interest.
  The question is, do we want U.S. companies to sell oilfield equipment 
through a sham foreign subsidiary to a country such as Iran--which the 
President has rightly called the axis of evil--so Iran can sell its oil 
at greater profits and funnel those profits to Hezbollah, Hamas, or 
Islamic Jihad, terrorist groups that killed 240 marines in Beirut, 
Lebanon.
  These two young women in this photo, from New Jersey and New 
Hampshire, were killed in Israel by terrorist activities sponsored by 
Iran. It is very simple. The amendment says: Are you with us or against 
us? If you are with us and want them to stop killing our kids in Iraq, 
then you have to stand up and say, yes, this amendment counts, and, 
yes, we want to close this loophole. We just had a vote relating 
somewhat to my amendment. I hope my colleagues will stand up and say 
close the door.
  I thank the Chair.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I yield our time to Senator Kyl.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the State Department and Treasury Department 
strongly oppose this amendment because it is more restrictive than the 
current authority exercised by the President under IEEPA. The amendment 
would focus solely on ownership, which is a standard that can easily be 
circumvented and would be less effective than the administration's 
approach, which applies not only to ownership but also to control.
  It is very easy for a company to get just under 50-percent ownership 
but still control the subsidiary. Under the Senator's amendment, no 
sanction would be permitted in that circumstance. So rather than 
broadening the authority and making it more capable of adding sanctions 
to what we already have, it would actually restrict the authority the 
President currently has.
  That is why both Treasury and the State Department say let the 
President exert the current authority he has, which is broader. It is 
not a choice between helping people such as the Senator alluded to. 
This President is applying sanctions in those countries precisely where 
this condition exists.
  I urge my colleagues to vote against the Lautenberg amendment and 
don't weaken the provisions already existing. Allow the President the 
flexibility he needs.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, have the yeas and nays been ordered?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. They have not.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) 
is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 49, nays 50, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 101 Leg.]

                                YEAS--49

     Akaka
     Bayh
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Clinton
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corzine
     Daschle
     Dayton
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Graham (FL)
     Harkin
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Wyden

                                NAYS--50

     Alexander
     Allard
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Bond
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeWine
     Dole
     Domenici
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Graham (SC)
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Kyl
     Lott
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Roberts
     Santorum
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Voinovich
     Warner

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Kerry
       
  The amendment (No. 3151) was rejected.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, several colleagues are anxious to address 
the Chair, so I yield the floor momentarily.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I just want to say I thank my 
colleagues who worked so hard to get this legislation passed. But I 
want everybody to remember that this vote that was just taken said it 
is all right to do business with Iran. Look at the list of the dead and 
missing and see whether it is all right to vote for companies that sell 
to Iran. When we had a chance to close the loophole, the party lines 
were clear. No, stick with the companies. Forget about those who are 
serving in Iraq. Forget about those kids who want to come home in one 
piece. That is the kind of vote that just took place, and I hope the 
constituents back home will note it and remember it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Michigan, 
the ranking member on the committee, Mr. Levin, and I will momentarily 
process a number of agreed-upon amendments. So at this time, seeing no 
Senator seeking recognition, I will suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, as is the practice with my distinguished 
colleague, Mr. Levin, we have arrived at an agreement on a series of 
amendments. I would like at this point in time to proceed with perhaps 
a dozen or so.


                           Amendment No. 3205

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.
  the PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner], for himself and Mr. 
     Levin, proposes an amendment numbered 3205.

  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To correct the characterization of the funding authority for 
  up-armored high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles and wheeled 
               vehicle ballistic add-on armor protection)

       On page 18, strike line 11, strike ``AUTHORIZATION OF 
     APPROPRIATIONS FORK''.
       On page 18, strike lines 15 through 24, and insert the 
     following:
       (a) Amount.--Of the amount authorized to be appropriated 
     for the Army for fiscal year 2005 for other procurement under 
     section 101(5), $610,000,000 shall be available for both of 
     the purposes described in subsection (b) and may be used for 
     either or both of such purposes.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes referred to in subsection (a) 
     are as follows:

[[Page S5786]]

       On page 19, beginning on line 7, strike ``authorized to be 
     appropriated in'' and insert ``available under''.
       On page 19, line 17, strike ``authorized to be 
     appropriated'' and insert ``available under''.

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, this is a technical amendment which has 
been cleared by both sides.
  Am I correct?
  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate?
  If not, without objection, the amendment is agreed to.
  The amendment (No. 3205) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3206

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I offer an amendment that makes a 
technical correction. The amendment has been cleared on both sides.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 3206.

  The amendment is as follows:

              (Purpose: To correct a funding discrepancy)

       On page 25, line 25, strike ``$9,698,958,000'' and insert 
     ``$9,686,958,000''.

  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3206) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3207

  Mr. WARNER. I offer an amendment to make a technical correction 
related to military construction.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner] proposes an amendment 
     numbered 3207.

  The amendment is as follows:

     (Purpose: To make a technical correction relating to military 
                             construction)

       On page 318, line 2, strike ``$980,557,000'' and insert 
     ``$1,062,463,000''.

  Mr. LEVIN. That has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3207) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3208

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senator Levin, I 
offer an amendment to make a technical change in title 10, to conform 
with actions taken in last year's bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia, [Mr. Warner], for himself and 
     Mr. Levin, proposes an amendment numbered 3208.

  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To make a technical correction to a cross reference in title 
                        10, United States Code)

       On page 247, between lines 13 and 14, insert the following:

     SEC. 1022. TECHNICAL CORRECTION TO REFERENCE TO CERTAIN 
                   ANNUAL REPORTS.

       Section 2474(f)(2) of title 10, United States Code, is 
     amended by striking ``section 2466(e)'' and inserting 
     ``section 2466(d)''.

  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3208) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3209

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I offer an amendment for myself and 
Senator Levin to authorize the Secretary of Defense to continue home 
health benefits for covered beneficiaries as the Department implements 
legislative changes to home health services enacted in fiscal year 
2002.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner], for himself and Mr. 
     Levin, proposes an amendment numbered 3209.

  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To provide for continuation of part-time or intermittent home 
 health care benefits during transition to the sub-acute care program)

       At the end of title VII, add the following:

     SEC.   . CONTINUATION OF SUB-ACUTE CARE FOR TRANSITION 
                   PERIOD.

       Section 1074j(b) of title 10, United States Code, is 
     amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(4) The Secretary of Defense may take such actions as are 
     necessary to ensure that there is an effective transition in 
     the furnishing of part-time or intermittent home health care 
     benefits for covered beneficiaries who were receiving such 
     benefits before the establishment of the program under this 
     section. The actions taken under this paragraph may include 
     the continuation of such benefits on an extended basis for 
     such time as the Secretary determines appropriate.''.

  Mr. LEVIN. It has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3209) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3210

  Mr. WARNER. I offer an amendment for myself and Mr. Levin that will 
provide temporary authority to the Secretary of Defense to waive 
collection of TRICARE payments made on behalf of certain individuals 
who were unaware of the requirement to obtain Part B coinsurance under 
Medicare in order to remain eligible for TRICARE actions underway by 
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to offer a new 
enrollment period for those individuals as a remedy to this matter.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner], for himself and Mr. 
     Levin, proposes an amendment numbered 3210. The amendment is 
     as follows:

 (Purpose: To provide temporary authority for waiver of collection of 
payments due for CHAMPUS benefits received by disabled persons unaware 
   of loss of CHAMPUS eligibility and continuation of such benefits)

       At the end of subtitle B of title VII, insert the 
     following:

     SEC. 717. TEMPORARY AUTHORITY FOR WAIVER OF COLLECTION OF 
                   PAYMENTS DUE FOR CHAMPUS BENEFITS RECEIVED BY 
                   DISABLED PERSONS UNAWARE OF LOSS OF CHAMPUS 
                   ELIGIBILITY.

       (a) Authority To Waive Debt.--(1) The Secretary of Defense, 
     in consultation with the other administering Secretaries, may 
     waive (in whole or in part) the collection of payments 
     otherwise due from a person described in subsection (b) for 
     health benefits received by such person under section 1086 of 
     title 10, United States Code, after the termination of that 
     person's eligibility for such benefits.
       (2) If the Secretary of Defense waives collection of 
     payments from a person under paragraph (1), the Secretary may 
     also authorize a continuation of benefits for such person 
     under such section 1086 for a period ending not later than 
     the end of the period specified in subsection (c) of this 
     section.
       (b) Eligible Persons.--A person is eligible for relief 
     under subsection (a)(1) if--
       (1) the person is described in paragraph (1) of subsection 
     (d) of section 1086 of title 10, United States Code;
       (2) except for such paragraph, the person would have been 
     eligible for the health benefits under such section; and
       (3) at the time of the receipt of such benefits--
       (A) the person satisfied the criteria specified in 
     paragraph (2)(B) of such subsection (d); and
       (B) the person was unaware of the loss of eligibility to 
     receive the health benefits.
       (c) Period of Applicability.--The authority provided under 
     this section to waive collection of payments and to continue 
     benefits shall apply, under terms and conditions prescribed 
     by the Secretary of Defense, to health benefits provided 
     under section 1086 of title 10, United States Code, during 
     the period beginning on July 1, 1999, and ending at the end 
     of December 31, 2004.
       (d) Consultation With Other Administering Secretaries.--(1) 
     The Secretary of Defense shall consult with the other 
     administering Secretaries in exercising the authority 
     provided in this section.

[[Page S5787]]

       (2) In this subsection, the term ``administering 
     Secretaries'' has the meaning given such term in section 
     1072(3) of title 10, United States Code.

  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3210) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3211

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Allard, I offer an 
amendment which clarifies that local stakeholder organizations working 
in cooperation with the Department of Energy after closure of 
environmental management sites will be made up of local elected 
officials and their designees.
  This amendment, I believe, has been cleared on the other side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner], for Mr. Allard, 
     proposes an amendment numbered 3211.

  The amendment is as follows:

   (Purpose: To improve section 3120, relating to local stakeholder 
 organizations for Department of Energy Environmental Management 2006 
                             closure sites)

       Strike section 3120 and insert the following:

     SEC. 3120. LOCAL STAKEHOLDER ORGANIZATIONS FOR DEPARTMENT OF 
                   ENERGY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2006 CLOSURE 
                   SITES.

       (a) Establishment.--(1) The Secretary of Energy shall 
     establish for each Department of Energy Environmental 
     Management 2006 closure site a local stakeholder organization 
     having the responsibilities set forth in subsection (c).
       (2) The local stakeholder organization shall be established 
     in consultation with interested elected officials of local 
     governments in the vicinity of the closure site concerned.
       (b) Composition.--A local stakeholder organization for a 
     Department of Energy Environmental Management 2006 closure 
     site under subsection (a) shall be composed of such elected 
     officials of local governments in the vicinity of the closure 
     site concerned as the Secretary considers appropriate to 
     carry out the responsibilities set forth in subsection (c) 
     who agree to serve on the organization, or the designees of 
     such officials.
       (c) Responsibilities.--A local stakeholder organization for 
     a Department of Energy Environmental Management 2006 closure 
     site under subsection (a) shall--
       (1) solicit and encourage public participation in 
     appropriate activities relating to the closure and post-
     closure operations of the site;
       (2) disseminate information on the closure and post-closure 
     operations of the site to the State government of the State 
     in which the site is located, local and Tribal governments in 
     the vicinity of the site, and persons and entities having a 
     stake in the closure or post-closure operations of the site;
       (3) transmit to appropriate officers and employees of the 
     Department of Energy questions and concerns of governments, 
     persons, and entities referred to paragraph (2) on the 
     closure and post-closure operations of the site; and
       (4) perform such other duties as the Secretary and the 
     local stakeholder organization jointly determine appropriate 
     to assist the Secretary in meeting post-closure obligations 
     of the Department at the site.
       (d) Deadline for Establishment.--The local stakeholder 
     organization for a Department of Energy Environmental 
     Management 2006 closure site shall be established not later 
     than six months before the closure of the site.
       (e) Inapplicability of Federal Advisory Committee Act.--The 
     Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not 
     apply to local stakeholder organizations under this section.
       (f) Department of Energy Environmental Management 2006 
     Closure Site Defined.--In this section, the term ``Department 
     of Energy Environmental Management 2006 closure site'' means 
     each clean up site of the Department of Energy scheduled by 
     the Department as of January 1, 2004, for closure in 2006.

  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3211) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3212

  Mr. LEVIN. On behalf of Senator Byrd, I offer an amendment which 
would require the Secretary of Defense to increase the size of the 
acquisition workforce to address the huge management challenges that we 
face in this area.
  I believe this amendment has been cleared on the other side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Michigan [Mr. Levin], for Mr. Byrd, 
     proposes an amendment numbered 3212.

  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To require an increase in the size of the defense acquisition 
    and support workforce during fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007)

       On page 177, strike lines 14 through 24, and insert the 
     following:
       (b) Increase and Realignment of Workforce.--(1)(A) During 
     fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007, the Secretary of Defense 
     shall increase the number of persons employed in the defense 
     acquisition and support workforce as follows:
       (i) During fiscal year 2005, to 105 percent of the baseline 
     number (as defined in subparagraph (B)).
       (ii) During fiscal year 2006, to 110 percent of the 
     baseline number.
       (iii) During fiscal year 2007, to 115 percent of the 
     baseline number.
       (B) In this paragraph, the term ``baseline number'', with 
     respect to persons employed in the defense acquisition and 
     support workforce, means the number of persons employed in 
     such workforce as of September 30, 2003 (determined on the 
     basis of full-time employee equivalence).
       (C) The Secretary of Defense may waive a requirement in 
     subparagraph (A) and, subject to subsection (a), employ in 
     the defense acquisition and support workforce a lesser number 
     of employees if the Secretary determines and certifies to the 
     congressional defense committees that the cost of increasing 
     such workforce to the larger size as required under that 
     subparagraph would exceed the savings to be derived from the 
     additional oversight that would be achieved by having a 
     defense acquisition and support workforce of such larger 
     size.
       (2) During fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007, the Secretary 
     of Defense may realign any part of the defense acquisition 
     and support workforce to support reinvestment in other, 
     higher priority positions in such workforce.

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, it's difficult to imagine a subject that is 
more obscure and more arcane than the federal procurement process. At 
times, it seems as though an impenetrable fog hangs over government 
contractors, clouding the process by which taxpayer funds are awarded 
and spent.
  Nowhere is the issue of federal procurement more clouded, more 
obscured from public scrutiny than in the Defense Department.
  What little information makes it into the mainstream media usually 
reinforces the worst cliches about government waste. The stories are 
familiar. We have all heard them. They are a grotesque litany of 
negligence and greed.
  We read that the Pentagon has awarded billions of dollars to a 
contractor to produce a new supersonic stealth fighter. Twenty aircraft 
come off the production line and hundreds more are planned--only then 
do we find out that nobody has tested the new fighter to see if it 
actually works.
  We read of how a contractor has charged the Federal Government for 
products and services never provided, and then of how the government 
must engage in lengthy, costly efforts to get the taxpayers' money 
back.
  And then there is the over-billing.
  We read about Defense Department officials who must wrestle with 
contractors over inflated pricing of spare parts. A disputed bill for 
airplane parts in 1999 includes: $2,522 for a 4\1/2\-inch metal sleeve, 
$744 for a washer, $714 for a rivet, and $5,217 for a 1-inch metal 
bracket.
  Whatever the excuses--and I am sure there are legions of them--it is 
unfathomable to me that, year after year, administration after 
administration, our Government continues to endure the waste of 
billions and billions of taxpayer dollars on incompetent and negligent 
defense contractors who continually fail to deliver products and 
services on time and at a cost commensurate with what they promised.
  Even with our troops overseas in Iraq--where, in too many cases, some 
of their most basic needs for armor and food are going unaddressed--the 
Defense Department continues to tolerate enormous waste from its 
contractors. Not enough questions asked, not enough accountability 
required.
  In March, the new inspector general of the U.S.-led authority in 
Iraq, with

[[Page S5788]]

colossal understatement, identified ``improper procedures and limited 
competition'' as ``issues of concern'' with regard to contractors in 
Iraq.
  The Inspector General reported only 20 percent of the 1,500 contracts 
awarded last fiscal year--about $2 billion of the $10 billion in 
taxpayer funds awarded to defense contractors in Iraq--has been awarded 
through full and open competition.
  The Inspector General noted that the Defense Contract Audit Agency 
has issued more than 187 audit reports related to nearly $7 billion in 
reconstruction work. These audits have found $133 million in 
questionable costs and $307 million in unsupported costs and have led 
to $176.5 million in suspended billings.
  The Inspector General reported that the Defense Criminal 
Investigative Service has opened four bribery and corruption cases, 
four theft cases, two false claims cases, three weapons recovery cases, 
four counterfeit cases, and one conflict of interest case.
  The Inspector General's report is the tip of an enormous and largely 
hidden iceberg. The Defense Department's contract oversight system is a 
sloppy, incomprehensible mess, and it has left the Defense Department 
with the unfortunate reputation of ignoring contractor rip-offs.
  Procurement managers must be held accountable. Agency heads must be 
held accountable. Contracting officers must be held accountable. And, 
yet, they are not. The abuse and waste of the taxpayers' dollars is 
somehow allowed to continue.
  The problem is attributable, in part, to the draconian staff cuts in 
the federal acquisition workforce. These are the civil servants who 
analyze proposed prices on bids, who keep tabs on cost overruns, who 
commit contractual fine print to memory so they can make sure 
requirements and standards are met. Since 1989, the number of these 
civil servants has been cut in half--one of the most dramatic 
reductions in the entire federal workforce since the end of the cold 
war.
  Meanwhile, as procurement and contract oversight staffs have been 
shrinking, Defense's contracting activity has soared. It is now routine 
for the Pentagon to award multi-billion dollar contracts for logistics 
support for an entire weapon system or a host of support services for 
U.S. troops deployed in an overseas operation. These are the contracts 
the American public reads about most in the newspapers, where companies 
are alleged to have overcharged the taxpayers for fuel and meals 
supplied to U.S. troops in Iraq.
  The Pentagon's Inspector General has rightly urged more vigilance by 
Defense auditors. But the Defense Department hasn't the staff or the 
resources to do it. Understaffed auditing agencies must pick and choose 
where to focus their resources. Likewise, the Congress remains woefully 
unprepared to oversee how taxpayer funds are being spent on defense 
contracts in Iraq and elsewhere. Congressional committees, along with 
the Defense Contract Audit Agency, the Inspector Generals' offices, and 
the Justice Department, do catch abuses, but not all of them.
  All of this makes it increasingly tempting for companies to inflate 
their prices and to hide the real costs behind impenetrable contractual 
jargon.
  Contractors have no incentive to contain costs. The more a contractor 
bills, the more money the contractor makes.
  This is the dark side of acquisition. For all of the benefits and 
contributions provided by defense contractors--and there have been many 
contributions over the years--the lack of oversight makes it impossible 
for any Member of Congress to vote for additional defense dollars and 
honestly tell their constituents that those taxpayer funds will be well 
spent.
  Every acquisition dollar frittered away on negligent contractors is 
one less taxpayer dollar available to support our troops. It is one 
more dollar that will be taken from our domestic needs here at home.
  The American people should demand more from their Congress. They 
should demand better from their President.
  We are asking men and women to make the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq 
and around the world. The food that nourishes them and the armor that 
shields them should not provide a blank check for avarice and 
imprudence.
  I intend to offer an amendment that would require the Secretary of 
Defense to increase the size of the Pentagon's acquisition workforce. 
Under my amendment, the Secretary of Defense would be allowed to waive 
this required increase, but only if the Secretary can certify to the 
Congress that such an increase in the workforce would not yield 
sufficient savings to offset the cost of the additional personnel.
  I recognize that the scope of the problems with the Pentagon's 
procurement system is larger than this amendment.
  Gross waste, negligent oversight, and rampant abuse are embedded deep 
within our federal procurement system.
  The procurement abuses that have been widely reported in Iraq--the 
allegations of favoritism, the lack of oversight, the fraudulent 
charges, the rampant waste--are common to other departments and 
agencies of the federal government.
  Recently, far too much of the contracting debate has focused on 
individual agencies or individual contracts being negotiated by the 
administration. Many of them are important, but we also need to look at 
the bigger picture of what is wrong with the overall procurement 
process.
  What is needed are comprehensive hearings by the Committees with 
jurisdiction, primarily the Senate Governmental Affairs and the Armed 
Services Committees, to identify the most serious problems and to make 
recommendations to fix them. Extensive hearings are needed not only to 
educate the Congress, but also the American public about the waste in 
the procurement system and the statutory changes needed to address 
them.
  Comprehensive legislation should be reported to the full Senate, 
which should take the time necessary to debate the bill and to consider 
amendments.
  It will require an enormous effort. It will require skilled 
legislators with an adroit understanding of the issues. At the end of 
the day, the procurement system should be transparent and open to 
public scrutiny and understanding it. In the meantime, I offer my 
amendment to help the administration better oversee the defense 
contractors it employs.
  Each year, the Congress appropriates billions of taxpayer dollars to 
federal agencies to pay federal contractors with little means of ever 
fully accounting for how those funds are spent. Staff must be properly 
trained. Resources must be provided. Contractors must be held 
accountable to make sure they do their job right.
  This is a common sense approach to a problem that has been ignored 
for far too long.
  I urge the adoption of my amendment.
  Mr. WARNER. The amendment has support on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3212) was agreed to.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3169

  Mr. WARNER. On behalf of Senators Domenici and Bingaman, I offer an 
amendment which clarifies how the Department of Energy, working with 
the contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, will provide 
support for the Los Alamos public schools.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner], for Mr. Domenici 
     and Mr. Bingaman, proposes an amendment numbered 3169.

  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To provide a substitute for section 3144, relating to support 
for public education in the vicinity of Los Alamos National Laboratory, 
                              New Mexico)

       Strike section 3144 and insert the following:

     SEC. 3144. SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE VICINITY OF 
                   LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY, NEW MEXICO.

       The Secretary of Energy shall require that the primary 
     management and operations contract for Los Alamos National 
     Laboratory, New Mexico, that involves Laboratory operations 
     after September 30, 2005, shall contain terms requiring the 
     contractor

[[Page S5789]]

     under such contract to provide support to the Los Alamos 
     Public School District, New Mexico, for the elementary and 
     secondary education of students by the School District in the 
     amount of $8,000,000 in each fiscal year.

  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3169) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3213

  Mr. LEVIN. I offer an amendment requested by Mr. Reed of Rhode Island 
as a technical clarification to section 1005 of S. 2400 to clarify the 
types of recreational programs that can be supported by this section.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Michigan [Mr. Levin], for Mr. Reed, 
     proposes an amendment numbered 3213.

  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To clarify the programs of the service academies that may be 
               subject to uniform funding and management)

       Strike section 1005, and insert the following:

     SEC. 1005. UNIFORM FUNDING AND MANAGEMENT OF SERVICE ACADEMY 
                   ATHLETIC AND RECREATIONAL EXTRACURRICULAR 
                   PROGRAMS.

       (a) United States Military Academy.--(1) Chapter 403 of 
     title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 
     the following new section:

     ``Sec. 4359. Athletic and recreational extracurricular 
       programs: uniform funding

       ``The authority and conditions provided in section 2494 of 
     this title shall also apply to any athletic or recreational 
     extracurricular program of the Academy that--
       ``(1) is not considered a morale, welfare, or recreation 
     program referred to in such section;
       ``(2) is funded out of appropriated funds;
       ``(3) is supported by a supplemental mission 
     nonappropriated fund instrumentality; and
       ``(4) is not operated as a private organization.''.
       (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such title is 
     amended by adding at the end the following new item:

``4359. Athletic and recreational extracurricular programs: uniform 
              funding.''.

       (b) United States Naval Academy.--(1) Chapter 603 of title 
     10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
     following new section:

     ``Sec. 6978. Athletic and recreational extracurricular 
       programs: uniform funding

       ``The authority and conditions provided in section 2494 of 
     this title shall also apply to any athletic or recreational 
     extracurricular program of the Naval Academy that--
       ``(1) is not considered a morale, welfare, or recreation 
     program referred to in such section;
       ``(2) is funded out of appropriated funds;
       ``(3) is supported by a supplemental mission 
     nonappropriated fund instrumentality; and
       ``(4) is not operated as a private organization.''.
       (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such title is 
     amended by adding at the end the following new item:

``6978. Athletic and recreational extracurricular programs: uniform 
              funding.''.

       (c) United States Air Force Academy.--(1) Chapter 903 of 
     title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 
     the following new section:

     ``Sec. 9358. Athletic and recreational extracurricular 
       programs: uniform funding

       ``The authority and conditions provided in section 2494 of 
     this title shall also apply to any athletic or recreational 
     extracurricular program of the Academy that--
       ``(1) is not considered a morale, welfare, or recreation 
     program referred to in such section;
       ``(2) is funded out of appropriated funds;
       ``(3) is supported by a supplemental mission 
     nonappropriated fund instrumentality; and
       ``(4) is not operated as a private organization.''.
       (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such title is 
     amended by adding at the end the following new item:

``9358. Athletic and recreational extracurricular programs: uniform 
              funding.''.

       (d) Effective Date and Applicability.--This section and the 
     amendments made by this section shall take effect on October 
     1, 2004, and shall apply with respect to funds appropriated 
     for fiscal years beginning on or after such date.

  Mr. WARNER. It has been cleared on this side. I urge its adoption.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3213) was agreed to.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3214

  Mr. WARNER. I offer an amendment on behalf of Senator Sessions to 
authorize the Secretary of the Air Force to authorize the exchange of 
land at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner], for Mr. Sessions, 
     propose an amendment numbered 3214.

  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To authorize the exchange of land at Maxwell Air Force Base, 
                                Alabama)

       On page 365, between lines 18 and 19, insert the following:

     SEC. 2830. LAND EXCHANGE, MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, ALABAMA.

       (a) Conveyance Authorized.--The Secretary of the Air Force 
     may convey to the City of Montgomery, Alabama (in this 
     section referred to as the ``City''), all right, title, and 
     interest of the United States in and to a parcel of real 
     property, including any improvements thereon, consisting of 
     approximately __ acres and including all of the Maxwell 
     Heights Housing site and located at Maxwell Air Force Base, 
     Alabama.
       (b) Consideration.--(1) As consideration for the conveyance 
     of property under subsection (a), the City shall convey to 
     the United States all right, title, and interest of the City 
     to a parcel of real property, including any improvements 
     thereon, consisting of approximately 35 acres and designated 
     as project AL 6-4, that is owned by the City and is 
     contiguous to Maxwell Air Force Base, for the purpose of 
     allowing the Secretary to incorporate such property into a 
     project for the acquisition or improvement of military 
     housing under subchapter IV of chapter 169 of title 10, 
     United States Code. The Secretary shall have administrative 
     jurisdiction over the real property received under this 
     subsection.
       (2) If the fair market value of the real property received 
     under paragraph (1) is less than the fair market value of the 
     real property conveyed under subsection (a) (as determined 
     pursuant to an appraisal acceptable to the Secretary), the 
     Secretary may require the City to provide, pursuant to 
     negotiations between the Secretary and the City, in-kind 
     consideration the value of which when added to the fair 
     market value of the property conveyed under subsection (b) 
     equals the fair market value of the property conveyed under 
     subsection (a).
       (c) Payment of Costs of Conveyance.--(1) The Secretary may 
     require the City to cover costs to be incurred by the 
     Secretary, or to reimburse the Secretary for costs incurred 
     by the Secretary, to carry out the conveyances under 
     subsections (a) and (b), including survey costs, costs 
     related to environmental documentation, and other 
     administrative costs related to the conveyances. If amounts 
     are collected from the City in advance of the Secretary 
     incurring the actual costs, and the amount collected exceeds 
     the costs actually incurred by the Secretary to carry out the 
     conveyance, the Secretary shall refund the excess amount to 
     the City.
       (2) Amounts received as reimbursement under paragraph (1) 
     shall be credited to the fund or account that was used to 
     cover the costs incurred by the Secretary in carrying out the 
     conveyances. Amounts so credited shall be merged with amounts 
     in such fund or account, and shall be available for the same 
     purposes, and subject to the same conditions and limitations, 
     as amounts in such fund or account.
       (d) Description of Property.--The exact acreage and legal 
     description of the property to be conveyed under subsections 
     (a) and (b) shall be determined by surveys satisfactory to 
     the Secretary.
       (e) Additional Terms and Conditions.--The Secretary may 
     require such additional terms and conditions in connection 
     with the conveyances under subsections (a) and (b) as the 
     Secretary considers appropriate to protect the interests of 
     the United States.

  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3214) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3215

  Mr. LEVIN. On behalf of Senators Sarbanes and Mikulski, I offer an 
amendment that would authorize a land exchange between the Navy and the 
State of Maryland at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.

[[Page S5790]]

  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Michigan [Mr. Levin], for Mr. Sarbanes, 
     for himself and Ms. Mikulski, proposes an amendment numbered 
     3215.

  The amendment is as follows:

 (Purpose: To authorize a land conveyance, Naval Air Station, Patuxent 
                            River, Maryland)

       At the end of subtitle C of title XXVIII, add the 
     following:

     SEC. 2830. LAND EXCHANGE, NAVAL AIR STATION, PATUXENT RIVER, 
                   MARYLAND.

       (a) Conveyance Authorized.--The Secretary of the Navy may 
     convey to the State of Maryland (in this section referred to 
     as ``State''), all right, title, and interest of the United 
     States in and to a parcel of real property, including 
     improvements thereon, consisting of approximately five acres 
     at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland, and 
     containing the Point Lookout Lighthouse, other structures 
     related to the lighthouse, and an archaeological site 
     pertaining to the military hospital that was located on the 
     property during the Civil War. The conveyance shall include 
     artifacts pertaining to the military hospital recovered by 
     the Navy and held at the installation.
       (b) Property Received in Exchange.--As consideration for 
     the conveyance of the real property under subsection (a), the 
     State shall convey to the United States a parcel of real 
     property consisting of approximately five acres located in 
     Point Lookout State Park, St. Mary's County, Maryland.
       (c) Payment of Costs of Conveyance.--(1) The Secretary may 
     require the State to cover costs to be incurred by the 
     Secretary, or to reimburse the Secretary for costs incurred 
     by the Secretary, to carry out the conveyance under 
     subsection (a), including survey costs, costs related to 
     environmental documentation, relocation expenses incurred 
     under subsection (b), and other administrative costs related 
     to the conveyance. If amounts are collected from the State in 
     advance of the Secretary incurring the actual costs, and the 
     amount collected exceeds the costs actually incurred by the 
     Secretary to carry out the conveyance, the Secretary shall 
     refund the excess amount to State.
       (2) Amounts received as reimbursement under paragraph (1) 
     shall be credited to the fund or account that was used to 
     cover the costs incurred by the Secretary in carrying out the 
     conveyance. Amounts so credited shall be merged with amounts 
     in such fund or account, and shall be available for the same 
     purposes, and subject to the same conditions and limitations, 
     as amounts in such fund or account.
       (d) Description of Property.--The exact acreage and legal 
     description of the properties to be conveyed under this 
     section shall be determined by surveys satisfactory to the 
     Secretary.
       (e) Additional Terms and Conditions.--The Secretary may 
     require such additional terms and conditions in connection 
     with the conveyances under this section as the Secretary 
     considers appropriate to protect the interests of the United 
     States.

                             Amendment 3215

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, this amendment would authorize a land 
exchange between the State of Maryland and the Naval Air Station, 
Patuxent River.
  Specifically, the amendment directs the Secretary of the Navy to 
convey approximately 5 acres, including the Point Lookout Lighthouse 
and related facilities, as well as an archaeological site and recovered 
artifacts pertaining to the military hospital located on the property 
during the Civil War. In exchange, the State of Maryland would transfer 
a similar parcel to the Navy for the location of the new tracking 
station.
  At present, the Navy's Range Theodolite Tracking System is located on 
an historic parcel at the edge of Point Lookout State Park in St. 
Mary's County, Maryland. Navy Range Operations operates and maintains 
support facilities in historically significant structures formerly 
associated with the operation Point Lookout Lighthouse. These 
facilities, which date to the 19th century, now house radio relay, 
range surveillance radar, and a Remote Emitter System, all of which are 
controlled at Cedar Point via fiber optic link. Over the years, the 
facilities have deteriorated and can no longer meet the critical needs 
of the Navy.
  This amendment has the support of both the Navy and the State of 
Maryland. In fact, last year, the State made available $450,000 for the 
preservation and restoration of the lighthouse so that it might be 
incorporated into the park and open for public use.
  In my view, this amendment represents a real win-win for both the 
Navy and the people of the State of Maryland. This transfer will 
ultimately result in overall cost-savings for the Navy--and the 
preservation of the structures and the historic site.
  I am pleased that Senator Mikulski has joined me in cosponsoring the 
amendment. I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting its adoption.
  Mr. WARNER. We accept on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3215) was agreed to.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                           Amendment No. 3165

  Mr. WARNER. This is our final amendment. I offer an amendment on 
behalf of Senator Coleman, which would direct the Secretary of Defense 
to carry out a study on feasibility of the use of Camp Ripley National 
Guard Training Center in Minnesota as a mobilization station for 
Reserve components ordered to active duty.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner], for Mr. Coleman, 
     proposes an amendment numbered 3165.

  The amendment is as follows:

 (Purpose: To require a study of establishment of mobilization station 
at Camp Ripley National Guard Training Center, Little Falls, Minnesota)

       On page 247, between lines 13 and 14, insert the following:

     SEC. 1022. STUDY OF ESTABLISHMENT OF MOBILIZATION STATION AT 
                   CAMP RIPLEY NATIONAL GUARD TRAINING CENTER, 
                   LITTLE FALLS, MINNESOTA.

       Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall carry out and 
     complete a study on the feasibility of the use of Camp Ripley 
     National Guard Training Center, Little Falls, Minnesota, as a 
     mobilization station for reserve components ordered to active 
     duty under provisions of law referred to in section 
     101(a)(13)(B) of title 10, United States Code. The study 
     shall include consideration of the actions necessary to 
     establish such center as a mobilization station.

  Mr. LEVIN. The amendment has been cleared on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 3165) was agreed to.
  Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                             Amendment 3158

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of the 
amendment offered by Senators Dorgan, Lott, Feinstein and myself to 
refocus the provisions in the Fiscal Year 2002 Defense Authorization 
Bill that authorizes a base closure round in 2005 from our domestic 
installations to our overseas military infrastructure. I do so because 
I am firmly convinced that today, in this unprecedented era of our 
global war on terrorism, as we continue operations in Afghanistan to 
root out the seeds of terror, as we are engaged in ensuring a free Iraq 
in the heart of the Middle East, it makes no sense to consider closing 
nearly a quarter of our domestic military infrastructure in addition to 
the 21 percent already lost over the past 15 years here in America.
  I arrive at this debate as a veteran of a number of issues key to our 
deliberations. First, I have been all too intimately acquainted with 
every base closure round since the first in 1988 as well as the 
accompanying pitfalls, failures and foibles of each--and believe me, 
there were many. Second, with 12 years as ranking member of the House 
Foreign Affairs International Operations Subcommittee, as chair of the 
subcommittee's Senate counterpart, as a former member of the Senate 
Armed Services Committee and former chair of the Seapower Subcommittee, 
I cannot and will not ignore the pattern I have discerned of a failure 
to ``connect'' critical ``dots'' in the past--and the implications of 
these shortfalls for our ability to project into the future.
  For starters, having fought battle after battle after battle to 
preserve the former Loring Air Force Base in Maine, only to have 
criteria changed and added literally at the 11th hour, you can feel 
free to label me a ``skeptic'' when it comes to the integrity of the 
process. In fact, we had not one but two Air Force generals defending 
Loring

[[Page S5791]]

before the BRAC Commission but in a fundamental breach of confidence in 
the process, when they could not counter our strategic arguments for 
Loring, it was a brand new factor--so-called ``quality of life''--that 
tipped the scales against strategic location and military value at the 
very last moment when the Air Force claimed its facilities were ``well 
below average'' despite the fact that $300 million had been spent there 
over a 10 year period to replace or upgrade nearly everything on the 
base.
  To date, 49 bases in the Northeast alone have been lost to BRAC while 
the region--closest to Europe of anywhere in the United States I might 
add--has already suffered about a 50 percent reduction in 
infrastructure under BRAC. And now further cuts are being discussed, 
when it was the northeast that suffered the worst attack ever on 
American soil? When 18 percent of America's population lives in that 
region? And when we know the Department of Homeland Security is not 
going to be building any bases--should we be considering closing the 
very military facilities that are required to protect the Nation?
  The fact is, once our critical bases are lost, they are lost forever. 
In that light, given the transformational times in which we live, given 
the requirement to make fiscal year 2005 BRAC projections 20 years into 
the future, while the track record of 6 year projections in the past 
has been so poor, as I will illustrate, given these projections will be 
the foundation upon which all infrastructure assessments will be built, 
and given that I have never been convinced of the alleged cost savings 
resulting from BRAC--an underpinning of the effort to even have a BRAC 
process in the first place--I do not believe this BRAC round should 
proceed at this time.
  Advocates of BRAC allege that billions of dollars will be saved, 
despite the fact that there is no consensus on the numbers among 
different sources. These estimates vary because, as the Congressional 
Budget Office explained in 1998, BRAC savings are really ``avoided 
costs.'' Because these avoided costs are not actual expenditures and 
cannot be recorded and tracked by the Department of Defense accounting 
systems, they cannot be validated, which has led to inaccurate and 
overinflated estimates of savings.
  These estimated savings also do not include the very real costs of 
economic cleanup and financial assistance provided by Federal agencies 
to BRAC-affected communities and individuals. According to a 1998 
report by the General Accounting Office, the unaccounted costs for 
environmental cleanup beyond the 6-year BRAC implementation period can 
exceed $2.4 billion and an additional $1.1 billion was in community 
assistance--and also not accounted for in the Department's estimated 
savings that result from BRAC.
  That same General Accounting Office report also found that land 
sales from the first base closure round in 1988 were estimated by 
Pentagon officials to produce $2.4 billion in revenue; however, as of 
1995, the actual revenue generated was only $65.7 million. That's about 
25 percent of the expected value. This type of overly optimistic 
accounting establishes a very poor foundation for initiating a policy 
that will have a permanent impact on our national defenses, the 
military and the civilian communities surrounding these bases.

  So the bottom line is, no one really knows what the bottom line is. 
But what most concerns me is the inadequacy of the military's threat 
assessment projections time after time accompanying the requirement 
included in the enacting BRAC legislation in 1991, that stipulates that 
the Secretary:

     shall include a force structure plan for the Armed Forces 
     based on an assessment by the Secretary of the probable 
     threats to the national security during the six-year period 
     beginning with the fiscal year for which the budget request 
     is made.

  I can say this because I have reviewed the military threat 
assessments contained in the force structure plans that the Department 
provided along with the justifications for the 1991, 1993 and 1995 BRAC 
rounds as well as other key assessments made by the Department during 
that time such as the 1993 Bottom Up Review, the 1997 Quadrennial 
Review and the 2001 Quadrennial Review. Specifically, I wondered, how 
did actual events and results match with their expectations? How did 
their threat assessments dovetail with new realities like 
``terrorism,'' ``asymmetric threat,'' ``homeland security'' or 
``homeland defense.'' I then went back a little more than 21 years ago 
to the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut and looked at significant 
terrorist events directed against Americans throughout the world as 
chronicled by the State Department.
  In the 1980's, American interests were clearly and constantly under 
attack--6 months after the embassy bombing in Beirut, we lost 242 brave 
Marines there to a suicide bomber. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked 
and a U.S. Navy diver, Robert Stethem was killed, and that October, 
four terrorists seized the Achille Lauro and killed Leon Klinghofer. In 
1986, another two servicemen were killed and 79 American servicemen 
injured when a Berlin disco was bombed--my colleagues will recall this 
action resulted in President Reagan's launching of Operation El Dorado 
Canyon against Libya--and, tragically, in December of 1988, Pan Am 103 
was destroyed over Lockerbie. Those are just a few of the significant 
incidents out of the 17 listed by the State Department in the 1980's in 
which Americans were the targets of terror.
  Yet after all these events, let's look at what the four page 1991 
BRAC military threat assessment submitted for the years 1992-1997 had 
to say:

       Threats to US interests range from the enmity of nations 
     like North Korea and Cuba, to pressures from friend and foe 
     alike to reduce US presence around the world.
       The most enduring concern for US leadership is that the 
     Soviet Union remains the one country in the world capable of 
     destroying the US with a single devastating attack.
       The Soviet state still will have millions of well armed men 
     in uniform and will remain the strongest military force on 
     the Eurasian landmass.
       While Iraq will require perhaps a decade to rebuild its 
     military capabilities to pre-hostilities levels, Baghdad will 
     likely remain a disruptive political force in the region.

  As for terrorism, there was just a passing mention of the issue as an 
impediment to regional stability and the enhancement of democracy 
worldwide but no discussion of it in the context as a threat to the 
United States.
  No mention of ``asymmetric threats,'' and no ``homeland security.''
  Then, on February 26, 1993, the World Trade Center was badly damaged 
when a car bomb planted by Islamic terrorists exploded in an 
underground garage, leaving 6 people dead and 1,000 injured. Yet the 
military threat assessment contained in the 1993 BRAC report told us:

       The vital interests of the United States will be threatened 
     by regional crises between historical antagonists such as 
     North and South Korea, India and Pakistan and Middle East/
     Persian Gulf states.
       The future world military situation will be characterized 
     by regional actors with modern destructive weaponry, 
     including chemical and biological weapons, modern ballistic 
     missiles and, in some cases, nuclear weapons.
       In the Middle East, competition for political influence and 
     natural resources along with weak economies, Islamic 
     fundamentalism and demographic pressures will contribute to 
     deteriorating living standards and encourage social unrest.

  Please note, now, in this report, oddly there is suddenly once again 
no mention of ``terrorism'' at all, and no ``asymmetric threat,'' no 
``homeland security.''
  Furthermore, the Bottom Up Review, a wide ranging review of strategy, 
programs and resources to delineate a national defense strategy, signed 
out in October 1993 described four new dangers to U.S. interests after 
the end of the Cold War:

       No. 1, The proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of 
     mass destruction,
       No. 2, Aggression by major regional powers or ethnic and 
     religious conflict,
       No. 3, Potential failure of democratic reform in the former 
     Soviet Union, and
       No. 4, The potential failure to build a strong and growing 
     US economy.

  This report was issued just 8 months after that 1993 bombing of the 
World Trade Center, yet there was still no mention of ``asymmetric 
threat,'' no ``homeland security'' and just a passing reference to 
``state-sponsored'' terrorism. And even at that, the World Trade Center 
bombing was not conducted by ``state-sponsored'' terrorists but rather 
the Sheikh Omar Rahman, a non-state-sponsored terrorist.
  Back to the timeline, in March 1995 we see the Tokyo subway attack by 
the Aum-Shinrikyo cult using sarin gas, the same gas discovered in Iraq 
this

[[Page S5792]]

week, killed 12 and injured 5700 and, a month later, Timothy McVeigh 
and Terry Nichols destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City with 
a truck bomb, killing 166 of our fellow citizens.
  By contrast, I was astounded that the 1995 Force Structure Plan 
addressing threats from 1995 through 2001 was--other than the removal 
of a few sentences--the same as the 1993 BRAC threat assessment--so 
much for rigorous analysis. Still no ``terrorism,'' no ``asymmetric 
threat,'' and no ``homeland security''--and this less than 6 years 
before September 11th! Remember this BRAC round requires DoD to look 
outward 20 years!
  In 1996, a fuel truck carrying a bomb exploded outside the Khobar 
Towers housing facility in Dhahran. The Global Security Environment 
piece of the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review described the world as a 
highly dangerous place with a number of ``significant'' challenges 
facing the U.S. including:

       Foremost among these is the threat of coercion and large-
     scale, cross-border aggression against U.S. allies and 
     friends in key regions by hostile states with significant 
     military power.
       Second, despite the best efforts of the international 
     community, states find it increasingly difficult to control 
     the flow of sensitive information and regulate the 
     technologies that can have military or terrorist uses.
       Third, as the early years of the post-Cold War period 
     portended, U.S. interests will continue to be challenged by a 
     variety of transnational dangers. . . . The illegal drug 
     trade and international organized crime will continue to 
     ignore our borders, attack our society, and threaten our 
     personal liberty and well-being.
       Fourth, while we are dramatically safer than during the 
     Cold War, the US homeland is not free from external threats. 
     . . . In addition, other unconventional means of attack, such 
     as terrorism, are no longer just threats to our diplomats, 
     military forces, and private Americans overseas, but will 
     threaten Americans at home in the years to come.

  So by 1997, the Department was acknowledging the fact that terrorists 
using asymmetric means might attack the homeland--again, I might add 
yet it still remained a fourth tier concern for the Pentagon in spite 
of the continuing onslaught of terrorism around the world--and the 1993 
bombing here at home.
  Then, in 1998, two bombs exploded almost simultaneously outside US 
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In Aden, Yemen 2 years later, a small 
dingy carrying explosives rammed the USS Cole. And then, September 
11th, 2001 changed our lives forever. What did the 2001 Quadrennial 
Defense Review--issued, I might add, 19 days after the attack--find? 
They found that ``as the September 2001 events have horrifically 
demonstrated, the geographic position of the United States no longer 
guarantees immunity from direct attack on its population, territory or 
infrastructure,'' and that ``the United States is likely to be 
challenged by adversaries who possess a wide range of capabilities, 
including asymmetric approaches to warfare, particularly weapons of 
mass destruction.''
  That was an astute observation considering what happened 19 days 
before. And by the way, I also noted in examining the 80 page 2001 
Quadrennial Defense Review the lack of any mention of al Qaeda by 
name--not once.
  All this illustrates the significant dose of skepticism with which we 
should examine the current force structure plan and accompanying threat 
assessment submitted by the Department to justify the BRAC 2005 round--
again, considering that we would now base decisions on a 20 year 
assessment, never mind just 6--and even the 6 year projections proved 
spotty at best--and considering the volatile times in which we live. 
And I have to say that what we received--over a month later than 
required by the BRAC legislation, I might add--is about what I 
expected--not much. Indeed, my sense is they took the assumptions made 
for the Future Year Defense Plan and simply extended them out to 2009.
  Even after 20 years of constant terrorist attacks, the Defense 
Department still hasn't matched its force structures with the threats 
to our Nation. In fact, they avoided the entire issue of the threats 
this Nation will face over the next twenty years by claiming that 
today's security environment is ``impossible to predict, with any 
confidence, which nations, combinations of nations or non-state actors 
may threaten U.S. interests at home and abroad.''
  And when the department claims they have adopted an approach to force 
development based on capabilities rather than threat-based requirements 
and will need a ``flexible, adaptive, and decisive joint capabilities 
that can operate across the full spectrum of military 
contingencies.''--what exactly does that mean? Is that the kind of 
bureaucratic ``gobbledygook'' and uncertainty upon which we should be 
considering closing our military bases. I do not think so and neither 
do other Americans. For example, retired Navy captain Ralph Dean 
succinctly observed in a recent Maine newspaper column that:

       Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld released his 20-year 
     force structure plan as an input to BRAC. Surprisingly, it 
     showed virtually no changes in overall force structure during 
     that long period. This may indicate that DoD is unable to 
     make projections with any degree of certainty. This 
     uncertainty must be addressed, because BRAC actions are 
     irreversible.

  Let there be no mistake, as the President has said, our global war on 
terror will be a long struggle that is just beginning. These are 
unconventional threats for an unconventional era--how can we possibly 
project outward 20 years to know our needs? At the same time, we are 
learning that quantity of troops matters--as DoD was forced to 
recalibrate and send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq. Moreover, 
this very legislation before us would authorize an increase in the 
Army's end strength of 30,000 soldiers--yet we want to reduce our 
number of bases? Indeed, the BRAC 2005 force structure plan addresses 
neither the potential surge requirements we may face in this protracted 
struggle nor the need for more troops. In its May 2004 report, the GAO 
has said:

       The department must consider ongoing force transformation 
     initiatives in its BRAC analysis as well as factor in 
     relevant assumptions about the potential for future force 
     structure changes--changes that will likely occur long after 
     the timeframes for the 2005 BRAC round. This includes 
     consideration of future surge requirements.

  Frankly, there is even confusion between DoD and the services. On May 
12, 2004 the Boston Globe reported the Navy is conducting an internal 
study and considering slashing its attack submarine force by as much as 
a third as they work toward their 2006 budget submission. This despite 
the fact that information we have been provided by the Navy indicates 
no changes in the Future Year Defense Plan.
  Where is the coordination in assessing the threat or planning force 
structure needs? And what of the ``joint'' war-fighting plans that are 
still being developed? If BRAC decisions are based on untested and 
untried ``joint'' concepts, then DoD could well face limited options 
down the line because of limitations of facilities if all the 
anticipated efficiencies are not realized.
  The Force Structure Plan clearly states the limits of their excess 
capacity analysis, saying:

       The results presented in this section cannot be used to 
     project the number of potential BRAC closures or realignments 
     that could be achieved in each installation category.

  Without this projection, how are the savings from BRAC being 
estimated and what is driving the scope of BRAC? What is needed is a 
rigorous analysis that determines the number of BRAC closures or 
realignments that are expected to be achieved for each type of military 
installation.
  Finally, the Pentagon was also instructed to consider the effects of 
overseas bases and joint tenancy in its assessment of excess capacity, 
and while the submitted Force Structure Plan tells us how many 
installations the US currently operates overseas, it provides no 
information about the number of bases and troops expected to be located 
overseas over the next 20 years or where these bases would be located 
nor does it detail the functions that are being considered for joint 
operations and how much efficiency is expected to be gained by these 
changes.
  The amendment proposed by Senators Dorgan, Lott, Feinstein and myself 
ensure that Congress is provided with sufficient time to deliberate on 
what infrastructure is needed to provide for our Nation's security now 
and well into the future. While I would have preferred to cancel the 
process altogether, the amendment offered today ensures that these 
irrevocable decisions are made with sufficient deliberation. The 
amendment provides for an

[[Page S5793]]

expedited consideration by Congress for a domestic base closure round 
in 2007--after the completion of an overseas BRAC action.
  The amendment is a recognition that the operation, sustainment, and 
recapitalization of unneeded overseas bases diverts scarce resources 
from the nation's defense capabilities and requires the Secretary of 
Defense to establish a management structure and initiate a process for 
eliminating excess physical capacity at overseas bases.
  After conducting this review of overseas facilities, the Secretary 
would provide to Congress and the BRAC Commission a list of military 
installations, a detailing of the reassignments of troops and equipment 
from affected bases, and an estimate of the cost savings to be 
achieved. The Secretary would also be required to provide a 
certification whether a domestic round of BRAC would be necessary.
  The BRAC Commission would then evaluate the Secretary's 
recommendations and provide an assessment of the extent that the 
Secretary accounted for the final report of the Commission on the 
Review of the Overseas Military Facility Structure of the United 
States, whether the Secretary maximized the amount of savings and 
whether a domestic BRAC round in 2007 is warranted.
  After the BRAC Commission completes its work, there is a process for 
an expedited consideration of an additional domestic BRAC. The 
amendment requires a ``joint resolution'' be introduced within 10 days 
after the President transmits to Congress an approval and certification 
for a domestic base closure round. If passed by Congress, then within 
15 days, the Secretary will publish in the Federal Register the 
selection criteria to be used and a schedule for the BRAC round, and 
the domestic BRAC would proceed as originally planned.
  According to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. military has 
approximately 197,000 active-duty personnel stationed permanently 
outside the United States--that is 14 percent of our active duty 
military and 19 percent of the Army active-duty forces. And, while the 
Secretary of Defense has estimated an excess capacity of 29 percent in 
the Army domestic infrastructure, the Congressional Budget Office, in a 
May 2004 report on overseas basing has said:

       Because of the various rounds of base realignment and 
     closure (BRAC) that have occurred since the late 1980s, the 
     Army has little excess capacity at its bases to absorb so 
     many additional troops and units.

  And according to former DoD Comptroller Dov Zakheim:

       BRAC does . . . make it difficult to move our forces 
     directly to where they ought to go if you don't want them to 
     be overseas.

  Most of these overseas troops are stationed in Germany and South 
Korea, where the United States currently maintains 330 bases at an 
estimated cost of $1.2 billion annually. The administration has raised 
a number of concerns about these forces, including the fact that Army 
forces in Germany may not be able to deploy quickly to conflicts in 
Africa or the Caspian Sea region of Central Asia. Additionally, many of 
the bases in South Korea, which were formerly isolated, are becoming 
increasingly surrounded by commercial and residential communities, 
leading to greater friction with the local communities and limiting the 
training that can be conducted.
  The Congressional Budget Office has determined that removing the Army 
forces from Germany and South Korea and relocating them in the United 
States would not affect deployment times, make available 4,000 to 
10,000 more troops for sustained overseas operations, and reduce family 
separation by 22 percent, improving troop morale and retention rates. 
These changes would also result in an estimated annual savings of $1.2 
billion. More important than financial considerations, today's 
uncertain environment requires our troops to be more agile and mobile 
and the time is long past to reevaluate an overseas base structure that 
was developed to meet the threats of the Cold War.
  Some people contend that the overseas basing decisions will be 
completed in time to be accounted for by the BRAC process. But the 
current legislation provides for the Commission on Review of Overseas 
Military Facility Structure of the United States to report on their 
findings to Congress no later than December 31, 2004--only 4\1/2\ 
months before the BRAC decisions are to be completed. This timeline 
does not allow the Department of Defense to fully account for these 
overseas facilities in their domestic BRAC analysis nor does it include 
any time to include any of the changes to the report that Congress may 
determine are necessary.
  Significant changes are being considered for our overseas bases and 
forces and these decisions potentially have an enormous impact on our 
domestic base infrastructure. According to the Congressional Budget 
Office ``the need to house forces in the United States that are now 
stationed overseas could preclude some'' of the closures in the 
upcoming BRAC round.
  I want to protect the military's critical readiness and operational 
assets. And I want to make absolutely sure that this nation maintains 
the military infrastructure it will require in the years to come to 
support the war on terror and protect our homeland. The amendment my 
colleagues and I have proposed today will ensure that the evaluation of 
military facilities by the Department of Defense, both overseas and 
within the United States, is conducted with rigor and in a 
deliberative, systematic manner. As Senator Hutchison correctly 
observed:

       It would be irresponsible to build on an inefficient, 
     obsolete overseas base structure, as we face new strategic 
     threats in the 21st century, taking valuable dollars needed 
     elsewhere.

  Likewise, it would be irresponsible to continue with a domestic BRAC 
without a complete understanding and evaluation of our overseas basing 
requirements. This amendment will allow Congress time to exercise its 
oversight responsibilities and ensure that these important decisions--
which cannot be undone--are serving the Nation's interests.
  In closing, I believe that we must give the Department the time it 
needs to conduct a legitimate analysis of our security environment and 
the underpinning force structure and infrastructure requirements. 
Therefore I urge my colleagues to support the amendment before us.

                          ____________________