[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 25, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2416-S2418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Address by the President of France

  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I don't know if the Presiding Officer was 
able to be present in the House of Representatives earlier today when 
the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, spoke to us about a variety 
of things, including the Paris accords, the Iran deal, the long history 
we have between their country and our country; the fact that the 
American Revolution and the French Revolution were really 
contemporaneous. We share the birth of democracy in our country and, to 
an extent, in their country at roughly the same time.
  Those who have studied American history know that one of the ways we 
won our freedom and independence from the tyranny of that British 
throne was with the support of the French. We have not always agreed 
with one another in the years since then, but mostly we have. The bond 
between their Nation and our Nation continues to be strong, not just 
between our leaders but also between our people.
  We are fortunate to have a number of French tourists who come to our 
country. From time to time, some of us are fortunate to go to that part 
of the world and to visit them, to know them as human beings. The bond 
between our countries is a benefit for both them and for us, and, I 
think, for the world.
  I have never come to the floor to start reading someone else's 
speech, but I am really tempted to read some parts of what President 
Emmanuel Macron said today. I speak a little bit of French. I spoke to 
him briefly in French before he gave his remarks. His English is a lot 
better than my French. I want to mention a couple of things that he 
said and add some comments of my own.
  He talked a bit about the Paris Agreement, and he talked about 
climate change. These were his words, and I think they are worth 
repeating and reflecting on.
  He said:

       I believe in building a better future for our children 
     which requires offering them a planet that is still habitable 
     in 25 years. Some people think that securing current 
     industries and their jobs is more urgent than transforming 
     our economies to meet the global challenge of climate change.

  He went on to say:

       I hear these concerns, but we must find a smooth transition 
     to a low-carbon economy. Because what is the meaning of our 
     life, really, if we work and live destroying our planet while 
     sacrificing the future of our children?

  President Macron then said:

       What is the meaning of our life if our conscious decision 
     is to reduce the opportunities for our children or for our 
     grandchildren? By polluting the oceans, not mitigating carbon 
     dioxide emissions, and destroying our biodiversity, we're 
     killing our planet.

  He went on to say:

       Let us face it. There is no planet B.

  I turned to my colleague sitting next to me and I said, I am going to 
steal that line: There is no planet B.
  He is right.
  I like to say this is the only planet we have, and it is going to be 
the only one we ever have in our lifetime, and probably the lifetime of 
anybody around this planet.
  Then President Macron went on to say:

       On this issue, it may happen that we have disagreements 
     between the United States and France. It may happen. Like in 
     all families. But that's, for me, a short-term disagreement. 
     In the long run, we will have to face the same realities, and 
     we're citizens of this same planet, so we will have to face 
     it. We have to work together with business leaders and local 
     communities. Let us work together in order to make our planet 
     great again--

  Isn't that terrific? ``Let's work together to make our planet great 
again''--not just to make America great again; not just to make France 
great again but to make our planet great again--

     and create new jobs and new opportunities. While safeguarding 
     our earth.

  He concluded this part of his speech by saying:

       And I'm sure, one day, the United States will come back and 
     join the Paris Agreement. And I'm sure we can work together 
     to fulfill, with you, the ambitions of the global compact on 
     the environment.

  I had the opportunity last week to speak at the University of 
Delaware to a couple hundred graduate students. It is an annual 
gathering that they have and they were nice enough to invite me to come 
and talk to them about leadership. One of the things I mentioned is 
that leaders are aspirational. We appeal to people's better angels. 
Leaders unite, not divide. Leaders build bridges, not walls.
  I thought we were privileged today to hear that kind of leader. When 
I spoke to him in French, I wished him well. I wished him good luck, 
and I thanked him for joining us in the kind of message he brought to 
us.

  I don't suspect he would have any reason to know this, but when 
people got up today and went to work in this country, 3 million people 
went to work in jobs that probably didn't exist 20, 30 years ago--3 
million people. The jobs they went to work on are jobs where they are 
creating renewable energy, sustainable energy, clean energy, carbon-
free energy, or they are going to work in jobs which conserve energy so 
we just use a whole lot less altogether. Think about that. Three 
million people

[[Page S2417]]

in this country went to work in those kinds of jobs. We are adding 
75,000, 100,000 of those jobs every year.
  I have always had a close relationship with the auto industry until 
about 6 or 7 years ago. We had a GM plant and a Chrysler plant in 
Delaware, with about 4,000 employees in each of them at one time. We 
lost them both at the bottom of the great recession. I have always, and 
even now, tried to work closely with the auto industry, even though 
they don't have the kind of presence today in Delaware they once did, 
but they have provided a lot of jobs. Part of the supply chain is in 
Delaware, Pennsylvania, and other places.
  Sometimes people say we cannot have clean air, clean water, and a 
strong economy. I think that is a false choice. The President of France 
as much as said that today.
  It was not a Frenchmen, but it was Einstein who said that ``in 
adversity lies opportunity.'' I think if we are smart about it and we 
look at climate change, global warming, sea level rise, and pollution 
of one kind or the other, there is actually great opportunity that each 
of those present to us. They present difficulties and challenges but 
also great opportunity.
  I will never forget a couple of years ago what happened in a hearing 
in the Environment and Public Works Committee on the issue of mercury 
emissions from powerplants. We had, I think, four or five, maybe six 
witnesses. The first four or five witnesses said: We cannot reduce 
mercury emissions by 80 percent over the next decade. I think that is 
what they said. They said we cannot; it is just not possible for us to 
reduce mercury emissions.
  Why do we want to reduce mercury? Because it is up in the air; it is 
carried by the winds, the rains; it ends up in the water; it ends up in 
fish; we eat fish. It is harmful especially for pregnant women. They 
give birth, in many cases, to children with brain damage. So we had 
this hearing, and the first four or five witnesses, all from coal-fired 
utilities, said: We can't do it. Eighty percent is not a reasonable 
target for mercury reduction.
  The last witness was from a trade association whose members actually 
focus on developing technology to reduce harmful emissions of all 
kinds, including mercury emissions from powerplants. Our last witness 
said: I think we can not only meet that target of 80 percent reduction 
in 10 years, I think we can do better than that, and I think we can do 
it in less than 10 years. Do you know what? He was right. It turned out 
he was right. We ended up with a 90-percent reduction in mercury 
emissions, and that technology has been used in this country.
  The nice thing about it is that technology--there are plenty of coal-
fired plants around the world where they need to reduce mercury, and we 
are selling that technology all over the world. So that is really one 
of the opportunities the President of France was talking about--looking 
at adversity and finding opportunities, including climate change and 
other kinds of pollution; pollution of our water, you name it.
  Anyway, it was just a joy to hear him speak today. I was really 
impressed.
  We have a bunch of pages sitting in here today. I don't know if they 
were able to hear the speech, but if you got to hear the speech today, 
raise your hands. I think it had to be uplifting for young people 
because he was focused very much on the future. He was not just looking 
back but focusing very much on young people. I liked that a lot.
  One of the other things he spoke about was the Iran deal. For years 
and years, as some of my colleagues may recall, we suspected that Iran 
was secretly developing nuclear weapons. We didn't know for sure. We 
suspected the worst. In the last administration in this country, we 
went to work with a new leader in Iran to see if we might be able to 
better ensure that they are not going to develop nuclear weapons, and 
we provided safeguards and early detection systems so that if they do, 
we will know about it. In the meantime, we placed a lot of economic 
sanctions on Iran, trying to get them to give up what we thought was 
the development of nuclear weapons. They always said, ``No, we are not 
doing that,'' but we didn't believe them.
  At the end of the day, we looked at entering into this agreement 
between the United States and Iran and five other nations. Iran had to 
open themselves up to intrusive inspections. They had to be willing to 
give up some of the more modern centrifuges they had for developing 
highly enriched uranium. To the extent that they are willing to do that 
and continue to put up with intrusive inspections by the atomic energy 
agency, then we would gradually reduce and relax the economic 
sanctions.

  The intrusive inspections have continued now for several years, and 
the agencies responsible for this say, so far, they are keeping their 
word. Does that mean they are always going to keep their word? Not 
necessarily. Does that mean we should be less resolute in watching what 
they are doing? No. We should be resolute and hold their feet to the 
fire. But to the extent that they are keeping their word, I think the 
idea of lifting our sanctions--along with other countries as part of 
these accords and joint agreement--is good, not only for Iran but also 
for us.
  We have this agreement because we felt it was important for 
inspectors to have a window into that country to see what they are 
doing. We have that. So far, it seems to be working.
  Our President now says that in a couple weeks he would like to close 
out of the Iran deal. If we do that, my fear is they will simply go 
back to a secret program to develop nuclear weapons. That will 
encourage the Saudis to do the same and maybe lay a precursor or put us 
in motion to have a nuclear arms race in that part of the world. Sunni 
versus Shia, Saudis versus Iran--that is not a competition that will 
end well.
  I am not going to read everything President Macron said today about 
the Iran deal, but a fair amount is worth repeating. I will do that, 
and then add some comments of my own:

       As for Iran, our objective is clear: Iran should never 
     possess any nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 5 years, not in 
     10 years. Never.

  ``Never'' is a long time.

       But this policy should never lead us to war in the Middle 
     East. We must ensure stability, and respect sovereignty of 
     the nations, including that one of Iran, which represents a 
     great civilization.
       Let us not replicate past mistakes in the region. Let us 
     not be naive on one side. Let us not create new walls 
     ourselves on the other side.
       There is an existing framework--called the JCPOA--to 
     control the nuclear activity of Iran. We signed it at the 
     initiative of the United States. We signed it, both the 
     United States and France. That is why we cannot say we should 
     just get rid of it like that. But it is true to say that this 
     agreement may not address all concerns, very important 
     concerns. This is true. But we should not abandon it without 
     having something substantial, more substantial, instead. That 
     is my position. That is why France will not leave the JCPOA, 
     because we signed it.
       Your President and your country will have to take, in the 
     current days and weeks, [its own] responsibilities regarding 
     this issue.
       What I want to do, and what we decided together with your 
     President, is that we can work on a more comprehensive deal 
     addressing all these concerns. That is why we have to work on 
     this more comprehensive deal based--as discussed with 
     President Trump yesterday--on four pillars.

  And then President Macron went on to talk about those four pillars.

       [No. 1] the substance of the existing agreement, especially 
     if you decide to leave it, [No. 2] the post-2025 period, in 
     order to be sure we will never have any nuclear activity for 
     Iran, [No. 3] the containment of military influence of the 
     Iranian regime in the region, and [No. 4] the monitoring of 
     ballistic activity.

  The Iranians have a penchant for firing and testing ballistic 
missiles. They say that it is not offensive; it is defensive. But one 
would wonder about that. Questioning minds way wonder.

       I think these four pillars, the ones I addressed before the 
     General Assembly of the United Nations last September, are 
     the ones which cover the legitimate fears of the United 
     States and our allies in the region.
       I think we have to start working now on these four pillars 
     to build this new, comprehensive [deal] and to be sure that, 
     whatever the decision of the United States will be, we will 
     not leave the floor to the absence of rules.
       We will not leave the floor to these conflicts of power in 
     the Middle East, we will not . . . [increase] tensions and 
     potential war.
       That is my position, and I think we can work together to 
     build this comprehensive deal for the whole region, for our 
     people, because I think it fairly addresses our concerns. 
     That is my position.


[[Page S2418]]


  I have heard several Presidents speak to joint sessions of Congress 
over the years; I have heard any number of leaders from other nations 
speak before joint meetings of Congress in the years I have been 
privileged to serve here. I don't know that I have seen a warmer and 
more enthusiastic welcome than the one we witnessed today for the 
President of our close ally, our friends, the French. I hope the 
standing ovations he repeatedly received reflect not just the emotion 
of the moment but reflect the belief that he may be on to something 
here.
  One of my colleagues whom I was sitting next to during President 
Macron's remarks said that the President of France was delivering an 
elegant rebuke to our President, and he was so skillful in doing it, it 
was hard to tell that was what he was doing. Maybe that is true. But I 
think he might be on to something. He didn't just come up with it 
today. This is something that President Macron has been talking about 
for days, weeks, months--at least since last fall.
  I hope our President, with whom he had a chance to spend some time, 
might say: Let's drill down on that. I think you might be on to 
something.
  Meanwhile, I don't know what others have been saying about former 
Secretary of State Tillerson, but I thought he was an unlikely person 
to be Secretary of State. He had been the leader of Exxon, knew the 
world, and knew the world's leaders. It was unusual to have someone 
with that pedigree to be our Secretary of State. He exceeded 
expectations, at least for me. I think he was fired by the President a 
couple of months ago through Twitter, and that was it--no ceremony, no 
handshake, no thank-you for taking on a tough job and doing his best.
  I would say to Rex Tillerson: Thank you for your willingness to give 
it a shot, for taking on a tough job in a tough administration. We may 
not agree with everything he said or thought, but he took on a tough 
job, and we are grateful for that.
  The question is, Who is going to succeed him. I have asked to meet 
with the President's nominee. They have not been able to find time to 
do that, which I think is unfortunate.
  If we had had the time to meet, I would have wanted to talk with him 
about a number of issues. One of those would be the Iran nuclear deal 
and how he feels about it. I would like to hear his thoughts on what 
President Macron suggested today as a possible alternative follow-on to 
the JCPOA. But I am not going to have the opportunity to do that.
  I was reminded recently of something John Kennedy once said. I hope I 
have this right: America should never negotiate out of fear, but we 
should never fear negotiating. Think about that. Our country should 
never negotiate out of fear, but we shouldn't be afraid to negotiate.
  I think President Macron may have given us an opening here, and the 
opening is to come up with something that could be even more effective 
than the JCPOA. If we are smart, the door has been opened and we will 
walk through it instead of walking backward.
  While we prepare to vote, maybe tomorrow, on the nominee to be our 
next Secretary of State, one of my disappointments is not having had a 
chance to--not negotiate with him but to share with him what President 
Macron had to say, to try to get his take on that and, if he were 
Secretary of State, how he might pursue this opening. Unfortunately, 
that is not going to happen.
  I notice my neighbor from across the border in Pennsylvania has risen 
to address the Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gardner). The Senator from Pennsylvania.