[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6420-6421]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       ORDER OF PROCEDURE--S. 767

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, this is an important time with a lot of very 
serious matters before the Senate. Obviously, we are going to be 
working on the budget resolution. But also, we are very much concerned 
about what is happening in the Balkans, we are concerned about what is 
happening in Kosovo, we are concerned about the impact that that is 
having in Macedonia and the Montenegro area, as well as countries that 
are not as directly impacted from a standpoint of refugees, but the 
impact on Albania, which obviously is housing a number of refugees, and 
even countries such as Romania are being affected by what we see 
happening there.
  I think it is important that we work together in a bipartisan way to 
express our support for our troops, to express our support and 
appreciation for countries that are dealing with this influx of 
refugees and providing haven and humanitarian assistance working with 
international organizations, with military representation that has been 
trying to deal with this tremendous influx of refugees.
  We are going to work over the next 24 hours to see if we can come 
together with an agreement on a bipartisan resolution expressing our 
appreciation and recognition for the outstanding work that is being 
done by our men and women of the military, by all the organizations 
that are helping with the refugees and for the countries that are 
dealing with a tremendous burden right now. But I think we should begin 
here at home also.
  Mr. DODD. Will the leader yield to me on that point?
  Mr. LOTT. Yes.
  Mr. DODD. I thank the leader for those comments. It is very, very 
helpful, particularly coming from our leader. People who watch these 
floor proceedings should take note that it was a very important 
statement he just made. I believe he expresses the feelings of all of 
us here. Whatever other differences there may be, I think there is a 
deep sense of appreciation first and foremost for our own men and women 
in uniform; secondly, for the organizations that are trying to do a 
good job.
  I particularly commend him for his comments regarding these front-
line states of Montenegro, which is showing great courage in light of 
some very difficult pressures; Albania, which is so poor--I think about 
$600 a year is the annual earnings of the people--Macedonia, about 
$1,300 a year, a small country with almost 200,000 refugees now. And 
particularly he mentions Romania and Bulgaria, which is very important 
as well.
  This ought to be heartening news to these governments and to the 
people of these countries that it has not gone unnoticed in our country 
what a tremendous job they are doing handling a problem they did not 
ask for, flooded by a sea of humanity that needs a lot of help. We are 
deeply grateful to them. And I am hopeful the leader is right. I 
certainly want to work with him and anyone else who is interested to 
see if we can put some language together which would enjoy unanimous 
backing by all of our colleagues, to speak with one strong, solid voice 
about how much we appreciate their efforts, the efforts of our service 
men and women, and the common determination to end this crisis and get 
these people back to Kosovo.
  So I thank him.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Connecticut. I 
always enjoy working with him. He is absolutely right in repeating the 
need for us to express our appreciation to our military men and women 
and to continue our commitment to the humanitarian effort that is 
underway and express our appreciation to the front-line states that are 
there dealing with this problem and the cost of the problem in a very 
serious way. We will work to see if we can express that appreciation 
and concern.
  But I want to emphasize that we have our own military men and women 
who are doing a magnificent job. All of our Senators and House Members 
who have gone to the region, who have gone to Brussels and have gone to 
Aviano or been in Albania or Macedonia, have come back saying what a 
magnificent job our military men and women have been doing.
  But it has gone now beyond our active-duty pilots and men and women 
who are involved in the exercise there. It now involves Reserve unit 
members, National Guard, volunteers. We have Air Guard members that are 
now flying the refueling aircraft that are helping in that effort. And 
they have been called up unexpectedly with very little notice.
  Now you have spouses that are in the region that did not have time to 
file their income tax return, and tomorrow is the infamous day. 
Tomorrow is April 15. And like so many Americans, I will file my return 
tomorrow and send my check along with the return, which is a very 
unhappy situation. But we have military men and women who are doing 
their duty for their country that were unexpectedly, and on very short 
notice, called up. And you have their spouses now scrambling, trying to 
perhaps deal with filing their income tax returns tomorrow, the 15th.
  We have legislation now moving through the House that has been 
through the Ways and Means Committee that will be coming to the Senate 
later on today or tomorrow, and we have legislation that has been 
prepared in the Senate now that would give, I believe, a 60-day 
extension on filing returns to our military men and women that have 
been called up for this service to our country.
  There may be some other provisions that have been cited, too, that 
should be outlined. It exempts U.S. troops serving in the Yugoslavia 
theater from being taxed on the hazardous duty pay. It grants our 
troops a 180-day filing extension on their 1998 income tax returns 
after their return from duty in the combat zone designated by the 
President and exempts our troops from the 3-percent excise tax levied 
on long distance telephone calls, which I am sure they are making now 
to assure their families that they are in the area and they are safe 
and they are doing their job. So it is more than just a 60-day 
extension.
  I think it is the right thing to do. It is the fair thing to do. And 
it is important we do it today and make it clear that we are going to 
complete this action when the House bill comes over. That may be later 
on today or tomorrow. But if we do not make it clear that we are going 
to do it today, and if we do not get it done tomorrow, these families 
are going to be under the duress of either not filing on time, as the 
law requires, or asking for an extension, which a lot of Americans are 
hesitant to do.
  So I think it is important that we prepare the way to get this 
legislation completed today, or not later than tomorrow, and make it 
clear to the families of our service men and women that are in the zone 
that they are going to have these benefits and this extension of time.
  In that vein, then, I do have a unanimous consent request that we 
have been trying to get cleared, I hope we can get cleared, because we 
need to do this. And then we can get this behind us and we can move on 
to another resolution.
  So I ask unanimous consent that----
  Mr. DODD. Before you do that----
  Mr. LOTT. I would withhold.
  Mr. DODD. Can I make a suggestion? There is one Member, I think, who 
has some questions they may want to raise--let me put it in those 
terms--before you propound it. I would personally prefer if you could 
hold up for a

[[Page 6421]]

couple minutes until they get here. Maybe we can work something out 
with them.
  Mr. LOTT. All right.
  Mr. DODD. Other than that, I have been asked, on behalf of someone, 
to raise an objection. I prefer they were here to make their case if 
that is what they want to do. So if maybe we can wait 5 minutes.
  Mr. LOTT. If we don't wait just a minute, you would have to object, 
and you prefer not to object; is that it?
  Mr. DODD. You just hit it right on the head.
  Mr. LOTT. I would certainly be prepared to honor that. Again, I hope 
we could work this out. I am worried on this, like I am on the other 
language we have been working on. We have a lot of very bright Senators 
that can come up with some wonderful amendments and it could go on 
endlessly and we could get into some very controversial amendments. No 
Senator--no Senator--would object to what is in S. 767 or the bill that 
will be coming over from the House.
  Mr. DODD. I think most of us are cosponsors.
  Mr. LOTT. Nobody would object to that. Therefore, we want to lock it 
in. There may be other issues Senators would like to object to. I would 
like to say to them, there will be other bills, there will be other 
ways. It will give us time to focus on something that would be an 
expression of our appreciation and our commitment to be of assistance 
to not only our military men and women that are there in the area but 
to those that are dealing on the international basis with humanitarian 
needs for these front-line states.
  I think we can do both. But as is usually the case, you need to do 
one and then the other. And so I am trying to find a way to achieve 
both of those.
  Mr. DODD. If the leader would yield further, I appreciate him showing 
some patience here. This is, I think, a very good idea. By the way, I 
am a cosponsor of the proposal here to do this for our service men and 
women. I had the pleasure of being with a group of them last Friday and 
Saturday at Ramstein Air Force Base and flew with a crew on a C-130, a 
4-hour flight from Germany down to Macedonia. And they were terrific 
young men and women. In the cockpit were men and women. The navigator 
was a woman. There were two pilots, the engineers, the crew.
  Mr. LOTT. Was that Reserve or National Guard duty?
  Mr. DODD. These are permanent, regular Army and Air Force people.
  Mr. LOTT. Permanent, regular duty.
  Mr. DODD. They do a fabulous job. And I think it is one way of saying 
to them how much we appreciate what they are doing. I guess by 
executive order, I gather, the President has issued some orders on this 
as well.
  Mr. LOTT. The President has expressed his desire to do this. He made 
that commitment, I believe, in Louisiana. Was it Barksdale Air Force 
Base? And he has taken some action, some executive order, but he 
cannot, by executive order, do what we are doing. It takes a change in 
the law or a revision in the law in order for these things to occur. So 
it is a supplement to, in addition to, what he has already done by 
executive order.
  I yield, if I might, if I still have the floor, to Senator Coverdell.
  Mr. COVERDELL. First, I associate myself with the remarks of the 
leader and the Senator from Connecticut on Macedonia, Albania, 
Bulgaria, and Romania. We have only begun to assess the impact. You can 
see on television what is happening in Macedonia and Albania. But you 
can't see it in Romania and Bulgaria. It is very important, and we are 
attentive and appreciative to these second-tier states that are 
affected by these actions.
  The point I want to make, Mr. Leader, on this issue that you just 
addressed, is that the clock runs out. There is no other issue we are 
talking about, including the one we all share on Macedonia, that has a 
time clock over its head.
  If this could be done tonight, tomorrow is the 15th, we send 
immediate comfort to these thousands of families scrambling, as all of 
America is, by tomorrow. We ought not to leave another night lingering 
of question and unknown measures for all these families. It ought to be 
settled tonight.
  There is not another issue I have heard talked about here that has 
that kind of deadline on it and a discomfort ramification. This is 
comfort for the families that we all think of every minute of every day 
now, and it really ought to be apart from some of these other things.
  I appreciate the Senator from Connecticut recognizing that, and I 
wanted to say so.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could describe this unanimous consent, 
what it will do is provide for an hour of debate equally divided, of 
course, so that Members could comment on the actual content in S. 767. 
This is the critical part. It will also say, this unanimous consent 
agreement, that when the House language comes over, then the House bill 
would be read for a third time and a vote on passage of the House bill, 
without any intervening language, motion or debate. So it in effect 
locks in the guarantee that this is going to be done by tomorrow. Our 
people will have that guarantee by the Senate by this unanimous consent 
agreement tonight. That is what I would like to do.
  If it would be helpful to the Senator from Connecticut, I do not know 
if other Senators are seeking recognition now, we could wait just a 
moment more. I will notify the Senate that I would be prepared to make 
this unanimous consent request as soon as we can get further Senators 
on the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Abraham). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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