[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9479-9480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                SANCTIONS ON EXPORT OF FOOD AND MEDICINE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I want to speak about an issue that is of 
great importance to my State and to all agricultural producers around 
the country. That is the issue of the sanctions on food and medicine 
that now exist in our relationships with some countries around the 
world.
  Our country has been in the habit of saying: We don't like certain 
countries, we don't like the way they behave, so we are going to slap 
economic sanctions on these countries and we have included sanctions on 
the shipment of food and medicine. So countries such as Libya, Iran, 
Cuba, North Korea, and others, are in a circumstance of having economic 
sanctions enacted against them to punish them, and we have included in 
those sanctions food and medicine.
  A group of us are trying to change that. We do not think it is the 
moral thing to do. What is this country doing, saying to others that we 
will not allow them to have access to food and medicine? Taking aim at 
dictators and hurting poor people, sick people, and hungry people is 
hardly something about which we ought to be proud. This is not a moral 
policy.
  I come from a farm State, so I care about having access to these 
markets as well. I admit that. Aside from the market side of this, 
which is important--after all, these countries against whom we have 
sanctions on food and medicine represent almost 11 percent of the 
world's wheat markets, and we have said to our farmers: By the way, 11 
percent of the world's wheat market is off limits to you. Why? Because 
we decided we do not like these countries and we are going to make them 
pay a price. Part of the price we are going to exact is the ability for 
them to access food and medicine from the United States.
  Of course, other countries access it from Canada, Europe, or others. 
We are the country that decides to withhold food and medicine from 
these countries.
  Last year, we had a vote in the Senate on that. Senator Ashcroft, I, 
and many others who pushed to repeal the sanction on food and medicine 
won

[[Page 9480]]

with 70 out of 100 votes. We were hijacked by the House of 
Representatives in conference. I was one of the conferees. They just 
flat out hijacked us. When it was clear to them we were going to win 
the issue in conference, they adjourned the conference, never to see 
them again, and they stripped the provision.
  I offered the same provision in the Senate Appropriations Committee, 
and it is now in the Agriculture appropriations bill. That is coming to 
the floor of the Senate. We have 70 Senators who said they think it is 
wrong to continue sanctions on food and medicine. The message in the 
Senate is: Stop using food as a weapon. It is the right message.
  There are a lot of people in the House of Representatives who 
apparently are willing to do that except for Cuba; Cuba is a special 
case, and they will not withdraw sanctions on food and medicine with 
respect to Cuba. In fact, that is what derailed it last year.
  I am one person, but I tell my colleagues that I am not going to 
allow, to the extent I can prevent it, the hijacking of this issue 
again this year by just two or three people who decide they are going 
to strip this provision and then have the House and Senate deal with 
the broader appropriations issues that do not include this provision.
  We have spent a lot of time on this issue. This country is wrong in 
applying sanctions with respect to food and medicine shipments to 
countries such as Cuba. Yes, Cuba.
  I was in Cuba last year. I have no truck with the Castro government. 
I think the Cuban government and its economic system have collapsed. 
But the sanctions that exist with respect to this country's actions 
against Cuba have represented Fidel Castro's greatest excuse to the 
Cuban people. He says: Of course my economy does not work; of course my 
country is in trouble. The United States has had its fist around our 
neck for 40 years.
  It is Fidel Castro's greatest excuse, in my judgment, for an economic 
system that has failed Cuba. It does not make sense, in my judgment, 
for us to exact a penalty on the Cuban people, on poor people, on 
hungry people, and on sick people in Cuba, in North Korea, and 
elsewhere to continue these absurd sanctions on food and medicine.
  We can have a broader discussion at some other time about whether the 
embargo that exists with Cuba ought to be lifted. That is a different 
subject, a broader subject. Incidentally, I have strong feelings about 
that as well. This is a narrower issue: Do we believe it appropriate to 
continue sanctions with respect to the shipment of food and medicine to 
countries such as Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and others? The answer ought 
to be a resounding no.
  My colleague, Senator Slade Gorton from the State of Washington, is 
in the Chamber. He was a cosponsor of this in the Senate Appropriations 
Committee. He, I, and John Ashcroft have issued a statement that says 
to all within hearing distance that if you think you are going to 
hijack this issue again this year, think again, because we have 70 
votes in the Senate that say we ought not use food and medicine as a 
weapon, and we intend to insist this year that we prevail on this 
issue.
  I cannot speak for anybody else, but the statement we issued is 
pretty self-explanatory. I am here to give fair warning to those who 
want to do what they did last year that it is going to be a pretty 
difficult proposition if they intend to hijack this issue. We have the 
votes. Vote on it in the Senate, and it will pass by an overwhelming 
margin. Allow a vote in the House, and it will pass by an overwhelming 
margin. The only way those who want to defeat this proposition because 
it contains Cuba--which is an irrational position, for those who think 
through this a little bit--the only way they can possibly defeat it is 
to try to use some hijinks in the process to avoid an up-or-down vote.
  I and others intend to see we have a full opportunity to have votes 
in the House and the Senate on it. If the House leadership does what it 
did last year, I say to them: Fair warning, I am going to be here on 
the floor of the Senate objecting to a whole series of things. We need 
to straighten this out now. This country, at this time, on this issue, 
says we will no longer use sanctions with respect to the shipment of 
food and medicine. It does not work, it is not a moral policy, and it 
ought to stop now.
  I yield the floor.

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