[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 27929-27931]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    SECURITY ASSISTANCE ACT OF 2001

  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of Calendar No. 276, S. 1803.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1803) to authorize appropriations under the Arms 
     Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for 
     security assistance for fiscal years 2002 and 2003, and for 
     other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to the immediate 
consideration of the bill.


                           Amendment No. 2695

    (Purpose: To make managers' amendments to the text of the bill)

  Mr. REID. I understand Senators Biden and Helms have an amendment at 
the desk, and I ask unanimous consent it be considered.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I am very pleased to urge Senate adoption 
of S. 1803, the Security Assistance Act of 2001. This is legislation 
that the Foreign Relations Committee reports out each year, either 
free-standing or as a title in our State Department authorization bill.
  But the substance of the Security Assistance Act is anything but 
routine. It includes: foreign military assistance, including Foreign 
Military Financing, FMF, and International Military Education and 
Training, IMET; international arms transfers; and many of our arms 
control, nonproliferation and anti-terrorism programs.
  The Security Assistance Act of 2001 covers those programs and 
includes not only routine adjustments, but also some significant 
initiatives. For example, a 5-year National Security Assistance 
Strategy is mandated, so as to provide country-by-country foreign 
policy guidance to a function that may tend otherwise to operate on the 
basis more of military or bureaucratic concerns.
  Several provisions are designed to streamline the arms export control 
system, so as to make it more efficient and responsive to competitive 
requirements in a global economy, without sacrificing controls that 
serve foreign policy or nonproliferation purposes. This is a vital 
enterprise. U.S. industry depends upon the efficient processing of arms 
export applications, and U.S. firms lose contracts when the U.S. 
Government cannot make up its mind expeditiously.
  At the same time, however, an ill-advised export license could lead 
to sensitive equipment getting into the hands of enemies or of unstable 
regimes. So there is a tension between the need for efficiency and the 
need not to make the mistake that ends up putting U.S. lives at risk. 
This bill addresses that tension by providing funds for improved 
staffing levels, information and communications to enable the State 
Department to make quicker and smarter export licensing decisions.
  The Security Assistance Act of 2001 includes several new 
nonproliferation and antiterrorism measures. For example, the ban on 
arms sales to state supporters of terrorism, in section 40(d) of the 
Arms Export Control Act, is broadened to include states engaging in the 
proliferation of chemical, biological or radiological weapons.

[[Page 27930]]

  Subtitle III-C of this bill establishes an interagency committee to 
coordinate nonproliferation programs directed at the independent states 
of the former Soviet Union. This provision is based on S. 673, a bill 
introduced by Senator Hagel and me with the co-sponsorship of Senators 
Domenici and Lugar. It will ensure continuing, high-level coordination 
of our many nonproliferation programs, so that we can be more confident 
that they will mesh with each other. The need for better coordination 
was cited in the report, earlier this year, of the Russia Task Force 
chaired by former Senator Howard Baker and former White House counsel 
Lloyd Cutler.
  Section 308 of this bill encourages the Secretary of State to seek an 
increase in the regular budget of the International Atomic Energy 
Agency, beyond that required to keep pace with inflation, and funds are 
authorized for the U.S. share of such an enlarged budget. This 
organization is vital to our nuclear nonproliferation efforts, and its 
workload is increasing. The lack of a sufficient assessed budget has 
impaired its ability to hire and retain top-flight scientists, however, 
so the Committee believes that an increase in that budget is essential.
  Subtitle III-B of this bill authorizes the President to offer Soviet-
era debt reduction to the Russian Federation in the context of an 
arrangement whereby a significant proportion of the savings to Russia 
would be invested in agreed nonproliferation programs or projects. Debt 
reduction is a potentially important means of funding the costs of 
securing Russia's stockpiles of sensitive nuclear material, chemical 
weapons and dangerous pathogens, of destroying its chemical weapons and 
dismantling strategic weapons, and of helping its former weapons 
experts to find civilian careers and resist offers from rogue states or 
terrorists. The Administration is reportedly considering this funding 
option, and this bill gives the President authority to pursue it.
  A few changes were made in a managers' amendment to this bill, which 
I would like to summarize for the record.
  The managers' amendment adds, at the request of Senator Feinstein of 
California, a new section 206 on congressional notification of small 
arms and light weapons export license approvals. This section makes 
license approvals for commercial sales of such weapons, with a value 
over $1,000,000, subject to the prior notice provisions of section 
36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act. It also requires annual reports 
on end-use monitoring of such arms transfers, the yearly value of such 
transfers, the activities of registered arms brokers, and efforts of 
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to stop U.S. weapons from 
being used in terrorist acts and international crime.
  I want to commend Senator Feinstein for raising this issue, which is 
central to our efforts to stem wars and civil bloodshed in Africa and 
other regions. The United States leads the way on this issue, but we 
must do more. Senator Feinstein's proposals for U.S. policy and 
international negotiations in this field are contained in S. 1555, 
which has been referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. I will 
work with her and with my House and Senate colleagues in the coming 
weeks and months to see whether we can agree on further steps on small 
arms and light weapons exports. Personally, I think we can do so.
  The managers' amendment deletes subsection 221(c), and I am sorry 
that we had to do this. This subsection would have returned to Israel 
certain funds that Israel was forced to give back to the United States 
due to a general rescission last year. This provision was first 
proposed by Republican staff to the Foreign Relations Committee, when 
the Republicans were in the majority, but it was one that I heartily 
supported. The $4,000,000 at stake may be a small amount of money, but 
each dollar we provide to Israel is given because it serves our 
national security interests.
  Unfortunately, the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on 
Foreign Operations and the chairman of the full Appropriations 
Committee objected strongly to this provision, not the least because it 
was scored by the Congressional Budget Office as an appropriation. I 
intend to press this issue in the coming year, and I hope that my good 
friends from Vermont and West Virginia will work with me to provide 
these funds. If we are ever to have a lasting peace in the Middle East, 
we must do all we can to give Israel confidence that the United States 
will continue to help assure that country's continued sovereignty and 
well-being.
  Section 242, on funds for humanitarian demining programs, is amended 
in two respects. First, we have deleted any number for the Fiscal Year 
2003 authorization for these programs. I welcome this change, because 
it comes with suggestions that the Foreign Operations Subcommittee may 
look favorably on an increase in that figure. I will work with that 
subcommittee on this matter, and I would hope that in conference we 
could insert a higher figure for Fiscal Year 2003 than the $40,000,000 
that has been spent on humanitarian demining each of the last several 
years.
  The second change is to delete subsection (b) of section 242. The 
Foreign Relations Committee, in its desire to increase funds for 
humanitarian demining, had suggested that the Secretary of State be 
authorized to provide up to $40,000,000 from development assistance 
funds in addition to the $40,000,000 authorized in the State 
Department's Nonproliferation, Anti- 
terrorism, Demining and Related Programs account. The Foreign 
Operations Subcommittee informs us that this is not tenable, and I 
accept their point that this would have been robbing Peter to pay Paul. 
I think we have made our point, however, that more funds are needed for 
this program, which has an important political impact in addition to 
providing humanitarian benefits.
  Another provision that is deleted in the managers' amendment is 
section 302, (on an interagency program to prevent diversion of 
sensitive U.S. technology). This was an effort to authorize the 
Secretary of State to institute new joint programs with the Department 
of Commerce and the Commissioner of Customs to improve our export 
control, as well as a program to use retired inspectors and 
investigators from the U.S. Customs Service and the Bureau of Export 
Enforcement in our diplomatic missions overseas. Another committee 
questioned our jurisdiction in this matter, and we did not have time to 
work out this matter today, so we are dropping the provision. The need 
remains, however, to make more use of the many talents of current and 
former Commerce and Customs personnel. Especially in our overseas 
missions, those people can make contracts with law enforcement and 
border control officials in foreign countries that traditional 
diplomats have a hard time achieving. So I hope that we can work 
something out on this issue in the weeks and months to come.
  Another provision in the managers' amendment inserts into section 
404, on improvements to the Automated Export System new subsections to 
extend the range of exporters that must file their Shippers' Export 
Declarations electronically and to increase the penalties for failure 
to file and for filing false information. An earlier version of these 
subsections was deleted by the Committee at the request of Senator Enzi 
of Wyoming, who spotted some faulty language. The version added to the 
managers' amendment was worked out with Senator Enzi and with the 
Department of Commerce, and I am pleased to thank my friend from 
Wyoming, who is a new member of the Foreign Relations Committee, but an 
expert in export control, for his sage counsel on this provision.
  Section 602 of this bill, on nonproliferation interests and free 
trade agreements, is deleted by the managers' amendment. There were 
questions from other committees as to whether this was within our 
jurisdiction. I hope we can resolve those concerns, because the fact 
remains that other countries' nonproliferation and export control laws 
and actions are relevant to the question of whether we should engage in 
free trade with those countries.

[[Page 27931]]

  The managers' amendment inserts into section 701 authorizing certain 
ship transfers, a subsection authorizing the transfer of four KIDD-
class guided missible destroyers to Taiwan. This provision was 
accidentially omitted from the bill at the Committee's business 
meeting. In fact, these ship transfers, and the others in this bill, 
have already been enacted in the defense authorization act. The Foreign 
Relations Committee is the committee of jurisdiction on this matter, so 
we do that in this bill.
  One issue that is not addressed in this bill, but that is of 
considerable interest to Senator Milkulski and others, is the need for 
a Center for Antiterrorism and Security Training in the Department of 
State. We tried to get funding for this in Fiscal Year 2001, but the 
executive branch went to the wrong subcommittee of the Appropriations 
Committee and this center fell between the cracks. Now, as our 
Antiterrorism Assistance Program increases its course offerings for 
security personnel from friendly countries, the need for a training 
center is greater than ever. The Security Assistance Act may not be the 
best vehicle in which to address this issue, but I want to assure my 
good friend from Maryland that we work on this and that we will assure 
the State Department of our support for a new center.
  Even with the managers' amendments this is a good bill that will 
contribute to our national security. I am happy to urge support of it 
and I am very pleased that my colleagues appear ready to approve it.
  Mr. REID. I ask consent the amendment be agreed to, the bill be read 
the third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon 
the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be 
printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment (No. 2695) was agreed to.
  (The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Amendments 
Submitted and Proposed.'')
  The bill (S. 1803), as amended, was read the third time and passed.
  [The bill will appear in a future edition of the Record.]

                          ____________________