[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12483-12486]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO TED WILLIAMS

  Mr. KERRY. Senator Kennedy and I are delighted to join in a 
resolution paying tribute to a unique American who passed away last 
Friday at the age of 83--a fighter to the end, and really a rather 
remarkable and fascinating individual--Ted Williams.
  Over the span of 21 amazing years with the Boston Red Sox, Ted 
Williams redefined baseball's greatness. Everyone knows about his .406 
batting average in 1941. Not everyone knows that he had an option to 
settle that year for a less than .400, or that he would have been 
rounded up to a .400 batting average. It was about .399.
  In the last day of season, with the doubleheader, a day that he was 
offered the opportunity to sit it out so he wouldn't lose his .400 if 
he had a bad day, there was no way he would do that. It was not his 
style. He stepped up to bat, and hit 6 for 8 and took his average up to 
the .406, which now stands as a memorable and unequaled batting average 
since that period of

[[Page 12484]]

time. He had 521 career home runs; a .344 lifetime batting average; 2 
of the 4 Red Sox Triple Crown Awards, twice the American League's Most 
Valuable Player; 6-time American League Batting Champion, 18 American 
League All-Star appearances; and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  He was quite literally the father of the Red Sox nation, and, for 
millions of us, he came to live out what was his greatest wish--that if 
people ever saw him walk down the street they would say, There goes the 
greatest hitter who ever lived. Indeed, that is what people would have 
said.
  Beyond the statistics and awards, which speak volumes about what he 
accomplished in a Red Sox uniform, so many of us in this country have 
an even deeper respect for the individuality he expressed in almost 
everything he did: His uniqueness as a fisherman; his uniqueness in his 
contributions to the Jimmy Fund to raise funds for fighting cancer to 
help others; but especially what he did in the 5 years he spent wearing 
the uniform of his country, reminding each of us of what it means to be 
a citizen soldier, to leave a citizen's life to go out and fight for 
your country and then come back to resume what you did before.
  No one knows, but lots of people have speculated about what kind of 
career numbers this man might have posted, what records he would have 
broken, if it had not been for those 5 years during the prime of his 
baseball career while he served as a pilot and a member of the greatest 
generation.
  All of us would wonder. He walked away from the major leagues to 
serve his country as a fighter pilot. He flew as a wingman beside our 
colleague, Senator John Glenn, during Korea, performing a memorable 
emergency landing in a damaged plane that was on fire. And when he was 
later asked why he didn't just bail out, he told people he was fearing 
the fact that he might injure his knees--as you punch the button to 
bail out and you pull out of the cockpit. If you were tall, your knees 
often would be broken hitting the edge of the cockpit itself. He would 
sooner have died than not have been able to play baseball because of 
that potential injury. It was a conscious choice. Another time, he 
escaped to safety after being hit with anti-aircraft fire.
  Ted Williams was a courageous person, bigger than life, tough as 
nails, and he had that rare ability to sum up perfectly in his 
character so many things that speak about a generation, about our 
country, and about a game that is known as our national pastime.
  We all hope we will find citizens such as him and ballplayers such as 
him again. We join in mourning his loss and reflect on all that he gave 
to his country.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator from Massachusetts yield for a unanimous 
consent request? I would consider it an honor if the two Senators would 
allow me to be a cosponsor of this resolution dealing with one of my 
heroes, Ted Williams.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, we thank our leaders and we thank our 
colleagues for giving Senator Kerry and me a moment to bring to the 
attention of the Senate and to the American people once again the 
extraordinary sense of loss that the Williams family feels, the 
incredible sense of loss that people in Boston feel, the incredible 
loss that those who love baseball feel and those who served in the 
Marine Corps feel at the loss of Ted Williams.
  His stories on the baseball field have been well documented, although 
they bear repeating. For example, his extraordinary lifetime average of 
over .406: When we think today of all the various baseball records that 
are being broken, every single one is being broken almost annually in 
so many different areas, but no one has even coming close to his. We 
know he was on a level of excellence in terms of that sport that I 
don't think will be replicated again.
  His service in the military was, as my colleague pointed out, 
exemplary service to our country. Then the service as well to the Jimmy 
Fund, the Dana-Farber program--the Jimmy Fund that was just getting 
started. People didn't give a great deal of attention to the fact of 
children's cancer, but now you can't travel anyplace in this country, 
or probably in the world, and not find people who haven't heard of the 
Jimmy Fund or the Dana-Farber Center as an extraordinary place of 
excellence that has given great focus and attention and, most 
importantly, hope and life to hundreds of thousands of children, 
including one of my own who had serious cancer, osteocarcinoma, and was 
able to benefit from the extraordinary research and the gift of life 
that that center provides. The time Ted Williams would spend down in 
that center without any kind of fanfare, greeting and welcoming 
children, giving them a new sense of hope, was a real reflection of his 
humanity.
  This is an extraordinary American, someone of whom baseball is proud, 
Boston is proud, all of Massachusetts is proud. We salute his family, 
we salute him, and we thank our Ted Williams for all the good things he 
has done for baseball and for our country.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. I ask unanimous consent that an equal time for my speech be 
given to the Republican side because they were to control half the time 
in this morning business hour.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, will the Senator from West Virginia yield?
  Mr. BYRD. Yes.
  Mr. REID. I have been told by the Republican staff that Senator 
Domenici and Senator Brownback wish to speak. How long does Senator 
Domenici wish to speak?
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I thought I was speaking earlier. I 
would like 10 to 15 minutes.
  Mr. REID. Senator Brownback wants 15 minutes.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Did we not have a certain amount that some of our 
Senators----
  Mr. REID. The Republican time was to start around 10 o'clock.
  Mr. DOMENICI. That is correct.
  Mr. REID. Senator Wellstone is here also.
  Following Senator Byrd, Senator Domenici will be recognized for 15 
minutes, Senator Brownback will be recognized for 15 minutes, and then 
we will be on the bill. Senator Wellstone, being the timely person he 
is, came to speak at 10:30. He will not be able to do that now unless 
Senator Brownback is late; we will be on the bill at that time.
  I ask unanimous consent--the two managers are not here, but I do not 
think I am doing anything untoward--that he speak on the bill--he is 
not offering an amendment--that he be recognized as soon as the bill is 
called up.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Edwards). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I, too, am proud of Ted Williams. I hope the 
two Senators will allow me to cosponsor the resolution.
  As one who grew up in the Great Depression, I liked baseball. It was 
1927. May I say to my two Senators from Massachusetts, it was 1927 when 
Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, beat his own home run record when he 
swatted 60 home runs. I can remember those days when I watched for the 
baseball scores. I watched for Babe Ruth. I watched for Lou Gehrig. I 
watched for the Murderous Four on the New York Yankees team. That was 
the year in which Jack Dempsey fought Gene Tunney to regain the title.
  May I say to my dear friend, Ted Kennedy, Jack Dempsey was a hero of 
the coal miners. He mined coal in Logan County, WV. So my foster father 
told me we would go down to the community grill, which was a place 
where one could buy Coca-Colas or a soda. I mean they were good Coca-
Colas in those days, and you got them for 5 cents, a bottle of Coke for 
5 cents. So he said we would go down to the community grill and listen 
to that fight.
  Well, we went on that night. And there were fully 30 or 40 coal 
miners around that radio. I went home a disappointed lad because Jack 
Dempsey was my hero at that point as far as

[[Page 12485]]

sports figures were concerned, as well as Babe Ruth. And I went home a 
disappointed lad because Jack Dempsey did not win the fight.
  I did not hear the fight. There was only one set of earphones, and 
Julius Sleboda, who was the manager of the grill--that was 75 years 
ago, he was the manager of the grill--he listened to the fight, but he 
didn't tell the rest of us anything about what was going on.
  So, lo and behold, Mr. C.R. Stahl, a Scotsman who was the general 
manager of the coal mining operation, came into that room and took the 
earphones from Julius, put them on, and gave to those of us who were 
standing around with open eyes, open ears, and open mouths, a blow-by-
blow account of the greatest prize fight, as far as I am concerned, 
that ever occurred in the United States--Jack Dempsey. And he lost the 
fight. That was 1927.
  May I say to the distinguished Senator from Illinois, something 
happened in 1927. I can see the bulletins that were tacked up on the 
wall of the company store, the coal company store: ``Lindbergh Crosses 
the Atlantic.'' He flew across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis. 
He started out, I believe it was May 9, 1927. The New York Times had a 
headline which said that he flew over Nova Scotia at the tremendous 
speed of 100 miles per hour in the Spirit of St. Louis. That was 
Lindbergh. He had a plane that had a load of 5,500 pounds. He had five 
sandwiches. He ate one-half of a sandwich on the way. Part of the time, 
he flew 10 feet above the water; part of the time, 10,000 feet above 
the water. He flew across the Atlantic in a single-engine plane, the 
Spirit of St. Louis. That was 1927.
  That was the year Ford brought out the Model A Ford. It was also the 
year in which Sacco and Vanzetti were executed--1927, a great year.
  Let me switch now to 2002. Congress had been requested to appropriate 
more than $10 billion in fiscal year 2003 funds for a reserve fund from 
which the Department of Defense will draw to pay for its operations in 
the war against terrorism. Now, watch out. This war against terrorism 
is a terrible war, but watch out. Many things are being done under the 
rubric of the war on terrorism. We had better watch out. Let me tell 
you about this one. The President requested this huge amount of money, 
free of any restrictions.
  Now, Senators, we have to watch this stampede to legislate a new 
Department--and I am for a new Department--but in this so-called 
reorganization plan that the President sent up to the Senate and the 
House, watch out, this is a reorganization plan. Let's be careful we 
don't reorganize the checks and balances in our constitutional system. 
I have seen a fair number of requests for blank checks in my time, but 
this one takes the cake.
  The President's request for a large reserve fund for the military is 
not unprecedented. Just within the last decade, Congress established 
reserve funds for military operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, and the 
Persian Gulf region. From 1996 to 2001, Congress appropriated funds to 
the overseas contingency operations transfer fund to pay for our 
peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and the enforcement of no-fly 
zones over Iraq. The result was an accounting nightmare.
  As the General Accounting Office reported on May 22, 2002, the 
reserve fund for operations in the Balkans and the Persian Gulf was 
used for ``questionable expenditures.'' That is an understatement. The 
GAO report details how this reserve fund was used in 2000 and 2001 to 
buy cappuccino machines--there are three Appropriations Committee 
members on the floor right now on this side of the aisle, and another 
one is coming in on the other side of the aisle. The GAO report details 
how this reserve fund was used in 2000 and 2001 to buy cappuccino 
machines, golf club memberships, decorator furniture, and even a bingo 
console. President Bush says he needs the reserve fund to move money 
around quickly with a minimum of congressional intrusion. But would 
some congressional oversight have stopped the purchase of a bingo 
console with defense funds? How about that?
  That is your money, I say to the taxpayers who are watching this 
Senate floor right through those cameras there. That is your money.
  How did these funds, intended for important military missions, become 
diverted to Government waste? As the GAO report says:

       There is limited oversight--

  We don't give enough time to oversight, and we have an administration 
that doesn't want us to give much time to oversight. That is my view of 
it.
  There is limited oversight and a corresponding lack of visibility 
over how contingency operations funds are used that has also 
contributed to questionable uses of contingency funds.
  That is not Robert Byrd talking, that is the GAO report, the General 
Accounting Office, an arm of the Congress. It is no wonder Congress 
refused to put any more money into this reserve fund in the Fiscal Year 
2002 Appropriations Act.
  We should also put this in the proper context of how the Department 
of Defense manages and accounts for the money that is appropriated to 
it. It is a miserable record. Twelve years after the enactment of the 
Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, the Pentagon is unable to produce 
annual audited financial statements. It is a financial scandal that 
goes beyond the accounting chicanery perpetrated by the fallen giants 
of corporate America. In January 2001, the General Accounting Office 
reported that the Pentagon was unable to reconcile a $7 billion 
difference--not $7 million, but $7 billion--the Pentagon was unable to 
reconcile a $7 billion difference between its available fund balances 
and the balances kept by the Department of the Treasury; that the 
Department made $2.3 trillion--this is still the General Accounting 
Office report talking--that the Department made $2.3 trillion in 
unsupported accounting entries in fiscal year 1999, and that the 
Pentagon was not able to keep track of all of their weapons systems and 
support equipment. Now, get that. Simply put, if the Pentagon were a 
corporation, its stock would be crashing and the Dow Jones would be in 
really serious trouble.
  We should all know by now that the Pentagon's accounting mess 
requires closer oversight. It is a massive operation, and the Secretary 
of Defense has indicated it is a massive operation. Not all of this 
happened on his watch. He wants to try to get control over it, but how 
can he? It is so massive: Establishing a $10 billion reserve fund for 
the war on terrorism, with no restrictions, no limitations, no controls 
on how the money can be spent. We are talking about $10 billion; that 
is $10 for every minute since Jesus Christ was born. It would be 
throwing gasoline on a fire that is already raging out of control. With 
the Government ledgers filling up with red ink, we need not only fiscal 
responsibility, but also accounting responsibility.
  My concern with the reserve fund proposed by the President is not 
limited to its gross invitation for waste, fraud, and abuse, to use a 
hackneyed term.
  As a Member of the Senate and chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee, I want to know how this money will be used because $10 
billion is a lot of money, looking at it from the standpoint of my 
background and my State. It is a lot of money. Will it be used for 
rooting out the terrorists who remain in Afghanistan? Will it be used 
for the creation of an Afghan national army? Will it be used to 
increase our military presence in the Philippines, Georgia, or Yemen? 
What about an invasion of Iraq? Is that what it is going to be used 
for? We don't know.
  On July 3, 2002, President Bush sent a letter to congressional 
leaders to provide further details on how the $10 billion fund might be 
used. This supposed explanation left me scratching my head. I bet it 
left the Senator from New Mexico scratching his head. Nobody in this 
Senate understands this budget and the appropriations process any 
better than he does, if as well as he does. But it left me scratching 
my head--even more than I had scratched it before. The letter from the 
President talks about $10 billion being requested for a reserve fund 
with no controls and no oversight. But get this:


[[Page 12486]]

       This request will improve collection, analysis, 
     coordination, and execution of intelligence priorities and 
     plans, as we expand into new theaters--

  Oh, oh--

     of operation and build new relationships.

  That is not my quote. That is the quote in the message from the 
President.
  Let me say that again. Hear me, Senators. The letter from the 
President states:

       This request--

  For $10 billion of your money; your money; your money--

       This request will improve collection analysis, 
     coordination, and execution of intelligence priorities and 
     plans as we expand into new theaters of operation and build 
     new relationships.

  Mr. President, there is no clarification on what is meant by 
``expanding into new theaters of operation.'' Our imaginations are left 
to run wild. Are we talking about Iraq? If so, Mr. President, let's 
hear it. Tell us. The American people are entitled to know where their 
money is going to be spent, where their boys and girls, the young men 
and women of this country, are going to be sent. Tell us.
  Our imaginations are left to run wild. An accompanying letter from 
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mitch Daniels, 
proposes to elaborate, he is going to explain, explain a bit more, on 
how the $10 billion is going to be used. He is a favorite of us Members 
on the Appropriations Committee in both Houses. Mitch Daniels, the OMB 
Director, is a great favorite of ours.
  According to Mr. Daniels' letter, the reserve fund would contain--
listen to this--the reserve fund would contain ``up to $2.550 billion 
for military personnel accounts; up to $5.570 billion for operation and 
maintenance accounts, as well as military construction on working 
capital funds; and up to $1.880 billion for procurement or research, 
development, test, and evaluation account.''
  While this may be seen by some as making some progress in specifying 
how the requested funds might be used, the devil is still in the 
details, and we do not have them.
  Under the President's proposal, the allocations could be changed by 
the Secretary of Defense, after consultation with the Director of the 
OMB. Now get that, get that, pay close attention: Under the President's 
proposal, the allocations could be changed by the Secretary of Defense, 
after consultation--get that--after consultation with the Director of 
OMB and 15 days after providing notification--not a request--but 
notification to the congressional defense committees. Ha, ha, ha. What 
are we going to do next?
  It is not hard to see how that $10 billion reserve fund could start 
out for a legitimate purpose, such as paying the Guardsmen who have 
been mobilized for homeland security missions, but then be reallocated 
to fund any program that could be twisted around and redefined to 
encompass a defense against terrorism.
  I suppose that additional missile defense spending could fall within 
that rubric, as would military action against Iraq. Watch out; be 
careful while you are back home in August. Be careful.
  I could not imagine that a $10 billion reserve fund would be 
considered for any other agency in our Government but the Department of 
Defense. I doubt that any of us would seriously consider a $10 billion 
reserve fund that could be spent on health care, prescription drugs, or 
highway construction. The fiscal conservatives in Congress would hit 
the roof. ``Where is the accountability?'' they would say. If any 
Member of this body proposed on an appropriations bill a $10 billion 
reserve funds for education, with no limits on how those funds would be 
used, I have no doubt that the President would assail that Member for 
fiscal irresponsibility and ready his veto pen.
  It is true that we are engaged in a war on terrorism, and that war is 
expensive. At the height of our military operations in Afghanistan, we 
were spending more than $1 billion a month. But there is already a 
well-established means of providing that money without resorting to 
blank checks and reserve funds. Congress passes supplemental 
appropriations bills to provide additional funds to address 
contingencies that were not anticipated in the regular appropriations 
process.
  The Senate passed a supplemental appropriations bill on June 7 of 
this year that fully funds the President's request for additional funds 
for the military to pay for the war on terrorism. At his news 
conference earlier this week, President Bush criticized the Congress 
for delays in final action on the supplemental bill, but he failed to 
mention that his administration is greatly responsible for at least 
partially delaying the legislation.
  The administration slowed the supplemental bill down months ago by 
repeatedly refusing to allow Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to 
testify about the funding request. Most recently, the administration, 
claiming that the supplemental bill invests too much in homeland 
security, has threatened to veto the legislation, despite its 
overwhelming 71 to 22 vote in the Senate. What our country needs is 
responsible leadership, and Presidential threats about a veto of 
homeland security funding is nothing short of irresponsible.
  This supplemental appropriations bill does not include a reserve fund 
that will subvert government accountability for how taxpayer money is 
spent. But the administration continues to seek such a fund for the 
fiscal year 2003 Defense appropriations bill. I deeply regret this 
indication that the administration continues to view Congress as an 
impediment to the national interest, rather than a coequal branch of 
our Government with its own, non-delegable authorities and 
responsibilities under the Constitution.
  The Founding Fathers granted Congress the power of the purse and the 
responsibility to provide for our national defense.
  Accountability for how the funds are spent must be demanded by 
Congress as the directly elected representatives of the people. We were 
not sent here by an electoral college. We are directly accountable to 
our constituents. If this $10 billion defense reserve fund is misused, 
who will have to answer to the letters and the phone calls from John Q. 
Public? It will not be the Secretary of Defense. It will not be the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget. It will be us, the 
Members of Congress. We have a responsibility to see that funds we 
appropriate are well spent. We cannot allow ourselves to shirk that 
responsibility. It is the people's tax dollars.
  If the people are being told these dollars are to go to fight global 
terrorism, this Congress must never allow these funds to buy cappuccino 
machines instead.
  I again thank all the Senators, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.

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