A resolution congratulating Lance Armstrong for winning the 2003 Tour de France.

Mr. President, I rise today in support of S. Res. 210, which would proclaim the month of October as ``National Work and Family Month.''

In Congress, we talk a lot about the importance of productivity in the workplace. We've all heard it many times: When workers are more productive, their wages and their living standards increase. American workers are just about the most productive in the world, and that's the reason we have the highest living standard of any large country. But this abstract idea we call productivity doesn't really capture what makes modern life so much more comfortable than life in the old days. And for most Americans, the days have gotten a lot nicer over the decades, and that includes the time that Americans spend at work.

In my lifetime, the workplace has changed so much that it is unrecognizable. Work in America is a lot less backbreaking than it used to be, it involves a lot more thinking and typing on average and a lot less lifting and hauling and welding and soldering. It involves a balance, a balance between business and personal activities, and between giving and receiving. That's a great thing. In just about every way imaginable, most Americans work in places that are far more family- friendly than in the past.

Flexible work schedules are becoming much more common, too. In 1985, just 14 percent of workers were on flexible schedules, but now 28 percent of workers are. Flexible schedules make it easier to balance work and family. And the workweek is getting shorter, too. In 1890, the average workweek was 60 hours; by 1950 it was down to 40, and now it's down to 35 hours a week for factory workers.

The major reason for these changes is the constantly innovating free- market economy. As any employer can tell you, the competition for workers is usually just as cutthroat as the competition for customers. Very few employees in the U.S. today would put up with 1950s style working conditions, let alone 1890s style work conditions. In most cases, if employers treat their workers wrong for very long, those workers will find something else to do with their time. Every day in every State across this Nation, people quit jobs they hate so they can look for something better. Stacks of business magazines extol the virtues of the worker-friendly, family friendly workplace, and study after study points out that in many cases, a family-friendly workplace more than pays for itself.

But in too many cases, our Nation's laws haven't kept up with changes in the real-world workplace. We have laws from an industrial era that have lagged far behind changes in the economy. And more importantly, our laws have lagged behind changes in people's personal lives. Yes, we've made some progress over the years, but there's still a lot to be done, such as in the areas of early childhood education and elder care, two areas that I have worked on in the past, and where I know we need to do more work in the future.

Today I'd like to focus on one area where we are on the cusp of making a lot more progress, and that is the area of flex time for America's workers. Right now, millions of employees in both the public and private sectors enjoy flexible work schedules. But our industrial- era laws completely shut millions of hourly wage-earners out of the world of flex-time. Over the last few Congresses, a number of proposals have been offered, by President Clinton, by President Bush, and by many members of Congress, to give hourly workers in the private sector the same job flexibility that government workers already enjoy.

Right now, federal law decrees that any hourly wage-earner who works more than forty hours per week must be paid overtime at time-and-one- half. But these rules, which I admit sound quite sensible at first, mean that hourly workers in the private sector can't have the ``nine- nines'' workweek that so many federal and state government employees take advantage of.

Under the nine-nines workweek, a worker works for nine hours per day for eight days, then works for eight hours on the ninth day, and then the worker can take every other Friday or every other Monday off as a holiday. This adds up to eighty hours over two weeks, but it turns every other weekend into a three-day weekend.

Millions of hourly wage-earners would love to be able to have this kind

of work schedule, but our industrial-age rules make it impossible for companies to do that without paying overtime wages. It's illegal. If we can amend Federal law to change the standard work period from forty hours every week to eighty hours every two weeks, that would be a great help to America's hourly workers. And it would make it easier for millions of workers to take more weekend trips with the kids, to make doctor's appointments without taking time off of work, and to just live a life that is a little bit less hectic. And that's what family- friendly business policies are all about.

Right now, we're seeing a fair amount of controversy over another family-friendly work proposal that goes by the name of comp-time legislation. This is another idea that has been around here for too long, and it's time for it to become law.

Comp time would allow workers who work overtime a choice: either they could receive overtime pay in the form of time-and-one-half in cash, or they could receive their pay as time-and-a-half in the form of paid time off. Ten hours of overtime this week could mean fifteen hours off next week, all of it paid time off. This would be unbelievably valuable for workers who would appreciate some extra time with their families. And despite some of the false claims made about comp time, the law would let unionized workers negotiate comp-time agreements through their unions, so it would completely respect worker's rights to organize.

As I said earlier, the flex-time and comp-time proposals would provide private sector employees the same opportunities that Federal employees currently have. These proposals would help husbands and wives balance the demands of work and family. This is the kind of legislation that Congress should be enacting to bring our laws into the 21st century. I keep hearing from working parents who struggle to balance the worlds of work and family, and I'm convinced that changing our industrial-era wages and hours laws will give them the flexibility they so desire.

I would like to say a little bit more about what Congress can do in the critical area of elder care. I come from a state with a large proportion of elderly citizens, and I know that this is an issue that weighs heavily on the minds of a lot of working families. Our society often overlooks the importance of caring for elderly parents, but I know how hard it is for a husband or a wife to concentrate on work when they have to be concerned about a frail parent. I've sponsored legislation to help our medical system help our nation's frail elderly. One of the major benefits of this kind of reform is that adult children won't have to live in fear of whether or not their parents will be cared for. The Medicare Improvements for Special Needs Beneficiaries Act, which I introduced in the 107th Congress, would be a big help to elderly Americans who have complex, long-term care needs. And it would be a great relief to their adult children.

There is a joy in giving the gift of our skills at work, at giving ourselves to the task at hand so thoroughly that we accomplish a task and can say to ourselves, ``well done.'' Fortunately, most working Americans also have the reassurance that they can draw a healthy line, a healthy boundary, between their family and their job, caring for both their loved ones and their work. The rise of flex-time in salaried jobs is a great example of this. When people are able to find a job where they can draw this line, we are happier and more content individuals. I hope that Congress can remove some of the legal barriers that stand between the American people and their ability to draw that line where they see fit.

For all of these reasons, I urge my colleagues to join with Senator Kennedy and myself to bring attention to the need for a family-friendly work environment. I urge them to cosponsor this resolution. Our industrial-era labor laws and labor regulations are a barrier to a healthy work environment, and they need serious reform. As I said, I've been working on this along with my old friend Senator Kennedy, and I'm also grateful to have the help of Senator Dodd and Senator Alexander. The four of us may not always see eye to eye on the precise way to help the private sector to build a family-friendly workplace, but I know we agree on the goal: A better life for American families.

Mr. President, I rise to submit a sense of the Senate resolution that the Senate supports improving American defenses against the spread of infectious diseases from abroad. The United States and other nations have a serious global problem in confronting the natural outbreak or deliberate spread of infectious diseases. The Central Intelligence Agency's January 2000 National Intelligence Estimate, NIE, The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States found that infectious diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide and that ``New and reemerging infectious diseases will pose a rising global health threat and will complicate U.S. and global security over the next 20 years.''

I have been concerned about the bioterrorist threat to this country for some time. In 2001, as chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services, I chaired hearings that addressed the Nation's preparedness to respond to a bioterrorist attack. Sadly, the SARS outbreak demonstrated that naturally occurring diseases can be spread extraordinarily quickly through international air travel. This raises questions over our Nation's ability to counter a bioterrorist attack and protect our public health in general. Preparations that organize our health care network against a naturally occurring disease outbreak can also help guard Americans against a bioterrorist attack. Our first line of defense must be pushed beyond the borders of the United States to countries overseas. We should help stop the spread of a disease at its source before tens or hundreds of air-travelers inadvertently spread it around the globe.

The World Health Organization, WHO, World Health Report 2002 estimates that infectious diseases accounted for more than 11 million deaths in 2001. Most of these infectious disease deaths occurred in the developing world, where they imposed a terrible burden on societies whose public health systems were already stretched beyond their limits. Infectious diseases, however, pose a threat to people in all parts of the world. Diseases easily spread beyond national borders.

The NIE noted that many infectious diseases come from outside U.S. borders and are introduced by international travelers, immigrants, returning U.S. military personnel, or imported animals or foodstuffs. The report states the increase in international air travel and trade will ``dramatically increase the prospects,'' that infectious diseases will ``spread quickly around the globe, often in less time than the incubation period of most diseases.''

Diseases that originated overseas, such as HIV/AIDS, have had a serious impact on the health and welfare of U.S. population. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there have been almost 450,000 deaths. There are an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 people currently living with human immunodeficiency virus in the United States with approximately 40,000 new human immunodeficiency virus infections occurring in the U.S. every year.

SARS and the West Nile virus have also had an impact in the United States.

The danger of an outbreak of a deadly disease overseas affecting the United States is increasing. The NIE found that war, natural disasters, economic collapse, and human complacency around the world are causing a breakdown in health care delivery and helping the emergence or reemergence of infectious diseases.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. The early warning of a disease outbreak is key to its identification; the quick application of countermeasures; and the development of cures. The General Accounting Office, GAO, noted in its August 2001 report, Global Health: Challenges in Improving Infectious Disease Surveillance Systems, that ``disease surveillance provides national and international public health authorities with information they need to plan and manage to control these diseases.''

The next disease to strike the United States, like SARS, may be an unrecognized pathogen. As of July 2003, the SARS virus has sickened more than 8,000 people, including over 35 in the United States. The disease has killed more than 800 since the outbreak began in southern China, and has had severe economic repercussions in the countries beset by the outbreak. Although the disease appears to be under control for the moment, many fear there will be resurgence of SARS in the fall when the general flu and cold season begins. We have to do a better job next time, and by helping others we will help ourselves to do so. We need to strengthen our ability to detect foreign diseases before they cross our borders. The CDC has played a significant role in foreign disease surveillance for many years. Its Field Epidemiology Training Programs is an important program that strengthens global disease surveillance by training foreign specialists in modern epidemiology. FETPs have existed for almost 20 years and involve working with ministries of health around the world and the World Health Organization. Currently FETPs are in 30 countries throughout the world, supporting disease detection efforts and providing an essential link in global surveillance. The work of the FETPs is critical to establishing a first line of defense overseas to protect the health of local populations and of American citizens from the spread of deadly infectious diseases. This work is more timely and necessary than ever. As Dr. James Hughes, Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the CDC told the Governmental Affairs Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on July 30th, the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak show, ``The SARS experience reinforces the importance of global surveillance,'' as well as having prompt reporting and a strong laboratory capability.

We need to ensure that the CDC work in this area, which is at times heroic, is given the funding it requires. We also need to keep this question prominently on our national agenda. We need attention focused on infectious diseases on an annual basis. We need to understand better the political and economic implications of the spread of infectious diseases for foreign countries and the United States, and we need to know what are likely future trends depending on the level of intervention to address this problem. I suggest that a NIE on infectious diseases should be produced each year so that we have a comprehensive analysis of worldwide infectious disease and health developments.

The G-8 group of leading industrialized nations is playing a role on global health issues. At the 2003 Evian summit, the G-8 made a commitment to fight against the so-called big three diseases of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. But the G-8 recognized the spread of SARS demonstrated ``the importance of global collaboration, including global disease surveillance.'' These words need to be backed by vigorous, coordinated actions. I urge the President to work with the G-8 to create regional FETP programs so that every part of the world can be covered by a strong public health disease surveillance system.

Moreover, we should support the World Health Organization, whose work provides a critical underpinning to the efforts of the global public health community. The World Health Organization's regular budget has been more or less flat since the mid-1990s in nominal terms, around $420 million a year. In real terms, some estimate this means it has been reduced by 25 percent or more. WHO receives additional extra budgetary funding of several hundred million dollars a year. But most of this is project specific and does not directly support the basic public health activities of WHO and is not a substitute for funding core WHO activities. WHO global surveillance activities have been built with very modest extra budgetary contributions on top of a modest amount of core resources. But WHO's global disease surveillance work is underfunded and is being conducted in an overall context of declining real WHO core funding.

The rapid and easy transport of diseases to and throughout the United States underscores that Americans are now part of a global public health system. I have been impressed by the commendable effort that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made to improve health in the developing world. The foundation has spent over $3 billion for this goal. Such visionary leadership should not only exist in the world of philanthropy. This country should take a stronger lead in improving public health and disease surveillance systems overseas.

Mr. President, today we honor the 182nd anniversary of the independence of Greece. Nearly two centuries ago a band of determined and courageous Greek patriots rose against tremendous odds to end nearly four centuries of oppressive foreign domination of their homeland. Their arduous struggle continued for 8 years, until independence was at last secured in 1829, and the first steps were taken toward the establishment of the modern Greek state.

Our Founding Fathers drew heavily on the political experience and philosophy of the ancient Greeks, who first developed the principles of democratic government that vest the supreme governing authority in the people. Barely a generation later, Greek patriots turned to the American Revolution for inspiration, seeing in the success of the new American Republic the promise of their own future.

For nearly 200 years, the American and Greek peoples have shared a profound commitment to democratic principles, and have worked to create societies built on these principles. The United States and Greece have stood together in every major struggle for freedom and democracy: through two devastating World Wars, and through the long decades of the cold war. Today they are joined in the fight against terrorism, notably as Greece moves in cooperation with U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to root out and dismantle the November 17 terrorist organization and bring its members to justice.

Greece today is a vigorous and prosperous democracy, a solid partner of the United States, a full member of NATO and of the European Union. Currently serving as President of the EU, Greece has focused its efforts on promoting peace and stability in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. For many nations in these regions seeking to develop viable economic systems and democratic institutions, Greece serves as a model. Greece has worked hard and with extraordinary success in recent years to expand cross-cultural understanding and reduce longstanding tensions in the Greek-Turkish relationship. Indeed, in recognition of its expanding role in the world community, Greece was chosen to host the next Olympic games, which are scheduled to take place in Athens in 2004 and which will bring millions of visitors to Greece from all over the world.

There is another essential aspect to the U.S.-Greece partnership: the distinctive contributions that Greek Americans have made to every aspect of our Nation's life, in the arts, in business, in science, in medicine, in scholarship. Greek immigrant families to this country brought with them the traditional values of commitment to family and church, hard work and education, and Greek Americans have carried these values forward; they have helped to strengthen and invigorate communities everywhere across the land.

Greek Independence Day is a time of celebration, and also a moment for reflection. We see the many ways in which our country and Greece are drawn together, and we see how the past and the present are joined. Thinking back to the first steps toward Greek independence, on March 25, 1821, we are mindful of the long and twisting road traveled; of the courage and sacrifice of those who have worked over the decades to make Greece the democratic and prosperous nation it is today; of the fundamental importance in our lives of the democratic institutions, first conceived and created by the ancient Greeks, that are the bedrock of our society and the guarantee of freedom for peoples around the world.

Never have these institutions been more important to us. We revere and rejoice in them, and we commit ourselves once again to making them our legacy to the generations yet to come.

Mr. President, I rise today to support the designation of March 25, 2003, as Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy.

As in previous years, I welcome the opportunity to honor the democratic values and lasting friendship that bind our nations. Our common struggle to protect freedom and democracy at home and around the world has forged a strong partnership between Greece and the United States, a partnership which is critical to meeting today's challenges.

On the international front, Greece has played an important role in Operation Enduring Freedom and is now working with its European Union partners to support the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Greece continues to be a leader in bringing stability to the Balkans and in guiding the countries of this former region of conflict toward the community of democracies in Europe. Greece has been a steadfast ally in the fight against international terrorism, responding to every request for assistance in tracking and disrupting terrorist networks.

Greece has been actively pursuing security on the home front as well. In the last year, we welcomed the arrest in

Greece of 19 suspected members of ``November 17,'' a terrorist group responsible for approximately 120 criminal acts over a 27-year period, including the murder of Greeks, Americans, and citizens of other countries. For too many years, this case remained unsolved and the criminals unpunished. I am heartened by the efforts of the Government of Greece to move quickly to prosecute the suspects. The authorities in Greece must now accelerate efforts to bring charges against those suspects responsible for the 1983 killing of CAPT George Tsantes, USN, who is survived by his wife Thalia Panos; his sons George K. Tsantes, III, and Nicolas P. Tsantes; and by his daughter Stephanie Tsantes, a distinguished citizen of the State of Delaware. Prosecution of this and other such cases will, I hope, bring a measure of closure and justice to all the families of the victims of ``November 17.''

Greece is now preparing to host the Summer Olympics in 2004--a challenge under the best of circumstances, a Herculean task in today's security environment. Working with the international community, including the United States, Greece has made unprecedented efforts to provide for safe and secure Olympic Games in 2004. And it has done so with great attention to preserving its 3,000 year-old cultural patrimony, the glory of the Hellenic past and present.

Greece has wisely chosen the theme ``Our Europe: Sharing the Future in a Community of Values'' to define its current term in the rotating Presidency of the European Union. In emphasizing the enlargement and transformation of the European Union, Greece will lead the efforts to create an even stronger European partner of the United States, a partner committed to protecting and promoting the fundamental values of freedom and democracy.

In designating March 25, 2003, as Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy, we honor both a proud heritage and our commitment to continued partnership and cooperation.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize two Oregon-based humanitarian organizations that are preparing to offer aid to the Iraqi citizens who may be displaced or who are facing hardships as a consequence of Saddam Hussein's intransigence and military events in Iraq.

Mercy Corps, an international relief and development organization, exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression around the world. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided more than $640 million in assistance to 75 nations. Mercy Corps primarily works in countries in transition from war or natural disaster or in the midst of extreme economic or social transition. This group offers humanitarian assistance not only to meet basic needs, but helps lay the foundation for peace by building local capacity and a just, inclusive civil society.

Mercy Corps is already mobilizing an expanded relief effort that will deliver $20 million in aid to Iraq. Relief supplies for as many as 700,000 displaced people will include crucial water, food, sanitation supplies, shelter, medical care and basic items like blankets and cooking supplies. Mercy Corps is already delivering critical medical care, shelter and reconstruction services to thousands of displaced people in northern Iraq.

In addition, Mercy Corps is working with a consortium of other international partners, including the UN, to coordinate efforts to alleviate any humanitarian crisis that might arise in Iraq.

Representatives of northwest Medical Teams International (NWMTI), also headquartered in Portland, are meeting this week with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to focus on the delivery and distribution of medical care, food, clean water and shelter for displaced Iraqis. Northwest Medical Teams International seeks to demonstrate the love of Christ to those in crisis by sending volunteer medical and response teams, distributing humanitarian aid, and providing community development programs and children's ministries. In particular, the organization provides assistance to vulnerable people suffering from the consequences of war, famine, epidemics, poverty, physical illness, deformities and natural disasters. Since 1979, NWMTI has sent teams or supplies to more than 40 countries.

Northwest Medical Teams has a staff physician in Iraq, and three local medical volunteers will be joining him to provide life-saving aid. The agency also has $40,000 in medicines to send with the team and will send $20,000 to procure supplies locally in Iraq. The volunteers will serve thousands of displaced people at three camps as soon as the areas are secure.

Northwest Medical Teams is also preparing to provide medicines, blankets and tents to large groups of Iraqis who might become displaced due to the ongoing armed engagement.

Both of these organizations have had volunteers and staff working in northern Iraq since the Persian Gulf War in 1991.