Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on December 1, 2002 another chapter of the Cold War with the Former Soviet Union ended with the passing of William G. Geimer. Bill was the visionary founder and longtime president of the Jamestown Foundation, a non profit organization devoted to promoting liberty and fighting totalitarianism most notably in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

I had the privilege of working with and learning from Bill as he waged the good fight against the oppressive regimes of the Soviet Union that sought to crush the human spirit. Through his instrumental role at the Jamestown Foundation, Bill's leadership and vision helped bring down the Iron Curtain. Mr. Speaker, I will insert following these remarks a press release from the Jamestown Foundation that describes how Bill made a tremendous difference with his life.

Bill's efforts and advocacy with the Jamestown Foundation influenced Members of Congress, government officials and the general public exposing the corrupt and immoral nature of Soviet communism. Bill will be truly missed as this nation confronts other totalitarian regimes, but his life and vision can serve as a legacy for others continuing the fight against evil.

In Memoriam, William W. Geimer: August 18, 1937--December 1, 2002

Jamestown Foundation Founder and Cold War Hero Dies

Washington, DC.--With deep sorrow, the Jamestown Foundation

announces the death of William W. Geimer, its visionary

founder and longtime president.

Mr. Geimer, 65, established the Jamestown Foundation at a

critical point in the Cold War as a source of first-hand

accounts of the inner workings of the Soviet Union and other

Eastern bloc countries. From its founding in 1984, the

foundation has become the leading force for disclosing to the

world the knowledge and insights of those in the top reaches

of closed totalitarian societies, including high level

defectors from the Soviet Union and its client states. For

creating a safe haven for high-ranking officials from behind

the Iron Curtain with the courage to tell the world the true

nature of communism, Geimer was recognized by President

Ronald Reagan as a key figure in the collapse of the Soviet

Union.

Geimer was inspired to launch the foundation following his

work with Arkady Shevchenko, the highest-ranking Soviet

official ever to defect when he left his position as

undersecretary general of the United Nations. Asked by the

State Department to serve as Shevchenko's attorney, Geimer

recognized that Shevchenko could provide a unique and

invaluable insider's view of Soviet policymaking, arms

control negotiation strategies and the workings of the top

reaches of the then-secret Soviet government. Geimer was

instrumental in the publication of Shevchenko's writings,

most notably, the bestseller ``Breaking with Moscow,'' in

which Shevchenko acknowledged, as well as the close personal

friendship between them, ``the countless hours, days, years

of himself'' that Bill Geimer had given to ``bring me into a

new life.''

Following the end of the Cold War, Geimer moved the

foundation aggressively into monitoring the Soviet transition

away from totalitarianism by publishing daily analytical

reports on events in the region. The Jamestown Foundation's

research and publications have become the leading source of

information on the war in Chechnya, and on political,

military and economic trends in the states of the former

Soviet Union and in China.

``Bill was an American patriot who devoted his life to

promote freedom and democracy worldwide,'' said Barbara D.

Abbott, the Jamestown Foundation's vice chairman and now

president. ``From the Evil Empire to the Axis of Evil, he

never wavered in his belief that an attack on the secrecy of

closed societies is one of the greatest weapons in a

democracy's arsenal. Bill's vision, wisdom, kindness and

humor will be missed, but his work will continue at the

Jamestown Foundation.''

``Geimer was a visionary,'' long-time Board member and

former Central Intelligence Agency director R. James Woolsey

observed. ``He had an enormous impact on our national

security efforts. As the Soviet Union began to collapse, Bill

was one of the first to foresee that the instability brought

about by that dissolution might result in rogue groups more

difficult to deal with and potentially more of a threat to

freedom than the USSR, which is precisely the situation we

face with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.''

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jamestown Advisory Board member,

recalls that ``Bill Geimer was a patriot with a vision, an

idealist with a program, and a leader who knew how to get

things done.''

Vice President Dick Cheney, a former Jamestown Foundation

board member who attended Wednesday's funeral services,

stated, ``The Jamestown Foundation has played an important

role in alleviating suffering and in furthering democracy.''

A native of Chicago, William W. Geimer received his

bachelor's degree from Marquette University and his law

degree from Northwestern University. He served on President

Ronald Reagan's Export-Import Bank transition team, and in

top-level positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations,

including as deputy assistant secretary of state for

international trade. He maintained a private law practice in

Washington, DC from 1976 to 1984.

Mr. Speaker, we wanted to bring some sort of information here because I was listening back in my office. In the CR under consideration today are two provisions providing the Securities and Exchange Commission with additional authorities and resources to protect investors. That is already in the CR. The second provision allows the SEC to fund the start-up expenses of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to begin to provide the additional necessary scrutiny in corporate accounting.

There was also a bill put in earlier today, I believe it has been put in, which does the following: with regard to the fiscal year 2003 Commerce-State-Justice appropriations bill, and the gentleman from Massachusetts was referring to this, it includes $776 million for the Securities and Exchange Commission. That is the level that is authorized by the Sarbanes-Oxley bill. It is $209 million, I will tell the gentleman, above the President's request;

and it is higher than the amount that was in the Senate bill.

In addition to fully funding the SEC's pay parity cost, the funding will include an increase of $100 million for information technology initiatives such as enhanced automated analytical tools, an integrated document management system, a central data repository and various e- government projects.

It will also, I will tell the body so they feel very comfortable in voting for what the gentleman was talking about on the CR, the funding level will also provide for hundreds of additional accountants, attorneys and examiners to substantially increase oversight of auditors and audit services, enhance the commission's investigative and enforcement capability, improve disclosure of information to investors, and perform various other oversight duties. So that bill has been introduced and is in the hopper tonight.

I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

But it is introduced to be the subject of, and we are committed to those figures, to be the subject of the 2003 conference. We are actually higher with regard to that than what the Senate had. That is the subject of us going to conference. It is higher than what the administration asked for and also higher than what the Senate has.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that for the first session of the 108th Congress all Members be permitted to extend their remarks and to include extraneous material within the permitted limit in that section of the Record entitled ``Extensions of Remarks.''

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained this afternoon at a news conference reporting on my recent fact-finding trip to Ethiopia to observe the famine conditions and did not vote on rollcall Nos. 6 and 7. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on the motion to recommit S. 23, and ``yea'' on final passage of S. 23, to extend unemployment insurance benefits.