Floor Statements

Mr. President, as I have said before, every day our troops have been in the field the Senate has opened with a tribute to them. We have had Members from both sides, from many States, talk about their own Members and colleagues. We have talked about different groups in the field. I begin today giving a tribute to a group of Navy reservists from Texas who are making history in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The unit is the Strike Fighter Squadron that hails from the Joint Reserve base at Fort Worth. As we speak, the members of this outstanding unit are flying jet fighters in combat against Saddam Hussein's evil regime. They are best known by their nickname the ``Hunters.''

When President Bush ordered the Hunters to active duty last October, this distinguished squadron joined the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt for duty in the Persian Gulf--the first time since the Korean War that an entire Naval Air Reserve squadron has deployed aboard an aircraft carrier.

Since then, the Hunters have exceeded all of the Navy's requirements. The 12 Hornets that comprise the squadron have flown 1,500 sorties over Iraq. The air crews have made more than 500 landings aboard the Theodore Roosevelt at night and nearly twice that number during the day.

But it takes more than just remarkable statistics to truly tell how well the Hunters are serving our Nation. You can hear the pride in their voices. One crew member described the personal sacrifices his comrades were making when he said, ``Some of us are taking pay cuts of $50,000 to $100,000 per year to be out here and make this happen. We're happy to be a part of this ship and this air wing, and we're ready to do our job.'' Many of the pilots left their jobs as civilian airline pilots to fight for our country.

These brave Naval reservists also are facing what many feel is the worst part of a deployment: being away from family. That means missing birthdays, anniversaries, and other important family obligations that are gone forever. Yet they are undaunted. One proud member said, ``We're leaving our jobs and our families behind until this mobilization is done. Several members of the squadron are also geographic bachelors who don't live in Fort Worth, which means that they'll still be away from their loved ones after we've come back to base.''

The feeling among members of the squadron is that each volunteered to serve in the operation they describe as ``America's Big Stick.'' One officer pointed out, ``If our country needs us, we're going to step up, because this job is about something that's bigger than all of us.''

Mr. President, with volunteers like the Hunters, this operation and the future of our national security is in good hands. We owe them and their families a debt we never can repay.

I yield to the Senator from Nebraska.

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce legislation today that will increase Medicare reimbursement to hospitals. While we corrected in the omnibus appropriations bill the reimbursement issue for physicians and rural hospitals, nothing was done to assist teaching hospitals or give hospitals a full inflationary update. Texas hospitals alone are facing a loss of $53 million in 2003 due to Medicare reimbursement cuts.

Hospital admissions have risen from 31 million patients in 1990 to 33 million in 2000, and the number of days in the hospital is rising as well. Increased admissions, rising liability premiums, and the cost of advanced technology have forced hospitals to cut back on services. The cost of a pint of blood increased 31 percent in 2001, an additional $920 million burden to hospitals. Such costs are continuing to rise, yet Medicare reimbursements to hospitals are not keeping pace with inflation and their margins are slowly shrinking. Fifty-eight percent of hospitals are losing money on the Medicare patients they treat.

This legislation, the American Hospital Preservation Act, restores the market basket update and the reimbursement for indirect medical education, IME, payments to teaching hospitals. The market basket update is an inflationary adjustment to account for the rising costs of goods and services, and the IME payments give teaching hospitals an additional Medicare reimbursement due to their higher costs of inpatient care. Both of these factors were cut by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Restoring the cuts means $289 million to Texas hospitals and $6 billion nationwide over the next five years. Major teaching hospitals are experiencing their lowest profit margin since the late '90s, 2.4 percent. Patients, especially those who are seriously ill, rely on teaching hospitals, which make up 78 percent of all trauma centers and 80 percent of all burn beds. Although only 23 percent of all hospitals are teaching hospitals, they deliver over two-thirds of charity care.

Emergency rooms are increasingly used as a primary care clinic because patients cannot find a physician who accepts Medicare, and they are treating more individuals who are uninsured. In 2000, hospitals provided $21.6 billion in uncompensated care.

Lower reimbursement rates coupled with bioterrorism risks and a workforce shortage make our hospitals a time bomb waiting to go off. Our hospitals are always open and must accept anyone who walks through their doors. It is our responsibility to ensure they have adequate resources from the Federal Government.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the American Hospital Preservation Act.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce legislation today that will increase Medicare reimbursement to hospitals. While we corrected in the omnibus appropriations bill the reimbursement issue for physicians and rural hospitals, nothing was done to assist teaching hospitals or give hospitals a full inflationary update. Texas hospitals alone are facing a loss of $53 million in 2003 due to Medicare reimbursement cuts.

Hospital admissions have risen from 31 million patients in 1990 to 33 million in 2000, and the number of days in the hospital is rising as well. Increased admissions, rising liability premiums, and the cost of advanced technology have forced hospitals to cut back on services. The cost of a pint of blood increased 31 percent in 2001, an additional $920 million burden to hospitals. Such costs are continuing to rise, yet Medicare reimbursements to hospitals are not keeping pace with inflation and their margins are slowly shrinking. Fifty-eight percent of hospitals are losing money on the Medicare patients they treat.

This legislation, the American Hospital Preservation Act, restores the market basket update and the reimbursement for indirect medical education, IME, payments to teaching hospitals. The market basket update is an inflationary adjustment to account for the rising costs of goods and services, and the IME payments give teaching hospitals an additional Medicare reimbursement due to their higher costs of inpatient care. Both of these factors were cut by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Restoring the cuts means $289 million to Texas hospitals and $6 billion nationwide over the next five years. Major teaching hospitals are experiencing their lowest profit margin since the late '90s, 2.4 percent. Patients, especially those who are seriously ill, rely on teaching hospitals, which make up 78 percent of all trauma centers and 80 percent of all burn beds. Although only 23 percent of all hospitals are teaching hospitals, they deliver over two-thirds of charity care.

Emergency rooms are increasingly used as a primary care clinic because patients cannot find a physician who accepts Medicare, and they are treating more individuals who are uninsured. In 2000, hospitals provided $21.6 billion in uncompensated care.

Lower reimbursement rates coupled with bioterrorism risks and a workforce shortage make our hospitals a time bomb waiting to go off. Our hospitals are always open and must accept anyone who walks through their doors. It is our responsibility to ensure they have adequate resources from the Federal Government.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the American Hospital Preservation Act.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I want to open today by noting what we saw live from Iraq yesterday starting in the midmorning. It was truly uplifting to see what we hoped would be the end: The fall of Saddam Hussein, the cheering in the streets by the Iraqi people, the flowers for the American and British soldiers being thrown at the tanks by the Iraqi people.

We are admonished by the President and by the Pentagon that this is not over. There are still areas--in fact, there was a firefight last night that was unexpected. There was one yesterday at the University of Baghdad. So it is not over.

But we know the end is very near, and we know the people of Iraq now understand that they are going to have the taste of freedom.

You could see it in their faces. You could see it in the tears coming down their cheeks. You could see it in the children reacting against the statue of the fallen Saddam Hussein.

I think we are at the beginning of the end or at the end of the beginning. We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, which is freedom for the Iraqi people and doing away with the many weapons that have been used in Iraq against its own people and that we feared would be used against ours.

I open by saying thank you to the American troops, the young men and women on the ground, who have fought so valiantly to make this happen. I could not be more proud today, after seeing what is happening in Baghdad and the reaction of the people and the message left by the U.S. troops on one of Saddam Hussein's palaces: ``USA was here.''

I hope in the days to come we will see more Iraqi people beginning to see what it is to be able to form a government and take control of their own country; to start creating jobs again and an economy that will allow them to have a democracy, free enterprise, and know what so many of us have grown up with and appreciated.

I thank the troops this morning. I want to turn over the management of our time to the Senator from Minnesota for the rest of this morning. He will also work with the Senator from Arkansas on the Democratic side to fill this time talking about the heroic and touching deeds that our troops have been doing in the field.

Mr. President, I will only speak for about 3 or 4 minutes, I tell the Senator from Massachusetts. I appreciate the recognition.

I want to speak on the AMBER alert portion of this legislation because we have been working on it for several months. We passed AMBER alert legislation last year. Senator Feinstein and I cosponsored the legislation. Senator Hatch and Senator Leahy were very supportive. We passed AMBER alert again this year and hoped very much that we could get a clean bill that would be signed quickly by the President.

However, I know provisions were added that are very good provisions. I am very pleased that we have finally gotten a bill that the House has passed and would be able hopefully to pass this legislation and send it to the President.

Because the AMBER alert is proven to save lives, Senator Feinstein and I have been working very hard to get it passed through the Senate. Ed Smart, a constituent of the distinguished Senator from Utah, told us how important AMBER alerts were in helping to find his daughter Elizabeth. Even though she is one of the few abducted children who was found after a long period, it was the publicity that made the difference because a person who saw the picture of the suspect in the paper then saw the suspect on the street, and the police were able to walk up to the suspect and Elizabeth Smart was right

there with him. So it does make a difference that we have this kind of publicity.

To date, sixty abducted children have been recovered with the assistance of AMBER alert. In fact, the statistics show that 75 percent of recovered children are recovered within the first 3 hours. You can only do this with the large electronic road signs and with media helping you to get the word out that this is a child in peril. That is why the AMBER alerts do work, and the quick recovery is the best chance we have for a recovery at all.

There are Federal grants authorized in this legislation that will help educate States about AMBER alerts and assist States so they won't be overused. The legislation will provide for a person who will be in the Justice Department--the AMBER coordinator--so that a law enforcement officer who believes a suspect may be going to another State can make one call to the Justice Department and not worry again about the recovery effort continuing. The Justice Department can put the word out to the other contiguous States and really make a difference.

The AMBER alert bill has had a lot of supporters: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the Fraternal Order of Police have all been instrumental in passing this legislation. I had hoped we could pass it earlier. I had hoped we would have passed it last year to get other States up to speed, so they would have good, solid AMBER alert systems that would coordinate with the Justice Department. But it is April of 2003 now and it is time to pass this legislation.

Senator Feinstein and I have worked very hard to do this. We thank Senator Hatch and we thank those who helped us with the original legislation. I know there are differences in some of the add-ons. Believe me, we would have liked to have had a clean bill. But we don't get exactly what we want in the legislative process. There are a lot of other people with different views and they have to be accommodated.

So I am very pleased we have the bill before us. I intend to support it, and I hope we can pass it and send it to the President.

Mr. President, I yield such time that the Senator from Tennessee may consume.

Reserving the right to object, Mr. President.

That will be up until the 15 minutes for their side, and with that I agree to the unanimous consent request. There is another Senator coming for our 15-minute period.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the junior Senator from Michigan be allowed 5 minutes extra. I am going to withhold, and then my colleague from North Carolina will follow Senator Stabenow because there is a very important speech and a timetable for the Senator from North Carolina. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Michigan be recognized for 5 minutes, after which the Senator from North Carolina be recognized for 20 minutes.

Mr. President, today I am going to continue what the Senate has been doing since our troops started the invasion of Iraq, and that is to take the first period before we go on to the business of the day to salute the troops who are in the field protecting our freedom.

Today, I want to salute the members of the 507th Maintenance Company. This is the company out of Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, who really were the first to be captured, the first prisoners of war shown on Iraqi television. Some of them have now been recovered, but there are still five missing.

The rescue of PFC Jessica Lynch was a moment of triumph but also sadness, as the celebration was tempered by the recovery of the remains of fallen soldiers who were later identified as her comrades in arms. General Renuart at CENTCOM described the rescue this way: A special ops soldier called to Private Lynch saying:

Jessica Lynch, we're United States soldiers and we're here

to protect you and take you home. . . .

As he walked over to her bed, took his helmet off, she looked up to him and said:

I'm an American soldier, too.

General Renuart also described the recovery of the remains of the soldiers who had been killed because they were told by the same sources that there were remains of other soldiers on the ground outside the hospital where Jessica lay. He said:

At the same time, the team was led to a burial site, where,

in fact, they did find a number of bodies that they believed

could be Americans missing in action. They did not have

shovels in order to dig those graves up, so they dug them up

with their hands. And they wanted to do that very rapidly so

they could race the sun and be off the site before the sun

came up; a great testament to the will and desire of

coalition forces to bring their own home.

That one line says all you will ever need to know about the character of the young men and women in the military today, who refuse to leave their fallen comrades behind: They dug them up with their hands, and raced the sun.

On Friday evening, the families of those whose remains were recovered were officially notified that their loved ones had been killed in action. We mourn their loss.

They were PFC Lori Ann Piestewa, the first American woman soldier killed in the Iraq war. This is a picture showing the two friends, PFC Jessica Lynch and PFC Lori Piestewa. They were at Fort Bliss the day of their deployment. They were roommates and friends.

Private First Class Piestewa was a Hopi Indian, one of the few American Indian women serving in the military. She was PFC Jessica Lynch's good friend and roommate.

``Our family is proud of her; she is our hero,'' her brother Wayland said Saturday. ``We are going to hold that in our hearts. She will not be forgotten. It gives us comfort to know that she is at peace right now.''

Behind me are the pictures of some who have died in action, and I am going to speak about each of them.

In Texas, there is a town called Comfort that lived up to its name by embracing and comforting the parents of SP James Kiehl. In Comfort, TX, the parents of SP James M. Kiehl are being comforted by their friends and neighbors. The 6-foot 8-inch soldier was a high school basketball player and a member of the band. The people of Comfort, moved by James' death, created an impromptu memorial where basketballs, flower arrangements, personal notes, and even baseball bats have been left as tributes to James. His father summed up the family's feelings this way:

We just want everyone to know we support the President and

the troops, and we believe in what James went over there for.

James Kiehl's wife, Jill, is staying with her parents in Des Moines, IA, and is expecting their first child next month.

In Mobile, AL, Rev. Howard Johnson, Sr., buried his son, Army PFC Howard Johnson, Jr., from the same pulpit of the Truevine Baptist Church where he had stood so many times offering words of comfort to his congregation. Reverend Johnson said of his son:

Howard, you out ran me, but I'll see you in the morning.

SGT Donald Walters of Kansas City, MO, fought in Operation Desert Storm and had followed in his father's footsteps by joining the military. His father, Norman Walters, is an Air Force veteran and said this about his son:

He was a patriotic guy. He felt it was his duty to serve

his country.

Sergeant Walters leaves behind a wife and three daughters.

MSG Robert Dowdy and PVT Brandon Sloan were both from Cleveland, OH. Master Sergeant Dowdy's brother-in-law had this to say about the career soldier:

He was ready to accept the challenge. That's the type of

person he was. He knew going in what he was in store for and

who he was and what he was about.

Private Sloan's father, the Rev. Tandy Sloan, proudly said his son ``was very committed to the cause of country.''

PVT Ruben Estrella-Soto was from El Paso, TX. This is his graduation picture. His father said his son

had a lot of desire to do something with his life, and wanted

to go into the military so he could get education.

CWO Johnny Villareal Mata was from Amarillo, TX. He played football on the Pecos High School Eagles football team and graduated in 1986. Soon thereafter he joined the Army. The family remembered him this way:

Our hearts are saddened, and we share the pain with the

other families. He will be deeply missed and will never be

forgotten.

SP Jamaal Addison of Roswell, GA, is remembered by his step- grandmother as ``a mild-mannered, quiet child'' who attended Bible study every Wednesday night before joining the Army.

The 507th Maintenance Company still has five soldiers who are prisoners of war. They are SP Shoshana Johnson, SP Edgar Hernandez, SP Joseph Hudson, PFC Patrick Miller, and SGT James Riley. I have talked with Claude Johnson, Shoshana's father, several times. He and his wife Eunice are caring for Shoshana's 2-year-old daughter.

These five have not been seen publicly since several hours after they were taken prisoner March 23, and the International Committee of the Red Cross has not yet been able to visit them in captivity. We join all Americans in urging the Iraqi Government to treat those prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Convention, just as we have treated the thousands of Iraqi prisoners we hold.

We pray those prisoners of war from the 507th Maintenance Company will be returned safely to their families. We pay tribute to them today for the sacrifices they have made.

I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Minnesota for a wonderful statement. Certainly, every single life that is lost over there is appreciated and will be appreciated forever in the hearts of Americans because those young men and women are protecting the freedom we enjoy.

David Bloom, a constituent of the Senator from Minnesota, was also protecting our way of life. He was protecting the freedom of the press. He was serving so well to do that. I knew David personally, as most Members did, because he was such a special person and he did his job, worked hard, and was here a lot. We very much miss him and we know so many of his colleagues miss him, as well.

Mr. President, I wish to talk about T.R. Fehrenbach, a constituent of mine, who wrote what many think is the definitive book on the Korean war called ``This Kind of War.'' It is appropriate today. We have been amazed at the technological capability of our military in the war in Iraq. They have launched missiles, dropped bombs, and delivered other ordnance on the battlefield with pinpoint accuracy. I came across a picture today reminiscent of our soldiers from an earlier era that reminds me of some basic truths that apply no matter how much technological capability we might acquire.

I have a picture of American troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division marching into Bastogne during World War II. This was the counterattack against the Germans. We see the 101st Airborne Division. I have another picture taken last week of the 101st Airborne Division, nearly 60 years later--a column from the First Brigade march into Najaf, Iraq, on Wednesday, April 2, 2003, doing basically the same thing.

These photographs demonstrate an old axiom about military operations that was written by Ted Fehrenbach in ``This Kind of War,'' a book about the Korean war:

Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since

Hiroshima they had forgotten: You may fly over a land

forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe

it clean of life--but if you desire to defend it, protect it,

and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground,

the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into

the mud.

I know Ted Fehrenbach and I know he would have said today, by putting your brave young soldiers and marines in the mud, because what he is saying essentially is the same today as it was in 1950. And that is, if you want to protect a land and keep it for civilization, you must have our young men and women willing to go in on the ground. The truth is still the same today.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to say first how much I appreciate Senator Hatch, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who has done an incredible job under very trying circumstances on the nomination of Priscilla Owen.

Senator Hatch saw early on what an outstanding person we have in Priscilla Owen, and though on a straight party-line vote she was turned down by the committee last year, and was unable to get to the floor even for a vote this year, with Senator Hatch's leadership she has been able to come out of committee, again on a straight party-line vote. I am very hopeful she will get a fair chance for a floor vote because she is one of the most outstanding people I know.

She has waited 1 year and 11 months. That is when the President first nominated her for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Priscilla Owen was among the group of 11 judicial nominees announced by President Bush on May 9, 2001. She is the kind of judge the people of the Fifth Circuit need on the bench, an experienced jurist who follows the law and uses good common sense. She has been nominated to a vacancy that has been classified as a judicial emergency and that should be filled expeditiously.

Justice Owen is an 8-year veteran of the Texas Supreme Court. She is highly qualified. She graduated cum laude from Baylor Law School in 1977. Thereafter, she earned the highest score on the Texas bar exam. Before joining the Texas Supreme Court in 1994, she was a partner in a major Texas law firm where she was a commercial litigator for 17 years.

She has used her legal talents to help those in need. She has worked to improve access to legal services for the poor. She fought to increase funding for these programs.

She has also helped organize a group known as Family Law 2000, which seeks to educate parents about the effects of divorce on children, and to lessen the adversarial nature of legal proceedings when a marriage is dissolved.

Justice Owen enjoys broad support. The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has voted her unanimously well

qualified. To merit this ranking, the ABA requires that the nominee must be at the top of the legal profession in his or her legal community, have outstanding legal ability, breadth of experience, the highest reputation for integrity, and either have demonstrated or exhibited the capacity for judicial temperament.

I would say her judicial temperament has been proven in the 1 year 11 months that she has waited for confirmation because the way she has conducted herself has been exemplary. She has been available to meet with any Senator. She has answered every question. She has gone back into records to make sure that she was answering exactly correctly. She has maintained complete silence about this process about which I am sure she has some strong opinions. But I think she has shown her judicial temperament by being very much on an even keel, basically saying: I would love to be on the Fifth Circuit, but I am very happy on the Texas Supreme Court.

Of course, she is well regarded by those who know her best. We do elect judges in Texas. In 2000, Justice Owen was reelected to the Supreme Court with 84 percent of the vote. She was endorsed by every major newspaper in Texas--every one.

The Dallas Morning News called her record one of ``accomplishment and integrity.'' The Houston Chronicle wrote she ``has the proper balance of judicial experience, solid legal scholarship, and real world know- how.''

Despite the fact that she is a well-respected judge who has received high praise, her nomination has been targeted by special interest groups that have mischaracterized her views.

Let me read the words of former elected attorney general and Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John L. Hill, Jr., a lifelong Democrat, denouncing the false accusations about Priscilla Owen's record by special interest groups.

Their attacks on Justice Owen in particular are

breathtakingly dishonest, ignoring her long-held commitment

to reform and grossly distorting her rulings. Tellingly, the

groups made no effort to assess whether her decisions are

legally sound. . . . I know Texas politics and can clearly

say that these assaults on Justice Owen's records are false,

misleading, and deliberate distortions.

That is a quote from former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, John Hill, elected as a Democrat.

Senator Hatch has taken the extraordinary step of holding a second hearing on Justice Owen in order to get the record straight and because Senator Leahy, the ranking member, really insisted that she have another hearing. She did so well in those hearings. I watched them after I introduced her. Once again, her evenhandedness and her legal brilliance came through.

One issue that came up during the hearings involves Texas's parental notification statute. I believe Justice Owen has demonstrated that she is a judge who follows and upholds the law, and in this line of cases she has consistently applied Supreme Court precedent to help interpret uncertainty in the statute. The cases in question deal strictly with statutory interpretation of Texas law, not with constitutional rights.

These are not abortion cases. They are issues of parental involvement. They are notification--not consent--laws. Forty-three States have passed some form of parental involvement statute. During two lengthy committee hearings, Justice Owen defended her decisions as consistent with U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

In addition, almost all of the cases that came to the supreme court were cases in which she voted to affirm the district court and the circuit court of appeals rulings. So it would have been highly unusual for the supreme court to overturn the trier of fact and the first appellate court.

I hope my colleagues will see that her methods of statutory interpretation are sound and that she is an exemplary judge.

I urge my colleagues not to filibuster this well-qualified nominee but to give her an up-or-down vote. I hope we will confirm this outstanding supreme court judge from Texas who has waited almost 2 years now for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals appointment.

If there were anything in her record against integrity or competence or judicial demeanor, it would be a different case, but that is not the case about Priscilla Owen, whom I know well, whom I have been with on many occasions. I know the people who appear before her court. She is rated outstanding by all who know her, who are giving any kind of an objective view.

I hope this Senate will not do to Priscilla Owen what has happened to another well-qualified nominee, Miguel Estrada, who also has a sterling academic record, who also has a record of integrity and experience. I hope this Senate will not start requiring 60 votes, where the Constitution requires a simple majority for qualified nominees.

Let's have a vote up or down. We do not need a new standard. In fact, if we had a new standard, it should go through the constitutional process. We should have a constitutional amendment that says Supreme Court and circuit court and district court judge nominees will be required to have 60 votes. It would take a constitutional amendment to do that. But Miguel Estrada is being required to have 60 votes. I hope that is not the standard we put on Priscilla Owen.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, if I can just assure that we are covered.

We have Senator Dayton and Senator Cornyn, and if there is any time left I will take it.

Mr. President, I rise to speak against the amendment. I respect my colleagues, Senator Talent and Senator Bond very much. I am very sad and very sorry about the situation with the TWA employees. It was a difficult situation when TWA was in bankruptcy. A number of airlines sought to take over TWA. American was the one that was willing to do it.

There were agreements made at the time. American offered to preserve the jobs and pensions of the TWA employees at the time if the unions would agree to waive their seniority rights from TWA. That was the agreement. If American had not stepped up to the plate, all of the TWA pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, and ticket agents would have lost their jobs immediately and their pension funds would have been wiped out. Instead, American not only persevered their jobs but fully funded the TWA pension funds.

Everyone hoped the aviation industry would recover and that everyone would stay employed. It is still the hope of every American employee that the TWA former employees who have been laid off will be hired back. American is committed to hire back former TWA employees before anyone else.

However, the TWA employees took this matter to the National Mediation Board. The National Mediation Board has rendered a decision reinforcing the original agreement. TWA's pilots and flight attendants have appealed. That is their right.

This case is still in litigation. It is completely inappropriate to bog down a wartime appropriations bill with language that would attempt to pit winners and losers in a battle between unions or between any union and management.

This amendment is coming at a time when American's unions are set to vote on the most significant cost restructuring proposal in U.S. history, with $1.8 billion in proposed union concessions. Interference with these negotiations at this time could impact that vote and push the world's largest airline into bankruptcy. Of course, if that happens, everyone at American, not just the former TWA employees, could lose their jobs.

I do sympathize, and I hope very much the little bailout that we are giving the aviation industry, will result in American staying strong and being able to hire back everyone who has had to be laid off. That is the purpose of the bill today.

Regretfully, I must raise a point of order and offer an objection to amendment No. 499 on the grounds that it is legislation on an appropriations bill and thus violates rule 16, paragraph 4 of the Senate rules.

Mr. President, I certainly support the sense of the Senate. We all want fair treatment. If the aviation industry had stayed viable and we had a good economy, I believe every employee would have maintained their employment status and there would have been more hires. However, we all know the economy is in a very precarious situation. The aviation industry has been hit hard since September 11, particularly American. And they do not want these layoffs. That is the only alternative they have.

I know the first people hired back when business picks up are going to be these employees who have been laid off. I certainly support the sense of the Senate. We all want fair treatment for all of the employees of American Airlines.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise today to talk about joy and also apprehension. In Palestine, WV, they are celebrating the rescue yesterday of PFC Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. I am sure most people who watch C-SPAN have also seen the incredible pictures of that operation, seeing our Navy SEALs, our Army special forces, our Marines teaming up to go in and take a hospital because they had information that some of our prisoners of war might be there. It was a great act of courage on their part.

We are all celebrating the return of Jessica Lynch. In her Army hometown of El Paso, TX, they are celebrating. Her rescue has given hope and comfort to the families of the other missing or captured members of Fort Bliss's 507th Maintenance Company that they, too, might be returned to their homes and families.

Retired MSgt Claude Johnson, father of prisoner of war SP Shoshana Johnson, was thrilled to learn PFC Jessica Lynch had been found. I quote:

I am very, very, very glad that Jessica has been returned

and that she is safe. As I have said previously, it is not

just about Shoshana. It's about all the prisoners who are

over there, and I hope and pray that each and every one of

them can come home safe, just like Jessica did. The rescue of

Lynch gives everybody hope that the rest of [those missing or

captured] will be returned.

I talked to Mr. Johnson early on after Shoshana was taken captive and was shown on Iraqi television. She is a former Army personnel person. I was able to share with him the great attention that all of us are giving to all of those prisoners of war and missing in action. I told him that everything would be done to find them and to rescue them if possible. We hope this is the first of good news. But we also know that our forces are doing everything possible to determine if there are others there and also to try to get them home if they are.

We commend the brave marines and special ops forces and the SEALs who were involved in this dramatic rescue. As details come out, I know we will be even more proud of what they have achieved. Now we hope that in the days ahead there will be other good news for those families of soldiers from Fort Bliss and Fort Hood; that they, too, will be reunited with their families.

All of America is riveted on that wonderful story, but we also know there is more news to come, and we will wait anxiously to hear about others.

I also want to take time to discuss personal stories we get from the field because the press over there is seeing the individual sacrifices our young men and women in the military are making that show so much about our values. I want to share one of those vignettes. Then I want to ask my friend and colleague from Idaho to also do the same because he, too, has troops from Idaho in the field.

This morning I start by talking about CPT Chris Carter. This comes from Chris Tomlinson, the Associated Press, from Hindiyah, Iraq. I want to show this picture because it illustrates exactly what these forces are doing. This is a story that goes with this picture. You see in this picture a woman in a black veil sitting on a bridge. Here are the American troops who are trying to take this bridge.

``We've got to get her off that bridge,'' he said.

Capt. Chris Carter winced at the risks his men would have

to take. Engaged in a raid on this Euphrates River town, they

were battling for a bridge when, through the smoke, they saw

the elderly woman. She had tried to race across the bridge

when the U.S. soldiers arrived, but was caught in crossfire.

At first they thought she was dead, like the man sprawled

in the dust nearby. But during breaks in the gunfire that

whizzed over her head, she sat up and waved for help.

Carter, a 32-year old Army Ranger, ordered his Bradley

Fighting Vehicle to move forward while he and two other men

ran behind it. They took cover behind the bridges' iron

beams. Carter tossed a smoke grenade for more cover and

approached the woman, who was crying and pointing at a wound

on her hip.

She wore a black abayah, a robe common among older women in

the countryside. Blood soaked through the fabric onto the

pavement around her.

Medics put the woman on a stretcher and into an ambulance;

Carter stood by, providing cover with his M-16 automatic

rifle. Then she was gone, and the battle raged on for the

town of 80,000 about 50 mile south of Baghdad.

By the end of the day, the Army unit would fight street to

street, capture or kill scores of Iraqui soldiers, blow up a

Baath Party headquarters and destroy heaps of ammunition and

mortars. No US. soldiers were killed, but from the beginning

officers in the 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment described

the mission as ``hairy.''

``Yeah, hold a strategic bridge with one infantry company

that has only two platoons--a hell of a mission,'' Lt. Col.

Philip DeCamp, the battalion commander, said with a smile.

I yield to my colleague from Utah.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Idaho for sharing that story with us. It reminds us of what is being done that we might not see over here, but it is those one-on-one things that that Iraqi father is going to remember.

I want to do another story from the field. This one is written by Julian Barnes of U.S. News and World Report. He is with the 101st Airmobile Division Apache Pilots. Here we have the picture of an Apache helicopter firing an antimissile flare. This was taken April 7. The story:

Chief Warrant Officer Ted Hazen has been flying attack

helicopters for years. Last week, he finally flew one into

combat. ``It was everything I expected,'' he says, ``and not

anything like I expected.'' It was the first deep-strike

attack by the 101st Airborne Division, and Hazen was at the

controls of the command chopper, helping direct the fleet of

Apache Longbows into battle some 50 miles south of Baghdad.

In front of him, the other pilots locked on the Republican

Guard tanks and armored vehicles and let loose their hellfire

missiles. ``I saw that first shot go out and bang, hit,'' he

says. ``Then there was a hellacious secondary explosion.

Flames went 100 feet into the air.''

After engaging the first tank, the Apaches' fuel began

running low. A squadron of British Harrier jets continued the

attack as the Apaches turned south, back to base. But heading

home is almost as tough as attacking. Powerful tailwinds can

cause blinding brownouts. The first two of the 101st's

Apaches crashed while trying to land. Hazen is philosophical.

After all, it's tricky business trying to land a big chopper

totally blind. How tricky? ``The best thing to say,'' Hazen

mused, ``is open your garage door,

turn your lights off, line yourself up, go 20 miles per hour

and hit your brakes and see if you stop in time.''

That sort of thing brings it home.

I wish to read an article about the 173rd Airborne Brigade. This is a picture of the paratroopers who took the airfield in northern Iraq. A U.S. soldier stands guard next to his colleagues digging in near the Harir airstrip. They are excavating earth into trucks northeast of Arbil in northern Iraq. Harir airfield is in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq where U.S. soldiers from the 173rd Airborne unit parachuted into position.

The article is by Bay Fang, U.S. News & World Report. He is with the 173rd Airborne Brigade:

The man is covered in mud. ``I landed in a puddle,'' he

says sheepishly. ``It was a great landing, other than where I

landed.'' He and the other members of the 173rd Airborne

Brigade dropped into northern Iraq the night before, but they

still have not had a chance to clean up. They are fanned out

across the airstrip here, dun-colored figures dotting the

lush green fields, diggings foxholes, setting up their guns.

Another paratrooper checks a jeep-mounted machine gun and

gestures at the fields and mountains shrouded in mist. ``I

have total sympathy for the men in Vietnam, walking through

the rice paddies,'' he says. ``I don't see how they did it.

This isn't half as bad. And it's tough, this terrain out

here.''

Up the road, a special forces officer haggles over a

truckload of wood his men need for heat. They chose to send

the troops in by parachute rather than plane, he says, for

reasons of both efficiency and psychological impact. ``It

sends a dramatic message to the whole region that U.S. forces

are here,'' he says. ``I think we can say that the northern

front is already underway.''

The north has indeed begun to move. Late that afternoon, I

hear that Iraqi forces have pulled back from the ridge

overlooking Chamchamal, the frontline town where I have been

staying, to positions just outside Kirkuk. Kurdish fighters,

known as peshmerga--

Described as ``those who face death''--

and curious townspeople have rushed up the mountainside. Some

are here to inspect the area inhabited by their enemy for the

past 12 years. Some have come to loot. But most are simply

tourists, hoping to visit places once forbidden to them.

Arivan Ahmed stands on the remains of a hilltop bunker. He

used to pass through this place every day on his smuggling

run from Kirkuk to Chamchamal and bribe the soldiers at what

was called the Challenger checkpoint. ``They sometimes took

my shoes from me, so I would have to go back barefoot to

Chamchamal,'' he says. That was before the American bombing

started and all traffic stopped. ``I used to be very afraid

every time I came through here. Now I am just happy to stand

here on this ground.'' He holds a rusty hammerhead in his

fist that he scrounged from the rubble, and says that is

enough of a memento for him.

The road is now open 12 miles deep into what was Iraqi

territory. All along it, I see scenes of defiance and

celebration. A man drives a bulldozer into a cement plaque in

the middle of the road. It bears pictures of Saddam Hussein--

wearing a western-style suit on one side, and Kurdish dress

on the other. It takes him 15 minutes to topple the plaque,

and he wipes the sweat off his forehead with a laugh. ``It is

very strong--he spent all of Iraq's money on plaques like

these!'' he says. I just wish I could go to Baghdad and do

the same to the man himself.''

The peshmerga express the same impatience with beginning

the drive down south. But their commanders, sensitive

about being seen to cooperate with America, make sure we

understand that their forces will not move in

unilaterally. It is not the peshmerga taking the newly

vacated regions, they say, it is the people themselves.

``These areas we are moving into, they belong to us,''

says Gen. Rostam Hamid Rahim, the top peshmerga commander

from Kirkuk. ``The citizens have moved back to the

liberated area, and we are just protecting them.''

At the end of the newly opened road, Kirkuk shimmers like a

mirage on the horizon, still about 12 miles away. ``It is the

Jerusalem of Kurdistan, and we would like to be free,'' says

the mayor of Chamchamal, walking briskly toward it as the sun

sets. He and everyone else here want to return soon, fighting

their way through if necessary. But they have a new phrase

for their suppressed hopes: Instead of inshallah, meaning

``God willing,'' it is Insha-Bush.''

This is the picture taken that first day after the paratroopers landed in the north of Iraq.

I will show a few more pictures because I do believe that pictures say a thousand words. A lot of people have seen the pictures from the field of our troops in combat doing everyday activities. I want to show some pictures about what life is like over there for our soldiers.

Here our soldiers are sleeping next to their tanks on a highway that they have taken. They just laid down on the cement, covered their heads, and are taking what I am sure is a long hoped for respite right in the middle of the day because they have been moving at night. They are taking the rest when they can get it. We see a couple of soldiers just cannot sleep. They are awake and talking. But some of them are sleeping with their rifles on and their boots on the ground.

This is another picture showing soldiers sleeping. This was during that sandstorm that many of us saw. These soldiers are wrapped up, trying to protect their faces, their noses from inhaling that dust and sand. We see one soldier sleeping sitting up with a rifle on his lap, and we see another soldier laying down also with a face mask on trying to protect from that dust. Clearly, they are so tired that they will sleep anywhere.

These are troops digging trenches, trying to set up for potential warfare. They, too, are trying to rest before the battle that might ensue. We see them sleeping in their trenches, standing in their trenches that they just worked so hard to dig. We see the trucks that are lined up to protect them in case there is an enemy out there.

That is a fitting end to showing what our troops are enduring every day as they are on the front lines fighting for every one of us, fighting for our way of life, fighting for our right to speak on the Senate floor, the right to be in the Galleries listening, the right to watch C-SPAN2 cover the Senate every day. They are fighting for the right of each of us to kiss our babies in the morning as we go off to our jobs or as we give them the chance to play with some of their friends. Every one of the activities we are doing every day is being protected by those men and women in the field as we speak today.

We are starting the Senate every morning with 1 hour of tribute to our troops, talking about something that has happened that shows American values shining through to the people of the world. We are doing this to honor our troops, to let their families know we will not forget them for 1 minute, and that we appreciate what they are doing every single minute of the day.

We will do this every day our troops are in the field in Iraq, until this war is over.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I begin by saying I appreciate Senator Enzi. Senator Enzi came to the floor to speak about a subject very important to him. I asked him if he would mind letting us spend this entire hour in a tribute to the troops. He readily agreed. I appreciate his courtesy because we are reserving the first hour of every day when our troops are in the field to giving tribute to them, talking about some of the events that have happened in the field, talking about some of the acts of heroism, the individual acts, showing pictures of what life is like over there. I have done that on several occasions. I will again.

Today I want to talk about our prisoners. As the distinguished Chair understands--the Presiding Officer at this time is the other Senator from Texas--Texas is the base for the largest number of our active-duty military. One in 10 active-duty personnel calls Texas home. It is the home base for 114,000 active-duty service members. California comes in second with 107,000. North Carolina comes in third with 86,000. So we do feel a personal effect of this war. We also feel a sense of pride that it is our young men and women, along with all of those from the other States, who are out there on the front lines, protecting the freedom we enjoy so much every day.

I would like to talk about some of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and some of those about whom we are not sure at this time. Cpl Brian Matthew Kennedy, U.S. Marine Corps, 25 years old, from Houston, TX, grew up in Glenville, IL. He called his mom on March 18 to tell her he was about to go into action. ``It was very short and very special,'' she says of the call. Three days later, he died, when his Sea Knight helicopter crashed in Kuwait. He said to his dad: We are ready. We are ready. We are trained. We are ready to go. He was very proud. His parents are very proud of him.

SSgt Phillip Jordan, U.S. Marine Corps, 42 years of age, Brazoria, TX: Everyone called him Gump because he was so relentlessly upbeat. His son Tyler, 6, wants to be a marine like his father who was killed in a fire fight after a group of Iraqi soldiers feigned surrender.

Some are missing. Specialist James Kiehl, U.S. Army, 22, Comfort, TX, a computer technician with the 507th Maintenance Company: Kiehl was among the missing in the convoy ambush near An Nasiriya. His father Randy has been monitoring war news on two televisions, three phone lines, and a computer, keeping up a strong front and a strong face for the media, just in case they showed James any footage from back home.

PVT Ruben Estrella-Soto, U.S. Army, 18, El Paso: His father opposed his enlisting but he wanted to study engineering, and he was enthusiastic about going into the military and getting his education. He disappeared in the ambush on March 23 along with his friend Edgar Hernandez, who later turned up on Iraqi TV. But Estrella-Soto's fate was unknown. ``Not knowing anything is hard,'' Ruben Estrella, Sr., told reporters.

CWO Johnny Villareal Mata, U.S. Army, 35, Pecos, TX: Mata grew up in a desert town just 200 miles from Fort Bliss, where his 507th Maintenance Company is based.

SP Edgar Adan Hernandez, U.S. Army, 21 years old, Alton, TX: ``He's got a noble character,'' his mother, Maria de la Luz Hernandez, says in Spanish. She then inadvertently slipped into the past tense: ``He was a good brother, a good son, respectful to the whole world.'' Hernandez, though, she believes is really alive. And he, too, was shown on Iraqi

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce a bill with Senator Bingaman that takes an important step toward modernizing the Internal Revenue Code.

Decades ago, investment companies which manage mutual funds were limited in the amount of income they could receive from investments in partnerships.

At the time, this restriction was established to address legitimate concerns and protect the interests of investors. Ownership interests in partnerships can be illiquid, so it is difficult to get one's money out of the investment. Partnerships are also not required to be transparent in their financial statements, so it could be difficult for investors to accurately assess a business

However, the world has changed. Some partnerships have been able to go public and offer shares on the stock markets, so the problem of liquidity is solved. By going public, they must meet much higher standards of financial transparency, including regularly publishing audited financial statements for investors. Currently, 50 publicly traded partnerships trade on major U.S. stock exchanges; 14 of these companies are headquartered in my home State, Texas.

Unfortunately, tax laws have not reflected this change in the business and financial worlds. Mutual funds are still restricted in how much they can invest in any partnership, including those that are publicly traded. This significantly impedes the ability of these companies to raise capital. It limits their ability to grow and create jobs.

Publicly traded partnerships play an important role in the economy. About half are in the energy sector, actively involved in building and operating infrastructure to gather, process and transport oil and natural gas. These partnerships also include timber and real estate companies. It is clear we need a healthy energy sector to ensure the availability of oil and gas at reasonable prices.

The bill Senator Bingaman and I introduce today will lead to a dramatic increase in the flow of capital to these companies. Mutual funds, which often purchase a majority of equity offerings, will be able to participate in stock offerings from publicly traded partnerships. This will expand the investor base and lower the cost of capital, ultimately helping to lower energy prices.

Our bill will also provide millions of investors an opportunity, through their mutual funds, to participate in another investment opportunity if their professional mutual fund managers believe it is an attractive investment.

It is wrong for the Federal Government to use the tax code to make decisions for investors. The bill we are introducing will modernize our tax laws so families can make their own financial planning decisions. This legislation will also provide an important source of capital for key areas of the economy. I hope my colleagues will support this long overdue improvement.

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce a bill with Senator Bingaman that takes an important step toward modernizing the Internal Revenue Code.

Decades ago, investment companies which manage mutual funds were limited in the amount of income they could receive from investments in partnerships.

At the time, this restriction was established to address legitimate concerns and protect the interests of investors. Ownership interests in partnerships can be illiquid, so it is difficult to get one's money out of the investment. Partnerships are also not required to be transparent in their financial statements, so it could be difficult for investors to accurately assess a business

However, the world has changed. Some partnerships have been able to go public and offer shares on the stock markets, so the problem of liquidity is solved. By going public, they must meet much higher standards of financial transparency, including regularly publishing audited financial statements for investors. Currently, 50 publicly traded partnerships trade on major U.S. stock exchanges; 14 of these companies are headquartered in my home State, Texas.

Unfortunately, tax laws have not reflected this change in the business and financial worlds. Mutual funds are still restricted in how much they can invest in any partnership, including those that are publicly traded. This significantly impedes the ability of these companies to raise capital. It limits their ability to grow and create jobs.

Publicly traded partnerships play an important role in the economy. About half are in the energy sector, actively involved in building and operating infrastructure to gather, process and transport oil and natural gas. These partnerships also include timber and real estate companies. It is clear we need a healthy energy sector to ensure the availability of oil and gas at reasonable prices.

The bill Senator Bingaman and I introduce today will lead to a dramatic increase in the flow of capital to these companies. Mutual funds, which often purchase a majority of equity offerings, will be able to participate in stock offerings from publicly traded partnerships. This will expand the investor base and lower the cost of capital, ultimately helping to lower energy prices.

Our bill will also provide millions of investors an opportunity, through their mutual funds, to participate in another investment opportunity if their professional mutual fund managers believe it is an attractive investment.

It is wrong for the Federal Government to use the tax code to make decisions for investors. The bill we are introducing will modernize our tax laws so families can make their own financial planning decisions. This legislation will also provide an important source of capital for key areas of the economy. I hope my colleagues will support this long overdue improvement.