Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a conference report to accompany S. 342, the Child Abuse Protection Act.

Mr. President, I rise today with my colleagues Senators Gregg, Kennedy, and Dodd to pass the conference report for S. 342, ``The Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003.'' I also want to congratulate Senator Gregg, the chairman of the conference committee, and commend his leadership.

Unlike many Federal Government programs, this is a relatively small level of funding, but it is vital for the safety and sanctity of our most precious resource--our children. S. 342 reauthorizes the ``Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, (CAPTA),'' which provides grants to States to improve child protection systems and grants to support community-based family resource and support services. The changes made to this program will encourage new training and better qualifications for child and family service workers. Additionally, this program will create or improve coordination between child protection services and education, health, mental health, and judicial systems to ensure that children who are abused and neglected are properly identified and receive referrals to appropriate services.

Tennessee has used CAPTA funding for many innovative pilot programs, such as Therapeutic Visitation Services. This is a pilot project that provides intensive service to families with

children in the foster care system from four rural areas in east Tennessee. The goal is to preserve and strengthen family relationships while facilitating visitation between children and biological parents. Children in the pilot program saw their parents sooner and more frequently.

In Davidson County, the Chap-Plus program provides service and helps coordinate care for families that are stressed due to their child's medical condition, such as a life threatening disease. Another program that receives CAPTA funding is the University of Tennessee Legally Defensible Child Interviewing program, which trains Child Protective Services case managers. This training is focused on improving interviewing skills of investigative teams when they interview children who are the possible victims of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse.

These important programs will benefit from this legislation. I thank my colleagues for voting for this bill.

I ask unanimous consent that the conference report be agreed to, that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to the consideration of H.R. 658.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 856 and that the bill be referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Mr. President, I understand that H.R. 8 is at the desk and I ask for its first reading.

I now ask for its second reading and object to further proceeding on this matter.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent when the Senate completes its business today it stand in adjournment until 9 a.m., Friday, June 20. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of Calendar No. 140, S. 504, the American History and Civics Act of 2003, as provided under the previous order.

For the information of all Senators, tomorrow morning the Senate will resume consideration of S. 504, the American History and Civics Act. Under the previous order, at 9:15 a.m., the Senate will vote on passage of the bill. Immediately following that vote, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 1, the prescription drug benefits bill, and proceed to a vote in relation to the Dorgan amendment relating to drug reimportation.

Therefore, I inform my colleagues that the leader says there will be two rollcall votes beginning at 9:15 a.m. tomorrow. Following the two votes at 9:15 a.m., the leader wanted me to inform colleagues the Senate will continue consideration of S. 1, the prescription drug benefits bill. Additional amendments will be debated tomorrow, and Members who wish to speak on amendments or the bill itself are encouraged by the leader to come to the Senate floor during tomorrow's session.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

MR. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2 p.m. on Monday, June 16, the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 1, the Prescription Drug Benefits bill, reported by the Finance Committee; provided further that this order will be vitiated if the bill is not available by that time. I ask consent that on Monday there be debate only with respect to the bill.

I ask unanimous consent there now be a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I rise today to bring to the attention of the Senate the oppression of democracy and freedom underway in Zimbabwe. A number of my colleagues, including the Senators from Arizona and Kentucky, have led this body in discussions about oppression in Burma. I share their concerns.

But as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, I would be remiss not to note a struggle in Zimbabwe that bears at least some similarity to events in Burma. As in Burma, the leader of the democratic opposition in Zimbabwe has been imprisoned by an illegitimate government in a cruel attempt to maintain power.

The so-called ``President'' of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has engaged in a systematic campaign of intimidation, torture, and terror to oppress opposition to his rule over Zimbabwe. Since the elections of 2000, when Mugabe's ruling party rigged the elections in its favor and terrorized voters for the opposition, Zimbabwe has been thrown into a downward spiral. Youth brigades not unlike the Hitler Youth or Chinese Red Guard roam the streets and invoke terror on those who resist Mugabe's rule. The country's infrastructure, which was fairly good prior to this time, has deteriorated rapidly.

In the last week the situation has grown worse. A little over 1 week ago, for the second time this year, the people of Zimbabwe stood up and said enough is enough. Strikes and work stoppages occurred throughout the country as many citizens engaged in a massive protest of Mugabe's illegitimate regime. Many rightly blame Mugabe not only for political turmoil, but also economic decay, led by fuel and food shortages.

The government's response was swift and brutal. Armed troops descended upon neighborhoods where opposition members lived and violently beat those suspected of opposing Mugabe. More than 800 individuals were arrested, many of them tortured. According to the most recent reports I have seen, about 150 individuals have now been released, but only after paying an ``admission of guilt'' penalty of $3,000 to $5,000. In order to get out of jail, you have to admit your guilt and pay a huge fine.

Here is Mugabe's justification. He is quoted as saying, ``The actions are blatantly illegal in that they are aimed at an unconstitutional removal of the country's head of state.'' He is essentially saying that by protesting his rule, protestors are committing a crime. And he is arresting and torturing them as a result. The only crime being committed is the continued rule of Robert Mugabe.

Just prior to the first crackdown in March, which followed a similar protest and work stoppage, Mugabe said, and I am quoting, ``I am still the Hitler of the time.'' Let me say that again. He said, ``I am still the Hitler of the time.'' He purposely chose to compare himself to Adolph Hitler, perhaps the most evil leader in the entire 20th century. After that announcement in March, military forces loyal to Mugabe burst into people's homes in pre-dawn raids, raping and beating those suspected of supporting the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's opposition party. Torture tactics included rape, electrocution, forced consumption of chemicals and urine, cigarette burning, whipping with steel cable, barbed wire and sustained beatings.

What makes these events truly tragic is that prior to Mugabe's actions, Zimbabwe was not a dilapidated country ready to collapse. On the contrary, it was a leading African nation with a strong economy and infrastructure. Zimbabwe's roads were among the best in Africa, and its agricultural sector was a major exporter. As an example of the rapid decline Zimbabwe faces, their GDP has shrunk from $9.3 billion in 2001 to only $5.4 billion today. It has been cut nearly in half in only 2 years.

The latest news reports from Zimbabwe show that Mugabe is now actively imprisoning and torturing leaders of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change or MDC. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, is in prison and charged with treason as are hundreds of party activists. Tsvangirai lost last year's rigged Presidential elections, and has begun legal proceedings against Mugabe because the elections were not conducted properly. I can only hope that Tsvangirai and the MDC survive Mugabe's violent rampage against them.

The White House and the State Department have responded to this crisis, and I hope will continue to work to achieve a change of leadership in Zimbabwe. President Bush recently imposed sanctions on the Mugabe government. The sanctions, which began on March 7, prohibit any U.S. corporation from making business deals with Zimbabwe and also freeze any assets top Zimbabwean officials in the Mugabe government may have in U.S. banking institutions. The State Department has condemned Mugabe's actions, and taken other appropriate diplomatic action.

The people of Zimbabwe deserve better. They deserve better than a regime that commits violence on its own people. They deserve better than to see their economic infrastructure destroyed by a dictator-on- the-rampage. And they are standing up for themselves by actively demonstrating against this terrible regime. I hope other countries in the region will join with the United States and others in opposing this brutal regime in the hope of bringing new, democratic leadership to power in Zimbabwe.

Mr. President, I commend my colleague, Senator Cornyn, for his remarks. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has distinguished herself over these 10 years. It is very appropriate that her junior colleague bring that to the attention of the Senate. She is a Senator from our second largest State. She has been a pioneer in women's rights and advancement by women. When she began her career, as was true for our colleague from North Carolina, Senator Dole, not many legal jobs were available to women, much less positions in the Senate.

She has achieved a lot. She is part of our leadership, and I am glad I was here to hear Senator Cornyn's remarks.

I hope both Senators will permit me to comment on the fact that some of the best things in Texas come from Tennessee. A lot of Tennesseans went to Texas in the 1830s. One of Senator Hutchison's ancestors was Governor Hall, of Tennessee, just as Sam Houston was Governor of Tennessee before he was Governor and Senator from Texas. So Tennesseans take special pride in 10 years of service by someone we consider, if not our daughter, at least our cousin.

Madam President, within a few minutes, we will be voting on the President's nomination of J. Ronnie Greer, of Greeneville, TN, to be a Federal District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee. I want to just say a word about that.

The President has made a superb nomination. Ronnie Greer is a distinguished lawyer. He knows the people of east Tennessee. He has earned our respect. I am delighted the Senate has moved so expeditiously to consider this exceptional nominee.

I had the privilege, as Governor, of appointing nearly 50 men and women as judges, and I know how important it can be. What I always looked for was intelligence and good character; someone who knew and understood the people; and someone who would be courteous to the men and women to come before the judge once the judge assumes the bench. In this case, it is a lifetime position, and it is even more important that the judge have those qualities.

Ronnie Greer has all those qualities. I have known him since he was student body president at East Tennessee State University. He was a champion debater. That was some 30 years ago. I knew then he would amount to something special, and he already has.

He has served his community in many ways. He has served his political party, the Republican party, in many important ways. He has been a State senator from his part of upper east Tennessee. He has been active on issues that have to do with solid waste and the environment. He has been chairman of his local committee.

I think one of the things that most strongly recommends Ronnie Greer is he takes this most important position in what we call in upper east Tennessee having been a trial judge. He will have lots of people before him, litigants before him trying cases, making decisions on many different kinds of things. He has actually practiced law in the grand manner. He has been the kind of lawyer we used to see all over the country, where a single lawyer

would try many different kinds of cases. They would have a criminal case one day, a civil case the next day, and a domestic relations case the next day. The lawyer had many talents and was broad gauged. Today, so much of our legal profession is in very large law firms, where we have very specialized lawyers. They do not see big slices of life. As a result, many of them are not very well prepared for a Federal judgeship, particularly a district judgeship where many slices of life come before that judge.

Ronnie Greer is well prepared. He has tried hundreds of cases in his career. He has represented the people of his area. The fact the President nominated him and that this Senate has moved so quickly to confirm him suggests his reputation goes well before him.

Mr. Greer was born and raised in Mountain City, TN. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the East Tennessee State University in 1974. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University Of Tennessee College Of Law in 1980.

Mr. Greer served in the Tennessee General Assembly as a Senator for 8 years and served on the judiciary committee for 5 years. During his term of service, the committee considered legislation relative to the judiciary, State criminal code and criminal sentencing. This committee approved bills: that rewrote the Tennessee Criminal Code; that dealt with the appointment and retention of State appellate court judges; and that revised the Tennessee Rules of Evidence; the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure; and the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure.

While in the Tennessee General Assembly, Mr. Greer also served as Chairman of the Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee for 7 years. This committee considered bills related to environmental issues, wildlife, State parks and tourism. He also authored and was chief sponsor of the Tennessee Solid Waste Management Act and sponsored and cosponsored numerous pieces of significant environmental legislation.

Mr. Greer has vast litigation experience in civil and criminal law. He served as County Attorney for Greene County, TN. In his capacity of County Attorney and in private practice, Mr. Greer tried approximately 200 lawsuits in State or Federal courts as sole or chief counsel. As a practicing attorney, he practiced general civil litigation primarily in the areas of personal injury, environmental law and bankruptcy. Mr. Greer has represented many defendants in criminal cases in both State and Federal courts. Mr. Greer has represented numerous cases for indigent clients on a pro bono basis and routinely accepted two to three criminal cases appointed by federal courts per year.

Mr. Greer has received honors and awards for his outstanding service to the community. To name a few, he was the 1989 recipient of the Tennessee Conservation League's Legislator of the Year Award and, in 1993, he received the Environmental Action Fund's Legislator of the Year Award.

Madam President, I join Senator Frist in saying how proud we both are of his nomination. I look forward to casting my vote for him in a few minutes and urge all my colleagues to support this nomination.

Madam President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Madam President, I offer an amendment on behalf of Senator Santorum, Senator Cornyn, Senator Landrieu, Senator Bingaman, the ranking member of our committee, and Senator Domenici, the chairman of our committee has joined the amendment as well, which I deeply appreciate.

This is an amendment about the emerging natural gas crisis. It would require the Secretary of Energy, within 6 months from the date of enactment of this Energy bill, to submit a report on natural gas supplies and demand. I offer this amendment because I believe it will help us deal with what I am afraid is an emerging natural gas crisis. If that were to occur, we would be able to protect our jobs, heat or cool our homes at reasonable costs, and clean our air to the standard that we wish.

As chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, working with our chairman of the full committee, I intend to help schedule hearings as soon as possible on this emerging crisis. This report and these hearings should help us take a hard, honest look at what we do short term and long term.

Alan Greenspan is usually a little difficult to interpret when he testifies but he was not difficult to understand on May 21 when he testified before the Joint Economic Committee. This is what he said about natural gas:

In contrast, prices for natural gas have increased sharply

in response to very tight supplies. Working gas in storage is

presently at extremely low levels, and the normal seasonal

rebuilding of these inventories seems to be behind the

typical schedule. The colder-than-average winter played a

role in producing today's tight supply as did the inability

of heightened gas well drilling to significantly augment net

marketed production. Canada, our major source of gas imports,

has little room to expand shipments to the United States. Our

limited capacity to import liquefied natural gas effectively

restricts our access to the world's abundant supplies of

natural gas. The current tight domestic natural gas market

reflects the increases in demand over the past two decades.

That demand has been spurred by myriad new uses for natural

gas in industry and by the increased use of natural gas as a

clean-burning source of electric power.

I asked Mr. Greenspan to elaborate on that, and I will not read all of his remarks but this is the way he began his response to my question on May 21:

Senator Alexander, I am surprised at how little attention

the natural gas problem has been getting. Because it is a

very serious problem. It's partly the result of new

technologies employed in the areas of growing technologies

and the whole exploratory procedures which embarked over the

last decade or so.

He talked about our contradictory Federal policies. This is not some abstract issue. The price of natural gas was $3.50 or so last summer. It spiked to $9 or better in the winter. Today it is $6.25 or so. That affects the cost of heating and cooling our homes, but it affects our jobs in a big way.

For example, someone from a large chemical industry in our State came to see me a few weeks ago when gas prices spiked up. The thousands of employees there had taken a voluntary 3-percent cut in their pay. The management had taken a 6-percent cut in their pay. They were worried about the price of natural gas which is a raw material for that chemical industry.

It does not just affect the chemical industry. In California, for example, where not much coal is burned because it pollutes the air, natural gas effectively sets the price of electricity. So this emerging crisis in natural gas affects jobs in the whole economy, as we have been debating.

There are answers but we have contradictory policies. We have plenty of gas but no access to the gas. We have a lot of alternatives, and we are trying to encourage them, but when we talk about windmills, we think we may want a limit on the number of windmills we want to see. When we talk about nuclear, we have very close votes because people are skeptical about nuclear power. When we talk about coal, it pollutes the air. When we talk about drilling more oil, we vote no about going to Alaska. When we consider liquid gas from overseas, we are worried it might blow up in big terminals on the sea coast. And hydrogen we all are for but it is 20 years away.

The bottom line: We have contradictory policies short term. This could slow down our recovery and keep unemployment high and hurt our jobs long term. It could mean electric rates go sky high and our manufacturing jobs go to Mexico and China. We need to take an honest, hard look at the consequences of our failure to achieve a balance of natural gas and its alternatives, and I hope this report required by this amendment will help do just that. I will work with the chairman, with the ranking member, to make certain our committee hearings help do that, as well.

I yield the floor.

That is correct.

The Senator from Iowa has been waiting for a while. I would like to set the vote for the Dorgan amendment if I may, and then I would be glad to yield to the Senator from Iowa to let him make his remarks. Then I would like as a cosponsor to speak in support of the amendment of the Senator from Louisiana.

Mr. President, pursuant to the order of last night, I ask unanimous consent that the vote in relation to the Dorgan amendment No. 865 occur at 11:30 today with two minutes equally divided prior to the vote.

I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I stand to congratulate the Senator from Louisiana and join with her as a cosponsor of her amendment. She and I are members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. We are very proud of what our chairman and ranking member have done this year in taking a diverse array of opinions and coming up with a very good bill with a very good amount of bipartisan consensus.

There is consensus about supporting a diverse array of energy sources. The Energy bill, which the Senators from New Mexico have led us to fashion, encourages hydrogen fuel cell cars in the economy. It encourages renewable energy. It encourages clean coal. It encourages oil and gas. And it encourages nuclear power.

What I think it is important we also do is make sure we encourage conservation, and to do that in a way that puts conservation high on the list of priorities. It is a low-cost way to have more energy. It is a no-pollution way to have more energy.

In my way of thinking, the Senator from Louisiana has come up with a sensible approach. It also helps to have the President involved. When the President said, let's build a hydrogen fuel cell car, he was not the first to say that, but everybody heard it when he said it and it gave a lot of impetus to the work on hydrogen that had been going on in this body from both sides of the aisle.

So the Senator's idea is to reduce our petroleum import dependence by having the President come up with a plan to conserve oil throughout our economy, not just in transportation but throughout the economy; to reduce our total demand by a million barrels per day by 2013. By my computation, that would cause us to reduce that by about 5 percent by 2013.

We ought to be able to do that. We ought to be able to go ahead with nuclear powerplants, with all the gas explorations. We ought to be able to go ahead with renewable energies and coal gasification. We ought to conserve at the same time.

Just one example. The Senator from Iowa was mentioning weatherizing homes. That is one good way, if we paid more attention to it. Another good way is idling trucks. Truckers who are so frequent on our highways often idle their trucks in order to keep their air-conditioner and all the other services going that they have in the truck. There are companies that permit the truckers now to turn off their truck and to plug in a device and by doing that enabling operation of the appliances they have but they do not pollute the air at the same time. It is such a simple idea that we would hope any one of us could have thought of that but, in fact, having the President develop a plan that will focus on reducing our consumption of oil by 2013 would include such ideas as weatherizing homes, as encouraging truckers not to idle, keeping tires properly inflated. These may seem to be small ideas but they can add up, we suggest, to a million barrels per day by the year 2013.

I congratulate the Senator from Louisiana on what I think is a commonsense, reasonable approach to add conservation to our arsenal of activities, to give it a higher profile in this bill, and I am glad to join in cosponsoring her amendment.

I compliment the Senator but I cannot vote for his amendment. This committee has added to the $1.3 billion proposal by the President for the hydrogen car, $1.6 billion suggested by the Senator from North Dakota and others on that side.

The issue is whether we want to add to the bill a target that we have 100,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the United States by 2010. I respectfully suggest that is a wild guess. I drove a $2 million Ford hydrogen car around the block in Washington. I did that, I believe the Senator and several others did, and it costs $2 million to make the car. It actually works. We drove around and got so excited we came up on the Senate floor and put into law that we ought to have 100,000 of them by the year 2010. It is not mandatory.

It reminded me, as I mentioned yesterday, my friends were guessing wrong about the facts technology. I respectfully will vote no.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Louisiana. We should not pass an Energy bill that does not put conservation up on the platform along with our encouragement of nuclear power, oil exploration, and hydrogen fuel cell; all of that is important. And this amendment by the Senator and various cosponsors makes it clear to the country that commonsense ways to conserve oil are equally important in our arsenal of having an economy that is less dependent on foreign oil and in a better position to produce clean air.

I am proud to join as a cosponsor. I congratulate the Senator and congratulate our chairman for being able to move this bill forward with such a bipartisan consensus.