Paul Coverdell: “I want to remind all listening to this debate that we are not talking about normal business transactions. We are talking…”

“I want to remind all listening to this debate that we are not talking about normal business transactions. We are talking about a dictator, a murderer, a violator of human rights, and an evil force in our hemisphere. That is the basis of this conference report. It was suggested that we have not had appropriate time to deal with this legislation. It has been before the Senate for 13 months. There have been two subcommittee hearings on the measure and, of course, extensive negotiations between the White House and the committee itself. It has been suggested that it violates NAFTA. The administration has confirmed our finding that this document does not violate NAFTA. It has been suggested that we have a $50,000 cap denying the residential owners with smaller claims the opportunity to be benefited by the act. That is a result of the opponents' complaint that the number of claims under the original bill would crowd the court system. So we have acceded to their demand to limit the number of cases. We are perfectly willing to open these legal remedies to those with claims valued at less than $50,000 and welcome legislation to lower this cap. It had been suggested that it is a violation of 40 years of international law, that no nationalized citizens have ever had rights under an international claims settlement. I would suggest the opposition read the 1992 annual report of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States.”