Tom Harkin: “first of all, we are not abrogating any treaties with this amendment. How could we abrogate a treaty with an amendment…”

“first of all, we are not abrogating any treaties with this amendment. How could we abrogate a treaty with an amendment that simply says: No moneys can be expended by the State Department Attorney General to go into court opposing our POW cases against private Japanese companies? That is all we are saying. Again, we have done this time and time and time again in the history of this country. This is not something new. We have the power to do that. We have the power of the purse strings. We are not abrogating the treaty. We are just saying that the U.S. Government cannot go into court using taxpayer money to oppose the POWs who are filing these lawsuits. If the court upholds the treaty and says that they cannot get anything, that they have already been compensated, well, that's the end of it. I guess they can appeal it to the Supreme Court of the United States, but if the courts find, as my friend from Hawaii says, that this treaty holds and would be abrogated, and we can't do that, then that is the end of the case, but at least the POWs will have had their day in court. That is all we are asking with this amendment. We are not abrogating any treaties; we are simply trying to uphold the rule of law and our own private citizens' rights. Let's keep in mind whom we are talking about: 30,000 men who served their country in unbearable conditions in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.”