Tom Harkin

I rise in support of S. 1579, the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, of which I am proud to be an original co-sponsor. I would like to commend Senators Jeffords, DeWine, Kennedy, and Wellstone, for making reauthorization of the…

I feel strongly about this aspect of going into NATO enlargement. More than anything else, I want to explain the purpose of my amendment and lay down a marker regarding an issue that I know concerns all of us here and which could have very…

I thank the President. This amendment just urges that the President should propose that NATO examine the compatibility of its nuclear-weapons-sharing programs with our obligations under the NPT, the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. The NPT…

My experience in my years here is that the distinguished chairman of the committee has been very successful in getting documents and papers out of the State Department in the past. I would hope that the committee would at least try to get…

If the Senator will yield, now we get two sides. It seems to me if there is a meeting with the Secretary of State--it was James Baker at the time--and Mr. Gorbachev and our Ambassador, there would have been--there has been at every meeting…

I think all we are saying is that the other members of NATO have to be as fully involved financially in upgrading and modernizing their force structure as the taxpayers of this country. I basically would submit that this amendment is more…

Well, wait a second. I do not think the answer is yes. What GAO said is NATO enlargement could entail costs in addition to those countries in the Partnership for Peace, for example, others who may not be invited to NATO but because of the…

Yes, out of our taxpayer dollars, subsidies to those countries. But it has nothing to do with our military expenditures for our nation's forces stationed in Europe.

Again, I think the arguments, if I might respectfully say so, of the Senator from Delaware are arguments that we would have heard on the Senate floor in the 1950s and the 1960s and the 1970s. The Senator's arguments pertain to a world that…

I want to briefly touch on an issue the Senator from Connecticut mentioned, and that is lobbying by defense contractors. At the outset, I want to say that I have not been contacted by any either. I don't know that my staff has; at least…

Is the Senator then saying that the cost of this is going to escalate greatly in the future, that it is not $400 million, it is going to be something much above that because we are going to subsidize a lot of sales? Is that what the…

I am talking only about subsidies to the national military budgets, the national expenses of those three countries to meet their national commitments.

Again, this amendment does not preclude increased subsidies as long as we only pay our fair share. That is the point I was making prior to the Senator's comments. But, again, is the Senator arguing that, again, this is going to cost a lot…

That is right. Exactly. Why is that? Because England, France, and all of these countries' forces are modernized. They are fully integrated into NATO. Those are the three countries that are going to have a lot of money for interoperability…

I appreciate the correction of the Senator from West Virginia. Back to my point; the Senator from Delaware is right. If this amendment had been in effect 40 years ago, we couldn't have been in Greece. But that was during the cold war. That…

Mr. President, we are, as the Senate and the country now know, debating the issue of whether or not the Senate will advise and consent to the President's signature on a proposal to bring three more nations into the North Atlantic Treaty…

Again, with all due respect, when a crisis happens, Congress responds. Again, just from a budgeting standpoint, from being perhaps a little tightfisted with taxpayer dollars, and not giving sort of a blank check and saying, ``Fill it in,''…

I will respond with a couple of things. First of all, I have to ask again the question: Can these three members, these three nations, can they afford membership in NATO or can they not? Can they afford to bear the burden or can they not…

I believe it is important now to limit our taxpayers' exposure rather than a blank check. If there is an emergency in the future, if something does happen, yes, the Appropriations Committee will respond. The Foreign Relations Committee and…

I think the analogy that the Senator from Delaware uses is totally wrong. Let me provide, I think, a more correct one. This amendment in no way limits how much total defense dollars we can provide to these three countries--not at all. It…

After a treaty is signed. And keep in mind, treaties override the Constitution of the United States. Once those decisions are made, we are going to have to meet, as the Senator from Virginia said, our moral obligations.

It is talking about the subsidy. It is not talking about what we spend ourselves in terms of our own military. It is talking about what subsidy we provide to these countries.

Again, I respond to the Senator from Delaware. Again, what he is basically arguing for is giving a blank check to the American people. I disagree with the Senator on the point that he just said about conventional structure. We are talking…

I will not argue constitutional principles with the Senator from West Virginia, I know that. But treaties under--I forget the article--treaties become the law of the land.

I thank both Senators from North Dakota for their strong voices and strong support for the crop insurance program. To sum it up, our farmers, our refugees, our asylees, should not be penalized because of the delay on the part of the House…