S11834 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE September 30, 1996 we cannot, I hope our leadership will tention to that so we do not get into a This makes us pause as we see a dem- keep us throughout the week until situation where at the last minute we onstration of what might occur if the each of these vitally important initia- have no alternative but to say yes or peace process goes forward and if there tives has become the law of the land so no to such a massive bill. Or, when the is great authority for the PLO, the Pal- we can go home and tell the American extraordinary procedure is used of hav- estinian Liberation Organization, now people we have started to change the ing a conference report, either to say known as the Palestinian Authority, as course in which this country is going. yes or no without any amendment to what they may hope or seek to ac- We are shifting it to a better and more there. complish with a separate Palestinian responsible and more responsive direc- I have spoken on this at some great state. That certainly is not part of the tion, but we need more than 2 years to length on Saturday, the day before yes- agreement on the Oslo Accords. make up for all of the follies of the last terday, Mr. President, and at that time A few months after the signing on two to four decades. With that, I rec- expressed my concern about a proce- the White House lawn of September 13, ommend the passage of this bill. dure which blurred the lines of separa- 1993, I and others from this body went I yield the floor. tion of powers between the Congress, to take a look at what was happening, Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have which is supposed to do the appropria- and we had a chance to meet with sought recognition to comment on the tions, then sending a bill to the Presi- Chairman Arafat, had a chance to visit pending legislation as we approach in dent for his consideration, and a proce- Jericho and Gaza, and we saw the flags the course of some 11 hours the end of dure in which the Chief of Staff, rep- of a Palestinian state which was al- the fiscal year at 12 o’clock midnight. resenting the executive branch, was ready being assumed when the ink was We are faced with an appropriations party to negotiations with Congress be- barely dry on the Oslo Accords signed a process which I believe has severely un- fore the bill was passed. This was an few months earlier. That was not what dermined what we are supposed to be aberration, really a corruption, of the was intended. doing as legislators. constitutional process of separation of Now we have a de facto Palestinian I just heard my distinguished col- powers, where each House acts, there is state with a police force estimated be- league, Senator GORTON, make a com- a conference, we send a bill to the tween 30,000 and 40,000, which is a veri- ment about the price we are paying for President, and he makes the decision, table army. That context, I submit, what he considers to be extra appro- signing or not, and then the Congress Mr. President, is simply an intolerable priations on certain lines because we has the power to override. situation. have not had an opportunity to con- What we have really seen, as I said at Going back to September 13, 1993, sider the items in detail. I agree with great length on Saturday, is a proce- when I saw Arafat honored on the him about that. My suggestion is we dure where we have had the delegation White House Lawn, it was a very, very are paying even a higher price because of the President’s authority to the difficult day considering that this was we have not permitted the appropria- Chief of Staff, with it being impossible the man who was implicated in the tions process to run its course because for the President to know what was murder of the United States charge in of the political differences and the very being agreed to on his behalf, again, I the Sudan in 1974. This is the man who deterioration of our Senate process. think, raising serious constitutional was implicated in massive killings and It was illustrated on the Interior ap- questions as to whether the President terrorism against Israel. This is the propriations bill where the majority may delegate the authority in that man who led the hijacking of the leader had to take down the bill be- way. Achille Lauro leading to the murder of cause of maneuvering—one side trying f Mr. Klinghoffer, who was pushed off the deck of the Achille Lauro in his to gain an advantage on some politi- FOREIGN AID cally popular items like education, wheelchair. It was pretty hard to sit on Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I now the White House Lawn and watch that something I have long supported in my want to comment for a moment or two capacity as chairman of the Appropria- man honored. about one aspect of the appropriations It seemed to me that if Prime Min- tions Subcommittee which deals with process. That is the issue of foreign ister Rabin and then Foreign Minister appropriations. Then the bill which I aid, which is tied into U.S. policy in Peres were willing to shake Arafat’s have the chairmanship of, Labor, the Mideast, and what is happening hand, considering that Israel had suf- Health, Human Services, and Edu- today in Israel and the conflict be- fered the most at the hands of PLO cation, was never brought to the floor tween Israel and the Palestinians, the atrocities, then the United States because of insufficient time and be- PLO and the forthcoming summit with ought to try to be helpful. cause of the determination that the leaders from the Mideast, which is to But now we see that a summit is bill could not be enacted in due course. be held in Washington tomorrow and planned. And, as this morning’s press Instead, we have come to a situation the day after. quotes, Arafat is betting that Prime where everything is rolled into one om- I commented on this issue on Satur- Minister Netanyahu will come under nibus appropriations bill, which is a day as well, Mr. President. It is my pressure from President Clinton. If this take-it-or-leave-it proposition, with hope that the parties, Israel and the is the case, I think it is time to rethink the alternative being to close down the Palestinian Authority, will be able to precisely what we are doing. Government. The procedural posture work out their problems. They are now Israel voted for the Likud-Netanyahu today is that there is a second measure coming to Washington with additional government this past election express- which can come before the Senate leaders from the Mideast in an over- ing their concerns for security. It is which is the Department of Defense tone which may suggest pressure on very easy for people thousands of miles conference report where the omnibus the parties, pressure specifically on away from the locale to say, ‘‘Well, appropriations bill has been rolled in, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. there ought to be pressure, and there as well as the immigration bill, which It is my view, Mr. President, that it ought to be in effect a determination, would not even allow an opportunity is intolerable to have a situation where if not a dictation, as to what the Is- for amendment during consideration of the Palestinians are firing on Israeli raeli elected officials ought to do.’’ any of the individual items if that is to soldiers. The Palestinians are firing on It is my sense that Prime Minister be called up as the order of the day. Israeli soldiers with rifles and ammuni- Netanyahu can hold his own and make It is my hope, Mr. President, when tion provided by the Israelis, pursuant decisions for himself. But it is also my we reconvene for the 105th Congress, to the Oslo Accords, so that the Pal- sense that there ought to be a state- we will take a look and change the estinian police can contain the areas in ment made that the situation is intol- rules of the Senate to prohibit bringing Gaza and the other areas in which they erable with the Palestinians firing on up extraneous, nongermane matters on have been given a limited amount of Israeli soldiers, and that the United appropriations bills. If that were to be local authority. There was never any States ought not to exert pressure as the case, when we consider Interior, it intention that those Palestinian police to what the Israelis are to do in terms is an Interior bill alone. When we con- were to be an army to engage in what of their own security. sider Labor, Health, Human Services, is, in effect, virtual warfare against the I had a chance to meet with Chair- and Education, we then direct our at- State of Israel. man Arafat last month in Gaza. And September 30, 1996 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S11835 when he asked about aid from the Unit- we go through that quite often and were eight rows. Back in those days, ed States, I reminded him about the quite often we vote on things that we every time you missed a spelling word, provisions of our law which require the have not read in their entirety. But the you would walk up to the front of the Palestinian authorities to change the reason that we are going to do this is class and they would swat you with a PLO charter before such aid will be because we on the majority side are paddle. So I was a good speller, and I granted. He brought me a document somewhat held hostage. At least in the was in the first row because I was in which simply said that all provisions of minds of many Members we are. We are the first grade. My brother was in the the charter inconsistent with the Sep- talking about $6.5 billion more that we second row because he was in the sec- tember 13, 1993, agreement were in- are going to agree to spend to respond ond grade. My sister was in the eighth valid, which hardly reaches the issue to the President’s request for programs row because she was in the eighth about the provisions of the PLO char- that he was not able to get funded dur- grade. But every time they got around ter calling for the destruction of Israel. ing the normal process—$6.5 billion to me they had me sit over in the third It was obviously insufficient. with a ‘‘b’’, Mr. President. So we are row because I was a good speller. Then there are the provisions of talking about a major, major amount Here is a brand new, innovative pro- American law which call upon the Pal- of expenditures. gram that Government came up with estinian authorities to take strong All of this goes back to this horrible here centralized in Washington. I steps against terrorism. I think they fear that we seem to be laboring under would suggest to you that the Goals have not done that. The closing of the that—if we do not do this and we pass 2000 Program is one that has as its border is difficult with Romanians and our appropriations bills, as we would goalposts to bring the curriculum as others coming in to handle jobs in Is- normally do through the deliberative close to Washington because our wis- rael. But when the open borders mean process, and the President vetoes these dom is so much greater here than it is terrorism, and destruction of Israeli and we come to an impasse—the Gov- out in the local areas. I do not agree buses, it is not hard to understand why ernment will stop at the end of the fis- with that. And yet what we are doing as a matter of security those borders cal year which is taking place at this today, if we do—and I think it is going are closed. historic time right now, and that the to happen—is we will extend the fund- When I discussed with Chairman Republicans would be responsible for ing of that by $255 million. Arafat the issue of terrorism, he dis- it. I see here that another $87 million is cussed Abu Nidal, somebody that he Last night I was watching a debate going to go to EPA. Now, I am on the knows well—had known well—and Abu that took place wherein the distin- Environment and Public Works Com- mittee. I can tell you that our effort Abbas who was implicated in the guished minority leader, Senator with the Republican majority has been Achille Lauro hijacking and is under a DASCHLE, was talking about what hap- to stop some of this foolishness that 30-year sentence in absentia from the pened when the Republicans shut down comes out of Washington and have, for Italian court. Chairman Arafat said the Government. And I was waiting for instance, real Superfund reform, a response because the Republicans did that Abu Abbas raised his hand to Superfund reform where we would re- not shut down the Government. The change the PLO charter. Those are peal retroactive liability, repeal joint Republicans only did those things that matters which require a lot of consid- and several liability, bring the rem- eration as to just what may be ex- were responsible in the normal process edies from the Federal Government pected of the Israeli Government in that we live under here. back to the State. The average I remember so well in the other terms of trusting the PLO and trusting Superfund cleanup that is supervised the Palestinian authorities. Chamber when the President of the by the Federal Government is some- Do the leopards change their spots? United States, Bill Clinton, gave his thing like 81⁄2 years, and yet we have Here we have the Palestinian police fir- State of the Union Message. And in some that are being done, or proposals ing on Israeli soldiers with guns and that he had a very dramatic time dur- being made that if we can do it under bullets provided by the Israelis. ing that 1 hour and 6 minutes—what- local jurisdiction with everyone in- So let us take a look at what we ex- ever it was—when he said, ‘‘And don’t volved such as in Bossier City, LA, pect to be done. Certainly the matters you ever shut down Government where one of the oil companies had ac- ought to be subject to negotiation. But again,’’ looking at us as if we were the tually had a cleanup—they admitted we really ought not to allow the Pal- ones who shut it down. they were the responsible party, so estinian authority and Arafat to get Well, anyway, apparently the vast they made a proposal to the State of what they want at the bargaining table majority of the American people be- Louisiana, and it was agreed to by the by rioting and warfare. lieved that. State of Louisiana, by the city of Bos- (The remarks of Mr. SPECTER per- So, in fear for that and in responding sier City, by all of the local officials, taining to the introduction of legisla- to that, we are agreeing to fund a lot of by all the consumer groups, by every- tion are located in today’s RECORD his programs to the extent of $6.5 bil- one they could get together to clean it under ‘‘Statements on Introduced Bills lion, programs such as the Goals 2000 up in a year and a half, and yet the and Joint Resolutions.’’) Program. EPA in Washington said no. Now we Mr. SPECTER. I thank the Chair. I You know, a few years ago I came have got it reversed. But at first they yield the floor. home. And at that time my son was in said no, and so it would take another 8 Mr. INHOFE addressed the Chair. the fourth or the fifth grade. I can’t re- to 9 years to do. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- member. And he was just beaming. I And so with this thrust that we are ator from Oklahoma. said, ‘‘Jimmy, something good must trying to get to bring the remedies and f have happened today.’’ He said, ‘‘Well, bring as much back to the local area, you know, dad. I am in the fourth we find we are increasing EPA by $87 OMNIBUS CONSOLIDATED grade.’’ I said, ‘‘Yes. I know that.’’ He million, and that is in addition to the APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1997 said, ‘‘Dad, you know that in reading I $170 million that the Agency received The Senate continued with the con- am in the fifth grade.’’ I said, ‘‘How above the fiscal year 1996 levels. sideration of the bill. does that work?’’ He said it was a So, first of all, we have increased Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, it ap- brand new Federal program. ‘‘It is a them by $170 million. Now we are in- pears that this afternoon we are going pilot program we are trying. It is a sys- creasing that by $87 million. So all to be asked to vote on something in the tem that is set up where if you acceler- these programs where the people are form of an omnibus consolided appro- ate in a certain area that you can then upset Government is coming, the EPA, priations bill which may be attached to compete with those who are in perhaps and saying you are guilty of messing the Defense appropriations bill. a grade or two above you.’’ up the Superfund site when you sold This is it, Mr. President. This is the I remember it so well back many used crankcase oil 10 years ago to a li- 2,000-plus pages that have been put to- years ago. I was in grade school. I was censed contractor; therefore, we are gether and assembled since last Friday. in the first grade. It was a little coun- going to fine you, this kind of abuse of I would suggest there is not one Mem- try school named Hazel Dell. And there the responsible and law-abiding tax- ber of this body who has read this. But were eight grades in one room. There payers is going to continue.