April 25, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S5637

family endured in order to protect the

freedoms we all enjoy in this country.

Mr. President, let me close by saying

to the children of Colonel Shelton that

we can never replace the years you lost

with your father, but his marker in Arlington National Cemetery will serve

as a reminder for generations to come

of his heroism, his courage, and his

unyielding love for this country.

CONCLUSION OF MORNING

fBUSINESS

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under

the previous order, morning business is

closed.

Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I appreciate your recognition. I would like

to use my leader time to make a statement on the pending resolution prior

to the time to take our vote.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, 7 days

ago, a brutal attack on a Federal office

building in Oklahoma City left over 80

people dead, more than 400 injured, and

a city and Nation shaken to its core.

On Sunday, the Nation observed a

day of mourning. All Americans joined

President Clinton, the families of victims, and the people of Oklahoma City

in thought and prayer at the memorial

service. With them, we thanked and

honored the brave men and women who

have aided in the rescue efforts at the

bomb site. It was an added tragedy to

learn Sunday that one of the rescuers,

a nurse, lost her own life in the course

of helping others.

The swift and efficient work of FBI

and other Federal law enforcement in

apprehending suspects reinforces the

well-earned reputation of those agencies. Terrorists must know that no

matter who they are, domestic or foreign, there is no place to hide from the

reach of our law. President Clinton has

made clear that those who committed

this act will be pursued, found, convicted, and punished to the full extent

of the law. He has the support of every

law-biding American in that determination.

An act of terror—the intentional

murder of innocent men, women, and

small children—shattered the sense of

security that Americans have enjoyed

in an increasingly violent world. Our

world has made us all vulnerable to the

deranged and to the enraged. No one’s

security can be guaranteed against

people determined to attack, to kill, to

pursue their mad plans, Security cannot be guaranteed against those who

have no concern for human life.

But that does not mean we are

doomed to give in to the forces of insanity or mad rage. The human world

has always been one of risks and dangers. Throughout human history, violence has erupted in wars and between

individuals; human beings have been at

risk from the forces of nature, from

disease and accident.

Today’s violence and terrorism come

into our homes through television images. They have an impact that written

reports of battles and tornadoes could

never have.

No sooner had Wednesday’s bombing

been reported than scores of faked

bomb threats began to be received from

coast to coast. Federal buildings in

Kansas City; Miami; Portland, OR;

Dayton and Steubenville, OH; Casper,

WY, and Boise, ID, were closed. In

Omaha, the Zorinsky Federal Building

was closed, and its day center emptied,

by a bomb threat.

Television and wire service stories

reported all these threats and others.

No wonder Americans all over the

country immediately felt at risk. The

immediacy of live television, the awful

images of wounded, bleeding, shaking

people staggering out of the Federal

building in Oklahoma City made every

American watching a participant in

this hideous tragedy. No one who saw

the small children covered with blood,

dazed and bewildered, will ever forget

their eyes.

The deaths and injuries, have brutalized families all across America. A

young woman from Spearfish, SD, serving in the Air Force, is among the

missing. Married just 4 days before the

bombing, she left her duty station at

Tinker Air Force Base on Wednesday

morning to go to the Social Security

office in the Federal building in Oklahoma City to register her married

name, and she has not been found. Her

father, David Koch of Rapid City, her

high school classmates from the 1993

graduating class at Spearfish High, and

all who knew her have been devastated

by this terrorist attack. That is true

for literally hundreds of families and

people nationwide.

The immediacy of television brings

us closer together as a Nation mourning national tragedies, but it also

makes each of us feel less safe, less secure in our daily lives.

We should not let ourselves forget

that outbreaks of insane violence have

occurred before. In 1927, for instance, a

Michigan farmer unable to pay his

property taxes bombed a school full of

children, killing more than 40, because

he blamed the construction of the

school for his high property taxes.

Incidents like that were not as frequent in a smaller, younger nation.

But they did not occur and despite the

fact that they occurred, Americans in

every generation remained true to the

constitutional structure of Government that has given us the world’s

most free society.

We need to remember this fact, as my

colleagues from Oklahoma said so eloquently this morning, of our history in

the face of the Oklahoma City tragedy.

This act of terrorism will have

achieved a purpose if it robs Americans

of their sense of security. It will have

achieved a purpose if it leads us to respond irrationally. It will have

achieved a purpose if public discourse

turns to invective.

The deaths and injuries caused by the

bombing of the Federal building must

not be allowed to rip apart the fabric of

our society.

The resolution the Senate is about to

pass expresses the outrage and sadness

of the Senate and the American people

with respect to the bombing in Oklahoma City. It commends all those involved in the rescue efforts and the investigation. It offers our sincere condolences to all those who lost family

members and friends in, and all those

who were injured by, the bombing.

I want to clarify one point with respect to the resolution. It states correctly that the law authorizes the

death penalty for terrorist murderers.

Although the death penalty is not a

sentencing option for those convicted

of the World Trade Center bombing,

the 1994 crime bill, which was enacted

after the World Trade Center bombing,

does provide for the death penalty in

cases such as the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City.

The resolution also expresses support

for the President’s and the Attorney

General’s statements that Federal

prosecutors will seek the maximum

punishment allowed by law for those

convicted of the bombing. While some

Senators support the death penalty for

certain crimes and others oppose the

death penalty as a matter of principle,

there is a strong belief among all Senators that the apprehension, prosecution, and punishment of those who

commit heinous crimes such as this

one should be pursued as aggressively

as possible. That belief is reflected in

the strong support for this resolution.

Of course, words can never express

the depth of our emotions at a time

like this. Furthermore, our national

response must be multifaceted.

We have to relearn the hard fact that

our technologically advanced society

has created new ways to make us vulnerable. And it will never be possible to

develop enough technological security

to make us invulnerable. Metal detectors and x-ray machines, and electronic

ID cards all have their place in necessary security actions. But the bombing in Oklahoma City proves that you

need not even enter a building to blow

it up.

At the same time, we must become

more vigilant and more aware. The

number of bombing incidents in the

United States has gone up more than

fourfold in the last decade. In 1983, the

FBI reported 683 bombing incidents. In

1993, the last year for which complete

figures are available, the FBI reported

2,980 bombing incidents.

Few Americans realize this, but in an

increasingly violent and fragmented

world, we cannot afford to be complacent. There are some steps we can take

to respond more forcefully and pro-actively to the threat of terrorism,

whether it is home-grown or comes

from abroad.
S5638 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE April 25, 1995

We must do more and focus more attention on the intelligence resources

that may help detect potential terrorist attacks before they can be consummated. We should take up and pass

President Clinton’s anti-terrorism proposals. We should determine what additional tools the FBI and other law enforcement agencies may need to carry

out their missions.

We should examine proposals for improved visa tracking of overseas visitors to the United States, so that those

who overstay their visa time cannot

simply vanish into society without a

trace. We should take steps to alter our

asylum procedures, so that those legitimately seeking political refuge can

be admitted, while those using asylum

backlogs as a pretext are not allowed

to stay indefinitely, but let us remember, as well, that this tragedy was not

the work of overseas terrorists, but of

Americans, people who enjoyed the

great freedom our Nation offers.

We have become accustomed to seeing terrorist attacks in other parts of

the world—Bosnia, the Middle East,

Europe, and Latin America. Americans

have seen hundreds of smoke-stained

people streaming out of the World

Trade Center Buildings in New York

City. In response, we have been quick

to explain that the causes are nationalism, or religious fanaticism, or some

other belief system with which Americans have nothing in common.

Americans have always been quick to

seek reasons to explain what happens

in the world around them. But there

are events so monstrous, so evil, that

they cannot be explained away. No

human reasons can account for the

minds that could conceive, or the

hands that could carry out, this deed.

Nevertheless, it is natural and

healthy for each of us to question and

try to understand how this could have

happened, and to think—beyond laws—

about what we as a society might do to

reverse the trends of violence and intolerance in America.

It is imperative that we find ways for

Americans from diverse backgrounds

with sometimes very divergent points

of view to live harmoniously.

The first step toward that goal is for

us to talk to each other. We must find

better ways to do that. We must restore civility to private, and especially

public, discourse. We should not permit

our political or racial or ethnic or

other differences to blind us to each

other’s truths.

If we listen to one another, we are

likely to find our differences are not as

great as some of the intemperate rhetoric makes them appear. We are likely

to remember that what divides us is

much less important than what unites

us as a nation. We will never eliminate

all our differences, but we will learn

that we can live with them.

Each of us—as parents, neighbors,

teachers, elected officials, candidates

for office, journalists—has an affirmative responsibility to promote that

kind of environment.

The bombing in Oklahoma City is the

result of evil, misguided people. We do

not yet know what their motivation

was; we can only speculate. But we can

ask ourselves if our increasingly hateful public discourse is falling on ears

receptive to hate, if it is providing a

context for hands ready to undertake

hateful acts.

No one believes that the actions of

any man are the fault of the speech of

anther, but people are inspired and uplifted by words and ideas. We saw that

at the memorial service in Oklahoma

City. Words and ideas can and do inspire and uplift. But they can mislead

and delude. All of us who speak and act

in the public arena have an obligation

to bear that in mind, for every time we

speak, in effect, we are making a

choice about what kind of environment

we promote. The privilege of serving

our community carries with it the obligation not to damage that community.

Americans now can and must do what

earlier generations of Americans have

done. We must mourn with the families

of victims and pray for all the shattered lives and hopes. We must identify

changes in the law that have the promise of making us safer. And we must

continue to live our lives, saddened by

the enormous loss, but rededicated to

the social contract that binds us together and allows all of us from different backgrounds, with different

ideas, to live together in peace.

CONDEMNING THE BOMBING IN

OKLAHOMA CITY

fThe PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs.

HUTCHISON). Under the previous order,

the hour of 12 noon having arrived, the

Senate will now proceed to consideration of Senate Resolution 110, which

the clerk will report. Under the previous order, the Senate will proceed to

vote on the resolution. The clerk will

report.

The assistant legislative clerk read

as follows:

A resolution (S. Res. 110) expressing the

sense of the Senate condemning the bombing

in Oklahoma City.

The Senate proceeded to consider the

resolution.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I

ask for the yeas and nays.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a

sufficient second?

There is a sufficient second.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The

question is on agreeing to the resolution. The clerk will call the roll.

The legislative clerk called the roll.

Mr. LOTT. I announce that the Senator from Oregon [Mr. HATFIELD] and

the Senator from Vermont [Mr. JEFFORDS] are necessarily absent.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Iowa [Mr. HARKIN] is necessarily absent.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr.

INHOFE). Are there any other Senators

in the Chamber desiring to vote?

The result was announced—yeas 97,

nays 0, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 133 Leg.]

YEAS—97

Abraham

Akaka

Ashcroft

Baucus

Bennett

Biden

Bingaman

Bond

Boxer

Bradley

Breaux

Brown

Bryan

Bumpers

Burns

Byrd

Campbell

Chafee

Coats

Cochran

Cohen

Conrad

Coverdell

Craig

D’Amato

Daschle

DeWine

Dodd

Dole

Domenici

Dorgan

Exon

Faircloth

Feingold

Feinstein

Ford

Frist

Glenn

Gorton

Graham

Gramm

Grams

Grassley

Gregg

Hatch

Heflin

Helms

Hollings

Hutchison

Inhofe

Inouye

Johnston

Kassebaum

Kempthorne

Kennedy

Kerrey

Kerry

Kohl

Kyl

Lautenberg

Leahy

Levin

Lieberman

Lott

Lugar

Mack

McCain

McConnell

Mikulski

Moseley-Braun

Moynihan

Murkowski

Murray

Nickles

Nunn

Packwood

Pell

Pressler

Pryor

Reid

Robb

Rockefeller

Roth

Santorum

Sarbanes

Shelby

Simon

Simpson

Smith

Snowe

Specter

Stevens

Thomas

Thompson

Thurmond

Warner

Wellstone

NOT VOTING—3

Harkin Hatfield Jeffords

So the resolution (S. Res. 110) was

agreed to.

The preamble was agreed to.

The resolution, with its preamble, is

as follows:

[Senate Resolution 110 was not available for printing. It will appear in a future issue of the R

fECORD.]

RECESS UNTIL 2:15 P.M.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under

the previous order, the Senate will now

stand in recess until the hour of 2:15

p.m.

Thereupon, the Senate, at 12:37 p.m.,

recessed until 2:16 p.m., whereupon, the

Senate reassembled when called to

order by the Presiding Officer [Mr.

K

COMMONSENSE PRODUCT LIABILYL

ITY AND LEGAL REFORM ACT

].

fThe PRESIDING OFFICER. The

clerk will report pending business.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

A bill (H.R. 956) to establish legal standards and procedures for product liability litigation, and for other purposes.

The Senate resumed the consideration of the bill.

Pending:

Gorton amendment No. 596, in the nature

of a substitute.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

Mr. PELL. Mr. President, I suggest

the absence of a quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The

clerk will call the roll.

The legislative clerk proceeded to

call the roll.