May 23, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— SENATE S7233 

that is known as the Nunn-Lugar program that works for nuclear and chemical dismantlement in the former Soviet Union that has been so effective in 

helping denuclearize three former nuclear states and also helped in dismantling both chemical and nuclear weapons. We have a long way to go in that 

regard, but Les Aspin was on board 

when that ship was launched, which is 

probably our most important national 

security challenge—that is, nonproliferation in the breakup of the Soviet empire. 

During this entire period, I developed 

tremendous respect for the breadth of 

Les Aspin’s knowledge and his devotion 

to the cause of national defense. Les 

was a brilliant analyst, but he was 

more than a scholar; he was an outstanding legislator and a master at 

putting together coalitions in the 

House of Representatives during a very 

tough period of time for national security. 

I will always treasure the memories 

of working with Les on the House-Senate conferences on the National Defense Authorization Act that were enacted during the period in which we 

chaired our respective committees. The 

challenge of crafting a conference 

agreement was always daunting in the 

contentious atmosphere of the cold war 

and post-cold-war eras. Each year, hundreds of language and funding differences divided the two Houses—and 

we were continually faced with the 

threat of a veto over controversial 

issues such as the ABM Treaty, abortion, and prerogatives of the executive 

branch. 

Les and I talked on the telephone and 

met very frequently, not just during 

conference but also in the months before we passed either the House or Senate bill. These meetings were quiet and 

unpublicized, but they enabled us to 

shape bills in both the House and the 

Senate which could be reconciled in 

conference and also signed into law by 

a Republican President. 

Much as I appreciated and admired 

Les Aspin’s policy and legislative 

skills, what I enjoyed most about Les 

was his sense of humor. Frequently, 

when a conference point reached its 

most critical point, we could count on 

a story from Les to break the tension 

and produce a bipartisan compromise. 

Nobody loved a joke more than Les 

Aspin, and I can still see that big grin 

on his face laughing heartily in the 

middle of a conference right at a crucial moment, which gave us the kind of 

balance, the kind of sense of priorities 

to understand that it was our job to 

reconcile our differences and to come 

to conclusions in the interest of national security. He never lost sight of 

the serious policy issues that confronted us, but he never got personal in 

his fervent support for one position or 

another. 

Les Aspin served as Secretary of Defense during a particularly difficult 

time. I enjoyed working very closely 

with him and his staff during his tenure as Secretary of Defense. Lacking a 

cold war enemy and a national consensus on defense issues, Les was faced 

with the extraordinary challenges of 

managing a defense builddown while 

retaining essential military capabilities. The complex and new international circumstances surrounding 

events in places such as the former 

Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Haiti added 

to the complexity of his task. Throughout this period, he continued to work 

diligently toward building a new foundation for our defense needs in the 21st 

century. And as Secretary of Defense, 

he laid a foundation for the defense 

drawdown that hopefully will avoid the 

mistakes of the past. At least he did 

his part. 

During his years of service as a Member of the House Armed Services Committee and as Secretary of Defense, Les 

continually fought for a strong, wellequipped, and affordable national security. He was always on the cutting edge 

of national defense policy during both 

the cold war and during the post-coldwar builddown. His creative approaches 

to national strategy, acquisition policies, and defense budget matters have 

made a lasting and indelible contribution to this Nation’s security. 

After his service as Secretary of Defense, he continued to serve our Nation 

as chairman of the President’s Foreign 

Intelligence Advisory Board, as chairman to the Commission on Intelligence, and as a member of the Commission on Roles and Missions of the 

Armed Forces. It was in this capacity 

that I last talked to him on the telephone at length about some of the aspirations he had for changing our intelligence community. Les never lost his 

ardor or his commitment to public 

service. 

Mr. President, the Nation has lost a 

devoted public servant who contributed 

much and who had so much more to 

contribute to our national security. 

I have lost a valued friend and a real 

colleague, a friendship that I will cherish forever, and a man that I will miss 

very much. 

I thank the Chair. 

f 

TRIBUTE TO LES ASPIN 

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I would 

like to associate myself with the comments of our distinguished colleague 

from Georgia. Before he departs the 

floor, I thought we might put in one 

additional chapter in reminiscing 

about our dearly beloved friend, Les 

Aspin. It was a period when the two 

Armed Services Committees met, and I 

was privileged at that time for some 6 

years to serve as ranking member, together with Senator NUNN as chairman, 

and Les Aspin as chairman of the 

House. I remember when we would act 

as the ‘‘big four.’’ If the Senator from 

Georgia will remember that——

Mr. NUNN. Along with Congressman 

Bill Dickinson. 

Mr. WARNER. Yes, Congressman Bill 

Dickinson. There would be absolute 

deadlock in the conferences. The big 

four would sort of get off together, and 

the other members, I think they were 

slightly envious in some respects, but 

in other respects, they were glad they 

did not have to make the decisions the 

big four had to crank out. 

Mr. NUNN. I think many times it was 

like we were the ‘‘little four’’ rather 

than the big four. 

Mr. WARNER. That is correct. But 

my friend from Georgia is a man of 

great patience. Chairman Aspin would 

always be late, almost invariably late, 

and he would come in with a great 

swath of papers under his arm, down 

the hall with two or three staff people, 

and he would literally flop in the chair. 

He would consume the entire chair, and 

the papers would be scattered all over 

the floor. And, finally, the Senator 

from Georgia, who at that time was 

chairman of the Armed Services Committee, would regain his composure 

and we would start to resolve the problems. But it was a marvelous chapter 

in the relationship between the Senate 

and House Armed Services Committee, 

and Les Aspin was instrumental in seeing that we arrived at the proper decision which, almost without exception, 

was in the best security interest of this 

country. In those days, we had almost 

no politics that entered into the decision—occasionally, a ship here or a 

tank there, but other than that, it was 

straightforward, tough decisions on behalf of the country. 

I join my friend from Georgia in saying how much we will miss our friend. 

I was with him just 2 weeks ago. I am 

privileged to serve on the Intelligence 

Commission, and Les Aspin was the 

chairman. We went down to one of the 

Central Intelligence facilities to spend 

a day. And I wish to add, Mr. President, 

that Zoe Baird is a member of that 

commission, and she called me just 

yesterday and expressed her great admiration. I would like to include that 

in my comments for Chairman Aspin of 

the commission. That commission will 

carry on and do its work, but he laid 

the foundation. I join my distinguished 

colleague in paying this brief tribute to 

our fallen friend. 

Mr. NUNN. I thank my friend from 

Virginia. I remember those days very 

well, and I will always cherish the 

memories. I have to say that while Les 

Aspin would consume that chair, my 

friend from Virginia was usually consuming the sofa. 

Mr. WARNER. That is quite true. 

Mr. NUNN. For health reasons, 

though. 

Mr. WARNER. In those days I had a 

bum leg. I think we should end this 

brief set of comments on behalf of the 

late Congressman Aspin with a smile 

on our face, because that is the way he 

would want it. I am glad that my distinguished colleague from Georgia 

mentioned the Bottom-Up Review. 

That was a document that was created 

and is still used as a benchmark for 

many of our discussions here. He had 

that foresight and courage. 

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S7234 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— SENATE May 23, 1995 

My knowledge and friendship with 

the late departed Les Aspin began 

when I was Secretary of the Navy. He 

was off frequently as a severe critic of 

the Department of Defense during that 

period of time. 

And I remember so well Melvin Laird 

was then Secretary of Defense and had 

a great respect and friendship for Les, 

but Les was a strong critic in those 

days. Now in hindsight, maybe some of 

his criticism was well-taken. 

I yield the floor. 

f 

BUDGET RESOLUTION SUPPORT 

Mr. DEWINE. Mr. President, I rise 

today to offer my strong support for 

the Senate budget resolution proposed 

and brought forward by Chairman 

DOMENICI. 

Let me first start by congratulating 

the chairman for the absolutely tremendous job he has done. I am sure 

that there is not a Member of this body 

who would write the budget the identical way that the committee has written. I do not suppose the chairman 

would, either. I think he has done a 

great job. I want to congratulate him. 

This is a historic moment. It is a moment where we will really determine 

whether this Congress has the courage, 

has the wisdom, to do what we all 

know we have to do. 

Let me also congratulate my friend 

from Ohio, JOHN KASICH, chairman of 

the Budget Committee in the House of 

Representatives. He has done a great 

job, as well. For both of them and for 

the Senate this is a historic moment. 

What I would like to talk about this 

evening, Mr. President, is the issue of 

this budget and how this budget that 

we will be voting on tomorrow, affects 

young people, affects children. 

The truth is that we simply have to 

change the direction of this country. 

We have to face reality. We have to 

face the fact that America has a fundamental choice between two different 

futures: A future of responsibility and 

fiscal sanity on the one hand; or a future of economic catastrophe. 

Catastrophe is a pretty harsh word, 

Mr. President, but I think it is accurate. When we fail to balance the budget for 26 consecutive years, when we 

add to the national debt until we are 

paying more in interest than we are 

paying for national defense, and when 

we have a debt that is nearly $5 trillion—$5 trillion—and no end in sight, 

what we have is a catastrophe. A catastrophe in the making. No more, nor 

less. 

Mr. President, what we are really 

talking about is not dollars and cents. 

What we are talking about is our children and the quality of their lives. The 

sad fact is, Mr. President, that today 

to many of our children, America is a 

very tough place to grow up in. 

I have previously come to the Senate 

floor and discussed the issue of our 

children. What I think is the biggest 

crisis facing this country is what is 

happening to our young people. Many 

of our young children are growing up in 

good conditions, but too many of them 

live in an environment that makes it 

very, very difficult for them, very problematic, as to whether they can succeed. 

I have talked about this. I talked 

about the fact that this is the first generation in our history whose life expectancy is no greater than their parents because of deaths from auto accidents, deaths because of drugs, homicides. 

A generation where young children 

are being born, one-third of all children 

being born today to parents who are 

not married; two-thirds of the children 

born in our inner cities are born to parents who are not married. 

Probably, Mr. President, the most 

disheartening fact of all, is probably 

something that was encountered last 

year by the Presiding Officer as he 

traveled through the State of Missouri 

campaigning, as I found traveling the 

State of Ohio, and that is that people 

today do not believe their children will 

have a better life than they had. They 

do not believe the standard of living for 

their children will be even as good as 

they had. That to me is the most disheartening fact of all. 

What do we do? Government has a 

role. I introduced my crime bill last 

week. I talked about the fact I was targeting money for more cities and for 

police officers to go in there, because 

too many of our young people live in 

an unsafe environment. 

I will continue to talk about that in 

the months ahead. It is not just Government. We all have a responsibility. 

Communities have a responsibility. 

There are things Government can do 

and things that Government cannot do. 

What I want to talk about specifically tonight is one thing that sometimes we forget does impact on children. That is the huge spending, the 

huge national debt, and the huge tax 

burden that we are placing on this generation of parents and on the next generation of our children when they grow 

up. 

We are dealing, Mr. President, with a 

sad fact that the U.S. Congress makes 

the situation worse for our children by 

throwing away so many of America’s 

resources in an utterly irresponsible 

manner. To pay for Congress’ reckless 

spending, the Federal Government has 

to take far too much money from the 

parents of these children. 

When my parents were growing up in 

the 1930’s, their families had to work 

on an average until March 8 of every 

year to pay for Congress’ spending. By 

the time I was growing up, and my wife 

Fran was growing up in the 1960’s, a 

typical family had to work until April 

16 to pay the taxes. Today, 1995, American families have to work until May 6 

to pay their taxes. That is money that 

is stolen from families, stolen from 

children. 

Sometimes it feels like America’s 

parents are in a tug of war with the 

Federal Government for the resources 

they need to raise their children. 

Frankly, Mr. President, I am sure they 

feel on many days that the Government is winning. 

This budget begins the process of restoring the resources to the parents. It 

is only a beginning, but it is a necessary beginning. We ask parents today 

to do a lot. 

It is time for this Congress and this 

Government to stop hindering their efforts and to start helping. I think we 

sometimes forget, Mr. President, the 

tremendous burden the taxes place on 

the American family today and how 

many of the decisions of that family 

are made, forced to be made, because of 

that burden. Decisions about whether 

the mother, the father, both work; 

whether one spouse holds down two 

jobs or three jobs. All these things are 

impacted by the Federal tax burden. 

The Government impacts these families and puts a tremendous burden on 

these families. 

Mr. President, I have talked about 

the fact that for some children it is not 

easy being a kid in America today. We 

have a lot of problems. Yet we continue 

to let the Federal Government deprive 

young parents of the resources they 

need. 

Mr. President, if we do not act now 

and pass this budget resolution, it will 

get a lot tougher to change things in 

the future. If we keep spending at this 

rate, by the year 2012, 17 years from 

today, there will be nothing—nothing—

left in the budget for discretionary 

spending on our domestic needs. Zero. 

Every last cent in the Federal budget 

will go to entitlements and interest 

payments. Think of that: Every cent 

will go to entitlements and interest 

payments. 

Mr. President, those interest payments did not go to our children. They 

do not go to the kids. I do not think it 

is a surprise or a secret to also indicate 

to this body that, frankly, neither does 

most of the entitlement spending, either. 

Mr. President, just a year before that 

year 2012, our grandson, Albert, will 

graduate from high school. In that 

year, our daughter, Anna, if things 

work out, will be in her first year of 

college. If we do not act today, Albert 

and Anna’s generation will pay a severe human cost. 

Between today and the year 2025, the 

Federal debt per person will continue 

to rise year after year after year. 

Today the debt on each person is approximately $18,500. 

In the year 2025, it is going to be 

more than $60,000 for every single man, 

woman, and child in America. 

Look at the modest sacrifices this 

budget resolution proposes, so that we 

can balance the budget. Then look at 

the incredible sacrifices that our children will have to make if we do not. 

In this budget, we slow the rate of increase of fast-growing programs. 

The alternative is a $60,000 debt burden for every person in America. 

It is a clear choice, Mr. President. 

The longer we delay, the more it is 

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