Mr. President, 25 years ago today I rose to give my maiden speech as the newly elected junior Senator from Kansas. It concerned a minority group whose existence affects every person in our society and the very fiber of our Nation. It is an exceptional group which I joined another April 14th, during World War II. As I said then, it is a group no one joins by personal choice, and neither respects nor discriminates by age, sex, wealth, education, skin color, religious beliefs, political party, power, or prestige. It is a group that for too long had known exclusion -- maybe not exclusion from the front of the bus, but perhaps from even climbing aboard it; maybe not exclusion from pursuing advanced education, but perhaps from experiencing any formal education; maybe not exclusion from day-to-day life itself, but perhaps from an adequate opportunity to develop and contribute to his or her fullest capacity. Mr. President, it is a minority, yet a group to which at least one out of every five Americans belongs. As my fellow Senators know well, we have worked hard over the years to meet these goals. In fact, they are the foundation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a sweeping law to promote equal opportunity and full participation. Mr. President, today I will speak of the progress we have made in the past 25 years, and what remains to be done. In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act expanded this mandate to all federally funded programs, including State and local governments. People with disabilities are citizens and taxpayers, and it was unconscionable that they were denied the benefits of publicly supported services. Since then, we have learned that providing accessibility is often not difficult -- where there is the will. Thus, in 1990, with ADA, we required reasonable accommodations by businesses and other private entities. Perhaps in no other area have we had such visible success. Last May, even before the effective dates of ADA, GAO reported that accessibility is generally good. ADA should eliminate many of the remaining barriers. I have been deeply impressed, in my home State of Kansas and elsewhere, that despite the real costs and some uncertainties about what ADA requires, people recognize how important accessibility is and are willing to do their part. In 1975, Congress passed a national law, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, based on pioneering State laws, to make sure children with disabilities had the same opportunity as others for a "free and appropriate education." Today, almost 5 million young people, 10 percent of all students, have a disability. Their education poses many challenges. As Senators Dodd and Jeffords recently pointed out, Congress has never kept its promise to pay 40 percent of the extra costs of special ed. Inclusive education works when supports are available, and that costs money. And I am also deeply concerned about the high percentage of African- Americans and other minorities assigned to special education. I hope when we reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act next year we can help fix these and other problems. There is perhaps no other group for whom health care reform offers such opportunity and such peril. For those who have stayed out of the job market in order to keep their Medicare or Medicaid, health care reform will hopefully mean they can look for work with the confidence they can obtain other -- and perhaps better -- medical insurance. Like all Americans, people with disabilities want security, simplicity, and portability. I also know they are looking for services which today are not covered or only partly covered by many insurance plans -- including personal assistance, assistive technology and durable medical equipment, and rehabilitation services. I can make no promises, but I hope we can do better. But, Mr. President, we must also be sobered by the very real limits of medical care. Medical science has never been more successful at keeping people alive, but sometimes at the price of severe, lifelong disability. I recently received a letter from the parents of a child in a small town in south central Kansas, near the Oklahoma border. They wrote: Yes, there is help for this family, but we are still humbled by what medical science cannot do. The Secretary of State was listening. In this year's report, each of the 190 countries covered, from Angola to Zimbabwe, includes a short section on people with disabilities. Some of the accounts are distrubing. In our country, for example, infants born with birth defects are considered sorcerers, and sometimes killed at birth. But other reports are encouraging. Even in some low-income countries, there are real efforts at advocacy and opportunity. Mr. President, this report sends the message around the world that America respects the rights of all people, including those with disabilities. But perhaps the greatest success has been in how people with disabilities are viewed -- no longer with pity, but with respect for their dignity and recognition that disability is a natural part of the human condition. Where institutional care and dependency were often considered inevitable, today independent living is an important goal. The Federal Government backs this view with dollars. In August, I cut the ribbon at a brand new independent living center in Dodge City, in the western, most rural part of my State. Kansas now has 12 independent living centers, bringing their services within reach of most citizens. Indeed, 50 years ago, we had a President, Franklin Roosevelt, who could not walk and believed it necessary to disguise that fact from the American people. Today I trust that Americans would have no problem in electing as President a man or woman with a disability. But this is not something Congress can take credit for. It is something people with disabilities have done for themselves. In 1970, I spoke on the Senate floor about a young woman, Judy Heumann, who I read about in the New York Times. Ms. Heumann filed a lawsuit because the New York City School Board had refused her a teaching job simply because she was unable to walk and used a wheelchair. Well, she won that lawsuit and today is the Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitation Services in the U.S. Department of Education. And I, congratulate the advocacy community. When I arrived in the Senate, there were few organizations representing the interests of people with disabilities in Washington. In the early 1970's, the forerunner of today's Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities was formed. Now CCD is a vigorous association of over 130 member agencies, representing millions of Americans with disabilities and their families. Even more disturbing, other surveys have shown that over the past 15 years, the percentage of people with disabilities not working has remained constant, or even increased. I would not be concerned if people were well off. But they are not. According to a 1992 GAO study, 45 percent of families headed by a person with a disability, and 65 percent of single parents or single persons with a disability, live in poverty. These numbers are startling, and I bet unknown to most people. The Federal Government certainly has tried to help. Between just two programs, social security disability insurance and supplemental security income, it spent $54 billion last year for cash incomes to people with disabilities. There is no career ladder for social security recipients. The lesson here is simple: for people with disabilities, as for most Americans, working is essential to a decent income. We need to help people get off the disability check and onto a paycheck. Second, our expectations for people with disabilities have changed. What was once acceptable is not any longer. Indeed, many Federal disability programs are in trouble. We can have little confidence that our priorities are right or that our money is well spent. There are also other nondisability programs that serve large numbers of people with disabilities that need attention. For example, 27 percent of welfare mothers are either disabled or have a child with a disability. Both Republican and Democratic welfare proposals generally exempt such individuals from reforms. We mean well, I know, but I fear we are doing these individuals no favor. Mr. President, if we are in trouble today, consider the future. Little attention is paid to the rapidly growing number of people with disabilities. In my view, disability will soon become the Nation's No. 1 health care and social welfare issue. This commission is also charged with actually writing bill text. Good ideas are fine, but we need something to work with. No doubt about it, much work remains. But I know we are ready and willing. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record. Mr. President, I commend the distinguished majority leader -- or minority lead, excuse that little slip of the tongue there -- the Senator from Kansas, for his tireless leadership of the people of this country in the area of disabilities. Last night I went home and sat down on the sofa and reread Senator Dole's maiden speech given in this Chamber 25 years ago. I first read it during the debates on the ADA, and I went home last night and read it again. I thought, as I read it, just how prescient he was at that time, in 1969, and how far ahead of the curve he really was in thinking, conceptualizing about the role of people with disabilities in our society. For 25 years he has been a tireless leader in breaking down those barriers, the physical barriers and the attitudinal barriers, that people have in this country against people with disabilities. He has been in the forefront of every fight that this Congress had had to break down those barriers and open up opportunities from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Education for all Handicapped Americans Act of 1975; of course, the Americans with Disabilities Act could not have gotten through without his strong leadership. Even in the international arena, Senator Dole has consistently pushed for the rights of people with disabilities. Indeed, since that maiden speech of his 25 years ago, we have come a long way in this country, but we could not have come this far in these 25 years without the strong leadership of Senator Dole, who understood these disability issues far better and far before many of us who came after, and who was willing to work in a bipartisan effort to see that our policies and our legislative activities moved us in the direction of independence, inclusion, and empowerment for all Americans. So while Senator Dole and I may have various disagreements on other issues, this is one in which I am proud to stand by his side and to back him up in every effort that he has taken since I have been privileged to be a Member of the Senate, again in enhancing opportunities and breaking down the barriers to people with disabilities. The speech that he gave 25 years ago was really a call to conscience, and it was a call for us as Americans to put aside the prejudices and the fears that we have had in the past of people with disabilities and to understand that not only was it in their best interests that we break down those barriers, that we gave them full inclusion and empowerment in society, but that it was in all of our interests as Americans to do so. So again I commend today Senator Dole for those 25 years of courageous leadership, to commend him for the new legislative effort he has undertaken, and to let him know I will do whatever I can to work with him in a bipartisan spirit to continue the great efforts that he started 25 years ago. Mr. President, let me extend my thanks to the Senator from Iowa. As we all know, he has been the real leader on disability issues. We have been able to work together. This is not a partisan issue, as he knows. He has experienced as a family member what disability is all about, and I think that makes us all a little bit more sensitive. So I wish to congratulate the Senator from Iowa for the great work he has done over the years, and it has been my privilege to join with him on many of those occasions. And again, as he said, this transcends partisanship. There is nothing partisan about dealing with these issues, never has been in this body, and I do not expect there ever will. Mr. President, I, too, would like to congratulate Senator Dole. Senator Dole has always reminded me of a comment my father would often make to his children. He used to say, "Never complain and never explain. Just go do it." One of the things about Bob Dole is his character is reflected in all that legislation that was recited here. I have never heard the man complain. I never heard him explain. I have just seen him fight for the things he thinks important. I admire him and say congratulations for 25 years of making life better for a whole lot of people in this country. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to amend section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. I am pleased that the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator Inouye, has joined me as a cosponsor of this bill. This bill is intended to stimulate discussion about the interpretation of section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act [IRA] by the Department of the Interior. It has recently been brought to my attention that for most of the past 60 years the Department has interpreted section 16 to authorize the Secretary to categorize or classify tribes as being either "created" or "historic." A created tribe is apparently regarded as lacking retained inherent sovereign authority because it is viewed as being something less than a tribe. According to the Department, created tribes are only authorized to exercise such authority as the Secretary may confer on them. On the other hand, historic tribes are deemed to retain all inherent sovereign authority not otherwise limited or divested by a treaty or an act of Congress. I find absolutely no basis in law or policy for the manner in which section 16 has been interpreted by the Department of the Interior. One of the reasons stated by the Department for distinguishing between created and historic tribes is that the created tribes are new in the sense that they never existed before. At the same time, the Department insists that it cannot tell us which tribes are created and which are historic because this is determined through a case-by-case review. All of this ignores a few fundamental principles of Federal Indian law and policy. Neither the Congress nor the Secretary can create a tribe where none previously existed. Not only is this simple common sense, it is also the law as enunciated by the Federal courts. Section 16 of the IRA did not authorize the Secretary to create Indian tribes. Congress itself cannot create Indian tribes, so there is no authority for the Congress to delegate to the Secretary in this regard. The recognition of a tribe by the Federal Government is just that -- the recognition that there is a sovereign entity with governmental authority which predates the U.S. Constitution and with which the Federal Government has established formal relations. All that section 16 was intended to do was to provide authority and procedures for the adoption, amendment, and approval of tribal constitutions for those tribes that choose to employ its provisions. I have concluded that a serious mistake has been made by the Department in construing the intent of Congress in enacting section 16. Such a mistake would be possible since this section of the IRA was literally written in a conference between the House and Senate by taking "* * * phrases from the bill that had passed the House and other phrases from the bill that had passed the Senate * * *" according to the great legal scholar Felix Cohen, who urged caution in the interpretation of section 16. Clearly, the interpretation which has been developed by the Department is inconsistent with the principal policies underlying the IRA, which were to stabilize tribal governments and to encourage self- government. These policies have taken on additional vitality in the last 20 years as the Congress has repudiated and repealed the policy of termination and enacted the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and the Tribal Self-Governance Project. The effect of the Department's interpretation of section 16 has been to destabilize tribal governments. Tribes face uncertainty about which category the Department would place them in and, in addition, those tribes placed in the created category face uncertainty about the specific governmental authorities the Department believes they possess. On its face, section 16 does not authorize or require the Secretary of the Interior to draw distinctions between tribes or to categorize them based on their powers of governance. As Mr. Cohen noted in his 1942 Handbook on Federal Indian Law, the IRA "* * * had little or no effect upon the substantive powers of tribal self-government vested in the various Indian tribes * * *". The courts have consistently construed the IRA to have had no substantive effect on tribal sovereign authority. One example of the absurdity of the Department's interpretation of section 16 involves the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona. Despite explicit direction from the Congress in 1978, the Department has determined that the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is a created tribe and that it therefore lacks the authority to provide law enforcement services on its reservation under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. This interpretation of the IRA, the Self-Determination Act, and the Pascua Yaqui legislation of 1978 not only flies in the face of these acts of Congress, it completely ignores centuries of history of the Pascua Yaqui people and their Toltec forebears. In decisions involving other tribes, the Department has determined that created tribes lack the authority to establish judicial systems or to enact laws setting forth procedures for evicting tenants from tribal housing. I am sure that we will never know the number and the full extent of the absurd and unnecessary determinations which have resulted from the Department's reading of section 16. We do know that the implementation of the basic policies implicit in the IRA and the self- determination and self-governance laws will continue to be impeded by the Department's interpretation of section 16 unless we act to correct this situation. I believe that Federal Indian law and policy clearly supports the view that tribes that have been recognized by the Federal Government stand on an equal footing to each other. That is, each federally recognized Indian tribe has the same governmental status as other federally recognized tribes by virtue of their status as Indian tribes with a government-to-government relationship with the United States. Each federally recognized tribe is entitled to the same privileges and immunities as other federally recognized tribes and have the right to exercise the same inherent and delegated authorities. The legislation we are introducing today will prohibit the Department from implementing its erroneous interpretation of section 16. By enacting this bill we will provide the stability for tribal governments which the Congress thought it was providing 60 years ago when the IRA was enacted and we will remove a barrier to the full implementation of the policies of self-determination and self-governance. We have been advised that the Department may soon take action on its own to correct its interpretation of section 16. I would certainly welcome such action by the Department. Depending on what action is taken, it may well be necessary to consider revising the legislation we are introducing today. As I stated earlier, this bill is intended to promote discussion about this issue. Any actions taken by the Department to correctly interpret section 16 of the IRA will be a welcome and constructive addition to those discussions. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the Record. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to reauthorize Public Law 81-815, the construction portion of the Impact Aid Program. As Congress continues the reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education programs, I feel strongly that school facility funding can not be overlooked. Some young people are striving to gain their education in school facilities that provide a less than ideal learning environment. Out-dated equipment coupled with overall deplorable school facilities in some parts of this country distract rather than support the learning environment. Updating equipment and renovating school facilities would be a big step towards providing a level playing field. But this costs money, lots of money for construction projects. In the case of the Impact Aid Program, providing additional funding is a Federal responsibility. Public Law 81-815 authorizes funds for constructing and renovating schools where federally connected students are in attendance. For the benefit of my colleagues, a federally connected student is the term used to describe students in school districts affected by a Federal Government activity; for example a military base, Indian reservation, or a national park. These federal activities remove taxable land or have other revenue consequences for local funding of school districts. The Impact Aid Program, under both Public Law 81-874 and Public Law 81-815, authorizes Federal funds to make up for this loss of local revenue. I have already introduced legislation to revise and reauthorize Public Law 81-874. S. 874, cosponsored by 15 of my colleagues, is awaiting further action by the Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Today, I am pleased to introduce legislation to reauthorize and improve Public Law 81-815. During the last reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, I offered an amendment to require the General Accounting Office [GAO] to examine Public Law 81-815 in order to determine: First, the gap between the eligible requests and the amount available for school construction funds; and second, whether the Department's criteria for ranking unfunded projects are equitable. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the GAO letter to me dated July 12, 1990 (GAOHRD90-90), be included in the Record. Mr. President, one of the major problems, as identified in this GAO letter is out-dated eligible requests. A good example of this would be the application from the Dupree School District in my home State. Their application to the Department of Education has remained unfunded since 1974 -- 20 years, Mr. President. Other school districts have had the same problem -- growing enrollments causing overcrowded school facilities, but no construction funding available. The bill I am introducing today limits the eligibility of a construction funding request to three years. If the eligible request has not received funding, a new request may be submitted to the Secretary of Education, thereby keeping school district applications current to reflect accurate funding needs under this law. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and additional material be printed in the Record. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation together with Senator Warner and Senator Mikulski to expand the authority of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assist in the environmental restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. The legislation specifically authorizes a $30 million pilot program for the corps to design and construct water-related environmental and resource protection projects in the Chesapeake Bay including such projects as making beneficial use of dredge material to restore eroding islands and shoreline, creating wetlands, and removing barriers to fish passage in the bay watershed. The Corps of Engineers has been an integral part of the Chesapeake Bay Program for many years. As the lead Federal agency in water resource management, the corps has completed some of the most comprehensive investigations of the entire Chesapeake Bay basin including a landmark report in 1984 which identified many of the serious problems facing the bay. In addition to the agency's responsibilities for maintaining the navigational channels in the bay, the corps has conducted numerous water resource planning studies and projects, constructed water supply and wastewater treatment systems, implemented regulatory activities, and has provided support to DOD and Army installations within the bay watershed. The corps has played a vital role in the development of the program's complex computer simulation modeling needs, improving our understanding of the watershed's fresh water inflow needs, and regulating valuable wetlands habitats. Clearly, the corps has an important civil engineering, planning, and technical expertise that can be ofinvaluable help in addressing the myriad of environmental problems facing the bay. The Chesapeake Bay suffers from several problems which the corps has perhps the unique capabilities to address -- shoreline erosion and sedimentation, wetlands losses, and impediments to fish passage. Shoreline erosion continues to be a very serious problem in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The geography and topography of the Chesapeake Bay region make this area particularly susceptible to the processes of erosion and sedimentation. At Smith and Popular Islands in the Maryland waters of the bay, to name only two locations, erosive forces are taking land at such an alarming rate that the very existence of these islands is threatened. Erosion is not only causing serious property damage, but also contributes nearly 5 million cubic yards of sediment annually to the bay, adversely impacting water quality, habitat, and navigation. During storms, tremendous amounts of sediments are released from these properties and from behind the dams on the Susquehanna, blanketing the bay in a plume of sediment and robbing the bay of life-sustaining sunlight and oxygen. Valuable wetlands, submerged aquatic vegetation, and woodlands, which are a vital part of the bay's ecological system, providing nesting, breeding and feeding areas for populations of finfish, shellfish, and migratory and resident bird species, are being lost to erosion. The sediments are also clogging the bay's navigational channels -- our water highways and harbors -- creating an additional problem of dredged material disposal. Over the past century, approximately 45,000 acres, or 70 square miles of land -- an area equal in size to the District of Columbia -- have been lost to forces of erosion. Unless the problem is addressed soon, under present conditions, many of the bay's lowlands will disappear in the next 100 years. There is a creative solution that can address the serious erosion problem and help protect and promote the recovery of the bay -- making environmentally beneficial use of clean dredged material to stabilize eroding shorelines and restore lost wetlands in the bay. Past efforts have shown that these restoration efforts can be successful. Through its operation and maintenance activities for navigation, the corps has demonstrated successful beneficial use projects using clean dredged material which include: the rebuilding of eroding islands and enhancement of the environment at Barren Island, and wetlands creation and restoration on the James and Anacostia Rivers. Unfortunately, the corps is currently limited in the degree to which it can participate in environmental restoration projects in the bay. Beneficial use projects using dredged material are generally more expensive than traditional disposal alternatives, such as open water dumping, and Federal policies presently limit the funding and contain other disincentives to making this a viable long-term option. This legislation seeks to provide the Corps of Engineers with the authority and funding to undertake such projects. The legislation would also permit the corps to play a greater role in the restoration and enhancement of wetlands and aquatic habitat in the Chesapeake Bay. Wetlands have been a vital component of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and historically, have been abundant throughout the bay. Unfortunately, our Nation's estuary has experienced a dramatic decline in wetlands averaging over 2,800 acres annually. According to a 1991 report by the Department of the Interior, 73 percent of the wetlands in Maryland that existed in the 1780's are now gone. For Virginia the estimate is 42 percent, and for Pennsylvania, the wetlands loss is 56 percent. These figures together represent a cumulative loss of over 2 million acres of wetlands in the principal three-State Chesapeake basin. These are some of the most extensive and valuable wetlands along the Atlantic coast, and in the Nation. In fact, the Chesapeake was one of the first wetland areas in the United States to qualify under the "Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat," commonly known as the Ramsar Convention. The wetlands serve as a source of food and habitat for waterfowl and fish, help filter out sediments and other pollutants, and provide dissolved oxygen to the watercolumn. They are, in short, absolutely essential to the biological integrity of the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Program has made restoration and enhancement of wetlands in the bay and its tributaries a top priority for restoring the bay. The program has developed a wetlands policy and implementation plan and committed to no-net loss in the short term, and net-gain in the long term. The Corps of Engineers and other State and Federal agencies have been assigned important responsibilities under that plan, including wetland restoration and creation activities. This legislation would give the corps additional authority to carry out these responsibilities. A third problem inhibiting the recovery of the Chesapeake Bay which this legislation would enable the corps to address is man-made barriers to fish passage. Through the years, we have seen record declines in stocks of migratory fish including striped bass, American shad, hickory shad, river herring, white and yellow perch, and American eel. These species have historically been among the most economically and ecologically important species in the Chesapeake Bay, supporting extensive fisheries in the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Over 1,000 man-made barriers to migratory fish, ranging in size from large hydroelectric projects to road culverts, exist on tributaries throughout the bay watershed. These barriers prevent passage of fish to spawning and nursery habitat essential to the viability of the breeding populations. The general ecology of the bay and its tributaries has been adversely affected by the absence of these fish species which play important roles in the ecosystem's aquatic food chain. The bay program has devoted significant resources to provide for fish passage at dams and to remove stream blockages wherever necessary to restore natural passage for migratory fish. Significant progress has been made to identify priority tributaries for fish passage initiatives. The coordinated work of the bay community has resulted in the provision of fish passage at four dams in the James River basin, at Conowingo, Holtwood, Safe Harbor, and York Haven Dams in the Susquehanna basin, and at many sites in Maryland. With these larger blockages removed, a magnitude of work remains to be done to restore the historic habitat above these dams. The Corps of Engineers has a critical role to play in the bay program's fish passage initiatives. This legislation will enable the corps to provide its technical expertise in these efforts. Mr. President, this legislation is a modest proposal. It recognizes the budget constraints and is limited in scope and funding authority. It does not seek to address all of the challenges facing the bay, but it will enable the corps to bring its expertise to bear on some key problems in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The legislation is strongly supported by the Chesapeake Bay Commission, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the Maryland Department of Transportation. I ask unanimous consent that letters from these organizations endorsing the legislation be printed in the Record. I also ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the Record. It is my hope that this legislation will be considered when the Senate takes up the Water Resources Development Act of 1994. Mr. President, I rise today as an original cosponsor to express my strong support for the Chesapeake Bay environmental restoration and protection bill introduced by Senator Sarbanes. This bill expands the authority of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assist in the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. It establishes a pilot program for the corps to assist in the design and construction of water-related environmental infrastructure and resource protection and development projects. I have consistently fought for the future of the bay, supporting projects as diverse as erosion control structures at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, oyster reseeding programs, and funding of improvements to the Back River sewage treatment plant. This bill represents an important step in my fight for continued protection and restoration of the bay. This bill will allow beneficial uses of dredge materials, protect eroding shorelines, and restore wetlands habitats. Under this legislation, dredge materials could be used for creative solutions to shoreline erosion and the resulting water quality degradation. By using clean dredge material to rebuild and protect eroding islands, the sediment dumped in the bay would be significantly reduced. Less sediment means improved water quality and a healthier bay. Clean dredge material could also be used to rebuild lost wetlands. Wetlands are a vital link in the bay's ecosystem. They provide essential habitat for waterfowl, fish, and other wildlife. The corps is an important part of the Federal team that works to protect and restore the bay. It is therefore appropriate for the corps to be allowed to use clean dredged material to improve and restore the bay's environment. It is a natural extension of the corps' current authority. Unfortunately however, the corps is limited in the extent to which it can participate in such projects. This legislation would reduce the barriers and allow the corps to play a more active and positive role in the bay program. It would remove the disincentives that now stop the corps from using clean dredged materials for environmental restoration. The Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation both strongly support this bill. I thank my colleague from Maryland, Senator Sarbanes, for his vision and leadership on this issue, and I urge all my colleagues in the Senate to support this important effort. Mr. President, I rise today, along with Senators D'Amato, Kerry, and Metzenbaum, to introduce by request of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation a bill titled the "Bank and Thrift Statute of Limitations Clarification Act of 1994." The bill is the FDIC's proposal to clarify the statute of limitations for actions brought by the FDIC and the RTC as conservator or receiver. The FDIC estimates that over $500 million in claims in pending lawsuits involving FDIC and old FSLIC receiverships, and millions more for claims still under investigation, are at risk for dismissal on statute of limitations grounds if the provisions contained in this bill are not enacted into law. The FDIC further indicates that claims of the same general order of magnitude involving RTC receiverships are similarly at risk. The FDIC informs me that this legislation is necessary to correct certain court decisions that have interpreted the statute of limitations provisions contained in FIRREA in a manner contrary to the expressed congressional intent regarding those provisions. This legislation would clarify the statute of limitation provisions originally passed in 1989. The FDIC advises that this legislation is critical to allowing them and the RTC to fulfill their missions to hold wrongdoers accountable and to recover losses for the insurance funds and the taxpayers. I ask unanimous consent that a letter from Acting FDIC Chairman Andrew Hove asking me to introduce the bill on behalf of the FDIC, a copy of the bill, and explanatory materials be reprinted in the Record. Mr. President, today I join with Senators Riegle, Kerry, and Metzenbaum in introducing, by request, legislation suggested by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation concerning the statute of limitations governing actions by the FDIC and the RTC against parties that have caused losses to closed banks and savings and loans. In 1989, Congress passed the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act [FIRREA]. In this legislation, Congress provided that the applicable statute of limitations for either the FDIC or RTC would begin on the date the Government is appointed conservator or receiver, or the date on which the cause of action accrues, whichever is later. According to the FDIC, some courts have dismissed a number of FDIC and RTC suits against parties alleged to have caused losses in Federally-insured institutions on the ground that the applicable State statute of limitations had run prior to the appointment of the FDIC or RTC as conservator or receiver. Due to these cases, the Federal Government may not be able to recover from parties who may have caused substantial losses to the Federal deposit insurance system, and in the case of failed savings institutions, to the American taxpayer. In fact, the FDIC estimates that over $500 million in claims in pending lawsuits could be dismissed on statute of limitations grounds, even though suit was brought within the applicable time limits set out in the 1989 FIRREA legislation. The legislation proposed by the FDIC provides that the statute of limitations shall begin to run when the Government is appointed receiver or conservator, regardless of whether the claim may have been barred under State law when the institution was taken over. This amendment would apply to all actions pending or brought by the FDIC or RTC as of August 9, 1989. Mr. President, this legislation would clarify the 1989 legislation, and prevent the continued misinterpretation of a Federal statute of limitations provision that could cost the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars. However, I do have some concerns about retroactive features of the amendment recommended by the FDIC with respect to cases that have already been finally decided. The FDIC has advised that it does not intend to use this authority retroactively, even though as drafted it could be. With this understanding, I am pleased to join Chairman Riegle in introducing this bill at the request of the FDIC. I hope to work with the FDIC and my colleagues in the Senate to further perfect this legislation. Mr. President, at the close of these remarks I wish to introduce and have appropriately referred the North Pacific Fisheries Waste Reduction Act of 1994. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization recently listed 12 of the world's 17 major fisheries as overfished or in serious trouble. Luckily, none of our Alaskan fisheries were on that list. My bill will help make sure that Alaska fisheries never get on that list. The bill would require the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to adopt conservation and management measures to address the excessive waste of valuable fishery resources that does occur in fisheries off Alaska. Mr. President, specifically, this bill will require the elimination, to the extent practicable, of the incidental harvest of prohibited species, the full retention of economic discards and full utilization of processing waste, the reduction of bycatch of nontarget species, and rebuilding of fish stocks that are at risk of being overfished. As Members of the Senate know, roughly 60 percent of the fish caught in the U.S. waters, the waters off our continent, are caught off Alaska. That is true in terms of value as well as, I think, in terms of number. Now, while this bill would apply only to fisheries off Alaska, I believe it would address a significant portion of the United States fisheries where excessive discards, bycatch and waste are occurring. In terms of harvesting fisheries, the problem in Alaska is not necessarily the gear being used but the way the gear is being used. Virtually all the gear in use in the fisheries of the North Pacific could be used more cleanly. In 1993, some trawl fisheries discarded over half of the target species for economic reasons. Those fish were either too big or too small to be processed by the facilities on board. Some hook and line fisheries discarded 30 percent of the fish they caught. In 1993, fishermen off Alaska discarded 693 million pounds of groundfish, 14 million pounds of halibut, 19 million crab, and 372,000 salmon. Now, I do not want to be too critical of this. I think the Senate knows one of my sons is the captain of a fishing vessel. There are many trawl, long-line, and pot fisheries off Alaska that take only a very minimal amount of economic discards, bycatch, or prohibited species. It is almost impossible to fish without catching some fish that are not targeted. It is the reduction in waste that is possible in all of these fishing practices, I think, we are after. We want to maximize the number of clean fishermen that we have in the waters off Alaska. The bill I introduce today would define "bycatch" "economic discards," "processing waste" and "prohibited species" to help delineate between the types of waste that do occur in the North Pacific. By January 1, 1996, our North Pacific Council would be required to include fees or other incentives to reduce economic discards and processing waste in each fishery management plan. By January 1, 1998, these incentives would be required to include an allocation preference for cleaner fishing practices within each gear group. In other words, those who eliminate waste would be given a preference in the allocation of fishery species in the North Pacific. My bill would also require the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to submit a plan to the Secretary of Commerce by January 1, 1996, to phase in the full retention and full utilization of all fisheries resources except prohibited species. The council would also establish a cap for those prohibited species, and on reaching that cap a commercial fishery would be closed for that season. I wish to make sure the Senate understands that. We would set a limit on the incidental harvesting of species that are not targeted species for that fishery. If the combined fishery catches that amount of fish, then all commercial fishery practices in the area where the prohibited species exist would close. I was pleased that at a recent appropriations hearing Commerce Secretary Brown told me the administration would consider fees to reduce waste and bycatch as a part of the fish fee package the administration intends to submit this spring. I urge the Secretary to do that. The fishing industry is not in good shape. It really cannot pay $75 million a year, as the administration proposed, particularly when one remembers that 60 percent of those fees would be paid by people fishing off Alaska's shores. But if the administration proposal creates disincentives for wasteful practices and a way for responsible fishermen to avoid those fees, I believe the fishermen and Members of the Senate -- as a matter of fact, I believe the whole Congress -- would be willing to support such a concept. Both the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the fishing industry have been progressive in the conservation of valuable fisheries resources off Alaska in the past. As I said, the findings show that we have the healthiest area in the world for fisheries; our wild fisheries are the best in the world, we believe. While we sometimes disagree about the means, I think all involved in the Alaska fisheries share the goal of conserving the resources and thereby preserving the fabric of the Alaska economy and the Alaska coastal communities. Mr. President, the fishing industry is the major employer in my State. The bill I am introducing does not attempt to address the intricate details needed to reduce the waste in those fisheries. It establishes the goals and gives the North Pacific Fishery Management Council the mandate to achieve those goals. I believe they can do it with the full participation of those involved in the fisheries off our State. I anticipate a healthy reaction. Perhaps some people will disagree. But the bill I am introducing today I believe is one that will cause people to think. It is my hope that this bill will be considered as an amendment to the Magnuson Act, and I look forward to receiving comments as the Congress focuses our attention this year on the reauthorization of that act. Mr. President, I am introducing legislation today to authorize the return of the Wrangell Institute to the General Services Administration [GSA]. The Wrangell Institute was owned and operated by the Federal government as a Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA] boarding school and medical facility for Indian and Eskimo children between 1932 and 1975. In 1977, the Department of the Interior [DOI] requested that GSA accept the Wrangell Institute as surplus property. DOI did not mention any contamination in their reports to GSA. In fact, BIA stated there was no contamination and no need for cleanup of the site in the statement of intent to relinquish the property. In 1977 the GSA surplused the Wrangell Institute and the property was obtained by Cook Inlet Region, Inc. [CIRI] in 1978 with monetary credits from the CIRI Property Account at the U.S. Treasury. CIRI is an Alaska Native Corporation. The Property Account was established by Congress to compensate CIRI for relinquishing their holdings in the Lake Clark National Park in Alaska. The properties that CIRI relinquished to the government were pristine acreage and are now part of one of the crown jewels of the National Park System. Unfortunately, the property that CIRI received in return was contaminated. The contamination was left by the Government. The BIA was the sole tenant of the property other than for a short period during World War II when the Army used the Wrangell Institute as a relocation center for Alaska Natives who were evacuated from the Aleutian Islands after the Japanese attack of Dutch Harbor and the Island of Attu. This legislation would return the property to GSA in return for the original monetary credits, interest on the credits for the period after the contamination was discovered, and expenses incurred due to the contamination. CIRI would be relieved of any liability associated with the contamination caused by the U.S. Government. This is just a matter of fairness. CIRI was not aware of the contamination when GSA transferred the property and they should not have to bear the costs of contamination created by the Federal Government. The Congressional Budget Office reviewed the bill and found it to have "no net impact on the federal budget." Mr. President, next month the United Negro college Fund [UNCF] celebrates its 50th anniversary. All of us are familiar with UNCF's slogan, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." And most of us -- especially those of us who have served in the other Chamber -- know Bill Gray, UNCF's outstanding president and chief executive officer. But few of us are familiar with the history of UNCF. The organization was the brainchild of Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, who wrote in January, 1943, that the Nation's private black colleges and universities need to "pool their small monies and make a united appeal to the national conscience." Otherwise, he argued, these schools risked their very existence. It was on May 13, 1944, that "Dr. Pat," as he was affectionately known, formed UNCF by bringing together college, foundation, and business leaders, including: the presidents of private black colleges, including Fisk University, Howard University, Spelman College, Dillard University, Morehouse College, Tuskegee Institute, Clark College, Gammon Theological Seminary -- now Interdenominational Theological Seminary; key philantropic leaders representing the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rosenwald Fund; and key business executives such as the head of Lord & Taylor and a representative from John Price Jones. At the time, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, president emeritus of Morehouse College, said, "Of course, you have in mind our doing this for two or three years, and then going back to what we were doing, don't you?" Mr. President, I give thanks that UNCF was not just a temporary effort. The first UNCF campaign grossed an impressive $760,000; last year, UNCF's annual campaign grossed more than $58 million, and more than $190 million was raised for Capital Campaign 2000. These efforts have helped support UNCF member institutions so that today they educate nearly 55,000 students. The Nation, too, should give thanks that UCNF never altered course. Many of our African American leaders attended UNCF member institutions: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Vernon Jordan, and former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson attended Morehouse College; Andrew Young, former U.N. Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor, and Ellis Marsalis, jazz musician and instructor, attended Dillard University; Ralph Wiley, author and columnist, attended Knoxville College; attorney and children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman attended Spelman College; Larry Little, Temple University basketball coach and Hall of Fame Miami Dolphins guard, attended Bethune Cookman College; opera diva Leontyne Price attended Wilberforce University; our outstanding Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn M. Elders, attended Philander Smith College; Secretary of Energy Hazel Rollins O'Leary attended Fisk University; and former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder attended Virginia Union University. While UNCF member institutions are not in every state, the alumni are nationwide. In Illinois, they are among the most prominent attorneys, doctors, elected officials, teachers and school administrators. Many of my colleagues have had graduates of UNCF member institutions serve with distinction on their staffs. For almost 9 years, William A. "Bud" Blakey, who attended Knoxville College, served as my subcommittee counsel and staff director in the House of Representatives and here in the Senate. Much of what I accomplished in the areas of education and training was achieved through his counsel and hard work. Mr. President, we have come a long way in achieving equal opportunity in higher education. But we still have many miles to go. UNCF member institutions are leading the way by providing a quality higher education for a broad cross-section of African-American students. I commend UNCF's fine work, and I encourage my colleagues to join me and Senator Moseley-Braun, Senator Thurmond, and Senator Cochran in supporting this resolution commemorating the fiftieth anniversary. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record.