Senator Michael B. Enzi

11/8/99 Weekly Interview

Lee Lockhart, Northern Wyoming Daily News in Worland and Vicki Daniels, KTWO Radio in Casper

Mike Enzi: One of the most consistent things I'm getting letters, telephone calls and e-mails about now is satellite TV. Throughout Wyoming, particularly in rural Wyoming, there are people that have been cut off from the local news. They're feeling that dramatically and wanting us to solve the problem. Of course, Wyoming is a little bit different place than most of the nation. Wyoming is rural. We have a higher percentage of people affected than other parts of the nation. It is a national problem - in fact I could call it a national crisis - with the interest that there is in every state. There's a bill that's making its way through the process now. The House and Senate have both passed bills. I like the solutions of the House's bill and the way that would affect Wyoming. I have to congratulate Congresswoman Cubin for the effort that she's put in on it. The Senate also put through a bill. In the process of the conference, both bills have become greatly distorted. We need to have a bill that will take care of the problem so that people can know what the local news is, but so the local broadcasters aren't cut out of the revenues that they'd normally receive for doing that sort of thing. We need for people to continue to get the local access while all of it is being negotiated and we certainly have to be sure that there isn't contract discrimination that would allow contracting with one company and block out other providers. There is some effort to get percentage caps into the bill. The way that would affect Wyoming is that one person might be able to get it [network from satellite], whereas their neighbor might not be able to get it because the percentage of people subscribing at that point might have been exceeded. We need to be sure that all of Wyoming has an equal access to news and entertainment and that the people who are producing it are getting paid for their efforts. We're working real hard on tha. The bill that's in conference right now is NOT at that point, and consequently, I'm opposing it until it is.

Lee Lockhart: On Oct. 21, you put out a press release talking about your efforts along with Sen. Thomas to make sure that the chief U.S. Trade Negotiator Charlene Barshefsky made sure that U.S. sugar producers weren't hit with an influx of Mexican sugar at a lower rate. 'Dumping' is the word that was used in your press release. It said that the U.S. will pursue contract negotiations that would be 'mutually beneficial to both countries.' It's now November - where do we stand with that?

ME: We have had a very special session. Dick McKamey of Worland was out here for it representing both Wyoming Sugar Beet Growers and the National Sugar Beet Growers. We sat down with Ambassador Barshefsky and made sure she understood in depth and in detail the problems that allowing an earlier and greater importation of sugar into the U.S. would have on the effect of sugar prices. We also emphasized a side letter that went with the [North American Free Trade Agreement] NAFTA. NAFTA hasn't turned out quite the way we wanted it to. There are parts of it we'd like to take another look at, but to even get that NAFTA bill passed, there was a recognition of the way it would affect sugar. So, there was a side letter entered into it in order to get a majority of the votes. This was before I got to Congress, but the people representing Wyoming and the nation at that time made sure there was a signed side letter that would regulate the tonnage of sugar that could come in from Mexico. Since then, they've been trying to come up with different ways of getting their sugar into the U.S. We've fought those off successfully so far and we want to make she was well grounded in how the process ought to go when they're negotiating, when that topic comes up in Seattle.

LL: When will that be coming forward? I take it the negotiations haven't started yet on a new NAFTA accord?

ME: The [World Trade Organization] WTO meetings will be in Seattle starting at the end of November. We're having pre-negotiating meetings on it. Some of our U.S. trade reps are already negotiation on some different aspects of it. That's one of them they're having some preliminary meetings on, and that's so they can have final meetings at that time with top trade negotiators.

LL: Are you comfortable that the concerns expressed by the U.S. sugar producers will be carried forward?

ME: I'm pleased with the conversations so far, but I'll be at the WTO hearings in Seattle just to make sure they're doing what they have told us they will do. I'll sit in on those negotiations. I'm also the subcommittee chairman on International Trade and Finance and part of the President's Export Council. I'm also on the caucus for the WTO. I'll be overseeing some of the negotiating groups and sitting in on all of the meetings that I can at that time to see that it happens.

LL: This is a hands-on for you then?

ME: Yes, it is.

Vicki Daniels: Are you hearing anything from your constituents on the proposed Winter Use plan for Yellowstone? Your thoughts?

ME: Yes, I get quite a few comments on the winter use plan. I'm receiving a lot of concern from people who think the overall plan is to keep people out of Yellowstone Park. There's some concern about the plowing from West Yellowstone, and worry that a few weeks into the plowing that they would say it costs too much and that it leaves an even better path for the animals to get out of the park, so they would discontinue the plowing as well as discontinue the snowmobiling. The snowmobilers recognize a need to have some regulation, some limitation, and improve the capabilities of snow machines to process the fuels to help things out. I've been there, looked at the problem. I think it's a very limited problem and I'm hoping that the groups will continue to get together and work it out and I certainly hope the intent of the National Park Service isn't to keep snowmobiling from happening in Yellowstone in the winter.

VD: Are you concerned that might be the intent?

ME: I'm definitely concerned that might be the intent. Everything I see seems to lend itself towards keeping people out in winter and if that happens then there will be people kept out in summer as well. I don't want the quality of the air or the place or the animals or the scenery denigrated in any way, but I do want people be able to enjoy the beauty that's there.

VD: Any thoughts on the Microsoft situation as its shares are falling today on Wall Street?

ME: I think that everybody was pretty surprised by the judges decision and especially the pictures where he was with the prosecutors and appeared to be laughing and joking about it. We haven't had a chance yet to see what the ruling will actually be and what penalties or procedures might be put out to solve the situation. There will be other companies that will have some grave concerns about what is happening, because it could happen to them as well. This is an historic time in the computer/communications industry and we'll all have to see how it will work out.

LL: Your website says, 'Enzi touts reform of depression era money laws.' What safeguards would be in place to make sure insurance and mutual funds are sold at banking institutions - what safeguards would there be for a client who is applying for a mortgage, who also does insurance through that banking institution, and they look at his health record and say, 'Aha, there's a reason to decline his application.' They can't do that now - is there anything to protect the consumer if this does happen?

ME: They still won't be able to do that. One of the things we were very careful about on the banking bill is to see that Wyoming insurance laws would still apply to everyone that deals with insurance in the state. Even before this bill, there was insurance being sold in banks. There are some laws prohibiting certain kinds of communication and certain kinds of force to be applied. One of the things we're always concerned about is that if a bank will say, 'You can have a loan if you will do these other things with our bank.' That would be illegal. It was a successful attempt to change the law written during the Depression in 1935 that stipulated that banks could only be banks. There was some concern about the accounting, the cross-subsidization - all of those things are covered in the law so that they will actually be operated and controlled as separate businesses and under not only the federal but the state law as well. I made sure the state had a priority on their laws over the federal laws when they were dealing with insurance, securities or banking. A lot of the innovation that has come from banking has come from state banks, then the federal banks adopted them later. We have a provision in there that the state banks can be progressive and do things before federal banks are allowed to do them. We do have all of the stability things we could possibly think of in there, also the protections for small banks and some new privacy laws. This provides more privacy to a bank customer than they've ever had before.

LL: Boy, you just dispatch these questions without hesitation!

ME: (Laughing) Well, I've been living this 18-hour day for several weeks. I've sat through all of the conference committees and special meetings and negotiations and things that have gone on. Every time I get a bill, I like to read the bill, the background on the bill, I like to get things from the Library of Congress that covers the history of the bill. By the time you do that, you have a pretty good understanding of what's happening on the bill. Thank you for noticing.

LL: One more question. The Westside Irrigation project - are you satisfied that's moving forward? My report back is that somebody must have shaken some trees in the BLM headquarters because they have some powerful people out here talking. If you were one of those tree shakers, congratulations.

ME: Well thank you. We keep shaking the tree back here. I have to give some credit to the others in my delegation. All of us meet on a regular basis and talk about the special emphasis we can have with the different agencies and of course we have both Congresswoman Cubin and Senator Thomas who are on the committees that deal with those agencies, so our delegation has a lot of clout with them. We do what we can.