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We've taken radios from our members and supplied them to the FCC for testing. These are the same special radios blind listeners must use to hear the services. This entire class of radio was not tested before the FCC authorized LPFM--so no one knows if an LPFM station will impair the blind listeners ability to hear their reading service. That's what really concerns us.
The FCC does not know if Low Power stations will harm our services, yet it is proceeding with the plans for implementation. We think that's wrong and have asked them to wait until the tests are done. In spite of our request and others' at the end of this month, the FCC plans to begin the application process to create Low Power stations. There need be no rush. We think the FCC should at least wait for the results of receiver tests before starting something that might have devastating consequences.
We've also asked the FCC for a description of the procedure they will use to resolve interference that occurs after Low Power FM is implemented. They have given no indication that they have such a procedure. We find this alarming to say the least.
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For all these reasons, we've endorsed the measures outlined in the compromise legislation passed by the House in April, HR3439. With the slow down in implementation and test roll-out of low power sites that the bill affords, we feel there will be a better chance that Low Power FM can be implemented without damage to reading services for the blind.
We hope you'll help by supporting a Senate measure that will echo the intentions of House Bill 3439. The Bill will buy time while tests are completed. These test results, and the procedure for resolving problems must be published before adding new radio stations. It would help to ensure that the listeners to reading services do not suffer the loss of their ability to read a newspaper ..... for the second time.
Sincerely,
David W. Noble,
President.
By Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. DOMENICI, Mr. DODD, and Mrs. FEINSTEIN):
S. 3021. A bill to provide that a certification of the cooperation of Mexico with United States counterdrug efforts not be required in fiscal year 2001 for the limitation on assistance for Mexico under section 490 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 not to go into effect in that fiscal year.
MEXICAN DECERTIFICATION MORATORIUM
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I send a bill to the desk. I submit this bill on behalf of myself, Senator DOMENICI, Senator DODD, and Senator FEINSTEIN.
The purpose of the bill is to put a 1-year moratorium on the decertification process for Mexico as it relates to the illegal drug trafficking issue that we have been dealing with for so long. The reason we are introducing this bill and hope for expedited procedures is that we have just seen a huge election in Mexico in which, for the first time in 71 years, there is a president from the opposition party, from the PRI, which has been the ruling party in Mexico all this time.
Democracy is beginning to be real in Mexico, and we want to do everything we can to encourage this democracy. We want to do everything we can to have good relations, better relations, with our sister country to the south, Mexico.
Vicente Fox has visited the United States. He has opened the door for better relations. I know our next President, whoever he may be, will also want to do the same thing.
It is a very simple bill. It is a bill that says for 1 year we are not going to go through the certification-decertification process, and hopefully our two new Presidents will begin a new era of cooperation in this very tough issue that plagues both of our countries. Having a criminal element in Mexico and a criminal element in the United States certainly is a cancer on both of our countries, and we want to do everything we can to improve the cooperation in combating this issue.
The inauguration of Vicente Fox as President of Mexico on December 1st should usher in a sea change in Mexican politics as well as the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Not only will 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) come to an end, but hopefully so too will come an end to the flood of illegal drugs from Mexico into the U.S.
Despite the promise of a new day in our relationship with Mexico, a dark cloud looms on the horizon--the annual drug certification ritual in which Congress requires the President to ``grade'' drug-producing and drug-transit countries each March 1 on their progress in the war on drugs.
The facts have remained essentially unchanged over the past several years. Mexico is the source of about 20-30% of the heroin, up to 70% of the foreign grown marijuana, and the transit point for 50-60% of the cocaine shipped into the United States.
Mexico has never been decertified, but the thought of being in the company of Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan on this list, has done little except to antagonize their political leadership and thwart expanded cooperation. There is no reason to go through this exercise next March and grade President Fox after fewer than 120 days in office. Further, with a new U.S. President taking office on January 20, there is no reason to set up a major confrontation between the two before they have even had an opportunity to work together cooperatively.
I am proud to introduce legislation with Senators PETE DOMENICI, CHRISTOPHER DODD, and DIANNE FEINSTEIN which will grant Mexico a 1-year waiver from the annual certification process. I hope the Congress will pass this waiver legislation before we adjourn.
This 1-year waiver will give President Fox the time he needs to develop and implement a new drug-fighting strategy in Mexico. And it will give the United States the time we need to work with President Fox in the creation of this new strategy, and to finally put in place the law enforcement needed to stop the flow of drugs across our 2000-mile shared border.
The United States has enjoyed a long-term partnership with Mexico that has grown closer and more cooperative over time. The North American Free Trade Agreement cemented and strengthened our relationship--and our interdependence. Just last year, Mexico surged past Japan as our nation's second largest trade partner.
But partnership is a two-way exchange, and in recent years we have drifted into tolerance of unacceptable conditions in the arena of drug trafficking and the endemic corruption it causes in communities on both sides of the border. The border has been a sieve for drugs, and it has resulted in a degree of lawlessness in Texas and along the U.S.-Mexico border that we have not seen since the days of the frontier. Even worse, the war on drugs plays out daily on nearly every schoolyard across our nation.
I am more optimistic than ever, though, by the election of Vicente Fox, that Mexico is prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to contain the drug threat. And as he seeks to make progress on this almost overwhelming issue, we do not need to poison the spirit of early cooperation by injecting drug certification.
Specifically, this bill waives for one-year only the requirement that the President certify Mexico's cooperation with the United States in the war on drugs. This waiver does not exempt Mexico from any of the reports or other activities associated with the certification process. It simply says the President does not need to ``grade'' Mexico by choosing between certification, decertification, or decertification with a national interest waiver.
This 1-year drug certification waiver will give both the United States and Mexico time to develop a process that will make us partners rather than adversaries in addressing the one issue that can make moot all of the promising opportunities between our two nations.
Still, President-elect Fox and the Government of Mexico should make no mistake about the priority the United States places on winning the war on drugs. We will expect this to be a top priority of our new President, and we hope that this will be a priority of President Fox.
The Mexican government must take effective, good-faith steps to stop the narco-corruption that infects and demoralizes both of our countries. We ask them to take effective action to destroy the major drug cartels and imprison their kingpins, implement laws to curtail money laundering, comply with U.S. extradition requests, increase interdiction efforts and cooperate with U.S. law enforcement agencies.
President-elect Fox has shown every willingness to work with the United States in developing these objectives. He knows the challenges ahead, and especially the ones that will come as Mexico's democracy continues to evolve and be tested. The United States should not add the pressures of the certification process next year to a situation so full of risks and opportunities.
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I commend Senator HUTCHISON, along with Senators DODD and FEINSTEIN for introducing this bill today. I am pleased to join in this effort.
The election of Vicente Fox as President of Mexico is a remarkable event in the history of our neighbor to the south.
After 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mexico is about to embark on an important test of its new democracy.
Mr. Fox has spoken very eloquently and persuasively in recent weeks and he has offered some interesting new ideas on critical issues which affect both of our countries, like immigration, trade and controlling illegal drugs.
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Some of his ideas are quite impressive, and they certainly will spur debate both in the United States and in Mexico.
I think it is important for our leaders in the United States, particularly those in the border region, to engage Mr. Fox, talk with him, listen to his ideas and offer our own thoughts to him.
In this spirit of cooperation and acceptance, I think it is critical for the United States to suspend the drug certification process for Mexico this coming year.
Mr. Fox needs time to build his administration, and to develop his own plan for dealing with the drug cartels.
As we all know, the history of drug cooperation between the United States and Mexico has not been great.
Mexico remains the source of 70 percent of the foreign grown marijuana in the U.S., 50-60 percent of the cocaine and 25-30 percent of the heroin.
In recent months, our federal law enforcement authorities have dismantled a major heroin ring operating out of Nayarit, Mexico, which was responsible for much of the black tar heroin in the Southwest.
It is this heroin which has torn apart the northern New Mexico county of Rio Arriba, which has the highest per capita heroin overdose rate in the Nation.
President-elect Fox has said that he will redouble his country's efforts to fight the drug cartels, and will increase the number of criminals extradited to the United States to stand trial.
I have fought for years for more extraditions, and I am pleased that President Fox shares my goal.
I want to give Mr. Fox time to prove that he means what he says. Engaging in the certification process in March of 2001, within only 120 days of Mr. Fox's first day in office, will only serve as a hindrance to developing mutual cooperation between the two new administrations.
The bill we have introduced today merely waives for one year the requirement that the President make a certification decision about Mexico.
This waiver would not exempt Mexico from any of the annual reports or other activities associated with the certification process, including review by the State Department in its annual report to Congress.
It simply says that the next United States President need not grade Mexico and its new President in his first four months in office by choosing between certification, decertification or certification through a national interest waiver.
Mr. Fox should make no mistake--Senators from the Southwest care deeply about the drug problem, which affects our communities, courts, jails, hospitals and border region like no other issue.
We expect Mr. Fox to set concrete, measurable goals and timetables for crippling the drug cartels and ending narco-corruption.
This is a fair bill, one that respects the new democracy in Mexico, and recognizes that the new administration needs time to set its own agenda.
I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate and the new President of Mexico on this and other important issues of mutual interest between our two countries.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I commend my friend from Texas for this proposal. I am pleased to be a cosponsor of it, along with the Senator from New Mexico, Senator DOMENICI, and Senator FEINSTEIN from California. We hope others will join us and will soon be circulating a dear colleague letter inviting them to do so.
We believe that this is a very sensible and timely proposal in light of the dramatic changes that have occurred this past July 2 with the election of Vincente Fox, candidate for the National Action Party, as the next President of Mexico. His inauguration later this year will bring to an end 71 years of the office of the Mexican President being held by a representative of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Clearly President-elect Fox has an enormous task before him to put in place his new administration and to formulate policies and programs that he believes are consistent with his campaign promises and priorities. Among the many issues that he has suggested will be priorities of his administration is enhanced counter narcotics cooperation with the United States.
I have made no secret of the fact that I believe that the annual unilateral drug certification procedures have been an obstacle to furthering cooperation between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement authorities. Rather than encouraging them to work closely together to thwart the corrupting impact of the drug kingpins in the United States and Mexico, the certification process degenerates annually to a shouting match across our southern border with respect to whether the Mexican government has done enough to warrant a passing grade from us on the counter narcotics front. Needless to say, Mexican officials resent the fact the they are being unilaterally graded on their performance by us while U.S. policies and programs are never subject to similar review or criticism.
Frankly, Mr. President, this year elections on both sides of the border give us an opportunity to start afresh with respect to counter narcotics cooperation next year. By suspending the certification process for FY 2001, the climate for working more closely on these important programs will not be soured right off the bat by the March 1 grading of Mexico. It is my hope that the new U.S. and Mexican administrations will make it a high priority in the early days of their administrations to put forward a joint plan for ensuring enhanced cooperation on counter narcotics issues that will replace the existing and counterproductive unilateral annual certification process with a multilateral mechanism to monitor progress in combating drug trafficking and related crimes in all affected countries. I would certainly be prepared to support an additional suspension of the certification process for a second year if additional time is needed to put in place a multilateral mechanism to ensure that international cooperation on such matters is working.
Mr President, this is an extremely important issue for not only Mexico and the United States both for countries throughout this hemisphere. Certainly we need to address the problem of consumption here at home. Our neighbors in this hemisphere, that are either involved in the production, in the chemical transformation of these products, or the transportation or the money laundering have a different set of issues to address in our joint efforts to reduce both production and consumption of illicit drugs. It is vital that there be a high level of cooperation if we are going to be successful in stemming the tide and flow of narcotics that pour into this country, that result in the deaths of 50,000 Americans every year in drug-related deaths in this country. I believe that the certification procedures are impeding that kind of cooperation. We believe that the legislation we have introduced this evening will improve the prospects that this will be done. I would hope that all of our colleagues will join us in endorsing this approach.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to offer my support to the legislation introduced by my distinguished colleague from Texas, Senator HUTCHISON.
Essentially, this bill would--for 1 year only--suspend the certification process with respect to Mexico.
It is my hope that this one-year hiatus will be viewed as a sign of good faith between our nations, and that our two countries will dramatically increase the level of our cooperation in the coming year. The problem of drugs is as serious as any we face, and only with a true partnership with Mexico and other source countries can we hope to succeed in the battle against illegal narcotics.
Mr. President, let me be very clear--my support for this legislation this year should not be taken as a sign that I am any less concerned with the rampant corruption and increasingly serious problem of illegal narcotics flowing from Mexico into the United States. I sincerely hope that President-elect Fox and the government of Mexico will with innovation and commitment launch a new and effective war against the cartels that are currently of unparalleled strength and viciousness.
The Zedillo administration has made some progress in cooperating with the United States in this fight.
For instance, the Zedillo administration:
Allowed, for the first time, the extradition of two Mexican Nationals on
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Fired more than 1400 of 3500 federal police officers for corruption; and so far, more than 350 officers have been prosecuted.
Cooperated with the FBI late last year in an investigation on Mexican soil.
And greatly increased seizures of illegal narcotics.
On the other hand, not nearly enough has been done:
Mexico is still the conduit to as much as 70% of the cocaine consumed in the United States (much of it originating in Colombia);
Mexico supplies the majority of marijuana to the U.S., and, according to the United States Forest Service, Mexican cartels are now sending people across the border to grow marijuana in our national forests and on other federal lands;
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