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SEC. 404. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used by the Department
[Page: H5129] GPO's PDF
SEC. 405. (a) Section 1(a)(2) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2651a(a)(2)) is amended by striking ``and the Deputy Secretary of State'' and inserting ``, the Deputy Secretary of State, and the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources''.
(b) Section 5313 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting ``Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.'' after the item relating to the ``Deputy Secretary of State''.
This title may be cited as the ``Department of State and Related Agency Appropriations Act, 2001''.
TITLE V--RELATED AGENCIES
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Maritime Administration
MARITIME SECURITY PROGRAM
For necessary expenses to maintain and preserve a U.S.-flag merchant fleet to serve the national security needs of the United States, $98,700,000, to remain available until expended.
OPERATIONS AND TRAINING
For necessary expenses of operations and training activities authorized by law, $84,799,000.
MARITIME GUARANTEED LOAN ( TITLE XI ) PROGRAM ACCOUNT
For the cost of guaranteed loans, as authorized by the Merchant Marine Act, 1936, $10,621,000, to remain available until expended: Provided, That such costs, including the cost of modifying such loans, shall be as defined in section 502 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as amended: Provided further, That these funds are available to subsidize total loan principal, any part of which is to be guaranteed, not to exceed $1,000,000,000.
In addition, for administrative expenses to carry out the guaranteed loan program, not to exceed $3,795,000, which shall be transferred to and merged with the appropriation for Operations and Training.
ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS--MARITIME ADMINISTRATION
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Maritime Administration is authorized to furnish utilities and services and make necessary repairs in connection with any lease, contract, or occupancy involving Government property under control of the Maritime Administration, and payments received therefore shall be credited to the appropriation charged with the cost thereof: Provided, That rental payments under any such lease, contract, or occupancy for items other than such utilities, services , or repairs shall be covered into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts.
No obligations shall be incurred during the current fiscal year from the construction fund established by the Merchant Marine Act, 1936, or otherwise, in excess of the appropriations and limitations contained in this Act or in any prior appropriation Act.
Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For expenses for the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, $390,000, as authorized by section 1303 of Public Law 99-83.
Commission on Civil Rights
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For necessary expenses of the Commission on Civil Rights, including hire of passenger motor vehicles, $8,866,000: Provided, That not to exceed $50,000 may be used to employ consultants: Provided further, That none of the funds appropriated in this paragraph shall be used to employ in excess of four full-time individuals under Schedule C of the Excepted Service exclusive of one special assistant for each Commissioner: Provided further, That none of the funds appropriated in this paragraph shall be used to reimburse Commissioners for more than 75 billable days, with the exception of the chairperson, who is permitted 125 billable days.
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For necessary expenses of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, as authorized by Public Law 94-304, $1,182,000, to remain available until expended as authorized by section 3 of Public Law 99-7.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For necessary expenses of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as authorized by title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended (29 U.S.C. 206(d) and 621-634), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, including services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109; hire of passenger motor vehicles as authorized by 31 U.S.C. 1343(b); non-monetary awards to private citizens; and not to exceed $29,000,000 for payments to State and local enforcement agencies for services to the Commission pursuant to title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, sections 6 and 14 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, $290,928,000: Provided, That the Commission is authorized to make available for official reception and representation expenses not to exceed $2,500 from available funds.
Federal Communications Commission
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For necessary expenses of the Federal Communications Commission, as authorized by law, including uniforms and allowances therefor, as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 5901-5902; not to exceed $600,000 for land and structure; not to exceed $500,000 for improvement and care of grounds and repair to buildings; not to exceed $4,000 for official reception and representation expenses; purchase (not to exceed 16) and hire of motor vehicles; special counsel fees; and services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, $207,909,000, of which not to exceed $300,000 shall remain available until September 30, 2002, for research and policy studies: Provided, That $200,146,000 of offsetting collections shall be assessed and collected pursuant to section 9 of title I of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and shall be retained and used for necessary expenses in this appropriation, and shall remain available until expended: Provided further, That the sum herein appropriated shall be reduced as such offsetting collections are received during fiscal year 2001 so as to result in a final fiscal year 2001 appropriation estimated at $7,763,000: Provided further, That any offsetting collections received in excess of $200,146,000 in fiscal year 2001 shall remain available until expended, but shall not be available for obligation until October 1, 2001.
Federal Maritime Commission
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For necessary expenses of the Federal Maritime Commission as authorized by section 201(d) of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936, as amended (46 U.S.C. App. 1111), including services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109; hire of passenger motor vehicles as authorized by 31 U.S.C. 1343(b); and uniforms or allowances therefor, as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 5901-5902, $14,097,000: Provided, That not to exceed $2,000 shall be available for official reception and representation expenses.
Federal Trade Commission
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For necessary expenses of the Federal Trade Commission, including uniforms or allowances therefor, as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 5901-5902; services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109; hire of passenger motor vehicles; not to exceed $2,000 for official reception and representation expenses, $121,098,000: Provided, That not to exceed $300,000 shall be available for use to contract with a person or persons for collection services in accordance with the terms of 31 U.S.C. 3718, as amended: Provided further, That, notwithstanding section 3302(b) of title 31, United States Code, not to exceed $121,098,000 of offsetting collections derived from fees collected for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (15 U.S.C. 18(a)) shall be retained and used for necessary expenses in this appropriation, and shall remain available until expended: Provided further, That the sum herein appropriated from the general fund shall be reduced as such offsetting collections are received during fiscal year 2001, so as to result in a final fiscal year 2001 appropriation from the general fund estimated at not more than $0, to remain available until expended: Provided further, That section 605 of Public Law 101-162 (15 U.S.C. 18a note), as amended, is further amended by striking ``$45,000 which'' and inserting: ``(1) $45,000, if as a result of the acquisition, the acquiring person would hold an aggregate total amount of the voting securities and assets of the acquired person in excess of $35,000,000 but not exceeding $99,999,999; (2) $100,000, if as a result of the acquisition, the acquiring person would hold an aggregate total amount of the voting securities and assets of the acquired person equal to or in excess of $100,000,000 but not exceeding $199,999,999; or (3) $200,000, if as a result of the acquisition, the acquiring person would hold an aggregate total amount of the voting securities and assets of the acquired person equal to or in excess of $200,000,000. Such fees'': Provided further, That none of the funds made available to the Federal Trade Commission shall be available for obligation for expenses authorized by section 151 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-242; 105 Stat. 2282-2285).
The CHAIRMAN. Are there amendments to that portion of the bill?
The Clerk will read.
The Clerk read as follows:
Legal Services Corporation
PAYMENT TO THE LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION
For payment to the Legal Services Corporation to carry out the purposes of the Legal Services Corporation Act of 1974, as amended, $141,000,000, of which $134,575,000 is for basic field programs and required independent audits; $1,125,000 is for the Office of Inspector General, of which such amounts as may be necessary may be used to conduct additional audits of recipients; and $5,300,000 is for management and administration.
AMENDMENT NO. 54 OFFERED BY MR. CHAMBLISS
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 54 offered by Mr. CHAMBLISS:
Page 92, insert after line 14 the following:
If a grantee of the Legal Services Corporation does not prevail in a civil action brought by the grantee against farmers with respect to migrant employees under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (29 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), the grantee shall pay the attorneys' fees, the amount of which as determined by the court, incurred by the defendant to such action. If a grantee is required under this section to pay such fees, the Legal Services Corporation shall reduce the next grant to the grantee by the amount of such fees paid by the grantee.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the order of the House of Friday, June 23, 2000, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. CHAMBLISS) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order on the gentleman's amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. A point of order is reserved.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. CHAMBLISS) for 5 minutes on his amendment.
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this amendment is to require the Legal Services Corporation to pay the attorneys fees in any case in which it is filed by the Legal Services Corporation against a farmer under the Migrant Worker Protection Act, and which case is lost by the Legal Services Corporation . In other words, they do not prevail in this lawsuit.
We have had a problem in my State of Georgia over the last number of years in securing agriculture workers to plant our crops, help U.S. till the crops and harvest the crops and, as a result, our farmers have been forced from time to time to use workers that are not legally within the United States.
We have been working on trying to modify the current H-2A program, which is a farmer worker program, that allows farmers to come into the United States on a legal basis so that we can reduce paperwork, make this program less expensive on our farmers and make it more workable. In the meantime, what we have seen happen is that our farmers who have made a decision to hire legal workers under the current H-2A program as opposed to working illegal migrant workers who are not in the United States under legal conditions have run into a problem, and that problem is this: The Legal Services Corporation in my State and any number of other States around the country where farmers have made a decision to bring legal workers into the country to work under the H-2A program have run into a stonewall with the Legal Services Corporation in that they are filing lawsuits against farmers who have workers here legally for technical violations of the H-2A act, not substantive violations, but purely technical violations.
Let me talk about our farmers a minute. My farmers are hard-working people. They are good business people, but they have encountered a problem here that is purely a legal situation that they are not used to having to address. They are doing everything they can. They are securing advisers. They are securing attorneys to advise them, as well as independent contractors to advise them on the technical compliance with H-2A, but the problem is, that the Legal Services Corporation has a hoard of lawyers who are doing nothing but going after people who are violating the H-2A law from a technical perspective.
Mr. Chairman, now, I do not want to deny any employee the full benefit of all rights that are guaranteed to them under the Agricultural Workers Protection Act, but we have got an excellent plaintiff's bar in my State. There are excellent plaintiff bars all over the country, very capable and determined to ensure that workers have the benefit of all of the rights guaranteed to them. They are the ones that ought to be prosecuting any case against an individual from a pure plaintiff's case perspective, but that is not what is happening.
Legal Services Corporation is going out, and I question the ethics of this, they are soliciting cases from workers who are coming into this country under the H-2A program in a legal manner, bringing them into the Department of Labor, grilling them on whether their employer is technically in compliance with every single aspect of the H-2A law which is a very demanding law. It is a very expensive law, it requires housing. It requires a higher wage rate than what most of the farmers are used to paying, any number of other technical violations.
What is happening is that Legal Services Corporation is taking the role away from plaintiff's lawyers who are capable of looking after the rights of these workers, and our farmers are having to go to the extent of defending cases, not just in the State of Georgia. There are three cases pending right now against vegetable growers in my State, in the part of the State where I live, two of the cases are filed out of State. My employers, my farmers are having to go to Texas to defend one lawsuit where the workers came in.
They went back to Mexico, Legal Services went into Mexico and brought them back into the United States for the sole purpose of filing this case against Georgia growers in the State of Texas and the other case is going on in the State of Florida. My farmers have expended in excess of $200,000 and reasonable attorneys fees for the purpose of defending these lawsuits which really they have no substance to them.
They are purely for technical violations. There is no individual here under the H-2A law that has been harmed in any way, and there is no allegation of such in these lawsuits. What we are simply trying to say is, look, if Legal Services Corporation is going to go after these folks from a plaintiff's perspective and they lose the case, they ought to have to foot the bill for the attorneys fees and the particular Legal Services office shall be deducted from their budget.
The CHAIRMAN. Who claims time in opposition?
Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time, and I am still reserving my point of order.
The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from New York continues to reserve his point of order.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. SERRANO) for 5 minutes.
Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I am really concerned, as many of U.S. are on this side, about this amendment and should be. This amendment singles out farmer workers, migrant farm workers, for this harsh treatment.
Legal Services was created to protect those who do not have the resources to defend themselves. We know that. We have discussed this on the floor. We had a bipartisan amendment here which increased the funding for Legal Services , and that funding will continue to grow, because both sides see the need for Legal Services to do this work.
What this amendment does in a most mean-spirited way is to single out migrant farm workers and to say that if we take their case, Legal Services takes their case, we better win, because if we lose, we are going to have to pay for having taken on a right case. We do not do this for anyone else. We just single out migrant farm workers, and for that reason alone there should be opposition.
There is also the understanding that farm workers in general are the poorest of the poor in this country, so this sets a tone for anyone who works in the fields, who does that kind of work, that you have no protection, because the next step will be for all farm workers or for anybody who is in that field. And just on that alone, I think that we should in a bipartisan way really defeat this amendment, and I would hope that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. CHAMBLISS) understands what we are trying to do today.
Mr. Chairman, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. BERMAN).
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Chairman, this is a change in the law. The debate, the argument that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. CHAMBLISS) has put forward, among other things, was referring to the H-2A program, but the amendment deals with the migrant and seasonal agricultural workers program. H-2A workers are not covered under that law. They have no rights under that law.
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