Numbers & Notables
***October 2004***

Dear Friends:

Thank you for taking time to read the Lugar Letter.

The Senate recessed on Monday, October 11, and I appreciated the opportunity to spend many of the remaining days traveling in Indiana and visiting with Hoosiers. I enjoyed visits at four Indiana schools and talked with many students about leadership and the changing world in which students must adapt.

I also had the opportunity to recognize three Indiana companies at the presentation of the 2004 U.S. Senate Productivity Award at the Indiana Manufacturers Association headquarters in Indianapolis.

During October, President Bush also authorized to expand Nunn-Lugar work in Russia as a result of my August travels to accelerate nonproliferation activities. While in Albania, courageous leaders of the new democracy quietly informed our government that they possessed chemical weapons and they were prepared to work with us in effecting safe security measures and timely destruction.

I drove into the mountainous terrain above Tirana, the Albanian capital, with U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction personnel and inspected the metal cylinders holding nerve gas apparently shipped years ago to the Albanian dictatorship by China. This 16 metric ton danger will be destroyed promptly using Nunn-Lugar authority and money.

I thank you, again, for taking time to read about my activities, and I am hopeful that you will stay in touch.

Sincerely,

Richard G. Lugar
United States Senator

Lugar Voting Record Most
‘Economically Efficient’ in Congress

Senator Dick Lugar was ranked first out of all members of Congress in economic efficiency, according to a study published in the Investor’s Business Daily on October 27, 2004, and completed by the Department of Economics at the University of Delaware. Lugar scored 91 on a scale of 0 to 100.

According to the study’s authors, “The study included votes on legislation that economists would widely agree should yield national benefits that exceed costs (efficiency enhancing) or nationwide costs that exceed benefits (efficiency diminishing). Efficiency enhancing policies increase the size of the national economic pie; efficiency diminishing policies reduce its size.”

Lugar’s score of 91 indicates that he supported the efficiency enhancing position or rejected the efficiency diminishing position 91 percent of the time.

The study, a first of its kind, was based on votes in the 106th and 107th Congresses (1999-2001) on issues where economic efficiency was at stake. To include enough votes for reliability, members seated in both the 106th and 107th Congresses were scored. The average score for the Senate was 55.3 and the median score was 59.2.

Lugar, a former small business owner, has been a long-time champion of small businesses by promoting policies that spur economic growth, cut taxes, lead to job creation, eliminate wasteful government spending and reduce bureaucratic red tape for American businesses.

In addition, as a member and former Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, he authored legislation to overhaul federal farm programs through the 1996 Farm Bill.

The study was authored by Burton A. Abrams, Ph.D., Russell F. Settle, Ph.D. and Martin Kennedy, Ph.D. Candidate (the Econ-E Group) at the University of Delaware.

More information about the study, including Individual Senate rankings and Information on the votes behind the study may be found at:
http://www.lerner.udel.edu/econ-e/

Nunn-Lugar to Destroy Albania Chemical Weapons Stash
First Time Nunn-Lugar Used Outside Former Soviet Union

For the first time since its establishment in 1991, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program will be used outside the former Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons in Albania.

Last year Congress approved the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, authored by Senator Dick Lugar, which lets the President use up to $50 million in Nunn-Lugar funds for activities outside the former Soviet Union. President Bush signed the authorization for Nunn-Lugar work in Albania on Wednesday, October 20.

“The Nunn-Lugar Program has established a deep reservoir of experience and talent that could be applied to non-proliferation objectives around the world. The original Nunn-Lugar bill was concerned with the former Soviet Union, because that is where the vast majority of weapons and materials of mass destruction were. Today, we must be prepared with money and expertise to extend the Nunn-Lugar concept wherever it can be usefully applied. I applaud Albania’s leadership in seeking United States assistance in destroying these dangerous weapons,” said Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“I am pleased that President Bush has embraced the Nunn-Lugar concept and has endorsed efforts to apply it worldwide. Russia will continue to be a major focus but emerging risks must also be addressed in the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere. Nunn-Lugar has developed a unique capability to meet a variety of proliferation threats and I am excited that it will address this unique threat present in Albania.”

Albania is situated in southeastern Europe and borders the former Yugoslav regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Both regions have witnessed tremendous violence and Muslim extremism over the last decade.

Senator Lugar traveled to Albania on August 27 and 28 of this year to meet with Albanian leaders and visit the chemical weapons storage facility that has already received U.S. assistance to enhance the security surrounding the stockpile. In meetings with Prime Minister Fatos Nano, Foreign Minister Islami and Defense Minister Majko, Senator Lugar discussed the need for Nunn-Lugar to assist Albania in destroying its chemical weapons stockpile. The project is expected to take approximately two years to eliminate 16 tons of chemical agent at an estimated cost of $20 million.

The utilization of the Nunn-Lugar program in Albania was facilitated by the May 2003 Agreement Between the Republic of Albania and the Government of the United States of America Concerning Cooperation in the Area of the Prevention of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Promotion of Defense and Military Relations. This agreement will provide the foundation for the Nunn-Lugar Program work. The United States is delivering a draft implementing agreement to the Albanian government that defines the scope of the destruction process.

Additional details of the project will be available in the future, but in the meantime the contents and location of the cache will not be released to ensure operational security or prevent revealing to potential proliferators or terrorists information that could endanger the stockpile.

“To combat the WMD threat in the former Soviet Union, our country has implemented the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Since enactment in late 1991, Nunn-Lugar has devoted American technical expertise and money for joint efforts to safeguard and destroy materials and weapons of mass destruction,” Lugar said.

As of October 13, 2004, the weapons systems deactivated or destroyed by the United States under these programs include: 6,462 nuclear warheads; 550 ICBMs; 469 ICBM silos; 13 ICBM mobile missile launchers; 135 bombers; 733 nuclear air-to-surface missiles; 408 submarine missile launchers; 530 submarine launched missiles; 27 nuclear submarines; and 194 nuclear test tunnels. The International Science and Technology Centers, of which the United States is the leading sponsor, have engaged 58,000 former weapons scientists in peaceful work. The International Proliferation Prevention Program has funded 750 projects involving 14,000 former weapons scientists and created some 580 new peaceful high-tech jobs. Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan are nuclear weapons free as a result of cooperative efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program.

Senator Lugar recently visited DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, to speak with students and local residents about the current state of the world and issues that will affect college students in the future.

In his address, “A Changing World,” Lugar called for renewed “hand-holding across the aisle” and increased diplomacy. “I’ve tried to forge strong ties with Senator Biden as the ranking member (of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee),” said Lugar.

“As a result, we’ve been getting our ambassadors confirmed, or the other public officials and other policies, usually by unanimous consent. But only after a great deal of discussion and thoughtfulness.”

Lugar received an honorary degree from the university in 1972 and was awarded the McNaughton Medal for Public Service at DePauw University in 2001.

Lugar also recently spoke with students at University High School in Carmel for Open House and Grandparents Day, Culver Academies and Columbus North High School (pictured below).

Lugar Holds Hearing on Student Visas
Hoosier University Presidents Testify before the Committee

On Wednesday, October 6, Senator Lugar chaired a Foreign Relations Committee hearing to examine new visa policies on foreign students and researchers seeking to study in the United States. Lugar was joined by Indiana University President Dr. Adam Herbert and Purdue University President Dr. Martin Jishcke.

"After the September 11 attacks, Congress re-examined visa policy in light of heightened security concerns," Lugar said. “We adopted new visa requirements in the interest of national security. Today, we intend to carefully examine how the security purposes of those changes are being balanced with our goals pertaining to foreign students. In particular, we want to determine whether the changes in visa procedures are unnecessarily limiting or deterring students, researchers, and official visitors from coming to our universities.”

Lugar also expressed concern that Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia are aggressively recruiting many of the same students who might otherwise come to the U.S.  Lugar emphasized that security must not be compromised, but it is important for the U.S. government to help universities reduce delays in processing and evaluating student visas.

President Herbert noted that over 30 percent of instructors, research specialists and technical staff in IU’s School of Medicine (the second largest in the country) are from abroad. The school’s research programs will be curtailed seriously if they are unable to attract international scientists.

President Jishcke emphasized that Purdue has the largest international student population among public universities in the U.S. and that the student visa process is causing students to look elsewhere for international education.

Following the hearing, Lugar visited “Destination Indiana,” an expo in the Dirksen Senate Office Building which featured 12 Indiana universities.

Read Senator Lugar's opening statement

Legislative Update

Lugar Introduces Bill to Limit Amateur Sports Liability

In October, Senator Lugar introduced S. 2903, the Nonprofit Athletic Organization Protection Act of 2004, to limit the liability of non-profit, volunteer organizations that organize sports events and leagues. Many of these types of organizations sponsor youth athletic programs.

“Over the last several years, more and more of these rule-making bodies have become targets for lawsuits seeking to prove that the rule-maker was negligent in making the rules of play. These lawsuits claim that had a different rule been in place, the injury would not have happened. Indeed, these suits place rule-makers into a Catch-22. A participant can be injured in almost any situation no matter how a rule is written. The result has been to have more and more lawsuits,” Lugar said.

Groups such as the Boys and Girls Club, the National Council of Youth Sports, the National Federation of State High School Associations, and others exist largely to establish rules in order to minimize the risk of injury children face while participating in sports. However, regardless of how well these organizations perform their work, participants still risk injury.

As a result, Lugar joined the efforts of U.S. Rep Mark Souder (R-3rd IN) to introduce this legislation.

“I believe the Nonprofit Athletic Organization Protection Act of 2004 can help alleviate this problem. This legislation will eliminate lawsuits advancing the claim that a non-profit rule-making body is liable for a physical injury when the rules were made by a properly licensed rulemaking body that has acted within the scope of its authority. This reasonable legislation will help sports’ rule-makers to do their job. If we do not pass this legislation, it is likely that rule makers could eventually close their doors, since they will be unable to afford the insurance needed to provide a safe sporting environment,” Lugar added.

Lawsuits may be maintained if the rule-maker was grossly negligent or engaged in criminal or reckless misconduct.

Lugar Holds Hearing on Millennium Challenge Corporation

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met to receive a progress report on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) from Paul Applegarth, the Chief Executive Officer of the MCC. The Millennium Challenge Corporation was passed by Congress in January 2004 at the request of President Bush.

“The MCC is charting an innovative course in development assistance,” said Lugar. “Our Committee has enthusiastically endorsed the concept of this new organization, which will provide assistance to developing countries that invest in their people, uphold political freedoms, fight corruption, maintain the rule of law, and pursue sound economic policies.”

Lugar recognized that the next six to twelve months is critical to the MCC's success and that it must operate in a difficult political and budgetary environment, competing for scarce funds with other deserving foreign policy programs. In recent years, Congress has demonstrated a parsimonious attitude towards the 150 Account, which funds foreign assistance, embassy operations, cultural and educational programs, contributions to international institutions, and many other aspects of our outreach to the world. It has significantly cut the President’s request for the 150 Account two years in a row.

“My hope is that the MCC will perform so well during the next year that members of Congress of both parties will embrace it enthusiastically as an inspired idea and an essential program,” said Lugar. “We hope that the MCC, working closely with Congress, can realize the original vision of President Bush to dramatically expand our ability to spur economic development throughout the world.”

New Ethanol and Biodiesel Provisions Pass Senate

Senator Lugar announced the passage of several new ethanol and biodiesel provisions as part of recent tax legislation (FSC/ETI bill). The provisions call for an extension of the Ethanol Tax Incentive through December 2010, creation of a new tax credit for biodiesel and improvements to the small ethanol producer credit.

“Bio-fuels and bio-chemicals increase energy independence and security and would significantly improve rural economies in America and around the world,” Lugar said. “America’s insatiable appetite for oil places our nation in a precarious situation of reliability on regions that have become increasingly hostile to us.”

The development of renewable fuels would help ensure national and economic security and gas price stability. With ethanol and biomass becoming competitive and Hoosiers growing renewable crops of biomass every year, these alternative can add to the critical volume of gasoline market. In addition, the tax credit for biodiesel will encourage petroleum blenders to use more biodiesel in fuel and ease the overburdened refining industry.

As former chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, Lugar initiated a biofuels research program to help decrease U.S. dependency on foreign oil. For more information, see Lugar’s joint essay with former CIA Director James Woolsey at:
http://lugar.senate.gov/issues/energy.html#petroleum.