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CNN Live At Daybreak
McCain and Bayh Speak About Their Call to Service Act
Aired November 08, 2001 - 08:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to a little bit more of what's happening on the home front, during World War II Americans rallied around symbols like Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter to help with the war effort. Well this generation may not be all that different as the U.S. war on terrorism moves forward.
Many Americans are heeding the call to duty, lining up to donate blood, money, and time. Now a bill in the Senate, the Call to Service Act, hopes to foster volunteerism.
And joining us this morning are the authors of that measure Senators Evan Bayh and John McCain. Good morning Senators, good to have both of you with us.
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), INDIANA: Good morning.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Good morning.
ZAHN: So since this is a Democrat and Republican sponsoring, I'm going to try to give you guys equal time this morning.
Senator McCain, if you would, briefly set up for us exactly what this bill would do.
MCCAIN: It would dramatically increase the opportunity for young Americans and in fact, all Americans to serve their country. It would expand AmeriCorps. It would have a new provision for military service. It would expand other programs so that Americans would have an opportunity to serve, but also in light of events of September 11th, although Senator Bayh and I were working on this for a long time, there's going to be clearly a need for this kind of service as well -- an increased need.
So we -- we think it's an important step forward. So many Americans who want to serve, now we want to provide them with greater opportunity to do so.
ZAHN: Before we get into the specifics of the 18-18-18 plan, Senator Bayh, if you would, describe to our audience what kind of volunteer work we're talking about here.
BAYH: There will be a whole host of opportunities, Paula, for Americans to serve. The events of September 11th have pointed out to many civil defense and medical responsibilities, but they're going to be traditional opportunities as well -- in education, health care, helping senior citizens, and the military component, as well, of course.
So this is going to present many, many opportunities for Americans, young and old, to put something back into our society -- to harness this surge of patriotism, to strengthen America not only abroad, but here at home.
ZAHN: How many volunteers are you looking for if this legislation passes Senator Bayh?
BAYH: We're attempting to expand AmeriCorps from the present 50,000 volunteers a year to 250,000, a full five-fold increase so that every four years, 1,000,000 young Americans will have an opportunity to serve their country. In addition to that, we're expanding opportunities for senior citizens to serve. And the work study program with college students across the country, we want to get more of them involved in the public service, as well. So we're talking about a significant expansion here, Paula.
ZAHN: Senator McCain, if you would, walk us through the 18-18 plan, so people understand the significance of that.
MCCAIN: For 18 months of active service and 18 months of reserve duty, $18,000 would be given to those who serve. There are going to be new requirements for our military service, which do not require the high technology of today's Army and many security functions and other functions that can be performed by people who don't require quite the level of training, and yet they can serve in the military.
And by the way, I want to add, AmeriCorps has been very successful. Peace Corps has been successful. What we're trying to do is expand on existing programs, but also come up with some new ideas that we've developed through consultation with virtually every expert we can find, and we think the time was right for it before September 11th, and we think it's even of more importance now.
ZAHN: And Senator McCain, I know you've been working on this a long time, as you just said, but even your own party tried to eliminate funds for AmeriCorps last summer. What kind of challenge lies ahead for you this time around?
MCCAIN: I hope we can convince all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle a need for this. I hope that the administration, who was quoted as saying that there are positive things about this program, can be brought on board, but look, there's very few that would deny that there's an upsurge in patriotism. Americans want to find ways to serve -- this is, I think, a very viable method of achieving that goal, and we're certainly going to need a lot of Americans to serve.
ZAHN: Senator Bayh, what do you think this legislation faces?
BAYH: There is strong bipartisan support and ideological support across the spectrum, Paula. Liberals and conservatives alike agree on Americans having an opportunity to put something back into our society. Bill Clinton was a major champion of AmeriCorps and volunteerism. John McCain has taken up the torch and is leading the effort now. I'm glad to play a role.
We're going to have -- and I think the president may say some positive things tonight about volunteerism and expanding the opportunities for Americans to dedicate themselves to this effort. So I see -- I see strong support, and I hope we can get this done, because it's what's right for America at this critical moment.
ZAHN: Senator McCain, I wanted to move onto another subject. Apparently a presidential commission is going to recommend that the Pentagon's three largest intelligence collection agencies will move to the CIA. Is that a good idea?
MCCAIN: It -- I think the people that made that recommendations are very highly regarded -- General Scowcoft and others, but look, I think we need to have a thorough, complete evaluation of what happened and what needs to be done. I respect that panel, but we need the highest level of commission. Maybe Senators Rudman and Hart, who predicted this catastrophe, should be -- that commission should be reconstituted.
Before we're ready to make fundamental changes, we better have a thorough and complete review of what happened and the support of the American people. The CIA was part of this massive intelligence failure too. So before I give them added responsibilities, I'd like to have a complete evaluation.
ZAHN: And Senator Bayh, a thought on that, at a time when the CIA has been so highly criticized for perhaps playing a role in what happened on September 11th.
BAYH: Oh I think it's important to point out, Paula, that they've also had some spectacular successes, a lot of which don't get much attention. There were a number of planned attacks against our country and Americans abroad that were broken up around the millennial celebration, never happened because of our intelligence services' good work.
But also some need for greater coordination, a greater communication among our intelligence and law enforcement authorities has come to light since September the 11th. And so we need to focus on that.
I'm interested in seeing what General Scowcoft had to say. By looking at their recommendations. I agree with John McCain, perhaps we ought to get Warren Rudman and Gary Hart involved in this effort. They had some very good recommendations. So let's move forward and improve the coordination and communication. Monday morning quarterbacking is interesting, but it usually doesn't accomplish a whole lot.
ZAHN: All right gentlemen, Senator McCain and Senator Bayh, thank you very, very much for joining us this morning, appreciate you're covering so much territory with us.
MCCAIN: Thank you.
BAYH: Thank you Paula.
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