[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 36 (Friday, March 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, the Children's Defense Fund just issued 
a report called ``The State of America's Children.'' I would like to 
cite some statistics on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
  Every 5 seconds of the school day, a student drops out of public 
school. Every 30 seconds, a baby is born into poverty. Every 34 
seconds, a baby is born to a mother who did not graduate from high 
school. Every 2 minutes, a baby is born at low birth weight. Every 2 
minutes, a baby is born to a mother who had late or no prenatal care. 
Every 4 minutes, a child is arrested for an alcohol-related crime. 
Every 5 minutes a child is arrested for a violent crime. Every 7 
minutes, a child is arrested for a drug crime. Every 2 hours, a child 
is murdered. Every 4 hours in the United States of America, a child 
commits suicide. And every 9 hours, a child or young adult under 25 
dies from HIV.
  Mr. President, the reason that I read these statistics is that I am 
concerned about the resolution, and in particular I am concerned about 
the additional cut in outlays of over $20 billion over the next several 
years.
  Mr. President, my concern is since we do not specify where those cuts 
will be, there is a greater than even chance as applied to 
discretionary spending that we will see cuts in programs most important 
to those citizens who are most vulnerable, those citizens with the 
least amount of economic resources and the least amount of political 
clout.
  Mr. President, I have heard my colleagues talk about deficit 
reduction over and over and over again. I voted for the reconciliation 
bill and was proud to do so. I think deficit reduction is one public 
policy goal. But for children who are hungry, for children who are 
homeless, for children who go to schools that do not have the 
resources, for children who see no opportunities, for children who 
really do not have a chance now, deficit reduction is a rather abstract 
goal.
  I do not know how I will vote on this final budget resolution, but I 
do know that these additional cuts, though we talk about them in 
numbers and in an abstract way, will be very hurtful to citizens in our 
country, and I believe many of those citizens could very well be 
children.
  When, Mr. President, in addition to the deficit reduction are we 
going to deal with the investment deficit reduction? When are we going 
to invest in children? What happened to the agenda of race and gender 
and poverty and children and opportunities and education and housing 
and safe neighborhoods? What happened to that agenda?
  Mr. President, all the discussion about deficit reduction leaves 
many, many citizens out of the loop. I wonder when we are going to 
respond to the state of America's children. When are we going to get 
beyond photo opportunities with children and discussion of children and 
deal with these statistics? We are dealing with the budget deficit, but 
we are not dealing with the investment deficit.
  Mr. President, if we do not invest in children when they are young, 
we are going to pay the price later. When will we learn? Decline begets 
decline begets decline.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time of the Senator has expired.

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