[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 68 (Thursday, May 26, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
    STRICKLAND ELEVATOR AMENDMENT TO LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATION BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Strickland] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk 
about an experience that I had in this Chamber today. I am a freshman 
Member of Congress and I offered my first amendment. It was an 
amendment that I thought was reasonable, simple, easy to understand, 
and very straightforward. It was an amendment that would have saved 
$6.58 million by deleting plans to construct six new elevators for the 
Longworth Building.
  I talk about this issue not because I think it is an earth-shattering 
issue but because I think it is illustrative of a problem that we 
sometimes face in this Chamber. The Longworth Building has eight 
elevators and they are terrible, they are in disrepair, they are slow, 
and they cause unacceptable inconvenience. Yet we are spending well 
over a million dollars to refurbish those elevators, to bring them up 
to speed, so to speak.
  It seemed reasonable to me that we ought to give this modernization 
attempt a chance to prove itself before we would spend $6.5 million to 
construct six new elevators.
  But the reason I am talking about it tonight is because I learned 
something.

                              {time}  1720

  I learned that those who use rhetoric about saving tax dollars are 
very selective in how they do that. I particularly refer to my friends 
on the other side of the aisle who stand here day after day and talk 
about wasteful spending, and yet when it came to an issue, a simple 
issue of eliminating six new elevators and saving $6.5 million, they 
did not stand to allow me to have a recorded vote.
  As I said at the beginning of this statement, I learned something 
today. It is easy to talk about cutting when you are talking about 
cutting programs that do not affect you personally or do not cause you 
personal inconvenience. But I would appeal to my brethren and my 
sisters on the other side of the aisle to start putting their vote 
where their rhetoric is.

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