[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 14, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 14, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1040
 
   RECOGNITION OF MEN'S HEALTH WEEK AND CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Margolies-Mezvinsky). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of February 11, 1994, the gentlewoman from 
Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized during morning business for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Madam Speaker, let me first quickly answer the 
gentleman's statement.
  I chair Research and Development in the Committee on Armed Services. 
I want to tell the gentleman that nobody killed SDI. We are still 
funding it. It has not gotten as far as we had hoped it would because 
we just have not had the breakthroughs in laser technologies and other 
such things. But it is absolutely wrong to say that it is not being 
funded and funded in a very healthy, robust manner, which some people 
think is much too robust in this day and age. It is just that we cannot 
push science where science is not ready to go.
  Madam Speaker, that is not what I came to the well to talk about. I 
came to the well to talk about my role as cochair of the Congressional 
Caucus on Women's Issues, and what we want to talk about this week 
going into Father's Day.
  First of all, we are very pleased that this week is known as Men's 
health Week. It is very, very critical. Usually the caucus is in here 
talking about Women's Health Week, so this is something a little 
different. But whether we look at adult women or adult men, there is 
something we all have in common. Even the toughest, meanest of us all 
kind of turn to putty when somebody says, ``It is time to go get your 
physical.'' Yet I hope at every dinner table in America this Father's 
Day, they are all looking at each other saying, ``Did you get your 
physical?'' Because we are seeing many, too many people my age with 
this gray hair in their fifties coming down with breast cancer or 
prostate cancer or colon cancer or whatever, and those lives would have 
been saved had they gone to get their physical. So let us have part of 
Father's Day being beefing each other up to all march in to the 
doctor's office together. The poll I have always wanted them to run is 
to see whether adults my age are more fearful of dentists or doctors.
  It probably will not make much difference. I think we are equally 
fearful of all of them, and to those who say they are terribly afraid 
to fund these preventive services in health care bills because we will 
all be down there every day getting prostate checks or mammograms or 
whatever, they do not understand human nature. It is not about paying, 
it is about the fact that we really do not want to go. We ought to be 
funding it in health care, we ought to be encouraging prevention in 
every way, but it takes more than just funding and covering. We have to 
keep nagging to make sure that our loved ones get there.
  Madam Speaker, I hope everyone in this country really takes Men's 
Health Week very seriously. As they talk about the men in their family 
that they really respect and revere, make sure they are healthy and 
they stay with us, because we really see many, too many men in this 
country dying much too early and much of it did not have to happen. I 
think that is important.
  Madam Speaker, the other thing the caucus is doing this week is that 
we have put in our Child Support Enforcement Act. It is the toughest, 
meanest thing we have seen yet. Yes, the President is doing welfare 
reform today and that is very important, but this is welfare 
prevention. There is over $34 billion a year in child support orders 
that are not paid in this country. That is criminal. That is totally 
unfair to the parents who are paying for their kids, because what they 
are doing is not only paying for their kids but paying for other 
people's kids who decided they did not want to accept the 
responsibility, thank you very much.

  It is not just men; women do this, too. Many people have learned how 
to use State lines to play economic hide and seek from the families 
they are trying to get away from and from the family responsibility 
they are trying to get away from. We changed this in other areas; we 
are going to work very hard to change it here.
  Madam Speaker, I encourage everyone, all the responsible fathers and 
all the responsible mothers and parents in the country to get behind 
this legislation and once and for all say parenting is a very serious 
responsibility and that people should not be allowed to duck it and 
just throw it off on the American taxpayer, because children need both 
of those parents. That is why we celebrate Father's Day and that is why 
we really want to get this legislation done.
  Let us all celebrate Men's Health Week and let us get the Child 
Support Enforcement Act passed, and I think we will be a long way 
toward solving a lot of problems that American families have been 
dealing with.

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