[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 118 (Friday, August 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     MIDNIGHT GOVERNMENT BASKETBALL

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Washington Post is certainly not 
the first paper to conclude--incorrectly--that because President Bush 
named a Maryland midnight basketball program a point of light, that 
midnight basketball nationwide is deserving of Federal funding and 
should be in the crime bill.
  Many in this debate choose to forget that the point of light program 
honored--not Government programs--but citizens volunteering to make the 
country better.
  Yes, midnight basketball is about more than basketball. These 
successful initiatives teach young men the responsibility and skills 
they cannot get standing on a street corner.
  But with Federal money comes Federal regulation: Eighty players in 
the league, half the players must be from public housing, a certain 
percentage recovering drug users or HIV positive. Incredible.
  A league with 60 players from low-income housing who have managed to 
steer clear of drugs are on their own.
  As President Bush said, ``People, not programs, solve problems.''

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