[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 147 (Tuesday, November 29, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
         THE 103d CONGRESS' ACHIEVEMENTS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Browder). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Barca] is recognized for 15 
minutes.
  Mr. BARCA of Wisconsin. Very briefly, Mr. Speaker, first of all I 
would like to applaud the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Kopetski] for his 
fine remarks and for his many efforts on behalf of those causes such as 
arms control and many others that he believes in. This will be my last 
speech in the House as a Member of the 103d Congress, and I just wanted 
very briefly to pause to say how pleased and proud I have been to have 
been a Member of this 103d Congress. I think it has been a year or year 
and a half of just remarkable accomplishments.
  I think most importantly from my standpoint, Mr. Speaker, tonight I 
just want to briefly reflect on what we have done. I believe in keeping 
faith and serving future generations of Americans. I think, like most 
Americans, I care very deeply about our children and our grandchildren 
who, I hope, will come someday, and I would like to just reflect on 
some things that we enacted this session that I believe will make a 
difference for future generations.
  Mr. Speaker, most importantly probably is beginning to reduce our 
Federal budget deficit by over a third by the end of this fiscal year 
that we are currently in. To me that is very critical because as we 
look at our children and the obligation we have to them, not only do we 
owe it to them to leave them an earth that we can be proud of, but also 
to leave them a fiscal situation that will not overly encumber them.
  Second, Mr. Speaker, we had significant gains in the area of 
education from fully funding the Head Start Program for the first time 
in history to restructuring the student loan program and enacting a 
National Service Act that I believe will be long remembered as a 
remarkable achievement to provide new opportunities for young people.
  Third, Mr. Speaker, is the issue of job development efforts in areas 
of improvements in research and development to many of the targeted tax 
credits that we enacted that I believe will open up job opportunities 
for young people today. Then finally, Mr. Speaker, the issue of the 
Comprehensive Crime Control Act which hopefully will make our streets 
safer for our children.
  So all and all, Mr. Speaker, I believe that while there were many 
achievements in this Congress, and particularly, I think, for our 
children and for our grandchildren, hopefully we have left them with 
the start of some important improvements that will make their life a 
little bit easier in years to come, and I would just hope that the 
104th Congress will begin to build upon this success.
  So, I want to end by just saying that I greatly thank my constituents 
of the First Congressional District of Wisconsin for the tremendous 
opportunity they have provided me to serve, to my staff for their very 
hard work on behalf of the constituents of our district, time and time 
again with many constituents who had had difficulties. They were on the 
front line to answer those calls. And then finally to my family, to my 
wife, Kathy, and my daughter and my son, for their tolerance and 
allowing me to serve the long hours that are necessary to provide good 
representation for the people of Wisconsin.
  So, I say, thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your tolerance, and I thank 
the people of Wisconsin.

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Barrett].
  Mr. BARRETT of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, as we wind down in the 103d 
Congress, I want to pay tribute to my good friend and colleague, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Barca] with whom I have had the pleasure 
of serving in the State legislature for 8 years and now in Congress for 
the last year and a half. Peter and I both entered the State 
legislature in Wisconsin in 1984, and from the first day he entered the 
legislature I could see that he was a leader, a person who cared about 
working people, a person who cared about working families, and a person 
who cared about the future of this country. In the State legislature he 
championed such causes as raising the minimum wage, working with 
training and retraining programs for workers who had been displaced, 
worked actively to help save and create new jobs for many people in his 
own home town of Kenosha, and continued that fine work when he was 
elected to Congress last year. Here he was very active in many of the 
retraining issues as well, was a champion in providing criminal 
penalties for truckers who were hurt in violent acts, and was really a 
leader in looking for spending cuts in this Congress, and he did so for 
the reasons he stated, because he is someone who cares about his 
children, who cares about this grandchildren, and he knows that if we 
do not get our spending house in order, Mr. Speaker, that it is going 
to lower the standard of living for the generations to come.
  So, I stand here tonight and pay tribute to my good friend, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Barca].
  The people of the State of Wisconsin have had an excellent public 
servant for the last 10 years. He has represented the Kenosha area 
well, and he has represented the First Congressional District very 
well, and I pay tribute to him and wish him success in his future.

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