[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3-H8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          ELECTION OF SPEAKER

  The Clerk. The next order of business is the election of the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives for the 104th Congress.
  Nominations are now in order.
  The Clerk recognizes the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Boehner].
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Clerk, as chairman of the Republican Conference, I 
am honored and privileged to welcome my colleagues and the American 
people to this historic day. We have been sent here--to the People's 
House--to write, together, a new chapter in our blessed Nation's 
history. There is great anticipation, excitement, and expectation in 
America about what this new chapter will say. To America I say, we 
shall write the chapter as you dictate it to us. This is your House and 
your will will be reflected in our actions.
  As the first sentence of this new chapter, I am directed by the 
unanimous vote of the Republican Conference to present the name of the 
Honorable Newt Gingrich, a Representative-elect from the State of 
Georgia, for election to the Office of the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives for the 104th Congress.
  The Clerk. The Clerk now recognizes the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Fazio].
  Mr. FAZIO. Mr. Clerk, as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, I am 
directed by the unanimous vote of that caucus to present for election 
to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 
104th Congress the name of the Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, a 
Representative-elect from the State of Missouri. I am proud to so make 
that nomination.
                              {time}  1240

  The Clerk. The Honorable Newt Gingrich, a Representative-elect from 
the State of Georgia, and the Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, a 
Representative-elect from the State of Missouri, have been placed in 
nomination.
  Are there any further nominations?
  There being no further nominations, the Clerk will appoint tellers.
  The Chair appoints the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas], the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio], the gentlewoman from New Jersey 
[Mrs.  Roukema], and the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder].
  The tellers will come forward and take their seats at the desk in the 
front of the Speaker's rostrum.
  The roll will now be called, and those responding to their names will 
indicate by surname the nominee of their choice.
  The reading clerk will now call the roll.
  The tellers having taken their places, the House proceeded to vote 
for the Speaker.
  The following is the result of the vote:

                              [Roll No. 2]

                             GINGRICH--228

     Allard
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker (CA)
     Baker (LA)
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blute
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brownback
     Bryant (TN)
     Bunn
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Chrysler
     Clinger
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins (GA)
     Combest
     Cooley
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cremeans
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Davis
     DeLay
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dornan
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Fields (TX)
     Flanagan
     Foley
     Forbes
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (CT)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frisa
     Funderburk
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Greenwood
     Gunderson
     Gutknecht
     Hancock
     Hansen
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Heineman
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Hoke
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kim
     King
     Kingston
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Lightfoot
     Linder
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Longley
     Lucas
     Manzullo
     Martini
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     Metcalf
     Meyers
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Molinari
     Moorhead
     Morella
     Myers
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oxley
     Packard
     Paxon
     Petri
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Pryce
     Quillen
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Regula
     Riggs
     Roberts
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roth
     Roukema
     Royce
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer
     Schiff
     Seastrand
     Sensenbrenner
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shuster
     Skeen
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stockman
     Stump
     Talent
     Tate
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Torkildsen
     Upton
     Vucanovich
     Waldholtz
     Walker
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     [[Page H4]] Wicker
     Wolf
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)
     Zeliff
     Zimmer

                             GEPHARDT--202

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Andrews
     Baesler
     Baldacci
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Becerra
     Beilenson
     Bentsen
     Berman
     Bevill
     Bishop
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boucher
     Brewster
     Browder
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Bryant (TX)
     Cardin
     Chapman
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Coleman
     Collins (IL)
     Collins (MI)
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Danner
     de la Garza
     Deal
     DeFazio
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doyle
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fazio
     Fields (LA)
     Filner
     Flake
     Foglietta
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Frost
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Geren
     Gibbons
     Gonzalez
     Gordon
     Green
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hayes
     Hefner
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Holden
     Hoyer
     Jackson-Lee
     Jacobs
     Jefferson
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnston
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kleczka
     Klink
     LaFalce
     Lambert-Lincoln
     Lantos
     Laughlin
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney
     Manton
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy
     McDermott
     McHale
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek
     Menendez
     Mfume
     Miller (CA)
     Mineta
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Montgomery
     Moran
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Neal
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Orton
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pastor
     Payne (NJ)
     Payne (VA)
     Pelosi
     Peterson (FL)
     Peterson (MN)
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Poshard
     Rahall
     Rangel
     Reed
     Reynolds
     Richardson
     Rivers
     Roemer
     Rose
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanders
     Sawyer
     Schroeder
     Schumer
     Scott
     Serrano
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Stokes
     Studds
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Tauzin
     Tejeda
     Thompson
     Thornton
     Thurman
     Torres
     Torricelli
     Towns
     Traficant
     Tucker
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Volkmer
     Ward
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Williams
     Wilson
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wyden
     Wynn
     Yates

                        ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--4

     Gephardt
     Gingrich
     Parker
     Taylor (MS)
                              {time}  1310

  The Clerk. If there are any Representatives-elect who did not answer 
the rollcall, they may come to the well and vote at this time.
  The tellers agree in their tallies that the total number of votes 
cast is 434, of which the Honorable Newt Gingrich of the State of 
Georgia has received 228 and the honorable Richard A. Gephardt of the 
State of Missouri has received 202, with 4 voting ``present.''
  Therefore, the Honorable Newt Gingrich of the State of Georgia is 
duly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 104th 
Congress, having received a majority of the votes cast.
  The Clerk would request visitors on the floor, most respectfully, 
including former members, to relinquish seats on the floor to Members-
elect, prior to the presentation of the Speaker-elect.

                              {time}  1320

  The Clerk appoints the following committee to escort the Speaker-
elect to the chair: The gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt], the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey], the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay], 
the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior], the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Boehner], the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio], the gentleman from 
Georgia [Mr. Collins], the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis], the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Bishop], the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
Deal], the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston], the gentleman from 
Georgia [Mr. Linder], the gentlewoman from Georgia [Ms. McKinney], the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr], the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
Chambliss], and the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Norwood].
  The committee will retire from the Chamber to escort the Speaker-
elect to the chair.
  The Doorkeeper announced the Speaker-elect of the House of 
Representatives of the 104th Congress, who was escorted to the chair by 
the committee of escort.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, let me say to the ladies and gentleman of 
the House that I first want to thank my Democratic colleagues for their 
support and their confidence. I noted we were a little short, but I 
appreciate your friendship and your support.
  As you might imagine, this is not a moment that I had been waiting 
for. When you carry the mantle of progress, there is precious little 
glory in defeat. But sometimes we spend so much time lionizing the 
winners and labeling the losers, we lose sight of the victory we all 
share in this crown jewel of democracy.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, this is a day to celebrate a power that belongs 
not to any political party, but to the people, no matter the margin, no 
matter the majority. All across the world, from Bosnia to Chechnya to 
South Africa, people lay down their lives for the kind of voice we take 
for granted. Too often the transfer of power is an act of pain and 
carnage, not one as we see today of peace and decency.

                              {time}  1330

  But here in the House of Representatives, for 219 years, longer than 
any democracy in the world, we heed the people's voice with peace and 
civility and respect. Each and every day, on this very floor, we echo 
the hopes and dreams of our people, their fears and their failures, 
their abiding belief in a better America.
  We may not all agree with today's changing of the guard. We may not 
all like it, but we enact the people's will with dignity and honor and 
pride. In that endeavor, Mr. Speaker, there can be no losers, and there 
can be no defeat.
  Of course, in the 104th Congress there will be conflict and 
compromise. Agreements will not always be easy; agreements sometimes 
not even possible. However, while we may not agree on matters of party 
and principle, we all abide with the will of the people. That is reason 
enough to place our good faith and our best hopes in your able hands.
  I speak from the bottom of my heart when I say that I wish you the 
best in these coming 2 years, for when this gavel passes into your 
hands, so do the futures and fortunes of millions of Americans. To make 
real progress, to improve real people's lives, we both have to rise 
above partisanship. We have to work together were we can and where we 
must.
  It is a profound responsibility, one which knows no bounds in party 
or politics. It is the responsibility not merely for those who voted 
for you, not merely for those who cast their fate on your side of the 
aisle, but also for those who did not.
  These are the responsibilities I pass, along with the gavel I hold, 
will hold in my hand, but there are some burdens that the Democratic 
Party will never cease to bear. As Democrats, we came to Congress to 
fight for America's hard-working middle-income families, the families 
who are working, often for longer hours, for less pay, for fewer 
benefits in jobs they are not sure they can keep.
  We, together, must redeem their faith that if they work hard and they 
play by the rules they can build a better life for their children. Mr. 
Speaker, I want this entire House to speak for those families. The 
Democratic Party will. That mantle we will never lay to rest.
  So with partnership but with purpose, I pass this great gavel of our 
Government. With resignation, but
 with resolve, I hereby end 40 years of Democratic rule of this House; 
with faith and with friendship and the deepest respect. You are now my 
Speaker, and let the great debate begin.

  I now have the high honor and distinct privilege to present to the 
House of Representatives our new Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia, 
Newt Gingrich.
  Mr. GINGRICH. Let me say first of all that I am deeply grateful to my 
good friend, Dick Gephardt. When my side maybe overreacted to your 
statement about ending 40 years of Democratic rule, I could not help 
but look over at Bob Michel, who has often been up here and who knows 
that everything Dick said was true. This is difficult and painful to 
lose, and on my side of the aisle, we have for 20 elections been on the 
losing side. Yet there is something 
[[Page H5]] so wonderful about the process by which a free people 
decides things.
  In my own case, I lost two elections, and with the good help of my 
friend Vic Fazio came close to losing two others. I am sorry, guys, it 
just did not quite work out. Yet I can tell you that every time when 
the polls closed and I waited for the votes to come in, I felt good, 
because win or lose, we have been part of this process.
  In a little while, I am going to ask the dean of the House, John 
Dingell, to swear me in, to insist on the bipartisan nature of the way 
in which we together work in this House. John's father was one of the 
great stalwarts of the New Deal, a man who, as an FDR Democrat, created 
modern America. I think that John and his father represent a tradition 
that we all have to recognize and respect, and recognize that the 
America we are now going to try to lead grew from that tradition and is 
part of that great heritage.
  I also want to take just a moment to thank Speaker Foley, who was 
extraordinarily generous, both in his public utterances and in 
everything that he and Mrs. Foley did to help Marianne and me, and to 
help our staff make the transition. I think that he worked very hard to 
reestablish the dignity of the House. We can all be proud of the 
reputation that he takes and of the spirit with which he led the 
speakership. Our best wishes go to Speaker and Mrs. Foley.
  I also want to thank the various house officers, who have been just 
extraordinary. I want to say for the public record that faced with a 
result none of them wanted, in a situation I suspect none of them 
expected, that within 48 hours every officer of this House reacted as a 
patriot, worked overtime, bent over backwards, and in every way helped 
us. I am very grateful, and this House I think owes a debt of gratitude 
to every officer that the Democrats elected 2 years ago.
  This is a historic moment. I was asked over and over, how did it 
feel, and the only word that comes close to adequate is overwhelming. I 
feel overwhelmed in every way, overwhelmed by all the Georgians who 
came up, overwhelmed by my extended family that is here, overwhelmed by 
the historic moment. I walked out and stood on the balcony just outside 
of the Speaker's office, looking down the Mall this morning, very 
early. I was just overwhelmed by the view, with two men I will 
introduce and know very, very well. Just the sense of being part of 
America, being part of this great tradition, is truly overwhelming.
  I have two gavels. Actually, Dick happened to use one. Maybe this was 
appropriate. This was a Georgia gavel I just got this morning, done by 
Dorsey Newman of Tallapoosa. He decided that the gavels he saw on TV 
weren't big enough or strong enough, so he cut down a walnut tree in 
his backyard, make a gavel, put a commemorative item on it, and sent it 
up here.
  So this is a genuine Georgia gavel, and I am the first Georgia 
Speaker in over 100 years. The last one, by the way, had a weird 
accent, too. Speaker Crisp was born in Britain. His parents were actors 
and they came to the United States--a good word, by the way, for the 
value we get from immigration.
  Second, this is the gavel that Speaker Martin used. I am not sure 
what it says about the inflation of Government, to put them side by 
side, but this was the gavel used by the last Republican Speaker.
  I want to comment for a minute on two men who served as my leaders, 
from whom I learned so much and who are here today. When I arrived as a 
freshman, the Republican Party, deeply dispirited by Watergate and by 
the loss of the Presidency, banded together and worked with a leader 
who helped pave the way for our great party victory of 1980, a man who 
just did a marvelous job. I cannot speak too highly of what I learned 
about integrity and leadership and courage from serving with him in my 
freshman term. He is here with us again today. I hope all of you will 
recognize Congressman John Rhodes of Arizona.
                              {time}  1340

  I want to say also that at our request, the second person was not 
sure he should be here at all, then he thought he was going to hide in 
the back of the room. I insisted that he come on down front, someone 
whom I regard as a mentor. I think virtually every Democrat in the 
House would say he is a man who genuinely cares about, loves the House, 
and represents the best spirit of the House. He is a man who I studied 
under and, on whom I hope as Speaker I can always rely for advice. I 
hope frankly I can emulate his commitment to this institution and his 
willingness to try to reach beyond his personal interest and 
partisanship. I hope all of you will join me in thanking for his years 
of service, Congressman Bob Michel of Illinois.
  I am very fortunate today. My mom and my dad are here, they are right 
up there in the gallery. Bob and Kit Gingrich. I am so delighted that 
they were both able to be here. Sometimes when you get to my age, you 
cannot have everyone near you that you would like to have. I cannot say 
how much I learned from my Dad and his years of serving in the U.S. 
Army and how much I learned from my Mother, who is clearly my most 
enthusiastic cheerleader.
  My daughters are here up in the gallery, too. They are Kathy Lovewith 
and her husband Paul, and Jackie and her husban Mark Zyler. Of course, 
the person who clearly is my closest friend and my best adviser and 
whom if I listened to about 20 percent more, I would get in less 
trouble, my wife Marianne, is in the gallery as well.
  I have a very large extended family between Marianne and me. They are 
virtually all in town, and we have done our part for the Washington 
tourist season. But I could not help, when I first came on the floor 
earlier, I saw a number of the young people who are here. I met a 
number of the children who are on the floor and the young adults, who 
are close to 12 years of age. I could not help but think that sitting 
in the back rail near the center of the House is one of my nephews, 
Kevin McPherson, who is 5. My nieces Susan Brown, who is 6, and Emily 
Brown, who is 8, and Laura McPherson, who is 9, are all back there, 
too. That is probably more than I was allowed to bring on, but they are 
my nieces and my nephews. I have two other nephews a little older who 
are sitting in the gallery.
  I could not help but think as a way I wanted to start the Speakership 
and to talk to every Member, that in a sense these young people around 
us are what this institution is really all about. Much more than the 
negative advertising and the interest groups and all the different 
things that make politics all too often cynical, nasty, and sometimes 
frankly just plan miserable, what makes politics worthwhile is the 
choice, as Dick Gephardt said, between what we see so tragically on the 
evening news and the way we try to work very hard to make this system 
of free, representative self-government work. The ultimate reason for 
doing that is these children, the country they will inherit, and the 
world they will live in.
  We are starting the 104th Congress. I do not know if you have every 
thought about this, but for 208 years, we bring together the most 
diverse country in the history of the world. We send all sorts of 
people here. Each of us could find at least one Member we thought was 
weird. I will tell you, if you went around the room the person chosen 
to be weird would be different for virtually every one of us. Because 
we do allow and insist upon the right of a free people to send an 
extraordinary diversity of people here.
  Brian Lamb of C-SPAN read to me Friday a phrase from de Tocqueville 
that was so central to the House. I have been reading Remini's 
biography of Henry Clay and Clay, as the first strong Speaker, always 
preferred the House. He preferred the House to the Senate although he 
served in both. He said the House is more vital, more active, more 
dynamic, and more common.
  This is what de Tocqueville wrote: ``Often there is not a 
distinguished man in the whole number. Its members are almost all 
obscure individuals whose names bring no associations to mind. They are 
mostly village lawyers, men in trade, or even persons belonging to the 
lower classes of society.''
  If we include women, I do not know that we would change much. But the 
word ``vulgar'' in de Tocqueville's time had a very particular meaning. 
It is a meaning the world would do well to study in this room. You see, 
de Tocqueville was an aristocrat. He lived 
[[Page H6]] in a world of kings and princes. The folks who come here do 
so by the one single act that their citizens freely chose them. I do 
not care what your ethnic background is, or your
 ideology. I do not care if you are younger or older. I do not care if 
you are born in America of if you are a naturalized citizen. Everyone 
of the 435 people have equal standing because their citizens freely 
sent them. Their voice should be heard and they should have a right to 
participate. It is the most marvelous act of a complex giant country 
trying to argue and talk. And, as Dick Gephardt said, to have a great 
debate, to reach great decisions, not through a civil war, not by 
bombing one of our regional capitals, not by killing a half million 
people, and not by having snipers. Let me say unequivocally, I condemn 
all acts of violence against the law by all people for all reasons. 
This is a society of law and a society of civil behavior.

  Here we are as commoners together, to some extent Democrats and 
Republicans, to some extent liberals and conservatives, but Americans 
all. Steve Gunderson today gave me a copy of the ``Portable Abraham 
Lincoln.'' He suggested there is much for me to learn about our party, 
but I would also say that it does not hurt to have a copy of the 
portable F.D.R.
  This is a great country of great people. If there is any one factor 
or acts of my life that trikes me as I stand up here as the first 
Republican in 40 years to do so. When I first became whip in 1989, 
Russia was beginning to change, the Soviet Union as it was then. Into 
my whip's office one day came eight Russians and a Lithuanian, members 
of the Communist Party, newspaper editors. They asked me, ``What does a 
whip do?''
  They said, ``In Russia we have never had a free parliament since 1917 
and that was only for a few months, so what do you do?''
  I tried to explain, as Dave Bonior or Tom DeLay might now. It is a 
little strange if you are from a dictatorship to explain you are called 
the whip but you do not really have a whip, you are elected by the 
people you are supposed to pressure--other members. If you pressure 
them too much they will not reelect you. On the other hand If you do 
not pressure them enough they will not reelect you. Democracy is hard. 
It if frustrating.
  So our group came into the Chamber. The Lithuanian was a man in his 
late sixties, and I allowed him to come up here and sit and be Speaker, 
something many of us have done with constituents. Remember, this is the 
very beginning of perestroika and glasnost. When he came out of the 
chair, he was physically trembling. He was almost in tears. He said, 
``Ever since World War II, I have remembered what the Americans did and 
I have never believed the propaganda. But I have to tell you, I did not 
think in my life that I would be able to sit at the center of 
freedom.''
  It was one of the most overwhelming, compelling moments of my life. 
It struck me that something I could not help but think of when we were 
here with President Mandela. I went over and saw Ron Dellums and 
thought of the great work Ron had done to extend freedom across the 
planet. You get that sense of emotion when you see something so totally 
different than you had expected. Here was a man who reminded me first 
of all that while presidents are important, they are in effect an 
elected kingship, that this and the other body across the way are where 
freedom has to be fought out. That is the tradition I hope that we will 
take with us as we go to work.
  Today we had a bipartisan prayer service. Frank Wolf made some very 
important points. He said, ``We have to recognize that many of our most 
painful problems as a country are moral problems, problems of dealing 
with ourselves and with life.''

                              {time}  1350

  He said character is the key to leadership and we have to deal with 
that. He preached a little bit. I do not think he thought he was 
preaching, but he was. It was about a spirit of reconciliation. He 
talked about caring about our spouses and our children and our 
families. If we are not prepared to model our own family life beyond 
just having them here for 1 day, if we are not prepared to care about 
our children and we are not prepared to care about our families, then 
by what arrogance do we think we will transcend our behavior to care 
about others? That is why with Congressman Gephardt's help we have 
established a bipartisan task force on the family. We have established 
the principle that we are going to set schedules we stick to so 
families can count on time to be together, built around school 
schedules so that families can get to know each other, and not just by 
seeing us on C-SPAN.
  I will also say that means one of the strongest recommendations of 
the bipartisan committee, is that we have 17 minutes to vote. This is 
the bipartisan committee's recommendations, not just mine. They pointed 
out that if we take the time we spent in the last Congress where we 
waited for one more Member, and one more, and one
 more, that we literally can shorten the business and get people home 
if we will be strict and firm. At one point this year we had a 45-
minute vote. I hope all of my colleagues are paying attention because 
we are in fact going to work very hard to have 17 minute votes and it 
is over. So, leave on the first bell, not the second bell. OK? This may 
seem particularly inappropriate to say on the first day because this 
will be the busiest day on opening day in congressional history.

  I want to read just a part of the Contract With America. I don't mean 
this as a partisan act, but rather to remind all of us what we are 
about to go through and why. Those of us who ended up in the majority 
stood on these steps and signed a contract, and here is part of what it 
says:

       On the first day of the 104th Congress the new Republican 
     majority will immediately pass the following reforms aimed at 
     restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their 
     government: First, require all laws that apply to the rest of 
     the country also to apply equally to the Congress. Second, 
     select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a 
     comprehensive audit of the Congress for waste, fraud or 
     abuse. Third, cut the number of House committees and cut 
     committee staffs by a third. Fourth, limit the terms of all 
     committee chairs. Fifth, ban the casting of proxy votes in 
     committees. Sixth, require committee meetings to be open to 
     the public. Seven, require a three-fifths majority vote to 
     pass a tax increase. Eight, guarantee an honest accounting of 
     our federal budget by implementing zero baseline budgeting.

  Now, I told Dick Gephardt last night that if I had to do it over 
again we would have pledged within 3 days that we will do these things, 
but that is not what we said. So we have ourselves in a little bit of a 
box here.
  Then we go a step further. I carry the T.V. Guide version of the 
contract with me at all times.
  We then say that within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress we 
shall bring to the House floor the following bills, each to be given 
full and open debate, each to be given a full and clear vote, and each 
to be immediately available for inspection. We made it available that 
day. We listed 10 items. A balanced budget amendment and line-item 
veto, a bill to stop violent criminals, emphasizing among other things 
an effective and enforceable death penalty. Third was welfare reform. 
Fourth, legislation protecting our kids. Fifth was to provide tax cuts 
for families. Sixth was a bill to strengthen our national defense. 
Seventh was a bill to raise the senior citizens' earning limit. Eighth 
was legislation rolling back Government regulations. Ninth was a 
commonsense legal reform bill, and tenth was congressional term limits 
legislation.
  Our commitment on our side, and this is an absolute obligation, is 
first of all to work today until we are done. I know that is going to 
inconvenience people who have families and supporters. But we were 
hired to do a job, and we have to start today to prove we will do it. 
Second, I would say to our friends in the Democratic Party that we are 
going to work with you, and we are really laying out a schedule working 
with the minority leader to make sure that we can set dates certain to 
go home. That does mean that if 2 or 3 weeks out we are running short 
we will, frankly, have longer sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and 
Thursday. We will try to work this out on a bipartisan basis to, in a 
workmanlike way, get it done. It is going to mean the busiest early 
months since 1933.
  Beyond the Contract I think there are two giant challenges. I know I 
am a partisan figure. But I really hope 
[[Page H7]] today that I can speak for a minute to my friends in the 
Democratic Party as well as my own colleagues, and speak to the country 
about these two challenges so that I hope we can have a real dialog. 
One challenge is to achieve a balanced budget by 2002. I think both 
Democratic and Republican Governors will say we can do that but it is 
hard. I do not think we can do it in a year or two. I do not think we 
ought to lie to the American people. This is a huge, complicated job.
  The second challenge is to find a way to truly replace the current 
welfare state with an opportunity society.
  Let me talk very briefly about both challenges. First, on the 
balanced budget I think we can get it done. I think the baby boomers 
are now old enough that we can have an honest dialog about priorities, 
about resources, about what works, and what does not work. Let me say I 
have already told Vice President Gore that we are going to invite him 
to address a Republican conference. We would have invited him in 
December but he had to go to Moscow, I believe there are grounds for us 
to talk together and
 to work together, to have hearings together, and to have task forces 
together. If we set priorities, if we apply the principles of Edwards 
Deming and of Peter Drucker we can build on the Vice President's 
reinventing government effort and we can focus on transforming, not 
just cutting. The choice becomes not just do you want more or do you 
want less, but are there ways to do it better? Can we learn from the 
private sector, can we learn from Ford, IBM, from Microsoft, from what 
General Motors has had to go through? I think on a bipartisan basis we 
owe it to our children and grandchildren to get this Government in 
order and to be able to actually pay our way. I think 2002 is a 
reasonable timeframe. I would hope that together we could open a dialog 
with the American people.

  I have said that I think Social Security ought to be off limits, at 
least for the first 4 to 6 years of the process, because I think it 
will just destroy us if we try to bring it into the game. But let me 
say about everything else, whether it is Medicare, or it is 
agricultural subsidies, or it is defense or anything that I think the 
greatest Democratic President of the 20th century, and in my judgment 
the greatest President of the 20th century, said it right. On March 4, 
1933, he stood in braces as a man who had polio at a time when nobody 
who had that kind of disability could be anything in public life. He 
was President of the United States, and he stood in front of this 
Capitol on a rainy March day and he said, ``We have nothing to fear but 
fear itself.'' I want every one of us to reach out in that spirit and 
pledge to live up to that spirit, and I think frankly on a bipartisan 
basis. I would say to Members of the Black and Hispanic Caucuses that I 
would hope we could arrange by late spring to genuinely share 
districts. You could have a Republican who frankly may not know a thing 
about your district agree to come for a long weekend with you, and you 
will agree to go for a long weekend with them. We begin a dialog and an 
openness that is totally different than people are used to seeing in 
politics in America. I believe if we do that we can then create a 
dialog that can lead to a balanced budget.
  But I think we have a greater challenge. I do want to pick up 
directly on what Dick Gephardt said, because he said it right. No 
Republican here should kid themselves about it. The greatest leaders in 
fighting for an integrated America in the 20th century were in the 
Democratic Party. The fact is, it was the liberal wing of the 
Democratic Party that ended segregation. The fact is that it was 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt who gave hope to a Nation that was in 
distress and could have slid into dictatorship. Every Republican has 
much to learn from studying what the Democrats did right.
  But I would say to my friends in the Democratic Party that there is 
much to what Ronald Reagan was trying to get done. There is much to 
what is being done today by Republicans like Bill Weld, and John 
Engler, and Tommy Thompson, and George Allen, and Christy Whitman, and 
Pete Wilson. There is much we can share with each other.
  We must replace the welfare state with an opportunity society. The 
balanced budget is the right thing to do. But it does not in my mind 
have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the 
poorest Americans.
  I commend to all Marvin Olasky's ``The Tragedy of American 
Compassion.'' Olasky goes back for 300 years and looked at what has 
worked in America, how we have helped people rise beyond poverty, and 
how we have reached out to save people. He may not have the answers, 
but he has the right sense of where we have to go as Americans.
                              {time}  1400

  I do not believe that there is a single American who can see a news 
report of a 4-year-old thrown off of a public housing project in 
Chicago by other children and killed and not feel that a part of your 
heart went, too. I think of my nephew in the back, Kevin, and how all 
of us feel about our children. How can any American read about an 11-
year-old buried with his Teddy bear because he killed a 14-year-old, 
and then another 14-year-old killed him, and not have some sense of 
``My God, where has this country gone?'' How can we not decide that 
this is a moral crisis equal to segregation, equal to slavery? How can 
we not insist that every day we take steps to do something?
  I have seldom been more shaken than I was after the election when I 
had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to 
me, ``Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and 
realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead 
or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are 
helpless to change it?'' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe 
because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that 
personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real 
people.
  Then I tried to explain part of my thoughts by talking about the need 
for alternatives to the bureaucracy, and we got into what I think 
frankly has been a pretty distorted and cheap debate over orphanages.
  Let me say, first of all, my father, who is here today, was a foster 
child. He was adopted as a teenager. I am adopted. We have relatives 
who were adopted. We are not talking out of some vague impersonal 
Dickens ``Bleak House'' middle-class intellectual model. We have lived 
the alternatives.
  I believe when we are told that children are so lost in the city 
bureaucracies that there are children who end up in dumpsters, when we 
are told that there are children doomed to go to schools where 70 or 80 
percent of them will not graduate, when we are told of public housing 
projects that are so dangerous that if any private sector ran them they 
would be put in jail, and the only solution we are given is, ``Well, we 
will study it, we will get around to it,'' my only point is that this 
is unacceptable. We can find ways immediately to do things better, to 
reach out, break through the bureaucracy and give every young American 
child a better chance.
  Let me suggest to you Morris Schectman's new book. I do not agree 
with all of it, but it is fascinating. It is entitled ``Working Without 
a Net.'' It is an effort to argue that in the 21st century we have to 
create our own safety nets. He draws a distinction between caring and 
caretaking. It is worth every American reading.
  He said caretaking is when you bother me a little bit, and I do 
enough, I feel better because I think I took care of you. That is not 
any good to you at all. You may be in fact an alcoholic and I just gave 
you the money to buy the bottle that kills you, but I feel better and 
go home. He said caring is actually stopping and dealing with the human 
being, trying to understand enough about them to genuinely make sure 
you improve their life, even if you have to start with a conversation 
like, ``If you will quit drinking, I will help you get a job.'' This is 
a lot harder conversation than, ``I feel better. I gave him a buck or 5 
bucks.''
  I want to commend every Member on both sides to look carefully. I say 
to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot 
believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is 
making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do 
something. I would say to my friends on the left who believe 
[[Page H8]] there has never been a government program that was not 
worth keeping, you cannot look at some of the results we now have and 
not want to reach out to the humans and forget the bureaucracies.
  If we could build that attitude on both sides of this aisle, we would 
be an amazingly different place, and the country would begin to be a 
different place.
  We have to create a partnership. We have to reach out to the American 
people. We are going to do a lot of important things. Thanks to the 
House Information System and Congressman Vern Ehlers, as of today we 
are going to be on line for the whole country, every amendment, every 
conference report. We are working with C-SPAN and others, and 
Congressman Gephardt has agreed to help on a bipartisan basis to make 
the building more open to television, more accessible to the American 
people. We have talk radio hosts here today for the first time. I hope 
to have a bipartisan effort to make the place accessible for all talk 
radio hosts of all backgrounds, no matter their ideology. The House
 Historian's office is going to be more aggressively run on a 
bipartisan basis to reach out to Close Up, and to other groups to teach 
what the legislative struggle is about. I think over time we can and 
will this Spring rethink campaign reform and lobbying reform and review 
all ethics, including the gift rule.

  But that isn't enough. Our challenge shouldn't be just to balance the 
budget or to pass the Contract. Our challenge should not be anything 
that is just legislative. We are supposed to, each one of us, be 
leaders. I think our challenge has to be to set as our goal, and maybe 
we are not going to get there in 2 years. This ought to be the goal 
that we go home and we tell people we believe in: that there will be a 
Monday morning when for the entire weekend not a single child was 
killed anywhere in America; that there will be a Monday morning when 
every child in the country went to a school that they and their parents 
thought prepared them as citizens and prepared them to compete in the 
world market; that there will be a Monday morning where it was easy to 
find a job or create a job, and your own Government did not punish you 
if you tried.
  We should not be happy just with the language of politicians and the 
language of legislation. We should insist that our success for America 
is felt in the neighborhoods, in the communities, is felt by real 
people living real lives who can say, ``Yes, we are safer, we are 
healthier, we are better educated, America succeeds.''
  This morning's closing hymn at the prayer service was the Battle Hymn 
of the Republic. It is hard to be in this building, look down past 
Grant to the Lincoln Memorial and not realize how painful and how 
difficult that battle hymn is. The key phrase is, ``As he died to make 
men holy, let us live to make men free.''
  It is not just political freedom, although I agree with everything 
Congressman Gephardt said earlier. If you cannot afford to leave the 
public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to 
find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If 
you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you 
are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are 
not free.
  So as all of us over the coming months sing that song, ``As he died 
to make men holy, let us live to make men free,'' I want us to dedicate 
ourselves to reach out in a genuinely nonpartisan way to be honest with 
each other. I promise each of you that without regard to party my door 
is going to be open. I will listen to each of you. I will try to work 
with each of you. I will put in long hours, and I will guarantee that I 
will listen to you first. I will let you get it all out before I give 
you my version, because you have been patient with me today, and you 
have given me a chance to set the stage.
  But I want to close by reminding all of us of how much bigger this is 
than us. Because beyond talking with the American people, beyond 
working together, I think we can only be successful if we start with 
our limits. I was very struck this morning with something Bill Emerson 
used, a very famous quote of Benjamin Franklin, at the point where the 
Constitutional Convention was deadlocked. People were tired, and there 
was a real possibility that the Convention was going to break up. 
Franklin, who was quite old and had been relatively quiet for the 
entire Convention, suddenly stood up and was angry, and he said :

       I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the 
     more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs 
     in the affairs of men, and if a sparrow cannot fall to the 
     ground without His notice, is it possible that an empire can 
     rise without His aid?

  At that point the Constitutional Convention stopped. They took a day 
off for fasting and prayer.
  Then, having stopped and come together, they went back, and they 
solved the great question of large and small States. They wrote the 
Constitution, and the United States was created. All I can do is pledge 
to you that, if each of us will reach out prayerfully and try to 
genuinely understand each other, if we will recognize that in this 
building we symbolize America, and that we have an obligation to talk 
with each other, then I think a year from now we can look on the 104th 
Congress as a truly amazing institution without regard to party, 
without regard to ideology. We can say, ``Here, America comes to work, 
and here we are preparing for those children a better future.''
  Thank you. Good luck and God bless you.
  Let me now call on the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Dingell].
  (Applause, the Members rising.)
                              {time}  1410

  I am now ready to take the oath of office. I ask the dean of the 
House of Representatives, the Honorable John D. Dingell of Michigan, to 
administer the oath of office.
  Mr. DINGELL then administered the oath of office to Mr. Gingrich of 
Georgia, as follows:
  Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the 
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and 
domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; 
that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or 
purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the 
duties of the office on which you are about to enter. So help you God.
  (Applause, the Members rising.)

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