[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11-S13]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW REPUBLICAN SENATORS

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I also want to congratulate the 11 new 
Republican Senators who were elected in November. I thank them and all 
my Republican colleagues for their support in electing me as Senate 
majority leader.
  But even more importantly, on behalf of all of us elected to serve, I 
thank the American people for their trust and their calling us to 
task. 
[[Page S12]] America has reconnected us with the hopes for a nation 
made more free by demanding a Government that is more limited. Reining 
in our Government will be my mandate, and I hope it will be the purpose 
and principal accomplishment of the 104th Congress.
  It was nearly 206 years ago when the First Congress met in New York 
City. Much of their work was devoted to writing the Bill of Rights--the 
first 10 amendments to our Constitution.
  The 10th of those amendments reads: ``The powers not delegated to the 
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.''
  I might say I think we need to focus on the 10th amendment. So I 
intend to place it in the Record at least once a week with a brief 
statement so that anybody who reads the Record, anybody watching C-
SPAN, or my colleagues, may understand the importance of the 10th 
amendment and how far we have strayed from it.
  Federalism is an idea that power should be kept close to the people. 
It is the idea on which our Nation was founded. But there are some in 
Washington--perhaps fewer this year than last--who believe that neither 
our States nor our people can be trusted with power. Federalism has 
given way to paternalism--with disastrous results.
  If I have one goal for the 104th Congress, it is this: That we will 
dust off the 10th amendment and restore it to its rightful place in the 
Constitution.
  Senate bill No. 1 will be step number 1: Legislation to end unasked 
for and unfunded Federal mandates on States and cities and communities 
across America. And I am honored the Presiding Officer at this moment 
is Senator Kempthorne from Idaho and former mayor of Boise, ID, who has 
been leading the effort since day one, since his first day on the 
Senate floor, working with Governors, our colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle, our colleagues in the House, mayors, and county 
commissioners all across America, because we know what Federal 
mandates--and he knows better than most, coming here as a mayor--have 
cost our cities and how they have bankrupted our cities and States.
  So, along with many other Senators, Senator Kempthorne has done 
yeoman's work in preparing this legislation.
  We are going to have hearings tomorrow. We are serious about this. We 
promised the American people if they gave us the majority we will do 
certain things, and we are about to do certain things that we think are 
right--not necessarily partisan, but right. We hope to bring these 
things to the floor very soon.
  I spoke this morning with the Senator from Idaho, and he will be 
prepared, I hope, early next week.
  We wish to demonstrate quickly, whatever the message may have been on 
November 8, 1994--and there were a lot of messages--I think one message 
was to take a look at the 10th amendment. Maybe people did not think 
about it when they voted. But give America back to the people, give it 
back to the States, give it back to the local communities. What is 
wrong with that?
  We do not have all of the answers in Washington, DC. Why should we 
tell Idaho, or the State of Kansas, or the State of South Dakota, or 
the State of Oregon, or any other State, that we are going to pass this 
Federal law and we are going to require that you do certain things, but 
we are not going to send you any money. So you raise the taxes in the 
local communities or in the States. You tax the people, and when they 
complain about it, say, well, we cannot help it because the Federal 
Government passed this mandate. So we are going to continue our drive 
to return power to our States and our people throughout the 104th 
Congress.
  We will roll back Federal programs, laws, and regulations from A to 
Z, from Amtrak to zoological studies, working our way through the 
alphabet soup of Government. What will be our guide? Our guide is going 
to be simply this: Is this program a basic function of a limited 
Government? Or is it another example of how Government has lost faith 
in the judgments of our people and the potential of our markets? That 
is the test.
  I believe that more often than not the answer will justify less 
Federal involvement, fewer Federal rules and regulations, a reduction 
in Federal spending, and more freedom and opportunity for our States 
and our citizens--again getting back to the 10th amendment.
  Part of what has allowed Government to become so cavalier with power 
has been its ability to exclude itself from the dictates we impose on 
the American people--we, the Congress. So what are we going to do? This 
is going to be bill No. 2. This will end with the passage of Senate 
bill No. 2, an effort led by Senator Grassley, a Republican, and 
Senator Lieberman, a Democrat. We have a counterpart led by Republicans 
and Democrats in the House, particularly Congressman Shays from 
Connecticut. I can think of no better protection for the private 
citizens and private enterprise than the constant prospect for Members 
of Congress that we will have to live under the rules we inflict on 
everyone else. So if a law is going to apply to some small businessman 
in Idaho, Oregon, Kansas, North Carolina, wherever, it is also going to 
apply to Congress. Maybe when it applies to Congress, we will 
understand why so many people write and complain to us about this law 
or that law. Do not misunderstand me, some laws we pass are certainly 
beneficial. The Government does a lot of good things, so do not 
misunderstand me. But why should we not live under the same laws you 
live under? That is bill No. 2.
  In the same spirit, we are also going to propose and pass legislation 
to protect the rights of private property owners, and to cut the tangle 
of red tape forced upon our small businessmen and women. Property 
rights. Again, it was initiated by the Senator from Idaho, Senator 
Symms, who served here with distinction for years; it was his idea. 
When Steve Symms left the Senate voluntarily, he passed it on to me, 
and I have worked with my colleagues, Senator Gramm and others, on this 
side of the aisle and, again, the Presiding Officer, the Senator from 
Idaho, and a number of others, and we believe in it. It is important in 
urban and rural areas all across America.
  Incidentally, it was said by someone who should know better last year 
that America's small businessmen and women were getting a free ride 
from American society. That statement was not made by a politician, so 
do not read anything into it. It was somebody that should have known 
better. Let me set the record straight. The engine of American society 
is America's small business. Small business provides the jobs, the 
competition, and the spark for progress that is the very essence of 
democratic capitalism. It is small business that carries America--not 
the other way around.
  Mr. President, Republicans also believe that our country's 
increasingly desperate fight against crime is an area where more 
freedom is needed at the State level.
  Today we will introduce, under Senator Hatch's leadership, Senate 
bill 3, a crime bill that will free States and cities to decide for 
themselves how to spend much of the $8 billion in law enforcement funds 
appropriated last year. It will eliminate the wasteful social spending 
programs included in last year's so-called crime bill.
  Perhaps most important, the crime bill we introduce today will begin 
our effort to restore the freedom from fear we knew in the America of 
our youth. In my hometown of Russell, KS, when I was growing up, we did 
not lock our doors at night. Nobody did. You left your keys in your 
car. Even in towns the size of mine in this day and age you do not do 
that anymore. So somehow that has been lost to the children growing up 
in America today. We will, without apology, remove from society those 
who are tearing it apart with casual violence and a new chilling 
disregard for human life. Our crime bill will impose mandatory minimum 
sentences on those who use guns in the commission of a crime and make 
certain there are jails there to lock them up.
  And in the next session we will cut taxes. Under Senator Packwood's 
leadership, the Finance Committee will produce, as a top priority, a 
tax cut that will let families keep more of their own money to invest 
in their own children and in their own future, instead of siphoning it 
up, giving it to Washington, and sending it back in 
[[Page S13]] some program that may or may not work.
  There seems to be a growing bipartisan consensus that taxes must be 
cut, which Republicans welcome, and which encourages me to believe the 
Senate can act quickly. The President's recent comments indicate he is 
ready to sign such a bill. But I strongly object to the President's 
insistence on labeling America by ``class.'' I do not think we ought to 
divide Americans into economic groups competing one against the other 
for the favors of the Government. Rather, we must lead by instilling 
hope and restoring freedom and opportunity for all of our people. No 
more of the class warfare. It does not work.
  By cutting people's taxes we will reduce the Government's take of 
their wages--worthy unto itself. But if tax cuts are to have the effect 
of limiting Government and providing for long-term prosperity, then 
they also must be matched by real cuts, real cuts in Government 
spending.
  This, Republicans are committed to do.
  No one in this Chamber has spoken more eloquently about the need to 
deal more forthrightly with our national deficit than Senator Domenici, 
who today assumes the chair of the Budget Committee.
  Let me be clear. Something like a family that examines its budget 
after a Christmas that was too rich, we will make hard decisions and 
endure sacrifices to make ends meet. With the one exception of Social 
Security, every bureaucracy and bureaucrat, every Government program 
and Federal expense is ripe for reduction and/or elimination.
  At the top of that list is a price tag for Congress itself. We have 
to set an example before we have somebody else make the sacrifice. We 
must be the example, not the problem. We hope to pass a resolution 
today calling upon the Rules Committee to reduce committee budgets by 
approximately $34 million. That is a lot of money. That was objected 
to, but we will get to it in another way. The House is also taking 
cost-cutting action today. We will work together throughout the next 2 
years to save more money across Government.
  We will also work together to pass the line-item veto legislation 
which we introduce today as Senate bill 4, and to send a balanced 
budget amendment to the States for ratification. These measures which 
have had the overwhelming support of the American people for some time 
have been ignored in Washington for far too long.
  These measures go to the heart of the question with which we began: 
Should Government elites rule society? Should they be able to spend the 
people's money without check, cloaked by impenetrable rules and omnibus 
appropriations bills too massive for anybody to read? Or should we 
trust the people?
  Paternalism or Federalism? That is the choice. The 104th Congress 
must answer that question by bowing to the will of the people and 
putting its trust in them.
  Finally, let me make it clear that Republicans are acutely aware that 
the United States has only one Commander in Chief. Our Commander in 
Chief is President Clinton. We will support him on foreign policy 
whenever possible, as we did with NAFTA and GATT legislation, and in 
revising outdated provisions of law on South Africa, Russia, and the 
Middle East.
  During the last few years, however, there have been some important 
areas of disagreement between Congress and the President in the area of 
foreign policy. One of these has been the President's apparent 
willingness to place the agenda of the United Nations before the 
interests of the United States.
  Therefore, we will introduce today the Peace Powers Act of 1995, 
which is designated as Senate bill No. 5. This legislation repeals the 
War Powers Resolution of 1973 and places some restrictions on U.S. 
participation in U.N. peacekeeping activities. The effect of the bill 
would be this: We would untie the President's hands in using American 
forces to defend American interests, but we would restrict the use of 
American forces and funds in U.N. peacekeeping.
  We do not want American soldiers under U.N. command, and the costs to 
America of U.N. peacekeeping must be known before--not after, but 
before--it will be approved by Congress.
  In a manner consistent with our constitutional role to appropriate 
funds and to advise and consent on matters of foreign policy, the 
Senate will also take a close look at a number of other foreign policy 
issues in this session; including the costs of the Haiti operation, and 
the legality and wisdom of aiding North Korea.
  Mr. President, it has been said that we have become a nation of 
competing factions, held together less by our hopes than by our wants. 
The implication is that we are no longer a great people, but merely a 
continent of categories, and special interests. Well, I do not believe 
this. I have been here for some time, but I do not believe this.
  It has been said that Government is uncontrollable because of the 
uncontrollable appetites of our people. Last November was proof that 
this is not true. If the recent election proved anything--and some 
would question, some have doubts, and some have different views--it 
proved these ideas to be the self-justification of a Government grown 
too cynical, too fat, and too far removed from the people it is 
supposed to serve.
  Mr. President, Americans have been voting in congressional elections 
for more than 200 years. Some of these elections--most of these 
elections--made very little difference. But others have been turning 
points in history. The last one was a turning point.
  The elections in November provided clear instruction from the 
American people. The ideas on which we will conduct the business of 
Government were laid out in unprecedented detail during the last 
election campaign. This was derided as a strategy by political pundits 
and attacked as heresy by the established powers. But the ideas 
prevailed. And therefore, I believe the ideas will prevail in this body 
and in the House and across the sprawling expanse of Government.
  Mr. President, Republicans welcome the support of like-thinking 
Democrats as we work to put a leash on our Government by restoring the 
10th amendment, cutting taxes, balancing the budget, enacting term 
limits, and taking whatever other measures are necessary to make the 
Government accountable to the voters.
  Together, we hope to establish once again America's trust in her 
people and faith in the unmatched power of freedom to build a world of 
hope and opportunity for all.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senate bills 1 through 5 
be printed in the Record, along with written statements which further 
detail these bills.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The text of the bills and statements are located in today's Record 
under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DOLE. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Dole, Mr. Lieberman, and Mr. Feingold, pertaining 
to the introduction of S. 21 are located in today's Record under 
``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hatch). The minority leader.

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