[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 45 (Friday, March 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3041-H3042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized for 30 
minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman 
from California [Mr. Dornan] for his eloquent testimony about the 
importance of the Battle of the Bulge in U.S. history, and the 
importance of our service men and women who have given us the 
opportunity to serve here in Congress and to try to make a difference 
in each person's life.
  Mr. Speaker, it occurs to me that the media's coverage of the new 
Speaker of the House is further proof that elitists in the Washington 
press corps still do not get it. They fail to understand that the 
Republicans' sweep in November was not about the personalities of power 
inside the beltway that accompanied the democratically controlled 
Congress for so many years. The election was not about power in 
Washington at all. It was about ideas, about helping people.
  Speaker Newt Gingrich  is an excellent articulator of the 
conservative tenets of individual freedom and decentralized government, 
as well outlined by Jay Heslick in the Southeast Missourian.
  Just this past week we have been discussing how we can work with our 
families, our neighborhoods, and our schools. The fact is we are 
growing school meals. Hungry children cannot learn. We are growing 
kids, not government. We are growing school meals 4.5 percent a year. 
Under our plan, in 5 years we will be spending $1 billion more on 
school meals than we are today.
  For kids under school age, we are growing the WIC program, for lower-
income women, infants, and children. A country that is broke certainly 
cannot feed a hungry child. The Clinton budget piles $1 trillion in new 
debt on our kids, which they will have to repay with interest. Unless 
we turn this around, a child born today will pay $180,000 in Federal 
debt during his or her lifetime. That is not for a house, a car, or a 
college education. That is interest on the Federal debt, and the 
Clinton budget is growing.
   [[Page H3042]] That is why I support the balanced budget amendment, 
even though President Clinton does not, and that is why I support 
reviewing all Federal expenditures, to see if they can be transformed 
or reformed. Money spent on bureaucrats cannot be spent feeding kids, 
and because the Clinton administration is still running deficits and 
adding to the debts that our kids will owe, money spent on bureaucrats 
has to be paid back with interest.
  On school meals, we are transforming and reforming the program. We 
are cutting out the bureaucrats in Washington, cutting the paperwork 
and the waste that they impose on local schools, and we are going to 
add to the school lunch program by having more students served because 
less bureaucrats will be served.
  At this point, Mr. Speaker, I think it is very interesting and very 
enlightening to see we have already passed here within the House the 
balanced budget amendment as part of the Contract With America; we have 
increased the penalties against violent criminals; we have already 
worked within the committee on tax cuts for families, and a stronger 
national defense, with no U.S. troops under U.N. command. We are 
working on various other items, common sense legal reform has just been 
completed, and we are going to be working on many other important 
issues.
  Mr. Speaker, I did want to take a moment to talk about legislation 
which has received bipartisan support which goes to the item dealing 
with protecting our children, protecting our citizens, and protecting 
our country by discouraging the crime of jury tampering and witness 
tampering and witness intimidation.
  Mr. Speaker, it was discovered not that long ago by the Wall Street 
Journal that in fact if someone is charged with a major offense 
federally, kidnaping or murder, and is through their own devices 
acquitted of the major offense because they tampered with a jury or 
intimidated a witness, later on, when it comes up, the fact is they can 
use double jeopardy to keep from being tried again. The fact is right 
now in our current law there is only a six month sentence for tampering 
with a jury or tampering with a witness.
  Under legislation that has received bipartisan support that we have 
just filed, we will be able to increase those penalties for jury 
tampering and witness tampering, and to have a chilling effect on those 
crimes, by increasing the penalty to be equal to the substantive or 
greater offense. We believe it is a step in the right direction. I am 
pleased it is being investigated and studied by the National District 
Attorneys Association, and my own district attorney in Montgomery 
County, Michael D. Marino has endorsed this legislation fully. He 
believes this legislation will definitely be a deterrent for those who 
want to commit crimes, then to intimidate or bribe a witness, and then 
be off scot-free because they have in fact through illegal self-help 
made it easier for them to get away with a crime.
  I am pleased to report to the House the bill has been filed. It will 
be going to the Committee on the Judiciary. It has received the support 
of the Committee on the Judiciary, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. 
Hyde], the ranking member, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Conyers], 
and the subcommittee ranking member, the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Schumer], and as well the Crimes Subcommittee chairman, the gentleman 
from Florida [Mr. McCollum]. These individuals are behind the bill. 
They are leaders in this legislation to reduce crime. I must say, Mr. 
Speaker, I am proud to be associated with them in this kind of 
legislation, which we hope will be good for all of the people of the 
United States and obviously not good for the criminals.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I just want to say that for those people 
who realize we have a Contract With America, much of that credit goes 
to our Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich], to the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey], the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay], 
the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Boehner], our leadership. These 
individuals helped to write this contract, and for the first time in 
years we have a document that tells the people what we are going to try 
to do in the first 100 days.
  We are more than halfway there. We are working hard, we are keeping 
promises, we are trying to make a difference. I am happy to say we have 
had bipartisan support for this people-oriented legislation, which is 
going to hold the line on costs, provide quality services to people, 
but make sure the people are part of the process. That is why we are 
here.


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