[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3089-H3090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    RESCISSION CUTS ON JOBS PROGRAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about two 
programs. First this week we will be considering a rescission bill and 
the activities that I was involved in over the weekend, but also talk a 
little bit about the School Lunch Program. But first let me talk about 
the rescission bill that Congress will be voting on this week.
  This last Saturday in Houston, I had the opportunity to, at 8 o'clock 
in the morning, to go to our city hall in the city of Houston and see 
hundreds of young people and not so young people who were there at 8 
o'clock on a Saturday morning getting prepared to go out and work in 
the community.
  The rescission bill we are going to vote on this week will definitely 
cut part of the national service, the Americorps Program that serves 
Houston, and I have served Houston Program in Texas. We started with 
really no program last year and we have become such a great serving 
institution for the community.
  Let me talk about the Corporation for National Service on a 
nationwide basis and then bring it down to how it affects Houston: 
AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve, and the Senior Corps. They work full or 
part-time in local organizations addressing community needs. We have 60 
of them in Houston that serve Houston, 60 positions. I wanted more but 
we couldn't do it as a startup, 33,000 more with 1995 moneys and 47,000 
more with 1996 moneys, but again, the rescission bill will cut us back.
  [[Page H3090]] This would complete the contract that a bipartisan 
Congress made with our young people with the National and Community 
Service Fund Act of 1993, but we cannot do it if we pass the rescission 
bill this week with those cuts.
  Learn and Serve America, elementary and high school and college 
students participate in activities that address community needs and 
they enhance their own academic skills. Approximately 375,000 
elementary and secondary school and college students participate, 
growing to over $588,000 if we had the 1996 funds.
  The Senior Corps, Americans 55 or older serve in local communities on 
a part-time basis and they provide, for example, modest stipends for 
foster grandparents, and I have received a lot of mail and phone calls 
this week from senior companions, 480,000 seniors participate today, 
and if we could take it out of the rescission bill, we would be able to 
increase that just a small amount to 510,000.
  The cuts in the Americorps is wrong and should not be because it is 
one of the best programs we have. If we are really going to reform 
welfare, we need to make sure we reform it by giving people that job 
experience and those jobs.
  Let me talk about another example of the Saturday I was with the 
Summer Jobs Program that is sponsored by Houston, works at the 
cooperative effort in a number of our local governments. We have 2,000 
jobs in my district that are summer jobs that are part of that program, 
6,000 in Harris County alone. And my concern, by the rescission bill 
that cuts those 6,000 jobs, we are going to lose out and three or four 
individuals who were there Saturday who were graduates of the Summer 
Jobs Program.
  We have a young lady, Marilena, who now works at a radio station in 
Houston who got her start in the Summer Jobs Program. Wilbert, who now 
is a supervisor for the city of Houston in waste water, got his start 
in a summer jobs program. Laquista is a young lady who made the news in 
Houston who got her start working at a summer jobs program and now is 
supervising cleanup in our community for the city of Houston. Arti, who 
not only works in my office, but is also a student who got her start in 
the Summer Jobs Program.
  Too often we hear that the majority party now says that there is no 
benefit to these summer jobs program, but there is a benefit, and 
Saturday morning I had four people who were graduates who are now 
productive citizens today because of the Summer Jobs Program. And to 
cut out 2,000 young people in my own district or 6,000 in the county or 
thousands all over the United States for a 6-week Summer Jobs Program 
is wrong because what we are doing is we are having some short-term 
savings that provides for some short-term tax relief; but in the long 
term, the American people in our country will lose the values of those 
talents of those young people whether it be in the Summer Jobs Program 
and productive citizens or whether it be in the Americorps and Serve 
Houston where we are losing not only their talents now in helping our 
community, but we are going to lose the experience they are getting now 
through Serve Houston and through Americorps for the future of our 
country.
  We cannot be penny wise and pound foolish and lose that effort right 
now. And that is my concern, that the Congress this week needs to make 
sure that we do not cut these programs out of the rescission package. 
We do not need to cut those programs now and say we are going to 
provide for additional tax cuts now and cut out those 2,000 young 
people in my own district who have a summer job for 6 weeks.


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