[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4145-H4146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1700
             THE REPUBLICAN CONTRACT: WHO WINS, WHO LOSES?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bilbray). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Illinois [Mrs. Collins] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, at the end of this week the 
Republicans will have a celebration of passage of items in their 
Contract on America in 100 days.
  The most important question we need to ask about the Republican 
contract is: Who wins, and who loses? The breakneck pace the Republican 
leadership has employed to pass the items in the contract has obscured 
the answer to this question. I am confident that as time goes on, and 
the American people are given the time they deserve to consider these 
measures, they will understand that they will be the losers because 
their interests are not represented as they were led to believe.
  So let us step back for a moment and take a look at these first 100 
days. What are the Republicans really selling with the contract, and 
who is buying?
  The Republican leadership moved quickly to tend to the needs of their 
special patrons: the special corporate interests who have for decades 
sought relief from their responsibilities for the health, safety, and 
well being of Americans.
  Corporate America's special interests' day has finally come. In their 
zeal to protect their patrons the Republican leadership and members 
immediately moved to issue a blanket moratorium on all new regulations 
of the Federal Government. This blind, unthinking payoff to the special 
interests did not discriminate between good regulations and bad ones. 
It did not consider who might get hurt. That of course, was not the 
point. So this House voted to bring to a halt rules to protect the food 
supply from deadly E-coli contamination; 
[[Page H4146]] rules to protect the drinking water; rules for greater 
toy safety; rules for workplace safety, and many other regulations 
issued to protect the interests of average Americans--the public 
interest.
  Well, so what if we suspend all regulations which serve to protect 
the public health and safety? As American citizens don't we still have 
the right to control irresponsible corporate behavior through the most 
democratic institution of all, the citizen jury in a court of law? Well 
my friends, think again.
  As the Republicans in the House take away with one hand, they also 
try to take away with the other.
  Soon after voting to stop regulations that might serve to protect 
consumers from dangerous products and irresponsible corporate behavior, 
they rammed through a measure which makes it far more difficult for 
citizens to secure damages in court for harms they have suffered from 
dangerous products. Punitive damages, those awards made by juries as a 
message to stop future irresponsible and negligent behavior of 
corporations, were capped in the House bill. This takes away the power 
of the jury and reduces the prospect for punitive damages to just 
another calculation in the cost of doing business.
  And by tying punitive damages to the income of the victim, the 
Republican sponsors of this bill have sent a clear message to Americans 
that their worth is determined by how much they can earn. I urge the 
women, elderly, children, workers, and poor of America to take note of 
this startling fact. No where else is the real agenda of the Republican 
contract made more simple and more clear.
  Now what about welfare reform? Wasn't that supposed to make changes 
in a program for the benefit of all Americans--poor and working 
Americans alike? Well, the Republican leadership chose instead to avoid 
an honest evaluation of the Federal welfare program: fixing what needs 
to be fixed and improving what should be improved. They chose to avoid 
the underlying problems of jobs, health care and child care which beg 
for solutions. Instead they chose to slash the budget and callously 
pass the problem along to the individual States.
  And yet as they cut $69 billion from programs like WIC and the school 
lunch program, they refuse our efforts on the Democratic side to ensure 
that these cuts would go to reduce the deficit, a benefit for all 
Americans. Instead, they chose to reserve those funds to plug a hole in 
their tax cut plan for the wealthy. I am sure that many working class 
Americans who supported welfare reform in the contract will be shocked 
when they discover who will reap the benefits. It is, of course clear, 
who will suffer.
  It should come as no surprise that we have recently learned that much 
of the legislation in the contract was actually, literally drafted by 
professional lobbyists for the special interests. We learned that the 
Republican leadership gathers for lunch weekly with this small cadre of 
lobbyists so that they can represent the interests of their clients 
more effectively.
  Well, let me tell you that I gathered for lunch with some VIP's 
myself last month. They were kids from an elementary school in my 
district. The young ones--babies 4, 5, and 6 years old--start asking 
their teacher what time lunch is about 9 in the morning each day. They 
are that hungry.
  Mr. Speaker, If there were a few of these kids in your weekly 
lunches, and a few less special interest lobbyists--America would be a 
far better place for everyone.
  The tactics employed by the leadership in ramming through anti-people 
programs have been designed to hide the truth from the American people 
about what they're really selling in the contract; about who gains, and 
who gets hurt.
  This contract is for corporate America and fat cats, not for the 
people.


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