[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 64 (Thursday, April 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UPDATE ON THE CONTRACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, you can see now after 12 weeks
that this bipartisan House, under Republican leadership, has passed 9
out of 10 items in the Contract With America.
First the balanced budget amendment which only awaits one vote in the
Senate.
Stop violent criminals. Here we have a law which changed the habeas
corpus reform by making sure that there is finality to death sentences
where we are dealing with violent criminals for which there is a first
degree sentence.
Welfare reform. Here we are trying to make sure that able-bodied
people will have every right and every incentive to be off welfare
within 2 years by giving them job counseling, job training, job
placement, and day care, if necessary, and also make sure that we do
get healthy meals for our kids with WIC and with the school nutrition
programs.
Under the Republican proposal which has been passed with a 4.5-
percent increase over this year, that is higher than 3.1 percent
recommended by the President and the 3.6 percent recommended by the
Democrat minority. The fact is that with the 15-percent middleman
eliminated by the Federal bureaucrats and the States taking over the
program, we are going to have a 5-percent cap on administrative
expense, and we will feed more children more meals.
We are going to have in the tax cuts for families a very important
program. Here we have the tax bill historically passed last night. I
might say that almost every single bill passed in the Contract With
America; there has been bipartisan support, well over the 218 votes
necessary, votes approximating 300 on almost all occasions.
In the tax credit bill, we are going to have $500 tax credit for each
child in the family. New IRA deductions for health insurance, for
first-time home purchases, and for retirement income. We repealed last
night the 1993 tax increase on Social Security benefits over 5 years.
We provide tax incentives for the purchase of long-term-care health
insurance. We provide a 50-percent capital gains exclusion from taxes
which will help investments, savings, and create new jobs. We will help
small businesses be able to deduct more of the expenses of their
business and, therefore, encourage more employment. We will provide a
refundable tax credit for families of $5,000 for those families who
adopt children, a $500 tax credit for families caring for a dependent
elderly parent or grandparent. We will raise the earnings limit for
senior citizens up to $30,000, up from the $11,280 we have today.
By working together we have passed almost every single item here in
the Contract With America. The only item we have left to pass finally
will be congressional term limits. While I supported all four bills, we
needed 290 votes to pass it in the House. We had as much as 227.
Speaker Gingrich has guaranteed that in the beginning session for the
next session, 1997, he would make that bill No. 1, if we do not have
another opportunity to vote on it again.
We have rolled back Government regulations. We have had commonsense
legal reform. We want to make sure people have the legal right to
redress their grievances in court, but we also want to make sure that
frivolous, fraudulent, and inflated suits would not be encouraged in
the courts of the United States.
We are also going to make sure that we have a strong national defense
by making sure that our military are properly armed and properly
trained, but our U.S. troops will not be under UN command, because we
will be making sure that we take care of the United States first.
Now, what is going to happen in the post-100 days? We are going to
work on health care reform. We are going to work on FDA reform. We are
going to make sure the Food and Drug Administration moves the process
along more quickly so that drugs that are life extending and those that
are life saving are approved more quickly so we can help our
constituents, create jobs and also help people live longer.
Going to work with Mrs. Morella, Mrs. Lowey, and Ms. Pelosi on the
women's health care initiatives, very important programs here in the
Congress.
We are also going to work on a bill that I have, within 7 years,
sunset Federal agencies to make sure that those agencies that have
outlived their usefulness or are spending too much money or duplicate
what we are doing in the States, that they are eliminated.
We also need to expand the investment tax credit and research and
development tax credits to help our small businesses be able to make
sure that they keep their employment going to keep their services going
and to make sure the engine of America moves forward with new jobs,
with expansion, and to make sure we have every family enjoy the
American dream.
So the Contract With America is only the beginning. We see a
bipartisan effort moving forward in this 104th Congress. We do not see
Republicans or Democrats fighting. We do not see conservatives and
liberals fighting. We see the end of gridlock. We see the end of finger
pointing. We see an America moving forward together to help its people.
We will restore the confidence in the Congress because not only will
we get more reforms which helps individuals and families and seniors,
but we are going to make sure we have the kind of reforms in this
Congress that will have gift ban reform, that we are going to make sure
we have campaign reform. And we also are going to make sure we have
pension reform. That was part of this last legislation to make sure
that Congressmen in fact have the same pensions as other Federal
workers.
So, Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to give this recap
and look forward to working with the American people and the Congress
and Senate to make sure we have valuable legislation adopted in the
next 100 days.
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