[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 We repealed last 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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