[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4419-H4420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE NEXT 2,000 DAYS IN CONGRESS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, as I watched the celebration that was 
misdirected on the Capitol steps this morning, Republicans celebrating 
what was 100 days of gimmickry, I wondered whether or not we really 
needed to listen to those who were not able to come to the U.S. 
Capitol, for as we look at some of the headlines saying ``Senate Battle 
Lines Forming Over Possible Tax Cuts,'' when we see the headlines ``GOP 
Gets Mixed Review From Public Wary on Taxes,'' and when we find out 
that ``Despite Change on Hill, Public Still Remains Critical,'' then we 
must ask the question, did we come here to follow political polls or to 
be statesmen and stateswomen.
  Thomas Jefferson did not have a poll, but he tried to do what was 
right, and 
[[Page H4420]]  Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln, and Franklin Delano 
Roosevelt.
  This past week marked the 27th anniversary of the killing of Dr. 
Martin Luther King, a simple American who tried to do what was right.
  I wonder what the bus drivers, I wonder what the waitresses and 
teachers and people who work think about what we have done.
  I tell you what they want, and I hope that we go forward to make sure 
that we have summer jobs for our young people this summer and not long, 
hot summers. I hope we will get an energy policy that will help create 
jobs in this Nation so that people can truly work. I hope that we will 
have job training for those people who have lost their jobs because of 
transition and technology and put the middle-class working man and 
woman back to work who have lost their jobs.
  And then I hope we do something about children who are being molested 
in our streets and develop a national registration for child molesters 
so you will know when they come into your neighborhoods.
  Lastly, I hope this country recognizes that each and every American 
deserves an affordable house to live in.
  That is what this Government should be about, not about gimmicks and 
admiration of one man who is the Speaker, because we think we are 
following campaign pledges.
  I hope the next 2,000 days in the U.S. Congress will be 
representative of the people of America, diverse, different, speaking 
different languages, looking differently, but caring about one thing, 
and that is freedom and opportunity.


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