[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 103 (Thursday, June 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6259-H6260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  FEEDING THE HUNGRY OF THE NATION'S CAPITAL, AND REDUCING THE DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to talk about an issue of 
feeding the hungry in our Nation's Capital. I would like to thank my 
colleagues for the overwhelming response to our Dear Colleague letter, 
for the donations of sweet potatoes that were distributed to their 
office.
  I would like to especially thank the gentlemen from Louisiana, Cleo 
Fields and Richard Baker, for their work with the Sweet Potato Council 
of the United States, who gave each Member of Congress two cans of 
whole sweet potatoes. Mr. Fields and Mr. Baker generously donated three 
cases of sweet potatoes for the hungry. The sweet potatoes will be 
given to D.C. Central Kitchens, a local not-for-profit organization 
that provides 2,500 meals a day to men, women and children in area 
shelters and feeding programs.
  Over 100 offices of the Members of Congress have donated so far. It 
has been so successful that we hope to repeat this again. Several 
offices have donated additional items. Every item is much appreciated.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my staffer, Jennifer DelVecchio, 
[[Page H 6260]] who came up with this idea. Many times people come by 
our offices and bring us small tokens or some products from back home. 
When we get such abundant products, some of which sit on our shelves 
and go to waste, she thought it only appropriate that we reach out and 
help those in our Nation's Capital, that the food really go to use for 
those who truly need our help.
  Again, I would like to congratulate my colleagues in Congress for 
supporting this very, very worthwhile project.
  Mr. Speaker, let me speak for a moment on something that I think 
really needs reform in the United States Congress. Yesterday in the 
Committee on Science I had the good fortune of striking what I 
considered wasteful spending in Congress. Twenty-five thousand dollars 
was allocated to gas-cooled nuclear technology, which has been underway 
for over 30 years. The Department of Science, the Department of Energy, 
all conclude that this proposal is going nowhere, that commercial 
application of this
 gas-cooled technology is going nowhere.

  The President's budget for three times has consistently voted against 
it. The Senate turned it down in 1993. However, somehow the $25 million 
has shown up in House appropriations. I won an amendment 25 to 15 to 
strike this $25 million from the budget.
  Today in the committee, however, Mr. Speaker, one of the Members 
decided $25 million is too much to pass up, and offered an amendment 
which was successful, to transfer that $25 million to another program.
  There is a problem here in Washington, and the problem is people in 
Congress cannot get their hands out of the wallet, out of the checkbook 
of our Nation's taxpayers; that every dollar that is on the table, any 
dollar that is missed by an appropriator, any dollar that is offered up 
as sacrifice for deficit reduction, is instantly claimed as found 
money, so they say ``Let us get every cent of that $25 million and find 
something else to spend it on.''
  Mr. Speaker, I can only reach in my pocket so deeply to find the very 
few dollars that are in it. Every dollar I come out with is my dollar. 
However, in this institution, the dollars are somebody else's. The card 
that we vote with is the world's most expensive credit card. We stick 
this in the machine and we can spend billions of dollars without any 
consequence.
  Mr. Speaker, I am somewhat appalled when this Congress cannot come up 
with a mechanism that when a Member offers a deficit reducing formula 
to save the taxpayers money, that saves money from wasteful spending, 
that we cannot take that money and earmark it and lockbox it away to 
bring down the Nation's deficit. It is clearly one of our greatest 
problems. It clearly is driving up the cost of credit for consumers.
  Clearly, the cost of credit for buying a home today, a 30-year 
mortgage, 7\1/2\ to 8 percent, would be brought down over 2 points if 
we get the Federal Government's appetite for credit to be minimized, 
and the private sector would then see relief for the average consumer.
  However, no, not in this body. I see money, I spend money. I see 
money they do not want, I will spend it over here. Mr. Speaker, I say 
to the Members who are listening to this, they need to clearly reflect 
on what our priorities are. I think we should be in a race to see who 
can save the most money.
  The prior speaker suggested that the Republicans are only interested 
in voting for bombers and missiles and are not concerned with AIDS and 
other issues. This Member of Congress voted against the B-2 bomber. 
This Member of Congress does indeed support increased funding for AIDS 
research, because I think the cost to the taxpayers will be exacerbated 
by the cost of AIDS in our community.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not fair to characterize all Republicans as mean-
spirited, only interested in defense and not interested in social 
services.


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