[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 122 (Wednesday, July 26, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H7795]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   WASTE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is recognized for 5 minutes.


                      Medicare Trust Fund Summary

  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I was not going to speak about Medicare 
tonight, but I will speak very briefly, and then there is something 
else that I really want to bring to your attention.
  Mr. Speaker, the one thing that I would urge that Americans would do 
is to get a copy of the summary, the 14-page summary that has been 
prepared by the trustees of the Medicare trust fund, that is the 
Medicare and the Social Security and the disability trust funds, get a 
copy of that. It is a 14-page summary of the annual report of the 
trustees.
  Now, there are a lot of people that do not want the American public 
to see that. Most of them happen to be on the other side of the aisle. 
Because frankly, when you read this 14-page summary, it takes about 15 
minutes, very clearly written, very simply written, after you read this 
summary, then finally, it dawns on you and you say, my goodness 
gracious, we really have a problem here.
  These trustees lay it out in black and white, it is very clear, it is 
not partisan. It is not political, it has not been politicized, it is 
not subjected to demagoguery, it is very straightforward, it is clear.
  Mr. Speaker, you will see that this is a problem that every single 
responsible legislator in this country has got to address.We have to 
deal with it at this level. If we do not, the fund will be bankrupt and 
Medicare will be in complete chaos.
  So I just urge you, Mr. Speaker, to let the American public know that 
if they call their representative at (202) 225-3121, (202) 225-3121, 
ask for this 14-page summary of the annual report of the trustees, you 
representative will send it to you and it will lay out in very clear 
language exactly what the challenges are to the Medicare trust fund. It 
gives some very specific recommendations with respect to the need for 
legislative intervention, so that this thing will get fixed.
  That is not what I want to talk about this evening, but I did feel 
that it is just important to bring that to the Speaker's attention.
  Mr. Speaker, what I want to talk about, I want to
   know, is anybody watching what is going on at the Department of 
Energy? The Secretary of Energy is sending 50 people to South Africa 
next week, 3 weeks in advance of the Secretary going to South Africa. 
That is just the advance team. Fifty people are going to be there 3 
weeks ahead of her, I guess to make sure that the beds are turned down 
properly, I do not know. But this is a tremendous embarrassment to this 
administration, it is a tremendous embarrassment to the President, and 
it is time that somebody started to blow the whistle.

  The Secretary will herself then follow to go to South Africa with 70 
people at extraordinary expense to the taxpayer, and not only that, but 
with a level and a degree of arrogance that we have not seen in this 
administration with respect to at least this kind of bizarre appetite 
for travel. In fact, I saw tonight, and I will bring it tomorrow night, 
because I think everybody would be interested to see this, the graphic 
of a T-shirt that the Secretary is having produced, and it says, Hazel 
O'Leary World Tour, 1994-95.'' It looks like it is a wonderful color 
graphic, all at taxpayer expense, thank you very much, of the places 
that the Secretary has gone around the globe: China, India, Sweden, 
Egypt, now South Africa, all at taxpayer expense.
  Mr. Speaker, here is the real problem. What is the most important 
charge of the Department of Energy? It is to safeguard, to conserve, to 
maintain, and to make sure there will be no accidents with respect to 
our nuclear arsenal. That is the primary reason that the Department of 
Energy was created in the first place, because we did not want the 
Department of Defense to be in charge. That was probably bad policy 
then. But nonetheless, that was the raison d'etre of the Department of 
Energy. This money is being taken out of those accounts and being put 
into the travel account.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, it is time that the President look at this very, 
very carefully. It is time that we blew the whistle on this profligate 
travel, and it is time that we simply ended it. Because not only is it 
a wasteful use of the taxpayers' money, but it is taking money away 
from the much more important responsibilities that the Department of 
Energy does have at this point.
  Mr. Speaker, I know that the gentleman from New York is going to have 
a very special special order
 on the Korean war memorial.

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