[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 125 (Monday, July 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      WOMEN AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I rose earlier to commemorate this 
wonderful stamp that is going to be coming out on August 26 that is 
going to celebrate women having had the right to vote for 75 years in 
this country.
  I must say as we see these women in the stamp marching down the 
avenue with men who supported them demanding the right to vote, I would 
be a little leery if I were a Member of Congress, because I think after 
75 years women are learning how to use that vote and women are going to 
be very angry about what this Congress is doing to women and children.
  Last week we saw a good example where in the prior Congress there had 
been a unanimous consent on the Violence Against Women Act, that we 
really had to get aggressive and do that. It passed this House 
unanimously. There was not one vote against it. Last week, after first 
attempting to zero out the funds, we finally had to get excited and be 
very grateful because we got 50 cents on the dollar. We have ignored it 
all these years, we know violence is very critical,and it is especially 
bad when children are learning it in the home--when they are learning 
it in the home, good luck ever undoing it--so we really made that 
commitment but we really did not mean it, and if it had not been for 
the Congresswoman, we would not have even gotten 50 cents on the 
dollar, because they were quick to say, OK, well, we voted for it, but 
we do not have the to fund it and it will slip away.
  We are seeing women's right to choose go down the chute, we are 
seeing all sorts of educational programs and opportunities in the 
workplace going down the chute, and we are seeing all sorts of things 
happening to children.
  In fact, a mother from Denver sent me the poster for what they thing 
the Labor-HHS bill that we are going to be taking up this week should 
be showing. Here it is. It is this wonderful child. I think what the 
Congress is saying to this child is, ``Let them eat mud.''
  We are going after Head Start. Can you believe that? We have never 
made our commitment to Head Start. We are going after all sorts of 
educational programs that this child's future depends on and so forth 
and so on. We are going to attack their nutrition, attack their 
education, attack their chance to get ahead, attack a women's ability 
to move forward. I remind you that in the Budget Act, they put a 15-
percent tax on child support enforcement. If the government collects 
child support, they are going to take 15 percent of that out. Yet we 
keep saying to these families, ``Get up and get on your own.''
  How are you going to do that unless you were lucky enough to have 
picked the right parents? This child did not get a chance to pick my 
parents. I did not get a chance to pick my parents that I am aware of. 
If you are lucky enough to have picked the right parents, although I 
never knew you got that choice, then you are going to be OK. The idea 
that the government should try and create and equal playing field so 
you can utilize all of your abilities, be you male, female, be you 
black, white, be you Hispanic, Asian or whatever is really rapidly 
eroding. It is very rapidly eroding. If you do not think it is rapidly 
eroding, watch what we do this week. We are bringing the meanest bill 
to this floor, the most extreme bill to this floor that this Congress 
has seen since the end of the war. We are saying to this child, 
``You've got to pay for the debt.'' Obviously she caused it. Listen, 
she was not even here. She cannot even vote.
  That is why I think as we get ready to celebrate women having voted 
for 75 years, maybe people better sit back and reflect. We may not have 
voted in any great numbers in 1994, but I have a feeling that women all 
over America are getting as angry as the mother of this child in 
Denver, CO and saying: What are you people doing there? You are not 
touching the B-2 bomber, you are not touching the space station, you 
are not touching really rich farmers, you are not touching the 
traditional pork. You are going after kids. You are going after the 
people who cannot fight back.
  You may find that women unite this year and we do fight back. We have 
had the vote long enough. We now know how to use it, and I think this 
Congress better be careful. This war on women and children had better 
end or women and children will declare war on the Congress.


                          ____________________