[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 126 (Tuesday, August 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8070-H8071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CUTS IN LABOR-HHS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi] is recognized 
during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, today, when the leadership brings to the 
floor the Labor-HHS bill, or maybe it will be tomorrow, it will bring a 
bill to the floor which has declared war on the American worker. The 
cuts contained in the bill add up to nothing more than total disregard 
for the morale and working conditions of the American worker.
  Just to review some of the cuts, at a time of globalization, 
technology causing a reduction in the work force as well as downsizing 
in corporate America, at a time when the American worker is faced with 
that uncertainty, 

[[Page H8071]]
this bill cuts $446 million in the program for dislocated worker 
assistance.
  At the same time, it cuts $47 million in safety and health 
enforcement. It cuts employment standards by $25 million, collective 
bargaining, $58.8 million. It does serious damage to the National Labor 
Relations Board by cutting it by 30 percent, over $50 million. How can 
we be doing this to the American worker at a time when we are 
struggling to be competitive in the world?
  America works because we have always had a high regard for the 
backbone of America, the working class people in our country. We have 
respected their need for a living standard, not a minimum standard of 
wages but a living wage. We have respected their need for safety in the 
workplace. We have respected their need to bargain collectively for 
unfair labor practices up until now.
  All of our competitors who compete with us in a favorable way for 
them respect their workers. That is why they succeed.
  So what we are doing is not only bad for the individual worker, not 
only bad for our work force, it is bad for our country internationally 
as we try to compete. Please stop this war on the American worker. Vote 
against the Labor-HHS bill.


                          ____________________