[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 128 (Thursday, August 3, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1606-E1607]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1996

                                 ______


                               speech of

                         HON. NORMAN Y. MINETA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 2, 1995

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2127) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human 
     Services, and Education, and related agencies, for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 1996, and for other purposes:

  Mr. MINETA. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong and unequivocal 
opposition to this grotesque piece of legislation. If ever we needed an 
example of the skewed priorities of the new majority in this House, 
this bill is it.
  In the area of health and human services, vitally important programs 
have been completely terminated:
  Black lung clinics, the Native Hawaiian Health Care Program, AIDS 
education and training, substance abuse prevention and training, the 
National Vaccine Program, rural health grants, developmental 
disabilities projects, the elder abuse prevention program, aging 
research, preventive health grants, and funding for the Federal Council 
on Aging--all would disappear under this bill.
  The bill eliminates the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health 
and the Office of the Surgeon General--the two offices which are on the 
front lines of coordinating American public health policy.
  The bill cuts almost $400 million from Substance Abuse and Mental 
Health Services Programs, and $15 million from homeless and runaway 
youth programs, a $288,000 cut for child abuse prevention, and a 
reduction of $2 million from the fund for abandoned infants assistance.
  The bill cuts the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health 
and Human Services by $8 million--a reduction of almost 40 percent.
  The bill contains four provisions that roll back women's reproductive 
health care and seriously undermine women's rights to make fundamental 
choices about their bodies and their lives.
  It eliminates title X funds for family planning--which 83 percent of 
women receiving Federal family planning services rely on. This makes no 
sense, socially or fiscally. Every government dollar spent on 
contraceptive services saves an average $4.40 in expenditures on 
medical services, welfare, and nutritional services associated with 
unintended pregnancies and childbirth.
  Title X funds are not used for abortions--they are used for family 
planning and birth control. This bill would deny millions of women 
access to all major methods of family planning--cutting them off from 
the help they need to make informed personal decisions about their own 
health and well-being.
  The bill would also deny Medicaid funding for abortions for rape and 
incest survivors. Up to 1 in 3 women will be victims of rape or 
attempted rape in their lifetime. A woman living in poverty who has 
already been brutally victimized would be victimized yet again by being 
forced to bear a child against her will.
  I also rise in opposition to the provision in this bill to undermine 
the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education [ACGME] 
requirement for medical instruction in abortion. Any reduction in the 
number of doctors who are properly trained to perform abortions will 
place women at greater risk of losing access to safe and legal 
abortions. The right of women in this country to exercise control over 
their own bodies, and choose whether or not to have a child must not be 
eroded.
  The bill is also an attack against the most vulnerable members of our 
communities: Children and senior citizens.
  It would cut 50,000 eligible children from Head Start and cut the 
Healthy Start infant mortality initiative by half. These programs 
prepare our children for school and provide support for their parents 
to help them leave welfare and become independent.
  In another short-sighted move, the bill would eliminate the Summer 
Youth jobs program, leaving 600,000 youth without work next summer. 
2,500 young people will lose summer jobs in my hometown of San Jose 
alone.
  The bill would cut total job-related spending on disadvantaged youth 
by more than half, denying them the work experience and education 
assistance they need to become productive members of society rather 
than turning to crime or welfare for survival.
  Education is the most important investment our country can make for 
meeting the challenges of the 21st century, but the plans in this bill 
to eliminate or cut a host of education programs will leave us 
unprepared to compete in a changing world economy.
  First, the bill would completely eliminate the Goals 2000 program for 
statewide school reform. Over 1,800 schools in 226 districts in 
California had planned to participate in local level reform emphasizing 
early literacy and mathematics, demonstrating the importance of this 
program. The elimination of the Eisenhower Professional Development 
program would also remove my state's primary source of support for 
professional development.
  Even though Americans rank safety and drug use as their priority 
concern in schools, the bill would cut the Safe and Drug-Free Schools 
Program by 57 percent.
  Education programs targeted toward the disadvantaged students are an 
essential investment for lifting them out of poverty and preparing them 
to become productive members of society. Cuts to Title I programs would 
affect services to 209,000 disadvantaged children in California. One-
quarter of California's elementary school students have limited English 
proficiency, and the proposed 74% cut in bilingual education will 
decimate our programs that serve these students.
  To compete in the information-based, global marketplace of the 21st 
century, our students need practical job skills. Yet the bill would cut 
vocational and adult education and the School-To-Work program that 
would allow them to contribute to our economy.
  The proposed $162 million cut in Special Education Programs under the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act would virtually eliminate 
nationwide efforts to help provide 5.6 million children with 
disabilities with the education they need to live independent, self-
sufficient lives.
  Mr. Chairman, though these cuts might save money in the short term, 
they deny children already facing tremendous challenges the education 
and skills they need to become productive members of society.
  The investments we made now in our children are essential for the 
future of this country. Our children deserve better than this.
  Our seniors will also be hard hit by the Republican Appropriations 
bill.
  Many seniors rely on senior nutrition programs as their only or 
primary source of daily food--but the bill would eliminate 12 million 
meals through cuts in Congregate Nutrition Services and the Meals on 
Wheels programs.
  The elimination of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program is 
an appalling move in the face of the hundreds of seniors who have died 
in the last month from lack of air conditioning. Next winter, thousands 
more seniors will be freezing in the dark.
  Finally, the bill would eliminate the long-term care ombudsman 
program, which protects the most vulnerable group of senior citizens--
those in nursing homes--from abuse, neglect, and fraud.
  These provisions will only hurt those who have the least ability to 
cope with the attack. I do not believe that our budget should be 
balanced on the backs of our senior citizens and children--and 
especially not on the backs of the most vulnerable.

[[Page E 1607]]

  The anti-worker provisions in this bill constitute nothing less than 
a full-scale attack on basic rights of working Americans.
  Six thousand American workers are injured on the job each day, 
costing businesses $112 billion each year. In California alone in 1993, 
750,000 workers suffered from occupational injuries and illnesses and 
615 workers lost their lives while doing their jobs.
  In my district, workers face dangers from working with solvents, 
acids, metals, and toxic gases that can cause birth defects, 
cardiopulmonary problems, and damage to vital organs such as liver and 
kidneys.
  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA] has 
succeeded in reducing on-the-job injuries by 57 percent since its 
inception. OSHA does have problems that need to be addressed. It needs 
to be made more efficient and to provide meaningful incentives to 
employers to provide safe and healthy workplaces. But OSHA should be 
fixed, not dismantled.
  This bill would force OSHA to close half its offices and shed half 
its inspectors, resulting in as many as 50,000 more injuries and deaths 
to hard-working Americans.
  Limited to the resources provided under this bill, OSHA inspectors 
would need 95 years to inspect each workplace in my State just once.
  Furthermore, in yet another example of backroom legislating on an 
appropriations bill, the Republicans are restricting OSHA's development 
of ergonomic standards. Musculoskeletal injuries from repetitive 
motions account for 30 percent of lost workdays due to injuries and 
illnesses and more than $2.7 million annually in workers compensation 
claims. Ergonomics, the science of physically fitting a job to a 
person, can reduce serious injury and illness and improve worker 
productivity and quality.
  Yet the bill would prohibit OSHA from even conducting research to 
develop ergonomic standards that could help save millions of dollars 
and prevent hundreds of thousands of injuries. The cost to our society 
goes beyond the value of these claims. Workers who are disabled at 
unsafe workplaces end up on our unemployment and welfare rolls.
  Those workers who lose their jobs will face a tougher time finding 
work under this bill. It would deny retraining and benefits to 273,000 
dislocated workers and 84,000 low-income adults. The employment and 
training budget has been cut $2.5 billion below 1995 levels. A $357 
million cut in California's education and training programs will force 
my State to drop 200,000 participants.
  Finally, the right of working people to bargain collectively would be 
weakened through drastic cuts in funding and authority of the National 
Labor Relations Board [NLRB] and the prohibition on enforcement of the 
President's Executive order on striker replacements.
  Hardworking Americans have basic rights to a safe and healthy 
workplace and to organize for these and other rights. The Republicans 
would take our worker protections back by decades.
  This has been a fractious budget cycle so far, and I expect that it's 
going to get worse. Those who say that balancing the budget requires 
that priorities be identified are absolutely correct: and the 
priorities of the Republican leadership are coming through loud and 
clear during this Appropriations cycle.
  If you're a corporate polluter who wants the government to just leave 
you alone--you're in luck.
  If you're a defense contractor who wants to sell a few more of those 
planes--even if the Pentagon doesn't want them--you're in luck.
  If you're an employer with an unsafe workplace and you just wish 
those busybodies at OSHA would leave you alone--you're in luck.
  If you're cheating your employees by paying them less than the 
minimum wage, and you think it would be great if those guys at the Wage 
and Hour Division of the Department of Labor didn't have time to deal 
with you--you're in luck.
  But if you're a senior citizen who's wondering whether to buy 
medicine or food this month, or a poor mother hoping for a better 
education and a better life for your children, then this bill has a 
message for you: You're on you own.
  That's a message which I can never vote to send to the people of this 
country, and I urge my colleagues to vote down this bill.
  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
  

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