[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 128 (Thursday, August 3, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1609-E1610]
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. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    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 

[[Page E 1610]]
     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. RAHALL. Mr. Chairman, it isn't often that a Member of this body 
would be tempted to rise in opposition to a bill, especially a funding 
bill, and to say unequivocally that there is so much in the measure to 
condemn it, that it is impossible to vote for good that is contained in 
it. Such is the case today, as I rise in strongest opposition to H.R. 
2127 the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for fiscal year 1996.
  Mr. Chairman, using appropriations bills, such as this one and like 
many others we have debated recently on the floor of the House, to 
establish policy and make decisions best left to authorizing 
committees, is just reckless and irresponsible behavior. Such use of 
the appropriations process cannot be the decision of this or many other 
subcommittees, or even full committee chairmen. It is obviously being 
directed by those at higher levels in cooperation with outside 
interests.
  The only thing of any real value in the Labor-HHS-Education 
appropriations bill are those provisions that protect the unborn. I 
strongly support every one of them. I commend the Members of this House 
who fought to get this antiabortion language in the bill, and I will do 
all that I can to keep it in the bill. But I cannot support the final 
product--even if all the pro-life language is preserved. I can't, in 
good conscience, do so. Let me tell you why.
  Mr. Chairman, this bill decimates not only longstanding, vitally 
important, life-giving Federal programs for children, it also decimates 
longstanding workplace health and safety standards and the enforcement 
of such laws; it takes families earning at or below poverty wages and 
places them at greater risk of becoming homeless, by decimating labor 
laws and prevailing wages that keep them afloat. It takes those without 
jobs and tosses them aside like garbage--refusing to fund job search or 
job training programs so individuals can reenter the job market and 
care for themselves and their families and be contributing members of 
society. It attacks senior citizen programs to the point where I 
wonder: what is happening to us as a compassionate nation?
  The bill cuts funding for programs that train and protect working 
Americans by 24 percent below last year's level. Training alone is cut 
by more than $1 billion; worker protection programs embodied within 
OSHA, the Employment Standards Administration, and the National Labor 
Relations Board are cut by $180 million. Legislative riders eliminate 
or restrict the ability to enforce collectively bargained agreements, a 
safe work environment, and child labor protections.
  The bill nullifies the President's Executive order keeping Federal 
contractors from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers. 
Worse, the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill terminates black 
lung clinics that serve as the only caring, human, face-to-face contact 
for coal miners dying from black lung disease who are struggling to 
obtain appropriate life-giving health care, and who are struggling 
equally hard to qualify for
 benefits to enable them and their families to live in peace and 
dignity as they die of an incurable, progressive lung disease.

  With respect to child labor laws, I could not believe it, until I 
read it, but this bill actually terminates a child labor law that 
protects 14-year-olds against being maimed or killed by balers--baling 
machines--that are almost too dangerous for adults to operate. Those 
who placed this language in the bill actually call it a job creating 
provision for youth even though it could be a job that kills.
  These same members, in writing this same bill, Mr. Chairman, have 
terminated the summer youth job program for 14-year-olds and older 
youths--jobs that nourish rather than kill them.
  The bill declares war on the Nation's senior citizens. Low Income 
Energy Assistance [LIHEAP] is terminated--so all the elderly folks who 
have had to choose between heating or eating every winter--are forced 
to choose to eat fewer meals in order to pay utility bills. Six million 
households receive LIHEAP assistance--two-thirds are seniors, and the 
rest are disabled.
  To make matters worse for seniors, the minimum wage jobs that employ 
14,000 seniors with incomes less than 125 percent of poverty are 
terminated--gone. Foster Grandparents and counseling programs to 
prevent MediGap ripoffs are cut.
  Senior nutrition programs are cut by nearly $23.5 million--meaning 
that 114,637 fewer seniors will be able to get a hot meal at their 
senior center, and 43,867 frail elderly persons will be cut off from 
Meals on Wheels.
  Millions of workers will be more vulnerable to employers who avoid 
paying even minimum wage, and who also avoid a 40-hour week, fair labor 
practices, and standards for safe work places.
  Education overall is cut 18 percent below last year's level. 
Employment and training by 35 percent; other cuts include $2.5 billion 
in assistance to local schools, $266 million from drug-free schools and 
communities, and $66 million from the school-to-work program.
  Student aid for college is cut by $701 million including a $219 
million cut that terminates Federal contributions to Perkins loans and 
the SSIG scholarship program. Goals 2000 and the summer youth jobs 
program are eliminated.
  Head Start is cut by $535 million below the President's request; 
President Bush's Healthy Start Program to lower infant mortality is cut 
in half.
  Perhaps more than any other appropriations bill, the Labor-HHS-
Education bill is the people's bill. When you make drastic cuts in this 
bill's funding, you are stabbing at the heart of this Nation--its 
people. For example:
  Labor.--Translates into jobs and job training, safe workplaces, 
decent wages, and dignity of life that comes with the dignity of a 
paycheck.
  Education.--Translates into quality of life for an educated 
citizenry, better jobs for better futures, for stable families. Most 
importantly, education translates directly into our national economic 
security, if not our national defense.
  Health and Human Services.--Translates into quality of life for those 
in need of life-giving care, from cradle to grave, regardless of 
station in life or income.
  How we can propose to make these funding cuts, and programmatic 
changes, and to disregard the educational needs, the health, well-
being, and safety of every one of our constituents who rely upon us--
while at the same time proposing to increase defense spending by $58 
billion over the next 7 years? How can Members of this House decimate 
labor, health, and education programs in order to fund higher defense 
spending than any President has asked for in over 14 years, and this in 
spite of the fact that the cold war is over, the Soviet Union as a 
competing superpower is no more, and with communism on its knees?
  This bill is, in all truth, beyond my understanding.
  Hubert Humphrey said: The moral test of government is how it treats 
whose who are in the dawn of life--the children; how it treats those in 
the twilight of life--the elderly; and how it treats those who are in 
the shadows of life--the sick, the disabled, the needy, and the 
unemployed.
  We have failed the moral test by bringing this bill to the floor of 
the House, and I am appalled.
  Have we, finally, no shame?
  

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