[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 129 (Friday, August 4, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1638-E1639]
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. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    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. SERRANO. Mr. Chairman, I rise to express my extreme distress--
even disgust--at the way H.R. 2127 provides for the programs of the 
Department of Health and Human Services. I was privileged to serve on 
the Labor--HHS--Education Subcommittee in the last Congress, and I was 
proud of our work under Chairmen Natcher and Smith and ranking 
Republican Porter. But this bill is a disgrace, and I am glad I had no 
hand in writing it.
  The bottom line is that this bill does not include enough money to 
meet the Federal obligation to protect and improve the health and well-
being of all of us in the United States, but particularly of the most 
vulnerable among us. The victims of these cruel HHS spending cuts are 
many, and include the elderly, children, women, and working people. The 
few bright spots are not enough to save the bill.
  There were modest increases in funding for community and migrant 
health centers and the maternal and child health block grant, but these 
came entirely at the expense of title X family planning, which was 
terminated, and the increases disappeared last night when family 
planning was restored.
  This bill slashes, by more than 50 percent, the Healthy Start 
Program, which is today successfully reducing infant mortality in the 
South Bronx and other places.
  There is a very small increase in the Ryan White CARE Act, but only 
for title I. The other titles are flat funded, although the HIV/AIDS 
epidemic continues to grow. My congressional district in the South 
Bronx is particularly hard hit by HIV/AIDS, and Ryan White funds from 
all titles are crucial to meeting the needs of the growing numbers of 
affected women, children, and adolescents.
  There is a modest increase for the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. But, while increases in key prevention programs such as 
sexually transmitted diseases, breast and cervical cancer, chronic and 
environmental diseases, and infectious diseases are welcome, equally 
critical prevention programs for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, lead 
poisoning, and injury are flat funded. And the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health is cut by 25 percent and its training 
program is eliminated.
  The bill quite appropriately increases funding for the National 
Institutes of Health, where scientists seek new understanding of 
biological processes and disease mechanisms that will permit us to 
challenge and defeat threats to our health,
 improving quality of life and saving lives. But the bill eliminates 
the separate appropriation for AIDS research, putting execution of the 
annual plan for NIH AIDS-related research, which Congress mandated, at 
risk.

  The bill cuts nearly $400 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental 
Health Administration and totally eliminates the Center for Substance 
Abuse Prevention at the same time the Republicans' welfare reform 
proposals will vastly increase the need to prevent and treat mental 
illness and substance abuse.
  The bill slashes the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, a 
key player in learning--and disseminating its findings on--how to 
provide health care that is both high-quality and cost-effective.
  There is a modest increase in the Job Opportunities and Basic Schools 
[JOBS] Program, which helps welfare recipients become self-sufficient.
  The bill kills the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program 
[LIHEAP], which is simply immoral. Poor, mostly elderly people have 
died of the cold last winter and in the nationwide heat wave this 
summer. Killing LIHEAP assures that more of them will die.
  The child care and development block grant is flat funded and 
obligation of its funds is delayed until the end of fiscal year 1996, 
at the same time the Republicans' welfare reform will be forcing more 
mothers of young children into the workplace.
  This bill cuts Head Start. Cuts Head Start, Mr. Chairman. Maybe not 
by much, but Head Start is one of the most popular and successful early 
childhood programs we have, and, until this year, it has been permitted 
to expand toward the goal of meeting the needs of all eligible 
children. Many are still unserved, and more will be dropped from the 
program with this cut.
  The bill cuts funding for temporary childcare/crisis nurseries and 
for abandoned infants assistance. It cuts child welfare training and 
research and adoption opportunities. It cuts development disabilities 
programs, Native American programs, and homeless services grants.
  The bill savages the violent crime reduction programs enacted just 
last year.
  The bill slashes Older Americans Act programs, including such 
services as prevention of elder abuse, preventive health, and the vital 
nutrition programs.
  This bill, Mr. Chairman, even cuts basic functions of the Office of 
the Secretary, such as civil rights--and even the HHS inspector 
general.
  Mr. Chairman, that's just funding. The riders related to HHS programs 
are astonishingly 

[[Page E 1639]]
wrong-headed. They trample on the health and well-being of our people. 
The abortion issue is the source of most of the mischief--this bill 
limits women's right to reproductive freedom, denies biomedical 
researchers--and sufferers from certain diseases--the hope of finding 
new treatments or cures using fetal tissue acquired under tight 
controls, and limits the ability of accrediting bodies to set standards 
for medical training.
  Then there's title VI, a whole new bill that limits political 
advocacy by Federal grantees. Who is better prepared than providers of 
health, social, educational, and other services, to advise policymakers 
on the needs of their clients and the efficacy of various programs they 
participate in? And how do we justify proposing to violate these 
groups' first amendment rights to freedom of expression with their own 
money? The clear purpose of title VI is to silence the advocates for 
the poor, the sick, the elderly, the green, and other people whose 
needs or whose views of Federal obligations and Federal programs do not 
have the authors' support.
  On the whole, the title II and the related legislative provisions of 
this bill are part and parcel with the entire bill--cruel and 
disastrous. This bill is a mean-spirited joke on anyone who believes 
that the Federal Government has a moral obligation to protect and 
improve the health and well-being of our population and to make the 
investments in our people that help them to be self-sufficient and our 
economy to be competitive.
  The problems with this title illustrate why the entire bill deserves 
swift defeat and a complete rewrite. I urge my colleagues to reject 
H.R. 2127.


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