[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 129 (Friday, August 4, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1638]
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. VIC FAZIO

                             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. FAZIO of California. Mr. Chairman, this bill is an outrage, and 
it deserves to be repudiated and rejected by every member of this body.
  This bill is unfair to the people who depend most on our government; 
our children and the elderly. This bill is shortsighted. It does not 
provide for investment in students and workers--the very people who 
will grow our economy.
  This bill cuts $6.3 billion from programs that average working 
families depend on.
  Why? The unvarnished truth is that my Republican colleagues feel the 
need to finance a tax break that goes largely for wealthy Americans. 
Don't buy the argument that this is just for deficit reduction.
  Every Democrat in this House is prepared and committed to bring our 
budget into balance, and provide a solvent, secure future for our 
children.
  Yet, one-half of the cuts in this bill are stolen directly from the 
single best investment we can make in our future: Education.
  Overall spending on education has been slashed by nearly $4 billion. 
Few children have been spared. Some of the most significant and 
effective programs for kids--including title 1, School-to-Work, and 
safe and Drug-free Schools--are subject to potentially crippling cuts.
  It's an exhaustive list, and frankly, to reduce this bill to a series 
of programmatic cuts, masks the underlying meanness of this bill. In 
its breadth and scope, this bill is simply a monster of inequity. If 
you're the principal wage earner in a hard-working family, or you've 
found yourself among the growing ranks of the working poor, and you 
desire to provide a brighter future for our children, this bill is a 
declaration of war.
  In fact this bill declares war on opportunity. This bill puts 
politics ahead of principle. This bill values pay-offs ahead of the 
needs of people.
  This much is certain. The Republicans don't discriminate. That is, if 
you're not on the receiving end of the Republican tax bail-out--if 
you're elderly, poor, young, unemployed, or just struggling to get by--
you suffer in equal measure.
  Seniors fare no better than our children. This bill sends a strong 
message to our senior citizens that their past efforts are no longer 
acknowledged, and that their current contributions are no longer 
appreciated.
  This bill guts the Older Americans Act, including Green Thumb. It 
targets other programs which provide preventive health support, pension 
and Medicare counseling, and home meals to a growing senior population.
  This bill undercuts the health and safety of American workers. It 
undermines the enforcement of hour and wage laws. It makes it more 
difficult for people who have lost their jobs to find new jobs by 
slashing job training. Some of the most vulnerable members of our 
society are subject to the most extreme--the most harmful--and the most 
mean-spirited provisions in this bill. If this bill is passed, victims 
of rape and incest will no longer be guaranteed the right to an 
abortion.
  I urge my colleagues to stand up for working families and reject this 
bill. Don't allow the Gingrich Republicans to sell us down the river so 
they can reward their wealthy friends.


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