[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 130 (Saturday, August 5, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1648]
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. CARDISS COLLINS

                              of illinois

                    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:

  Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I rise in defense of title IX 
and to oppose the language in H.R. 2127 that prevents the Department of 
Education from enforcing title IX's gender equity requirements for 
women in college athletics. To me, this language represents an attack 
on title IX and an effort to ensure that it is not enforced. We should 
strike this language from H.R. 2127 completely, as Representative Patsy 
Mink sought to do.
  Members trying to undermine title IX will argue that it is an unfair 
quota system that hurts men's sports teams. This is simply not true, 
not even close. In fact, it is athletic directors and coaches who 
regularly establish quotas at colleges and universities. They decide, 
often arbitrarily, how many men and women get to play sports and how 
many men and women will receive athletic scholarships. Almost always, 
this means that women get sloppy seconds and women's sports teams get a 
small portion of the school's athletic and scholarship budgets.
  Today, the number of girls and young women participating in sports is 
increasing in leaps and bounds. Vast numbers of girls and young women 
are now playing sports with the same enthusiasm that generations of 
boys and young men have shown. They play all kinds of sports, and they 
play them well. Whether title IX has been responsible for generating 
this enthusiasm, or instead, has been a force to make schools react 
this interest is irrelevant. What is relevant is that women want the 
same opportunities as men and title IX guarantees them that right. H.R. 
2127's sneak attack on title IX is unfair and unjustified and should be 
defeated.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the work that Representative Nancy Johnson 
has done in trying to improve H.R. 2127's title IX language and 
Representative Dennis Hastert's good faith efforts to find compromise 
language. However, I am convinced that we should support title IX and I 
will continue to make sure that title IX is defended and upheld.


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