[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14405-S14407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page S 14405]]


     LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, we have been in a quorum call trying to 
work out an arrangement on the bill on Labor, Health and Human Services 
and Education, of which I am the manager for the majority as chairman 
of the appropriations subcommittee, and in the absence of any action on 
the bill up to the moment--we are optimistic we will have agreement on 
a procedure to move ahead--I thought it would be useful to take this 
time to make what would in effect be an opening statement on the bill 
so that people will be aware of what this bill means.
  The Labor, Health and Human Services and Education bill, which will 
shortly be before the Senate, totals $62.8 billion in discretionary 
budget authority, including $65 million in funds from the Violent Crime 
Reduction Trust Fund. Mandatory spending totals $200.9 billion, an 
increase of $17.7 billion over the 1995 levels, but those are mandatory 
expenditures over which we have no control, entitlements. These totals 
are within the subcommittee's 602(b) allocation for both budget 
authority and outlays, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 
The allocation falls over $7 billion below the original appropriated 
funds for fiscal year 1995 and $4.4 billion below the postrescission 
levels.
  That means we have an enormous cut this year, but this is on a trend 
line to have a balanced budget by the year 2002 so that we do not 
burden further generations with excessive spending in the present.
  In structuring this bill, we have tried to deal with this budget with 
a scalpel instead of a meat ax and very carefully approaching the 
allocations for the most important items, and I think we have succeeded 
in doing that.
  This year has been an extremely difficult one for the subcommittee, 
and very many difficult decisions had to be made in order to stay 
within that allocation.
  Senator Harkin and I have taken a careful look at all of the programs 
within the bill and have sought to make some modifications in some of 
the proposals made by the House, particularly in education, workplace 
safety, and also funding for programs to protect women against 
violence.
  I take this opportunity to thank my distinguished colleague, Senator 
Harkin, for his help and cooperation in bringing this bill forward to 
this point. Senator Harkin and I have worked together on this 
subcommittee. Last year, in the 103d Congress, he was the chairman, I 
ranking; this year it is nicer to be chairman, and Senator Harkin has 
been a very cooperative ranking member.
  The important programs funded within this subcommittee's jurisdiction 
provide moneys to improve the public health, strengthen biomedical 
research, assure a quality education for America's children, and job 
training activities to keep America's work force competitive within 
world markets.
  The funds are not adequate, Mr. President, but they are the best that 
can be done under the circumstances. The House budget was less than 
ours. We had almost $1.6 billion additional funding, and we have put 
all of that money into education.
  That is a subject, Mr. President, that I feel very strongly about 
from my days growing up where education was very heavily stressed in 
the Specter household really because my parents had so little of it.
  My father, as an immigrant from Russia, coming to this country as a 
young man of 18, had no formal education at all. My mother came with 
her family when she was 5 years old from a small town on the Russian-
Polish border and she went to only the eighth grade. Her father, my 
grandfather, died of a heart attack in his mid-forties, and she had to 
leave school in the eighth grade to help support the family. My 
brother, my two sisters and I, having had excellent educational 
opportunities, have been able to share in the American dream.
  I think in the long run education is the answer. If you take a look 
at virtually all of the problems that beset our society, problems of 
welfare, problems of teenage pregnancy, problems of disintegration of 
the family, problems of crime, education would be the long-range 
answer.
  Twenty-eight years ago, when I was an official in the city of 
Philadelphia, working as district attorney and a candidate that year 
for mayor, there was an impressive book written, ``Cities in a Race 
with Time,'' and not a whole lot has changed because we really have not 
dug into the educational system in America.
  One of the proposals in this bill which we have funded in the Senate 
but was not funded in the House has been the Goals 2000 program, 
initiated under a Republican President, President Bush, carried forward 
under a Democratic President, President Clinton.
  There are two States which have not taken funding under Goals 2000, 
the State of Virginia and the State of New Hampshire, and one State, 
Montana, will not take funding next year.
  It is my view, Mr. President, that Goals 2000 constitutes a very 
important step forward. They are voluntary goals. They are not 
mandatory. States may adopt other goals as they see fit There are some 
standards. Terrel Bell, in 1983, was Secretary of Education when a book 
came forward talking about the crisis in the American educational 
system, and still we have failed to deal adequately with that issue.
  We held hearings in the Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations 
Subcommittee, on September 12, looking for a way to eliminate some of 
the Federal strings to satisfy all of the States, and we may have found 
changes to pursue in an authorization bill.
  Also, there is a possibility that funds might be given directly to 
local school districts subject to veto power by the State which has 
sovereignty. But it is my hope that states will use Goals 2000 to set 
these standards to strengthen education in America.
  On biomedical research, Mr. President, we have for the National 
Institutes of Health nearly $11.6 billion, an increase of some $300 
million over the fiscal year 1995 appropriations. These funds will 
boost the biomedical research appropriations to maintain and strengthen 
the tremendous strides which have been made in unlocking medical 
mysteries which lead to new treatments and cures. Gene therapy offers 
great promise for the future. In the 15 years that I have been in the 
Senate, all those years on the appropriations subcommittee dealing with 
health and human services, where cuts have been proposed by Presidents, 
both Democrat and Republican, we have increased funding for medical 
research, which I think it is very important.
  Two years ago, I had a medical problem and was the beneficiary of the 
MRI developed in 1985, after I had come to the Senate, a life-saving 
procedure to detect an intracranial lesion. So I have professional, 
political, and personal experiences to attest to the importance of 
health research funding.

  On Alzheimer's disease, Mr. President, this last year the United 
States spent over $90 billion to care for Alzheimer's patients. This 
devastating disease robs its victims of their minds while depriving 
families of the well-being and security they deserve.
  We have been working to focus more attention and more money into the 
causes and cures of Alzheimer's. To address this problem, the bill 
contains increased funding for research into finding the cause and 
cures for Alzheimer's disease. The bill also includes nearly $5 million 
for a State grant program to help families caring for Alzheimer's 
patients at home. The statistics are enormously impressive, Mr. 
President, that if we could delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, we 
could save billions of dollars.
  On women's health, in 1995, 182,000 women will be diagnosed as having 
breast cancer and some 46,000 women will die from the disease. The 
investment in education and treatment advances led to the announcement 
last year that the breast cancer death rates in American women declined 
by 4.7 percent between 1989 and 1992, the largest such short-term 
decline since 1950.
  And while this was encouraging news, it only highlighted the fact 
that the Federal Government investment is beginning to pay off. While 
it was difficult in a tight budget year to raise funding levels, the 
subcommittee placed a very high priority on women's health issues. The 
bill before the Senate contains an increase of $25 million for breast 
and cervical cancer screening, increases to expand research on the 
breast cancer gene, to permit the 

[[Page S 14406]]
development of a diagnostic test to identify women who are at risk, and 
speed research to develop effective methods of prevention, early 
detection and treatment.
  Funding for the Office of Women's Health has also been doubled to 
continue the national action plan on breast cancer, and to develop and 
establish a clearinghouse to provide health care professionals with a 
broad range of women's health-related information. This increase has 
been recommended for the Office of Women's Health, because of the very 
effective work that that office has been doing.
  On Healthy Start, Mr. President, children born of low birthweight is 
the leading cause of infant mortality. Infants who have been exposed to 
drugs, alcohol or tobacco in utero are more likely to be born 
prematurely and of low birthweight. We have in our society, Mr. 
President, thousands of children born each year no bigger than the size 
of my hand, weighing a pound, some even as little as 12 ounces. They 
are human tragedies at birth carrying scars for a lifetime. They are 
enormously expensive, costing more than $200,000 until they are 
released from the hospital.
  Years ago, Dr. Koop outlined the way to deal with this issue by 
prenatal visits. The Healthy Start program was initiated, and has been 
carried forward, to target resources for prenatal care to high 
incidence communities; it is funded as well as we could under this bill 
with increases as I have noted.
  On AIDS, the bill contains $2.6 billion for research, education, 
prevention and services to embattle the scourge of AIDS, including $379 
million for emergency aid to the 42 cities hardest hit by this disease.
  When it comes to the subject of violence against women, it is one of 
the epidemic problems in our society. The Department of Justice reports 
that each year women are the victims of more than 4.5 million violent 
crimes, including an estimated 500,000 rapes or other sexual assaults.
  But crime statistics do not tell the whole story. I have visited many 
shelters, Mr. President, in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh and have seen 
firsthand the physical and emotional suffering so many women are 
enduring. In a sad, ironic way the women I saw were the lucky ones 
because they survived violent attacks.
  The Labor-HHS-Education bill contains $96 million for programs 
authorized by the Violent Crime Reduction Act. The bill before the 
Senate contains the full amount authorized for these programs, 
including $50 million for battered-women shelters, $35 million for rape 
prevention programs, $7 million for runaway youth, and $4.9 million for 
community demonstration programs, the operation of the hotline and 
education programs for youth. These funds have been appropriated, Mr. 
President, after very, very careful analysis as to where the 
subcommittee and the full committee felt the money could best be spent.
  On the school-to-work program, the committee recommends $245 million 
within the Departments of Labor and Education, which is maintenance of 
the level provided in 1995. We would like to have had more money, but 
that was the best we could do considering the other cuts.
  On nutrition programs for the elderly, for the congregate and home-
delivered meals program, the bill provides almost $475 million. Within 
this amount is $110.3 million for the home-delivered meals program, an 
increase of $16.2 million over the 1995 appropriation because there are 
such long waiting lists, so many seniors who really depend upon this 
for basic subsistence.
  On education, we have allocated the full amount of the increase that 
our subcommittee received, some $1.6 billion. The bill does not contain 
all of the funds we would like to have provided, but it is a maximum 
effort on this important subject.
  As to job training, Mr. President, we know all too well that high 
unemployment means a waste of valuable human resources, inevitably 
depresses consumer spending, and weakens our economy. The bill before 
us today includes $3.4 billion for job training programs. And again, 
candidly, I would like to see more, Mr. President, but this is the 
maximum that we could allocate.
  As to workplace safety, the bill contains an increase of $62 million 
over the amount recommended by the House for worker protection 
programs. While progress has been made in this area, there are still 
far too many work-related injuries and illnesses, and these funds will 
provide programs and inspect businesses and industry, weed out 
occupational hazards, and protect worker pensions within reasonable 
bounds.
  LIHEAP is a program which is very important, Mr. President, to much 
of America. It provides low-income heating and fuel assistance. Eighty 
percent of those who receive LIHEAP assistance earn less than $7,000 a 
year. It is a program which was zeroed out by the House, and we have 
reinstated it in this bill. We have effectively included a total of $1 
billion here, $100 million of which is carryover funds, as we 
understand the current state of affairs, although it is hard to get an 
exact figure, and an additional $900 million.
  As the Congress consolidates and streamlines programs, Federal 
administrative costs must also be downsized. In this bill, with the 
exception of the Social Security Administration, we have cut program 
management an average of 8 percent. Many view administrative costs as 
waste and others suggest that deeper cuts are justified. It is our 
judgment that any further reductions would be counterproductive.
  In closing, Mr. President, I want to thank the extraordinary staffs 
who have worked on this program. On the Senate side, Bettilou Taylor 
and Craig Higgins have been extraordinary and professional in taking 
inordinately complicated printouts and working through a careful 
analysis of the priorities.
  We received requests from many of our colleagues. And to the maximum 
extent, we have accommodated those requests. We have received many 
requests from people around the country. We have accommodated as many 
requests for personal meetings as we could, both with the Senators and 
with their staffs. And we think this is a very significant bill.
  There are people on both sides who have objected to provisions of the 
bill. When a motion to proceed is offered, it is my hope that we will 
proceed to take up this bill and that we will pass it. We are aware 
that there has been the threat of a veto from the executive branch, and 
I invite the President or any of his officials to suggest improvements 
if they feel they can do it better.
  There is a commitment in America to a balanced budget and, that is 
something we have to do. We have structured our program to have that 
balanced budget within 7 years by the year 2002. The President talks 
about a balanced budget within 9 years. I suggest that our targeting is 
the preferable target.
  To the extent people have suggestions on better allocations, we are 
prepared to listen, but this is our best judgment. We urge the Senate 
to proceed with this bill.
  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, we have been trying to figure out some way 
to move this bill out of the Senate. As the Senator from Pennsylvania 
has been explaining, it is a very important bill. We understand the 
President is going to veto it. We have been trying to determine how can 
we get it to the President quickly.
  Of course, one way to do it is to pass it without any amendments, 
have him veto it, and then have the fight on all these different 
amendments at a later time. Unfortunately, we do not seem to have an 
agreement on that procedure. But the two leaders have agreed to a 
request, and it has been signed off on by the Senator from 
Pennsylvania, Senator Specter, the chairman of the subcommittee, and 
Senator Harkin from Iowa, the ranking member on the subcommittee. I 
will propound that request.
  Let me first explain to all Senators that we have a problem here 
because we could not come together. There would have been a filibuster 
on a motion to proceed. In order to have a motion to proceed, it takes 
60 affirmative votes to shut off debate so you can go to the bill. That 
also requires that you set up getting a cloture motion signed. Then it 
must be filed and there must be one intervening day of the Senate's 
session. We are within a couple of days of completing our work on the 
appropriations bills prior to the end of the 

[[Page S 14407]]
fiscal year. It seems to me the agreement I will ask for in a minute 
seems to achieve this 60-vote test without having to file cloture 
motions to comply with all other provisions of rule XXII.
  I will now make the request.

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