[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  WASTEFUL SPENDING BY FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND NAFTA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dickey). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to speak on two unrelated but 
very important national issues.
  The first is wasteful and ridiculously expensive travel by Federal 
employees, particularly by certain Cabinet members who should be 
setting a better example.
  Even members of the President's own Party, such as Senator Reid of 
Nevada, have called for Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's resignation.
  She has been galavanting all over the world at horrendous expense to 
the taxpayer.
  She has been chartering private jets, when she could easily have 
flown commercially, and she has consistently been staying in the most 
expensive hotels in the world.
  She spent $2.6 million on just four of these trips--$845,000 for a 
trip to China, $500,000 for a trip to Pakistan, $560,000 for a trip to 
South Africa, and $720,000 for a trip to India.
  No wonder we can't balance the budget.
  This is a terrible abuse of taxpayer dollars, but then the easiest 
thing in the world to do is to spend other people's money.
  Another Cabinet Secretary who has been wasting taxpayer funds on 
travel is Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.
  He has been traveling all over the United States to make political 
attacks on the Republican budget.
  Almost all of his trips should have been paid for by the Democratic 
National Committee since he has been so blatantly partisan in his 
statements and press conferences.
  And then the trip that really takes the cake is the one 400 Federal 
employees took to Disney World last month.
  The Washington Post said that taxpayers paid ``hundreds of thousands 
of dollars so about 400 Federal employees could go to Disney World and 
stay at a four-star hotel.''
  No wonder we have a five trillion dollar national debt.
  The Associated Press said these employees were from the National Park 
Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest 
Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.
  These bureaucrats had training sessions on such topics as ``The Power 
of Magic in Shaping History,'' and ``Goofy (and Educational) Nature 
Songs.''
  These agencies, plus almost all other Federal offices are screaming 
today about cuts and shortages of funds.
  Well, there is no shortage of money if they can send employees on a 
trip like this. In fact, it appears that they have such a surplus of 
funds that they cannot even use good sense in how their money is spent.
  Of course, the truth is that almost all Federal agencies are still 
getting increases. And the best question to ask is what were they 
getting 10 years ago.
  Over that period, inflation has averaged only about 3 percent a year.
  Their spending should have gone up by about \1/3\ at the most, but 
almost all these Federal departments and agencies have increased 
spending at two or three or four times the rate of inflation.
  The Head Start Program, for one, has gone up 300 percent in the last 
10 years about 10 times the rate of inflation.
  The budget for the EPA for 1995 is twice-double-what it was in 1985-a 
100 percent increase.
  We have allowed our Federal Government to get so big that it is 
simply out of control.
  That is why you have abuses of the taxpayer like these.
  Also, we have a civil service system that is so overly protective 
that Federal bureaucrats know that they can get away with almost 
anything.
  Instead of letting Federal spending increase, but at a slower rate, 
as we do in the Republican budget, we should really be cutting a few 
things so the people can keep more of their money.
  The second topic I wanted to mention, Mr. Speaker, is the NAFTA 
Accountability Act.
  This act would require that we take another look at NAFTA to see if 
it is causing more harm than good.
  Apparently, in an effort to sell NAFTA 2 years ago, we were given 
misleading or incomplete information about the Mexican economy.
  Just a few days ago in my district in Tennessee, the two largest 
employers in Tellico Plains announced that they were leaving, one going 
to Mexico, one to Honduras.
  At almost the same time, the largest employer in Etowah, TN announced 
that it was going into bankruptcy in large part due to NAFTA.
  These three companies will mean almost 900 people in my district will 
lose their jobs. For these two small towns, the impact is devastating.
  Now I do not know if the company moving to Honduras is using funds 
from the Caribbean Basin Initiative but ``60 Minutes'' and others have 
reported that we are making loans to American companies to set up 
branches in Central America and the Caribbean.
  Through NAFTA and GATT, and all the money we contribute to the World 
Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, and things like the African 
Development Bank, and the Export-Import Bank, and the Caribbean Basin 
Initiative, all the money we spend overseas, through the State 
Department, the Commerce Department, the Defense Department, we seem to 
be giving our country away.
  Then when you add in our direct foreign aid program to all these 
other giveaways and loans to foreign countries, and then the billions 
we have spent for nation-building in Rwanda, Somalia, Haiti, and now 
Bosnia, in addition to the multibillion bailout of Mexico. I repeat Mr. 
Speaker.
  We seem to be giving away our own country and selling out our own 
people.

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