[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 206 (Thursday, December 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15548-H15549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRAGEDIES OCCURRING AMONG AMERICA'S CHILDREN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Camp). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Standing in this Chamber, I wonder if anybody appreciates 
business at all. The statements made by the last speaker would indicate 
that all of those national corporations are just terribly money-
grubbing corporations, seeking only profit, with no concern for 
employees. A lot of those companies have made major contributions, not 
only to their employees, but to the communities in which they reside, 
to the arts and other things that they have paid for and benefited 
from.
  There was a statement made that the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
Gingrich] obviously only holds meetings with corporate executives. 
Nobody has gone by his office when he has had Habitat for Humanity in 
his office, and groups that do not give any campaign contributions but 
care about the inner cities and developing homes for families.
  I guess some of the speakers today were not in the office when the 
gentleman from Georgia entertained several that were physically 
challenged, that were working on strengthening the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. These are people that were concerned about access to 
public buildings. They are handicapped. They were there, not 
contributors, but they were concerned about how government functions. 
Mr. Gingrich met with them as well.
  Schoolchildren from the District of Columbia certainly do not have 
any money for campaign contributions. The gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
Gingrich] did not have them in his office; he went out to their schools 
and into their community forums to talk about that.
  So I think the record needs to reflect that. You hold up an article 
and suggest corporations in America are all bad. I commend corporations 
in America for employing people, for giving people jobs, for giving 
people hope. The stock market is moving forward. That is great for all 
America. Small investors from Main Street to Wall Street are benefiting 
from the rise in the stock market.
  Let us talk about some other things today. One thing I want to focus 
on is the tragedies occurring among our children. I want to put in a 
special word for the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children. Jimmy Ryce died a tragic death at the hands of a molester who 
sexually assaulted Jimmy and then dismembered his body. That person has 
been caught. Of course, the first thing that happened was the 
defenders, the public defenders, rushed to the aid of the perpetrator 
of the crime and suggested that maybe the officials had interrogated 
him too long, and possibly they should try and seek to get the charges 
dismissed against a person who readily admitted he raped and brutally 
assaulted young Jimmy Ryce. Now they are thinking of ways to get him 
off those charges. The tragedy is that it is happening far too many 
times in America where children are taken advantage of, children are 
assaulted, children are molested, and it has to stop.
  We are all familiar with the Susan Smith case in South Carolina, 
where a mother tragically put two of her own children in a car seat, 
strapped them down, and sunk the car in a lake, killed two children.
  I stressed before on this floor that if people are not comfortable or 
happy with their children, put them up for adoption, seek other 
alternatives, seek 

[[Page H15549]]
psychiatric counseling. But the kind of tragedies that are occurring to 
our children are just that, they are tragedies.

  I had a chance to talk to John Walsh. One of the things that was most 
frightening to me was the fact in 35 States you have to have a license 
to sell real estate, you have to have a license to sell mortgages, you 
have to have a license to be a hairdresser. Yet in over 35 States, you 
can be in child care without any background checks or verifications.
  Tragedies are occurring to our children in the most private of 
settings, in child care and other things. This is not to malign the 
child care industry, believe me, it is not at all. But the fact remains 
that our children are in deep jeopardy. If this is truly a spirit of 
thanksgiving and holiday renewal and Christmas spirit, then we must 
turn to the children in our communities and figure out a way, not 
necessarily by government action only, but by community spirit, that we 
reach out and save those lost young souls who are at the mercy of some 
very, very sick individuals.
  It is also important at this time that we all accept responsibility 
for our actions. It is about time that we stop trying to place the 
blame on other people. Oftentimes, in fact there was a killing of five 
young people in Gainesville, and the person who went before the judge 
said, ``I was abused as a child so you should let me off of these 
charges. I know I killed five people, but it was due to the torment 
that my father provided me as a youngster that I committed this heinous 
crime.'' Far too often people are looking to blame others in society. 
``It is something else. It is something I watched on TV. It is a movie 
I saw.'' People have to accept responsibility for their actions. We in 
government have to.
  I also want to suggest that none of us take any pride or pleasure in 
the closing of Government. Some suggest that the freshmen are gleefully 
celebrating the fact that the Government shut down and that is the way 
it should be. We grieve for those Federal employees that are wondering 
what is happening to their job.
  The gentlewoman from Maryland, Mrs. Morella, the gentlemen from 
Virginia, Mr. Davis and Mr. Wolf, and others, are very critically 
concerned with the work force in this Capital, and so are the entirety 
of the Congress. We are not looking to make anybody's holidays 
miserable. We are not looking to keep people out of work, but some of 
us feel honor-bound to the commitment to balance the budget. We are 
anxious to work with the President. We are anxious to encourage the 
Speaker of the House to move forward with deliberation and discussion 
with the White House. There is not one person that sits in a back room 
and chuckles at the thought that Federal employees are not working and 
we are doing it in a malicious fashion.

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