[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H808]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MIKE SYNAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to follow up in part of my 5 
minutes and also pay tribute to Mike Synar as my colleague from West 
Virginia just did.
  Mike Synar was the first person, actually, from Washington, or a 
Congressman, if you will, who came down when I first ran for election 
in 1988. He was also a champion of the environment, and I was largely 
elected to Congress back in 1988 because during that summer in New 
Jersey we had our beaches closed and huge washups of debris that came 
ashore and caused us to lose billions of dollars in our tourism 
industry.
  Mike came down as a leading environmentalist in Congress and did a 
press conference with me and met with some of the editorial boards. It 
was for the first time I saw him on the train coming from New York to 
New Jersey. I never met anybody who was so dynamic and cared so much 
about the environment and about the principles of the Democratic Party 
and the Nation as a whole.
  I watched him here. He was sort of a mentor in a way because he was 
on the Committee on Commerce, then it was called the Energy and 
Commerce Committee, which is the committee that I am now on, that deals 
so much with environmental issues. He encouraged me to become a member 
of the committee and helped me to get on the committee. I often looked 
to him for advice.
  He was almost exactly the same age that I am, and when I heard about 
his illness and when I heard that he had actually passed away, I was 
very saddened because there really were very few people in the House of 
Representatives who had the dynamism, who cared so much about his 
country, who cared so much about the principles that he espoused and 
was able to translate that into action. He will be sorely missed.


                    budget cuts impact on education

  Mr. Speaker, I came here today because I was concerned about the 
budget and where we are going in terms of education programs in this 
country. Last night during the State of the Union address, President 
Clinton stressed education. He stressed the need for a properly 
educated America because of the challenges that we face in the future, 
particularly with regard to job opportunities, competing in the global 
marketplace.
   Mr. Speaker, I think it is a shame, and he certainly challenged the 
Congress to do something about it, but it is a shame that in the last 
year in this House of Representatives the Republican majority has 
really cut funding for education programs, whether it is on the 
secondary school level or the higher education level. I think over the 
next few months, unless something dramatically changes and the 
Republican leadership decides that they are going to prioritize 
education as they promised, we are going to see dramatic change in the 
ability of our schools and our colleges to provide affordable 
educational opportunities for the average American.
  The budget, as many of us know, manifests itself in many ways. There 
has not been appropriation for the Education Department. The budget 
that the Republicans passed actually cuts back significantly on a 
number of education programs. The CR, the continuing resolution that we 
are operating under now that was proposed by the Republican majority, 
cuts funding or lets the Department operate its various education 
programs at significantly lower levels than what is necessary to keep 
going with the programs that we have.
  Already, we are beginning to hear that some of the Republican 
suggestions for spending or appropriation levels for next year will 
also severely impact our educational programs.
  One of the things I am most concerned about is the GOP proposal to 
eliminate $1.9 million in direct student loans. They do not favor the 
direct student loan program. In the last couple of years, the Democrats 
put forward this new program where the loans would be coming directly 
from the colleges and universities rather than banks and financial 
institutions.
  In my district, at Rutgers University, Rutgers has been able to take 
advantage of this program and provide a lot more loans to a lot more 
students than would be available under the existing institutional 
student loan program. Officials at Rutgers, and a lot of other colleges 
in the State, have told me that if this program is abolished or 
limited, as the Republicans propose, to certain schools and eventually 
phased out, that there will be a lot less student loans available.
  We have also seen programs with the Pell Grants because of the 
shutdown and the uncertainty. The Education Department now really does 
not know what kind of schedule or information it can provide to the 
colleges and universities about student loan availability for next year 
or Pell Grants and other higher education grant availability for next 
year.
  I think that what the Republican majority is forgetting is that when 
we talk about higher education loans or grant programs, students need 
to know in advance what kind of funding levels are available and what 
kind of student loans are available. This process of shutting down the 
Government and not having an appropriations bill, not being able to 
plan for next September or even next semester is having a terrible 
impact on our educational programs.
   Mr. Speaker, we need to wise up and prioritize education. That is 
what President Clinton said last night, and I hope the Republican 
leadership gets the message.

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