[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H1260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WASTE AND WHITEWATER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized 
during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it was important to be home in 
the district work break to be able to interact and listen.
  I would simply like to ask a reasonable question of reasonable men 
and women. I recall in 1974 when a bipartisan Congress did something 
that was extremely charging and emotional, and that was to review the 
Presidency of the United States. It seemed to be in a period of only 1 
month they came together in a bipartisan manner to uphold the 
Constitution. Do my colleagues realize that the hearings in the other 
body, Whitewater hearings, have cost this country $900,000, $900,000?
  In addition, it is duplicative of the special prosecutor that 
continues. And now we have them asking to extend it to July, just a 
month before the conventions. Might I wonder what this is all about? 
Politics in the worst sort of way?
  When we met with educational officials and students throughout my 
district, I remember a principal in my district, Anita Ellis of Ryan 
Middle School pleading for Goals 2000 money and full funding of 
educational dollars to help children learn. The one thing my 
colleagues, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green, and the gentleman 
from Texas, Mr. Bentsen, learned is that public education is alive and 
well in Texas and in Houston, but $900,000 for Whitewater?
  Have they learned anything? Are they accomplishing anything? Are they 
not duplicating the special prosecutor? And yet we do not have a 
budget. Now there is a question of whether the debt ceiling will be 
lifted. You know what the crisis in America is all about? People want 
jobs, and with a debt ceiling that is not lifted, we will not have any 
jobs.
  So I would simply ask the simple question, let us get on with our 
business and let us stop the folly of Whitewater. Get on with the 
business of funding education. Get on with the business of the proposed 
legislation that I have, the Fairness and Equal Opportunity Act of 
1996, which will restore the faith of minorities and women that this 
Government will be open to them for jobs, education, and contracts.
  This is the work at hand, not the folly of spending more of our 
children's education dollars on more work that is already being done by 
the special prosecutor.

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