[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 41 (Friday, March 22, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2703]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               A SAD WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, some might say that this was 
the week that was. It is gone now. But we have to live by what we 
accomplished. We will have to go back to our constituents and be able 
to defend the legitimacy of the U.S. Congress in its legislative 
agenda, whether it helps or hurts. I do not know about anyone else, Mr. 
Speaker, but the Mac that is in front of us here kills. I know it kills 
because I sat in a committee on the Judiciary hearing, called by 
Congressman Schumer yesterday, and heard several victims speak about 
assault weapons killing. These witnesses told stories of a tragedy on a 
New York train. The victims of a son in a DC police station. They also 
talked about the loss of a wife and a mother in a San Francisco law 
firm. They did not talk from bitterness from the perspective of I do 
not love this country, but they lost their loved ones, and they were 
simply pleading for a reasonable ear to listen to their outcry and 
their outrage. And you know what? They said we could do something about 
it. And that was to maintain the ban on assault weapons.
  I committed to them yesterday that I would listen to them. 
Tragically, today that outcry, that plea, that eloquent silence of 
their lost loved one fell on deaf ears because we did not listen.
  Today we now have repealed the ban on assault weapons as it winds its 
way to the U.S. Senate. Yet as we do that, we found a colleague on the 
Republican side noting the words quoted in the Congressional Record, 
``I trust Hamas more, terrorists that provided several bombings in 
Israel, more than I trust my own Government.'' These are the words that 
have generated a weakened antiterrorist bill. The week that was.
  These are the words that generated into the repeal of the assault 
weapons ban. ``I trust the Hamas more than I trust my Government.''
  Ladies and gentlemen, we must stand up for what is right in this 
country, belief in the American flag. When I say to you that was the 
week that was, we now have an education policy that cuts $3.3 billion, 
so we have an attack on Goals 2000, several of our title programs that 
help children to learn, closing the door on education. That was the 
week that was.
  Tomorrow I will join in with your people who will be spending the day 
trying to register to get a summer job, a mere opportunity to be 
exposed to a work experience. I had such a young person in my office. 
They called one day and said they could not come to work because they 
did not have the proper clothes to wear in an office. I said, ``If you 
have got to wear a paper bag, come on, because it is about you having 
an experience.'' But right now, in the budget of the United States of 
America, we have no money for summer jobs for our youth. Some of those 
dollars could be utilized to help their parents during troubling times.
  This was the week that was. The Hamas statement; $3.3 billion cut 
from education; now the assault weapons going forth in this Nation; 
and, yes, an indictment of what we believe in for our children; no 
summer jobs for young people across this Nation; young people who are 
trying every day to stand up for what is right, young people who are 
trying not to be in gangs.
  I do not know about my colleagues, but this was a very sad week. But 
we have another next week, and I am going to try my hardest to work on 
behalf of the American people and the great people of the 18th 
Congressional District.

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