[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3389-H3390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     ISSUES CONGRESS SHOULD ADDRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I think many of us know that for the last 
few weeks we have been in our districts. The House has not been in 
session until yesterday evening. Of course, it is an opportunity to 
talk to your constituents on a daily basis and get their input.

[[Page H3390]]

  What I found overwhelmingly was a feeling on the part of my 
constituents in my district in New Jersey that this House of 
Representatives and this Congress under the leadership of Speaker 
Gingrich and the Republicans is not getting the job done.
  My constituents expressed concerns about health care, whether or not 
they were going to have affordable health insurance or any health 
insurance at all; they expressed a great deal of concern about the 
environment, because we are now getting close to the summer season. My 
district is very dependent on shore tourism. For the last few years we 
have seen significant, at least in the last 10 years, we have seen 
significant improvement in our water quality, and they do not want to 
see the clock turned back on environmental protection.
  They are also concerned about education. Today in my district in New 
Jersey we vote on the school board elections and the budgets. Property 
taxes are going up in many municipalities, and there is concern about a 
lack of State and Federal aid to help and provide property tax relief.
  They are also concerned about jobs. They are concerned about whether 
or not pension, health care benefits, are going to be available, and 
whether they are going to have a job at all.
  I ask the Members of this House, I ask the Speaker, what is it that 
this Congress under the Republican leadership, under Speaker Gingrich 
and the rest of the Republican leadership, have done about any of these 
issues? And the answer is pretty much nothing.
  We are back now for a 6-week session. I understand that the House 
Republican leadership under Speaker Gingrich is going to propose some 
bills that are essentially, in my opinion, nothing but smoke and 
mirrors, an effort to sort of suggest that they are going to address 
education, environment, and health care issues, but that they really 
will not be addressing those issues in a significant way.
  Let me just talk a little bit, if I can, about what is missing from 
this Republican leadership or Gingrich agenda. First of all, the 
education element. We are continuing to operate now as we have since 
the beginning of this fiscal year on what we call continuing 
resolutions. In other words, we have not passed a budget, we have not 
passed appropriation bills, to keep the Government going, and I know we 
have had actually at least two Government shutdowns because of the 
inability, if you will, of the House Republican leadership to pass 
legislation to keep the Government operating.
  But a big part of these continuing resolutions or stopgap spending 
appropriation measures that have been passed here have actually 
implemented major cuts in education funding, for title I and other 
programs that are important to our school districts.
  What that means is that when those school districts do not get the 
education funding to hire teachers or to pay for teachers' salaries or 
whatever, they either have to lay teachers off, as many have now or 
give notice of layoffs, or increase their local property taxes to make 
up the difference.
  That is what is happening in the State of New Jersey. Many of our 
constituents are going to be going to the polls today voting on school 
board budgets that are higher because they cannot expect the Federal 
aid that they normally would have. What that means is that property 
taxes go up for many of them and property taxes are already too high. 
There has been a lot of talk about taxation by the Republican 
leadership around here, but they have not mentioned the fact they are 
actually increasing property taxes because of the cutbacks in education 
funding.
  On the issue of the environment, as you know, next Tuesday, or next 
Monday I should say, will be Earth Day. We will be celebrating, I 
believe, the 26th Earth Day. Over the last 25 years, on a bipartisan 
basis, there were major accomplishments to protect and improve the 
protection of the environment. Water and air quality have improved. But 
if you look at the record of this Republican Congress and the Gingrich 
agenda over the last year, they have tried significantly to turn back 
the clock on environmental protection. They introduced and passed in 
this House what I call a dirty water bill, which eliminates a lot of 
the protections to improve water quality, particularly with regard to 
enforcement. The spending bills, the same stopgap spending bills that 
have major negative impacts on education have also had negative impacts 
on environmental protection, to the point where the EPA cannot do 
inspections, cannot do cleanup of hazardous waste sites pursuant to the 
Superfund Program. Grants that would go to municipalities and counties 
to upgrade sewage treatment, to make sure our water continues to be 
clean, have been cut back significantly.
  What I have always said is it is very nice to have environmental laws 
on the books, and we do have some good ones, but what is the point if 
you do not have the money to enforce those laws?
  So I would just conclude, Mr. Speaker, and say that this House and 
this Republican leadership needs to address the real issues that face 
the American people, and not operate in this smoke and mirrors agenda.

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