[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 11, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6121]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  0915
                         DOLE LEAVING THE SCENE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shaw). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Durbin] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, today is the day of the ``great escape.'' 
The presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, Robert Dole, is 
leaving the U.S. Senate after 35 years of service on Capitol Hill.
  As a loyal Democrat, let me first salute Mr. Dole. His service to his 
country, both in World War II and since, has been exemplary. He has 
been a legislative leader, one that is virtually unparalleled in terms 
of his own party's leadership, and he has been at the table when many 
of the most important legislative achievements of the last several 
generations have been enacted, and I salute him for that.
  But I certainly do understand why he wants to escape from the 104th 
Congress, the Congress which the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich] 
called his ``revolution.''
  Take a look at what Mr. Dole is leaving behind as he leaves 
Washington, DC. First, the failure of this 104th Republican Congress to 
enact meaningful health insurance reform. Families that I speak to 
across the State of Illinois and around the country are justifiably 
concerned about the availability and cost of health insurance. There is 
a bipartisan bill, the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill, that is languishing now 
between the House and the Senate waiting for enactment. Mr. Dole will 
be leaving Washington without the enactment of this important health 
insurance reform legislation to help working families.
  Second, Mr. Dole is leaving town without a minimum-wage increase. 
That is something that is long overdue. Fortunately, 30 or 40 
Republicans broke from Speaker Gingrich here in the House of 
Representatives and joined the Democrats in passing minimum-wage 
increase legislation just a few weeks ago, but Mr. Dole will be leaving 
town without this bill being enacted into law.
  He came into Chicago a few weeks ago and took off his tie, and put on 
a sports coat and said, ``I'm just a plain individual out here running 
for President, just one of the people.'' I hope he gets a chance in 
that capacity to meet some minimum-wage workers, and I hope they get a 
chance to ask Mr. Dole why he left town without helping them and their 
families cope with the increasing cost of raising their families and 
providing for a sound future.
  He will be leaving town without a balanced budget, and that is 
something which could have been achieved with bipartisan cooperation.
  Mr. Dole will be leaving Washington without this 104th Congress 
having acted to expand access to educational opportunity. Instead, the 
Gingrich-Dole agenda cut back on college student loans for kids from 
working families. I do not understand that. I would not be standing 
here today if it were not for a college student loan through the 
Federal Government. My story has been repeated millions of times over 
in the United States: kids from working families who could not afford 
college tuition turn to the Government for a helping hand. Instead of 
providing that hand, the Gingrich-Dole Congress has basically cut off 
educational opportunity for so many kids, not only at the college level 
but also at the lower levels.
  There has been no real welfare reform when there should have been. We 
ought to be able to agree that this welfare system can be reformed 
meaningfully, that we can, in fact, have provisions that are tough on 
work but not tough on kids, and unfortunately the Gingrich-Dole 
proposal was not one that really would reform welfare and help people 
come off of welfare and become taxpayers.
  There are no tax cuts for working families that Mr. Dole can point to 
from the 104th Congress. The Gingrich-Dole Republicans have wanted to 
make tax cuts for the wealthy, to cut Medicare to come up with money to 
give to wealthy individuals.
  But what the President has proposed is much more sensible: Let us 
give working families a helping hand to pay for the college education 
of their kids. Now, that is something that families all over America 
can identify with. People, when they have a new baby in the family, go 
over and greet the new baby and congratulate the new parents, and after 
a few minutes inevitably the conversation turns to, well, we better 
start saving some money for this little boy or this little girl and 
their college education.
  President Clinton has a proposal to give working families a helping 
hand, a tax deduction or a tax credit to pay for college education 
expenses. Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Dole will hear nothing of this, and, as 
a consequence, Mr. Dole will leave Washington without having done 
anything in the 104th Congress to help expand that opportunity.
  There have been no improvements in pension security. A lot of workers 
across America are paying into pension funds wondering if the time 
comes when they retire that the money will be there. The gentleman from 
Georgia [Gingrich] has provided in his own bill opportunities for 
corporations to raid these pension funds. The people that I speak to, 
the workers I speak to, want security in those pension funds. It is a 
shame that Mr. Dole is leaving Washington without the 104th Congress 
having addressed that.
  And, finally, no improvements in environmental protection. In fact, 
the Republican budget that Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Dole worked on would 
cut the number of Superfund sites that will be eradicated in this 
country.
  It is understandable that Mr. Dole is leaving Washington. Certainly 
we can understand why a presidential candidate would want to leave the 
scene of this political accident known as the 104th Congress.

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