[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1045
                 DO NOT KILL THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Foley). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I am not here to speak about medical savings 
accounts, but I do have to respond to the gentleman from Florida.
  Saying that Democrats who voted 2 or 3 years ago for medical savings 
accounts, in effect, support the medical savings account proposal today 
is like saying Newt Gingrich supports the Democratic agenda because he 
voted for one small piece of it.
  I supported the Democratic health care plan 3 years ago, in which 
medical savings accounts were a very small piece of a very big puzzle, 
in which also there was guaranteed health care for all citizens as 
opposed to the present proposal, which is incremental, deals only with 
small numbers of the population, and medical savings accounts are the 
one piece that will sink the package that people do agree on. So there 
is a total difference.
  Let us talk about something else that I have great concern about what 
the Gingrich leadership is doing because, Mr. Speaker, I ask you this: 
We just saw the basketball finals, the NBA finals. If you are heading 
into the playoffs, you have a tough schedule ahead of you, you are 2 to 
2 in the series, would you pull Michael Jordan at that point? Of 
course, you would not.
  Then why is it if we have an agency, a department, that has generated 
80 billion dollars' worth of export contracts for the United States and 
created jobs, why would we then try to bench the Department of 
Commerce? And yet that is exactly what the Republican leadership 
intends to do in reform week that is coming up in the next few weeks.
  That is right, they want to take apart the U.S. Department of 
Commerce, which, under Secretary Ron Brown and now Secretary Mickey 
Kantor, for the first time is really performing a valuable mission. 
What is the mission? To create jobs. To create jobs in America.
  That is why I am coming to the floor today, to urge my colleagues now 
to rise up and to say, no we do not want to kill the Department of 
Commerce; we do not think we ought to, in the interest of saying we 
broke up an agency or a department, that we should move all these 
different departments around and shift boxes on the flow chart and thus 
take away the central element, the ability to coordinate our economic 
recovery efforts.
  Because I think it is important to look at what the Department of 
Commerce does. First of all, the Department of Commerce works in 
partnership with local businesses and governments to provide much-
needed infrastructure. I think everyone here has seen the benefits of 
an economic development administration enterprise, whether a grant for 
water and sewer or for a feasibility study.
  I know in my own State of West Virginia, for instance, we have seen 
millions of dollars come in from EDA grants that has generated millions 
and millions of dollars worth of jobs in industrial parks and 
businesses. Because remember what EDA does, EDA only funds, in most 
cases, where it is a job-creating venture, where you create jobs as a 
result of it. We have seen $15 billion of EDA investment over 30 years, 
not only create infrastructure but to create jobs.
  There is more that the Department of Commerce does. The National 
Weather Service. I think everybody has seen that firsthand and the need 
for that. That is economic development, too, because the farmer knows 
to protect his or her crops, the businessperson knows to get their 
equipment up on pallets because there is going to be flooding. The more 
advanced notice they get, the better they can plan their deliveries, 
plan their shipments. That is the National Weather Service.
  There is more that the Department of Commerce does. The National 
Telecommunications and Information Administration, which provides 
grants to educational, health care, public safety, and social service 
agencies. All crucial activities. How about the International Trade 
Administration that many of our small businesses use? That is the one 
way that they get into the export market. Exports create jobs. The ITA 
in West Virginia as well as across the country is creating those jobs.
  I talked to one small businessperson in my home just this last week 
who said that 40 percent of their business now comes through ITA-
generated export opportunities. What do they want to do? They want to 
break this up and move it around. It makes no sense.
  The Foreign Commercial Service, those are our hustlers out in every 
embassy. We do not have enough of them, but they want to move them 
someplace else. Makes no sense. The Department of Commerce has 
generated since 1992 more than $80 billion in foreign contracts for 
American businesses. That is Secretary Ron Brown going out with CEO's 
of major Fortune 500 companies and others as well nailing down those 
contracts and Secretary Mickey Kantor now doing the same thing.

  We have the Advanced Technology Program, 220 public-private 
partnerships, joining more than $1.5 billion of Federal and private 
funds.
  Mr. Speaker, I am urging businesses across the country now to let 
their Members of Congress know this is not a good idea. You do not pull 
Michael Jordan in the middle of the game, and you do not pull the 
Department of Commerce in a time when we are facing increased, not 
decreased, increased international competition.
  I hope the CEO's of those Fortune 500 companies will stand up and 
say, yes, we do happen to think the Department of Commerce is 
important, and I hope all those who understand the importance of the 
Department of Commerce realize the next few weeks are crucial to saving 
this agency.

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