[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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