[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6720-H6721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           REPUBLICAN STUMBLING BLOCK ON WOMEN--THEIR RECORD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rohrabacher). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of May 12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. 
Schroeder] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, first, let me say to the gentleman who 
was just speaking, if that bill were as he casts it, my name would not 
be on it. That bill is about making our patent office uniform with both 
the one in Europe and the one in Japan so our patents will be 
recognized all over the world. It will do a tremendous amount to 
increase the protection.
  But that is not why I came here today. I came here today to talk 
about what I tried to do when I heard that the Republican women today 
were getting ready to launch their get out the vote drive for women. I 
was very frustrated by this so I decided it was time to talk to 
Eleanor. Eleanor lives in my office, Eleanor Roosevelt. And I went over 
and I said to her, what are we going to do about this? They are getting 
ready to try and bridge the gender gap with all sorts of slick press 
kits, with all sorts of warm fuzzy rhetoric. Eleanor said, Do you know 
what, Pat, do not worry; they have got a big stumbling block. It is 
called their record, their record. So as they go around desperately 
seeking female votes, they were very apt to trip over their record if 
the American people know it.
  So today at 1, the Congresswomen, the Democratic Congresswomen are 
releasing a report on the Republican war against women. That is what we 
call it. It has been a war, and let us be very clear about it. We have 
seen more backsliding on progress than I have seen in my entire 24 
years here. When we look at this, it is truly an unmatched record. The 
other side says they have an unmatched record for women. They have an 
unmatched record all right, but it is not for women. It is undoing 
things we had done for women.

[[Page H6721]]

  First of all, I think the arrogance of power on that side has been 
very difficult to deal with. The arrogance of power when they said, We 
will shut down Government rather than talk to people or deal with 
people or compromise or negotiate. I do not think women like that kind 
of arrogance of power and they are not going to forget the constant 
Government shutdowns and all the waste of money that went on during 
that period.
  But let me talk about some of the other things this report is going 
to show. It is talking about family planning. Family planning survived 
in this Congress by one vote. That is about as close as you can get. 
Increasing the minimum wage. The majority of the people on the minimum 
wage happen to be women, many of them single women trying to support a 
family. We have been for raising it and they have not.
  Domestic violence: The prior Congress we had a unanimous vote to 
start trying to do something about domestic violence and violence 
against women in this country. One of the first things that they 
attempted to do this year was cut the funding, cut it very severely. We 
got some of it back; we did not get all of it back. But it tells you 
where they really want to go, if they could.
  Let us talk about the extreme cuts in Medicare and Medicaid that were 
attempted that would really gut those programs and leave an awful lot 
of people hanging out there. And then there was the launch on the 
school lunch program. I could not believe anybody would launch on 
school lunches. Everybody knows that children do much better if they 
are fed and if they have strong nutrition.
  And then Head Start. My city of Denver got forced with Head Start 
cuts and they had to make a decision, did they throw kids out that were 
in the Head Start Program so they would have enough money to do the 
whole year or did they leave all the kids in that were in and then just 
go until they ran out of money? They opted for B, and they have already 
had to shut Head Start down. It did not make it until the end of the 
year. They ran out of money.
  I cannot believe we are doing that to 3-year-olds. Three-year-olds 
are our future; they are the 21st century. Yet in Denver we had to tell 
them, no.
  So women, I think, according to Eleanor, as she says it, it is up to 
the women, have got to hold Members accountable for their votes. We 
cannot let Members go around and say, we know we voted against women 
but after all, we are women, so do not hold it against us. I think you 
could hold it against them all the more. Because I think that women 
should be the particular advocates on this floor explaining why day 
care choices are needed, why dependent care choices for elderly family 
members who may need adult supervision during the day are needed, why 
families need more tax relief, why families need family medical leave, 
which is something Members on the other side did not want to back, why 
families need help, not a lot of help but they need some relief in 
lifting the pressure that they are feeling come down on them in this 
new global economy we are in.
  I hope many people can get to that press conference. We are going to 
be talking back because Eleanor told us to.

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