[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6850-S6851]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. COATS:

  S. 1904. A bill to implement that Project for American Renewal, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.


                  The Project for American Renewal Act

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, earlier today I joined with my colleagues 
from the House, the chairman of the Budget Committee, John Kasich, in 
reintroducing a program that I have been working on for a long time. It 
is called the Project For American Renewal.
  It attempts to address the question of how we can more effectively 
provide assistance to people in need, people living in poverty, without 
resorting to more of the same, which is simply funneling money into 
Washington, establishing a bureaucracy, and handing out welfare checks 
to, in many cases, perpetuate a lifestyle and a behavior that is not 
desirable, not giving us the results we wanted.
  A lot of well-intentioned programs have been offered to deal with 
some of the social problems that exist in our country: teen pregnancy, 
spousal abuse, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, and on and on it 
goes. Many of those, as I have said, have been well-intentioned but 
have simply missed the mark. They have not solved the problem. And, in 
many cases, they have made it worse.
  It seems that the alternative to that that has been discussed in the 
last year or so is what was called devolution, a word that I hate. I do 
not know for sure exactly what it means, but I think it means washing 
our hands of the problem, and let somebody else worry about it.
  I do not believe either of those alternatives are acceptable 
alternatives. I do not believe more of the same or none of the above 
are the alternatives we ought to be examining. I believe there is a 
place for our encouragement of hopeful solutions to some of the 
problems that exist in our society as it affects our families and our 
children and our neighborhoods and our communities.
  The Project for American Renewal is my attempt at addressing those 
questions, to strengthen families, to encourage communities and to 
utilize mediating institutions of volunteer associations, of charities, 
particularly of faith-based charities, to address some of these most 
pressing problems. Utilization of these institutions, other than 
Government institutions, means that we can bring to bear not just 
efforts to meet the material needs of individuals, but also the 
spiritual needs of individuals. We can bring to bear values that are 
important in addressing some of these more fundamental problems.
  The Project for American Renewal consists of 16 separate pieces of 
legislation designed to strengthen families, to provide mentors where 
fathers are not present, to strengthen communities, rebuild communities 
across America, and to provide effective compassion. The centerpiece of 
this is the charity tax credit, which will allow a joint-filing couple 
to contribute up to $1,000 a year as an offset against their taxes.
  Today I joined with Congressman Kasich in announcing how we would pay 
for this charity tax credit, estimated at $44.8 billion over a 5-year 
period of time. We propose that we will ask the Ways and Means and the 
Finance Committee to designate a third of that amount in corporate 
loophole closings, corporate welfare.
  We think if we are addressing some of the most fundamental problems 
in America, we ought to look for funding sources to offset the revenue 
loss from subsidies given to special interests over the years that do 
not serve as high a national purpose.
  We also think it is appropriate to shift some resources from some of 
the existing Federal social policy programs that have not proven 
effective. While we do not specify directly what those offsets should 
be in the corporate welfare area, we do specify offsets of some of the 
Federal programs that we do not think are as effective as they ought to 
be.
  The goal here is to encourage mediating institutions to play a 
greater role in addressing some of our more fundamental problems. They 
can bring hope and a vision of hope that, in many cases, Government is 
constrained to bring or is unable to bring.
  I am today reintroducing this legislation, with the hope that it will 
continue to be a topic of discussion among our colleagues as to where 
we go next with some of these great social debates. It is my hope that 
it can be a very important part of our party's platform, a very 
important part of the discussion that will take place, as this is a 
Presidential election year and an election year that will elect or 
reelect 435 Congressmen and 34 Senators.
  It is then, finally, my hope that we can seriously address this issue 
in the next Congress, make it part of our budget discussion, and 
examine ways in which we can more effectively provide assistance to 
those in need.

[[Page S6851]]

  These programs are directed to those in poverty. The credit is 
available to those programs either currently existing or which will be 
constituted as a result of this legislation that devote 75 percent or 
more of their effort to either preventing or alleviating poverty.
  It is a solution that goes beyond Government. It acknowledges the 
failure of Government, in many instances, to address these problems. It 
does not offer the total solution, but it offers, I believe, a step in 
the right direction. I hope it will become an important part of the 
debate ahead.
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