[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H11398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 2-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF CONTRACT SIGNING

  (Mr. FOGLIETTA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FOGLIETTA. Mr. Speaker, today is the Contract on America's 
birthday.
  Two years ago today, Republicans went out to the west front of the 
Capitol and had a big celebration--with all the fancy trimmings. There 
was a nicely decorated stage, a large and lively crowd, TV cameras. And 
one by one, Republicans paraded across that stage to put their name on 
that contract.
  Now, where I come from, whenever you have a birthday, you usually 
have a big celebration to go with it. But how can there be a party when 
we do not even know where the guest of honor is?
  Where is the Contract on America?
  Is it filed away somewhere in the Speaker's office? Is it stuffed 
inside one of those ice buckets that the Speaker keeps carrying around? 
Is it hidden underneath that unknown, unseen, ``won't-go-public'' 
ethics report?
  But burying the contract away in somebody's desk is not going to make 
the American people forget what it was.
  It was Newt Gingrich's plan to bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid, 
retreat from our bipartisan environmental success over the last 20 
years, kill the cops-on-the-beat and gun programs that have cut crime 
rates in our cities, and put kids and education dead last instead of 
putting families first.
  Happy birthday, Contract on America.

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