[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 137 (Saturday, September 28, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H12169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE 104TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to certainly add 
my congratulations to two of my colleagues who just spoke on the floor 
of the House, the Honorable Cleo Fields of Louisiana and certainly 
applaud his work and encourage his return. And then to certainly my 
friend and colleague, the Honorable Cardiss Collins, with a major place 
in history, I thank her for her leadership and caring for all of us.
  I do believe that it is appropriate, on this last day, as I have 
acknowledged my colleagues and might I add also a tribute to the 
departing Members of the Texas delegation. So many of them have served 
so ably, and I thank them for their service.
  This last day we had an opportunity to come together in a bipartisan 
manner to present to the American people an omnibus appropriations bill 
that would keep the Government open. As I listened to the Speaker of 
the House suggest that this was automatic or that this had to be the 
way it was and it was going to happen, I have to reflect that there was 
a long journey that brought us to this day. For as we started the 104th 
Congress, I am unhappy or sad to say that that was not the spirit in 
which we opened this session, for we spent an acrimonious first year of 
the 104th, with three times of shutting down the Government, with large 
attacks on Medicare and Medicaid, with proposed tax cuts of $245 
billion that would have gutted the Medicare program and given tax cuts 
to those who did not need it, with a fight over balancing the budget 
and establishing priorities, when many of us recognized that you could 
balance the budget but you could preserve education and the environment 
and you could maintain the quality of life for our senior citizens.
  In fact, we spent an acrimonious time arguing over which direction 
this country should go.
  I am very proud that the Democrats maintained a steady and evenhanded 
approach, which is to say that Medicare can be preserved, it need not 
wither on the vine, that Medicaid that provide health care for the 
indigent but, more particularly, for our seniors in nursing homes 
certainly had to be preserved, but we could also balance the budget.
  This bill is not a perfect bill. There are many things that a lot of 
us disagree with. But I believe we have come full circle from a time 
when we were slashing education, cutting school lunches and school 
breakfasts.

  Might I add, I read an article this past week that said, though our 
children still remain at risk, many children are better off because of 
the existence of school lunch programs, for some of these programs are 
the only good and decent nutritious meal that our children get. With 
all of this attention now to our children, with the understanding that 
they are no more stronger than what we make them, I am glad to see, 
albeit it was a tough time, that there has been some recognition by my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle that reason and moderation 
are the best approach.
  So I am very gratified that we can say that this omnibus bill 
includes $3.5 billion added to our education budget. Not a frivolous 
investment, I might add, some $381 million of it belongs to Head Start, 
and documentation shows us that if you begin a child on an early sure 
footing of learning, you can be sure that that is a child that grows to 
love learning and is on the road to success; $491 million dollars for 
Goals 2000, already a program attested to by Members by both sides of 
the aisle, a program started by President George Bush, and $200 million 
for the school to work program documented in my own city of Houston, 
where young people leave high school prepared to be gainfully employed. 
Then I have already said in many of my town hall meetings and I have 
seen the faces of individuals agreeing with me, it is better to give 
out a Pell grant than to build a jail cell. And so we have increased 
Pell grants for our college students and direct student loans across 
the Nation.

                              {time}  2330

  Welfare reform got a lot of publicity, and many people were rising to 
the floor of the House and beginning to pound their fists and talk 
about those who were draining on America.
  Well, if you tell people to pull up their bootstraps, many of them 
without shoes, it is going to be very hard to transition people from 
welfare to work without training and vocational training, and so it is 
important that in this legislation, unlike last year when the 
government was shut down, we have $1.5 billion for vocational training 
and adult education.
  That makes sense, but we had to work hard to get to that point, for 
the stridency of last year was, ``We know the right way, and the only 
way is our way,'' a single focused highway to nowhere.
  All of the debate that has come about over the last few weeks about 
the drug effort in this Nation was simply saying that we now have a 
better approach, and that approach, Mr. Speaker, is to support 
prevention programs and safe and drug-free schools.
  In conclusion, let me simply say that I am glad we are at a point 
where we are, that this bill is passed, but it was a long journey, but 
it is better for America, and we are better for doing it, and America 
is good for us doing it for them.

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