[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 140 (Wednesday, October 2, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H12254-H12255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONGRATULATIONS IN ORDER TO THE PRESIDENT FOR SPENDING BILL, CONVENING 
      MIDEAST SUMMIT, AND INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTION RELATING TO 
                TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR NATIVE AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Richardson] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I think in the rush to adjourn, the role 
of President Clinton in ensuring that we have a budget, a budget that 
reflects his priorities, has been overlooked.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the majority for their bipartisanship 
in reaching this historic bipartisan spending bill agreement. But I 
think President Clinton deserves enormous credit for avoiding another 
Government shutdown but also, because of his persistence, the bill that 
was passed contains $6.5 billion more primarily for education, for 
fighting drugs, and antiterrorism measures. His dedicated chief of 
staff, Leon Panetta, worked for 3 grueling days and nights negotiating 
with congressional leaders to ensure that the bill would be good for 
this country by moving toward a balanced budget while not violating our 
values.
  The President worked to increase funding for education which included 
$4 billion for Head Start, $491 million for the Goals 2000 program and 
$7.7 billion for compensatory schooling for disadvantaged children. He 
ensured adequate funding for the National Institutes for Health, 
disease prevention, substance abuse control, and violence against women 
initiatives.
  The President also fought to ensure there was adequate funding for 
firefighting in the western States and for the victims of Hurricane 
Fran.
  Furthermore, thanks to the President, illegal immigration legislation 
was approved without the harmful attack on legal immigrants.
  The President took out some of the language that denied education to 
those who are not to blame for illegal immigration and, that is, the 
children.
  At this very time, Mr. Speaker, the President deserves credit for 
convening a Mideast summit of Arab and Israeli leaders which will 
hopefully bring about peaceful Middle East negotiations. The President 
is to be commended for bringing Arafat and Netanyahu into the White 
House to try to hammer out some personal understandings first, and then 
to see if there is any way there is a basis for negotiations to start 
and to get the peace process back on track. It was a courageous move 
that deserves bipartisan credit and it is critically important in the 
ensuing days that this bipartisanship that over the years has 
characterized our foreign policy continue. Sniping and partisan attacks 
at this time would be very harmful to the national security.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, today I am also introducing a House 
resolution which expresses the sense of the House that universal 
telecommunications service can only be met if the needs of Native 
Americans or our Native Americans and Indians are addressed and 
policies are implemented with the cooperation of tribal governments.
  As the joint Federal-State Board on Universal Service prepares to 
issue its recommendations, the implementation process of the 
Telecommunication Act reaches a critical stage. I think it is very 
important to make it perfectly clear that the intent of Congress can 
only be fulfilled if the universal service policies or procedures 
established to implement the act address the telecommunications needs 
of low income Native Americans, including Alaskan natives. Cost-
effective solutions are best developed with the cooperation of tribal 
governments.

[[Page H12255]]

  When Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act in February, great 
emphasis was placed on ensuring the delivery of telecommunications 
services, including advanced telecommunications and information 
services, to all regions of the country. The principle of universal 
service is designed to address the exceptional needs of rural, insular 
and high-cost areas and make sure those services are available at 
reasonable and affordable rates.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to address the House, number one, to commend 
the President for his leadership on achieving a bipartisan budget that 
allowed us to adjourn for the year, reflecting and reinforcing his 
domestic priorities; commend the President, too, for his peace-making 
role with the Middle East leaders right at this very moment here in 
Washington; and, lastly, to announce to the House that I have 
introduced this resolution which deals with the telecommunications 
needs of our Native Americans, that they not be forgotten in this 
Telecommunications Act.

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