[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 64 (Thursday, May 15, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2781-H2782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   BALANCED BUDGET AGREEMENT SHOULD REFLECT DEMOCRATIC FAMILY FIRST 
                               PRIORITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that I know that the hour is 
late and I do not intend to use much of the 60 minutes this evening, 
but I did want to take to the well tonight, to take to the floor to 
talk about what I expect to be happening here on the floor of the House 
next week, and that is when the Republican leadership brings up the 
budget.
  I think as my colleagues know, there has been a proposal that in its 
broad outlines has been agreed upon by both President Clinton and the 
Republican leadership, and there will be a budget resolution most 
likely adopted on the House floor at some time next week.
  However, as a Democrat I am very concerned about the need for this 
budget to reflect Democratic priorities. Over the last year, at least 
since June of 1996, the Democrats have outlined a Family First agenda 
that includes prioritization, if you will, of education, health care, 
environmental and other needs for the average American family. The 
President clearly articulated those priorities during the negotiations 
over a budget agreement, and I know fought very hard to make sure that 
those priorities were included in the balanced budget proposal.
  The fact of the matter is, however, that many of us on the Democratic 
side are concerned that the end result may not reflect some of these 
Democratic priorities. Already Members of the Republican Party are 
stating that there is no guarantee, for example, that they will include 
Democratic education initiatives in the budget reconciliation process. 
As the budget discussions continue, my goal and our goal is to further 
an agenda that helps the average American family.
  Without getting into all the bureaucracy of the budget process, the 
budget resolution, which will be presented most likely next week on the 
floor of the House, is basically a broad outline or plan about what the 
budget agreement should be. But after that is passed, and once it 
finally is agreed to by both Houses, there will be a fleshing out, if 
you will, of the spending priorities through the various appropriation 
or spending bills. There will also be a reconciliation act that will 
essentially tie together the spending with any tax cuts, and there is 
also likely to be a tax package that will essentially put together and 
be more specific about the various tax cuts that are proposed.
  What I would like to do is to basically outline if I could, very 
briefly, what President Clinton sees and what I see as a Democrat and 
most of us as Democrats feel that the balanced budget agreement should 
accomplish. To the extent that it does accomplish these Democratic 
priorities, it is something that all of us or most of us can support. 
But we have to keep the feet to the fire, so to speak, on the 
Republican side, and particularly the Republican leadership, to make 
sure that this balanced budget agreement does make good, so to speak, 
on the promises that reflect the concerns of the average American.
  The critical investments, if you will, that the President has talked 
about achieving in this balanced budget agreement relate to education, 
health care, and the environment. There is also a very real need to 
make sure that Medicare and Medicaid are strengthened and modernized so 
that they are available and they are solid programs, they are solvent, 
if you will, into the next century.

  The balanced budget agreement should cut the deficit 63 percent. 
Well, I should say that actually over the last few years we have 
succeeded in cutting the deficit 63 percent, from $290 billion in 1992 
to $107 billion last year. But the idea is that this balanced budget 
agreement would essentially finish the job and achieve a truly balanced 
budget with no deficit by the time that the 5-year period that it is 
including is ended.
  I want to talk about some of these priorities, though. We call them 
the Democratic Family First priorities that the budget needs to 
reflect.
  With regard to education, the President's initiative says that every 
8-year-old can read, every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet, and 
every 18-year-old can go to college. The education initiatives are 
really in many ways the most important Democratic priority that we have 
been trying to achieve.
  The way to achieve this is essentially to provide the largest Pell 
grant increase in 2 decades, 4 million students to receive a grant of 
up to $3,000, an increase of $300 in the maximum grant; tax cuts, and 
here again there are tax cuts and there are tax cuts. Tax cuts that we 
as Democrats would like to see would be targeted to higher education, 
to make college more affordable for the average American.
  Now, if we have tax cuts that emphasize the education, higher 
education programs, then that certainly makes sense as part of this 
overall agreement. On the other hand, if the tax cuts are mainly 
targeted to help corporate interests or to help wealthier Americans, 
then we will not achieve a balanced budget that works to help the 
average working person.
  We have also talked about expansion of health care to achieve for the 
first time coverage for about 10 million uninsured children in this 
country. There are about 10 million children that are uninsured and the 
numbers keep growing. It is estimated that by the year 2000 it would be 
as high as 12 million children. So the President has included as part 
of this balanced budget program essentially Medicaid improvements and a 
grant program has been suggested that provides additional dollars to 
supplement States' efforts to cover uninsured children and working 
families.
  Last night on the House floor I specifically talked about the kids' 
health care initiative that the Democratic task force that I cochair 
has put together, that would try to achieve, within the context of this 
budget agreement, coverage for as many as possible of the 10 million 
children who are now uninsured.
  It is also very important that this budget strengthen environmental 
protection and enforcement. The President has talked about accelerating 
Superfund cleanups by almost 500 sites by the year 2000. He has talked 
about expanding the brownfield redevelopment initiative to help 
communities clean up and redevelop contaminated areas through this 
brownfield proposal, and also to boost environmental enforcement to 
protect public health from environmental threats.
  I have often said that it does not make much sense to have good 
environmental laws on the books if you do not have adequate 
enforcement, and enforcement means money. We have to have investigators 
to go after the polluters, we have to have those enforcement officers 
who will impose fines and make sure that polluters are brought to 
justice.
  So again, the priority under this balanced budget agreement has to 
include a major environmental component.
  Also, in the aftermath of the President's welfare reform that was 
signed into law last year, there needs to be, and the President has 
talked about a welfare-to-work tax credit to help long-term welfare 
recipients get jobs, and also the need to restore disability and health 
benefits for legal, as opposed to illegal immigrants in this country.

                              {time}  2200

  Right now under some of the provisions that were passed last year by 
the House and Senate and signed into law, there are legal immigrants 
who do not have access to certain benefits, such as Social Security 
disability, Medicare, Medicaid, depending on their circumstances. All 
these Democratic priorities, if you will, need to be incorporated as 
part of this balanced budget, if it is really going to achieve success 
to help the average working American.
  I think that I cannot emphasize enough that there are essentially 
three goals here. One is to make sure we do have a balanced budget, 
which we all, I think, in this House are very much in

[[Page H2782]]

favor of, whether we are Democrats or Republican.
  Second is to make sure that the priority spending on health care for 
kids, on education, on environment, on some of the other areas that the 
Democrats have outlined as part of their Families First agenda, that 
these priorities are where the spending or where the dollars go under 
this budget agreement.
  Last, but certainly not least, is that the tax credits or the tax 
cuts, if you will, are primarily targeted, again, towards the needs of 
the average American. There is proposed a child tax credit to make it 
easier for families to raise their kids; tax cuts, again targeted to 
higher education, to make college more affordable. The President has 
talked about not only expanding the Pell grant, but also providing a 
certain amount of deductibility, that parents would be able to deduct 
for college tuition they pay for their children.
  There is also a HOPE scholarship program for the first 2 years of 
college if you maintain a B average; that you would have, I believe, 
$1,500 a year made available as a scholarship to pay for your tuition 
or education expenses.
  There were also provisions that the President has talked about to 
establish additional empowerment zones and enterprise communities. But 
again, the issue here is whether or not this budget agreement, not 
necessarily the resolution that we deal with next week, but even beyond 
that, the so-called budget reconciliation bill, where the actual taxes 
and the cuts and credits will be struck, and where, in the 
appropriation bills, where the actual spending will be indicated, these 
need to reflect the Democratic Families First priorities. They need to 
have tax cuts that will help the average person and not just the 
wealthier elements in our society.
  My point tonight, and this is a point that I and others I am sure 
will be making over the next few weeks or next few months as we delve 
into the budget in its various aspects, is that a balanced budget 
agreement that does not reflect the priorities of the average American, 
does not provide tax cuts that help the average working family, really 
is of no value.
  That is what we want to see as Democrats. We want to see the budget 
balanced, we want to see the priorities that are important for the 
average American, and we want to see tax cuts and tax credits that will 
help the average American as we move forward and we prioritize our 
spending needs in this Congress.

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