[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REBUILDING AMERICAN SCHOOLS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I think on this very bright 
and sunny spring day I am delighted to associate myself with a forward-
thinking Democratic agenda that says that we must come back to this 
House and stand on the side of our young people, and that means that we 
must go full speed ahead on rebuilding America's schools.
  The question is, why are we stalled with legislation that allows a 
certain amount of money to provide for the failing and falling 
infrastructure, the leaking roofs, the many scatter-site trailer homes 
that schoolchildren are having to learn in? Why should we not, the 
American government, stand on the side of educating our children? Why 
should we not provide for 100,000 teachers to go into the classrooms 
with their talent and enthusiasm and teach our children?
  Then, Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that I want to stand on the 
side of science, understanding how difficult it is for us to understand 
needle exchange. This is not part of the Democratic agenda. I think it 
makes common sense that we recognize that the science says that we will 
decrease HIV by the needle exchange. Let us get common sense and stop, 
and stop, and stop the tragedy of HIV.

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