[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2132-H2133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           1-800 BUY AMERICA

  (Mr. TRAFICANT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, I have before this Congress a bill called 
``1-800 Buy America.'' It says that any product that costs more than 
$250 is eligible to be listed on this national toll line for the 
purchase of American-made goods.
  It is not paid for by the American consumers. It is paid for by the 
American companies who build a product made in America by American 
workers who pay American taxes that enure to the benefit of all in this 
country. $250, where a woman in Ohio could say, ``I am buying a 
refrigerator. 1-800 Buy America, what refrigerators are made in 
America?''
  Now, that bill passed the House last Congress without a vote, on a 
voice vote, but it was not enacted into law; and it fell down in the 
Senate with a bunch of so-called free traders that are so dumb they 
could throw themselves at the ground and miss.
  I am letting the Congress know that this is one of the most important 
pieces of legislation, where the American consumers can at least know 
what is made in America. They can price their products and see that, 
many

[[Page H2133]]

times, American-made products made in our country by American workers 
cost less than some of these now-exotic foreign imports.
  Let me remind the Congress that a pair of these Chinese-made tennis 
shoes that sell for $150 cost 17 cents to make in China, and they are 
buying missile technology with our dollars.
  So, with that, ``1-800 Buy America,'' I would appreciate if the 
Congress, while we are waiting on people to get here, would enact that 
legislation.

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