[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 85 (Thursday, June 25, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7169-S7170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-497. A resolution adopted by the House of the 
     Legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; to the 
     Committee on Finance.

                        House Resolution No. 482

       Whereas, section 5536 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, 
     Public Law 105-33, amended Federal law to require each state 
     to have in place laws requiring applicants for recreational 
     licenses (hunting and fishing) to provide their Social 
     Security numbers; and
       Whereas, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has implemented 
     this Federal mandate through the amendatory act of December 
     16, 1997 (P.L. 549, No. 58), to Title 23; and
       Whereas, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania strongly supports 
     all effective mechanisms to encourage payment of child 
     support obligations; and
       Whereas, requiring applicants for hunting and fishing 
     licenses to provide their Social Security numbers does not 
     appear to enhance effective enforcement of child support 
     obligations inasmuch as hunting and fishing license records 
     are not retrievable by reference to the Social Security 
     numbers; and
       Whereas, the vast majority of hunting and fishing licenses 
     are not sold by government agencies but are sold by private 
     businesses ranging in size from large department stores to 
     small bait and outdoor shops; and
       Whereas, imposing the requirements to collect Social 
     Security number information on the businesses that sell 
     hunting and fishing licenses unduly complicate the license 
     issuance transaction; and
       Whereas, many purchasers of hunting and fishing licenses 
     object to disclosure of their Social Security numbers to the 
     private businesses that sell these licenses; and
       Whereas, the legitimate privacy concerns expressed by many 
     purchasers of hunting and fishing licenses from private 
     businesses need to be addressed; and
       Whereas, collection of Social Security numbers from 
     applicants for hunting and fishing licenses does not aid in 
     effective enforcement of child support obligations but does 
     unduly inconvenience both the sellers and purchasers of these 
     licenses and raises legitimate concerns about protection of 
     personal information, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the 
     Commonwealth of Pennsylvania memorialize the President and 
     Congress of the United States to eliminate the requirement 
     that states must require applicants for hunting and fishing 
     licenses to provide their Social Security numbers.
                                  ____

       POM--498. A resolution adopted by the House of the 
     Legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; to the 
     Committee on Finance.

                        House Resolution No. 381

       Whereas, costs borne by the taxpayers of the Commonwealth 
     of Pennsylvania for long-term care under Medicaid exceed more 
     than $500 million per fiscal year; and
       Whereas, the costs of providing care for persons who can no 
     longer take care of themselves have skyrocketed, with a 
     national average of $38,000 per year for a nursing home stay 
     and with costs as high as $50,000 in metropolitan areas like 
     Philadelphia hitting the middle class particularly hard; and
       Whereas, these costs to the Commonwealth will increase 
     because of the demands of our aging population and the fact 
     that baby boomers will soon be reaching retirement age; and
       Whereas, a Pennsylvania solution to allow middle class 
     Pennsylvanians to exempt for Medicaid eligibility, assets as 
     a result of a purchase of private sector long-term care 
     insurance so as to reduce the eventual costs borne by 
     taxpayers for their care is stymied by section 1902(r)(2) of 
     the Social Security Act (49 Stat. 620, 42 U.S.C. 
     Sec. 1396a(r)(2)) which prohibits such shielding; therefore 
     be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the 
     Commonwealth of Pennsylvania memorialize the Congress of the 
     United States to enact legislation repealing section 
     1902(r)(2) of the Social Security Act (49 Stat. 620, 42 
     U.S.C. Sec. 1396a(r)(2)); and be it further
       Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to 
     the presiding officers of each house of Congress and to each 
     member of Congress from Pennsylvania.
                                  ____

       POM-499. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; to the Committee on 
     Finance.

                        House Resolution No. 352

       Whereas, the policy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is 
     to assure the health, safety and welfare of its citizens; and
       Whereas, an adequate supply of tax-exempt private activity 
     bond volume cap is essential and critically important in 
     financing affordable, decent first-time homeownership 
     opportunities in this State and the nation and serves other 
     critically important purposes that contribute to the well-
     being of the citizens of this Commonwealth; and
       Whereas, an adequate supply of low-income housing tax 
     credits is essential and critically important to financing 
     affordable, decent rental housing units that contribute to 
     the well-being of the citizens of this Commonwealth; and
       Whereas, the Congress of the United States, in the Tax 
     Reform Code of 1986, established restrictions on tax-exempt 
     private activity municipal bonds that imposed a limit, based 
     on each state's population, not

[[Page S7170]]

     to exceed the greater of $50 per capita or $150,000,000 per 
     calendar year but failed to include an automatic inflationary 
     multiplier to ensure that the purchasing power of this 
     resource did not become diminished; and
       Whereas, Pennsylvania's relatively small growth in 
     population has limited the amount of tax-exempt private 
     activity bonds available, thus leading to an inadequate 
     amount to meet the tax-exempt private activity financing 
     demands of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, its agencies and 
     political subdivisions; and
       Whereas, the Congress, in the Tax Reform Code of 1986, 
     established restrictions on the low-income housing tax credit 
     that imposed a limit based on each state's population to be 
     equal to $1.25 per capita per calendar year but failed to 
     include an automatic inflationary multiplier to ensure that 
     the purchasing power of this resource did not become 
     diminished; and
       Whereas, since 1987 the effects of annual inflation have 
     diluted the purchasing power of these housing and economic 
     development efforts by 40%, thereby reducing the real value 
     of private activity bonds from $600,000,000 in 1987 to only 
     $360,000,000 in 1997 and reducing the real value of 
     Pennsylvania's share of low-income housing tax credits from 
     $1.25 per capita in 1987 to only $0.75 per capita in 1997; 
     and
       Whereas, losing $240,000,000 in the real value of tax-
     exempt private activity bonding resource along with $0.50 of 
     annual per capita credits from the low-income housing tax 
     credit resource has greatly impaired the ability of this 
     State and the nation to provide affordable housing and job 
     opportunities by reducing nearly in half the number of 
     single-family housing units and multifamily housing units 
     available and affordable to first-time homebuyers and renters 
     in Pennsylvania and has reduced the ability of its agencies 
     and political subdivisions to provide economic stimulation; 
     and
       Whereas, if the State and its agencies and political 
     subdivisions continue to be unable to provide levels of tax-
     exempt private activity bond financing and low-income housing 
     tax credit financing for these purposes, the health, safety 
     and welfare of the citizens of the Commonwealth of 
     Pennsylvania will be further grievously damaged; therefore be 
     it
       Resolved (the Senate concurring), That the General Assembly 
     memorialize Congress to increase immediately the tax-exempt 
     private activity volume cap and the allocation of low-income 
     housing tax credits available to each state, including 
     Pennsylvania, to levels that would fully restore the tax-
     exempt private activity bond volume cap purchasing power and 
     the low-income housing tax credit purchasing power of each 
     state, including Pennsylvania, to levels that would offset 
     the diluted effects of inflation since 1987 and to index 
     increases for these resources to inflation in future years; 
     and be it further
       Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to 
     the presiding officers of each house of Congress and to each 
     member of Congress from Pennsylvania.
                                  ____

       POM-500. A resolution adopted by the Town of Bourne, 
     Massachusetts relative to contamination of the Campbell 
     Elementary School on the Mass Military Reservation; to the 
     Committee on Appropriations.

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