[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 16, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10446-S10447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

 Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to Hispanic 
Americans, as we begin to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Events 
will occur throughout the Nation during this month--which extends from 
September 15th to October 15th--to applaud the achievements of 
Hispanics everywhere.
  The diverse contributions of Hispanics to society, culture, 
academics, and the economy of our Nation have greatly enriched America. 
For example, the first two Hispanic Americans to win the Nobel Prize, 
biochemist Severo Ochoa and physicist Luis Alvarez, in their gain of 
worldwide acclaim, added to America's greatness in their respective 
fields. Dr. Ochoa of New York, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine 
in 1959 for his discovery of ribonucleic acid (RNA). According to a New 
York Times article of November 3, 1993, Dr. Arthur Kornberg shared the 
Nobel Prize with Dr. Ochoa and said upon his death that Dr. Ochoa was 
``a fine teacher, a person of great enthusiasm and optimism.'' The 
Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Dr. Alvarez in 1968 for 
discovering a subatomic particle that can exist for only fraction of a 
second. He was born in California and later died in Berkeley, 
California in 1968.
  Another great American, Franklin Chang-Diaz, became the first 
Hispanic American in space when he flew on a 1986 space shuttle 
Columbia mission. Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic female 
astronaut when NASA selected her for that duty in 1990, after receiving 
her Masters and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford 
University. These Americans have presented themselves as ideal role 
models for other Hispanic Americans aspiring to excel in science and 
technical fields.
  Our country's Armed Forces have also been proud to have Hispanics 
serve to protect America's freedom and liberty. The U.S. Congressional 
Medal of Honor Society has so far presented 38 Hispanic Americans with 
the distinguished Medal of Honor for their valor and great bravery. 
Without the integrity and spirit exemplified by these individuals, 
Americans everywhere would be facing a less secure world. Latinos have 
been with us through the Revolution, expansion to the West, and every 
conflict we have faced as a Nation; more than 400,000 Hispanics served 
the U.S. during World War II, and nearly 25,000 served during the 
Persian Gulf War.
  The leadership of this country is augmented by the voices of our 
Hispanic elected officials, many who have joined forces in the 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The Caucus has been working very hard to 
advance relevant legislation and educate their colleagues about the 
needs of the Hispanic community. As we review Congressional history, we 
discover that the first Latino to serve in Congress, Joseph Marion 
Hernandez, entered our halls as a Delegate from Florida in 1822. Our 
body welcomed Octaviano Larrazolo as the first Hispanic U.S. Senator in 
1928. Currently, I am honored to have the only Hispanic Chief of Staff 
in the U.S. Senate, my good friend Reynaldo Martinez. I feel that we 
should see more of these success stories as we reach the next 
millennium.
  In the state of Nevada, Hispanics have shown their influence in all 
areas, especially in education, business, and politics. Nevada 
continues to be the fastest-growing state in the Nation, and Nevada's 
Hispanics have increased from 124,408 people out of 1.2 million in 
1990, to 253,329 people out of 1.7 million in 1997, according to Census 
Bureau figures released last week. This is a large increase from 10.4 
percent of the state population in 1990 to 15.1 percent in 1997.
  Hispanics have been the largest minority in Nevada for years and will 
become the largest minority in the rest of the country in 2005. Overall 
in the U.S., Hispanics number more than 30 million people. Along with 
some of my colleagues, I worked to address urgent needs of this quickly 
growing segment of our U.S. population, forging inroads with various 
Hispanic organizations through our Senate Hispanic Working Group. The 
Working Group has met regularly throughout the past year, encouraging a 
two-way learning process in which we have come to better understand 
important concerns that Hispanic Americans have, while expressing to 
the Hispanic community our earnest desire to address these concerns. 
The group has forged ties with Hispanic organizations such as the 
National Council of La Raza, League of United Latin American Citizens, 
National Association of Latino Elected Officials, American GI Forum, 
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Latino 
Children's Institute and MANA A National Latina Organization. I am very 
pleased that our Leader, Senator Daschle, asked me to work with Senator 
Bingaman and Senator John Kerry in this effort.
  Practical, everyday issues Democrats have worked to address for 
Hispanic Americans are many in number and quite varied. For instance, 
we united to pass an amendment to the education IRA bill which I 
offered, along with my colleague from New Mexico, Senator Bingaman, to 
help reduce the alarming number of high school dropouts in this 
country. Although the amendment was added to the bill, it was 
regrettably stripped in conference.
  This effort was particularly aimed at addressing the 
disproportionately high rate of Hispanic high school dropouts--a rate 
which has hovered at 30 percent. This is by far the highest rate 
compared to all other racial and ethnic minority groups--a rate that is 
simply unacceptable. Nevada has also seen dropout rates among Hispanics 
of more than 16 percent. We must continue to find out why these 
students are left behind, and eventually feel compelled to curtail 
their learning opportunities. These are opportunities that could help 
these disenfranchised young people begin a career, support their 
families now and in the future, and make something of their lives.
  My own life was transformed by the power of education. My father 
never received an education higher than elementary school and my mother 
never graduated from high school. But because I was lucky enough to 
have access to educational opportunities, the support of good teachers, 
and a supportive community, I was able to accomplish what my parents 
had dreamed for me. Democrats want to make sure that every American has 
the opportunity to obtain a good education and realize their full 
potential.

  We have also been trying very hard to reform our health care system. 
Millions of Americans worry every day about health care as they fight 
all manner of illness and disease, or care for a loved one who is sick. 
Many Americans, including Hispanic Americans who make up almost one in 
every four uninsured individuals in the U.S., wonder about how they 
will obtain the care they need when they need it, how they will pay for 
it, whether or not the care is quality care, and how much control they 
will have over their own health care decisions. We have managed to 
elevate on the national level one comprehensive solution to many 
families' health care worries in Patients' Bill of Rights legislation. 
We did this because people want to change the way managed care works, 
or more accurately, doesn't work. Regrettably, partisans have fought 
against full consideration of managed care reform in the Patients' Bill 
of Rights that would address issues at the heart of Americans' health 
care concerns. Democrats will continue pushing to increase patient 
protections for all Americans.
  We have also, time after time, come to this floor to talk about 
strengthening retirement security for current and future generations. I 
hear our young people's anxiety about their retirement--that nothing 
will be available to help them when it's time to leave the workforce. 
Unfortunately for Hispanics, out of the one in ten who are part of the 
workforce, only one in three or 32 percent of the 13.2 million working 
Hispanic Americans participate in employee pension plans. The 
participation rate for other minorities is 44 percent and for white 
Americans, 51 percent. The situation is bleaker for Hispanic women, who 
earn on average

[[Page S10447]]

only 57 cents for every dollar earned by men and are thus unable to 
build savings or save for retirement.
  Our solution is the Retirement Accessibility, Security, and 
Portability Act of 1998, a comprehensive pension bill that includes a 
wide range of proposals designed to help Americans prepare for a secure 
retirement. This legislation would expand pension coverage, strengthen 
pension security, promote pension portability, and increase equity for 
women. We are also working to save Social Security--a program that has 
succeeded in keeping millions of older Americans out of poverty, 
helping people who don't have pension plans or inadequate pensions, and 
serving as a necessary safety net. Americans shouldn't face great 
anxiety in their golden years and should rather be free to enjoy their 
grandchildren, second or third careers, and as active a lifestyle as 
they desire.
  We have accomplished other things with the support of Hispanic 
Americans during this Congress, such as halting an assault on the 
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. During Senate 
consideration of ISTEA II, the comprehensive highway funding bill, 
Democrats succeeded in protecting the DBE program which helps to ensure 
that minority- and women-owned small businesses have a fair opportunity 
to compete for Federal-aid highway and transit construction projects. 
In my state, $26.6 million or 11 percent of 1997 contracting dollars 
coming into Nevada went to minority- and women-owned businesses. In 
1996, the DBE program brought in $4.2 million for minority-owned firms, 
or 7.3 percent of Federal contracting funds. It is imperative that we 
continue our diligence in helping these businesses fight against 
discrimination and flourish in their respective industries.
  This year, we fought for a restoration of Food Stamps to legal 
immigrants who unfairly lost their benefits. As my colleagues recall, 
the Republican welfare bill in 1996 introduced several provisions 
harmful to legal immigrants, including a prohibition that cut 935,000 
individuals from the Food Stamp program alone. Although eligibility 
later was restored in 1997 for certain immigrants in selected Federal 
assistance programs, many others remained ineligible for necessary 
benefits in the Federal safety net that helps poorer families. We 
included a partial, $818 million restoration in the agricultural 
research bill conference report, defeating a motion to recommit the 
conference report with instructions stating that Food Stamp benefits be 
restored only to refugees and asylees who were lawfully residing in the 
U.S. on August 22, 1996. Immigrants were inequitably subjected to an 
arbitrary cutoff of benefits that hurt them dearly and took food out of 
the mouths of young children. We made sure that at least part of this 
injustice was reversed.
  I hope that a similar range of issues will be addressed in a 
statewide Hispanic Leadership Summit--the second one in a series--which 
will take place in Nevada this October. The first Hispanic summit I 
helped arrange in 1997 served as a catalyst for discussions in issue 
forums on education, health care, crime and community health, business 
and employment, and political awareness, and this year's summit will 
spur discussion on the same issues. In addition to identifying Nevadans 
to serve in leadership roles for the community in these areas, summit 
participants proposed solutions to various problems, such as 
educational programs to address high school dropout rates, alternatives 
to gangs, improved adult education and bilingual education/English as a 
Second Language programs, and better access to higher education. I 
encourage my colleagues to hold events such as this one in their own 
states, as a way to further encourage solidarity and real progress as 
the Nevada summits did for the Hispanic community in my state.
  Many accomplishments of Hispanic Americans came to light at the 
summit, and Hispanic Heritage Month presents us a terrific opportunity 
to celebrate those accomplishments once again. For example, as Hispanic 
consumers grow in number and purchasing power, producers, retailers and 
advertisers are recognizing Hispanics' strong economic muscle and 
finding selective marketing to Hispanics increasingly important. The 
Hispanic share of total buying power in my state grew from 6.4 percent 
in 1990 to 8.2 percent in 1997--an increase from $1.38 billion to $3.17 
billion in less than a decade. Nationally, Hispanic buying power rose 
from 5.2 percent or $210 billion in 1990 to 6.1 percent and $348 
billion in 1997, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at 
the University of Georgia. Hispanic Americans are helping to grow the 
economy.
  Hispanic entrepreneurs are also becoming a significant force in 
Nevada's economy, and the U.S. as a whole. Nevada's 3,900 Hispanic-
owned firms earned $484 million in sales and receipts in 1992--double 
the number of firms existing in 1987 (1,767 businesses) and triple the 
sales and receipts logged in 1997 ($142 million), according to the 
Census Bureau. As of 1996, there were an estimated greater than one 
million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. Also growing in number 
around the country are Hispanic Chambers of Commerce--which numbered 
169 in 31 states in 1995, according to Hispanic Business, Inc. This 
included the Latin Chamber of Commerce of Nevada in Las Vegas and the 
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Reno. I am encouraged to see that these 
businesses have come a long way and that they are projected to grow 
even more dramatically in the next five to ten years.
  In closing, Hispanic Americans have much to celebrate this month. I 
feel there is no better occasion than now to personally congratulate a 
few winners who have made the Silver State quite proud. The Latin 
Energy Dancers of Carson City, Nevada are being recognized this week by 
the National Latino Children's Institute--my warm congratulations go 
out to this group on being declared as one of the institute's La 
Promesa Award Winners 1998. Congratulations to Father Omar Botia for 
being this year's recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year 
``Adelante'' Award. Father Omar, my friend, has contributed much to the 
Hispanic community in Reno, not only in the spiritual realm, but also 
in recognizing the need for improvement of their temporal situations. 
Also, MANA, A Latina Organization recently opened a new chapter in my 
state in Las Vegas--I wish them the best in their new endeavor. Let 
this month be a celebration for achievements and honors like these, 
through which the Hispanic community will continue to grow and 
flourish. Hispanic Heritage Month will be a time for us to remember the 
contributions that the Hispanic community has shared with us and has 
given to this, only adding to its greatness. We are reminded this month 
that the United States is a country of true diversity, which revels in 
the differences of its individuals, and rejoices in the common strains 
that unite us as Americans.

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