[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 143 (Sunday, October 11, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2088]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 8, 1998

  The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 
had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4274) making appropriations for 
he Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and 
related agencies, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, and 
for other purposes:
  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong opposition to the 
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act for fiscal year 1999. this 
legislation essentially denies the weakest and most vulnerable of our 
nation's citizens important programs which provide positive 
opportunities to succeed in life. It shortchanges the youth of our 
nation by virtually eliminating the Administration's education agenda, 
subjects millions of America's most vulnerable families to hardships 
with the elimination of LIHEAP, dismantles common sense programs that 
help young people prepare for the world of work; and severely undercuts 
funding for programs which tackle labor issues such as adequate wages, 
organizing rights, worker health and safety enforcement.
  As a former educator, I am a strong supporter of programs that invest 
in our nation's children. Education is the most important investment we 
can make to ensure the welfare of our nation's future. Our public 
schools face enormous challenges in the next several years, including 
record high numbers of students, increasing proportions of students 
with disabilities, billions of dollars in unmet infrastructure needs 
and the challenge of making education technology available to all 
students. To often I must report that as public schools struggle 
critics make their task more difficult rather than offer the resources. 
This irresponsible appropriation clearly ignores the fact that 
education has consistently been rated as a top priority of our 
constituents--it is almost impossible to list all of the negative 
provisions included, but let me highlight, some of the ``low-lights''. 
The Republican bill eliminates Title I reading and math assistance for 
520,000 disadvantage students; eliminates Perkins college loans and 
Byrd Scholarships for 120,000 students, cuts $300 million from Goals 
2000 and Eisenhower teacher training programs and turns them into block 
grants; and cuts funding or drug and violence prevention coordinators 
at 6,500 middle schools. It cuts funding for the School-to-Work program 
by $250 million, eliminates funding for Star Schools, thereby shutting 
down innovative programs for using technology and telecommunications 
equipment in the classroom in low-income school districts. This 
Republican effort will withdraw funding for the Summer Youth Employment 
and Training program and will prevent over 530,000 young Americans from 
gaining work experience and learning the valuable work ethics.
  Proponents of this bill gloss over and ignore these drastic cuts in 
education and will instead applaud the needed and provided increases 
for Pell Grants, TRIO, Impact Aid and Special education. However, the 
bill provides only a $537 million, or 1.8% increase in program levels 
for the department of education--a figure which falls substantially 
below the 2.2% inflation rate projected for FY 99, so we are going 
backwards.
  But that's not all. This bill doesn't just target the youth of our 
Nation to accept far less. H.R. 4247 is extreme in its disregard for 
the protection of our workforce. It provides inadequate funding for 
federal laws which protect their health and safety, and their right of 
workers to organize and bargain collectively. In addition, this bill 
ignores the growing need for highly skilled workers, cutting, nearly in 
half, the number of people who can participation in employment and 
training programs. This continued attack upon America's labor force and 
the extreme underfunding of principal programs which protect workers' 
wages, pensions, and equal opportunity rights is truly a slap in the 
face to the working families of America.
  Finally, I am disappointed with this measure's elimination of funding 
for the Low-Income Housing Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. LIHEAP 
provides heating and cooling assistance to 4.3 million low-income 
households by way of nurturing an effective funding partnership with 
all levels of government and the private sector. This is a crucial need 
in cold weather states such as Minnesota.

  You don't have to be a meteorologist, scientist or environmentalist 
to notice the weather patterns in the past few years. Most Minnesotans 
are familiar with the extremes in weather-related conditions: dangerous 
winter temperatures down to 30 degrees below zero combined with even 
more frigid arctic windchills, producing advisory warnings against 
stepping outside with exposed skin for more than five minutes. We 
Minnesotans in turn sympathize with Texans this past summer, where at 
least 79 people died due to heat-related illnesses during the long, 
100-plus degree heatwave. These extremes in temperatures translate into 
unpredictable energy bills for everyone, but have particularly dire 
consequences for individuals struggling on a limited income, and 
disparities of income have persisted and compound this program zero 
funding policy path.
  It is estimated that the average American household spends 6.8 
percent of its income on energy bills during the most expensive heating 
and cooling seasons. A low-income household spends an average of 17.4%, 
and sometimes up to 30%. That's at least two and a half times the 
average burden. We're talking about the poor elderly, children, low-
income single parents--persons already hit with the struggles of 
welfare-to-work and cuts in Medicare coverage.
  Yet in the wake of tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and other natural 
disasters, the Republican leadership has seized upon this opportunity 
to create a battle between underserved populations. The Labor-HHS-
Education bill justifies taking money out of LIHEAP to pay for an 
increase in our nation's medical research program. While I understand 
the importance of advancements in medical research, robbing Peter to 
pay Paul does not alleviate the long-term health, nutrition and safety 
problems caused by placing low-income individuals in between a rock and 
a hard place, forcing them to decide whether to heat or eat. Energy 
assistance is one of the simplest and most effective ways of preventing 
individuals from having to make that choice. Should we really expect 
the poorest of the poor, the working poor to be the qualitative cut 
that will help us fight the great ills that have faced mankind through 
the ages.
  I urge my colleagues to express their commitment to a more preventive 
approach to meeting the needs of underserved populations. Vote no on 
the current Labor-HHS-Education appropriations package.

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