[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 143 (Sunday, October 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PROGRESS REPORT ON CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Miller) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, we can talk all we want here, 
or the Republicans can talk all they want, about what they are going to 
do in terms of education, because most of the legislation that was just 
read by the gentleman in the well is legislation that they have 
proposed, it is legislation that may have passed this House, it is 
legislation that they cannot get agreement with the Senate on, or it is 
legislation that has come out of the committee but their caucus is in 
disagreement on much of that legislation.
  I appreciate and I was at the signing with the bipartisan delegation 
of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. That is what 
Congress is supposed to do. Congress is supposed to reauthorize that 
act when it comes due and there is no Congress that has failed to do 
that.
  But this Congress has failed to do much more. It has failed to meet 
the needs of America's schoolchildren by failing to address the need to 
reduce class size for our younger students. It has refused to meet the 
need to improve our schools, the crumbling schools, some $12 billion 
worth of construction that is immediately necessary, not only to make 
schools safe, not only to make them healthy for our children, not only 
to modernize those that need it, but also to make them ready for the 
technology that is the key to much of the educational opportunity for 
the students.
  So this Congress has struck out on education. This Congress has 
struck out on managed care, where they decided they would go with the 
monied interest of the insurance companies and the HMO companies 
against the American people, against the American people and their 
desire to once again have a doctor-patient relationship, a doctor-
patient relationship that deals with the health care problems of the 
patient, as opposed to the bottom line and the stock price of the HMO 
corporation or of the insurance company that keeps meddling with the 
decisions of doctors to prescribe medicine, to prescribe treatment, to 
prescribe tests or to prescribe surgery.
  Each and every time the doctor wants to do this, he has to pick up 
the phone, the doctor has to call an 800 number, get some bureaucrat on 
the phone and say can I have an MRI? I believe this person may have a 
tumor. Can I have surgery? We have discovered a tumor and now we would 
like to cut it out on a timely basis.
  They say no, you are going to have to wait 30 days. No, send them out 
for massage, send them to the whirlpool. Send them anywhere except to 
surgery, where they need it to try to stem the ravages of cancer or 
other malignancies.
  That is what the American people have asked us to do. This Congress 
could not do it. This Congress could not do it because they decided 
they would deal with the money interests, just as they decided they 
would deal with the monied interests and they would kill campaign 
finance reform, they would kill the ability of the American people to 
have a greater participation in the election process, to develop 
grassroots, to make sure the people in our districts are not overridden 
by all of the soft money that comes in in the last days of a campaign. 
This Congress struck out in that effort.
  This Congress struck out on the effort for tobacco legislation, to 
try to recover for the Federal taxpayer some of the billions of dollars 
that they have spent in the Medicare program taking care of the victims 
of tobacco, taking care of the victims of cancer that is related to 
tobacco. The states are recovering that, but somehow the Federal 
Government is unable do that. Why? Because they could not stop the flow 
of the tobacco contributions to the Republican party. They just could 
not get off that addiction that they have, not only to tobacco, but to 
tobacco campaign contributions. So this Congress struck out on that.
  Finally, as Americans are working harder and harder and more 
Americans are working more than ever, we thought they ought to at least 
get a wage to allow them to support their families. But this Congress 
could not see it that way. It decided that once again it would go with 
their campaign contributions from the Small Business Association, from 
the Restaurant Association, and they would deny America an increase in 
the minimum wage, so those people who are working at the minimum wage 
would be able to support themselves and their families.
  These are people that go to work all week long, all month long and 
all year long, but at the end of the year, they end up poor. So what do 
we do? We have the government subsidize them in food stamps, we have 
the government subsidize them in housing, we have the government 
subsidize them in medical care, because their wages do not allow them 
to procure these basic necessities of life for them or their family. 
Why? Because the minimum wage is not high enough.
  But this Congress, this do-nothing Congress, chose not to do anything 
about the minimum wage, not to do anything about managed care, not to 
do anything about campaign finance reform, not to do anything about the 
crucial bills dealing with the improvement of education and bills to 
protect the environment.
  So this Congress that has only worked 108 days this year, this 
Congress that has chosen to be out of town more days than it has been 
here, this Congress that has chosen to come to work Tuesday night at 
five o'clock and leave Thursday night at five o'clock, this Congress 
that chose to extend the August break an extra week, this Congress that 
chose not to work in January, February or March more than a couple of 
days, this Congress now cannot find time to deal with the basic 
necessities of our children's education, to get a budget and to pass 
the appropriations bills.
  That is why this Congress is being hailed by editorial boards and 
people all over the country as a do-nothing Congress. And I would just 
ask the same courtesies on time that you give the Republican Members on 
the other side of the aisle. The Chair belongs to the whole House, not 
to one party or the other.

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