[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10805-H10806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR 105TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I look back over the last 2 years, and I am 
pretty proud of the record of accomplishment for this Congress, a 
record of accomplishment where we accomplished a lot of things that 
people said we could not do.
  I remember when I was elected to Congress as part of that class in 
1994 who came to Washington to change how Washington works, to do 
things that Washington had failed to do for over a generation, things 
that families back home do every day, like balancing the budget and 
working to raise take-home pay and working to lower the tax burden on 
the middle-class and working to change a failed welfare system.
  On every one of these initiatives, we were told by certain newspapers 
in the East and by my friends on the other side of the aisle that we 
could not do that. We could not balance the budget; that we could not 
cut taxes for the middle class; that we could not reform our welfare 
system; that we could not help our schools; that we could not change 
the tax collector and reform and restructure the IRS.
  As I look back now over the last 2 years, I am pretty proud of what 
we accomplished, because we did all of those things they said we would 
not be able to do.
  We balanced the budget for the first time in 28 years this past year. 
And the budget is so well balanced now, we are now projected to have 
over $1.6 trillion in extra tax revenue over the next 10 years.
  We cut taxes for the middle-class for the first time in 16 years, and 
for a traditional family of mom and dad and two kids on the south side 
of Chicago in the south suburbs, those middle-class tax cuts can mean 
an extra $10,000 in higher take-home pay over the next few years.
  Those are big victories for the middle-class: Balancing the balance 
and cutting taxes. And we also reformed the welfare system for the 
first time in a generation, taking an outdated, outmoded welfare system 
that placed more children in poverty than ever before in history. It 
was time to make a change, and I am proud that the first real welfare 
reform in a generation has reduced our Nation's welfare rolls by 20 
percent.

                              {time}  1900

  People often say, that is pretty good. That is a pretty good record 
of accomplishment for the Congress in the last 2 years, balancing the 
budget for the first time in 28 years, cutting middle class taxes for 
the first time in 16 years, reforming welfare for the first time in a 
generation. What is next? What is Congress going to do in 1998?
  I am proud to say we have also made a lot of progress in 1998. We 
restructured and tamed the tax collector, shifting the burden of proof 
from the backs of the taxpayer onto the IRS, giving you the same rights 
with the IRS that you have in the courtroom. We passed legislation just 
yesterday and sent it to the President to protect kids from those who 
would prey on them via the Internet.
  I am also proud to say that we continue to make education a priority. 
In fact, that balanced budget that we produced last year, the first 
balanced budget in 28 years, made education a priority. In fact, 
education was one of the big winners in the first balanced budget in 28 
years. We increased funding for education by 10 percent, a $5.4 billion 
funding increase. Now, thanks to this Republican majority in the 
Congress, we have the lowest student loan interest rates in 17 years. 
We have doubled Pell grants to twice what they were when I was elected, 
to help more low income students go on to college. We have made 
mandates where we have told our local schools we want you to do 
something. We have actually provided the funding, increased funding for 
special education, for example, by $500 million.
  Those are big victories for education. I am proud of what we have 
been able to do in the last two and last four years in this Congress. 
I, too, have visited a lot of schools in the south side of Chicago and 
the south suburbs. I speak often and listen to the concerns of

[[Page H10806]]

local teachers and local school administrators and local school board 
members and local parents. They say in Illinois only 4 to 6 percent of 
the money for Illinois schools comes from the Federal Government. So 
does two-thirds of the paperwork. That is a pretty expensive gift. We 
will give you a little bit of money but we are going to bury you in 
paperwork. And they also point out that even though we increased 
funding last year by 10 percent, a $5.4 billion funding increase for 
education, only 70 cents on the dollar actually reaches the classroom. 
They point out, these local school administrators and school board 
members and local teachers, they say that 30 cents on the dollar, what 
we appropriate here in Washington, stays in Washington, feeding the 
bureaucracy.
  They have begged and they have asked and they say, if you are going 
to send more money from Washington, please help make sure it reaches 
the classroom, please help make sure that it is not lost in the 
bureaucracy and that we can reduce those costs.
  Mr. Speaker, we passed legislation out of this House putting more 
dollars in the classroom. That means $43 million more a year for 
Illinois schools. I ask for that type of bipartisan effort.

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