[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 147 (Thursday, October 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10997]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE OMNIBUS SCORECARD--WINS AND LOSSES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SESSION. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise with my colleagues. We have 
been at work in Washington now for an extra week. Many of us did not go 
home as we normally do. I have gone home every weekend for the last 2 
years. But it was important for us to be here. It was important for us 
to be here because we are working on the people's business.
  Mr. Speaker, just several weeks ago I addressed schools all over the 
Fifth District of Texas during a very important time, the 211th 
birthday of the Constitution of the United States, and at the time I 
addressed these students I talked about that our country was engaged in 
an experiment. The experiment is that of constitutional government. And 
this experiment will only last as long as people have faith and 
confidence not only in the Congress and the constitutional guarantees 
which are contained in the Constitution, but also in the rule of law.
  Mr. Speaker, we have been working this week extra, what I would call 
overtime away from our families, away from our districts because we 
deeply believe in what we are doing. We, too, are engaged in an 
experiment.
  Tonight I would like to speak for just a few minutes about the 
importance of this extra week, the importance of doing work that is 
important for people who are not here in Washington but are back home. 
Some of those people are people who live in the country. Some of those 
people are people who are God-fearing people who care deeply about what 
we do here. The work that we have done, we need to let them know what 
that is, and I would like to spend just a few minutes in enumerating 
some of those better qualities of what this experiment is all about.
  What we are going to do is to pass an omnibus bill tomorrow when we 
have an opportunity to vote on it, and what it is going to do is it is 
going to bring about tax relief for financially strapped farmers and 
ranchers, and what we are going to include is income averaging and also 
an AMT deferment. We are also going to have tax relief for farmers and 
self-employed people in vigils, and what we are going to do is to bring 
back in time from the year 2007 to the year 2003 whereby self-employed 
people will be able to deduct 100 percent of their insurance premiums.
  You have heard earlier this evening us talk about the plan for 
education. I will tell you as a parent of a 4\1/2\-year-old Down's 
syndrome little boy, Alexander Sessions, I am pleased and proud of what 
my Republican colleagues and the deal that they have cut with the 
President of the United States because I knew when I came here that 
Washington, Washington required school districts to give education and 
opportunities in the classroom for Down's Syndrome and other disabled 
children, but Washington did not fund that, and it made it very 
difficult for school districts to comply. I am proud to say that now 
Washington is going to give these school districts the opportunity to 
fund these programs. It makes a difference for my family and myself. It 
makes a difference for hundreds of thousands of other parents who have 
loving children who need the opportunity to be in those mainstream 
educational systems and to have teachers who do not go back and forth 
but are dedicated directly to them.
  I am proud of that also. I am also proud of one part of this bill 
which I brought to Congress as a promise to the people of the Fifth 
District of Texas, that I would attempt to pass, and that is a bill 
that became known as the Speed Trafficking Life Imprisonment Act of 
1998. It used to be the Speed Trafficking Life Imprisonment Act of 
1997. It could not be done last year but it fit this year, and here is 
what it does. It says very plainly that those people, those drug thugs, 
that are involved in the manufacture and distribution of 
methamphetamines will now face the same penalties as those who are 
involved in manufacturing and distributing crack cocaine and heroin.
  It is about time where we in this country recognize that the children 
of this country need to be protected. It is time for drug thugs to 
spend their time behind bars. I will vote aye.

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