[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 34 (Thursday, March 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E347-E348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE ETHERIDGE SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB ETHERIDGE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 4, 1999

  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce the re-
introduction of my legislation I originally introduced last year to 
assist fast-growing states to build new schools, reduce class sizes and 
overcrowding and foster an orderly and disciplined learning 
environment. To date, I have gathered more than twice as many original 
cosponsors this year than the bill enjoyed in the last Congress, and I 
urge all of my colleagues to join me in signing on to this important 
legislation.
  As the former Superintendent of North Carolina's schools, I know 
firsthand how important quality facilities are to our children's 
education. The General Accounting Office has identified more than $112 
billion in school construction needs across the country. The Secretary 
of Education has reported that the ``Baby Boom Echo'' will create an 
explosion of growth in the school-age populations in many states over 
the next ten years. In fact, the experts at the U.S. Education 
Department have projected that my state's high school enrollment will 
grow by 27.1 percent over the next ten years. Almost all of my 
Congressional District's nine counties have experienced tremendous 
growth this decade (Franklin County--19.6 percent, Granville County--
9.9 percent, Harnett County--18.9 percent, Johnston County--25.3 
percent, Lee County--17.1 percent, Nash County--17.3 percent, Sampson 
County--9.5 percent, Wake County--29.4 percent, Wilson County--2.6 
percent).
  Congress must assist the states to meet their school construction 
needs of the coming decade. My bill will use new tax credits to create 
$7.2 billion in school construction bonds over the next ten years. 
These school bonds will be allocated to the states based on the growth 
we know they will experience in the coming decade. The Etheridge School 
Construction Act will complement the Administration's school 
construction initiative by using the same bond-leveraging tax credit 
but targeting resources to growing states. These targeted tax credits 
will provide resources directly where they are needed without adding 
any new federal government programs of bureaucracy. My state of North 
Carolina will qualify for about $360 million in school construction 
bonds under this legislation.
  By directing these bonds to the states with the most growth, we will 
provide desperately needed assistance to the states with the most 
critical needs and provide some relief to virtually every state. 
Specifically, the Etheridge School Construction Act will provide school 
construction bonds to these states at the following amounts: 
California--$2.32 billion; Texas--$840 million; New York--$540 million; 
Florida--$436 million; North Carolina--$360 million; Georgia--$303 
million; Virginia--$249 million; Massachusetts--$241 million; 
Illinois--$237 million; Arizona--$233 million; New Jersey--$191 
million; Tennessee--$166 million; Maryland--$129 million; Colorado--
$112 million; South Carolina--$104 million; Indiana--$100 million; 
Alabama--$100 million; Washington--$83 million; Utah--$83 million; 
Nevada--$79 million; Missouri--$58 million; Pennsylvania--$54 million; 
Michigan--$50 million; Connecticut--$42 million; New Mexico--$42 
million; Rhode Island--$37 million; Oregon--$33 million; Mississippi--
$29 million; Idaho--$29 million; Hawaii--$29 million; Ohio--$25 
million; Delaware--$25 million; Arkansas--$20 million; Alaska--$20 
million; New Hampshire--$17 million; District of Columbia--$8 million; 
Louisiana--$4 million; Kentucky--$4 million; Kansas--$4 million; 
Vermont--$4 million.
  The revenue costs of this legislation amount to the modest sum of 
$2.3 billion which could easily be offset by tightening loopholes in 
the tax code and minimal reductions in current federal government 
spending. There is no need to utilize the current and future budget 
surpluses to pay for this legislation. Therefore, this bill is budget 
neutral. Below are listed examples of current government expenditures 
that could be trimmed or eliminated. My individual colleagues who 
support the Etheridge School Construction Act may not agree with each 
and every provision I suggest we curtail to finance this important 
priority, but the list illustrates opportunities for savings available 
to accommodate the pressing need for new schools. The Green Scissors 
Campaign and other sources have identified these items.
  Mining Reform. Under the General Mining Law of 1872, anyone may 
explore open public lands for hardrock minerals including gold, silver, 
lead, copper, zinc and many others. Each year, approximately $2 to $3 
billion worth of minerals are taken from public lands but no royalties 
are paid. Modest reform to require a fair market return to taxpayers 
for publicly-owned minerals extracted by mining companies, for example 
an 8 percent royalty, would raise roughly $1 billion over five years.
  Timber Sales. Over the last nine years, the U.S. Forest Service has 
lost $2.8 billion on its timber program. The losses come from selling 
timber at below the Forest Service cost of preparing the timber for 
sale and subsidizing the construction of an extensive network of 
logging roads to support its timber sales programs. Requiring the 
receipts for National Forest commodity timber sales to cover the 
expenses of programs would save $200 million annually or $1 billion 
over five years.
  Plutonium Manufacturing Project. This project known as ``Rocky Flats 
II'' would increase Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) pit 
production capacity. Pits are the plutonium cores of nuclear bombs and 
act as triggers for detonation. There is no need for new pit production 
because the U.S. retains several thousand pits in reserve. For example, 
there are more than 10,000 spare pits in bunkers near Amarillo, Texas 
and many of them could be substituted in currently-deployed weapons 
should a currently nonexistent need ever arise. Terminating this 
unneeded new construction would save approximately $1.1 billion.
  Oil and Gas Expensing. Firms engaged in the production of oil, gas 
and other fuels are permitted to expense rather than capitalize certain 
intangible drilling and development costs (IDCs). They are subsidies 
originally intended to increase investment and exploration into oil and 
fuel. These subsidies are designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil, 
but they increase the exploitation of our nation's resources and do 
nothing to abate the world's consumption of fossil fuels and the 
attendant effects on the global environmental health. Ending this 
subsidy would save $500 million a year or $2.5 billion over five years.

  These are a few examples of large expenditures the federal government 
incurs that could be curtailed to achieve necessary savings. In 
addition to these big ticket items, one-time spending items are often 
included in the annual appropriations bills that serve parochial 
interests of individual Members and represent significant costs to the 
federal Treasury. For example, last October Congress passed the

[[Page E348]]

comprehensive Omnibus Appropriations bill that contained many such 
items identified by Senator John McCain during debate on the 
legislation in that body. Below is a partial list spending often 
characterized as ``pork barrel.''
  $250,000 to an Illinois firm to research caffeinated chewing gum.
  $750,000 for grasshopper research in Alaska.
  $1.1 million for manure handling and disposal in Starkville, 
Mississippi.
  $5 million for a new International Law Enforcement Academy in 
Roswell, New Mexico.
  $1 million for Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for 
commercialization of pulverization technologies.
  $1.2 million for a C&O Canal visitors center in Cumberland, Maryland.
  $250,000 for a lettuce geneticist in Salinas, California.
  $500,000 for the U.S. Plant Stress and Water Conservation Lab in 
Lubbock, Texas.
  $162,000 for research on peach tree short life in South Carolina.
  $64,000 for urban pest research in Georgia.
  $100,000 for vidalia onion research in Georgia.
  An additional $2.5 million for the Office of Cosmetics and Color.
  $200,000 for a grant to the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation 
Commission.
  The items listed here are but a representative sample of unnecessary 
or wasteful government spending we should reduce or eliminate in favor 
of necessary investment like school construction. Congress must set 
priorities for the expenditure of the taxpayers' money, and I believe 
we must elevate school construction on our priority list.
  Across the country today, there are 53 million children attending 
school in America's classrooms. Far too many of these children are not 
being educated in modern, well-equipped facilities where discipline and 
order foster academic achievement. For many of our nation's 
shoolchildren, class is being taught in a trailer or in a closet or in 
an overstuffed or run-down classroom. We must do a better job of 
building the quality schools we need to educate our children.
  As the former two-term, elected Superintendent of my state's schools, 
I have probably spent more time inside of more classrooms than any 
other Member of Congress. I can tell you firsthand that it makes a 
tremendous difference to the children of this nation whether or not 
they are provided a safe, quality environment in which to learn. What 
message do we send to our children when we say to them that their 
education is not a high enough priority for us to find the will to 
build them decent educational facilities? If a child sees that the 
adults in the community take pride in the school and its mission, the 
child will embrace that school and engage mightily in the endeavor of 
learning. But if a child sees nothing but indifference and neglect, 
that child is robbed of the hope that is necessary to summon the will 
to take a chance to make something of himself or herself through the 
challenging pursuit of academic achievement. We must not allow the 
indifference of some rob the future from our many children.
  No student in America should be forced to attend class in a 
substandard facility. No teacher should be required to struggle in an 
unsafe, undisciplined environment. No parents in America should be 
forced to witness their children condemned to school in a trailer.
  We now have more children in our public schools than at any time in 
our nation's history. Indeed, even at the height of the Baby Boom there 
were fewer children in our public schools than there are today. And we 
know that the coming decade's ``Baby Boom Echo'' will compound this 
problem many times over. We must exercise visionary leadership to 
address this crisis in a timely, proactive and effective manner.
  They say that life boils down to a few simple choices. I believe that 
if we can find the resources to build fancy new prisons to house the 
criminals, which I support, then surely we can scrape together some 
money to invest in our children's education. If we can buy more tanks 
and planes and guns for our military, which I support, then we can find 
the will to build new schools. And if we can put on the table every 
poll-tested tax cut proposal, then by God we can summon the political 
courage to spend some of our national treasure to ensure continued 
American prosperity in the next century.
  The well-worn phrase that children are our future may have become a 
cliche. But, it also happens to be true. An investment in schools is an 
investment in our children and an investment in our nation's future. It 
is time for each Member of Congress to roll up his or her sleeves and 
get to work to help our communities to build the schools we need to 
educate the next generation of our citizens.
  The Etheridge School Construction Act is a vitally important piece of 
legislation, and I urge this Congress to pass my bill as soon as 
possible.

                          ____________________