[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 22, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H4721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           JUVENILE DIABETES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to call to the 
attention of my colleagues and the House to the urgent problem of 
juvenile diabetes.
  Today, I was visited in my office by one of my 9-year-old 
constituents, Ruth Hendren of Raleigh, North Carolina.
  Ruth came to Washington with the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation to 
lobby Congress to provide needed funds for diabetes research.
  We in Congress are used to being lobbied all of the time by high-
priced hired guns and other big-time lobbyists who represent any number 
of special interests in this body.
  But when one looks into the eyes of a child, whose daily battle with 
this terrible disease is truly the embodiment of bravery, one cannot 
help but be moved.
  Diabetes is a chronic, debilitating disease that affects every organ 
system, every age group, both genders, and all ethnic minorities.
  Sixteen million people suffer from diabetes. Eight hundred thousand 
Americans and children will be diagnosed this year alone. Victims of 
diabetes, of juvenile diabetes, must endure as many as six injections 
of insulin a day and eight finger-prick blood glucose tests every day. 
It would be tough for an adult to do that, but it is especially tough 
to see a child.
  We in Congress need to do what is right on behalf of the victims of 
juvenile diabetes in every congressional district in the country.
  Diabetes is a disease in search of a cure, a problem in search of a 
solution. Medical research has brought us close to the cure of 
diabetes.
  I call on my colleagues to step up to the plate and support increased 
funding for the National Institute of Health for diabetes research.
  On behalf of Ruth and all of America's victims of diabetes and their 
families, I trust that Congress will do it this year.


                   Education and School Construction

  Mr. Speaker, while I am talking on this issue of education and 
funding, it is important that I cover an issue that is also very 
important for this Congress to deal with, and that is school 
construction. It is an urgent problem all across this country.
  I want to thank my colleagues in the New Democratic Coalition for 
their leadership and help in this issue of school construction.
  As a former State superintendent of schools in North Carolina, I have 
been working to help pass a school construction bill since I arrived in 
this Congress in 1997.
  The statistics tell the tale. Today, there are nearly 53 million 
students in schools in America, more than at any time in our Nation's 
history. Schools are busting at the seams.
  Children find themselves in trailers, gyms, closets, bathrooms, and 
other make-shift classrooms and gyms and on stages.
  Substandard learning environments are unacceptable. We want higher 
standards for our children in academics and places for our teachers to 
teach.
  If we are to succeed in the next generation and the new millennium, 
our children must have world-class education; and to have that, we must 
have quality facilities.
  In my district alone, we have places that have grown almost a third 
since 1990. Wake County, our capital county, will add about 3,500 to 
4,500 new students to enrollment rolls every year. That is 3,500 to 
4,500 students every year.
  The crisis is getting worse. What kind of example do we set for our 
children when we neglect their schools? Over the next 10 years, more 
than 1.5 million more public school children will show up at the 
schoolhouse door. In North Carolina alone, our high schools are 
projected to grow by 21.4 percent over the next 10 years; and that will 
be third in growth in the United States.
  I have introduced a school bill, School Construction Act, that will 
provide $7.2 billion in school construction bonds across the United 
States for our fastest growing school districts.
  I am working with the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) and the 
administration, and I will work with anyone else who wants to work to 
make sure that we have school funds for our children.
  Our legislation uses Federal resources to leverage more local 
financing for schools. This does not take place with local money. It 
leverages it. Local systems get to make the decisions. We will only 
provide the avenue to do it. Taxpayers get more bang for their buck, 
and young people get good education environments, exactly the kind of 
assistance that local schools need.
  The Etheridge School Construction Act now enjoys more than 88 
cosponsors in the House and many members of the New Democratic 
Coalition. I invite others of my colleagues to join me.
  My bill has been endorsed by the National Education Association, by 
the Chief State School Offices, and many other organizations who 
realize that we must act and we must act now.
  I join my colleagues in calling for the congressional leadership in 
this House to bring up school construction now so that we can act on it 
and we can have the resources next year.




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