[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 149 (Thursday, October 28, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H11074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SUPPORT LABOR-HHS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, today we will pass the Labor-HHS 
appropriations bill, which contains many good things. It also contains 
a 1 percent across-the-board cut, which I support, because we have to 
do that unless we want to dip into the Social Security funds for other 
purposes.
  But this bill also contains $1.4 billion for a program that I hope at 
least some people will begin to question. It is one of the most 
wasteful programs in the entire Federal Government, and yet, because it 
theoretically is for children, nobody will question it.

                              {time}  1045

  That is the Job Corps program. Today we are spending over $26,000 per 
year per Job Corps student. We could take each one of those students 
and give them a $1,000 month allowance, send them to some expensive 
private school, and still save some.
  The GAO says hardly any of those students are ending up in jobs for 
which they were trained. That program is benefiting only the 
bureaucrats and the fat cat government contractors. Mr. Speaker, we 
need to question that program. It is harming children by taking money 
away from their parents to send instead to bureaucrats and fat cat 
government contractors.

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