[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 97 (Monday, July 24, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       INTRODUCTION OF THE COMMUNITY RENEWAL AND NEW MARKETS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. J.C. WATTS, JR.

                              of oklahoma

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 24, 2000

  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, across America, the signs of 
prosperity are brightly lit. The economic boom that is the hallmark of 
the '90's can be seen in towering construction cranes, packed shopping 
malls, and flourishing businesses in every region of the nation. As the 
21st Century opens, America's free market principles are triumphant, 
and the world is captivated by the American economic success story.
  Given this bountiful setting, it is valid to ask why Jim Talent, 
Danny Davis and I joined together last year to re-introduce something 
called ``The American Community Renewal Act.'' In view of our booming 
national prosperity, the need for economic renewal may seem to many to 
be irrelevant at best, or needless at worst.
  To answer that question, we might first look back to a dramatic 
moment from an earlier period of prolonged American prosperity.
  The year was 1968 and, like today, Americans were building new homes, 
buying new products, creating new businesses, and generally enjoying an 
unprecedented prosperity. The national economic atmosphere was heady 
and exuberant.
  But on May 21st of that year, millions of Americans sat before their 
television sets and were shocked by a report from the respected newsman 
Charles Kuralt entitled ``Hunger in America.'' That program exposed an 
unseen hunger and malnutrition that marked the lives of millions of 
Americans. The nation was shocked into action, and ending hunger in 
America became a critical national goal.
  One editorial writer at that time, commenting on the documentary, 
noted: ``The contrast of a rich country harboring pockets of the most 
primitive want was its own editorial on the social contradiction of an 
affluent nation.''
  Now it is over thirty years later, and there is a new social 
contradiction--a new unseen hunger in the midst of a prosperous 
America. It is a hunger for opportunity and it comes from America's 
poorest communities. It comes from the aging, struggling communities 
which most Americans have never seen--neighborhoods that have been 
bypassed by the national economic success story.
  These are the communities that cannot attract the businesses and 
industry which bring the jobs which bring the opportunities that lead 
to the American dream.
  These are the neighborhoods where vacant properties become home to 
crack users who destroy the sense of safety and security that a 
community needs to grow and prosper.
  These are the neighborhoods where a long and expensive public transit 
ride is the only way to get to the new jobs in prosperous suburbs.
  These are the neighborhoods where venture capital just doesn't 
venture.
  Despite the strongest economic growth in this nation's history, too 
many people living in America's poorest neighborhoods are still being 
left behind.
  Today you can do something about that.
  The Community Renewal and New Markets Act that we are introducing 
today is the product of five years of hard work and extensive travel to 
find out what works from the people on the ground who are working every 
day to revive these neighborhoods.
  This legislation establishes a new model that merges new ideas about 
venture capital, regulatory reform, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, 
housing and homeownership, commercial revitalization and tax 
incentives.
  Hopefully, our efforts will bring America's attention into the most 
forgotten corners of America. I am hopeful we can give these troubled 
communities the tools they need to recover and to prosper.
  Though we cannot promise success to every man, woman and child in 
America, we should be able to promise each of them the opportunity for 
success. This country is too great and too wealthy to allow even one of 
our children to grow up without that opportunity.
  This is the essence of the social contract that we, as Americans, 
hold with one another. We are working to achieve this goal--to make 
good on this social contract--through passage of this important 
legislation.
  In 1968 America's ``social contradiction'' was an unseen hunger for 
food in a nation that feeds the world. In the year 2000 that ``social 
contradiction'' is an unseen hunger for opportunity in a nation that 
represents unbridled opportunity to the rest of the world.
  It is time to end that contradiction and bring the nurturing promise 
of opportunity home to all Americans. The Community Renewal and new 
Markets Act is an important step in that direction.

                          ____________________