[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H381-H386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my Democratic colleagues 
for their comments on the budget. I think that their ideas are useful 
and good. I think they also know, and although they were not really 
talking about it, that we are at war. America has been attacked. 
America needs to respond. At this point, America continues to be the 
world leader.
  It is interesting that when people say, well, why do we have 37,000 
troops in South Korea? Well, if we talk to the folks who live in South 
Korea or in China or Japan, and say maybe we should move those 37,000 
folks, bring them on home. Well, no, no, no. If we do that, then there 
is world instability, particularly in this region of the world which is 
stable right now. Do not pull them out, and yet America has to respond 
when North Korea, largely because of the inept policies of the previous 
administration, goes on an accelerated path to nuclear weapon 
development, then America has to step in there.
  Unfortunately, so many of these things cost a lot of money. Thirty-
seven thousand troops in the Korean peninsula, that is very expensive; 
and we have troops in Afghanistan. We have troops in the Balkans still; 
and of course, we have troops right now in Kuwait and in the Middle 
East.
  I think as much as none of us want a deficit, I believe all of us, 
even the doves in this body, even the folks who feel like France and 
Germany are right, I think that they would admit that we have to defend 
ourselves, and so we do have a deficit budget. I do not like it anymore 
than anybody else, and I know the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle), the 
chairman of the Committee on the Budget, is going to do everything he 
can to bring down the deficit and move us back into surplus.
  In the meantime, Mr. Speaker, it is more important for America to 
survive; and I think as I have seen so many of our troops from Fort 
Stewart deployed, the third infantry division which I am proud to be 
wearing their emblem tonight, I think we have got to keep in mind these 
soldiers are out there in the foxholes for our freedom and our 
security, and they need great equipment. They need modern equipment. 
They need readiness in all areas of the globe. So our budget addresses 
is.
  In fact, our budget, which for fiscal year 2004, will be about $2.2 
trillion. That is a 4 percent increase. I would like to, frankly, see 
it decreased, but again, with the world situation, sometimes we cannot 
control this.
  About 5 percent of that increase comes directly because of military, 
and then in the other categories, not all of them, there are a lot of 
reductions; but there is about a 3 percent increase, and that is 
comparable to the average family budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to meet the Chair's family this 
last weekend, and my family, some of them were with us and some of them 
were not; but Libby and I have four children, and one thing about it, 
when a person is raising kids, they never have quite enough money. They 
have to buy. They do not begrudge it. They have got to buy their 
clothes and school supplies, and then if they play sports, they have 
got to buy sports equipment; and what I found out, much to my chagrin, 
is that if John Kingston is playing football, he cannot use the same 
cleats for soccer and baseball, whereas the Chair and I, Mr. Speaker, 
had one pair of cleats fit all.
  In fact, I went back to my elementary school baseball picture, and 
half the boys on the baseball team were barefooted. But not so today. 
These kids today have to have $60 and $70 of tennis shoes and that is 
part of being a family these days. We have got all those expenses and 
then doggone it, we save up a little money and say, well, we are going 
to sneak on down to Florida, spend the weekend in Daytona, have some 
fun. Well, the washer breaks or we have got to do something as glorious 
as buy a new set of tires for our car or we have got to do something 
else that is not as much fun, but it is essential to spend money on.
  That, Mr. Speaker, is what President Bush has done with this budget. 
He said there is a lot of things out there that we want to have, but we 
are not going to be able to do; but there are other things out there 
that we need to do, and we are going to do that.
  One of these things, Mr. Speaker, along with the troops, is trying to 
get jobs going because nothing will turn the economy around more than 
jobs.
  I am not sure where the Democrats in this body go to school. I am 
sure they go to some good public schools and some good private schools; 
but, Mr. Speaker, somehow they failed in economics and history because 
economics and history will show us that President Kennedy and President 
Reagan reduced taxes; and when they did, the economy responded and 
created more jobs, and more revenue came in. In fact, it doubled in 
these cases; and if we just think about it for a minute, it makes 
sense.
  Under the Bush tax reduction, 92 million Americans will get about a 
$1,000 tax reduction; 34 million American with children will get $1,400 
in their pocket; 6 million single mothers will get $541 in their 
pocket; and 13 million elderly taxpayers will get $1,384 in their 
pocket.
  If someone puts $1,000 in my pocket, I am going to try to spend some 
of it, and I am going to try to save some of it. I want to save some 
for my kids' college education, want to save some for my own 
retirement; but also I am more likely going out and maybe buy that new 
shirt that I know I have been needing to buy or maybe buy something for 
the house that I needed to get, get a new crock pot for the kitchen or 
something like that.
  When I do that, small businesses will respond. They will say, hey, 
look, more consumers are buying, they have got more money in their 
pocket, let us put on a new shelf of inventory. When we do that, hey, 
we need a new salesclerk to help us move this inventory. When the new 
salesclerk comes, well, suddenly we have got somebody who may have been 
on welfare before who is now working, and then they are paying taxes; 
and before we know it, the revenue to the local government, to the 
State government and the Federal Government goes straight up. That is 
the idea behind the tax reduction; and, Mr. Speaker, I believe that is 
one reason why we need to pass it and pass it now.
  The Democrats' thinking on this model is, okay, we will vote for the 
tax

[[Page H382]]

cut, but we want to postpone it. We do not want it, so married couples 
should not be having the marriage tax penalty, and we agree with that, 
but we do not want that to take place for 4 or 5 years. Well, hey, if 
it is right, do it today; and that is what the Bush plan is, is to 
accelerate these things.
  But I think this is part of our budget, Mr. Speaker, because turning 
the economy around is so very important; and when the Republican 
conservative economic policies kicked in in 1995 after the Republicans 
took over this body, the President at the time reluctantly helped us 
pass some tax reductions. The economy took off and revenues went up, 
and we were able to balance the budget.
  So I believe that it is very timely to pass a tax reduction to reduce 
the deficit, and I hope that our Democrat friends will join us in that 
as they have in the past.
  The average American family has an income of $39,000. This cut would 
provide them with an additional $1,100 a year. Again, Mr. Speaker, that 
is significant money and something that we want to do.
  I also wanted to comment on some other issues tonight, Mr. Speaker. 
The situation in Iraq. As I mentioned earlier today, I had the 
opportunity to meet with the wives whose husbands are in the third 
infantry division, Fort Stewart, Hunter and Savannah, Georgia. About 
18,000 soldiers are deployed to the Middle East right now, a huge loss 
in our area in terms of our neighbors and our friends; but we cannot 
have soldiers in the field without the families back home.

                              {time}  2045

  We cannot have an army in the field without the supply folks back 
home making sure that the Army has the material they need to fight the 
war. And these women in the Fort Stewart-Hunter Wives Organization are 
just as brave as the soldiers on the front line. Indeed, they are on 
the emotional front line. One of the messages that I gave them was that 
435 Members of Congress, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, city, 
rural, everybody appreciated what they were doing, staying at home.
  Even if you are in Kuwait, you are often dealing with other adults, 
and sometimes that is easier than dealing with children back home who 
lose their books, who lose their shoes, who need to be picked up at 3 
o'clock but do not show up until 3:20, and, in the meantime, across 
town you have soccer practice. And then you have other financial 
problems: taxes that are due, insurance payments, should you take the 
higher deductible, the lower deductible, do we still need collision 
insurance, and then there is the home mortgage renegotiation. Hey, 
interest rates are down. We are paying 6, 7 percent interest. Maybe we 
can get an adjustable rate mortgage for 2\1/2\ percent. How do I do 
this? Oh no, Mom is sick and I am going to have to go back to Chicago. 
I'll have to arrange for the kids back home, because I have got to see 
what Mom's needs are. My goodness, maybe it is time to put Dad in the 
nursing home. Do we do this? I have to call my brother in from Seattle.
  These are the day-to-day questions facing these families back home. 
It is very, very difficult. And I think we should at all times, 
whenever we are thinking about the soldiers in the field, we should 
also remember the families back home.
  I think we should also be appreciative of the great job that groups 
like the USO, the United Service Organizations, the Red Cross, groups 
like Southern Smiles and other volunteer groups across the country who 
are sending care packages to these soldiers and remembering them; 
getting them Chapstick, getting them soap, getting them deodorant, 
getting them comic books and getting them Bibles.
  In fact, when I went to see some of our soldiers depart, as they were 
getting on the plane, the Red Cross was giving out camouflage Bibles. I 
never had seen a camouflaged Bible before, but I know that within the 
binder of that book is the truth that surpasses all understanding and 
that everybody needs these words of comfort in times of peril.
  Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to talk a little bit more about the war 
protesters, because we hear so many people in America who think that we 
are the aggressive country here. And a lot of folks are asking, well, 
why are we at war? The truth is so many of these war protestors do not 
want to hear the facts on it, but I wanted to go over some of these 
things.
  First of all, let us remember, Saddam Hussein and Iraq have invaded 
their own Middle Eastern neighbors, Iran and Kuwait. They are a factor 
of instability in their own region of the world. Indeed, it is obvious 
at times like these that we do not see any of their neighbors coming to 
their aid. They are not jumping up and down to say ``Go America,'' for 
obvious reasons; but why is it that these countries are not coming to 
the aid of Saddam Hussein, if he is such a great person, according to 
some of the war protestors?
  We know for a fact that he has violated 16 U.N. treaties that have 
been passed since Desert Storm, and yet in the face of that, the U.N. 
seems very reluctant to enforce their own treaties. So again it has to 
come back to America, and America is the one that has to do something 
about it.
  Saddam Hussein has not accounted for 25,000 liters of anthrax. He has 
not accounted for 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin. He has not 
accounted for 500 tons of Sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. Item after 
item which the weapons inspectors have tried to put their finger on he 
has hidden from them. This is why we are concerned about what is going 
on in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been joined by my friend, the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) and we are going to talk about a 
judicial nominee; but before we go to that, I wanted to invite my 
friend from Florida to jump in on the question of Iraq. I know in the 
great State of Florida, just like Georgia, the gentleman has a lot of 
anti-war protestors.
  I have heard Richard Armitage say, and I believe this myself, people 
have the right and the duty to hold us accountable for decisions that 
send young men and women in harm's way. I think my colleague and I 
should be subjected to all the criticism that they have to offer. But I 
would also ask the war protestors to be intellectually honest and look 
at some of the facts. Because if you are just against war, maybe we 
should ask you this question: Have there been any wars that have 
benefited you? Did the Revolutionary War benefit you? Did the Civil War 
benefit you? Did World War II benefit you? Surely, in every case the 
soldiers and the political leaders, generally speaking, did not want 
war; and yet there were wars, terrible, horrible wars, and sometimes 
the benefits of those wars outweighed the tragedies. We are free today. 
We do not have to worry about an Adolf Hitler. We are an independent 
country today because our forefathers fought Great Britain.

  Things like that are often the result of human conflict; yet the war 
protestors would rather say, well, we are just against this because we 
are going to kill innocent people. America is not the folks who are 
using humans as shields; it is Saddam Hussein who is moving people into 
weapons areas and targeted areas. So I think we have done almost 
everything we can through the U.N. I hope the U.N. will get on board. I 
hope Saddam Hussein will say, okay, guys, I give up. I hope that there 
is not a war, as I know the President and all the soldiers hope there 
is not a war; but there does come a time when you have to move forward.
  If the gentleman would like to speak, I would be happy to yield to 
him.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the 
gentleman from Georgia for yielding to me. I was listening to the 
gentleman's remarks from my office and decided to come down precisely 
to ask to join him for just a few minutes because I very much agreed 
with what he was saying.
  I heard the gentleman speaking first on the President's economic plan 
to help create jobs in the United States. Eighty percent or more of the 
jobs in the United States are created by small business. And in my 
district, when I started to talk about the President's plan, what 
impressed me was the amount of small businessmen who spoke to me and 
told me that that provision in the President's plan to triple the 
amount that a small business can deduct from its taxes to make 
equipment purchases, in other words to expand the small business, is 
something

[[Page H383]]

that will immediately not only inure to the benefit of those small 
businesses but will produce growth in those small businesses, will 
produce new small businesses and, thus, will produce jobs in this 
country.
  The President's plan is multifaceted. It will create jobs in many 
ways. And I think it is incumbent upon us in this Congress to have a 
vigorous debate but to act quickly and pass that plan.
  Of course, as the gentleman was saying with regard to the reality of 
the tyrant in Baghdad, I think the President just a few days ago, when 
he spoke here before us, made a very convincing case when he reminded 
the American people and the world that that tyrant in Baghdad has used 
in the past weapons of mass destruction. He not only possesses weapons 
of mass destruction, in the case of chemical weapons, biological 
weapons, but he has used those weapons against people within his own 
country.
  Mr. KINGSTON. In fact, if the gentleman will yield, he used it on the 
Kurds and caused 2 million to be refugees into Turkey and Syria and 
other neighboring countries. Two million refugees because he used 
chemical weapons.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. So he had obviously an 
obligation, after he lost the war in 1991, to rid himself of all 
weapons of mass destruction. He not only did not do so, but in 1998 he 
expelled the United Nations inspectors.
  Now, the fact is that the international community then, despite the 
fact that it had imposed a requirement on the tyrant in Baghdad to get 
rid of weapons and to permit inspections of the process of getting rid 
of those weapons, despite the fact that he not only did not get rid of 
the weapons, he not only did not facilitate the process that he had to 
because of resolutions of the international community by way of the 
Security Council, he not only did not cooperate, but he expelled the 
inspectors.
  The fact that the international community, at that time led by the 
United States, did nothing does not excuse the inaction. The fact is 
that there is a President now who does not want to see and who 
certainly wants to do everything in his power to prevent what has 
occurred repeatedly in the past decade.
  In 1993, there was a terrorist attack in New York that could have 
been much worse. It was a direct act of urban terrorism, which happened 
to be at the same site of the attack that killed 3,000 people on 
September 11, 2001. But the attack occurred already in early 1993, 
another attack, and then multiple other attacks occurred afterwards in 
that decade. And the reality of the matter is, as we said before, the 
tyrant in Baghdad has used weapons of mass destruction against people 
within Iraq, and he has not only not gotten rid of the weapons as 
required by international resolutions, but even now, facing the 
leadership of George W. Bush and facing a new initiative by the United 
Nations Security Council, he still, as the President reminded us a few 
days ago here, has not provided any evidence whatsoever of the 
destruction of his weapons of mass destruction.
  In addition to that, he is close, as we have seen from declassified 
documents from British intelligence, close to acquiring a much more 
dreadful and dangerous weapon of mass destruction: a nuclear weapon. 
So, as the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the distinguished 
chairman of the Committee on International Relations, said recently 
when he testified before the committee that I am honored to be a member 
of, the Committee on Rules, and somebody said, well, where is the 
smoking gun? The gentleman from Illinois said, I think what we have an 
obligation to do is to do everything possible to avoid a smoking city.
  How will the American people and history judge us if, knowing as we 
do that that tyrant in Baghdad has weapons of mass destruction, and 
knowing as we do that he has the relations that he has with other 
international terrorists, we simply acquiesce in doing nothing because, 
for example, some of our allies wish to do nothing? No, we have a 
responsibility. We have a responsibility to avoid a smoking city.
  Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I think he has put it 
well. If we can go back to the pre 9-11 USA, there were tremors. As the 
gentleman said, in 1993, the bombing of the World Trade Center, embassy 
bombings two times in Africa, the USS Cole in Yemen. There were not 
just terrorist attacks but terrorist activities, and we had an 
opportunity to monitor it closer, but that did not happen. As is always 
the case when we look back, we see these red flags. And a lot of people 
have said, well, should we have done something? Well, now we have red 
flags all over the globe, and the President is doing something. Yet 
those same people who wanted a special independent commission to look 
into 9-11, now they are saying you are a warmonger because you want to 
do a preemptive strike.

                              {time}  2100

  You cannot have it both ways. This action against Saddam Hussein 
enables your family and my family to go to Main Street, to Wal-Mart on 
Saturday afternoon and the workplace 5 days a week and not worry, and 
that is what we have the right to do as Americans.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. We have an obligation. I agree 
with the gentleman. I think the primary obligation of government is to 
protect the people. The reason people came together and formed 
government in the first place was to protect themselves from common 
enemies of the community. And so I think the President has not only 
made a case, a very impressive case, he did so here and he has done so 
repeatedly, but I happen to thank God repeatedly, and obviously the 
American people, for having elected a leader like the American people 
elected in November of 2000, a leader of the United States of America 
and of the Free World who, despite all the pressures, despite all the 
difficulties, he is doing everything imaginable, everything possible to 
comply with the first obligation of government, which is to protect the 
people.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Absolutely. Yet at the same time, a man of great 
sincerity and religious conviction who has said repeatedly he does not 
want war and does not take any of these decisions lightly. This is all 
done void of politics, void of reelection, void of election, void of 
polls. This President does these things for the right reason.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. That is correct.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I wanted to ask the gentleman. The gentleman is from 
Florida. The gentleman has been a leader in so many different issues 
and an active member of the Committee on Rules and someone who has 
certainly been very active on the question of American relations with 
Cuba. I do not want to touch base on Cuba, but I know that your brother 
talked to the President about it this weekend, and I thought the 
President, as usual, approached the whole question not with politics, 
but with conviction.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I appreciate the gentleman from 
Georgia bringing that subject up because while we are on the subject of 
terrorist states, it is important to remind our colleagues and the 
American people that there is one such terrorist state 90 miles from 
the shores of the United States, a terrorist state that harbors 
multiple terrorist organizations from throughout the world.
  In this hemisphere we are facing extraordinary tragedies on a daily 
basis, especially in the wonderful country of Colombia whose people 
elected a president just months ago, and they have come together and 
they are fighting heroically against terrorism. Yet those terrorist 
groups that are attacking on a daily basis the people in Colombia 
receive not only orientation but guidance and, in effect, are in all 
sorts of dealings with the tyrant in Havana.
  The reality of the matter is that the tyrant in Havana harbors 
terrorists not only from Colombia, from throughout the Western 
Hemisphere, from Spain, the Basque ETA terrorists, they have a base in 
Cuba. Just recently terrorists from the IRA Irish organization based in 
Cuba were arrested in Colombia for providing training to the Colombian 
FARC terrorists in urban warfare. We have seen recently a dreadful, 
horrible increase in the urban bloodshed, in the urban terrorism, in 
the bloodshed caused by the urban terrorism. Terrorists have trained 
those Colombian terrorists, terrorists based in Cuba. There

[[Page H384]]

is this entire network that finds harbor, of terrorism, international 
terrorism, that finds safe harbor in Cuba. And that is a reality.
  I was very pleased with the President's answer, because some people 
get confused when we deal with, for example, the trade ban on Communist 
Cuba and we say, we insist on three steps be taken in Cuba before there 
is a normalization of relations with the United States: Legalization of 
all political parties, labor unions, the press; liberation of all 
political prisoners; and the scheduling of free and fair elections with 
international supervision. When those steps happen, there will be 
normalization, and until those steps happen, there will not be.
  President Bush is very clear and from the very beginning has made it 
very clear that he will not, and he has said so, he will veto any 
attempts if he has to to normalize relations until and unless those 
steps are taken, because the Cuban people, like the rest of the world, 
deserve freedom as well.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Right now we have some limited trade. We can trade with 
them, but it has to be on a cash basis.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. He has got to pay.
  Mr. KINGSTON. That is for food and for medicine?
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Yes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. But there is a pressure to put tourism dollars in it. 
We have kind of drawn the line, this Congress has.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. What the dictatorship in Cuba 
most wants is the American tourist dollar, because the American tourist 
dollar, which would be billions even in the first year, would provide 
the repressive machinery obviously with a boost like it has not had in 
decades.
  And the apartheid system that exists there where, for example, those 
tourist centers and the hospitals and the wonderful health centers, 
they are for people with foreign currency, with dollars, tourists, and 
of course the hierarchy of the dictatorship. The Cuban people have no 
access to those things.
  But to maintain that system, obviously the dictatorship seeks the 
infusion of hard currency. The way in which the dictatorship could have 
the largest infusion of hard currency would be with the American 
tourist dollar.
  What we are saying is, and President Bush agrees, liberate the 
political prisoners, legalize political parties, labor unions, the 
press, and schedule free elections, and then there will be 
normalization. Then you can have your tourist dollars. Not before. Not 
when the tourist dollars will inure to the benefit of the repressive 
machinery.
  The President, and he was very clear again at the retreat in West 
Virginia this weekend, he made it clear that, number one, the policy is 
clearly rooted in a purpose, to contribute to a democratic transition 
from a terrorist regime 90 miles away. And also some people and the 
President was very explicit on this, some people say, well, we have 
trade with China, why not with Cuba? The President was not only 
explicit, but went at length in explaining the differences.
  There has been a capitalist resurgence in China with an 
entrepreneurial class and many differences and some decentralization of 
power, many differences from the Cuban situation. So even though I 
happen to have been and continue to be an opponent of business as usual 
with Communist China, I agree with the President that there are 
substantial differences. I think it was very appropriate for the 
President to have brought out and demonstrated once again his clarity, 
not only of vision but his grasp of the details with regard to 
important policy matters.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to, if I may, I know the gentleman from 
Georgia has been one of the most interested Members of this House with 
regard to the need and the appropriateness to recognize the great 
accomplishments of the Hispanic community in the United States. I not 
only commend you for that, but thank you for your solidarity and always 
your sensitivity and your compassion to the Hispanics in this country 
and to Hispanic issues.
  Mr. KINGSTON. One of the great parts of my childhood growing up in 
Athens, Georgia, it was not so great for them particularly at the time 
was when so many Cubans fled Castro and Athens, Georgia, was one of the 
towns that they arrived in. I was raised with Maria Saladriguez and 
Rosa Chavez and all kinds of kids that came in the 10th grade and 
assimilated fairly quickly. But it was interesting, as we went to their 
house, they were still speaking Spanish; and their parents, who often 
had been physicians and professional businesspeople in Cuba, in Havana, 
were now reduced to working in laundromats and doing manual labor in 
America.
  I actually sold my house to a guy named Roberto Casillo in Savannah, 
Georgia, and his family was among that crowd. His dad had been a doctor 
over there and it did not transfer. But all three of his sons became 
physicians. They are all practicing in Georgia.
  What I have appreciated about the people who had to leave Cuba, who 
love Cuba to this day but cannot stand Castro, love America even more 
and have embraced America with this big bear hug and taken on all 
rights and privileges that, wait a minute, this is the land of the 
free, the land of opportunity.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. How are we going to feel about a 
nation, about a country that, for example, in my case when I also was a 
refugee child like those friends that you talked about that you grew up 
with, and I had to leave with my family as a refugee when I was 4 years 
old and arrived in this country. How are we to feel about a nation that 
not only permits us to go to schools in freedom and to worship in the 
churches of our choice and to associate with whomever we wish to 
associate in freedom, but that has, through the ultimate generosity of 
spirit of the American people, permitted a refugee child who arrived at 
age 4 to be elected to the Congress of the United States and along with 
our other colleagues participate in the process of making laws for the 
American people? Only a country of ultimate spiritual greatness and 
generosity permits something like that.
  And so that is something that not only we recognize as people who 
have come, in my case I know there are other Members of this House who 
also immigrated to this great land, not only do we recognize it, but we 
are reminded of it each and every day, the compassion of the American 
people, the greatness of the American people, the generosity of spirit 
of the American people has no parallel in the world.
  That is why it hurts us so deeply when we see in other places of the 
world, now, for example, when the President is trying to lead an 
international coalition to disarm a tyrant who has weapons of mass 
destruction and is threatening the world, when we see allies, in some 
cases allies who had American GIs go and liberate them twice; and it 
takes going to the cemeteries in France and in Belgium and throughout 
Europe to see the heroism and the greatness of the American people, 
that twice in the 20th century liberated Europe, to see allies putting 
up now the roadblocks and the difficulties in the path of a President 
who wants to rid those allies' peoples, of the threat of weapons of 
mass destruction from a tyrant in Baghdad. It hurts.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I wanted to ask the gentleman, you do not really talk 
about your story so much, but I think it is important. A friend of mine 
back in Savannah named Herman Cranman wrote a book called ``A Measure 
of Life.'' In it, he talks about his World War II POW experience. He 
said he went into World War II as really a naive, young, idealistic kid 
and grew, of course, during the experience to see otherwise, but never 
lost his idealism.
  But when he was captured, he said something very profound. He said as 
a born American living with freedom, freedom to me was like the water 
coming out of the tap in my kitchen. I didn't think anything of it 
until I turned on the tap and it wasn't there. When he was in a German 
POW camp, he found out what freedom was. What I have seen in you and in 
your brother and in Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is that you appreciate freedom 
every day, which we native-born Americans do not quite have the full 
view of so often. Yet I think in many cases people do realize it.
  But here is what I want to know. Tell me about coming over here at 4. 
What were your parents doing in Cuba? How did you get out? Because I 
think people would be interested in that.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. It is obviously an interesting

[[Page H385]]

story. It obviously is personal, and I think at some point it might be 
appropriate to talk about it, but I do not think necessarily it is the 
time to do so now.
  Suffice it to say that those examples that you talked about, the 
people whom you met and my family and all who come from this particular 
vantage point of a country that was lost to a totalitarian tyranny and 
had the opportunity to come here and live day in and day out, the 
miracle of freedom, it is true what you have said that we not only do 
not take it for granted, but that there is not one day that we are not 
cognizant of the miracle of freedom.
  With your indulgence, I would like to point out a story about a 
young, still a young man who is also Hispanic. He did not come from 
Cuba. He came from Honduras.
  Mr. KINGSTON. But he is still an immigrant and came over here.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. That is correct. He came when he 
was 17 years old. Like so many of us, obviously the dream of his 
family, and his dream as well, was to be able to live in this marvelous 
country of freedom and to have a chance to work hard, to have a chance 
to work hard and live a dignified life that he, his family and all 
Americans could be proud of.

                              {time}  2115

  And this young man came over at age 17, did not speak English, got to 
work immediately, though, worked so hard, was such a good student that 
he was able to go to Columbia University, obviously on a scholarship. 
His parents did not have the money to send him. He worked so hard in 
Columbia. He got extraordinarily good grades. He got a scholarship to 
go to Harvard Law School and there not only did he do well, he became 
editor of the law review. I am a lawyer. The gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Kingston) is a lawyer too, is he not?
  Mr. KINGSTON. No, I am not. But I do know that he was magna cum laude 
in Harvard and in Columbia.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. The gentleman knows what it means 
to be law review editor.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Absolutely.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. The law review editor, only the 
most superb legal minds in law school are able to become, in effect, 
the leaders at the law review, the editor of the law review. And this 
young man who did not speak English at 17, by the time he was in law 
school was editor of the law review.
  Anyway, he graduated from law school, was such a talented jurist that 
he was able to become a law clerk for a justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States of America. And later he became an associate 
solicitor general, representing the Government of the United States 
before the Supreme Court of the United States, arguing cases. Obviously 
only very important cases get heard by the Supreme Court, and obviously 
only someone of extraordinary talent and ability can argue on behalf of 
the Government of the United States as an associate solicitor general 
before the Supreme Court. Fifteen cases he argued before the Supreme 
Court.
  He is an extraordinary symbol of success of what is referred to as 
the American dream. But I know it must seem hard to believe, but the 
Democrats have now said that they are going to stop in the Senate 
President Bush's nomination of this jurist, of this extraordinary young 
man, President Bush's nomination of this man to be in the second most 
important court, a member of the second most important court in the 
United States, the court of appeals here in the District of Columbia. 
His name is Miguel Estrada, and now the Democrats are saying that 
because he is not a leftist, because he does not have a record of 
leftist, extremist, so-called accomplishments, whatever they are 
supposed to be, that the Senate is not going to confirm him.
  In the long history of the Republic, in that second most important 
court in the United States, the District of Columbia's Federal Court of 
Appeals, there has never been a Hispanic nominated by a President of 
the United States just like there has never been a Hispanic nominated 
by a President of the United States to the most important court, to the 
Supreme Court of the land. This man with the extraordinary record that 
he has where even the American Bar Association, which cannot be called 
a conservative organization under any measuring ability, the American 
Bar Association says that Miguel Estrada is very, very competent, that 
he is superbly qualified.
  Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I just want to underscore 
that as I understand it, Mr. Estrada has argued 15 cases before the 
Supreme Court all before the age of 40. One of them was pro bono for a 
death row inmate. He received unanimous ``well qualified'' ratings from 
the American Bar Association. That is their highest rating. He has 
worked in the Justice Department both under Democrat and Republican 
administrations and has demonstrated a commitment to uphold the 
integrity of the law and dedication to public service.
  Estrada has received an outstanding rating in every performance 
category in his years in service in the solicitor general's office. And 
Clinton's solicitor general called him ``an extraordinary legal 
talent'' and genuinely compassionate. What is scary, if we compare his 
qualifications, because the gentleman from Florida has mentioned that 
they never had a Hispanic on that court, it is really to me after all 
we have been talking about freedom in America that we have to bring in 
this question of race, but it does seem there are those in the Senate 
against Mr. Estrada that may be aware of that. Maybe it is as simple as 
they do not want the Republicans to nominate somebody who is Hispanic. 
They want to have the lock on it. Maybe that is the idea; I do not 
know.
  But I do know this, that if we compare Miguel Estrada's qualification 
with Merrick Garland, Garland was 41 when he was nominated, 44 and 41. 
They both were Phi Beta Kappa. They both graduated magna cum laude from 
Harvard. They both did the Harvard Law Review as editor. They both have 
served as law clerks for the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit. They 
were both law clerks for the U.S. Supreme Court. They have both done 7 
years private practice. Mr. Estrada was 2 years with the Assistant U.S. 
Attorney; Mr. Garland, 3 years. They were both with the U.S. Justice 
Department, in Estrada's case, 1992 to 1997; in Garland's case, 1993 to 
1997. They both had bipartisan support. Garland, 100 days before the 
Senate approved his nomination. Estrada, 631. The only difference in 
this category is race, 631 days compared to 100 days.

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. One of the ways in which the 
Democrats are objecting to Miguel Estrada's nomination, they are saying 
we want to see the internal memoranda that Mr. Estrada wrote when he 
was an assistant solicitor general. We want to see the internal 
memoranda because, number one, we want to see all the internal writings 
and, number two, we do not like Mr. Estrada because he is not a judge 
already. Those are the two main arguments that are being used against 
Mr. Estrada by the Democrats.
  Let us analyze those two roadblocks that are being put down by the 
Democrats to try to stop Miguel Estrada's confirmation. There have been 
67 cases approved by the Senate of nominees to the United States Courts 
of Appeals who previously worked at the Department of Justice. In none 
of the 67 cases have the internal memoranda of those judges, when they 
worked for the Department of Justice like Mr. Estrada, who was an 
assistant solicitor general, in none of the 67 cases have the internal 
memoranda been made public. But in the case of Miguel Estrada, he is 
the only one that the Democrats are saying we want to see the internal 
memoranda.
  I am the first one to say that Miguel Estrada deserves to be a judge 
of the appellate court not because he is Hispanic but rather I am also 
the first one to say that he deserves to be a judge and he deserves not 
to be stopped because he is a Hispanic. And we see that in 67 other 
cases they have not made public the internal memoranda and that has not 
stopped the nomination, but in the case of Miguel Estrada that is an 
impediment. And another thing. The thing about he is not a judge now. 
Precisely. There has not been one Hispanic named before President Bush 
named Miguel Estrada to the appellate court of the District of Columbia 
in the history of the Republic. How do you expect Hispanics to come 
before the Senate already having been judges if this

[[Page H386]]

is the first nomination of a judge by a President of the United States 
who is Hispanic to the second most important court? A glaring problem 
is the lack of Hispanic judges until now. President Bush is trying to 
remedy that; and the Democrats are placing roadblocks, because he is 
Hispanic, in the path of a decent and honorable man with a superb 
record.
  Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman would yield, this obviously never was 
a problem until a Hispanic came before the Democratic Senators. The 
reason I say that is five of the eight judges serving in the D.C. 
Circuit had no prior judicial experience. That includes two of 
President Clinton's nominees, Mr. Garland, whom we talked about earlier 
whose justice record was quite similar to Mr. Estrada's, and David 
Tatel. It also includes Judge Harry Edwards, who was appointed by 
President Carter in 1980, and Edwards was younger than Estrada. Five 
out of eight of them did not have to have judicial experience, but 
suddenly a Hispanic comes along and this is a big issue. Another thing 
that is interesting is that on the Supreme Court now, two of the 
judges, Byron White, nominated by President Kennedy, and William 
Rehnquist, the current Chief Justice, had no prior judicial experience 
when appointed to the Supreme Court, but now it is a different program, 
a different standard.
  The other thing that is interesting is that the Democrats who are 
trying to torpedo Mr. Estrada also will claim he does not have Hispanic 
support, which I would say, number one, this is not a poll, this is not 
a popularity contest; but, number two, he actually has the endorsement 
of the League of the United Latin American Citizens, which is the 
country's oldest Hispanic civil rights organization; the Hispanic 
National Bar Association; the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; the 
Hispanic Business Roundtable; the Latino Coalition; and many other 
Latino groups. They are all supporting him, and yet that does not 
count, I guess.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Exactly. Actually, I would agree 
with the gentleman that once one analyzes, if one has a chance to go 
through the road blocks and analyze them, one realizes that they are 
farcical. But it is really sad here because we are dealing with a life 
of a human being. We are not dealing with a farce. We are dealing with 
the life of a real human being who came to this country at age 17 to 
work very hard, and he has worked very hard and he makes all Americans 
proud. And if I may, I think it is relevant to point out, by the way, 
when Mr. Estrada was Solicitor General, most of the years that he was 
Solicitor General was under a Democratic administration, the 
administration of President Clinton; and let us hear what Mr. Clinton's 
Solicitor General has to say about Mr. Estrada. This is Seth Waxman, 
the former Solicitor General under President Clinton: ``During the time 
that Mr. Estrada and I worked together, he was a model of 
professionalism and competence. I greatly enjoyed working with Miguel, 
profited from our interactions, and was genuinely sorry when he decided 
to leave the office in favor of private practice. I have great respect 
both for Mr. Estrada's intellect and for his integrity. In no way did I 
ever discern that the recommendations Mr. Estrada made or the views he 
propounded were colored in any way by his personal views or indeed that 
they reflected anything other than the long-term interests of the 
United States.'' That is Clinton's Solicitor General.
  If I may read the comments of Ronald Klain, the former counselor to 
Vice President Gore: ``Miguel Estrada is a person of outstanding 
character, tremendous intellect, and with a deep commitment to the 
faithful application of precedent. Miguel will rule as a judge justly 
toward all, without showing favor to any group or individual. The 
challenges he has overcome in his life have made him genuinely 
compassionate, genuinely concerned for others, and genuinely divided to 
helping those in need.

                              {time}  2130

  My dear friend, the Democrats have chosen the wrong case upon which 
to make a stand in opposition. They chose the wrong case when they 
placed roadblocks before a young man who arrived at 17 from Honduras 
and got here to work hard and has worked hard and made all Americans 
proud. They have chosen the wrong case when they oppose an immigrant, a 
Hispanic immigrant, who arrived here and who has made his family and 
all Hispanics proud. They have chosen the wrong case.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I wonder, because we talked about immigrant patriotism 
before, maybe their problem, after all, is not that he is Hispanic. 
Maybe their problem is the fact that he is an immigrant and therefore 
more pro-American than the average person, and they cannot stand the 
fact of a patriotic, God-fearing family and country-first American 
sitting on the judicial bench, which, in my opinion, we need a heck of 
a lot more of.
  I never met Mr. Estrada, but that is what he sounds like. If he is 
anything like the Diaz-Balart brothers, I know he is.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I share another 
thing with the gentleman, and I have not met him either. What has 
incensed me and what has bothered me to the core is that people on the 
other side of the aisle are accusing him of not being Hispanic enough. 
When I heard those accusations and I read his biography, because when I 
started hearing the accusations I started studying the biography and 
the work of the life of this immigrant, Miguel Estrada, it has bothered 
me to the core that they would have chosen to make a political case out 
of a man who arrived here as a very young man and has done nothing more 
but in an honest and day-in-and-day-out intense manner worked hard to 
honor his family and his country. It is extremely bothersome.
  I think the American people who have had the opportunity to hear us 
tonight, I am sure, must be bothered as well. What I would urge is that 
since in these upcoming hours the other body is going to have that 
decision to make, I would urge that they not make the serious mistake, 
because of petty politics, to stop, in effect, the career of a 
brilliant young man who has done nothing but work hard to honor his 
family, to honor all Hispanics, to honor all immigrants, and, yes, to 
honor the United States of America.
  I thank the gentleman very much for the opportunity to have been able 
to join him.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I have to ask 
the gentleman, since he kind of dodged my early solicitation for 
personal biographical information, how old was he when he was first 
elected to Congress?
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I was confused, because the 
gentleman said I dodged his question when he asked about my personal 
background. By the way, I am very proud of my family's background. In 
no way did I want to seem when I did not want to get into the family 
background today that I am not proud of it. I am, as I am proud of all 
Cuban Americans and all Hispanics and all immigrants in this country 
and all Americans. But I did not want to get into that, because I 
wanted to focus tonight on Miguel Estrada.
  Mr. KINGSTON. The reason why I asked, when the gentleman and I came 
to Congress we were both a little bit younger. But the reality is here 
is a guy 41 years old. He is a star, a rising star. Maybe the Democrats 
think that they can put a notch on their holster if they shoot this guy 
down and stop him in his tracks.
  I hope they do not. I hope he continues to rise, not because he is 
young, not because he is a Hispanic, not because he is an immigrant, 
but because he is pro-American and he wants to do what is right, and 
that is what we need on our judicial benches all over America.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I agree with the gentleman and 
commend him on his hard work on so many issues, day in and day out. The 
gentleman from Georgia is an honor to this Congress, his district and 
constituents, and to all of the American people.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentleman, and thank him for everything he 
does.

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