[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5007-S5008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE CARE ACT

  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I rise to speak on the CARE Act. I 
applaud my colleagues, Senators Santorum, Lieberman, Grassley, and 
Baucus, for bringing this bipartisan bill to the Senate floor.
  The CARE Act comes none too soon. Charities across America are indeed 
facing tough and challenging times. A sluggish economy, which we all 
feel in our communities, is hampering in many ways their ability to 
secure funds to operate. This bill, which we will pass shortly, will 
help change that. It is not a total solution but will help move in the 
direction to change that.
  I take a moment and ask the question, Why are we doing this bill? 
This bill is about recognizing that Washington does not have all of the 
answers; that we in this body do not have all of the answers; that our 
Government does not have all of the answers to America's problems. But 
America, her people, and her spirit, all throughout this land do have 
the answers.
  Some in Washington, on the right and on the left, prefer to address 
social problems with legislative solutions. But many of our Nation's 
problems simply do not reduce themselves to a solution that can be 
devised in the U.S. Congress, in the legislature itself. What they need 
are neighborhood solutions, solutions that begin to address problems 
that are identified in local communities, that are addressed locally, 
that are addressed by communities and neighborhoods, solutions that are 
not delivered by a form letter from a government bureaucrat, but from 
the hand of somebody in that neighborhood--a local neighborhood, 
someone who really cares, who understands the problem locally.
  I am thinking of a wonderful charity down the street from here. For 
20 years the volunteers of the Neighborhood Learning Center at the 
corner of 9th and Maryland have been tutoring at-risk children. They do 
so without fanfare, without a lot of publicity, without Federal funds. 
They are faith-based and their service is motivated by their love of 
God. They are making a difference--yes, one child at a time.
  I think of LeSharon, who herself was tutored when she was a girl from 
a broken family. A few years later, LeSharon was back at the center but 
this time as a college graduate and one of their instructors. That is 
exciting. Or I think of the Room in the Inn program in my hometown of 
Nashville, TN. Over 125 congregations provide nightly housing for 
homeless adults and children. This is a tangible and compassionate 
response to human need.
  These charities, like the Neighborhood Learning Center, like the Room 
in the Inn program, are only small rays of light in our American 
landscape. Their service is only part of what makes us a strong and a 
vibrant Nation. Almost 200 years ago Alexis de Tocqueville warned: The 
morals and intelligence of a democratic people would be in as much 
danger as its commerce and industry if ever a government wholly usurped 
the place of private associations.
  What de Tocqueville understood was that the house of a democratic 
nation does not stand by just government. A healthy nation needs 
vigorous private associations, charities, and civic clubs all coming 
together. The CARE Act recognizes this vital fact. That is why it helps 
to foster private charity in our Nation. It encourages more charitable 
giving--of money, of food, of art, or securities. It provides 
incentives for low-income people to begin saving for a house, a 
business, or education. And it

[[Page S5008]]

helps small charities learn how to access Federal grants to further 
their work.
  Some might suggest America's problems are much bigger than what the 
CARE Act can handle, that they demand larger and grander solutions. But 
I respond that America's problems--problems like malnourishment, 
illiteracy, domestic violence, broken families, teen pregnancies--are 
problems that are too big for Government to fix. Some problems are so 
large that all the money in the world simply will not fix them. So many 
of these problems are rooted in the soul and Government cannot fix 
problems of the soul. But people can. And God can.

  This bill empowers people, real people rooted in their communities, 
rooted in their churches, rooted in their synagogues, rooted in their 
mosques, to help, to reach out to their neighbors. And that kind of 
help is the type of help that changes hearts.
  It is hard to feel loved when you are getting a handout from a 
government bureaucrat. But receiving a cold cup of water from a 
volunteer touches your heart, it changes you, and it changes the person 
giving that help, as well. For years I have had the wonderful 
opportunity, indeed the real privilege, of being able to travel to 
Africa to conduct and participate in medical missions. When I go to 
Africa, I don't go as a Senator. I go there as a physician, as a person 
of faith, as a neighbor, as a friend, as a person who cares about 
others throughout the world. Those trips have changed me as much, I 
promise, as they have changed any of the people I have helped.
  My hope, today, is that we help invigorate what Edmund Burke called 
those ``little platoons,'' those private associations that help us love 
our country, our fellow human beings. We need to strengthen the quiet 
but profound work of the little platoons of nonprofit agencies, of 
groups like the Neighborhood Learning Center, the Church of the 
Brethren Soup Kitchen, or the Room in the Inn. And when we strengthen 
them, we strengthen America.
  Will the CARE Act cure all our problems? No. Sadly, no, of course 
not. But it will help us to help ourselves help others. Let's get this 
good bill moving to the President's desk. It will form a strong part of 
his faith-based initiative. I know the House is committed to moving 
quickly on a companion bill. I hope we can continue to work together 
across party lines to empower America's charities and to empower people 
throughout the country.
  I yield the floor.

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