[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 2, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H3704-H3711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           PROVIDING LIFELONG OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Feeney). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Hayes) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, we have tonight the subject of lifelong 
learning and education, making sure that our friends, our families, and 
working people in America have careers, opportunities, and chances to 
have the financial rewards that come with being American.
  But, first, I would like to yield to my friend and colleague, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt), who I think would like to help with 
the rewriting of history and set the record straight on some comments 
made by our colleagues across the aisle.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to spend just a little bit of time before we 
talk about how we are going to bring jobs back into America talking 
about the things we just heard about.
  Now, a lot of the Democrats and liberals want to ignore what happened 
on September 11, 2001. They want to ignore that terrorists brought the 
war on terrorism right down home to America. It was an attack on 
America, just like Pearl Harbor was an attack on America.

                              {time}  2130

  They have forgotten that we are at war against terrorism, and it is 
on a global scale.
  And what do the terrorists want? They want a Taliban-style society 
right here in America. They want us to lose our freedom. They want our 
women to lose their rights. They do not want our women to have any 
property. They do not want them to have any voting rights. They do not 
want them to drive without having a male partner with them. They want 
them to wear burqas and look out through a mesh.
  This is a total change to what our western society is. If you just 
look at Fallujah where we tried to give those people in the terrorist 
organization a chance to peacefully surrender, we backed off, we 
allowed the Iraqis to go in, and what happened? Well, we have a 
Taliban-style government there. The women are threatened to wear 
burqas. The men cannot shave their beards anymore. What is at stake 
here around the world is our culture.
  The liberals want the U.N. to take charge. We heard that just over 
the last hour. They want the United Nations to take over this battle. 
Well, let us look at the record the United Nations has.
  In Cambodia, after we left Vietnam because of the pressure of the 
liberals, 2 million people died, another million in Vietnam. But the 
U.N. was in control. We should be comforted, we should be satisfied 
that they took over, where 2 million people died in Cambodia.
  Rwanda, the U.N. turned a blind eye; and 500,000 people died in 
Rwanda.
  Today, in the Sudan, there is a racist war going on where the Arabs 
are killing Africans. They are killing the black people. Nearly 100,000 
people may be dead as of this point.
  The U.N. cannot fight the war on terrorism. The U.N. cannot make the 
United States safe.
  Well, then they said, the liberals just said earlier that we had a 
bad decision because of the ``neocons.'' What they were referring to is 
the neoconservatives. It is some kind of label they are trying to put 
on people who are serving this country within the Department of 
Defense.
  They said that we made a big mistake because we trusted Chalabi who 
was an expatriate. Well, we did make a mistake trusting Chalabi, but I 
have to tell my colleagues that we trust people who are expatriates all 
over the world today. Why do we do that? We do that because we think 
they have the best information coming out of the nation, and we trust 
them because they have the freshest information, and we trust them 
because we have no other alternative, thanks to the liberals and the 
Clinton administration.
  We totally decimated our human intelligence all over the global. We 
decided, according to a rule that was placed on the CIA, that we could 
not deal with any ``shady characters.'' Well, who knows this 
information? It is the people who are on the inside in these countries 
that are corrupt. They are all shady characters that we have to deal 
with, but we have no human intelligence to verify it.
  That is why we trusted Chalabi. We trusted him because it was the 
only information we were getting was from him. We trusted it, but we 
needed to have some human intelligence to go inside the country of Iraq 
before we went in and say, yes, this is right, or, no, this is not 
right. But thanks to the Clintons and the liberals, we could not deal 
with them. We did not have anybody there to verify it. So we trusted 
him, and we made a mistake. I think we ought to admit that, and we 
ought to move on.
  Chalabi passed on information to the Iranians. It was reported in The 
New York Times. How we got that information, the reporter from The New 
York Times, I do not know. We need to check that out as well, because 
we are talking about very important secrets that this Nation held.
  But we wanted to verify what was going on in Iraq before we entered, 
we want to verify what is going on around the globe, and we are trying 
to rebuild that human intelligence network. But thanks to the Clinton 
administration and the liberals, we do not have any of those contacts 
right now.
  But in Iraq what we have done as Americans is we have taken the fight 
to the terrorists. We are not sitting back and waiting for them to come 
to New York or Washington, D.C., or Wichita, Kansas. We are taking the 
fight to them.
  Now the liberals want us to withdrawal from Iraq. We cannot do that. 
I think that we have to stay there.
  I talked to a young soldier over in Iraq when I was there myself, and 
I said, what do you think about being here in this hot spot where all 
the terrorists from all over the globe are coming here, they are arming 
themselves, they are trying to take out Americans?
  He said, you know, this is the one spot in the whole globe where 
every American here is carrying a gun. I want the terrorists to come 
here. I do not want them going to my home. I want them to come to Iraq. 
Because this is where every American is carrying a gun, and we can take 
care of our ourselves, and he patted his machine gun.
  We have to take the fight to the terrorists. We cannot wait for them 
to come to us. We do not want them here on the floor of the House of 
Representatives. We do not want them on the streets of Washington, D.C. 
We do not want them in Wichita, Kansas, or New York City or anywhere 
else in America. We want to take the fight to them.
  Well, the liberals say, now, we are in this because of the oil; and 
they quote people in France and in Germany. Well, if we check about the 
Oil for Food program that the U.N. had, all of the kickbacks that were 
coming out of the Oil for Food program went to France, Germany, some of 
them went to Russia. Does that not sound familiar when you compare that 
to the list of countries that would not support us in our effort to 
free Iraq and kill the terrorists? They are the same people that 
benefited from the Oil for Food program by

[[Page H3705]]

taking kickbacks from Saddam Hussein.
  Well, it is not about oil. Because you know what? We could have 
bought oil from Saddam Hussein. It was on the black market. It was 
flowing out of Iraq, thanks to these European countries. But we did not 
do that because we thought about justice, we thought about right, we 
thought about making America safe.
  Well, it is not just about oil, because we could have taken care of 
that. It is also about making our country safe. It is about our way of 
life. It is about western civilization. It is about making the American 
people safe at home and safe across this country.
  Now, the liberals would rather fight this war at home. They want to 
back off, but that is not what we are going to do. Thanks goodness for 
George Bush, who has had the courage to take this battle to the 
terrorists.
  Now, they said we got bad information, that we got bad information 
about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that we know that they gave 
us bad information and we went in, and, sure enough, there was not 
anything there.
  Well, they are ignoring several facts. Number one, we have found 
sarin gas used in ammunitions against our troops. Now, certainly that 
qualifies weapons as mass destruction. Perhaps they do not think that 
is the case. We have also found mustard gas. We have found containers 
with radiation material that has been in it. What do you define as 
weapons of mass destruction?

  They are present in Iraq. Iraq had the will. They had the potential. 
They had the equipment. They had the material. They had the gas. They 
had the distribution systems. They had the history. They used it 
against their own people and against the Iranians. They had the proof.
  Denial is not an option about weapons of mass destruction. They did 
exist. They currently do exist.
  But I just wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about those 
who spoke here earlier and the criticism that they brought forward. But 
it was not right, and I think the American people need to understand 
that it is time for us to realize how serious this battle is. We are 
fighting for western civilization itself, and we need to take the fight 
to the terrorists instead of waiting for them to bring it to our 
hometown, because it is our children, it is our way of life that is at 
stake.
  I did not come down here to talk about that. I just wanted to set the 
record straight before we moved on.
  What I wanted to talk about was lifelong learning, and this is part 
of an overall program that we have developed at the Republican 
Conference in the House to address the problem that we have had in 
America about losing jobs overseas. Now, many people want to blame the 
companies that hire and create and keep jobs in America. Even the 
Presidential candidate for the Democrat party, the Presidential 
candidate for the Democrats said that we have Benedict Arnold CEOs that 
are sending jobs overseas. Well, let me say, the guys that have made 
the decision to send the jobs overseas did not do it on a lark or on a 
way of doing something that was just light-hearted. They did it because 
they have very few options left.
  If we look at the possibilities for CEOs today, they can only control 
a couple of things. They can control the cost of wages, and they can 
control the overhead, in other words, how many buildings they have, how 
many people they have working for them. But if you look at a lot of the 
costs that are in business today, many of them are way beyond the 
control of the CEOs. Most of them, as a matter of fact, fall on to the 
burden that has been placed on them by the United States Government.
  These are things that have occurred over the last generation. People 
in Congress with good intentions voted on legislation that had bad 
consequences, and it is time to set the record straight, and it is time 
to do something about it.
  We have divided these problems into categories. These eight 
categories are listed on this placard next to me.
  First is health care security. Health care costs have been rising 
dramatically across America, and we are having a hard time containing 
the costs, and it is really hurting us as far as keeping jobs in 
America.
  We have bureaucratic red tape. We are trying to terminate that. That 
has really caused us to have problems with keeping jobs here in 
America.
  This week we are dealing with lifelong learning. We are going to talk 
a lot more about that today, but lifelong learning is very important 
for creating an atmosphere in the future so that we can attract jobs 
and keep jobs right here in America.
  Next week we are going to talk about energy self-sufficiency and 
security. We are going to then deal with tax relief and simplification, 
and we are then going to deal with trade fairness and opportunity and 
then spurring innovation through research and development. We are going 
to end our 8 weeks on the floor of the House with ending lawsuit abuse.
  All of these categories were created by Congress over the last 
generation. All of these categories need to be changed so that we can 
bring jobs back into America. If we do not, we are going to see a 
continued loss of jobs in America, and you are either with us or you 
are against us. Either you support these issues and support bringing 
jobs back to America, or you are going to turn your back on working 
Americans, turn your back on the middle class, turn your back on the 
future for our kids and our grandchildren.
  These are the issues that we are dealing with. This week, it is 
lifelong learning.
  I am going to turn it back over to the gentleman from North Carolina, 
but I just want to say in closing my remarks that lifelong learning is 
the way that we are going to give hope not only for our children and 
grandchildren but for those workers who have suffered a loss of their 
jobs.
  I just want to end with this one example. My cousin was laid off from 
the Boeing Company in October of 2001. Now, the Boeing Company makes 
commercial airplanes. He worked in the sheet metal shop working on 
commercial airplanes. After September 11, when people quit flying, they 
laid off a ton of people at the Boeing Company in Wichita alone. At one 
time there were 24,000 employees. Now they are down to about 12,000 
employees. One of those laid off was my cousin, Mark Smith.

  What he has done is he has gone back to college. He decided that he 
was going to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a teacher. Through the 
unemployment benefits provided by the Republican House, through the 
ability to go back to college provided by the Republican House, he has 
gone back to school. He has fought against the trend. He has gotten his 
degree now. He is practicing teaching as we speak, and he will start 
next fall fulfilling his dream as an educator.
  He has done it because he had a vision, and that vision needs to be 
passed on to other Americans who are currently laid off. Let them go 
back to work. Let them create a future for themselves and for their 
families and do it.
  Because we are thinking about how we can put them back to work. We do 
not just want to extend unemployment benefits, because the best we can 
do for an unemployed worker is to get them back to work. That is what 
they want. That is what they desire.
  So lifelong learning is a tremendously important issue. It is third 
on the list of eight. And as we deal with that tonight I think it is 
important to remember that if you are going to get workers back to work 
you have to give them the tools to do that. Lifelong learning is one of 
those tools.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his efforts, and I 
thank him for bringing these issues to the forefront.
  At this time, I will yield to my friend and colleague, the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Sessions).
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership 
to come to the floor of the House tonight, along with the cochairmen of 
the Careers for 21st Century America, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. 
Tiahrt). I serve as another one of the cochairmen of this very 
important part of our Republican Conference.
  Tonight we are going to talk about lifelong learning and its impact 
on this country. As we today held a press conference, the gentleman 
from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt) and I, we talked about a number of things that 
face America,

[[Page H3706]]

our opportunity to make sure that the educational system that we have 
in this country is not only aiming at the right things but is prepared 
to make sure that we are ready for its future.
  A number of facts came to us today that were very interesting. Among 
others that we learned were approximately 60 percent of corporations 
are prevented from updating technologies by the low educational and 
technically skilled level of their workers, meaning that the workers 
that are in today's workplace have to be retrained, have to be 
retrained on a regular basis, and that the corporation that today 
spends some $60 billion a year on training their employees and making 
sure that their employees can deal with not only the technologies that 
are new and emerging but also the tools, being able to do those things 
that will produce American products and make sure that America is 
leading edge.
  In 1950, 80 percent of the jobs were classified as unskilled. Today, 
roughly 85 percent are classified as skilled. That is a change in the 
marketplace. In the coming decade, 40 percent of the job growth will 
require postsecondary education, so says the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 
Approximately 75 percent of today's workforce will need to be retrained 
just to keep up with their current jobs, also from the Chamber of 
Commerce. Lastly, from the Chamber of Commerce, as much as 40 percent 
of tomorrow's jobs do not even exist today.
  So as we begin talking about this, not only in the Republican 
Conference but also in the press conference today, we recognize that 
our leadership, through the leadership of the gentleman from Illinois 
(Mr. Hastert) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), that we needed 
to bring forth not only a vision statement about what we believe in, 
but also actual bills, pieces of legislation that will do those things 
that allow our country to be prepared for the future.

                              {time}  2145

  Mr. SESSIONS. And we recognize that, as we started talking about 
this, that three pieces of legislation, which are going to be on the 
floor this week, which are very, very important, one of them H.R. 4409, 
the Teacher Training Enhancement Act, which we are going to hear about 
in just a few minutes which the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) 
brought forth to our conference because he recognized that we need to 
make sure that we are utilizing the best effort not only from what 
States do, because they are responsible for education, but also to make 
sure that companies and people who are out there in local cities and at 
the local level are able to engage in those things to bring their skill 
sets to the educational environment.
  We have H.R. 4410, the Teacher Shortage Response Act, which the 
gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson) has made sure is a part of 
our package. We need to make sure that we are able to accurately and 
carefully find those people who would come and be teachers in our 
public schools. We need to find those who have in particular a 
background in math and science, a high-tech background.
  It is difficult for school systems to come and compete for those 
specialized people who might want to get out of school and be able to 
pay off their student loans, so they go and they work for local 
industry. We need them in our schools. So the gentleman from South 
Carolina (Mr. Wilson) saw this need and said we need to be able to 
compete in our school systems to have those kinds of teachers to be 
ready and available to teach our children. He did a good job.
  Lastly, H.R. 4411, the Priorities For Graduate Studies Act. The 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Burns) saw this as a tremendous opportunity 
for us to capitalize on many people who receive higher education, 
meaning a masters or a doctorate degree, to be a part of our school 
system, to be a part of the teaching system that we have in this 
country, to make sure that our students are challenged with not only 
leading-edge tool sets, the tool kits that are necessary, but also by 
the teachers who would be employed to do that, to challenge our bright 
young students to make sure that the leading-edge concepts, the 
leading-edge ideas that will develop tomorrow so that we can make sure 
that this country is prepared.
  And that is what this week is about. That is why we operate Careers 
For the 21st Century in this week, talking about lifelong learning. We 
believe that if the United States Congress acts forthrightly to where 
we talk about what is the real job that Congress should be doing, we 
should be aiming this country in a direction that will allow the 
private sector and schools back home to not only compete and hire those 
people who will help our students, but also to make sure that the 
resources are available to do that. And that is why this Republican 
conference is so interested in making sure that this is a part of what 
is available in the tool kits for teachers and administrators back 
home.
  I am very proud of what this will mean and what it will do. Years ago 
early in my career I spent time at Bell Labs in New Jersey. And I was 
around some of the brightest and the best of the young people that this 
country produced. Now we have seen a proliferation of jobs all over 
this country where high tech has taken off, where jobs are available in 
not only health care but also the employment industry where it is high 
tech involved in helping our military or perhaps producing things for 
jobs in this country.
  We must continue in this country being the leading-edge producer of 
not only technology but also the students who will operate and make 
that technology work. I believe that America's greatest days are in our 
future because we have a vision and a dream about where we are going to 
go in terms of not only this generation but the next generation.
  This is a part of the Republican Party's commitment to the future of 
this country. I am proud of what we are doing. I am proud to be a co-
chairman of this very important Careers For 21st Century.
  I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for taking his time tonight 
to make sure our message is given to our colleagues about how important 
our responsibility is to ensure the success of the next generation of 
Americans through education.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his efforts and his 
leadership.
  This majority is making a difference as we aggressively pursue 
education goals that create careers and opportunities for families all 
across America. I might also point out, and I appreciate my colleague 
pointing out the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey), the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Burns).
  And just today we passed a fine piece of legislation that expands on 
unemployment benefits by allowing people an additional $3,000 to help 
with finding a new job. We passed that today, House bill 444.
  We are in the very near future going to deal with the family marriage 
amendment. We will protect America's families because education without 
families does not get us anywhere. Faith-based initiatives. This 
majority is making a difference.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield to one of my good 
friends here from Georgia tonight, the gentleman from Georgia (Dr. 
Gingrey), for such time as he may consume.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Hayes). I thank the gentleman from Kansas for reserving this hour 
and giving us this opportunity to talk about lifelong learning and 
preparing our men and women, indeed our children, our students for the 
21st century workplace.
  It is kind of interesting, we hear all this criticism. It seems like 
in this Presidential election cycle the big word is the O word, 
``outsourcing,'' the outsourcing of jobs and decrying that. What is 
left out of that argument, of course, is the fact that with a global 
economy, with fair trade, you also balance that outsourcing, even 
though we wish no jobs would leave this country, with a lot of good 
jobs from insourcing.
  I am a native Georgian and I represent, Mr. Speaker, the 11th 
District of Georgia; but I actually grew up in South Carolina just 
across the Savannah River on the State line, if you will. And I have 
seen that State, while losing over the years, the last 20 or 30 years, 
in fact, a number of textile jobs, unskilled jobs, in fact whole towns

[[Page H3707]]

were affected. The town of Graniteville, South Carolina, where my dad 
grew up, every job in that town was a textile job, of a cut and sew, 
highly unskilled job from generation to generation. And all those jobs 
were lost.
  But, thank goodness because of a global economy today, in the State 
of South Carolina I know my colleagues, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Sessions) just mentioned it, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Wilson) the good work that he has done representing my mom and my 
brother in South Carolina, I am sure if he were with us tonight he 
would talk about that BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as I 
could talk about the Pirelli Tire Company up in Rome in my 11th 
District in Georgia.
  So there is a balance. I think it is important that we make a point 
there, that we are concerned about losing jobs, but we are mighty 
thankful that there has been a lot of insourcing. And hopefully one day 
soon we will have more jobs coming into this country than we have had 
leaving the country. They will be better jobs. They will be better-
paying jobs with better benefits.
  But as my colleagues pointed out, we cannot attract those companies, 
we cannot provide these jobs unless we have an educated, highly skilled 
workforce. And what has happened in the past with our youngsters coming 
out of school without good skills in math and science and information 
technology, computer skills, what you see, of course, is in so many 
instances you do not have all these operators, you do not go back to 
the old television series, I Love Lucy, Mr. Speaker, when Lucy and 
Ethel were on that assembly line trying to keep up with those donuts. 
You do not have that anymore. You have a lot less need for people on 
the line, on the production line because they have to be skilled and 
they are running the computer. And a lot of this stuff is done by 
computer. These are good-paying jobs, but they require more skills than 
what we have had in the past.
  That is what this hour really is all about, to talk about what this 
leadership, what this administration has brought forward. And certainly 
we lost some jobs since 9/11, nobody could control that; but the 
efforts that this Republican leadership, this Congress has put forward 
over just the 2 years that I have been here as a freshman Member. I am 
very proud to have had an opportunity to vote in support of things that 
help the lifelong learning process.
  Just today, just today, Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Sessions) mentioned, we had the opportunity to bring forward H.R. 4409, 
the Teacher Training Enhancement Act. Now, this is a bill that improves 
the skills of our teachers. And it is hand in glove with the No Child 
Left Behind Act that was passed in 2002, the year before I arrived 
here. And that was nothing but the reauthorization of elementary and 
secondary education, which was long overdue, which finally had some 
accountability in it and required that Federal dollars are being well 
spent at the local level. But there needs to be some accountability.
  So if we are going to expect that no child will be left behind by the 
tenets of that legislation, then it is appropriate for us to also say 
colleges that teach our teachers, education colleges, you need to 
provide the highly skilled teachers that that law, No Child Left 
Behind, requires, that you produce these highly qualified teachers in 
the classroom by date certain. And they need to also be accountable 
just as we are expecting our superintendents and our teachers and 
principals at the local level to be accountable.
  So this bill, and again, Mr. Speaker, I am proud that it was passed 
with wide, strong bipartisan support, as well it should be, because 
this just enhances the State grants, these partnership grants, teacher 
recruitment grants to make sure that not only are we doing a better job 
of teaching teachers, indeed making them highly qualified so that our 
youngsters in secondary education, before they get to higher ed, if 
they decide they want to go out into the workplace and take these 
highly skilled jobs that we are producing, then they are ready, they 
are ready to go. It is just very important that we do that.
  So, again, I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina for 
allowing me to come and share some of my thoughts. And again it is 
bills like H.R. 4409 and other things that this Congress has done, this 
Republican leadership, that is going to result in not only almost a 
million jobs that we have created in the last 8 months but certainly we 
are going to continue to do that. I just commend my colleagues for that 
effort.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership. I 
thank him for his commitment to education, his commitment to the State 
and to his district. I am wondering if the good doctor would yield for 
a question.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I will yield, sure.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, as we stand here tonight talking about the 
importance of lifelong learning, my colleague is a doctor, like me he 
is not as young as he used to be, medicine and the way it is practiced 
has changed somewhat since he graduated from medical school and 
completed his internship.
  If my colleague would just speak for a few moments, if you will, 
about the importance of continuing education, upgrading one's skills so 
that one can use the newest technology, the equipment, the techniques, 
the procedures that have allowed us to maintain the number one health 
care system, no thanks to the liberals who want to give it all to the 
government, but speak to us about a lifetime learning and his 
experience as a doctor and how that not only relates to medical skills 
but scientific skills, government skills, and others.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that the gentleman brought 
that up. There is no question that in my profession, as he pointed out 
as a physician, we are actually required on a 2-year cycle to take a 
certain number of hours of continuing education. And it has to be good 
hours. It is not a vacation meeting. It really has to be good 
continuing education requirement.
  And this is, as my colleague points out, as it should be, because 
things change. And if we practice the same medicine in the 21st century 
that our great forefathers practiced back in the days of Little House 
on the Prairie when there were no antibiotics and you only did surgery 
as a last resort, today if we practiced in that manner, we would be 
practicing below the standard of care. And we would be subject to 
severe penalties, maybe even lose our license.

                              {time}  2200

  So it is very important. And just as you say, you cannot rely on 
those things that you learned when you are 10, 15 and even 20 years 
old. You have got to continue to upgrade your skills in any profession.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I am sure that the gentleman's patients are 
particularly appreciative of the transparency and the accountability 
that you bring to the operating table and to your doctor's office by 
presenting those credentials and letting you know of how you have 
increased your skills and kept up with the latest technique.
  Mr. GINGREY. There is no question about that. And it makes me think, 
too, we are talking about this issue of outsourcing and the weeping and 
gnashing of teeth over that. But the very same people that are crying 
about outsourcing are the ones who for my profession will not give us 
an opportunity for a level playing field in regard to tort reform, will 
not help us pass meaningful legislation to bring fairness into class 
action lawsuits or product liability and put all these burdens on our 
small businesses, men and women who employ most of the people in this 
country. They create the jobs.
  But yet it is not just wages that is causing us to lose these jobs. 
It is a lot of these burdensome rules and regulations that our 
competitors offshore do not have to abide by. So you are absolutely 
right.
  We want people, my patients, I always want them to know. Whenever I 
completed that cycle, that 2-year cycle of particular education, I 
would put that little diploma in my office, hang it right there on the 
wall or in one of the exam rooms so they could look and see where I 
trained and am I up to date, absolutely essential.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. Those patients not 
only appreciate but they demand accountability. It sounds like no Child 
Left Behind, so we are on the right track.

[[Page H3708]]

  Mr. Speaker, a good friend from Georgia and a leader in education, 
agriculture, defense, it is hard to think of what he is not a leader 
in, but I appreciate him being with us tonight. I yield to the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Burns).
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Hayes), my good friend.
  Mr. Speaker, I spent 20 years in public education at the university 
level training young men and women to practice lifelong learning. The 
field that I was a part of was in computer and information systems, and 
I began that adventure in the early 1970s. Between the early 1970s and 
2000 the industry changed virtually every 18 months. So it was a 
constant struggle to keep up with the technology, to keep up with the 
concepts and the techniques, first as a practicing professional but 
later as a faculty member at Georgia Southern, to be able to train my 
students in a discipline that was a constant change.
  That is what we face in our Nation today. That is what we face across 
the spectrum.
  I think what I want to talk about tonight, I appreciate my good 
friend from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) in his work on the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce with me and the gentleman from North 
Carolina (Mr. Hayes). The bills that came out of the House today were 
important and significant on higher education. I was glad to be a part 
of that for both teacher training enhancement, which included a very 
significant component on centers of excellence for our minority serving 
schools, but also the Priorities and Graduate Studies Act, which allow 
us to focus on math and science and special education, those components 
of our society and our educational environment that we have, 
unfortunately, neglected all too frequently over the last number of 
years and we have fallen behind by any measure on world standards. We 
have got to improve in our education department.
  But tonight as a part of lifelong learning I want to shift gears and 
talk about a concept that maybe does not get as much attention as it 
should. Many families in America, when faced with the choice of sending 
their child to a public school, they feel that maybe their needs cannot 
be met as well as an alternative or two. I want to talk about those 
alternatives.
  We seem to be reinventing the way America learns, how young people 
are prepared to face today's society. We have alternatives from our 
public schools to our private schools to our charter schools to our 
home schools to even our cyber schools. Especially in the technology 
world, the cyber schools are becoming a major component of that.
  But tonight I want to talk about home school, charter schools. I have 
home schooled constituents in my district, I have charter schools in my 
district, and there are many reasons why a parent and a family might 
look to that alternative.
  It is amazing, self-learning has really been around a long time. If 
you go back and you kind of look at the lore of learning and the 
achievement by individuals who had limited formal education, if any at 
all, Thomas Edison, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin 
Franklin, the Wright brothers, Helen Keller, even Albert Einstein, all 
self-learners, all life-long learners.
  It is amazing that we are beginning to come back to the concept of a 
family taking responsibility for their child's education, to become a 
partner in the education process.
  I am a teacher, and I have tremendous respect and regard for those in 
the teaching profession. The dream of the teacher is to help their 
students achieve their dreams. So that a dream of a teacher is to make 
the dreams of that student come true, but the partner with the teacher 
is the parent. And all studies are going to tell us that when parents 
are involved, students learn. There is more discipline in the 
challenge. There is more involvement. There is a better environment for 
learning.
  Just recently the Augusta Chronicle in my district in Georgia, the 
12th district of Georgia, ran a marvelous article about a young lady 
who was in a school that failed to meet its annual yearly projects 
progress as a part of No Child Left Behind. She had a choice. She and 
her family looked at the amenities, and she changed schools within the 
public system in Richmond County. And this article went on to describe 
the positives that were associated with that and the achievement that 
she received and the way in which she was able to advance so much more, 
basically because of lack of discipline in the environment that she was 
having to move from.

  Charter schools and home schools oftentimes are able to handle those 
challenges more effectively. There is a charter school in my district 
in Savannah, Georgia, that I visited not long ago; and they have two 
fundamental expectations: appropriate behavior by the student and 
parental involvement in every case. Now all of a sudden many of the 
things and the challenges that we face have become of limited concern.
  Sometimes parents choose to home school because the alternatives may 
instill values that they do not agree with. They may instill values 
that run contrary to those of the traditional family. They kind of feel 
caught up and bound by their tax dollars to schools that may not meet 
their child's needs.
  Over the last two decades home schools have grown from about 200,000 
to over 2 million; and you have to ask yourself, why has there been 
such a rapid growth in this area? Well, in 1998, there was a study done 
that in every subject, in every subject in every grade level, K through 
12, home school students, are you ready, scored significantly higher 
than their public or private school counterpart. Some 25 percent of all 
home school students at the time that they were enrolled at either 
grade level or beyond, they had an average ACT score of 23, compared to 
a public ACT score of 21.
  Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Alan Greenspan rejected the 
Democratic notion that the more money we put into a school the better 
the school performs. His comment says, ``Putting money in is not 
necessarily an accurate measure of the output. We are falling behind by 
any measure in our secondary schools.''
  Greenspan went on to say, we have to increase the skills every year, 
every year, or we will fall behind, we will fall behind.
  One of the things that I want us to talk about tonight and maybe 
share with the rest of House is that how can we take the lessons we 
have learned from home schooling and apply them to improving our public 
education system. Primarily, the exponential growth in home schooling 
is primarily a result of bad public policies and programs in our 
Nation.
  We have unfortunately turned a deaf ear to parental input and the 
voice of the parent. We have not given it its proper respect and 
consideration. We have tended to push the parent aside, as opposed to 
making them a partner. I will tell you that the best schools in my 
district, the highest-performing schools in my district are those who 
have active parental involvement in every grade in every classroom.
  The President has placed a strong agenda on education and the pillars 
the educational reform pillars, accountability and testing. We all know 
No Child Left Behind has four fundamentals: accountability and testing, 
flexibility and local control, funding that works, funding that 
provides a return for the investment, and, finally, expanded parental 
options so that we can indeed move America forward.
  We have to close the achievement gap. We have to have a first-class 
education around our Nation. The report cards that are coming out in 
Georgia now that show the progress that our schools have made, and they 
have made great progress. I have been in every school district, in many 
of the schools in my district, and I will tell you they are making 
great progress, and I want to congratulate them.
  We still have a lot of work to do. But the point is, we have to have 
qualified teachers. We have to have committed parents. We have to have 
the fundamentals of education in every environment.
  We are turning the corner on success, and we are beginning to see a 
return on our efforts when it comes to public education. I am proud of 
that achievement. If we are going to become lifelong learners, if we 
are going to be able to move from this decade into the next

[[Page H3709]]

and the ones beyond, we must all recognize that lifelong learning is a 
fundamental requirement in today's society.
  So if you look at the experiences in higher education, if you look at 
the experiences in our great technical colleges, if you look at the 
experiences in our secondary schools, we have to realize that we must 
continue to improve at every turn in order to achieve a competitiveness 
and a quality standard second to none in our globe.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a significant part of our agenda for America to 
ensure that no child is left behind regardless of their background, 
socio-economic, their ethnicities where they happen to live, but we 
also have to build that mechanism and that desire for learning.
  One last illustration. Last week, during the district work week, I 
met with a family out of Hinesville, Georgia. They were in the 
military. They had a son, fine young man, 11 years old. He was in a 
school system that unfortunately was not meeting his needs. Not because 
he was too slow but because, in reality, he was advanced. He had taken 
the SAT score at 11. He scored 1,040 on an SAT. This young man had 
special needs, but they were special needs to be challenged. He was 
bored. He was bored in a 5th grade classroom when he could perform at 
7th and 8th grade levels.
  I sat there and I listened to the story, and I have got to work on 
this challenge. But we do not need to leave any child behind, but we do 
not need to hold any child back either, because there are folks out 
there who can really achieve.
  After spending a half an hour with this young man and with his father 
and mother, by the way, his father is in the U.S. Army, Third Infantry 
Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. He just came back from a year in 
Iraq. And I sat there and I listened to this young man and the 
challenges he faced.

                              {time}  2215

  I asked him to do one thing, do not lose your love of learning, 
because that is what will sustain you throughout your entire life.
  We must all have a love for learning, and he assured me that he loved 
to learn, and that even though in a traditional classroom he might be a 
bit bored, that he could make up for that as a self-learner, and that 
is what we must all be.
  I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes), thank 
the committee for focusing on learning and recognizing the fact that 
learning is an integral part of all of our lives and we must do it 
every day if we are to remain competitive.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman again for pointing out 
the many intricacies and the many pieces that this Republican majority 
is helping to bring together so that lifelong learning and competitive 
young people coming out of our school system is a reality.
  Just as a matter of interest, I do not know if the gentleman from 
Georgia knows this, but my wife and I lived in Alaska for a year. 
Sometimes we think of home schooling as a choice of Republican 
schooling. Well, in Alaska, it is an alternative. If you live more than 
two miles from a bus stop, they will furnish you at no question, no 
cost, the materials for home schooling.
  One of the things that we learned from home schooling and why it is 
so important is, and I give my wife the credit because she did most of 
it, but I helped sometimes, if you home school your children, you 
really appreciate the teachers in the public school because you get a 
feel for what they go through. One of the beauties here, again, is 
small class size, concentrated, strong family involvement and 
participation.
  So, again, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I had an 
opportunity at the university environment to periodically have 
assignments in the international setting. I spent 6 months in 
Australia, and my sons were in the fourth grade and the seventh grade, 
and even though they went to Australian schools, my wife would tutor 
them in their U.S. subjects.
  Four years later, we were in Sweden. My sons did not speak Swedish, 
but yet their instruction was in Swedish, and my wife, again, assumed 
the role of parent/teacher, and my sons, because of my wife's 
dedication, never missed a beat.
  Now, not all families can do this. Not all families would select that 
option. But I think one of the most important things we see in this 
model is commitment to learning by the family unit and a commitment to 
assisting their children in achieving very, very positive results; and 
once that love of learning is instilled, then it carries through for a 
lifetime.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his participation.
  At this time, I would like to yield to my colleague, the gentleman 
from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt).
  (Mr. TIAHRT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks, and include extraneous material.)
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
for yielding.
  I want to point out this placard I have about a statement that was 
made by Alan Greenspan before the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce. It says, we need to increase our efforts to ensure that as 
many of our citizens as possible have the opportunity to capture the 
benefits that flow from that engagement. For reasons that I shall 
elucidate shortly, one critical element in creating that opportunity is 
the provision of a rigorous education and ongoing training to all 
members of our society.
  This proposal is not novel. It is, in fact, the strategy that we have 
followed successfully for most of the past century and a strategy that 
we now should embrace with renewed commitment. That is what we are 
talking about tonight, the renewed commitment to lifelong learning.
  Mr. Speaker, I have a statement that outlines what we intend to 
follow this week, the legislation that we will bring before the 
committee, the commitment that the Bush administration has for 
education.
  Mr. Speaker, I also have a statement about IBM and about their 
commitment to lifelong learning and how they average about $3,000 per 
employee and how they coordinate with different universities about 
lifelong learning that I would like to insert in the Record at this 
point.
  Learning is indeed a ``lifelong'' endeavor. I'd like to highlight the 
efforts of IBM. IBM seems to understand what it takes to create a 
stronger workforce and is stepping up to the plate.
  IBM partners with a number of colleges and universities around the 
country. For example, IBM's Scholars Program (http://www-306.ibm.com/
software/info/university/) allows colleges and universities to receive 
IBM software free to charge and also permits faculty to attend IBM 
training sessions at no cost to them.
  In Vermont, IBM relies on the Vermont State College system to 
supplement the company's own internal training curriculum in a variety 
of engineering and computer courses. Similar relationships exist in 
Poughkeepsie, NY, with Marist College and Dutchess Community College; 
in Austin, TX, with St. Edwards; and in San Jose, CA, with Santa Clara 
Community College and UC Santa Clara. IBM also has a long standing 
relationship with the National Technical University which allows 
employees to take a full range of classes remotely, which will lead to 
advanced degrees.
  It's worth noting that IBM will spend between $750 million and $800 
million on employee training this year alone. Half of this will be for 
U.S. employees (which averages out to almost $3,000 per employee). In 
addition, IBM will spend $25 million more on training those employees 
whose jobs ``may'' be at risk due to global resourcing. This training 
is specifically aimed at equipping employees with the skills necessary 
to secure employment with IBM business partners, vendors, or customers 
if IBM does not have a position for them. Moreover, under the auspices 
of the U.S. Department of Labor, IBM is working with other business 
partners to potentially train IBM employees for positions in these 
other companies so that an individual displaced from IBM would never 
enter the public workforce system but would receive custom training 
that fits the needs of their new employer.
  IBM's training programs work and have produced positive results. I 
encourage the Federal Government to join IBM and others to create a 
stronger workforce and keep American workers competitive in today's 
global economy.
  Mr. Speaker, I also have a statement about a great example of a 
company taking the reins and bringing job training to their employees. 
That is about the Quaker Fabric Corporation of Fall River in 
southeastern Massachusetts. Their motto is, ``Hire the Best, Invest

[[Page H3710]]

in the Best and Keep the Best.'' It is an outline of their commitment 
to lifelong learning for their employees, and I will insert it in the 
Record at this point.
  Mr. Speaker, in today's dynamic business environment, lifelong 
learning and job retraining are an essential part of the modern 
workplace. Businesses realize this, employees realize this, it is time 
for Congress to realize this.
  A great example of a company taking the reins to bring job training 
to their employees is the Quaker Fabric Corporation of Fall River ion 
southeastern Massachusetts. Quaker Fabrics is a small business that 
manufacturers woven upholstery fabrics for residential furniture 
markets in the United States and abroad. Their motto is ``Hire the 
Best, Invest in the Best, and Keep the Best.''
  Mr. Speaker, Quaker Fabrics realizes that new technology requires job 
retraining to stay competitive in today's global market. In order to 
compete, they opened the Quaker Learning Center to help their employees 
stay on top of new technology. This investment in their workers has 
paid them dividends. Their sales have increased by 55 percent and they 
have added new jobs for 1,000 people in their area. In the process, 12 
of their employees have received their GED certificates, 20 employees 
now have certified computer training, and due to partnerships with 
local colleges and universities, 15 of their employees have graduated 
from MBA programs.
  Quaker Fabric Corporation has gone a long way to empower their 
workers with the skills they need to compete in a global market. 
However, in their own words, ``We can't do it alone. We need our 
schools and teachers from K-16 to build the foundation of literacy, 
critical thinking, problem solving, mathematical and interpersonal 
skills required to be successful in today's knowledge based society. 
And it is critical that we have more programs and funding available for 
incumbent worker education.''
  Mr. Speaker, lifelong learning creates new jobs and provides 
individuals with the skills they need to fill these new jobs. This is 
smart policy already embraced by American businesses across the 
country. The U.S. Congress should join businesses to help provide 
lifelong learning to American workers.
  Mr. Speaker, I also have a statement about our Founding Father 
Benjamin Franklin, who is highly revered for helping lead Americans to 
independence and guiding the construction of our government but also 
talks about how he realized the importance of education and advocated 
not only for public education systems but also for adults to 
continually expand their knowledge. It follows with our concept of 
lifelong learning and what we are committed to, and I will insert it in 
the Record at this point.
  Founding Father Benjamin Franklin is highly revered for helping lead 
America to independence and guiding the construction of our government. 
But it is the lightening and key experiment that has endeared him to 
schoolchildren. Benjamin Franklin was even more of a Renaissance man 
than actual Renaissance men. He was an inventor, a printer, a 
scientist, writer, philosopher, statesman, economist, musician and 
entrepreneur. He challenged all he encountered--in person and through 
his writings--to think in different ways and improve themselves. Most 
important, he realized the importance of education and advocated not 
only for public education systems, but also for adults to continually 
expand their knowledge. Franklin wanted to ensure that Americans got 
the necessary training at home to compete with the best and brightest 
around the world.
  Though his formal schooling ended at age 11 when he began his first 
apprenticeship, Franklin never stopped educating himself, constantly 
reading, writing and learning new skills. Franklin assembled philosophy 
and science leaders for discussions, set up a subscription library in 
Philadelphia and established the Public Academy in the City of 
Philadelphia to ensure that young people had a chance for formal 
schooling. His push to promote education at home as well as to attract 
the brightest minds to the United States has been successful.
  Franklin's goal of lifelong learning holds true today, perhaps even 
more so. A highly-educated workforce is critical to America's 
competitiveness. Today's students are tomorrow's workforce, and for 
that reason, education is directly linked to America's ability to 
compete in a changing worldwide economy. Many working adults are trying 
to keep pace with the education required to stay ahead in their 
careers, or are in need of retraining to get them back into the 
workforce.
  As part of our eight point competitiveness agenda, the House is 
addressing Lifelong Learning needs this week. Our public school system 
has given generations of Americans the tools to pursue their dreams, 
and it can certainly help prepare boys and girls for the demands of the 
new century. Now we need to make sure that our children are learning 
the fundamentals, that they become familiar with technology, and that 
math and science curriculums are enhanced so they can compete in the 
economy of the future. We will pass three bills to do so: the Teacher 
Training Enhancement Act, the Teacher Shortage Response Act, and the 
Priorities for Graduate Studies Act. We also highlight the need to 
continue to make sure that students have the opportunity to attend 
higher education institutions. Finally, we will address worker training 
and retraining needs. The Worker Reemployment Accounts Act offers new 
assistance for unemployed workers to enhance their skills and find new 
jobs and reenter the workforce.
  This week the House is focused on the American worker, on how we can 
directly help the American worker compete in the global economy. We 
need to give our children the basic building blocs for 21st century 
jobs, make sure all Americans have access to universities and community 
colleges, and that workers have access to the training that will 
guarantee them high quality, high paying jobs.
  Instead of political rhetoric, Republicans are offering real 
solutions. We invite our colleagues to join us in moving America 
forward and providing opportunity for U.S. businesses and working 
families.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also like to point out that the Chamber of 
Commerce has addressed Congress, and they said that as much as 40 
percent of tomorrow's jobs do not exist today. I believe that the only 
way that we are going to prepare for tomorrow is that if we continue 
our efforts for lifelong learning and heighten the awareness of people 
in America to their commitment to education, whether it is at the 
primary level, the secondary level or the graduate level or 
postgraduate level, so that we continue lifelong learning for all 
Americans; that the commitment that the Republicans have in the House 
of Representatives, that the administration has be carried out through 
our efforts.
  This week we are addressing lifelong education. Again, it is number 
three on our list of the eight issues that we think are important to 
bring jobs back to America. These eight issues are issues that have 
been roadblocks to keeping and creating jobs.
  Congress itself over the past generation through good intentions has 
passed bad legislation. We are trying to overcome that bad legislation 
by changing the environment so we can bring jobs back into America. We 
started out with health care security. Then we moved to bureaucratic 
red tape. This week we are talking about lifelong learning. Next week, 
we are going to move on to energy self-sufficiency and security. 
Following that, we will take a week and talk about tax relief and 
simplification. Following that, we will talk about trade fairness and 
opportunity. Then we are going to move to spurring innovation through 
research and development. We are going to end up with lawsuit abuse and 
changing that.
  This is a commitment that the Republicans have made to address each 
one of these issues one week at a time over a period of 8 weeks so that 
we can keep and create jobs in America, bring jobs back. Instead of 
outsourcing, we want to insource jobs to America. This is one way that 
we can overcome the barriers that employers are facing so that they can 
bring jobs back to America.
  I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina for spearheading 
the effort on lifelong learning. He has done a tremendous effort and a 
great success in the way he has brought other Members into the circle. 
He has brought this issue to the entire Republican Conference. He knows 
it is not only important in North Carolina but it is important in 
Wichita, Kansas, and across the United States.
  So I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina for allowing me 
this time to speak on behalf of this issue, working with him on this 
issue, as well as the others, and I would like to conclude my remarks 
and yield back to the gentleman from North Carolina to complete our 
efforts tonight.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Kansas 
(Mr. Tiahrt), for his wonderful leadership and pointing out how 
important these issues of education are.
  He talked about bureaucratic red tape. Just last week, if my memory 
serves me correctly, we passed the Paperwork Reduction Act, which puts

[[Page H3711]]

over $800 billion potentially back into our economy for American jobs 
and helping people with their career.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, there are two things that I have stressed in 
my time in Congress, and they are national security and economic 
security. My friend pointed out that on September 11 incredibly insane 
people flew three airliners, used them as missiles, flew them into the 
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. National security is critically 
important to our future. Fighting and winning the war on terrorism, 
which our brave young men and women are doing every day, is happening 
because of the commitment of America, the patriotism of these fine 
young men and women; and our commitment and our support of them is 
crucial for the future of our young people.
  Economic security comes from education, childhood, families, middle 
school, high school, secondary, postgraduate. Economic security allows 
us to maintain the financial integrity of this Nation. Financial 
integrity and the things that go with it enable us to equip our 
military which liberates countries like Iraq and Afghanistan from 
terrorists, thugs and murderers.
  So those are the two important issues.
  To give you some firsthand information and experience from my 
district, we have seen how important this is. In August of this year, 
we had the largest single layoff in North Carolina's history. As this 
tragedy occurred and many people were dramatically, drastically and 
terrifyingly affected, retraining, education through the community 
colleges, through high schools, through other means, has been pointed 
out how important it is, and this majority and this administration has 
stepped in to provide the help and the guidance in every possible way 
that we can so these folks could be retrained so that they could be 
skilled for new careers.
  A wonderful example is a lady named Barbara Price who worked at 
Pillowtech. She went back to school and I remember meeting with her at 
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and hearing her describe how all of a 
sudden she is a 57-year-old mom who was having her high school 
students, who were extremely proud of her ambition, her willingness to 
go back to school, but they were helping her with her homework. They 
were encouraging her to adapt, to learn and to get these new skills.
  So that is just one of many, many examples where lifetime learning 
continues. We are retraining for next generation, highly skilled jobs.
  The question becomes, what are those jobs going to look like? Well, 
my answer is simply that America, with the ingenuity, the resources and 
the talented people we have, we can create those 40 percent of new jobs 
which have not yet been created, and that is what this majority is 
working to do with incentives, with tax cuts, with letting people keep 
more of their own money. Just a few of the ways that we can help do 
this.
  In education, we are working with all of our schools, trying to find 
out how do we keep young people in school today. Because manufacturing 
jobs are not available when people drop out of school early. We have a 
program with the Dell Computer Company called Dell Techno, targeting 
at-risk and other young people in middle school, giving them the 
encouragement and also the excitement they need to see the connection 
between education, learning and earning. It has been very successful.
  They come to school after hours. They learn how to take a computer 
apart, put that computer back together with the latest technology. 
After completing the course, they own that computer; and they can take 
it home and increase their skills.
  BizWorld, teaching entrepreneurship and financial accountability. 
Teaches youngsters how to strive for making jobs, creating jobs, not 
just taking a job, teaching them the basic skills of creating a 
product, marketing that product, selling it and taking the profits, 
which not only are not a bad word but that is an imperative, taking the 
profits and expanding and making jobs, not taking jobs.
  Congressional scholars bringing the remarkable assets of the Library 
of Congress into their high or middle school or college. Giving 
teachers additional tools. Because the way to show appreciation to 
these hard working teachers is, again, to give them the flexibility, 
the tools, the assets and resources they need.
  Technology is not the only answer. We need stronger families. We need 
discipline in schools. We need the kinds of things and the cooperation 
that we have talked about tonight. This is the kind of America that we 
envision for our children and our grandchildren, an America that is 
learning, that is earning, that is taking the greatest that we have and 
expanding it, creating, maintaining and expanding freedom, opportunity 
and chances for others to enjoy the blessings that we have.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt) and all 
who have participated tonight, and I thank all of my colleagues who are 
interested in lifelong learning.

                          ____________________