[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 21]
[House]
[Pages 30824-30825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



          THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 106TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, as the first session of the 106th Congress 
concludes, I think it is proper to give this legislative body my 
thoughts on what the House has accomplished this year and what is left 
to accomplish next year. Together we have enjoyed many victories and 
some disappointments.
  When I became Speaker last January, the House needed some serious 
work. The distrust and bitterness and rampant partisanship of both 
parties threatened to undermine the public support of this House. We 
had Members who would not even talk to each other, let alone work with 
one another.
  Given that situation, last January in this very spot I said solutions 
to problems cannot be found in a pool of bitterness. Solutions can be 
found in an environment in which we trust one another, and we trust one 
another's word, and where we generate heat and passion, but where we 
recognize that each Member is equally important to our overall mission 
of improving the life of America's people.
  We have made progress in putting that bitterness behind us, because 
we decided to go to work. Members of the minority cosponsored six out 
of the ten top bills introduced by the majority.
  Our greatest achievements this year had bipartisan support: The 
budget bill that we just passed, the Social Security lockbox bill, the 
appropriations bills, the missile defense bill, the Education 
Flexibility bill and the Financial Services Modernization Act. Both 
parties must continue to promote their views and their philosophies, 
but we must never sacrifice the common good of the American people on 
the altar of partisan competition.
  We have proved that when we work together, we get our work done. This 
year, we passed the budget on time for only the second time since 1974. 
By completing our budget on time, we were able to complete all 13 
appropriations bills without dipping into the Social Security Trust 
Fund, doing that for the first time since 1967. For the second 
consecutive year we passed a balanced budget. That is the first time 
that has happened since 1960.
  The appropriations process was hard work and took longer than I 
wanted to take, but, thanks to the dogged determination of the 
gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) and the ranking member, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), and the rest of the Committee on 
Appropriations, we completed the work of the House; and, by doing so, 
we made great progress in preparing America for the next century.
  We had four goals at the beginning of this Congress: Protect 
retirement security for the next century, improve national security by 
bolstering our armed services, reform our education system so that all 
of our children can go to a good school in a safe environment, and 
promote economic security and fairness by paying down debt while giving 
tax relief to American families.
  We have made progress in all four areas. Our budget stopped the raid 
on Social Security for the first time in 30 years. Why do we care so 
much about protecting Social Security and the surplus? Let me give you 
three reasons.
  First, it helps to strengthen the Social Security system far into the 
next century. That means baby-boomers can have the peace of mind that 
Social Security will be there for them.
  Second, when we protect the Social Security surplus, we also pay down 
the Nation's debt. Think about how good you feel when you pay off your 
home mortgage or your car loan. When we take responsibilities for our 
Nation's debt, we ease the crippling burden of our debt on our children 
and our grandchildren. Our budget discipline has allowed our government 
to make the largest debt reduction payment in the history of this 
Nation.
  Third, when we protect the Social Security surplus, we stop the 
government's spending spree. We have torn up the government credit card 
and said that now it is time for a new era of fiscal responsibility.
  Retirement security also includes vital programs like Medicare, and I 
am pleased that we were able to take steps to restore vital funding for 
Medicare. The health care bureaucrats misinterpreted the Balanced 
Budget Act guidelines and began slashing Medicare reimbursements to 
nursing homes, hospitals, and other health care agencies.
  We believe that Medicare must be more efficient, yet still responsive 
to

[[Page 30825]]

the needs of our citizens. We passed reform that fulfilled those needs 
and restored funding to the nursing homes and hospitals.
  Millions of seniors rely on Medicare every day. Our government must 
continue to improve and strengthen this lifeline for our seniors. We 
still have a year left in this Congress, and I hope that the President 
will work with us to find long-term solutions to the problems that 
affect the Medicare program.
  As important as retirement security is to older Americans, education 
is vital to the future of all Americans. As a former public 
schoolteacher, improving education is one of my top priorities.
  America's teachers and parents and grandparents have told us that 
they want the government to help improve the Nation's schools. We have 
responded by putting education improvement at the top of our agenda, 
and I am proud to say that we passed more education funding with less 
strings attached, which ensures that more dollars will go directly to 
the classroom.
  Earlier this year the President signed our legislation that would 
give more control over education to parents and teachers and local 
administrators. Although Washington provides only 6 percent of the 
resources for our Nation's schools, it mandates over 60 percent of the 
red tape that our schools have to deal with. The Federal Government 
should be providing a helping hand not a heavier load for our Nation's 
schools.
  We also passed legislation to improve teacher quality, improve 
student results, and give parents and teachers more flexibility to 
teach our children. Every child should have the opportunity to go to a 
school in a safe environment, and we are committed to seeing that those 
opportunities exist.
  Likewise, all Americans must be safe from international threats, and 
so our Republican majority will continue our commitment to improving 
the national security.
  I am proud to say that we have successfully increased commitment to 
our men and women in uniform. We have given them a well-deserved pay 
increase. We have increased defense spending in other areas so that our 
troops have the resources to get the job done. And why have we made 
this commitment to our nation's defense? It is a dangerous world out 
there, and for too many years the administration has been slashing 
funding for our military, while at the same time asking our troops to 
serve in more and more dangerous places around the world.
  We currently have soldiers and sailors stationed in the Middle East, 
in Bosnia, in Kosovo, in East Timor and Korea, to name just a few 
places. Our servicemen and servicewomen spend months away from their 
families and are poorly compensated for doing so, and, as a result, 
many of them are leaving the military. In these good economic times, it 
is crucial that we increase our military budget to deter hostile or 
maverick countries and to improve the quality of life for military 
personnel and their families.
  We also passed and the President signed a national missile defense 
bill that will make our homes and neighborhoods safer. Many hostile 
nations are developing missile technology that will soon put the United 
States in harm's way. Fortunately, our missile defense bill makes it a 
national priority for the United States to develop a missile defense 
system capable of protecting us from the threat of enemy missiles.
  As Americans, our liberty is our most valuable asset, and we must 
protect ourselves from those who would threaten it. National defense is 
among the most important roles of our Federal Government. This is why 
this Congress will continue to support our military and give our troops 
the funding they need to defend America and her interests.
  Finally, we remain committed to providing tax relief to the American 
people. This is why we sent a fair and responsible tax relief package 
to the President's desk.
  Currently we have a Tax Code that punishes couples for getting 
married through the marriage tax penalty. We have a Tax Code that 
punishes people for trying to save for retirement through the capital 
gains tax. We have a Tax Code that punishes widows through the death 
tax.
  The time has come to get some fairness to the Tax Code. Couples 
should be able to get married without the fear of higher taxes, the 
government should be encouraging people to save for retirement, not 
punishing them, and our tax relief package was responsible because it 
took money out of Washington and put it back into the pockets of the 
people who earned it, the American people. It would be irresponsible to 
leave the whole $3 trillion surplus here in Washington so that only 
politicians can spend it.
  Our tax relief package kept faith with the balanced budget and it 
secured $2.2 trillion for retirement security and for debt relief. As a 
matter of fact, our budget spends down $350 billion of national debt 
this year. Although the President vetoed this common sense proposal, I 
hope he will work with us next year to provide tax relief to the 
American people.
  We have come a long way since the House first asked me to be the 
Speaker, but we still have much left to accomplish next year, and we 
will consider a conservative agenda that makes America a more 
compassionate place to live.
  Earlier this month the President and I went to the South Side of 
Chicago to promote a plan that we hope will revitalize America's most 
impoverished urban and rural communities. It accomplishes this goal 
through tax incentives, environmental cleanup, and other private sector 
and public sector partnerships. Coupled with common sense education 
reform and better crime and drug control strategy, we can make these 
communities a safer place to grow up and to raise a family.
  This is compassionate conservatism.
  We will push for tax relief for the American family. It is 
compassionate to put more dollars into the family budget.
  We will consider health care legislation that will make HMOs more 
accountable and health care insurance more accessible.
  We will take up a trade bill for Africa and the Caribbean basin. We 
believe helping these countries help themselves is done more 
effectively with trade, not necessarily foreign aid.
  We will continue to find ways to improve retirement security for our 
Nation's seniors by addressing the long-term problems that face our 
Social Security system, our Medicare system, and our pension system. 
And we will continue to do the work of the House.
  As we continue our agenda in the second session of the 106th 
Congress, we will fight for certain principles. We will fight to keep 
the Social Security surplus dedicated only to retirement security, we 
will also continue to fight for the principles of a smaller and smarter 
government, and we will continue to fight against government waste, 
unnecessary government power and undue government influence.
  Government does have an important role to play in the lives of the 
American people. It does have a responsibility to secure the freedom 
and promote the general welfare of its citizens.
  But we must remember this: the Government works for the people; the 
people should not be forced to work for the Government.
  I want to thank my colleagues for the great trust that they have 
placed in me over the course of this session. It is a great honor and 
privilege to serve as Speaker of the House. I look forward to an even 
more productive second session.

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