[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 25420-25421]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         STANDING UP FOR TEXAS

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I see the distinguished senior 
Senator from Massachusetts has been at it again, trying to bring the 
Presidential campaign to the Senate floor and misrepresenting the 
record in Texas. Once again, as promised, I am here to stand up for the 
record of the Governor of Texas and to stand up for the State of Texas.
  I ask my distinguished colleague, the Senator from Massachusetts, if 
he would consider in the future not misrepresenting Texas for two 
reasons:
  One is, I don't think it is persuasive to anyone in America to 
continue to hear the downgrading of a State in our country, and I 
certainly don't think it affects the Presidential race. Secondly, I 
just don't think that it is necessary or proper to downgrade a great 
State such as Texas or any other State in America.
  Of course, I am from Texas; of course, I love my State. But I think, 
objectively speaking, a lot of other people do because we have just 
surpassed New York to become the second largest State in America. 
People are not moving there because they think we have a terrible 
education system. They are not moving there because they think we don't 
treat our children well. They are not moving there because we don't 
have health insurance for our children. They are not moving there 
because we have a bad environment. They are moving there because it is 
a wonderful place in which to live, and it has gotten better since 
George W. Bush became Governor.
  So let me just set the record straight. We have a patients' bill of 
rights in Texas. It is the model upon which other States are now basing 
the laws that they are beginning to pass or look at passing. We have a 
very good patients' bill of rights because it has an independent review 
mechanism. You have an internal review and you have an external review. 
It is an independent review so that the bottom line that we all want 
will occur, and that is that a patient will get the care the patient 
and the doctor believe is in the best interest of the patient. That is 
what a patients' bill of rights is. We also have caps on limits for 
lawsuits which are allowed after the exhaustion of the internal and 
external reviews. There are caps on pain and suffering and noneconomic 
damages. That makes sure that we don't have a plethora of lawsuits, and 
it would keep the patient and the doctor making the decisions for 
health care in the forefront of our interest. So it is a model law. It 
is a good law. Whatever misrepresentations have been made about it, the 
Governor allowed it to become law. It happened on his watch.
  Secondly, we are very proud of the improvements we are making in our 
public education system. Most States are not satisfied with where they 
are in public education. Texas is working very hard to improve our 
public education system, and under the leadership of Governor George W. 
Bush we are winning. Test scores are going up and, most especially, the 
test scores are going up in the minority communities. That is one of 
the focuses that Governor Bush has made in my home State of Texas 
because we all looked at the high school dropout rate. We were all 
unsatisfied with that number. We said, what can we do, especially in 
our Hispanic community, where the high school dropout rate is the 
highest per capita? We said, we have to go back to the basics.
  That is what Governor Bush did. He went back to the basics and he put 
the resources into it. That is about $8 million more than had been 
spent before. He said, we are going to go to the third grade level and 
that is going to be the firewall. We are going to test children in 
preschool; we are going to test them in the first grade and in the 
second grade. But if they can't read at grade level in the third grade, 
they will not be promoted to the fourth grade because we know that if 
children can't read at the early stages, they will never be able to 
reach their full potential in the public education system. That was the 
initiative of Governor Bush and, I might add, along with a great house 
speaker, Pete Leahy, a Democrat, and a Lieutenant Governor--at the time 
it was Bob Bullock, a Democrat; today, it is Rick Perry, a Republican. 
But we do work in a bipartisan way in the legislature. We always have 
in Texas. That is something that we have done since the days I served 
in the Texas legislature. We worked together, Democrats and 
Republicans. It is why I was so surprised when I came to the Senate and 
it didn't work that way here. We are not used to doing business that 
way.
  With all due respect, I think Texas has it right because after the 
elections in Texas, we come together--the Governor and the 
legislature--to do what is best for the children and the people of 
Texas. Wouldn't it be refreshing if that were the case in Washington, 
DC? Wouldn't it be refreshing if the leadership that Governor Bush has 
shown, along with Pete Leahy and Bob Bullock, could be transferred to 
Washington, DC, with President Bush and Tom Daschle and Richard 
Gephardt? Wouldn't that be refreshing? That is what Governor Bush would 
like to do because we think it works. We know it works because the test 
scores show that it works.
  Madam President, we are making a huge leap in the right direction for 
improving public education, and we are going to the heart of the 
matter. We are making sure our children in the third grade can read, 
and we are focusing on the basics. We are focusing on reading, writing, 
arithmetic, history.
  All of us have seen these polls of young people in our country where 
the television person walks up to the young person and says: What is 
the only State in America that is totally surrounded by water?
  The young person can't answer the question. We know Hawaii is the 
answer, but I think we should focus on the basics--geography and 
history. That is what we are trying to do in Texas, and that is the 
kind of leadership we need for this country.

[[Page 25421]]

  So I hope that we will examine the record in Texas in a positive 
way--or even in a neutral way, for Heaven's sake--because if you are 
neutral, you would see that Texas is a great place in which to live; 
that we have a great quality of life. Do we have problems? Sure. Are we 
working on those problems? Yes. We are doing it under the leadership of 
our Governor, George W. Bush.
  Let me say, too, that we are also making great strides on the 
environment. We have a particular problem, particularly in Houston, TX, 
where 50 percent of the chemical refining plants in the world are 
located--the petrochemical refining plants. Fifty percent of the 
petrochemicals in the world are located on the gulf coast between 
Houston and Victoria.
  I see that my time is up. I will step back and allow others to speak, 
but I will not step back if the record of Texas is misrepresented. I am 
here to stand for the facts and the good record of our Governor and our 
great State.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Parliamentary inquiry. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Of course.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I understand we will have some time. The House has not 
concluded with the continuing resolution. I understand it is agreeable 
with the leaders that the time remaining will be divided equally. Is 
the time remaining equally divided between the two sides?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The previous order provided that the remaining 
time until 7:30 would be equally divided.
  The Senator from Oregon.

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