[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13445-13446]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to take just a 
few minutes and join my colleagues, and I wanted to talk about the 
issue of

[[Page 13446]]

Social Security and what we are facing with changes. I know that one of 
my colleagues soon, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), will be 
talking specifically about this and thought it might be appropriate to 
remind people of what some of the benefits of this program are to 
certain individuals and when it is done right, the significant 
opportunities that it presents not only to the individuals but for the 
gain for our country.
  We want to produce productive citizens. That opportunity came for me 
when I was but a young kid. When my father died at my age of 12 years 
old, he was 54, leaving six children and a wife who did not have an 
opportunity for employment because she had very little or no education 
earlier in her own life. Had it not been for the support that our 
community gave us, this family, with the six kids, with one of them 
being in a wheelchair because of an illness that left her paralyzed, 
this family would not have been able to stay together. But through the 
support of Social Security, as long as we were students, up until the 
age of 21 years old at that time, we could get that help. It gave us 
the opportunity to stay together as a family. It gave us the 
opportunity to be able to get an education because otherwise we would 
have split up and more than likely have been spending our time earning 
a living so that those of us who needed to would be able just to 
survive.
  Today, one of us is a very good physician in a State in the South, in 
Louisiana, another is retired from a major position in a pharmaceutical 
company, but my point is that all six of my mother's children became 
successful because of the assistance that our community gave us. And 
more importantly than anything, we have to realize that as these 
benefits come to people throughout our country, the benefits of Social 
Security, we cannot forget, we cannot pull the ladder up behind us and 
say it is not good for someone else. It made a difference for me. It 
helped me become the productive citizen that I believe that I am. And 
if we protect this, this wonderful institution, make sure that it is 
there for our kids and our grandkids and their children and on down the 
line as the security blanket that it can be and has been and hopefully 
will continue to be, then we can make a difference in the productivity 
of a lot of people in this country and give a great deal back to our 
Nation.
  I look forward to listening to the remarks of other colleagues.

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