Chaka Fattah

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged motion.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Richardson] who is on the floor for his great work and have the House recognize his tremendous deed on behalf of the two Americans who were held captive. He is here. I want the House to extend its appropriate respect for the work of our colleague.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment, notwithstanding my deep respect for the author of the amendment.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, let me associate myself with the remarks of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in favor of this very important amendment. I think that this legislation, absent the Obey amendment, would be morally bankrupt and fatally deficient for this Congress to pass. We have an absolute commitment, and we should always remind ourselves that no matter how expensive we may perceive education to be, ignorance costs more. I come from the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and I just know that my constituents support fully this country's continuing commitment to Indian education. I hope that we would favorably approve the Obey amendment.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to make it a matter of the official record of this body that I strongly support the policy established in H.R. 1868 of continuing full financial support to Israel and the Middle East. I voted against this legislation, however, because it contains deplorable and unjust provisions affecting the poorest countries in the world. The total appropriation under H.R. 1868 is $12 billion for fiscal year 1996. This is $1.6 billion less than was appropriated fiscal year 1995, and nearly 50 percent of this reduction was taken from funds for Africa. This bill follows the Republican tradition of taking funds from those who can least afford it, and who have the fewest options. Adding insult to injury, the bill gratuitously undermines the fledgling Haitian democracy by placing conditions on the distribution of funds to Haiti which assume that its democracy will not succeed. The bill is profoundly isolationist in that it reduces funds for bilateral and multilateral development assistance by one-third, and reduces support for international financial institutions by 40 percent. These funds encourage many of the world's poorest countries to adopt open market reforms, promote private sector development, and focus on poverty reduction. Development banks like the IDA help create jobs and economic security in the United States by making the world's 5.5 billion people better customers for our exports. Cutting funds to these programs will only serve to isolate us from a world in political and economic transition. I understand that there are people in my district who are strong supporters of aid to Israel and the Middle East. But many of these same people support aid to Africa, and I could not, in the best interest of my constituents, vote for legislation which so disproportionately slashes aid to Africa. I will follow the progress of this legislation as it moves through the Senate, and I look forward to the opportunity to vote for a better bill as it emerges from the House and Senate conference committee.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to have my name removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 1289.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, let me thank the ranking member for yielding this time to me. Our requirement is to protect this country from foreign and domestic threats to our security. I rise in opposition to this bill. But for those who are so eager to spend billions more on defense, while in any comparative analysis we now know that we already spend more than most of the other nations combined in this world, combined on defense, I would remind us there are other threats to our security. For our veterans who participated in the Persian Gulf war who are now homeless in our streets, they are not as secure as they ought to be. For children, millions of whom are not getting the kind of nutrition they need to grow and develop, they are not as secure and our future is not as secure because of their condition. For senior citizens who in our colder weather States will bear the brunt of a winter and some would have us, the new majority, without the aid of fuel assistance for them, some of them who will freeze to death, they are not as secure as they ought to be. It is interesting to see these people who want to cut the budget so much now, and want to spend more than even the Pentagon has requested, and have us again throw additional dollars into the development of a B- 2 bomber. I am sure many are sincere in their objectives, but it just seems to be unwise at this point in our country, given our fiscal circumstances and given the responsibility and the concerns about reconsider perhaps what our priorities as a House ought to be.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to pay tribute to Mr. Stephen H. Watters, who for 19 years, has been the director of the middle school at William Penn Charter. Over the past 20 years, he has helped to define and shape one of the finest middle school programs in the country. Stephen H. Watters has demonstrated his long-term leadership and commitment to the school, the development of its curriculum, and to his caring approach to students, parents and peers. Steve is leaving the Penn Charter family this summer and will assume his new responsibilities as head of the Green Vale School, a K-9 school in Glen Head, NY. Steve's departure will further impact Penn Charter with the departure of his wife, Anne Watters, who has served as director of lower school admissions as she joins her husband in New York. I ask my colleagues to join me in applauding Mr. Watters for a job well done.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, recognizing Frederick Douglass in the centennial year of his death is an opportunity for the Nation to embrace its traditional American values of education, self-reliance, and public service through the life of this American patriot. As biographer and author, Frederick Douglass wrote about his triumph over chattel slavery 150 years ago, and his story has become a reminder of the essential role of education in our democracy. As a journalist, he founded The North Star in 1847 and became an articulate witness for the indivisibility of freedom and citizenship for the slave and for the idea and image of freedom in America. As a public servant, Frederick Douglass advised Presidents from Lincoln to Harrison, ending his distinguished public career as Minister to the Dominican Republic in 1871 and to Haiti in 1889. On February 1, 1895, Mr. Douglass gave his last public lecture at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. The University has honored this champion of freedom with a 2-year program and has helped to lead the Nation in commemorating his life. Frederick Douglass voiced hope and confidence in America during some of the most anxious moments in the Nation's history. Our recognition of the life of Frederick Douglass is a testimony to his enduring faith that this Nation and all of its people will remain worthy of and committed to the highest principles of freedom and justice for all.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Let me commend the sponsor of the code of conduct amendment, and let me try to be as brief as possible, Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of this amendment. I think that we cannot divorce American ideals from American foreign policy, and in the area of arms sales, I do not think we would want our contribution and our legacy to the world to be that we have sold arms to everyone and allowed for the continuation of the practice of war as almost a permanent vocation in this world. So I would hope that we would support the McKinney amendment and the companion effort in the Senate because I think it moves us in the right direction, and even though it may be a debatable matter in some people's minds, I think that for all of us, if we want to be on the right side of history on this issue, that we should, in the final analysis, find ourselves voting favorably for the McKinney amendment.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the CBC alternative budget.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I think the real issue here is not the concern, as the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich] suggested, of fiscal bankruptcy, but moral bankruptcy. The ranking member comes from an area of the country in which Hubert Humphrey came from, and he said that the test of a civilized society is how we treated those who are young and those who are old. I cannot understand all of this applause and, rah- rah. We cut education and Medicare programs. The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] quoted a little scripture. I guess one could say, ``We'll forgive you because you know not what you do,'' but I think the gentleman does understand exactly what he is doing because with this same blade that he is cutting Medicare he is cutting taxes for the rich, and so I think that that would probably not be appropriate. I serve on the board of Penn State University on the Subcommittee for the Hershey Medical School. I spent 10 years on the board of Temple, in our hospital in Philadelphia. Millions and millions of dollars of unreimbursed care, disproportionate share issues. Mr. Chairman, I would invite Americans: ``Don't listen to the rhetoric on the Republican side or the Democratic side. Call your neighborhood hospital. Call your doctor. You'll find out. Ask them what these cuts are really going to mean because, when you see somebody jump up and down, make all of these comments--Kasich, who says he is for a 6-year, 6-term, limit, is here in his 7 term, is telling us this is not going to hurt. I think the truth is clear, and people need to just reach out and touch, call their hospital, call their doctor, and ask them whether this is really going because it is.'' In the final analysis, Mr. Chairman, the real concern for all of America has to be whether we are going to bankrupt ourselves as a country morally, if we are just going to allow seniors to fall by the wayside and not have the kind of care they are going to need.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask unanimous consent to remove my name as cosponsor of H.R. 743, the Teamwork for Employees and Management Act.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent from the vote when rollcall No. 304 and rollcall No. 306 were taken last week. I would have voted in the affirmative in both matters if I had been present.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished ranking member for yielding time to me. I think it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said that paying taxes, after all, was the price we pay for living in a civilized society. Some on the other side are trying to convince the American people that they can have a free lunch, that we can educate our children, provide for our seniors, deal with the critical needs facing our nation, but we do not have to pay for it. The reality is that we do have to pay and we will pay one way or the other. The choices that we make provide for us the opportunity to reap the reward, if we make the right choice, or to suffer the consequences, if we make the wrong choice. They are trying to appeal to the what they, I guess, consider the selfish greed of Americans who want to hold onto their dollars. It is as if dad would come home and say, rather than paying for tuition and books for my children, I will keep a few dollars in my wallet. Rather than to provide for my parents who have made life possible for me, I will keep a few more dollars in my pockets. Rather than to feed the children in the household, I will keep some more dollars in my pocket. This group of cowboys that are here now, this wagon train of theirs is one that disposes of the young and the old and the disabled in hopes that somehow they can have a more fruitful and more purposeful life. That is not true, and we are going to find out again that we cannot have a free lunch in this country.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose this amendment and oppose term limits as they are being proposed here this evening. I think that we keep hearing about these polls and how people want to have term limits. In my district in Pennsylvania, over the last 16 years the voters have decided to replace two incumbents, and they realized that there are limits already in place. Every 2 years they get a chance to vote. And in fact, in some 85 weeks from now they will have a chance to vote on all of us and whether they want to see us return to the Congress. It is of interest that when you look at the Republican chairs of committees and all of their leadership, they are in their sixth term or better. So, therefore, for all of the 12-year advocates or less, they should not be returning here to the Congress. They should, as the ranking member has said, if they want to go, they should go. And for all of those who support this notion, they should look at their votes back in the Republican conference, in which they voted to elect all these people chairs and Speaker Gingrich to the Speaker's chair after he served 17 years. So the point is that after 6 years you somehow do not have the ability to represent the legitimate interests of your constituents, those people who are prepared to adopt that logic need to act on it and follow their wisdom to its more interesting and more ironic collusion, which is that they would have to leave the U.S. Congress.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, we have some tough cowboys here on the floor of the House. This is a new interesting kind of wagon train in which the cowboys have decided to throw the women and infants and the children and the senior citizens out of the wagon train so they can get where they are going faster. It is cruel. And for anyone, Democrat or Republican, to defend this approach really questions the credibility of this entire Congress, because no one among the tough guys have offered to do anything about the 85 billion dollars' worth of welfare subsidies for corporate America in this year's budget. No one stood up to do anything about the $150 billion of tax giveaways and loopholes to American corporations. Aid to Dependent Corporations, as the Cato Institute has said, is driving a hole in the Federal budget. But we have all of these willing people who are so eager to lighten the load of America by casting aside the poor. This is an unfortunate moment in the history of this country, and I would say to some of my millionaire colleagues that they are on the wrong side of history today, in this debate and on this subject.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Chairman, as a member of the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 1987, I sponsored the Employment Opportunities Act. Democrats and Republicans got together in Pennsylvania and created a joint job training initiative and moved 200,000 people off of the welfare rolls, not by punishing them but by providing job training and child care, and transportation subsidies so they could get to a multitude of training programs and they work. We do not have to be mean-spirited if we want to help Americans by moving them toward self-sufficiency. It has worked in a number of States. It is unfortunate that the Republican majority thinks that the American people really do not understand. We have 9 million children on welfare, and they come to the floor talking about one set of abuses in Chicago with 19 children in which someone was not doing the right thing with the welfare check. Millions of families are doing what they should do with a welfare check, and that is helping children meet their needs every day and working and preparing for the moment in which they can be self-sufficient again in this land. We should be doing as much here in the U.S. Congress. The Preamble to the Constitution says it is our responsibility to promote the general welfare. This majority today in this Congress is not moving to promote the general welfare. It is really moving to pull the carpet up from under millions of Americans who need the help so one day they can be in a position to be tax producers rather than recipients of subsidies from the Government.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. I thank the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] the distinguished ranking member for his gracious decision to allow me some time. Mr. Chairman, we begin now a debate on one part of the process of reforming welfare in the United States of America. I would like to point to two reports, one by the Progressive Policy Institute, and the other by the Cato Institute which refer to corporate welfare in this country, and they talk about the direct subsidies of Federal taxpayer money, some $86 billion in direct subsidies to corporations, and another $100 billion or so in tax breaks to aid to dependent corporations in our country. I find it interesting that this Congress and the new majority would want to begin its assault on welfare by attacking children and families who are in the greatest need rather than attempting to address a more fair approach in terms of this issue that could have been followed if one would have taken the time to look at these reports. The $84 billion that would be affected by the actions relative to aid to families with dependent children and the child nutrition programs and school lunches, those savings could have easily occurred by scaling back some of the outrageous benefits that we provide as a Nation supposedly in fiscal crisis to corporations, multi-billion-dollar corporations each and every year. I would just ask that as we begin this debate that the Members of this House be mindful of the contradictions of this process today.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the amendment offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Foglietta]. The program, the Healthy Start Program, has literally saved lives. There are children who are alive today who otherwise would not be alive. It is something that people on both sides of the choice question support. It is an effort to intervene in meaningful ways to provide care and information and education to would-be parents, particularly women who are about to conceive children. It is a program that has worked in Philadelphia. Mr. Chairman, I know that the point of this exercise is to show how much we can cut out of this budget. It is interesting that we could not find any dollars from the military to cut even though we spend more than the rest of the world combined on our Armed Forces. We could not find in any of the billions in corporate welfare any room to cut, but somehow we have zeroed in on children, we have zeroed in on Healthy Start, on college scholarships, on summer job programs. Somehow we have made an aggressive effort to retard much of the progress being made in terms of intervening in the lives of young people, to make their lives more meaningful and more purposeful. Yes, it costs to care, and education is indeed expensive. I would argue that lack of caring and ignorance is more expensive, and that we should, in this case, support the Foglietta amendment and hopefully restore this cut to Healthy Start. Failing to do that, as I have indicated yesterday, we should vote against the entire rescissions package.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the underlying bill, the rescission package in total, and also to the Porter amendment and the Castle amendment to it. Page after page of misguided and misplaced budget priorities, when the Federal Government already distributes such a small amount to education programs, to be standing here talking about $200 million in education programs we want to cut makes no sense, unless we are not concerned about the next generation and we are only focusing on the next election. I would challenge all of my colleagues to think clearly abut what it is that we are saying about where this future of this country lies. We need to invest in education, invest in the young people of our Nation, and I would hope, even though I know that it will not be the case, that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will eventually wake up and see the light. If they fail to see the light, I would hope that the American public one day soon will have them feel the heat.