Mark Foley

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. I want to commend my colleague on this very good amendment. We have talked about it a lot in Florida and we have talked about it in other States. In fact, Maryland is going quickly to the EBT system. This amendment gives the States the flexibility to implement what I think is the most important aspect of reform in the Food Stamp Program; $1.8 billion has been shown to be wasted at least in the Food Stamp Program. This very good amendment will now strike some of that and bring the dollars to truly benefit the needy of our communities. The Republican Party is about feeding the poor. We want to make certain they get basic nutrition. This bill also provides that we can exclude cigarettes, alcohol, and hopefully ice cream, hopefully popcorn, hopefully junk foods that are taking our precious tax dollars and giving people food that is not nutritious in value. I strongly support the Coburn amendment. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this issue. We continue to hear about the people of America that will suffer under Republican leadership. We have debated a food stamp bill for over 13 hours in committee, discussing what is right and what is wrong about it. The other side can vote against this bill. They can continue to support over $3 billion of waste in the Food Stamp Program. People buying crack cocaine, trading food stamps for prostitution, exchanging it for cash, buying liquor, cigarettes. I felt so bad for the woman I followed in the store the other day who brought 100 dollars' worth of food stamps and bought microwave popcorn, ice cream, soda pop, pork rinds. I grew up in a home where my mother was working at an eye doctor's and my father was a high school coach. She used to get the powdered milk and mix it with a full buy sodas at home. The Food Stamp Program needs reform. What we are doing in this Congress is providing reform for a very, very valuable program, but one that in 1979 spent $6.9 billion, this year $26.5 billion. Is that something to be proud of? Have times gotten that tough from 1979 to 1995, that the program should have grown by that amount of money? They say what happens if there are no jobs in the State. Well, in our bill if the Governor or State certifies that unemployment exceeds 10 percent and there are not enough jobs, that 90-days-and-you-are-off provision is waived. There are provisions to protect in extreme unemployment times. There are safety nets. I keep hearing the ``safety net'' term. I have to call this program a trampoline. People are jumping on it and they do not want to get off. They do not want to change their behavior. They do not want to change their way. People do not want to work. I spoke about this earlier this evening, not enough job training in the programs. The food stamp program is growing rapidly out of control. I have to suggest that when we talk about the real changes in this program and the real reforms, they are in fact in this bill. And they are tough. We are curbing trafficking in fraud with increased penalties. We are going after people that use these food stamps illicitly and illegally and profit by their use. We are promoting real jobs with new incentives. We want people to work. We want America to work. But we do not want people waking up and growing up and these children we talk about in the abstract who are sitting at home while their parents sit at home watching Opra Winfrey or Jenny Jones or some other talk show, when they could be out in fact working, and inspiring their children to participate in the American dream. I appreciate the chairman's leadership on this vital issue, and I believe when the American public sees what is in this bill, they will urge people on both sides of the aisle to support it in its entirety. Mr. de la GARZA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from North Dakota [Mr. Pomeroy].

Mr. FOLEY. I thank the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Shaw], the chairman, for his work on this very, very important issue. When I go home and I read the papers over the weekend, I wonder what we are all doing up here because the reports are very draconian. The Republicans are taking food out of the children's mouths. That we are really just throwing people out in the streets. The President suggests deadbeat dads, we take their driver's license. They must be quaking in their boots that we are going to take their driver's license. These are people who are not paying for their children's welfare and they are going to be frightened about losing their driver's license? Take their professional license. That is a good idea, too. Now they will not be able to work. That is another person on welfare. Let's garnish their wages to the IRS. We will find ways to get after their money. Food stamps--$1.8 billion wasted on food stamps through fraud and abuse and we are on this floor talking about we can't reform it, we can't fix it. We are going to fix it. We are going to reform it. What is wrong with work? I can't believe what people are saying here. Not enough job training. I worked as a dishwasher. I cleaned toilets. My grandmother came from Poland. She made 28 beds a day in a Travel Lodge Motel. She cleaned 28 toilets a day to be an American citizen. She learned to speak English. She was proud to be an American and proud to be in this country. But today, no, jobs aren't good enough. Can't take that job. Don't have enough training. I was a wrecker, an auto mechanic. I worked at a golf course. Now I am a proud Member of the United States Congress. No job is beneath me. But we are talking like unless we given them an appropriate level of training to seek the job that they have always dreamed of, then they are going to stay on welfare and we are going to spend billions and billions of dollars of our tax dollars on deadbeats, on people that don't want to work. I have got to tell you, this Congress has got to be serious about reform, not about just throwing out threats, having lunches with children in schools in our district, saying that the Republicans are going to end feeding children at school lunches, the Republicans are going to starve children. Don't believe it for a minute, America. We are not going to starve our children. A 4.5-percent increase per year in the Republican bill for school lunches increased. We are not going to starve people. We are going to take care of America. We are going to make it work again.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to salute an exceptional member of the south Florida Polish-American community as he celebrates his 80th birthday, Mr. Frank Gandor of Lantana, FL. I would like to share with the Nation some information about this outstanding individual. Frank Gandor was born in 1915 in Bielsko, Poland, the youngest of six children. While in the Polish Army Corps he fought the Germans in World War II and helped liberate Bologna in Italy. He was awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the United States Army for his employment in the Polish Labor Service in the years following the war. An exceptionally gifted lyric tenor, Mr. Gandor has devoted his life to music, from singing solo in the church choir at age 9 to directing the Chopin Choir of the American Polish Club for the past 10 years in Lake Worth, FL. Today the songs of his homeland and the patriotic renditions of his adopted country, these United States, are still sung with pride and vigor at the age of 80. He is an active citizen in his community and is always busy with musical and veterans activities. Mr. Speaker, the heart of this honorable man and gifted maestro surely beats with the ``Sound of Music.'' I am proud today to recognize Mr. Frank Gandor on his 80th birthday and the contributions he has made to his community and to America.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, in 1920 Will Rogers said, ``Let Wall Street have a nightmare, and the whole country has to help them get back in bed again.'' Well, Wall Street had a nightmare in December. The nightmare started as poor monetary policy in Mexico. The peso plunged, bond prices dropped. Wall Street speculators were left holding bad investments, and now, just like Will Rogers said 75 years ago, we are going to help get them back in bed. We are bailing out Mexican bankers and Wall Street millionaires. But what are we doing for the people in America? In Washington, the symbolic center of our country, we tell our Mayor, Marion Barry, to go up to New York and borrow money for himself; Orange County, CA, we tell them, ``Sorry, folks, the administration is too busy helping things south of the border.'' Never mind Orange County faces a $3 billion loss, or a thousand county-funded jobs at risk, jobs and services for American citizens. Our own people struggle while we plead special interests and bail out Mexico. What has Mexico become? The 51st State? What conditions have been made a part of this agreement? Let me tell you one of them. We are requiring Mexico to have a surplus by 1995. The same administration failed to do that and criticizes a balanced budget in this country.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to request the House for 5 minutes and revise and extend my remarks. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for giving me an opportunity to proceed ahead. I also want to commend the gentleman from Pensacola [Mr. Scarborough] for his brilliant testimony before the House and his compassion with which he has brought his efforts from the great State of Florida to this body. But I want to spend a moment of the discussion on crime. We have had a great deal of debate over the last week and a half on an issue that plagues America, and that is the crime in our country. A murder is committed in the United States every 21 minutes, a rape every 5 minutes, a robbery every 46 seconds, an aggravated assault every 29 seconds, a burglary every 10 seconds, and a larceny theft every 4 seconds. That is a sad commentary on our country. That is a sad part of America's heritage that we must change. On average, violent offenders are released from prison, receive a sentence and serve an average of 7.8 years, but they only serve 3.1. More than 40 percent of murderers released from State prisons are arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years. A 40- percent recidivism rate. More than 20 percent are arrested for violent crimes within 3 years, and 1 in 15 is arrested for another homicide. At least 30 percent of murders are committed by people on probation, parole, or bail. Another sad commentary is violent crimes by juveniles. Of those arrested for violent crimes between 1987 and 1992, 29 percent were under the age of 19. Between 1985 and 1991, the number of 15-year-olds arrested for murder jumped 217 percent. We had the sad tragedy in Florida of a British tourist being killed. The perpetrator, alleged perpetrator, of that crime had been arrested 53 times. Fifty-three times he had been arrested. Sadly enough, the person was 13 years old that is accused of committing the murders on those British tourists. How are we going to change the statistics in our country? How are we going to ensure that our young people are safe on our street? How can we look at our families and our communities across America and give them some assurance that they can walk to the mall in their local communities, that they can take the dog out for a walk? That they can feel comfortable going to their car in a parking garage in an office structure throughout our cities? How can we be as certain of that safety for America? We have enacted some very, very strong issues this week on the floor: H.R. 3, Victim Restitution Act. I told you on the floor of what happened to me when my home was broken into years ago, and the young fellow, the juvenile, had been arrested 17 times, 17 separate occasions. The father came to the courtroom and said, ``Your honor, we're trying, our son's a good boy.'' And each time the judge would allow probation for the child who had robbed 17 homes. On this particular occasion, the judge looked down from the bench, the father started that same excuse, the judge looked down and said, Let me make you a deal, sir. Mr. Foley has lost $3,000 because of your son and he can't seem to remember where the merchandise is check made payable to the clerk for $3,000 by noon tomorrow. If you're not here at 12:01, there will be a bench warrant issued for you and your son and I'll put you both in jail until you decide who's going to be boss of the family. With that the father hits the kid in the head and said, ``Look what you got me into.'' It took money out of the father's pocket to make him recognize he was responsible for his son. That is what we are doing with victim restitution, making the victim whole from their tragedy, from their loss, having the criminal repay not only their debt to society by serving time but paying the victim back for their losses. The Criminal Alien Deportation Act is something very important to me, because 5,500 people that are locked in the prisons of Florida are illegally in our country. The bill we passed last week will allow for deportation prior to their sentence completion back to their countries. What do we do now? We allow them to serve the time in jail, then we release them and give them a hearing date to come back for a deportation hearing. They are criminals, they are not returning to a courtroom to be deported out of this country. They disappear; 48,000 failed to appear last year alone under that scenario. Our bill provides that they can be deported from inside the jail cell to their countries, not allowed to roam the street, not allowed to commit other crimes. That is going to make big headway in the problems in America. It will also open up beds so that we can keep the rapists and murderers out of our prisons. Local government law enforcement block grants, sending the money to the States and allowing them to decide what is the most important crime-fighting mechanism within their community. These are a number of the things that we enacted this week. But something strikes me that we did not discuss what we need to discuss in America and we need to discuss it forcefully, is the protection of our children from sexual exploitation and sexual violence. Sean from my office told me that there is an incident that is going to be reported tomorrow morning in the paper in our community about child pornography and the people that were involved. Once again we read in the headlines of another child dying or being abused or used in such a nasty and disgusting way that we allow our children to fall prey to these types of people. These are the things that we must fight as Americans. We must protect our children from sexual violence, sexual abuse. We need to act together as a Congress to make certain that the children today and in the future know that they are safe, know that they will not be abused and feel comfortable in this great country of ours, in America.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. I don't know if they agree philosophically on everything we are doing, but they agree there is a serious problem. On welfare, they know there is a problem. They know it is not working. They know if you spent $5 trillion and the poverty level is higher than it was when the war on poverty was enacted, they know there is a significant difficulty. You were talking about education with the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Brownback]. In Tallahassee, as the gentleman knows, we have a 17-story building designed by I.M. Pei, the internationally renowned architect. That building is as out of character with the landscape of Tallahassee as anything I have seen. It is not about ideas, it is people in that building who have never taught a classroom. That is a fundamental problem with the Department of Education in our State, that people are processing papers about our children. But the results never change for our children. The hands-on experience of the classroom will never get any better if we run it from our capitals of Tallahassee and Washington. What I am hearing from people again is the fact that they feel that this is the greatest Nation on Earth, but they want to have pride in the people they have sent here. They do not want us yelling across the aisle and screaming at a Democrat. As Mr. Dellums said, it is about ideas. I will challenge you on your ideas, on your convictions, on what matters for this Government, but I will not challenge you personally. What I am hearing when people call when we have been on C-SPAN and have been talking about the very issue of the day, they are delighted we are responding to what is their opinion. Mr. Scarborough, as you know, we have been accused with the contract of propaganda, of Republican streamrolling everybody on ideas. The premises of the contract, the 10 points of the contract were designed from surveys throughout America of what people were asking for, about term limits, about a balanced budget. These are not ideas we sat around at Republican party headquarters and thought up ourselves. This is the American public saying these are the changes we want. We are acting. We are working on an agenda. There is considerable reason for disagreement on some of the premises, but we are working in a collegial body that makes this body so effective and efficient.

Mr. FOLEY. I wanted to jump in the conversation for a moment because you are hitting on, I think, a nerve out in America. What I found when I went home, the average citizen, not the political pundit, not the editorial writer, the citizen I saw at the south Florida fair came up to me and said, ``Keep doing what you're doing. Make Government more accountable.'' They had their little children with them, and the detailed stories of trying to get information out of the school board or trying to call Tallahassee for information about their student's performance, their child's performance. It was unavailable. So what I am hearing from the citizenry out there: It's not about being a Republican or Democrat. It is about being American, about making a Government work. I served with you both on the restructuring, if you will, of some of these agencies; I am on the Energy Committee, the subcommittee, working on reform. It is ironic in one of the committees the other day I am reading the material about the Energy Department and how they have a clean coal study, and this clean coal study is to allow us to use a variety of fossil fuels to diversify away from just gas, and oil, petroleum, to use coal. Well, clean coal, we are spending millions of dollars on technology to make it available and efficient. At the same time in my district in Florida Carol Browner, who is at EPA, has canceled the program to build a clean coal facility in Okeechobee, so you have one agency making rules saying, ``We want to have this technology,'' and one agency of the same branch of the Government appointed by the same President of the United States and saying, ``No, but we don't want to do that.'' So the dilemma here for all of us as new Representatives, as freshmen of the 104th Congress, is to figure out how we break down the difficulty that every American faces when they approach Government. I did not know this job when I came was about running interference for constituents and problems that they were having with agencies regarding laws that we have created. That was not the job that I ran for, to really be a clerk, if you will, of taking their complaints, and running to an agency and saying, ``The law that was passed in the 103d, 102d, 101st Congress is now having this onerous burden on business, on the human race.'' That is what it has become. So the effort amongst us as freshmen and sophomores and all the Members of the 104th Congress is really about making Government more efficient. I want to make one other comment, because the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough] did such a tremendous job in explaining the issue that is so important on national security. I think probably one of the most passionate speeches I heard on this floor was Mr. Dellums from California, about ideas, about making America work, about making our interest, our national interest a priority to this Congress. So I thank the gentleman from Florida, because I think he has capsulized what the debate on national security was about. That is what we are here for in the 104th Congress.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, the first priority of the Federal Government is to protect its citizens by maintaining a military strong enough to fight and defeat any aggressor that threatens the United States. Since the end of the cold war the defense budget has been borrowed from to pay for social welfare programs and U.N. peacekeeping missions. As a result, our defense resources are at dangerously low levels. The Contract With America will put a stop to the practice of borrowing from the defense budget and reverse the past 2 years of neglect on this issue. H.R. 7 spending fire walls that prohibit the use of Department of Defense funds to pay for social programs unrelated to military readiness and restrict future defense cuts to deficit reduction purposes only. The thing that stirred me up so much, Mr. Speaker, was the fact in last year's budget we allocated $200 million for displaced Russian soldiers while our own Vietnam veterans are homeless in the streets of the United States of America. We cannot afford to become careless. The Federal Government has a duty to provide for the common defense of its citizens. I say to my colleagues, ``I urge your support of H.R. 7.''

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment. I am being supported by my good colleague, the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Burr]. We hope to provide for early release and deportation of criminals within our prison system who have committed crimes of a nonviolent manner. Currently we have an overcrowding in all of our prisons, both State and Federal. This would provide the U.S. attorney and the Attorney General to be able to release those and send them home prior to the completion of their sentence. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to H.R. 668 with my colleague from North Carolina, Congressman Burr. The purpose of our amendment is to authorize the Attorney General to deport criminal aliens who have been convicted of nonviolent offenses before the completion of their prison sentence in Federal or State prisons. This problem is especially pervasive at the State level. For example, the State of Florida has approximately 5,504 criminal aliens in State corrections facilities on any given day, annually costing Florida taxpayers on average more than $14,000 per inmate. Therefore, the U.S. Attorney General will work in conjunction with the States to determine which nonviolent criminal aliens will be deported. Our amendment also establishes stiff penalties for deported aliens who return to the United States. They will be forced to serve the remainder of their original sentence, plus expanded penalties for reentry under current law, with no possibility of parole or supervised release. Any alien who is deported pursuant to this provision will be notified of these penalties at the time of their deportation. The reason we are offering this amendment is twofold: to keep violent criminals in jail and to save taxpayer dollars for the incarceration of nonviolent criminal aliens. In the face of soaring crime rates and overcrowded prisons, law enforcement officials are releasing criminals, many of whom are violent offenders, before they have been justly punished. On average, State inmates who have been convicted of any offense only serve about 40 percent of their sentence. This sobering realization is a tragedy for America. The question we are asked today is no longer ``Do we have to release criminals early?'' Rather, it has become, ``Which criminals do we release early?'' This is a sad commentary on our criminal justice system, but today we have the opportunity to change this mindset and ensure that violent criminals are kept where they belong: behind bars. Our prison system is failing to adequately protect U.S. citizens from violent criminals. Revolving door syndrome: releasing murderers, rapists, child molesters back into our neighborhoods before they have served their time, only to commit another crime. How many times have we heard the consequences of their release on the evening news or in the local newspaper? I call your attention to a newspaper headline about the senseless murder of a Florida State student and the rape of his sister in Ocala, FL. One of the men charged with the vicious attack was on early release from an overcrowded Florida prison where he was serving time for a grand theft conviction. He had an arrest record dating back to 1985, for charges ranging from contempt of court to burglary and grand theft. The question we must ask ourselves today is how can we bring some order back to our criminal justice system? The amendment Congressman Burr and I have offered addresses one aspect of this problem. As many of my colleagues are aware, criminal aliens have flooded our prisons in recent years. We provide them with clothes, food, and a bed--all at taxpayer expense. One in four Federal inmates are not U.S. citizens, costing American taxpayers more The number of noncitizens in U.S. prisons has nearly tripled in the past 5 years. (U.S. Bureau of Prisons.) Nonviolent criminal aliens are using scarce prison space which should be used for violent criminals. Under our amendment, approximately 15,774 criminal aliens would be eligible for deportation. This problem is underscored by the inability of the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] to effectively deport criminal aliens after they serve their sentence; under current law, they must complete their sentence before deportation. Most aliens are notified by mail about their deportation date. Not surprisingly, they rarely show up for scheduled deportation. In fact, the INS has a list of more than 48,000 fugitives who failed to show up for their scheduled deportation. Our amendment would expedite the deportation process while they are in prison by authorizing the Attorney General to deport nonviolent criminal aliens following their final conviction and before they have completed their sentence. unqualified success of pilot program in florida Approximately 225 alien inmates were deported from Florida prior to completing their sentence, saving State taxpayers more than $6 million. Texas comptroller estimates the State could save $10 million over 5 years in prison costs and $42.4 million in construction costs by deporting nonviolent criminal aliens. In these days where priorities are a buzzword in Congress, I ask my colleagues, is the detention of nonviolent criminal aliens truly a priority when we are releasing violent criminals to continue their assault on society? It is more sensible to deport nonviolent criminal aliens to their own countries, saving taxpayer dollars and reducing the burdens on our Federal and State prison system. We have a valuable opportunity to calm the fears of Americans and keep violent criminals behind bars. I want to thank my colleague from North Carolina. We had similar amendments to address the flood of criminal aliens in our prison system and I am glad we have joined together in this endeavor. Urge colleagues to support the amendment. I yield back the balance of my time. amendment offered by mr. burr to the amendment offered by mr. foley

Mr. FOLEY. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, one more contract item down. Yesterday, we passed the line-item veto, and it joins the ranks with congressional reform, unfunded mandate reform, and a balanced budget amendment as those items in the Contract With America that we have passed. We are keeping our promises with the American people to bring real change to Congress. Now we will move on to a real crime bill that seriously deals with violent criminals after that, we will continue to work on welfare reform, legal reform, tax cuts for middle-income Americans, term limits, and national security legislation. Mr. Speaker, we committed to completing our Contract With America agenda within the 100-day timeframe. We are restoring credibility to this institution by keeping our promises with the American people. The Republican majority is producing real results.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio and, of course, my good friend, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum] for their leadership on the crime bill. This is the Victim Restitution Act. ``Victim''--let us say that word repeatedly--``victim.'' This is not about hurting the police officers. We want to help them, but we cannot help them unless we make the victims whole from their tragedies. Let me tell the Members about a personal experience I had. My home was broken into. The perpetrator of the crime was a juvenile. He had been arrested 17 times. Each time the parents came into the courtroom and said, ``Your Honor, we're trying. He's really a nice young man. We're doing our best.'' Each time the judges would say, ``O.K., go home. Probation.'' When my home was robbed, the judge looked at the family when the parents started that same pablum about ``My good child,'' and said, ``You know, you must be proud of your son. Who wouldn't be proud of a child that had been arrested 17 times? I'll make a deal for you. Mr. Foley has lost 3,000 dollars' worth of valuable possessions from his home. If you're not in the courtroom, parent, at noontime tomorrow with a check made payable to the Clerk of Courts for $3,000, I will put in in jail until you decide who is going to be the boss of the family.'' With that the father hit the kid in the head and said, ``Look what you got me into.'' It took money out of the parents' pockets to recognize that they are responsible for their children. Let me tell the Members another story that happened in my district. Joe Dubeck, a young man in my district, was stabbed in the chest. After nearly dying on the way to the hospital, he was rushed into intensive care. While he was laying on the gurney, the assailant was bailed out with $3,000. Three thousand dollars, and he is out of jail. Joe Dubeck spent weeks in recovery, and thankfully, he is seeking recovery, and I am happy to say that he is now back with his wife and children. While he continues that recovery, however, his small business that he was building is undergoing serious challenges. For far too long we have forgotten the innocent victims of crime. This House resolution and H.R. 665 are going to help prevent that. The bill restores common sense in the criminal justice system by holding criminals responsible for their actions. I rise in support of this bill because of the Dubeck family and the many young families like them that have had to watch from the sidelines as our system coddles the villains and ignores those who abide by the laws of this Nation. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill to get tough on the criminals, to support law enforcement officers who want this bill to pass because they are tired of arresting criminals who are released before their report ink is dry. They want this bill to pass because it will help them do their jobs to protect the members of their communities.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, since I spoke here a week and a half ago about the outrageous amounts of money this body spends to provide Members of Congress with their own gold embossed set of code books, I received a great deal of support from colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Today I will introduce a resolution that will make a few simple changes in the way Members obtain the United States Code book. First of all, this resolution will not prevent Members from obtaining the laws of this land for their use as legislators. Instead, the measure will actually expand options for obtaining the code. For instance, if they choose, Members can purchase the entire code for $37 on CD-ROM, or they can obtain the Government printed version of the code for a fraction of the cost. If they really want these gold books, buy them out of your own office account, not the Clerk's contingency fund. Mr. Speaker, today is the 81st anniversary of the 16th amendment which gave the power of government to tax. Boy, have we taxed, and, boy, have we spent. To people inside the beltway, saving half a billion dollars may be small and minuscule. To me it is a lot of money. To the taxpayers it is a lot of money. I urge you to support my resolution on making Government more efficient.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I am proud today because 1 month ago I was sworn into the House of Representatives with 434 other American citizens. I want to take a moment, though, to thank the men and women who make this process work: The Members' personal staffs, the staff of the committees, the members of the Clerk's office and the cloakroom, the pages and their families who have allowed them to participate in this great democracy. These individuals arrive here at the Capitol very early in the morning and they leave very late to do the people's business. The Members get all the attention from the press and the media. The staff gets all the grief. This 1 minute is dedicated sincerely and thankfully to those individuals who make this process work, those people who work for the U.S. Government. Yes, indeed, we are proud and fortunate to have each and every one of them working for this country.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to call attention to yet another example of how Congress wastes taxpayers' hard-earned money. A week or two ago, every new Member received this letter from the Clerk of the House encouraging us to order our own personalized gold embossed set of the United States Code book, a set of 223 volumes that I have since discovered we can take with us when we leave office. After doing a little research, I have learned that these books with each Congressman's name nicely engraved in gold on the binder costs taxpayer $2,500 a set. Thus, to provide every new Member of the last two Congresses, they have spent over $500,000; a half a million dollars spent on books that are available in every House office building, in the House counsel's office and, of course, in the Library of Congress across the street. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me as an original cosponsor of a measure that will end the practice of ordering these books and demonstrate to the American people that we are serious about cutting the deficit and that we are taking a small step in our individual offices to make a difference in the United States of America.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. President, what do we have to fear by balancing the budget? Why should we be afraid of making Government operate like every other American? Why are we scared of the phrase ``living within our means?'' The naysayers are trying to scare Americans into believing that to balance the budget we have to cut critical programs like Social Security, Medicare, and taking care of the poor and elderly. We have an opportunity today on this floor to vote on a balanced budget amendment. In the State of Florida, as a State senator and a State house member, we voted to balance a budget each and every year, and our State worked perfectly. The needs of our society were met. But, more importantly, the people of the State of Florida felt confidence in their government. We can control the rate of growth. We can control how our Government functions. But we in the Congress must prove to the American public that we have the resolve. My grandmother died at the age of 88 with $10,000 in her bank account. She depended on Social Security. She looked forward to it. I will not destroy Social Security. In her name, I will preserve it.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, what a proud day for a freshman from Lake Worth, FL, to step on to the floor of the House of Representatives and be sworn in, but, more importantly, pass the promises that I made on the campaign trail; to see Members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, elected by the people of the United States of America, bring respect and honor to this House of Representatives. We started a historic day, a historic opportunity, to bring trust back to this institution. There is much to be done in the 104th Congress. We know we will work with our friends on the Democratic aisle on welfare reform, immigration reform, balancing the budget, stopping violent criminals, protecting our children, and restoring hope for American families to achieve the American dream. Mr. Speaker, with good, continued cooperation and good will, we can continue to keep the promises we made to America. The 104th Congress will truly be successful.

Mr. FOLEY

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule for accountability, the Congressional Accountability Act, to bring Congress in compliance with the ten laws such as fair labor, civil rights, Americans with Disabilities Act and others. As a freshman Member of the Congress, I was appalled to find out that this body had exempted itself from the very laws that they had passed on small business and the consumers of America. When I toured the offices of Congress in the Cannon and Longworth Buildings, I found exits blocked, boxes packed. Staff members could not have exited in a fire. As a restaurateur, if that happened in my business, I would not only have been fined, but I would have been closed down that very day for failure to observe common safety practices in my business. I think this Congress can make a statement to America tonight, and to every small business, that we understand the burdens we have placed on them, and that we are willing to accept those very burdens on ourself. That is the least we can do. The Congressional Accountability Act should and must pass.