Vito Fossella

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson).

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, from time to time we come across what I guess you could call a no-brainer. It took about 46 years for our good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) to identify what we are here today to accomplish, and that is to implement a no-brainer. I think the people of this country owe a great deal of gratitude to the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, in addition to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman). This is a great day for the people of Brooklyn and Staten Island, indeed, across America, the taxpayers who fear the IRS so much. It is about time that we put in place mechanisms whereby the IRS is responsible and they respect the average taxpayer. Why is it that almost half of the Americans fear more going to the IRS or receiving an audit from the IRS than going to get a root canal from a dentist, respect for dentists of this country notwithstanding? That is the reality. It is amazing that it took so many years for the conventional common sense and wisdom of this country to find its way here to Washington. But, thankfully, I guess today we see the result of people working together, with the lead of the majority here, working together to do what is right for the people of this country, to do what is right for the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn. No longer will they have to fear the local IRS agent. The benefit of doubt, the presumption of innocence, shifts to where it belongs. The country that was founded on liberty and justice somehow, when it came to the IRS, got lost. What wonderful news. Today you can rejoice, the IRS is finally reformed. But, never forget, that is the arm that does the bidding of the body. That body is the Tax Code that is just simply out of control. Now that we have reformed the IRS, let us continue the real and serious work of reforming our Tax Code to create true and economic growth and wealth in this country once and for all.

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, let me just state out front that I have heard repeatedly that this is going to take money away from public education. I just urge those who are curious to read the bill and determine and find out for themselves that this does not take money away from public education. Indeed what it does is serve to improve education. Clearly there has been no stronger fighter in my mind than I am in this Congress, and before this I was elected to the New York City Council and served on the Education Committee and continually fought to improve education for the people of my community in Staten Island and Brooklyn and across this country. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen, I guess, a critical point in terms of discussing the future of education, and, if you will, a line in the sand has been drawn. Our majority leader the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) introduced a bill to provide, as he stated earlier, to the low-income people of Washington, D.C., 2,000 scholarships. There were parents who prayed that they would actually be able to send their child to a school of their choice. This House passed that legislation. It was quietly vetoed by the President, thereby depriving some of those most vulnerable out there the opportunity to send their kid to a school of their choice. Now we have another great opportunity before us today. Here we again continue to question the common sense of ordinary Americans. We just throw it out there, folks. Is it the folks here in Washington or the folks in your local towns, whether it is Capitol Hill or your State capital or city hall that is in the best position to determine where to send your child? Or is it the parents of America? All this bill does is allows the parents the opportunity that they have been deprived of for far too many years to send their child to the school of their choice so that they can invest in their most precious resource, their children. If we really believe in the future of this country and we believe in education, we will pass this conference report.

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, I stand in strong support of this legislation. Indeed, I think if there is one thing all Americans can agree on, and indeed Members of this body, it is that we have always been the beacon of freedom around the world. We have always been the place where people have come to free themselves of religious persecution and the Nation that still cherishes the notion of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Mr. Speaker, I think if our Founding Fathers were alive today, they would be looking at our Tax Code with disbelief. Indeed, I stand with all of my Republican colleagues, or at least most of them, to say that the time has come to end the rusty rhetoric that we have been hearing for years to delay, stall and obfuscate what the real issue is, and to tear down this Tax Code once and for all. There has always been a constant struggle since the beginning of the Republic between and among those who believe that government serves a purpose, but it serves a purpose to unleash the American spirit of hope and opportunity and belief that limited government is the right role for government, that the decisions made in our towns and villages and States across this country, like Staten Island, Brooklyn, the places I represent, are better than those made here in Washington. What we have created here is a praetorian guard that has defended this Tax Code. The defenders of the status quo who proclaim that if we engage in this 4\1/2\ year mission to reform and revamp the Tax Code to make it simpler and fairer and flatter, one that promotes growth, one that promotes savings and investments, one that tries to take money out of Washington and puts it back home in Staten Island and New York where I think it belongs with the hard-working people of this country, and they say that we will have Armageddon. This country has defied every obstacle known to man, defied the odds, overcome obstacles. Just this century we have won two world wars. We have lost valiant veterans in Korea and Vietnam fighting for freedom, and just recently in the Persian Gulf. Are we to believe that we cannot overcome this challenge? Mr. Speaker, this is the time to end the rusty rhetoric, to throw out the garbage that we have been hearing. Let us show the defenders of the status quo that America indeed is ready for this long overdue challenge. America has proven its greatness time and time again. Sunsetting the Tax Code, a complete disgrace to all of us as we have all acknowledged here today, is no exception. I congratulate the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Largent) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Paxon) for introducing this bill. I urge, for the sake of all America and its future, that we pass it.

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take this opportunity to inform you that I was unable to attend the session of the House of Representatives on May 5, 1998 and for a portion for May 6, 1998. My absence was due to the fact that my son Dylan Fossella was hospitalized and had to undergo surgery. I would like the Record to reflect that I would have voted in favor of the passage of H.R. 1872, H. Res. 267 and H. Con. Res. 220.

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this rule and also the underlying legislation. Let me just point out why. While we are all in favor of improving education, let us just look to the status and the state of the Washington, D.C. school system. In a report in the Washington Post, they claim that the system is a well- financed failure. Despite spending $9,000 per student, more than half of the tenth-graders test below basic in reading, and fully 89 percent of the tenth-graders test below basic in math. Mr. Speaker, there is the old fairy tale about Peter Pan leading the children into Never Never Land, and I would submit that that is exactly, unfortunately, what has been happening in the Washington, D.C. school system. We have been leading these children into Never Never Land, never having them to become productive members of society. When we think what it would be like back in our hometown, whether it is Staten Island or anywhere across America, to have 89 percent of the tenth-graders test below average in math and to some extent reading, I think we would call for a rapid change. To me, it is not a fairy tale, it has become a Shakespearean tragedy, it is a rotten weed, and we must root it out. I think that is what we are talking about here, because when we think about the system, two words come to mind, and that is, what we hear today, awful, to describe the system, and opportunity, to describe how we can help these children escape the abyss, the trap that they will be in for the rest of their lives. Let us put a face on it. Beginning in September, there will be a 5- year-old boy or girl who will begin kindergarten. That 5-year-old will soon become a 7-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old, and that person, that little boy or girl, will not have the same opportunity or hope that we should provide. We talk about, well, we know what is best. There was recently a private scholarship fund funded by a man named Ted Forstmann, a good American who saw that common sense would prevail; that if parents were given a choice to send their children to a different school, a better school, they would do so. And indeed, 1,000 scholarships were made available to the parents of the city school system; 7,500 applied. If that does not tell us that there are parents out there who care about their children, who care about sending their children to quality schools, I do not know what does. Well, perhaps this will. In New York City, there are similar types of scholarships we have tried with raising private funds. Again, in the last couple of years, 1,300 children have received scholarships; more than 22,000 parents have applied to bring their kids and put them into schools that will provide them with the best education possible. We talk about the entrenched bureaucrats and the special interests who put themselves first. Let us put the children and families first of this country when it comes to education. Let us provide them with the hope and opportunity they rightfully deserve and expect. There was a famous battle at the beginning of World War I where the French general said, ``They shall not pass,'' as referred to the German troops. Well, they did. But in the meantime during that battle we lost over a million lives, and I suggest strongly that if we allow the status quo and the defenders of the status quo to win this argument, we will see them not pass, that being the children, but we will lose too many lives in the meantime. Let me just close, Mr. Speaker, with one last thing. Again, we have argued that for years, we even heard the acknowledgment by those who oppose this rule and oppose this legislation that there are problems. Well, I would say strongly that everybody else, the special interests, the bureaucrats, those who like the status quo, have had their chance. I say, give the people and the children of the Washington, D.C. school system a chance for once. Put them first.

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, let me acknowledge at the outset that we all share, I think, the goal of stopping the spread of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as diabetes and cancer, and clearly acknowledge that the intention of those who oppose this legislation is not controverted by our position and our goal to stop the spread of AIDS. But I think it is appropriate as well to apply a little useful distinction here. Let me just put a human face on this. Needle giveaway programs should not be supported with taxpayer dollars. The people back home in Staten Island and Brooklyn, who get up every morning for work, who go to work and see a big chunk of their paycheck taken out and given to the Federal Government, should not expect to see the Federal Government, in turn, buying needles and giving them away to drug addicts on our streets and our communities. Indeed, as we speak here today, there is a group on Staten Island that is seeking a waiver to start a needle giveaway program. At the outset, what they wanted to do was to open up a storefront and provide needle exchanges. Well, the community went a little nuts, as well they should, because these people invest their life savings in their American dream, having their children walking around the streets, and why should they be confronted with looking at a needle giveaway program with drug addicts coming into their neighborhoods? Because that is all that is going to happen, with these needle giveaway centers becoming drug hubs, drug magnets for drug addicts. So, instead, this group said, well, instead of having the storefront in one location, we will have a van. We will have a van drive around the streets of Staten Island dispensing free needles. Well, what kind of message are we sending to children? Is that the Good Humor van coming down the block? No, that is the needle giveaway van coming down the block. They are going to give needles away to drug addicts. And, colleagues, let me just point to one needle program in New York City on the lower east side of Manhattan, not necessarily, I would argue, the conservative bastion of politics, whereby a local resident became a little concerned. Clearly, what is going to happen here on moral grounds, if anything, is to support this measure. To do anything else would be morally wrong. And maybe politically right for some, but politically right and morally wrong just does not fly in this country.

Mr. FOSSELLA

Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, this is truly perhaps the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon anyone. The fact that the great people of Brooklyn and Staten Island have given me the honor and the privilege and the opportunity to serve them in the U.S. House of Representatives is something that could not be eclipsed as a public servant. On a personal note, let me thank from the bottom of my heart my lovely wife Mary Pat; my mother and father, Beth and Vito; and all my friends and family who made this journey down to Washington to share this special day with me. My son, the essence of our being, is not here with us, Dylan, but in absentia. We have our new child to be, my wife was expecting our second child yesterday, and she said that if I deliver, she will deliver. We are waiting. In conclusion, not everyone voted for me yesterday, but to the people of Brooklyn and Staten Island and throughout this great, great country, the best in the history of the world, let me say that I will never break my covenant with them to represent every member of my congressional district and to fight for what I believe in, fight for this great country, fight for the rights and fight for freedom for all of us. Thank you very, very much. This is a tremendous honor.