Alcee Hastings

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the maker of the amendment, as he has proposed it, has any analysis been done with reference to cutting the Fulbright scholarships and cutting funds for arms control verification? I just would be interested to know if the offeror of this amendment has any analysis on the Fulbright scholarships?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. But the underlying amendment addresses the subject.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I know that it would cut $20 million. But what about the good that the Fulbright scholarships have done? What about the good that arms verification has done? Is the gentleman saying that there is no good that has been done in these matters?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 655, and I commend the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Science for bringing this measure to the floor. I do, however, have several reservations, and I believe that they are shared by many on the Democratic side of the aisle. First, the bill elevates hydrogen research above all other research priorities at the Department of Energy. While I hope that hydrogen will be an important fuel in the future, I believe that other research and development programs in the Department are also important and deserve authorization. Second, H.R. 655 caps spending in the Energy Supply Research and Development account at fiscal year 1995 levels. All of us want us to cut the deficit, but I do not believe any of us advocate placing arbitrary caps on programs without a discussion of their merits. The Science Committee had no hearing record on these programs on which to base a decision. I suspect that the cap might be a political tactic to prove that more money will not be spent by the Department to cover the increases mandated in this bill. Finally, the increases authorized by the bill are higher than requested by an outside expert hydrogen advisory panel to the Department, and the Department has no plans to spend the additional funds. In this time of budget cutting, I cannot support sending money to programs that lack a plan to us it, while action plans are starved for proper funding. I am hopeful that these points will be addressed in the debate, and I look forward to an improved bill to send to the Senate. Hydrogen research, development, and demonstrations are important to our Nation's future, and I support the program authorized in the bill.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, March 12, 1995, eight new members were inducted into the Broward County Women's Hall of Fame. The Women's Hall of Fame has brought deserved recognition to women who have made significant contributions towards Broward's community betterment. All of the honorees have excellent leadership skills, dedication, versatility, problem solving skills, and ``stick-to-it- tiveness.'' The honorees were: Karen Coolman Amlong, Esq.; Elizabeth Landrum Clark; Mary Cooney Crum; Helen Ferris; City Commissioner Sue Gunzburger; Representative Ann MacKenzie; and Mae Horn McMillan. I congratulate these outstanding citizens for their achievement.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of this body a program in my district of Florida which has shown great promise in moving people from welfare to work. The program, created by the Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority, is called Step-Up. It is designed to provide people living in poverty with the skills they need to remove themselves from public assistance by allowing the housing authority to hire people who live in its units to do renovation work on its property. Program participants are paid $4.30-4.50 an hour, work an average of 32 hours per week, and must join a high school equivalency program. Those who finish will have two options: A scholarship at the local Broward Community College, or continuing with work and training. Participants, young adults between the ages of 18 to 25, learn trades from outside contractors who are asked to donate training and materials to the project. Mr. Speaker, everybody will benefit from this program. Unskilled young adults will be trained and educated, and sorely needed renovations will be made to public housing stock. The Step-Up Program provides meaningful options through opportunities for employment, job training, and educational achievement. It will enable people who have traditionally been socially and economically disenfranchised to move from government dependency to self-sufficiency and employability. I salute the Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority and all of the people who have made this program possible. And I encourage housing authorities all over America to look to this program as a model for teaching our children viable and valuable skills, giving them hope, and helping them secure an education and a future.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the State of Florida has suffered a tremendous loss with the passing of Reverend Doctor Allen Eugene Orr, Sr. Allen Eugene Orr was born on September 16, 1931 in Fern Park, FL, to the Late Reverend E.J. and Sarah Orr. He attended elementary school in Altamonte Springs and was an honor graduate of Hungerford High School in Eatonville, FL. Allen won the Lewis State Scholarship, a 4-year scholarship which was awarded by the State of Florida. He attended Florida A&M College where he received a bachelor of science degree. He attended the University of Vermont on a National Science Foundation grant and also attended Florida State University. He earned a master's degree and subsequently a doctor of education degree from the University of Miami (Florida). As a commissioned officer in the U.S. Armed Forces, Lieutenant Orr served his country at home and in Germany. As an educator, he devoted over 30 years of his life in Broward County as a teacher of science in the middle and high schools, as an assistant principal and the director of human relations at the county level. He was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Phi Delta Kappa, and the Masons. He was ordained as an A.M.E. Minister of the Gospel. He was an astute scholar of the Bible, and he radiated an unceasing love for the ministry. He served as pastor of Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Miami, FL; St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Delray Beach, FL; and Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in West Hollywood, FL. Reverend Doctor Orr was united in holy matrimony to Dorothy Jackson in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. To this union, three sons and a daughter were born. Allen was a personal friend since childhood. He will be sorely missed by all.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, while H.R. 10 is called the Common Sense Legal Reform Act, the more accurate title would be the Citizens' Rights Reduction Act. For more than 200 years, the citizens of the United States have possessed the right by their own States to hold wrongdoers accountable. Under H.R. 10, such rights would be taken away from the citizens of the States. With an apparent Congress-knows- best attitude, the proponents of this bill want to take away the rights of ordinary Americans to hold wrongdoers accountable and to seek fair and just compensation when they are wronged. This bill is wrong.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate seven students in my district who won the Black History and Cultural Brain Bowl competition. These outstanding students are Mickel Anglin, Kevan McIntosh, Kim Jefferson, Latonya Cooper, Jason Gibson, Markease Doe, and Rolando Cooper. All seven attend Plantation High School. For 6 months these students studied black history during lunch, after school, late at night, and on weekends. They read books by major African-American authors, and learned about the contributions that African-Americans have made to American history, politics, sports, entertainment, the arts, and sciences. They won the Broward County School district competition in October, and in late February beat out 10 other teams for the trophy and 4-year college scholarships. I am proud to represent such outstanding young people and I am confident that all of these students will join the next generation of African-American leaders.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. It is the 8 percent you are worried about?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. I would like to engage in a colloquy with the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Goodlatte]. Am I to understand that the objective is to encourage settlement of cases in Federal court?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, that is not true for every district. I presided in the Southern District and used it more than four times in a year as a presiding judge, as did countless other judges. Maybe we had the kinds of litigants that would come forward and we had to sanction them.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, do you not think that rule XI with the sanctions enforcement has been utilized such that lawyers are mindful of the existence of that rule and have avoided bringing frivolous litigation to court, and are you not also mindful that judges pick up real quickly on frivolous litigation and that normally it is dismissed? You are talking, I believe, about the exception to the rule.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. How do you arrive at that objectively? I heard you say a moment ago it was based on what the jury ultimately decides as to whether or not there was ultimate merit. Do you not contemplate excellent litigants being on the defense side or plaintiff's side being more persuasive or jurors that are quirky or judges who are stupid, or do you not contemplate any of those things?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Is the gentleman aware that for the last decade, 92 percent of all cases that were filed as civil cases were ultimately settled in Federal Court?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, the problem we have is making law by anecdote. As I have listened to the various speakers talk about rather extreme situations, each of those situations may very well have facts that are not put before us at a given time. For example, if there is a landfill that a person uses their property on, it may very well result in a different kind of result.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I read with great interest the following article on Angola. So that all of my colleagues will have the opportunity to see this important piece. I would like to insert it into the Congressional Record. [From the Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 25, 1995] Angola Needs the World's Help in Making Peace Truimph (By Jose Eduardo dos Santos) It was with great satisfaction that I read the recent bipartisan congressional letter to President Clinton declaring that ``the United States has a strong national interest in a stable peace agreement in Angola.'' I share the view in Congress that the Lusaka Accords are the ``last, best hope for peace in Angola.'' The letter accurately notes that the treaty also offers a promise of stability and prosperity in our region along with opportunities to expand US exports to Angola. I have called on all Angolans to make a pact in the defense of peace and absolute respect for national reconciliation so that we may reconstruct our war-ravaged country and vivify the soul of our people. It is a gigantic task, but I am confident we can show that we are equal to it, and are capable of making peace triumph. Proxy battles of the cold war over But we cannot achieve this difficult goal alone. Generations have been born and have grown up knowing nothing but conflict, first with colonial rulers and then among ourselves. If peace is to set down roots, it will need the nurturing of the international community, led by the U.S. The cold-war superpowers who once used our differences in their proxy battles are now trying to forget their old differences. But they must not forget old obligations. We look to them now as partners. We were once a wealthy country and we can make ourselves one again--but not overnight, or alone. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has said, ``It is imperative that immediate action now be taken to implement the comprehensive agreement signed in Lusaka.'' Mr. Clinton gave me his written assurance, ``Once a peace agreement in reached, the United States government will be prepared to do all it can within the United Nations and bilaterally to ensure its successful implementation.'' Many of our friends, both old and new, implored us to take unpopular risks in the negotiations with the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). In response to their urgings, we went that extra mile. We have done that and now we turn to them to help us make that peace a success. The Security Council's decision to deploy a contingent of about 500 cease-fire observers is welcome, but we need prompt dispatching of at least 7,000 peacekeepers to ensure that all provisions of the agreement are adhered to. The UN and the international community cannot skimp on this vital aspect of the peace process. We want our former enemies to know from these credible sources that we are sincere in word as well as deed, and I am sure they feel the same way. Peacekeepers will help instill confidence among past foes. To repeat 1992's tragic mistake of trying to ``make peace on the cheap'' would doom our nation and all of southern Africa to more war and bloodshed. The cost of providing peacekeepers and launching national reconciliation is only a fraction of the cost of making war and caring for the victims. The national healing process must begin with caring for the hurt, the hungry, and the homeless. We urgently need portable hospital facilities that can rapidly be dispatched to the hard-hit areas like the devastated cities of Cuito, Huambo, Uige, and Melange. the need to clear mines The fighting is over, but we urgently need help to clear millions of antipersonnel mines strewn throughout our nation, so that our farmers may till our fertile fields, our children may attend school and play safely outdoors, and all our citizens can travel in peace to and from their jobs and homes. Before the war, we were known as a country with abundant mineral and agricultural resources. We were self-sufficient in most foodstuffs. Our exports ranged from crude oil and uncut diamonds to coffee and tobacco textiles and shoes. wounds and our wounded. We need technical assistance to rebuild our infrastructure, we need international peacekeepers to enforce our cease-fire, we need foreign investment to restore our industrial base, we need equipment and expertise to clear away the deadly debris of war. We also need loans and credits to stimulate our economy, as well as debt relief and restructuring. savimbi invited for talks We have launched our democracy. Our elected National Assembly is at work and soon we will hold the final round of our presidential elections. Meanwhile, our former foes will be joining us in governing the nation by assuming positions of major responsibility. They will be Cabinet ministers, provincial governors, mayors, ambassadors and much more. The two former enemy armies will join together in a national defense force as most former combatants are demobilized. I have invited UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi to meet with me at any time and any place in Angola so we may show our people we are fully engaged together in national reconciliation and reconstruction. A new page is being turned in Angola's history. It presents new challenges for Angolan political leaders, government officials, and ordinary citizens as we try to reconstruct a third time form the rubble and ruins of the tragedy that devastated Angola. We call upon the United States and the international community to join us in our historic task of making peace work not just for ourselves but for a continent that is struggling hard to spread the blessings of peace and democracy to all its citizens.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, title I of H.R. 1022 will cripple American industry. It requires extensive risk analysis which is time consuming, redundant, and unnecessary. It will apply to hundreds of thousands of American industries and businesses that need environmental permits or changes to permits they already have. The provisions of this title will result in huge delays in the construction or modification of the hundreds of thousands of industries and businesses that apply for any type of environmental permit or permit modification each year. And it is the permittee who will bear the cost of the delay and the redundant analysis. This is gridlock at its worst. Also, because these analyses are required prior to EPA even proposing cleanup measures for oil or toxic spills, contamination of land and water will spread and grow more costly, and more dangerous, while awaiting these analyses. These analyses are required even if they are completely unnecessary for the cleanup. This kind of redtape and bureaucratic strangulation is absurd. Title I or H.R. 1022 requires that each significant risk assessment document and significant risk characterization document prepared by or for a Federal agency meet detailed analysis requirements prior to completing actions designed to protect human health, safety, or the environment. (Section 103(b).) Federal actions in which such assessments or characterizations are used and which do not comply with these requirements must be voided by the courts even where the document itself was tangential to the federal action. While risk assessment and risk characterization documents are necessary and important bases for federal regulatory action, the scope of this provision goes far beyond scientific risk assessment or characterization documents. In fact, risk assessment and risk characterization documents are sweepingly defined to include virtually any federal document which identifies, describes, or discusses any hazard (Section 110). Although the definition of significant documents narrows the scope of these provisions, the federal actions affected remain large, including all federal permits, major rules, and federal oil or chemical spill response plans. More importantly within those categories, all risk assessment documents or risk characterization documents, regardless of their significance, must meet the analysis requirements of sections 104 and 105. Since almost any document prepared for a Federal permit, Federal permit modification, cleanup plan, or major rule will at least refer to, if not discuss, the hazards addressed by the federal action, almost all documents must meet the analysis requirements, even when that analysis is not particularly relevant or necessary for the Federal action. Mr. Chairman, this is a crippling American industry provision, and I ask that we reject H.R. 1022.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Schroeder amendment.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. It did begin in Florida. The judge in Miami that originated the program is still presiding in it and has had hundreds of success stories. What is remarkable is that they show a 90-percent success rate, and then in terms of recidivism, it increases. They have situations where as much as 95 percent of the graduates do not return to a life of crime. Now, how best then can we work to try to help people? You know something else, too, my colleagues, most of these people who talk about crime have not been in a criminal courtroom, have not had to sentence somebody, have not had to stand with somebody that was sentenced. They have this notion that comes from this air-conditioned Capitol about what happens on the street. These judges are in the trenches in Florida, and in Maryland and elsewhere in these drug courts, and they see these youngsters. They are not the hardened criminals, but they are the people that can become the hardened criminals.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I just rise in support of the amendment and to reassert what my colleague, the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Mfume], has said about the extraordinary success of this program. I cannot sit here and fail to talk about something that I have had an opportunity to witness firsthand. I know Judge Goldstein, who was the father of this program, and no later than just this week I received a letter from Judge Robert Fogan in Fort Lauderdale who presides in the drug court inviting me for the second time to speak to the graduates of the program and talking about the enormous successes that it has had. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are constantly about the business of trying to figure out some way to put somebody in jail. Rightly, criminals should be. The serious question becomes: When we do have something that does work, should we not see to it that it is maintained? I think that this program can be replicated throughout this Nation, and pretty obviously is one that all Members of this House ought to support.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, let me put two or three additional questions. Is there any provision, perhaps the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum] might join in, that would allow for the addition of Federal judges? And I notice in the litany that was offered of things that it could be used for, absent from that were Federal public defenders and provisions for attorneys for that indigent. Can it be used for that purpose?