Duncan Hunter

Mr. HUNTER

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

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman because this is a very important point for California. Actually, Mr. Birdsall, the agricultural commissioner for Imperial County, asked for that report early. The University of California has come up with this study validated by peer review to the effect that we only had about a 1 in 1 million chance of having a Karnal bunt outbreak, a disease outbreak as a result of the California wheat crop in most areas. To me that means one chance, a chance of it happening one time in 1 million years. To me those numbers, which have been validated by the USDA, now, in their recent analysis, should compel us to lift the onerous quarantine requirements that USDA presently has on California wheat. I know the gentleman, my friend Mr. Bono, is working as I am. I know our good friend, Mr. Brown, is working as are other Members to try to lift that quarantine requirement. I think the University of California analysis supports at least a modification of the quarantine to lift the heating requirement.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, just to back up my friend, I am just talking to the committee staff, and I have talked to a number of our farmers. This did not prevent us from harvesting the crop. We are harvesting the crop. It is good wheat. It is high class wheat. But because it is harvested and it is simply selling restrictions that are a function of the quarantine, that is not covered, I understand, by most private insurance programs. So basically these farmers are out, at least in my county, in excess of some $70 million worth of wheat. I think Mr. Bono's county is pretty close to that. It is the Government- imposed quarantine which is the direct cause of the nonmarketability of the wheat at this point. Let me say this: This study Mr. Bono has talked about that we have done at the University of California says that a chance of an outbreak is less than 1 in 1 million years. We think that that new evidence, that it has beeen analyzed now by USDA, should justify USDA lifting the heating requirement that presently makes the marketability of this wheat very onerous. We can only ship this stuff to mills now that have a heating facility that they can heat the feed byproduct with this. It makes it very difficult. I would hope my friend would joint with us in talking with Secretary Glickman, who has been working with us here on this problem, and with Mr. Bono and with Mr. Miller and the rest of the Californians in trying to lift that very onerous requirement which I do not think now is justified in view of the 1 in 1 million years risk factor.

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

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. I want to commend the gentleman from California [Mr. Bono] for his leadership on this issue which is of great economic importance to not only California but all of the other States in which this disease is now showing up. Let me just say that this is a well-thought-out amendment. It requires that USDA give us a blueprint for the compensation package that we need now for our farmers as a result of the Government imposed quarantine. Second, it requires the Government, USDA, to look at the new study, the University of California study that shows that in most of our areas, the possibility of having a karnal bunt outbreak as a result of the California wheat crop is less than 1 in 1 million years and taking that into consideration to give us a policy, a blueprint for farming our wheat, planting our wheat next year. So the gentleman has taken the leadership on this, and I want to applaud him and join with him on this amendment that not only helps California farmers but farmers across the United States to plant wheat.

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

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to cohost, with my colleagues, Travis Barrick as our guest chaplain who this morning led our prayer in the House. It is especially appropriate that Pastor Barrick could give the prayer on the eve of the page graduation, since his son, Jesse, and the other pages of this class are graduating tomorrow. Pastor Barrick is pastor at Calvary Chapel in El Cajon, CA, and now pastors Koinonia Christian Fellowship in San Diego County. We want to thank Pastor Barrick for joining us in wishing all of our pages Godspeed.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, America is a great country because we are a Nation that is filled with great people. A wonderful person passed away a couple of days ago, a good friend, Dick Stulz, who was one of the border patrol leaders in the San Diego area, was a wonderful citizen, a wonderful husband and had a great family of children and grandchildren who absolutely adored him. Dick Stulz was a guy who believed very strongly in two things: securing America's border and taking care of his people. Last time I saw him, he had a border patrol agent under his wing as one of the union leaders of the border patrol, and he was trying to see to it that this gentleman who had been assaulted at his house by illegal aliens would get some protection from his government. Dick Stulz passed away a couple of days ago and his wife Veronica gave me that call about that tragic situation. She was at his side when he passed away. I thought it would be important to tell my colleagues a few things about Dick. He was born in Philadelphia, PA. He was one of those guys who joined the Marine Corps in 1952, served with them for 30 years. As his duty stations, both at home and abroad, he was instrumental in establishing the communications networks that are required to support various military activities. Furthering his dedication to government service, Dick was a lifetime member of the Navy-Marine Corps Military Affiliate Radio System. As such, he participated in several recovery missions during man's historic decade in space, spanning Apollo missions 7 through 17, where he played an integral role in processing and patching both military and civilian phone traffic between the recovery ship and various points around the globe. His work on the Apollo recovery missions earned him lifetime membership with the VHF Spacenet. In addition to his military service, as I said, he worked for 25 years with the United States Border Patrol. His job was effectively coordinating communications between field stations and agents on patrol along our border. And during this time at the Border Patrol Dick became highly involved with the National Border Patrol Council Local 1613, where he served as first vice president, and it was Dick Stulz who interested me in the idea that the Border patrol needed help and that the Boarder Patrol represented not just a faceless agency that secured America's border, but it represented some of the finest public servants in the United States. And it was a result of Dick's work that we started a scholarship fund for the children of Border Patrol families, and we are going to continue that fund. We are going to call it the Dick Stulz Memorial Fund. His wife Veronica, I know, will help us to make it work and keep it going. And I just wanted to remind my friends also that on a more personal level Dick was always mindful of his military brethren and their sacrifices, and he actively supported a lot of veterans organizations. He had the distinction of being the only non-Hawaiian member of the Hawaii VFW Post 9512. He supported Pop Warner leagues around the country, and additionally he did just about everything that his children and grandchildren asked him to do. Dick Stulz was a wonderful American. He is a kind of a person that makes this country work and gives us faith in our fellow man. So, Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleagues join me in wishing the very best for Dick's family in mourning his passing.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the remarkable dedication and accomplishments of a constituent in my district, Julie Simpson of Spring Valley, CA. For the past 16 years, Julie has been employed by the U.S. Navy in San Diego, CA. I would like to take a moment to commend her hard work and dedication. Julie began her quest for independence in the Grossmont Union High School district's special education program. It was there that she was first introduced to the Navy Defense Subsistence Office of the Pacific Rim. Under this Navy program, Julie was given civil service status and became self-sufficient for the first time in her life. She began as a typist and has since moved up to her current position as a transportation clerk and computer specialist. Julie is responsible for processing the ordering and warehousing of perishable produce for the Pacific Navy fleet. Currently, Julie has a GS-4 ranking, a remarkable achievement for a mentally handicapped person, and has become an invaluable asset to the San Diego Navy Depot. The Covenant Ministries of Benevolence in Spring Valley has arranged a recognition assembly to honor Julie as well as those who have played prominent roles in her life. The event is scheduled for July of this year in San Diego. Among those who will be honored will be Julie's mother, Beverly, who has served as a constant source of strength and inspiration to her daughter. Mr. Speaker, in a time when our mentally challenged citizens are so often given a second rate status, individuals like Julie Simpson offer hope and assurance to us all. Julie is an exceptional person who has gained a solid identity and shown her strength and abilities through hard work. I would like to join with the many others in honoring Julie for all of her remarkable qualities and personal achievements.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize the outstanding service and dedication of a constituent in my district, Lt. Col. Orville Sandaker. His career in the Air Force Association [AFA] as a pilot trainer spans five decades and has included over 15 awards and recognitions. I would like to take a moment to commend Orville's exceptional service to our country. Orville began his career 60 years ago in Coopertown, ND, flying an OX-5 Travelair. Since then, Orville has logged over 5,000 hours in the air, 3,000 of which included search and rescue missions. On December 1, 1941, Orville became a charter member of the Civil Air Patrol [CAP] and in 1948, went to serve in the Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. Orville has also worked as a training check pilot since 1951 and as a co- founder of the Flying Samaritans and a charter member of the Baja Bush Pilots, his responsibilities are ever-changing. Throughout his tenure in the Air Force Auxiliary Service and various Chairmanship positions in the San Diego Chapter of the AFA, Orville has contributed infinitely to the aerospace and flight education of young pilots. It is this continued role as an educator that has earned Orville many CAP and AFA honors, including their top National Achievement awards. Mr. Speaker, in an era when the U.S. military is often not given sufficient recognition, outstanding leaders, such as Orville, exemplify the commitment our Armed Forces has to superior performance. Orville has dedicated his life to teaching our young Air Force aviators the necessary skills and tools to serve our country in the best possible manner. As a veteran and chairman of the House Subcommittee on Military Procurement, I would like to commend Lt. Col. Orville Sandaker for all of his efforts and years of service and to the U.S. Air Force and our country.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time. Mr. Chairman, I want to join as a member of the Committee on National Security and a member of Mr. Hefley's Subcommittee on Military Installations and Facilities in thanking Chairman Vucanovich for her great work. It is a work that really has contributed so much to the men and women who wear uniforms for our country. It has been mentioned a couple of times that we spend more money than the President has requested in military construction, but I think Mr. Hefner hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that we always have paid more attention to the quality of life issues than the administrations, regardless of whether they are Democrat or Republican. I am reminded that this bill that Barbara Vucanovich helped to put together and Mr. Hefner helped to put together that provides for military construction, the defense bill taken together with that important component is roughly $100 billion less in real dollars than the 1985-86 Reagan defense budget. Because we were strong in the 1980's and because we brought down the Berlin Wall and dissolved the Soviet empire, we have been able to reduce defense expenditures. But beyond that, this bill also and the military construction budget that is an important part of the overall defense bill is in line and is consistent with the balanced budget program that the House leadership is moving forward with. So this is not a budget buster. It is well within the confines of the dollar parameters that we have set. Mr. Chairman, let me just say to gentlewoman from Nevada, who is one of the warmest, finest persons who has ever served in this body, we thank her for everything that she has brought to the deliberative process in the House of Representatives. She is a person of great wisdom, great intellect, and a big, big heart. In another area, in the pro-life debates and the debates with respect to abortion, her speeches about ``Heather the Feather'' have touched everybody's heart. God bless her and thanks for her work.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Now, what does a medical savings account do? If I have a medical savings account, what will I have?

Mr. HUNTER. As a second class Scout, I salute my Eagle leader.

Mr. HUNTER. Well, if the gentleman is talking about those documents that they found in the White House after months and months of not being available, I know where they were. They were right underneath the TV Guide all the time. That is where they were.

Mr. HUNTER. Precisely. When the President vetoed that welfare provision for illegal aliens, when he allowed that welfare provision to keep being paid out, that kept the magnet alive. That kept the magnet that told people that if they came to the United States, as several Social Security ladies showed me when they came in my office, they said: Congressman, here are some illegal alien families making more money on welfare than we are making as GS-11's working for the Federal Government, and they have discovered the joys of daytime television, they are not working. That is a magnet that this President has allowed to keep turned on at full power, that brings people into this country illegally, because he is paying them more in welfare payments than they can make working in their native country. But the point that I am making is this President and Doris Meissner, his INS Commissioner, who is a nice person, have testified against and fought against every Border Patrol increase that we have passed in this Congress, that Republicans have passed. Yet when we bring those newly trained Border Patrolmen that the Republican Congress passed down to the Boarder Patrol headquarters at San Ysidro, who is there to do a press conference and greet them but the very same Clinton administration officials who fought their funding in the first place. You know something? They do not even crack a smile. You know something else? If we took all those Clinton officials who do press conferences at the border in San Diego and we simply had them touch hands, just link arms, they would stretch across the entire border between San Diego and the gentleman's great State of Arizona. We would not need a Border Patrol because we have more public relations people there than we have illegal aliens.

Mr. HUNTER. The gentleman is asking me to explain a President who has sent our Government to the United Nations, our marines to Bosnia, and our jobs to Mexico. The answer is that this President is an internationalist. He believes very strongly in listening to people on other sides of the border. Now, that can be good, but it is not good when it conflicts with the thoughts of people on his side of the border. We have an absolute right to maintain a border with integrity, tell people when they come across, come through the front door. Do not come through our back door. Do not drive cocaine across the hillsides into the southern reaches of California and Arizona. But this administration has been dragged kicking and screaming to the border, and they have been a little disingenuous with us, while they are doing press conferences. They fought us on the 6,000 Border Patrol increase that we put in the crime bill and on the 600 Border Patrol increase that we put in the appropriations bill in fiscal year 1994. They fought us on that.

Mr. HUNTER. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, let me tell him what has happened with the Clinton administration's policy on stopping cocaine that is coming across the international border. A border patrolman, and as you may know, I represent a great deal of the California Mexican border, kind of the southern slice of the State. I know the gentleman represents a great deal of Arizona just to the east of my district. A border patrolman came to us one day and gave us an internal memorandum from Doris Meissner, who is the head of INS for the Clinton administration. It concerned the border fence, because we have been building a border fence made out of landing mats, steel planks like those that you used in Desert Storm to build runways, except we turn them vertical instead of horizontal, and when we weld them to posts, we are making a steel fence 10 feet high and now some 14 miles long, from the Pacific Ocean to the coastal hills. When we built that fence, my staff went out and searched the inventories of every military base from Guam from Guantanamo and found 179,000 surplus steel planks to build this fence with. But when we built the fence, we increased cocaine interdiction by 1,000 percent because the drug runners, who were just driving their cars and trucks across the border, not at the regular crossings but just right across the sagebrush landscape, now could not get across because of the steel fence, so they had to go through very channelized areas and we were catching them. Now, in a number of places we had fence that was made out of chain link, and these chain link fences, the drug pushers and the drug smugglers would just take their clippers, clip that chain link, roll it back and drive their van or heavy-duty truck through it with cocaine for America's children. The Government of Mexico asked Doris Meissner to meet with them because they did not like the idea that we were replacing these chain link fences with steel fences that nobody could drive through, made out of steel landing mat. As a result, she circulated a memorandum. I am going to bring it out to the floor next time we have a special order because I have got a copy of it. It tells every Border Patrol chief, ``You are no longer allowed to replace this flimsy chain link fence with steel landing mat.'' I call that the drug smuggler provision. Because the Government of Mexico has complained about it, from now on you can only repair a chain link fence with chain link.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, let us do some taxes. I think a lot of single moms out there, a lot of heads of households, a lot of folks with kids would like to know what this tax cut was that the President kept them from getting. We have all done our taxes in April. Most folks realize and remember how much they paid for taxes. Let us prepare some income taxes here, and show them what the American people lost when President Clinton killed the tax cuts for the American family. It is very simple. If you are out there and you have two kids, you multiply two kids times $500 apiece, and that is $1,000. You deduct that from what you paid on April 15, so if you paid $1,000 on April 15 and you have two children, under the tax cuts that the Republicans passed but that President Clinton killed, two times $500 is $1,000. At the bottom line on your 1040 you would have deducted $1,000 from the $1,000 you owed and you would have paid no taxes. That means you would have had $1,000 in your pocket for maybe the last half of that mortgage payment you were having trouble making, maybe the education fund for your daughter who is 15, who will soon be going off to college, maybe $1,000 to put that down payment down on the lot outside of Phoenix, AZ, or San Diego, CA, where you want to build a house someday. That is the tax cut for the rich. If you have four kids, you multiply four times $500 and that is $2,000, so everybody should just remember right now, just take a minute and remember what you paid in taxes to the Federal Government on April 15. Look at your family, whether they are in the living room with you or in the kitchen or they are out playing Little League or whatever, count the number of kids that you have an multiply that times $500, and deduct that mentally from what you paid. That is the amount of money that you would have saved. Once again, Mr. Speaker, President Clinton depicted that tax cut as a tax cut for the wealthy. Mr. Speaker, I agree with him in a way. I think everybody in America, in this land of opportunity, who has children is wealthy. They are rich. They are rich; not rich economically, but they are rich in opportunity. But this President killed this tax cut, and he called it a tax cut for the rich, so I hope that every American who pays taxes will remember that last figure they put down on their 1040, that $1,000 that they paid or that $10,000 that they paid, and that $500 per child that they could have deducted if President Clinton had not stepped in and killed that tax cut.

Mr. HUNTER. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, I hope and I think that the American people are not going to be taken in by the inconsistency that this President has displayed. I remember we were all sitting here the night when he said, ``The era of big government is over.'' But I recall a few minutes later in the same speech, he announced, I believe, three new programs. Only William Clinton could do that and get away with it. I notice not a single news station, at least the ones that I observed, picked that up. Only this President, who said that he loathed the American military and deliberately avoided service during Vietnam, could use the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act that is designed for military men and women serving overseas to keep them from losing their property while they are serving their country. Only he could invoke that Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act to protect himself from a civil lawsuit in Arkansas. But I think that there is such a thing as being a little too cute and underestimating the American people to the point where, ultimately, when the people make a judgment with respect to this President, we are going to see that they have a lot more wisdom than he attributes to them.

Mr. HUNTER. You know, if the gentleman will yield on that point, a great American conservative, Tom Clancy, the author of ``Hunt for Red October'' and so many other best-selling books, has done something along the line of what the gentleman is talking about. He had a young kid who had cancer, kid named Kyle, young boy, and Tom formed a great friendship with this youngster as he was experiencing the trauma of cancer, and Kyle ultimately passed away. Well, Tom Clancy formed the Kyle Foundation, and the Kyle Foundation is dedicated to linking up people who need cancer information: What kind of information can I get about this type of cancer or that type of cancer? What types of doctors are specialists in this particular type of cancer that my son may have? Where do I go to get these doctors? And networking not only the users, the moms and the dads with children with cancer, but also networking the doctors so that a doctor who is making a breakthrough in one type of cancer on the other side of the country can hook up with a doctor on the other side of the country and exchange information, and this exchange of information and this ability of free people to shop for the best ideas and the best innovations in medicine is kind of what the gentleman is talking about. That is the idea of not being harnessed by government one-size-fits- all, ``Wait in this line, and we will get to you when we get to you.''

Mr. HUNTER. How much could I save out of the year if I do not spend much money on----

Mr. HUNTER. You know, you are talking about that woman who, in so many cases today, is the head of household, and the idea that we are so cynical in Washington, DC, or liberals are so cynical that they do not want that woman who is head of the household to go out and shop for medical care, they do not think she is smart enough, they do not think she should be trusted with making that choice. So they are going to do it for her. And yet if she goes out and shops smart, and she is able to shop smart in every other area; there are many households now headed by women who are building and, in many cases where there is single women raising kids, they have many choices and many challenges to meet with respect to education, with respect to buying homes, with respect to buying automobiles, with respect to forging the lives and building the character of their kids, and the idea that liberals have that somehow that a woman is not capable of shopping for a less expensive x-ray or she is not capable of finding out how much a medical procedure costs, does not make sense. In fact the only way that we are going to be able to make health care affordable in this country is to rely on the best thing that we have got. That is the good common sense of our citizens.

Mr. HUNTER. But, if the gentleman will yield, the liberals in America do not want the American people to have the freedom to shop for themselves, because it is exactly what you are talking about is shopping. Instead of shopping for food, instead of shopping for clothes, you get to shop for your own medical care. And if you think you have got a good doctor who will take that x ray for $25 or $30 under the costs of another doctor, you have got an incentive to go out and shop for that better buy just like you shop for a better buy in all aspects of life. Liberals do not like that. They do not like it because it cuts dependency, and they do not like it because people exercise freedom. If you teach people to exercise freedom enough, pretty soon they are going to want to have a lot more freedom, and that is a bad thing from a liberal perspective.

Mr. HUNTER. What the gentleman has described is true. As I understand, in talking to a member of the State assembly, the bill to deny illegal aliens, and this was Jan Goldsmith who represents Poway in San Diego County, the bill to deny illegal aliens the right to a duplicate driver's license, even though it is obvious that the driver's license was fraudulently issued, was passed out of committee. His bill to deny them this right was passed out of committee by, I believe, a single vote. I believe every member of the Democrat Party voted against that. Now, I am not positive on the breakdown of the vote, but as I understand, it was a very, very narrow vote to pass the ban coming out of committee on this activity.