Jesse Jackson

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. President Kennedy was the first to coin the phrase of ``affirmative action'' in his Executive order of 1961 which barred discrimination in Federal employment and in private firms that entered into contracts with the Federal Government. His premise was that those who had been historically locked out by law or by practice would have the opportunity to prove themselves on the job. This order though had no enforcement powers. In 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act--the first truly effective piece of civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. Title VII prohibited public and private employers from discriminating based upon race, gender, national origin, or religion. It specifically outlawed the use of ``preferential treatment'' to any protected group. The act established the right of courts to order affirmative action plans to remedy widespread practices of discrimination. However, after its passage, individual victims of discrimination found it difficult to prove their cases in court since employers were able to craft counterstrategies which hid their bias. For example, how do you prove that the job has not already been filled, or that you would've received the job on your merit if the employer hadn't hired his son-in-law; or that the employer, upon finding that the most qualified applicant was a person of color, internally filled the slot; or that you were barred from tenure-track position because of your gender? The reality is that it is really hard to do so, especially for unemployed victims of discrimination who are trying to find a job to survive. It became clear to policymakers of that day that a proactive government strategy would be necessary to overcome the vestiges of discriminations past. It was not enough to merely cease discriminatory practices. We needed measures to undo or compensate for the effects of past discrimination. We needed an affirmative action to overcome a negative action.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. 1-800-REGISTER. It is really simple. 1-800- REGISTER. And ``register'' is spelled R-E-G-I-S-T-E-R. It costs you nothing. It is free.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. That is correct.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Unless you are from the State of Illinois.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, it is really amazing when we talk about this process. I want to thank the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana for his leadership, and the leadership that he has shown oftentimes by himself on the floor of this Congress, toward trying to get young people to participate in the process. Today, we passed in the U.S. Congress a bill under suspension of the rules called the Student Debt Reduction Act, which will go a long way toward reducing the debt of students who have taken out these various loans. I might add, Mr. Speaker, that we did not pass the Student Debt Elimination Act, which would totally wipe out the debt of every student who has ever had a student loan in this country. We can afford it. We are the richest Nation in the history of the world, we can afford it. If we education is a real priority, we can pass a student debt elimination act. But you know what, students are going to have to be mad enough about student loans as a collective body, a spirit is going to have to sweep across the Nation where students are calling for the elimination of debt. Because our Nation can afford to put children through college. The President has a program for 2 years, others have proposed 4-year programs for students who desire to go to college. We can afford it if we consider education to be a National Defense Act. If our country is democratic in direct proportion to our Nation's education, then the defense of this democracy, education, must be seen as the defense of this democracy.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. An achievable goal.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Knowledge in one hand and empowerment in the other hand, that is correct.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. I would look at that Jaguar from Southern University who is sitting at home.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. The old adage is true, if you do not vote, do not complain; really, do not complain if you are not voting, if you are not participating in the political process. The reality is that if you do not vote, you do vote. You vote by definition for the person you do not want to win. That is not a Democratic or Republican statement, that is just a statement of political reality. If you do not vote, you cannot complain. If you do not vote, you got what is coming to you that is coming to you, because it is coming to you.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Nor can you use the excuse that ``I don't trust politicians, I don't like politicians.'' Run yourself. Come up here and try some of this. If you want to engage in a debate, if you want to engage in some discourse about the future of our Nation and the future of our community. Don't vote for the politician of your choice. You run and find out how difficult it is to talk hope into people who are dispirited, to talk hope into the disenfranchised, and to bring them into the political process and see how difficult it is. If I were a DJ in America, on the radio every morning talking jive, and you had no substance to your jive, beyond the jive that you are talking, there is something wrong with that, if you are just complaining. I am a graduate of Chicago Theological Seminary, and I speak in a lot of churches. Just about every Sunday, my pastor, the pastor of the Salem Baptist Church in Chicago, the Reverend James Meeks, we have altar call in our church. You would be surprised. I had a meeting with some of the people at our church who counsel members of our church. And I asked them some questions about what do people share with them most to be their problems. Some people are concerned about losing their job when they come to altar call, some are concerned about their illness, whether or not they can check into a hospital, whether or not they can afford to add a burden to their family. People come to altar call to pray for a whole lot of reasons. Many of these things are resolvable if they are in the political process.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. It is a toll-free call where they prompt, they ask you for your name, address, phone number, verify who you are through your State Secretary of State.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. That is all you have to do is sign it. It is postage paid, and returned to you.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me first begin by congratulating the distinguished gentleman from the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana, who I had the privilege of meeting in 1983 while he was a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, and I was a student at North Carolina A&T State University. We prided ourselves, as aggies, in our ability to beat Southern University in football and every other possible athletic endeavor that we engaged in. There is a serious camaraderie that exists amongst those of us who are graduates of historically black institutions, and I want to take this opportunity as a product of those institutions to certainly engage in this colloquy and in this special order with the gentleman from Louisiana, Congressman Cleo Fields. Many Members of this institution probably do not know that while Congressman Cleo Fields is the youngest African-American to have ever had the privilege of serving in this institution, he served the people of the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana with great distinction and will not be in the 105th Congress due to attacks on the Voting Rights Act and gerrymandering in the State of Louisiana that has undermined the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana. The people of the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana have been served with great distinction. Young African-American men, including myself, have been inspired by the example that Congressman Cleo Fields has laid for all of us. I saw Congressman Cleo Fields during special orders, while I was the field director of the Rainbow Coalition, knowing that he was the president of the Student Government Association of Southern University who subsequently ran for State senate while he was a student his senior year, and was elected by the people of that particular district to serve in the State senate, having just finished his senior courses at Southern University. He served in the State legislature with great distinction and then subsequently earned his way on to the reapportionment committee in the State of Louisiana, and consistent with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, was able to enfranchise literally hundreds of thousands of people in the State of Louisiana who had been heretofore without representation. So Congressman Cleo Fields, as the youngest African-American, has earned his place in history, but it is really a larger statement about the quality and the caliber of leadership that historically black colleges have created. The first African-Americans arrived in this Nation on slave ships in 1619. There was a century's old struggle to end racism in our Nation and certainly racism that was legally enforced by law, the institution known as slavery. The very foundation of our Nation was a Civil War, a very bloody war between north and south over whether or not we should be individual States or united as a Nation. After the Civil War, in 1863, when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ushered in a period known as First Reconstruction. During that period, 131 historically black colleges were founded to educate the newly freed slaves. I might add, Representative Fields, during First Reconstruction, 22 African Americans were elected to serve in this institution, between 1863 and 1896. There was a direct relationship between their participation in this Congress and in State legislatures all across our country that made it possible for African-Americans to come to institutions like this Congress and fight for the kind of resources that would educate those who had historically been denied education in these institutions. As Representative Fields has already indicated, more than 40 percent of all college graduates who are African-American still come from the remaining 102 or 103 institutions that presently exist. That was really the commitment that our Nation had made to newly freed slaves in our Nation. I might add that you indicated that in 1964, since 1964, that officially ended the period of officially designating colleges as historically black colleges and universities, not one historically black college or university has been founded since that reconstruction period. One of the reasons I commend you and commend other members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus and Members of this institution who continue to fight to sustain these institutions is because they know that the products of these institutions, once people become educated and become integrated, if you will, through that education in the society, they can then continue the desegregation of the society which really was a testament to this movement. Sixteen Members of Congress are presently graduates of historically black colleges and universities. Eva Clayton and Adolphus Towns are graduates of North Carolina A&T, where I had the privilege of attending that institution. I might add, Congressman Fields, that it is really the mission of historically black colleges to train, to educate, and provide the kind of environment during the formative years of students through which they can learn. I remember I went to a predominantly white high school here in Washington, DC. While I had tremendous professors who worked very hard toward my academic development, when I went to predominantly white high schools, and I have nothing against predominantly white universities or colleges or high schools, I attended several of them myself, but for me as a young African-American male in this society, to have Dr. Liston as a psychology teacher and to have professors who were African-Americans, to see African-Americans who could be chancellors or universities and heads of math departments and Dr. Quiester Craig at North Carolina A&T as the head of the business department, to see Dr. Howard as a mathematician who worked in the business department at A&T State university during my formative years between 18 and 21 years old, for me to be able to see African-Americans who had achieved at universities all across this country, it really fought stereotypes in my own mind about what I could be. And so I set at an early age, as a result of the mission of those institutions really to train its leadership, to allow it to have the free voice to move beyond the stereotypes and say that we can really make it, that we can really achieve. This is really what the mission of historically black colleges has been. I would certainly hope that Members of this body would continue to support historically black colleges and universities. They represent the very best that our community has to produce. I am honored to have this opportunity to engage in a colloquy with the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, there are some intangibles that come from being a product of a historically black college, some things we hardly even think of. When I was at North Carolina A&T, to expect that an African-American could serve as the president of the student body, that was not like a far- fetched idea. That was what was kind of expected, that we could run a student government association. On the other hand, when I went to the University of Illinois, where I very fortunately received my juris doctorate degree, it was not necessarily expected that an African-American could serve as the president of the SGA and be responsible for a million-dollar budget in terms of student activities and student fees or that we could organize the student body in such a way as to bring about the kind of campus life that we thought was acceptable to most of the students or bring about the kind of programs and speakers that we wanted to come to the university. This is an intangible. So I left A&T feeling that, yes, I can serve as the president of the SGA or, yes, I could be the chancellor of an institution. And so the gentleman is so correct when he says that the African-American historically black colleges serve as an incubator for African-American leadership. I look forward to traveling on September 23 to a historically black college either in North Carolina or certainly in my district or wherever it is that I am needed in order to articulate the significance that these institutions have had. But I think the gentleman raises another very interesting point, that there is a relationship between the education of those who have been historically denied, those historically black colleges, and political participation. During First Reconstruction, 22 African-Americans were elected to Congress and to State legislatures, all across our country, the byproduct of which elected officials whose students voted for at that time who could come and serve in these bodies and fight for more resources. When students do not vote, students do not participate in the process, they cannot elect people to representative bodies across this great democracy for the purpose of fighting for those resources. So one of the things I have encouraged students to do, whether they are Democrat or Republican, really it is a nonpartisan effort, not promoting one party over the other, in 1996, as a result of the passage of the motor voter law of 1993, people can simply dial 1-800-register and fill out the voter registration application card over the phone and it will be mailed to them, just dial 1-800-register and they are full participants in democracy.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If the gentleman would yield, I would like to share a brief story I had experienced while I was at North Carolina A&T State University, a story that is similar to the one that the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana has mentioned. I was the vice president along with a good friend of mine by the name of Rick Bradley who was the president of a group that we founded on North Carolina A&T State University campus called Students United for a Free South Africa [SUFAFSA], and one of the things that we did outside of protesting various banking institutions in North Carolina that were still involved in doing business with South Africa, fighting for disinvestment or divestment of these various institutions, trying to get North Carolina A&T and the North Carolina school systems to divest their pension funds from businesses that were doing business in South Africa, we did a lot of research on South African issues. And it was not very long before international focus turned to more domestic issues, when we found ourselves fighting against apartheid in South Africa, but also as the most politically astute and aware group on campus with issues that affected us domestically. Our struggle against apartheid in South Africa encouraged us and forced us to look at the role that our congressman, who represented North Carolina A&T State University at that time, was playing in South Africa, the free South Africa movement, and we found at that time that our representative did not represent the position of our organization, and we began registering people to vote on our campus. We would not let the Deltas, the Q's, the Alphas, Sigma Gamma Wu's, we would not let any organization on North Carolina A&T State University's campus host a party or an event on the campus unless they were registered to vote and the students on that campus could prove that they were registered to vote, and as a result we registered of the 4,200 students, of North Carolina A&T State University's campus we registered more than 3,600 aggies to participate in the political process. And on election day, while we came very close to defeating that Member of Congress, we were only 60 votes away in the general election, and I will leave the gentleman's name anonymous for the purposes of my discussion, but when I was sworn into the 104th Congress as the 91st African-American to ever have the privilege of serving in this institution, that Member of Congress came up to me, congratulated me for my electoral victory, gave me an embrace, a hug, and said, ``You know, I am very familiar with you. You almost beat me on that day.'' And we were within 60 votes of beating that Member of Congress. As a result of that again I graduated in 1987. Students across the State of North Carolina were registered to vote and participate in the political process. The end result was a census taken in 1990, a reapportionment plan in 1991, the implementation of that reapportionment plan in 1992, and the by-product of which in 1996, the 12th Congressional district is now represented by Congressman Mel Watt, who represents North Carolina A&T as well as Winston-Salem and I believe as many as 6 other historically black colleges. So it is possible, and I will yield back to the gentleman in just about 30 seconds. Very few people know that they can register where they live. Students do not live in New York if they are at A&T. They do not live in Chicago if they are at A&T. They live in Greensboro, NC. According to the law, you can register wherever you spend the last 3 nights in a row. That is home. If your name has changed, you are now an unregistered voter. If you just got married, your name was Smith last week, you married a Williams last week, you are now an unregistered voter because your name has changed, and as a result of efforts of many who fought and died in this country, Wiola Wheatson, a white woman, got her brains blown out at point blank range trying to register students to vote. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy and others have died trying to reduce the age from 21 to 18. As a result of their efforts, you can now dial 1-800-REGISTER and become a full participant in this democracy, and I might add those who are interested in doing it ought to do it soon because the election is approaching.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If the gentleman would yield, and I thank the gentleman for yielding once again, you know this is a democracy. We claim to be the largest democracy in the world, the oldest democracy in the world, the most practicing and the most functioning democracy in the world, but nothing could be more tragic than to realize that fewer and fewer people are voting in our local, State, and national elections. There seems to be some kind of disconnect between the people's participation in this democracy and what takes place in the halls of this Congress and the State legislatures around our country. And so when one even talks about voter registration, the reality is we have sufficient enough technology in our country today. Whenever you get pulled over by a police officer, get pulled over by a state trooper or any law enforcement official, he can take your drivers license, and they can determine whether or not you are guilty or wanted of a felony or a misdemeanor in any of the 50 States. Because many of those police computers are connected to Interpol, we can find out within moments whether or not you are wanted for an international crime including terrorism or some international conspiracy. And so within moments we can find out whether or not you are guilty or wanted of some offense against this Nation or any nation around the world. And yet to participate in this democracy there still remains so many barriers, including a 30-day cut off before the Federal election or the local election. One of the States in our country that has the highest participation, which has absolutely no registration whatsoever, is the State of North Dakota. There is no voter register required. You just show up on election day, prove that you live in the State of North Dakota, can vote and keep right on about your business. So even voter registration, which is obviously important for political purposes, is really an outdated method for including and encouraging people to participate in the political process. But the gentleman touched upon something else that I want to, if he would not mind, allow me the opportunity to talk about for a moment, and that is the whole issue of why vote at all? Why participate in the political process? When I was teaching political organizing classes and political education classes for the Rainbow Coalition before I became a Member of this body, I used to teach that there were really three types--two types of material power, but really three types of power. Spiritual power is obviously an important power, but it is not a material power. So for the purposes of this discussion we will leave spiritual power out; really two types of material power: One is economic, and the other is political, and by definition poor people, disenfranchised people and increasingly growing body of students in our Nation, because they take student loans out to go to school, but at the end of school they cannot find a job, they cannot get the kind of employment that addresses the debt that they have received as a result of being a student; by definition poor people and disenfranchised people and students do not have economic power. What is available to them? The alternative is available. Political power. And why is political power so important? Political power and the political system really is the distribution system for the economic system. It is in this institution and in State legislatures around this country that we determine how the economic system in our Nation is distributed. Some of us on one given day may talk about tax cuts; others may refer to them as entitlements for the poor. Some of us may refer to them as welfare benefits. Others of us look at tax breaks for the wealthy. So it is called tax breaks if you are a wealthy person in this country, but if you are receiving a Federal benefit, it is called welfare. So even how it is labeled and what it is called in our society is the by-product of how we define it politically. So when people begin to see the relationship between their vote, it is easy to cut welfare in an election year. It is easy to attack the most vulnerable in an election year, because those who do not vote cannot defend themselves. Those who do vote will get a tax break. Those who do not vote will get their Federal benefits withdrawn, or even their constitutional rights violated or undermined, and I mean that by Democrats or by Republicans. We have to acknowledge that all of us, and many of us, have a political weakness when it comes to those vulnerable political, commercial type issues that could affect our reelection to this institution. So once people understand and begin to appreciate that the political system is really the distribution system for our economic system, I might add that they begin to participate in great numbers. No long ago one of the Presidential candidates had suggested that, for example, he would propose an across-the-board 15 percent tax cut. The next question I ask as an elected official is how is he going to pay for that tax cut. There is only one way to pay for it, do what General Powell said, eliminate the entitlement state as we know it. What are those entitlements? Those entitlements would be Medicare, Medicaid, and ending Social Security as we know it. That is really the only way to pay for a 15 percent across-the-board tax cut.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. We talked about one of the President's plans to rebuild schools, the physical infrastructure, and leverage that money, $5 billion, leverage it four times, to $20 billion, to $23 billion, to rebuild the infrastructure of our public school systems. But if in fact we are not paying what we should be paying in terms of taxes and making sure that those resources are not going to an over- bloated military budget, but are being directed in a way that can help the average American to help change the quality of their lives, not for the rich but for those who are most vulnerable.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. One of the campuses in North Carolina, right in front of the library has a statue, a statue of a famous North Carolinian. On that statue there is a placard that reads ``This Nation is democratic in direct proportion to its people's education.'' I remember that from 11 years ago when I was a student at North Carolina A&T. ``This Nation is democratic in direct proportion to its people's education.'' And guess what, the converse of that statement is also true: This Nation is undemocratic in direct proportion to the level of literacy and intelligence and education or lack of education thereof of its people. So one of the things that I found most valuable for getting students to participate is education. I simply tell them that they are the first generation of Americans who are graduating with a college degree, graduate with a college degree, and if they decide to go to graduate school, 3 years for law school or 4 to 8 years, however long it may take to get a medical degree, where they have so many student loans as a result of their college education that it fundamentally affects their career options and their alternatives. I chose public service. Fortunately, I went to North Carolina A&T State University. I played football for North Carolina A&T State University for a year or so before I received an academic scholarship. I left college not owing any money, so my genuine desire to become a public servant was directly related to me not owing $80,000 or $90,000 in bills that are associated with my college education. Had I owed $100,000, $110,000, $120,000 as a result of graduating from the seminary and graduating from law school, I quite probably would have had to have assumed a role in private, in the private sector or in private America, just to make the kind of salary that would address these bills. I share that with students, that when they graduate from college, that they are the first generation of Americans who are more than likely moving back home with their parents. Their moving back home with their parents is part of the political process. Many of them who are incubated by their college environment, when they leave college, they are finding for the very first time that there are more unemployed people in this Nation with college degrees and Master's degrees than at any other point in time in our Nation's history. They then engage the political system, and if they stop complaining about what they do not have and just start using what they have got, pick up their vote early one morning and exercise it, exercise it in an intelligent way, not just vote for exercise but exercise their right to vote and make a sound decision, this country will become more democratic.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 3759, a contentious bill which in my opinion is incorrectly being considered by the House today under suspension of the rules, a procedure normally reserved for noncontroversial measures. Just before we broke the August work period, a majority in this body voted to end Aid to Families with Dependent Children. This bill today will, in effect double one means of providing Aid to Dependent Corporations--the Overseas Private Investment Corporation--an agency of the Federal Government which provides welfare to America's largest corporations. OPIC bestows corporate welfare upon multinational corporations through direct loans, subsidized loan guarantees, and political risk insurance. Secured by U.S. taxpayer dollars, OPIC provides American Fortune 500 companies with the incentive to enter into risky transactions from which conventional lenders have shied away. With the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government backing up their business ventures, OPIC's corporate clients have eliminated thousands of American jobs. With the destabilizing effects of corporate downsizing on American workers and their families, we should not be providing incentives for America's corporate giants to invest abroad, taking advantage of low-wage labor costs, lower standards, and often exploitive working conditions of Third World countries, rather than reinvesting and creating good jobs at home. We need to raise their standards toward ours, not lower ours to meet theirs in this increasingly global economy. Mr. Speaker, at a time when our Government is calling upon the poor, children, and legal immigrants to make sacrifices in the name of balancing the Federal budget, I cannot imagine a more inappropriate climate in which to reauthorize--and, in fact, double--OPIC's financing authority from $9 to $20 billion and insurance ceilings from $13 to $25 billion. Under good circumstances, OPIC's corporate borrowers yield a private profit, boosting their bottomline and the dividends for their shareholders. Under bad circumstances, in the event that OPIC's multinational corporate borrowers default on their private obligation the burden becomes a public one. A private profit and a public loss-- that's socialism for the rich. It is the U.S. taxpayer who will bear the burden of the risky or unstable conditions surrounding these investments. It is true that OPIC has provided a vehicle for promoting investment in developing nations and regions previously ignored from projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Poland and to the now exploding investment opportunities in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union. I support foreign aid and direct investment, both private and public, in developing nations. But OPIC is a bad vehicle because it privatizes the corporate benefits but potentially leaves American taxpayers vulnerable to corporate losses. Have we not learned anything from the savings and loan debacle of the 1980's--just because there have not yet been huge losses associated with OPIC's investments, as its proponents claim, this does not guarantee future good fortune. The same claims of solvency were made by FSLIC, the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corporation until its crisis years. Hindsight is 20/20 one decade and $180 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars later. OPIC has already placed $8.7 billion of the U.S. taxpayer dollars at risk. In 1995, OPIC made loan guarantees to DuPont for $200 million, and $165 million for CocaCola; and provided $842 million in investment insurance for Citicorp, a company with a net income of $3.5 billion in that same year. We cannot continue to underwrite the foreign investments of America's largest corporations. In doubling OPIC's corporate welfare, we are, in effect, aiding and abetting the downsizing of the American work force and the downsizing of the American dream. Let me be clear * * * We just ended welfare--Government assistance to millions of poor people in our own communities, yet we are providing Government assistance to companies to invest in foreign countries. Before we take care of people in other countries we must take care of our people here at home. Imagine what we could do if we invested the $120 million we're talking about today to leverage investments in our cities, our neighborhoods, and communities. It should not be used to make it easier for American companies to invest in Warsaw businesses when Polish- Americans on the southside of Chicago can't receive the same type of assistance. Mr. Speaker, from the Congressional Progressive Caucus to the centrist Progressive Policy Institute to the conservative Progress and Freedom Foundation, opposition to this egregious form of corporate welfare spans the political and ideological spectrum. I urge my colleagues to end corporate welfare as we know it and vote ``no'' on H.R. 3759.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by taking this opportunity to thank the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Fields] for being so kind as to allow me the privilege of participating in this special order. I was in my district this past August, certainly there for the Democratic convention, but also in town hall meetings and working with constituents. I had the opportunity to talk to, as I do on many occasions, some young people in my district, some of whom were fulfilling their responsibilities with their summer jobs. Some of the young people for the very first time, it really set me aback, Mr. Fields, when one of the young men said he had three friends who had been to the university. I said, ``They have been to what college?'' North Carolina A&T State, that is where I graduated, and you went to Southern Louisiana in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I said, ``What university did they go to?'' They said, ``No, we are talking about the university in Joliet.'' I know, as well as the gentleman probably knows, as well as millions of Americans know there is no university in Joliet. What he was referring to was the jail in Joliet. Now it is becoming more street language, if you will, more street-appropriate, to not refer to jail as a place of incarceration but to refer to it as a university. My father always says that it is a real sad day in our country when jails are becoming a step up. After all, in jails they have heat in the wintertime and they have air conditioning in the summertime. They have three square meals a day. They have organized recreation. They have health care and medical attention while they are in jail. They have library facilities. They have organized religion; certainly spiritual development, even if it is done on an ad hoc or unofficial basis. You can get your high school diploma while you are in jail. You can get a GED. For many people in my district, certainly in the City of Chicago and around the country, many young men are now joining their fathers for the first time in jails. This is the first time we are looking at two and three generations of young men and in many cases young women who are part of our penal system. One of the reasons I am so impressed with the President's initiative to rebuild the infrastructure of schools in our Nation, what we are really trying to do here is put jails on an even playing field, a level playing field, with the schools. We want the schools to be raised to the levels where they become a real choice, a real alternative for our young people. On President Clinton's proposal, this new initiative to help local communities and States rebuild the Nation's schools. Here are the realities. One-third of all schools, serving about 14 million students, need extensive repair or replacement. According to the GAO, about 60 percent of schools have at least one major building feature in disrepair, such as leaky roofs or crumbling walls. Over 50 percent have at least one environmental problem, such as poor indoor quality of air. Second, schools do not have the physical infrastructure to allow our students to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Many schools do not have the physical infrastructure to make the best use of computers, printers, or other equipment. About 50 percent, about 46 percent of the schools report inadequate electrical wiring for computers and communications technology. We have already passed a bill in this Congress. Now we must update the schools so they can be the recipients, the much-needed recipients of the legislation we passed in this body. Expected enrollment growth imposes an additional burden on many of these physical facilities. Many school districts also face the need to build new schools to accommodate this enrollment growth. Public school enrollment in grades K through 12 is expected to rise 20 percent between 1990 and 2004. So the President's proposal to spend $5 billion rebuilding the infrastructure of our Nation's schools is very timely and very important. I realize we are both Members of this distinguished body, and I know we are both very supportive of this proposal, but I would encourage constituents of other Members to certainly call their office to let them know that they support this initiative. They can do that simply by calling 202-225-3121. Call your Member of Congress and say this is a very important proposal that should be supported. There are the key elements to the President's legislative initiative, the school construction initiative, that we should highlight. Up to 50 percent interest subsidy for new school construction and renovation. This initiative will reduce the interest cost on new school construction and renovation projects by up to 50 percent with a sliding subsidy scale, depending on the school district's needs. There is $20 billion in school construction spurred by $5 billion in Federal jump- start funding over 4 years. The interest reduction is equivalent to subsidizing $1 billion out of every $4 billion in construction and renovation spending. There is a goal of 25 percent increase in school construction over 4 years. National spending on school construction and renovation is currently at about $10 billion a year, or $40 billion over 4 years. By focusing on incremental or net additional construction projects, this initiative aims to ensure that at least half of the $20 billion supported by Federal subsidies would not be otherwise incurred, a one- time construction initiative fully paid by a one-time spectrum auction. This part of the bill is controversial, because I have certainly raised concerns in my own district and certainly in my city about our constant using of spectrum auctions for the purpose of financing these projects. But who can deny that rebuilding the infrastructures of our schools does not warrant the need for us to consider selling additional spectra, particularly between channels 60 and 69, to help jump-start this proposal. State and local governments must maintain responsibility and control. The States would administer the bulk of the subsidies, while the largest school districts would apply directly to the U.S. Department of Education. Let me just add this, Mr. Speaker. In my district, particularly in the south suburban part of the Second Congressional District, we have seen the steel industry leave. We have seen large manufacturing jobs leave our area. Therefore, we are now putting a disproportionate amount of the education and the local municipality's burden for social services on local homeowners. One way beyond the welfare bill to put people back to work is to get industries to relocate to these areas so they can share their fair share of the tax burden. But in the absence of industries that are getting to these areas, we have declining schools in Harvey, in Markham, in Phoenix, in Dixmoor, in Ford Heights, that need a boost that only the Federal Government at this time can provide.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I think that the leveraging, I might add, of the $5 billion, the GAO has also suggested that it could be upwards of $20 billion when you consider local and State and even private funds that would go into such an initiative.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Is this another big government program that is coming from Washington, DC, another big bureaucracy that we are trying to create? I am sure we will be hearing a lot of that.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I know that the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas spent a considerable amount of time engaging in the debate that took place on the floor of this Congress. I know she was very active in the committee. I think we have to move now, though, to the meat and the potatoes of this initiative. It is easy for this initiative, in 1996, during this particular period, to be called campaign rhetoric and empty promises, unless we move our discourse to how are we going to pay for this. Can this be paid for. I know that not long ago we passed an appropriations measure in this Congress that increased the military budget by $7 billion more than the President requested. I know that we are talking about balancing the budget in 7 years using CBO numbers. The President has made that commitment. We have heard those numbers mentioned on both sides of the aisle. Whether or not it is actually doable in 7 years is another issue. But I do not want this proposal, and I think the gentleman from Louisiana and other members on both sides of the aisle, they do not want this proposal to get lost in pork barrel election year rhetoric. Can we afford this proposal?

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If I may, I would like to share with the gentlewoman an instance in my district. There is a high school called Bloom High School located in a south suburb and area in my district, and we tried twice to pass a referendum whereby we would increase property taxes to roughly the cost of a can of soda. And what actually ended up happening was it failed twice. So we sent our workers into the field to find out why we could not pass this referendum. A little bit about the school: This school begins classes at 9 o'clock in the morning and roughly ends about 1 o'clock. We cannot afford to pay the teachers a full salary. This is a high school with a tremendous amount of students. Even one of our more famous syndicated columnists is a graduate of this particular high school. We found that our senior citizens whose incomes have basically stagnated, who would traditionally vote to help students and pay for more and better schools, decided to vote against the referendum because of their stagnated incomes. They do not feel they can afford even the equivalent of a can of soda or a bag of potato chips a day to help subsidize the local school. The middle class in this area, their incomes have likewise stagnated. So the students were caught in the middle, the school almost closing. The State funding formula in our State is a little regressive. Therefore this particular school district does not have the same kind of funding that schools in the northern part of the city of Chicago or other more affluent suburbs have. So I certainly recognize that the gentlewoman's concern about schools in her district are very similar to referendums that we have fought in our district. Voters want to vote for better schools, but if their incomes have stagnated and they do not feel that a can of soda or a bag of potato chips is worth the increase because they do not see the real, if you will, the real dividends in terms of cost-benefit to their actual contribution to the school system, then our students again are caught in the middle.

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Will the gentleman yield for a question? Mr. Speaker, my colleague mentioned schools in her dsitrict where the roofs had actually collapsed. What local initiatives are taking place in her district to repair those schools and in what way could the President's proposal help subsidize those initiatives?