Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker let me apologize to the gentleman who I said earlier was from Nevada. We have so many good-looking freshmen faces that sometimes I just assume they are from all out West somewhere, and throw all those categories out there. I apologize, and I yield to the gentleman from Arizona.

Mr. KINGSTON. One of the things that is dear to the heart of every American citizen, Mr. Speaker, and particularly Virginia legislators, because it has the first House of Burgesses, which was the first legislative body in America, Jamestown, as the gentleman recalls from our history, the Jamestown Colony, many of the people who came over had their job classification as gentlemen. They thought they were coming to America, to the streets of gold, and so forth, the land of opportunity. They did not realize it had a work requirement to it. As a result, I think half of the crew perished that first and very harsh winter. Then Captain John Smith said, all right, there is going to be a new game. Everybody is going to work. When they did, the colony survived. What we are saying is that if you are able to work, you are going to be required to work, and you are going to be better for it because you can join the socioeconomic mainstream. President Clinton loves to tell the story about the little boy who says, ``The best thing about my Mama being off welfare is because when people ask me what she does, I can say she has a job,'' so we are very much in line, here. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to recognize the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Shadegg], who is here to join us, and I will yield to the gentleman.

Mr. KINGSTON. I will say one thing, Mr. Speaker, that we all who are parents know the joy of holding our own child for the first time. You can hold your nephew or niece, you can hold a friend's baby, and you can love that baby and go to bat for him time and time again and care for him very deeply, but when you hold your own baby it is a whole new ball game. The difference is we have Washington bureaucrats, and as well-minded as they may be about the children in California, in Maryland, in Georgia, and I am sure they love them to death, and I am sure they would never use children as political pawns, but the fact is the folks in Georgia, California, and Maryland love our kids a heck of a lot better than Washington bureaucrats, regardless of how great they may be up here. welfare Mr. Speaker, we want to move to our next topic, which ties into the family. It ties into the tax burden. That is that of welfare. The gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Ehrlich] had mentioned that earlier. I could tell he was chomping at the bit. I need to congratulate the two gentlemen for their leadership on this issue, because it is truly because their freshman class has been so persistent when the President has twice vetoed welfare reform, and you two have fought hard to bring it back to the floor time and time again. Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed the President vetoed welfare twice, but that is part of the process. The fact is in our American system, hey, it is 3 months away from election, and he is going to sign it. He is going to sign it for that reason. I understand that, and I will not complain about it if we get a bill and we help get children out of the poverty trap, so they can enjoy the social and economic mainstream.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman mentioned the family members. I think it is appropriate as we are focusing on the widows and on the 14 children and grandchildren that I enter into the Record their names and say a little bit of who the athletes were who now are known as the Munich 11. I will do this, and then I will yield the floor to Mr. Deal and Mr. Fox, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, who has joined us. The Munich 11: David Berger, 28. Weight lifter. Born in Cleveland, OH; graduated from Colombia University, degrees in law, economics, and psychology. Immigrated to Israel in 1970 where he worked as a lawyer. Zeev Friedman, 28 years old. Weight lifter. Survived by his parents and sister. Born in Poland; immigrated to Israel in 1960. Yoseph Gutfreund, age 40. International wrestling judge and referee. Survived by his wife and two daughters. Born in Romania. He was a businessman in Jerusalem. Eliezer Halfin, 24. Wrestler. Survived by his parents and sister. Born in the Soviet Union; immigrated to Israel in 1969. He was a mechanic. Yoseph Romano, age 32. Coach of the weight lifters. Survived by his wife and three daughters. Amizur Shapira, age 40. Track coach. Survived by his wife and four children. Born in Israel. Kehat Shor, age 53. Shooting coach. Born in Romania; immigrated to Israel in 1963. Survived by his wife and a married daughter. Yaacov Shpringer, age 50. International judge and referee in wrestling. Born in Poland and immigrated to Israel in 1956. Survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter. Mark Slavin, died at age 18. Wrestler. Born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel in 1972. Survived by his parents, a brother, and a sister. Andre Spitzer, 27. Fencing coach. Born in Romania. Survived by his wife and a daughter. Moshe Weinberg, died, age 33. Wrestling coach. Born in Israel. Survived by his wife and baby. And now I would like to say the names of the children, because I think it is so important for us to make sure that we are focusing on a very human tragedy, although an international one, certainly a very personal one, too. Shirly Shapira, Shay Shapira, Oz Shapria, Eyal Shapira, Alex Shpringer, Eugenia Shpringer, Anouk Spitzer, Shlomit Romano, Rachel Romano, Oshrat Romano, Gur Weingberg, Michal Shorr, Yael Gutfreund, Yehudit Gutfreund. These are the children. These are the real people that are affected by this. I don't have all seven names of the widows. I would like to submit that to the Record, and I will work on getting those names. I am going to read you just a couple of quotes before I yield to you. This is a comment by Shlomit Romano, 24-year-old daughter of the weightlifting coach who was killed. ``They were killed and it's over? We didn't say the word daddy once in our whole lives and nobody remembers.'' To live your life without knowing your dad. Then here is a word from Guri Weinberg. ``A lot of people say I look like my dad and move like him, I talk like him. But I don't know.'' He never had the chance to know his dad. These are just two of the quotes of the children. And that registers on the heart not just of everyone here in Congress and everyone here in America, but citizens throughout the world. Let me yield to Mr. Deal.

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me yield with pleasure to the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox].

Mr. KINGSTON. We thank the gentleman for joining us tonight, and we thank you for your efforts and energy that you have put into supporting the peace process in the Middle East. You know, the sad footnote of this world tragedy is as the world went on, there were other world events, there were other plans that were high-jacked and other people that were taken hostage and there were other sad things. But getting back to the families, what they wanted, at the time the chancellor said, ``Let's continue the Olympics, but let's fly the flags at half staff.'' A number of countries would not do that, so the mandate was lifted and flags were not flown at half staff. Well, as respects the survivors, the families, OK. You know, it is sad, but that was not their No. 1 priority then. But now, as these 14 children get older, there is a kind of therapeutic value to saying it would be nice if the International Olympics Committee and Juan Antonio Samaranch would acknowledge that it happened. In a quote that I wanted to read from Mrs. Spitzer, she said: You know, we don't ask that they mention 11 Israelis or 11 Jews. We Jews ask that they mention the 11 athletes who came to participate in the international games with a spirit of peace and brotherhood, and went home in coffins. What they wanted the other night in Atlanta was not even a moment of silence. They just want it to be acknowledged that these kids, these families, had come, incidentally, not on their government, but by their own paycheck, with their own money, out of pocket, had come just to mention. And they sat there disappointed as Sarajevo was mentioned, and yet, nothing. And I believe that that is why this memorial dedication in Atlanta by the Atlanta Jewish Federation on Sunday is so important, just to let them know that the world cares and that we do love them and that we do respect them. I know, having had death in my family, that there is certain therapeutic value to rituals, certain comfort in human acknowledgment of that tragedy. The families, Mrs. Romano, Mrs. Spitzer, and the other five widows, have tried for over 20 years now, the Montreal games, Russia, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Sarajevo, now Atlanta, just for something, just to let us know. It is important. We are spending now, and I believe it is correct, $46.5 million on security. I do not want that, and I do not think they want that, to be the only legacy of Munich. They want something a little bit more, peace. I think it is positive that Palestine is participating in the Olympics. That shows that the peace process that we all support is moving forward. This is not trying to rehash that. This is just saying, let us move on, but you have got to acknowledge it happened.

Mr. KINGSTON. I will be glad to yield.

Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentlemen from Georgia, Mr. Linder and Mr. Deal, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Fox, and I thank the gentleman from New York, Mr. Gilman, for being here. I will close with this, an old U.S. Army tradition of the rollcall. The rollcall that they have in the Army at celebrations, not celebrations but melancholy tributes, they call the roll of their fallen comrades. I will close with that, and then I want to yield the floor to the gentleman from Utah. Berger, Friedman, Guttfreund, Halfin, Romano, Shapira, Shorr, Springer, Slavin, Spitzer, Weinberg.

Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. KINGSTON. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, it has been said that friction between nations and people and different philosophies can often be brought down by a dialogue, getting over things. There is a very touching story that happened as a consequence of the Civil War. Atlanta was the site of probably the turning point in the Civil War when the North invaded the South and Sherman's troops were victorious and basically burned Atlanta to the ground. The highest commanding general under Sherman was a man named McPherson. He died in Atlanta, and there is a monument built to him in Atlanta, GA, that is respected by the sons of Confederates and the sons of the northern soldiers. The story I want to tell, though, has to do with Gen. Joseph Johnston, who was defeated in Atlanta. Now years after the war, he and William Tecumseh Sherman were not buddies, but they were friends. They reconciled their differences. When General Sherman died, his funeral was in New York. As his casket was going down the street, Gen. Joseph Johnston, southern Confederate general, took his hat off to honor his dead comrade, although on a different side of the fence. Because he did that, he later caught a cold, subsequently pneumonia, and died. On his deathbed, people said, ``Why did you take your hat off for General Sherman, our arch enemy?'' And he said, ``Because he would have taken it off for me. The war is over.'' For these family members, Munich is not over. I think it would be just and proper for the international community to acknowledge the tragedy so that they can move on and this peace process, which is so important to all of us, so important to the world balance, can go and move forward, maybe with just a little more momentum. As I said before, let us not have the legacy to them just be increased security. Let us have the legacy to the deaths of the Munich 11 be a happier world for their children and their grandchildren through peace.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record additional information on the Munich 11 memorial: The Munich 11 Memorial On the evening of Sunday July 28, 1996, the Atlanta Jewish Federation will be hosting, on behalf of the Olympic Committee of Israel (OCI), a gala reception for representatives of the IOC, National Olympic Committees and the Israeli Olympic Team. Preceding the reception will be the first-ever memorial service for the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who were killed by Palestinian terrorists in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich (the Munich 11). Family members of the victims were invited by the Federation and will be in attendance for the service and the dedication of a memorial sculpture. The three-foot sculpture, which will be unveiled for the first time at the July 28 service, incorporates an eternal flame, the Olympic rings and the names of the victims. As the Olympic rings reflect on the mirrored stainless steel base of the sculpture, the viewer will see eleven rings, symbolizing the fallen athletes and coaches. Quite literally, the mirror creates a reflection on past Olympic games, but also projects the positive image of the Olympic spirit in the future. The names of the athletes and coaches are carved into the sculpture's base in English and in Hebrew and are accompanied by their event symbols. Within the center ring will burn an eternal flame, to be lit by one of the family members of a slain athlete. There will be a media room at the July 28 event for interviews with the family members, Israeli dignitaries and members of the Israeli team. Pre-event media clearance is mandatory for attendance. For more information about the Israeli Olympic Team, the Israeli Olympic Team Reception or the Munich 11 Memorial, or to obtain media clearance, please contact Lynne Tobins at (404) 870-1860 or for time-sensitive inquiries, (770) 379- 9439. The Atlanta Jewish Federation, the primary fundraising, budgeting, social planning and community relations body for Atlanta's 70,000-plus Jewish community, supports over 300 social and humanitarian programs each year in Atlanta, Israel and 58 countries around the world. Remarks given by Stephen Selig, President, Atlanta Jewish Federation at the July 22 press conference held at the Israeli Consulate for the children of the Munich 11: ``I am Stephen Selig, president of the Atlanta Jewish Federation. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the families of the Munich 11. ``This is an historical time for the Jewish community of Atlanta. Not only have we opened and dedicated the Federation's beautiful new building. The Selig Center, we have been proud to take part in the once-in-a-lifetime experience of hosting the world for the Centennial Olympic Games. The Atlanta Jewish community is also proud to do what is right--what is appropriate--for a community to do. We are stopping for a moment--amid the festivities and celebration--to remember the 11 athletes and coaches who were slain in the 1972 Munich Games. ``We join the families of the Munich 11 in their guest to keep the memory of this tragedy alive. On Sunday, July 28, the Atlanta Jewish Federation will hold a memorial service and dedicate a commemorative sculpture which will remain a permanent part of the Selig Gardens and will ensure that even as the world celebrates the triumph of the human body and spirit, it will never forget the need for vigilance against terrorism and hate. We are pleased that the International Olympic Committee has agreed to participate in this memorial service and dedication. ``I'd like to invite all members of the media to join us, so they can help us convey to the world that what happened in Munich must be properly acknowledged and never forgotten.''

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield the floor to the gentleman from Utah [Mr. Hansen]. secretary babbitt's strained relationship with congress

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I certainly thank the distinguished gentleman from New York for participating and all the work that he does for international peace and fighting international terrorism, because we need people like him involved in this and the leadership. What I wanted to do, Mr. Speaker, is kind of maybe draw a picture of that tragic night of September 5 when the athletes were all bedding down for the evening and a young Andre Spitzer had called his wife, Ankie. They had only been married about 15 months at the time, and they had a new daughter 2 months old, Anouk. They were very happy. They talked a little bit about the games to come up, about his role as fencing coach, and then they talked about the new daughter and how happy they were. And that night as they hung up the phone, Andre said to Ankie, I love you. Then he, along with 10 other athletes, went to bed that night, and they had come so far for their own talents of wrestling, fencing, shooting, track, and weightlifting. As they put their head on the pillow, their hearts were inspired, their minds maybe a bit anxious, their emotions certainly somewhat eager. As they went to bed they were confident that with the morning light they would have a daytime opportunity to realize a dream that they had indeed had all their life, but instead they were awakened to darkness and awakened in a nightmare. Mr. Gilman talked about this. I will reiterate a little bit of exactly what has happened. There are a lot of different accounts but generally, as Mr. Gilman said, at 5:30 a.m., a group burst into the Israelis' quarters. Only one Israeli, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sikulski escaped the first attack. And another one, Gadza Barry, a wrestler, escaped during the fight. In fact, six of the team members escaped into safety, one of the members, Moshe Weinberg, only 33 years old, held the door against the attackers, hollering over his shoulder to his friends inside the dormitory, get out, escape while you can, and they began breaking the windows with their hands, and yet a burst from an AK-47, and that was all for Mr. Weinberg. Yoseph Romano, a 32-year-old weight lifter, was also killed during fighting with the terrorists. Nine others could not escape. Nine others were trapped, and they fought with knives, but certainly were overpowered with the heavy artillery of the terrorists. Their hands were tied behind their backs and they were forced to hobble to a central location. And what ensued was 21 hours of pure hell as they went from location to location, as negotiations began, negotiations broke down, and the threats from the terrorists to kill a hostage each hour went out. The families sat by helpless. Indeed, authorities and people from all over the world sat by helpless. And it went on until about 10:20 that night. They were taken out to an airport, and at that time a faulty rescue mission took place. There were so many mixed signals, so many ideas that were aborted and so many, I guess just scared and skittishness, that, as Mr. Gilman said, only five West German sharpshooters were able to get there, and, of course, there were eight terrorists. Five of the terrorists were killed. But during the battle that lasted for about 1\1/2\ hours, in cold blood, a hand grenade was thrown into the helicopter that had the nine hostages, and they were killed. It was a very sad situation, obviously, for the family, and a very dark chapter in the history of the world. I want to talk about the shattered effect this has had on the families, but I also wanted to acknowledge and thank the gentlemen from Georgia, Mr. Deal, and Mr. Linder, for joining us, and I would be happy to yield the floor to either of you if you would like to talk at this time, if you want to. But we appreciate your sympathy to the families and acknowledging them.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, 24 years ago this summer, this August, people from all over the world started turning their eyes toward Munich for the summer Olympics. That was one of many historic Olympic games that were held. While the world turned there and many went there to pursue gold and silver and bronze medals, others went there and returned only with memories. And 11 members of the international committee, Olympic athletes, did not come home. Tonight we want to discuss this tragic page in world events. I have with me the distinguished gentleman from New York, Congressman Ben Gilman, who I want to yield the floor to tonight. He has been waiting. Congress, as you know, Mr. Speaker, adjourned several hours ago but he has been waiting to make a statement. I am going to yield the floor because I understand he has an engagement and I do not want to hold him up, but I certainly appreciate him participating.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas] for yielding the time to me. I have concerns. I support the Thomas bill and not the Farr bill. I have concerns that the Farr bill does not address this worker right to know issue. The people, the rank and file dues-paying union members who are concerned about the second amendment, they want to keep their guns. They are concerned about the issue of abortion or balancing the budget and so forth. They do not know where their money is going. They are told that their PAC is bipartisan. Let me talk to you about bipartisan PAC's. Here is the actual campaign dollars spent in 1994 by certain PAC's. AFL-CIO, $804,000; 99.15 percent going to Democrats. The American Trial Lawyers Association, $1,759,000; 95 percent of it going to Democrats. The Longshoremen, $300,000; 96 percent going to Democrats. Here is one, Mr. Chairman, my colleagues will really like, the rank and file workers are told that the Democrat Republican Independent Voter Education Committee is a bipartisan PAC, but $2,131,000 was spent on Democrats or 97 percent of their total budget. They should change the name and just call this the Democrat status quo PAC. The NEA, the National Education Association, $1,968,000; 99 percent of it going to Democrats. I say there is nothing wrong with rank and file union members being told, hey, 99 percent of your money is going to the Democrat party who stands against the balanced budget, who stands against protecting and increasing Medicare, who stands for all kinds of left wing causes like taking your guns away and so forth. I just think that the guys back home would like to know that if you are told your PAC is bipartisan, it is not. I have a whole list of them, Mr. Chairman. I will submit these for the Record. The fact is, our American workers have the right to know where their money is spent. I say vote ``no'' on Farr; vote ``yes'' for Thomas. Mr. Chairman, I include for the Record the following information: Donors--Who's really snared by special interest groups? [PAC Funding--1994 House of Representatives Race] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PAC Democrat Republican ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AFL-CIO....................................... $804,709 (99.15%) $6,880 (0.85%) American Federation of Teachers............... $1,053,690 (99.33%) $7,000 (0.66%) ATL........................................... $1,759,285 (95.00%) $92,500 (5.00%) Human Rights.................................. $470,495 (96.51%) $17,000 (3.49%) Community Action Program...................... $42,250 (96.57%) $1,500 (3.43%) Democrat Republican Independent Voter Ed. Committee.................................... $2,131,517 (97.82%) $47,475 (2.18%) ILGWU......................................... $229,672 (96.51%) $8,070 (3.49%) Int'l Longshoreman's Assoc.................... $300,125 (96.66%) $10,350 (3.33%) IUE........................................... $204,050 (100%) $0 (0.00%) Int'l Union of Bricklayers.................... $143,550 (98.97%) $1,500 (1.03%) NEA........................................... $1,968,750 (99.00%) $19,800 (1.00%) Office and Professional Employees............. $65,150 (98.49%) $1,000 (1.51%) Service Employees Int'l....................... $699,694 (98.18%) $13,000 (1.82%) UAW Voluntary Comm. Action.................... $1,914,376 (99.25%) $14,455 (0.75%) ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw any reference from my speech to lying.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, there is an old saying that when you cannot dazzle people with your brilliance, you baffle them with your bull. Certainly that seems to be the theme of the Democrat Party today, . . . one after the other, saying that the Speaker said Medicare should wither on the vine. They know, as do their AFL-CIO comrades, that the statement was that HCFA, the Health Care Financing Administration, would wither on the vine. This thing is so important that even television stations have taken this AFL-CIO-Democrat ad off the air because it is a lie. It is amazing, when they speak with such forked tongue, that they come up here and ask for bipartisanship . . . . The other thing that they are saying is that the Republican plan cuts Medicare. The Republican plan goes from $190 to $304 billion. I wish that my Democrat friends would join me in increasing Medicare from $5,000 to $7,000 per person. It would be great if they would like to join us in increasing and protecting and preserving Medicare. I ask them to . . . join us in true reform.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Thank you, Mr. Farr. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to talk a little bit in regards to tax relief and economic issues and jobs. I got a call last night from a gentleman, a father from Pennsylvania, had two kids, and I could tell he was a lot like my middle-class friends back home, struggling to make the ends meet. And he just left a message, ``Please keep us in mind; keep working.'' I think about this man. I think about the women I see that are my wife's friends, who are around the neighborhood raising those 3-year- olds, those 5-year-olds. I drive the carpool every Monday when school is in, and when I am driving the carpool, quite often I get out and I talk to people. Mostly it is women. There are a few other dads, but, fortunately, one of the good benefits about this job is we do have some odd hours during the day and we are a little more flexible when we are home. I see these families struggling. They save a little money, but at the end of the month instead of going down to Florida for the weekend, they have to spend it on a new dryer, or they have a car payment, or the house mortgage is payable. And they can manage it, but then they want to do something else to the house, a little modification, or they have to put in a new stove or oven, or something like that, and there is no money at the end of the month. We passed a $500-per-child tax credit. If you had two kids, this gentleman, this family in Pennsylvania, that would have been $1,000 more that they could have. Is that a tax cut for the rich? I do not think so, Mr. Speaker. What that thousand dollars would have meant for this middle-class man is that he and his wife could have bought a few more pairs of tennis shoes, a few more clothes, or maybe they could have gone to another ball game this summer and seen the Philadelphia Phillies do something. It just would have been a good thing for them. That was vetoed. We are going to keep working on that, Mr. Speaker, because that $500-per-child middle-class tax cut is important. Another thing that we have passed is an increased deduction for the home-office tax. In this day and age, with two-income families and high-technology, men and women have an opportunity to work at home. I think of Liz Simpson. She is a neighbor of mine, a friend of mine, an underwriter with an insurance company, and she was able to hook up by modem to her business and stay at home with their little boy, John, and their other child so that she could spend a little more time but also continue earning a living there at home. It gave her a lot of flexibility, and I am glad we increased this home-office tax deduction. We also had a thousand dollar elder deduction so that if your elderly mom or dad, because of medical or economic necessity, has to move in with you, you can deduct up to $1,000, again, helping that sandwich generation, you know the ones who have dependent children and dependent parents. And they are getting squeezed one more time. We need to do things like this for the American middle class. Above all, Mr. Speaker, of course we have to balance that budget. We are paying $20 billion each month interest on the national debt, and that money could be going to education, could be going to health care, could be going to crime prevention. All it is doing is paying the bondholders on the national debt. If we balance the budget, we can bring down interest rates, which would bring down the cost of home mortgages and automobile payments. It would stimulate the economy. On small business entrepreneurs, do my colleagues know, Mr. Speaker, that one-third of the small businesses in America are owned by women? If they could get money cheaper, borrow money at lower interest rates, then these female entrepreneurs could create more jobs, expand their businesses, create more opportunities and in turn earn more and be able to spend more leisure time at home, which is very important to the American family these days. In terms of other family issues, we have got to increase security back home. A friend of mine called me. Obviously, I am not going to mention her name, but this woman was in her house. It was about 10:00 in the morning, mid-morning, washing her 3-year-old. The door bell rang. She goes to the door bell. She sees somebody through the curtain and does not open the door and goes back to the bathroom where she is bathing the baby. The guy kicks in the door, comes in and rapes her. Does not hurt the child, fortunately. Do you know, Mr. Speaker, that this rapist only was sentenced for 3 years. They caught him but he was sentenced for 3 years. I never would have known about the story except she called me because she was notified that he was getting out. They have a law in Georgia that you notify the victims when somebody on probation is coming. That just makes your stomach cringe, Mr. Speaker. This thug, this deadbeat who kicks down the door on a housewife at home and then only gets 3 years, that is why we need truth in sentencing. Mr. Speaker, it says, if you are sentenced for 10 years, 15 years, then you serve 10 years or 15 years. You serve your full sentence. I want to say this, that when folks are in prison, they ought to have work requirements and they ought to have education requirements. They ought to be out there busting bricks. Hard work, 40 hours a week. Education, 20 hours a week. That adds up to 60 hours. And do you know what, Mr. Speaker? That is what my middle-class friends are working anyhow. The people who are paying the taxes, they are not doing it on 40 hours a week anymore. They are running around doing all kinds of things. Sixty hours a week for a prisoner, that is nothing. Another case, heart breaker, a man calls me at home. His daughter, 12 years old, was spending the night at a friend's house and was raped by the friend's older brother who was 19 years old. He called me, Mr. Speaker, because it had been 3 or 4 weeks and the police had yet to pick up the rapist. When the daughter was raped, they took her to the hospital. They got the fluid samples and all the necessary identifications for this horrible experience. Yet it was 3 weeks. The reason why it was 3 weeks, I talked to the authorities about this, is that the police were so afraid of messing the case up because of all the loopholes that we now have in our court system that allows trial lawyers to bend and manipulate the system to get rapists, 19-year-old rapists who rape 12- year-olds, get them off because a police officer did not dot an I or cross a T, or the arrest papers. So in the meanwhile, while the police are out very carefully, meticulously building up a case on this, guess what? The 19-year-old is still driving by the house every day. The little 12-year-old who is now in trauma, who is now in therapy, she still sees this guy out walking the streets. We have an absurd court system right now, Mr. Speaker. We have got to get common sense back in it. We have got to say common sense is that we want to give everybody a fair trial, but it has got to be one that is governed by common sense, not by technicalities and loopholes. Justice should not be determined by money and whoever is the cleverest. It should be determined by what is right. So in this Congress, we have worked hard to crack down on criminal thugs and in lawsuits. Another problem, Mr. Speaker, that is adding to the stress of the middle class has to do with the fact that drugs are just going crazy on our streets. Earlier tonight the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] had a chart that showed how drug usage has been going up in the last 3 or 4 years. One of the reasons is because we had cut funding on drug awareness programs. Mr. Speaker, I have been in a lot of schools in my district, the First District of Georgia. I have spoken to the DARE classes, drug education for eighth graders and seventh graders and sixth graders and fifth graders, telling them what illegal drugs are all about, what the consequences are about. Do you know, Mr. Speaker, that the average age right now nationwide for trying marijuana is 13 years old? That is the bad news. The good news is, if we can keep a child drug-free until he or she is 19 years old, then, Mr. Speaker, they have a 95-percent chance of being drug- free the rest of their life. So what we have got to do as families, as educators and as government officials and as a society is keep our kids drug-free until they are 19. If we can do that, they are 95-percent home free, and that is one of the things we have got to do. I believe drug education is extremely important for the youth of today. Now, in terms of the pushers, we have got to be very tough on sentencing for pushers. Let us get them off the street. Let us protect our families again. Health care is one more security issue that we have got to deal with as a society. We right now are trying to pass a bill that gets portability on health care. Very important for people who have job lock because of some situation that they can switch from job to job. My wife, Libby, her college roommate, a young lady named Kathy Haggard, was working for a bank when she discovered that she had cancer. And God rest her, she lost the battle. But during the period that she was fighting it, she went into remission for a short period of time. She was engaged. She, I think, was living in Atlanta and her fiance was living in Birmingham. They, Mr. Speaker, could not get married because Kathy could not quit working for her bank in Atlanta because, if she did, she could not get insurance through her fiance's insurer in Birmingham. So this young lady sadly lost the battle to cancer. She went to her grave without ever being able to marry, which is, as you know, probably one of the most wonderful things that anybody can experience. And if we had portability on health care, people like that would be helped by it, Mr. Speaker. That is something very important. Medical savings accounts. Something that I am very big on, and I know you have worked hard on it. Medical savings accounts would allow middle-class people to take health care with a high deduction and with that deduction it would be funded through a special account, kind of an escrow account. And out of that escrow, middle-class people would pay for their kids stitches, for pediatric shots, for their glasses, the small things. And at the end of the year, the middle-class families would get the money out of the account and get to keep it. They could use it for a college education account, if they wanted to, or they could put it in their pocket. They could spend it for Christmas money. This is a tool that middle-class families need all over America, Mr. Speaker. It is something that we are working on, and we have got to keep working for. The breast cancer situation. Breast cancer now gets, I believe, it was a couple years ago the statistic was one out of every nine women. Now it is even higher than that. And we have increased funding on breast cancer research in this Congress. We have also expanded Medicare coverage to include breast cancer. It is something that we have to do to make sure that our mothers and our sisters are well protected, because so much of it, if detected early, we could prevent. Our colleagues, John Myers and Barbara Vucanovich, have been great champions on this because of personal family situations. John Myers brought to the Committee on Agriculture, the ag subcommittee that overseas FDA, this plastic looking device. It was a circle about this big. And he put a grain of salt on the committee table and he put this on it and he said, find the salt with your hands. And you could feel the spec. This was a device that would not substitute for a medical exam, but it is something that in their own houses women could use for just kind of a home breast cancer analysis. And, Mr. Speaker, the FDA fought us on that. They did not want to approve the device. I believe that American women would know that a home analysis is no substitute for a doctor's analysis. But give them the tool. Because not only could the tool detect it, but it would raise the interest level, raise the awareness level. And you and I know, as men, when we are over 40, we have to start testing for prostate cancer and so forth. Preventative medicine has got to be part of the health care planning. I truly support the efforts to increase awareness of health in the school systems and so forth, because if we can get our kids exercising and eating right early, we will have less problems down the road. Mr. Speaker, I am going to just close with this. Another thing we can do for the middle class is to have good education systems. We have increased student loans from $24 to $36 billion in this Congress in our budget. That is going to expand the availability of a college education for many middle-class kids. I think that that would be good. But to the classrooms back home, Mr. Speaker, we want to get the bureaucracy out. A school teacher in Darien, GA, told me at a town meeting recently that she spends 2 to 3 hours a day each day on paperwork. That is 10 hours a week that she cannot spend teaching children in her own class reading, writing, and arithmetic. We want to take the bureaucracy in Washington out of the American classroom and let the parents and the teachers teach their own children. And we believe that that local control will help us compete in the world market. Mr. Speaker, these are some of the things that we are working on and have worked on and have accomplished in this Congress. We need to keep the commitment for the American family and for the American middle class.

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, there are a lot of things that are not in that bill. My freshman class bill that we introduced in January 1993 reached a lot further. The gentleman's freshman class bill when he first came here or the bills that the gentleman worked on reached further, also. I think that what we are trying to do is get this done, maybe plank by plank. There is a big debate when it comes to campaign finance reform: Do you have a big bill that is a delicately stacked thing that you know winner-take-all, and if it goes down, you get nothing, or do you do piece-by-piece and does it take years to accomplish? Before I was in Congress, I was in the State legislature. Just about every year we had a campaign finance bill. We always had to add to it, we always had to tighten it up, and I would say over a 10-year period of time, there have been dramatic changes in the Georgia campaign finance laws. So I have seen it both ways where you try a big, comprehensive bill, then it falls flat, then I have seen the smaller bills. I am not going to tell the gentleman one is better than the other, but we have got to get, as you know, a lot of folks on the other side to pass it. We have got to get the President to sign it. We have got to get 218 votes here. We always want it to be bipartisan. And I overheard you say earlier tonight one of the big problems is everybody is an expert, because the way he or she won his or her race, they believe is the absolute for everybody.

Mr. KINGSTON. Reclaiming my time, I want to say normal PAC's cannot do it, but union PAC's can do it. And union PAC's provide manpower, whereas banks or a Chamber of Commerce, they cannot. In terms of the lopsidedness, in terms of a big union PAC, it is incredible. I also want to throw out something that I consider campaign finance reform. Many Members around here do not, on both sides of the aisle, mostly on your side, which has to do with Federal Government agencies lobbying. I served with you on the Committee on Agriculture last session and this session moved over to the Committee on Appropriations. I can tell you, Mr. Farr, anybody who thinks Federal Government agencies do not lobby has never served on the Committee on Appropriations because that is all they seem to do. They come up to our office, they have money for conferences, they have money to fax themselves around their offices and so forth. I believe a key portion and one of the stumbling blocks in balancing the budget is the fact we have agencies who are feeding out of the taxpayers' trough and they do not want to have finance reform that would stop them from lobbying. Maybe this is more in the lobbying category, but, see, I would still consider it under that general topic of cleaning up the House.

Mr. KINGSTON. I agree with the gentleman, and I agree it certainly can be done. Having again served in the State legislature, I would say that the State agencies also lobby, some more than others. For example social service agencies I think lobby a lot more than something like the natural resources or the fish and wildlife agencies in the State of Georgia. And that kind of model, where we do see two different agencies, one that is very aggressive, one that is passive but there with good information, but you as the legislator had to initiate the conversation as opposed to fax machines and working networks and conferences, and so forth, and bringing people into town and so forth like that. I just think that that should be part of the process. I would love to have campaign finance reform and lobbying reform, because I think they are twin sisters. I think it should be one bill. Now, I have learned, there again going back to piecemeal, you have to take what you can get passed. So there has to be a practical side to it.

Mr. KINGSTON

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

Mr. KINGSTON. That is correct.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, all of us fondly recall President Clinton's first Surgeon General, Jocelyn Elders. She is the one whose valuable contribution to medicine was to suggest, and let me put this delicately, that schoolchildren quit playing with each other and--well, never mind. Now, for that bold contribution, which many of my colleagues remember, and I am not going to allude to it any more than that, but she was run out of office. So now the new Surgeon General has come out with a study, but she is playing it safe, daringly sticking right in the middle of the road. She has come out with a study paid for by thousands of tax dollars that comes out with this revelation: ``Exercise is good for you.'' Yes, I promise, that is her study: Exercise is good for us. Imaging the possibilities. Next thing we know, the private sector will be coming out with health spa chains. Next the Surgeon General plans to study does the sun cause suntan? Does the rain get things wet? Does climbing stairs get you higher? I ask my colleagues this: Do we really need a Surgeon General? Is this the way we should be spending tax dollars instead of pursuing real goals?