Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. So as I understand that, if you find the gun but for some reason the investigating officer did not have the warrant perfected, maybe some little technical wording problem, you cannot use the gun as evidence, which is ridiculous. This says if it is a good faith mistake you still can use this as evidence, the gun, hatchet, or whatever it is.

Mr. KINGSTON. Gentleman, I need to leave you, and I know you are going to go on and talk about term limits and so many of the other good elements of the contract. I appreciate your time and leadership both of you all have shown on these issues. Let us do it again sometime.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield. Just to repeat those numbers again, Congress went from about a 20-to-40-something-percent approval rating because for the first time in recent memory Congress is following through on campaign promises.

Mr. KINGSTON. It is not the big brother telling them what to do.

Mr. KINGSTON. And let the municipalities under this bill spend the money as they see fit. They may not need policemen, but they may need police cars. So this gives them that type of flexibility.

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, that is part of the process. The gentleman has alluded to it. That is the frustration that common, decent Americans have with the penal system when people are not serving their full sentence, who get endless appeals, they get to tie up courts. It really, in this country, has become a matter where they can tie them up forever and get away with whatever crime they committed. You know there is another aspect of our crime reform bill that I think is very important: 22 percent of the prisoners in the Federal penitentiaries are illegal aliens, who are not American citizens, 22 percent. Again, they are getting all the amenities that you or I would only be able to get if we went to a good hotel room. Yet we cannot even deport them. This changes that. We want to deport them. I believe that any kind of fooling with the trade bill, foreign aid bill, immigration; I would say ``Look, you folks are welcome to our country legally any time you want.'' They come here illegally, then they are going home on a one-way ticket and ``Don't send them back, we are going to bill you the costs back,'' through negotiation. I think it is time that we start tightening up; we cannot afford to pay the bill for 22 percent of the non-Americans----

Mr. KINGSTON. Absolutely, and there is a barrage of other laws that will go after deadbeat dads if the Republican Contract With America welfare plan gets passed because there are other laws that are contingent on this that will further make life hard on deadbeat dads and could include revoking drivers licenses and so forth. We are going to get the money from the dad, and we are going to bring him back in the formula.

Mr. KINGSTON. We are changing it. You have to establish paternity. What we are saying to these alley-cat dads is, ``Come on home. We are fixing to get serious. We are going to domesticate the alley cat.'' That is what we need to do.

Mr. KINGSTON. The other thing about this, and there is a work requirement, too, but before we leave this single parent thing, what our society has said, what our Government welfare program has said, is, ``You're a young girl, 17 or 18 years old, and you get pregnant. That's your baby, you're responsibility, and you're responsible to raise the baby, the child. You're on the hook for the next 21 years.'' Now for the 17-year-old boy who is the father, ``Don't worry about it.''

Mr. KINGSTON. Twenty-nine out of 1,000 15- to 17-year-old girls will have a child illegitimately, and when we talk about that 30 percent level, we are not talking 30-year-old Murphy Browns who have a career, and income coming in. We are talking 18-year-olds. We are talking 14- year-olds who cannot care for themselves, much less the awesome burden of being a parent.

Mr. KINGSTON. The national combined average is 30.1 percent.

Mr. KINGSTON. Here we are, 30 years later, $3 trillion later, and here is a definition of a trillion: ``If you spent a hundred thousand dollars a minute 24 hours a day, it would take 19 years to get to one trillion.'' We have spent $3 trillion starting with the Great Society under Lyndon Government-Can-Solve-Anything Johnson, and during that period of time the poverty level in 1965 was 14 percent. Today it is 14 percent. So, Mr. Speaker, we have accomplished absolutely nothing except for the absolute destruction of inner city families.

Mr. KINGSTON. As my colleagues know now, one of the root causes of the crime problem, the explosion of crime particularly in the inner city, is the breakdown of the family. The previous speaker mentioned that there were 15 million children being raised in single parent homes. Actually there is 15 million being raised in homes generally without fathers. Now of the children on AFDC or basically on welfare, 92 percent live in a home where they do not have fathers, and that is homes really where small children are being raised by teenagers. We are talking 17- year-old mamas raising kids and often on top of going to children. There was a study that said one of the biggest co- relationships between crime in the neighborhood is an education. It is not poverty. It is just having fathers at home, and one of the key elements of the Contract With America's reform plan is to reunite that family saying that if you are under 18 years old, you have got to identify the father, and I will mention that a little bit more later, but also you got to stay at home with your own parent in order to get that welfare check, and I think that will help strengthen the family unit which has been broken down really because of Government policy.

Mr. KINGSTON. That is another aspect. You mentioned it just briefly with your action in the Judiciary Committee today. I am sick and tired, as I know my colleagues are, because of the police officers actually being treated like criminals by the lawyers when they get in these courtrooms. The police officers are the men and women who are out there on the line risking their lives, and remember they are not arresting people for the second or third time. They are arresting people under the current system for the eighth, ninth, or tenth time, and I ask, ``How would you like to be a plainclothesman working the street in a dangerous neighborhood not knowing if the last guy you sent up the river is going to be bumping into you at the convenience store?'' But that is the situation we are in now. As my colleagues know, there is another aspect, and I know we need to move on to welfare reform. I wanted to mention this bill also authorizes $10 billion for new prison construction, and I would say, just like Tom Bodett, ``We're going to leave the light on for them.''

Mr. KINGSTON. What is also good about this program is there is a work requirement that they do try to get involved in some sort of work training, and dads again must participate in it. There is also another part of it which I would say is internal, and that is combining so many of these government bureaucracies, which simply duplicate what the other one is doing. What they want to do is not make people independent, but keep them dependent. They create a clientele. So they are all fighting for it. But if you suggest why do not we combine it and cut out some of the bureaucrats' jobs so we can get more food to the child in the classroom that is hungry so they can learn math better or science better and so forth, so they can break the cycle, then you have this resistance from the bureaucrats. But the contract goes after these programs and combines them.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, this morning Speaker Gingrich invited Vice President Gore to meet with the Republican Conference on the subject of reinventing the Government. He stood right here at this lectern on the Republican side and talked for nearly an hour about making Government customer-friendly and constituent-responsive. He talked about the old order and the new order. He talked about listening to employees and bringing them in on the decisionmaking. He talked about cutting redtape, reducing the bureaucracy, and changing the procurement process. We on the Republican side found that we have much in common with the Vice President. We share much of his goal and his vision. I congratulate Speaker Gingrich on inviting the Vice President to engage in a bipartisan dialog. I hope that Members on both sides of the aisle can follow this example set by Speaker Gingrich and the Vice President. I hope that the sniping ends. It is always easy to build yourself up at the expense of the institution, but I hope that we do what the Vice President and Speaker Gingrich did today. We have much in common. We have much to accomplish, and we can do it together.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Mrs. Vivian T. Hope on 50 years of service to the Glynn County School System. Born and raised in Brunswick, GA. Mrs. Hope recieved her bachelor of arts degree from Albany State in Albany, GA and receive master of education degrees from Armstrong State College, Savannah State College, and Georgia Southern University. She also holds an educational specialist degree from Nova University in Florida. Vivian Hope began her career in Glynn County in 1965 teaching fifth grade at Burroughs Elementary School. In 1967, she became one of the first African-American instructors to teach at Goodyear Elementary School. She later continued her career at Risley Sixth Grade Center and Glynn County Middle School, where she served as a team leader and chairperson of the social studies department. Vivian has received numerous honors. While at Glynn County Middle School, she was selected the 1981 Teacher of the Year. In 1988-1990 she participated in various Georgia Educational Leadership Conferences; in 1992, she was selected to participate in the State of Georgia Governor's School Leadership Institute. Most recently, Vivian served on the Southern Association Visiting Team for Bibb County, located in the 2nd district of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, throughout Mrs. Hope's career, she has been a role model to both students and aspiring young teachers. When asked, If you had it to do all over again, would you? Her response, ``Of course, with any job you have your good days and your bad, but for me, I wouldn't change a thing.'' Too often, we forget to acknowledge those who spend 6 to 8 hours a day educating our children. Today, I salute Vivian Hope for spending 30 years with our children. In conclusion, I also want to add that one of her best students is her own daughter, Theresa Hooper. Many of us know Theresa, and have had the pleasure of working with her on various State and national issues. She originally worked on the Senate Appropriations Committee, but in 1992, we on the House side had the good fortune of having her work with us. She is bright, intelligent and a true professional. With people like Theresa serving as a sample of her mother's fine work, we can be sure that Mrs. Hope's legacy will live on for many years. The world is clearly better for her outstanding contributions to America. Congratulations Mrs. Hope.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, last week, when we passed the balanced budget amendment, we took a good step not only toward fulfilling campaign promises, but also for working with each other as Democrats and Republicans because there are about 70 to 80 Democrats who voted on the balanced budget amendment and joined the Republican majority. I think that is a great bipartisan effort. The same thing has happened as we debate the unfunded mandates bill. Many Democrats are not going along with this obstructionism. They are coming over to the majority side and putting the business of the American people first. During the month of February, Mr. Speaker, we are going to be debating the line-item veto, and the crime bill and regulatory reform. all these are very, very important to our constituents, Democrats, Republicans, big cities, small cities, rural, urban, and I hope that this bipartisan spirit prevails so that we can take care of the business that America demands and do what is best for our great country.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what a great week last week was. The House took a major and crucial step toward fiscal responsibility by passing the balanced budget amendment. If the Senate does the same, then fiscal restraint will be the law of the land. But also important last week was the fact that the Republican Party delivered on a campaign promise. This is a lesson that all politicians need to learn in today's society. But a second thing that was very important about it was that it was done with a bipartisan vote. We had about 70 to 80 Democrats voting for this, and as we look at the other elements of the Contract With America that we will be considering this month, finalizing the unfunded mandates bill, passing the line item veto, criminal justice reform, review of our national security situation, and regulatory reform, let us hope that that same bipartisan spirit still prevails, because as the speaker before me said, we have a major trade deficit problem. We need to work on that. Mr. Speaker, we need to work in a bipartisan fashion. We always do so much better when the Democrats and the Republicans work together.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to honor Rev. Arnold McKinney. Reverend McKinney is the pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Waycross, GA. He has made many contributions not only in his capacity as a Baptist minister, but also as a concerned citizen. Reverend McKinney is a teacher, husband, and father, and his accomplishments are being honored this Friday by the members of his church and community. Reverend McKinney received the Benjamin E. Mays Fellowship to attend theological training at the Morehouse School of Religion/ Interdenominational Theological Center. Before attending seminary, he served for several years as associate dean of students at Middlebury College where he received his undergraduate degree. Reverend McKinney's commitment goes beyond Waycross, GA. He is an active participant across the entire State, and serves on a variety of boards and organizations that are aimed at improving the lives of children and families. Currently, he serves as vice president of the General Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc., the State's largest organization of African-Americans who are active in ministerial training, community service, christian education, and home and foreign missions. He also serves on the boards of the Maternal and Child Health Institute, Ware County Health Coalition, and the Southern Governor's Ecumenical Council on Infant Mortality. He has served on the Governor's Special Council on Family Planning, the Governor's Commission on Children and Youth, the Grady Hospital Board of Visitors, and the Georgia Welfare Reform Taskforce. Reverend McKinney frequently lectures on Christian education and holds workshops on church organization and leadership. He is a great leader, husband, and father, and I am proud to have such a devoted individual living in the First Congressional District of Georgia.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, all right, let us talk about Social Security. In 1993, the first year your Democrat President was in office, the Democrat Party, without one vote from the Republican side, raised taxes on Social Security. Then in the same legislation, the Democrat Party voted to put that money, the new proceeds, not in the Social Security trust fund but in the general fund. Why? Probably so your Democrat President could have more money to pass out as largess when he needs one of the bits and pieces of his legislation passed. For example, your President, when NAFTA comes, he is so offended by $20 presents from lobbyists, teeshirts from school groups, and baseball caps from veterans' organizations; he comes into the House, If you will want to help pass NAFTA, I will give you a million dollars here. You want to save your helium reserve plant? Let me give you a couple of million. Let me give you a couple of million for your dam back home. We want your vote. You do not want a balanced budget amendment because you want to protect Social Security; the fact is you do not want a balanced budget amendment because you do not want a balanced budget; not to protect Social Security but protect your largess when you need votes passed, and your President uses it the most.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, last night President Clinton gave a great marching speech. Left-right, left-right, left-right. At times he was Reagan, at times he was Dukakis. But in the end it was the same old stuff, the White House weather vane rides again. In the final analysis of his 1\1/2\ hour vague, meandering, heartwarming tales of innuendo, insinuations and soft truths, we were led to nowhere. In contrast, New Jersey Governor Christine Wittman said ``Actions will always speak louder than words.'' Let us today start with actions by passing the balanced budget amendment, go on to prohibit unfunded mandates, follow it up with the line-item veto, and the rest of the elements of the Contract With America, which is what the American people wanted and how they spoke November 8.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Again, just to do my duty to the constituents back home, particularly victims of crime, what I am concerned about, if a rapist moves from Georgia to California under current law, he is not tracked. Under the crime bill, he will be tracked. And under this bill, without that amendment, he will still be tracked. We may need to come back, as we always have to, and revisit something down the road. But I do not think that this legislation will diminish the fact that that Georgia.

Mr. KINGSTON. If I can reclaim my time, it sounds to me as if we have mush one side and maybe mush on the other. But in terms of certainty, the gentleman just said if I voted for the amendment then I would have some uncertainty, whereas the gentleman over here, the 14-year veteran prosecutor, says that there would be no certainty or less uncertainty.

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me reclaim my time and yield to the gentleman from New Mexico. What I was really trying to do, ladies and gentlemen, is not get bogged down in legalese at this point, but bring it back home to the crime victims. And if I am hearing correctly, the crime victims will still be able with this amendment to have their offender tracked, is that correct?