Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for those comments because I think as an American of Cuban descent, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is in a unique position as the gentleman said to have dealt with many of these issues that are difficult in a changing nation and changing people, and terrorism and assaults to a different part of the globe.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding the time and also for organizing this special order, because I do think it is extremely important that we in America set an example and let it be known worldwide that we stand behind Israel's right to defend herself, and we truly believe that the time for that statement is now on this day of Israel's independence of 54-year anniversary. Just to think about a nation of 5 million people compared to America, 281 million, we are a little less than 60 percent the size of Israel, and on that horrible day of September 11, when 3,000 Americans were killed, that equivalent to Israel would be about 50 people, and last month alone Israel lost that many. So she has the right to defend herself.

Mr. KINGSTON. Absolutely, and when one considers that the attacks are so random, in a coffee house, in a theater, in a crowded street, anywhere there is a group of people, the whole nation is truly under attack. It is not just the people in the Gaza, the West Bank, but it is anywhere. I have a number of folks on my side of the aisle who want to speak, and I wanted to yield a few minutes to them if that is appropriate.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida and I would ask him to yield to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and again want to commend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Rothman) on his excellent job, as usual. I would ask the gentleman from Florida to also yield the floor to a very strong pro-Israel advocate who is also a freshman this year, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor).

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I have to say that my mother, who is certainly my biggest fan, told me after last week's special order that she thought the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Rothman) did a much better job than I did.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I will certainly say we will be honored to yield to the gentleman more time when we have it, which will be in a few minutes. If I do not, my mother will kill me; and I understand that Mr. Deutsch's dad might get a little irritated himself. You are going to conclude, but you are not going to leave.

Mr. KINGSTON. It is not shown on the gentleman's map, but I think it is important to point out that Iran did not exist, either. That was ancient Persia at that time.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree with those comments. The gentleman from Florida has been a true human rights leader, not just for his part of the globe, but for the entire world. Before I yield the floor to him, though, I wanted to say something about what the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner) was saying in terms of the little boy on the bicycle leaving with pride that Israelis could defend themselves and having so much more spirit than maybe generations before him on another continent. When I was in Jerusalem several years ago going through the Holocaust Museum, certainly, one cannot go through a Holocaust Museum without having some emotional twisting in your stomach, in your heart, and just kind of a cascade of different thoughts go through your mind, but one of the more optimistic things that I saw was actually at the end of the Museum, there were some soldiers who were going through the museum. It happened that most of these soldiers were Israeli soldiers who were women. As the gentleman from Florida knows, they are armed most of the time, and it is almost a militia in that everybody is in the Army at some point in their lives. These young women were walking around in the museum, very casually, very focused on the museum, yet they all had strapped to them M-16s. I thought, that is a very symbolic message for anybody going through the museum, that it is the intention of modern day Israel to never let that sort of thing happen to them again. So as we as America look at the things in the Middle East, perhaps we do not appreciate the fervency which the Israelis have in terms of fighting for their independence here on Independence Day of their continued statehood because they have been through so much to get there. They cannot retreat at this point. I wanted to make that point based on what the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner) had said. Now, having taken up some of the time of the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), I wanted to ask the gentleman to do something that he never does here, and that is to tell us a little bit about his personal past. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch) has touched on it, but I think that it qualifies the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz- Balart) to speak on the subject based on the gentleman's family situation. If the gentleman does not mind revealing some of that to us, I think it would be very helpful.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, we thank the gentleman for sharing that very personal, very, very credible testimony. Mr. Speaker, our next speaker is a gentleman, and we have had a good mix of people tonight. We have had Jewish, Christian, Democrats, Republicans; we have had Members that are Cuban Americans originally, and now we have a gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence), who actually represents a district that does not have a single synagogue in it, and yet he stands 100 percent behind Israel's right to defend herself. I think it is just important that as we look at this, there are a lot of other Members in this 435-person body who have the same sentiments that those of us who have been here tonight have been expressing, and yet, for one reason or another, they are not with us tonight physically, but they certainly are with us in spirit. It is a great representative sampling.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what I would like the gentleman to do is as I call these out, maybe underscore and give some of his knowledge.

Mr. KINGSTON. That is good to point out. 1922, the British divide the mandate of Palestine. 1947, the U.N. passes Resolution 181, the partition plan.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman and I wanted to, having grabbed the gentleman from Florida's (Mr. Deutsch) chart a second ago, I wanted to go ahead and resubmit this for the Record. As maybe as I will read some of these key dates, anything the gentleman wants to add, I will go slowly, but I thought it would be good if we had it on the comments the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Rothman) was making. The history of Israel, 1917, the Balfour declaration.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner).

Mr. KINGSTON. The 1948, Ben Gurion declares Israeli independence, five surrounding Arab nations attack. 1956, the Sinai campaign.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, in closing, while the background of this conflict is somewhat complicated, the moral dimensions are very, very clear-cut. We have one side that sends soldiers to wipe out suicide bombers; the other side that sends suicide bombers to wipe out guests at bar mitzvahs. We have one side that publishes maps showing how an Israel and Palestinian state can co-exist; the other side publishes a map which says Israel does not even exist now. One side apologizes when its explosives kill wives and children of killers it targeted; the other side targets wives and children. One side was grief-stricken on September 11 and declared a national day of mourning; and the other side danced in the streets and distributed candies in celebration. One side has never deployed a suicide bomber in its 54 years of existence; the other side has deployed more than 40 in the past 12 months alone.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for recognizing me and want to immediately recognize my friend from Florida (Mr. Deutsch). We are doing this hour on a bipartisan basis tonight. The subject will continue as it did the past hour on our support for Israel's right to defend itself. With that, let me yield to me friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch).

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me say this: Anything we can do to get jobs in this area is part of the welfare reform issue. So whether the paycheck comes from South Carolina or from the State of Georgia, it is good for our area and good for our people.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman north of the Savannah River in South Carolina for his time. I wanted to talk a little bit about what the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker) was talking about in the 1996 session when we took on the historic welfare reform bill, and as he said, change is difficult in Washington. In fact, I think it was Ronald Reagan who said ``If you don't believe in resurrection, try killing a Federal program.'' That seems to be the case with change often as well; it is just impossible. We were accused of pushing women and children on the street and turning our back on the poor, some very tough rhetoric that did not match the goals of what we were trying to accomplish, but nonetheless, at the end of the day, we had a bipartisan bill. President Clinton signed it into law. Since that time, out of 15 million people who were on welfare, 9 million are now working and independent. It is a great success story, from anybody's point of view. Now, with change in Washington, it is an uphill battle, and now it is time to go back into that bill again and say, okay, what is working and what is not working? I remember in 1996 talking to a welfare caseworker and he was telling me the situation of a family where there was a young woman, a young lady, and she was living with a man who was not her biological father because her biological father was in jail. Her biological mother had shot another man, and she was also in jail, and just a broken family situation. The young woman, 16 years old, in 10th grade, and they were worried that she was going to drop out of school, perhaps get pregnant, follow in some traps. She was in a very, very high-risk, critical stage in her life. Then, her sister, who was 13 and in the eighth grade, they said, we have to keep her mainstreamed. So one of them we have to have some proactive handholding and the other one, we just have to have some steady guidance. But the problem is, as their welfare caseworker, he said, I cannot do anything about it, because we have one group that handles teen health care issues, another group that handles transportation, another group, another agency, I should be saying, that handles public transportation, and another one that handles public housing, and everything was compartmentalized. With welfare reform, one of the great advantages was flexibility, so they could go into a family like this and work on the whole family needs, not just piecemeal, to what the human being needed. So I think that welfare, there is a tough side of it, but there is a love side of it, and it is an example of tough love. When I look at legislation that we passed during the 10 years that I have been in Congress, I have to say this is truly one of the more profound pieces, because of the 9 million people that it had a positive effect on. If the gentleman would continue to yield, I have a true story of a woman in my district who lives in Brunswick, Georgia, and I am going to call her by her first name only. Mary is a single mother of three children. She had not worked in over 10 years when she was enrolled in the TANF, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Work First Employment Services Program. Now, Mary had a history of substance abuse and a history of receiving public assistance. She had attempted several job readiness workshops and job search activities without any success. When the Ready to Work Substance Abuse Day Treatment Program began in Glynn County through the Gateway facility, Mary was the first referral to the brand-new program. During the next several months, she had spotty results with the program. In fact, she relapsed with her drug problem and spent some time in jail. But she also became involved in drug court and was required to continue her participation in ready to work. So instead of just saying, well, that is okay, we tried, what this welfare reform bill said is, you know what? We are going to keep working with you until we get it right. We are not going to give up on you, and we are not going to allow you to give up on yourself. So Mary persevered. After returning to the program, she became very involved in it and completed it successfully. She was assisted by the program after that in getting her first job, and now, although she has had some problems, as any parent would have, as any single parent would have, she is still working, she is drug-free and alcohol free, and she actually has been speaking to substance abuse groups about her own experience. So she is one of the 9 million success stories that is out there. So I want to say it is just something that we can all be very, very enthusiastic about. Democrat, Republican, rural or urban, big city, it does not matter; we should all share in this.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, terrorism insurance, so that small businesses can expand and create jobs. Trade promotion authority, so that we can get American industry moving again and sell our goods overseas. Faith-based institutions, allowing them to participate in the delivery of welfare job training and other social-type services. Energy legislation, so that we will have lower gas prices, both home heating oil and at the gas pump for our cars. All of these held up by the Democrats. All of these pieces of legislation, and, in total, 51 have been passed by this House, all held up by the Democrats in the other body. This is the party whose hallmark this year has been Enron and no budget. What are the Democrats thinking? Throw the Democratic budget on the table. We may vote for it, we may vote against it. We may combine their ideas with our ideas, but come to Washington with a budget. Come to Washington with a plan. Come to Washington ready to pass legislation. Come to Washington ready to debate. If my colleagues do not want to take the responsibility of their office, this is an election year, it is also a good time for voluntary retirement. Consider it, because the House is going to keep working.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I want to really underscore that point, that over a year ago, at Camp David, when President Clinton had Arafat and Barak in, Arafat turned down the deal that he is now pretending to be behind, or at least the Saudi prince's proposal, give up land and we will recognize you. And there is absolutely no assurance that once the Palestinians have the land, that they will turn around and recognize the state of Israel. The gentleman makes a great point, and I really wanted to underscore that.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlemen for their leadership on this issue.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.