Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to talk a little bit about this airport security issue, because it seems that the Democrat Party, in a split from the presidency and the nonpartisan spirit that we have been having in Washington, is hung up on trying to unionize and create a new Federal bureaucracy in the name of airport security. There are pros and cons with that. We all know that. There are good employees and bad employees that are with the unions. It is a little more difficult to work with. But the issue is not creating a new government bureaucracy, the issue is protecting my children, my family, my loved ones, and your business associates and loved ones, when they travel. I believe we need to do what is best for airport security and not what is best for a particular political party. I support the President's plan. The President's plan calls for strict Federal Government oversight on hiring and background checks, but it does not just stop at the gate; it says who is going to work on the plane. What about the maintenance people who clean the plane? What about the people who have access to the parts of the airplane in the airport itself? It is a much broader approach to airport security. Mr. Speaker, this debate is about security, not about new government bureaucracies. I support the President's position. I hope that the Democrats will come on board and do so as well.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, what is so relevant to this is that we are not alone in this. We do not have to go out and invent something, we just need to follow the model in Europe and in Israel and in Ireland, because they have been living with terrorist threats for 20, maybe, years, or even 30 years. So we have a tried and true method. It is not speculation. They do know because they have experimented.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I wanted to insert into his remarks actually a direct quote from Frank Durinckx, the director of the Belgium Aviation Inspec- torate, and he is the guy in Belgium who oversees their security. He says, ``It is harder to do quality control on our own government people.'' And the reason he said that is, government agencies do not like to criticize themselves or one another, and civil servants are hard to get rid of if they are not performing. He goes on to say, ``If we give the work to a private contractor, we have control over them. If we are not pleased with the screener, we can withdraw his license. If we are not pleased with a company, we can get rid of a company.'' That is exactly what the gentleman is saying. It gives the United States far more flexibility, and this is security we are talking about. This is not politics, this is not creating jobs; this is a security program. So I appreciate the gentleman for letting me stick that into his comments, but I thought it was very relevant.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, that I think this is an important step today to keep this thing going. We are operating under somewhat duress and unusual circumstances, but I am glad to see that the Committee on Appropriations, on a bipartisan basis, is keeping the ball rolling. I hope that the other body, sometimes known as the United States Senate, which we are not allowed to refer to by name, would also move as quickly as we have been moving. We have passed the DOD bill, which is pending only because of a paperwork snafu in the Rayburn Building, we cannot actually get to the physical bill, but we will have passed 13 out of 13 appropriations bills, and I hope that the folks in the other body will move quickly so that we can get this thing resolved and we can get to the war on terrorism and focus all of our energies on that and stimulating the economy.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from West Virginia for yielding to me and want to thank my other colleagues for the hard work they have done over the many years on this important issue. As a member of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations, this is something that we have made a priority with the FDA in terms of breast cancer testing and screening. I remember years ago the FDA gave us an example of something that they had not yet approved of, and it was a self-testing device that was a very thin piece of kind of a rubbery substance maybe about 6 inches in diameter. It was a circle, and you would apply it to your chest, and it was an amazing thing, because it could pick up a grain of salt and make it magnified on the fingertips, so women who wanted to do this sort of self-testing could do it at home. It was not foolproof, but it would raise the awareness level. Our argument with the FDA is if they just approve this, then people can do this self-test and it will be on their minds. That is one of the things that we need to do is make sure that the testing is on women's minds. I am very fortunate that my mother has had it on her mind over the number of years, because about 1 month ago she found out, very sadly, and to her shock and our family's sadness, that she had breast cancer. And fortunately, because of her proactiveness, we were able to get a good analysis. Yesterday she had actually had the operation for it. I talked to my sister in Denver who had flown out from Dallas where she lives and spent the night with my mother in the hospital, and she said that Mom is doing well and should be home tonight. Just before the gentlewoman yielded the time, I called out to Colorado to get a medical report. I regret I do not have one right now. But last night, after the operation, things were doing well; and so we are all prayerfully standing by. But think about how fortunate we are in my own family that medical technology is such that a lump the size of a pin's head had been discovered, and that because of this proactivity, Mom is hopefully home tonight, and also will continue to be with us for 50 and 60 or a couple hundred more years. So this is relevant. This is the type of legislation that affects all of our families. It is the type of activity that we can do in our congressional offices that goes to each American home and family. I am glad October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the other 11 should be, as well. I am glad we celebrate Mother's Day; but we should also celebrate it not just once a year, but all during the year. As a boy who traumatically was raised with three sisters, the only boy in the family, I can say, God bless womanhood, I love them all; and I am glad that my sisters have the opportunity to benefit from this legislation, and that my wife and my two daughters will, as well. So I think the research has to continue, the awareness has to continue, the education campaign has to continue. I am proud to see that the gentlewomen are taking leadership on this and doing it on a bipartisan basis.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. I also wanted to say should there be a supplemental bill, there may be an opportunity.

Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to say I truly appreciate the personal attention that the gentleman has shown on this and I appreciate those words and I appreciate his recommitment for the year ahead.

Mr. KINGSTON. Will the gentleman from Massachusetts continue to yield?

Mr. KINGSTON. I thank both of the gentlemen and I want to say that my office and the gentleman's committee have worked very diligently for over a year now on a housing issue for Fort Stewart, Georgia and the City of Hinesville, Georgia, that I will not go into the details of. It is a project, as we know, that the staff on the committee is somewhat familiar with. We have worked hard on this and have also had the honor of having the chairman of the committee come to our area and meet with several of the elected officials from Hinesville and Liberty County, Georgia, and I have been assured that we had this project under control and moving in the right direction. Yesterday upon my return to Washington I was extremely shocked and extremely disappointed to find out that a problem had developed on this project, and even though it did pass the House, when this bill left the House it unfortunately disappeared in the conference committee. Maybe there was some lukewarm support or lukewarm objections from the Senate, but I also understand that there was a glitch with the authorizing committee, which I did not know about. So I wanted to express these concerns to the chairman and the ranking member and kind of flush it out for maybe next year if that is our only fallback position at this time. Again, this was a very vital and important project for the folks in Hinesville, Georgia and Liberty County and Fort Stewart as well.

Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentleman very much.

Mr. KINGSTON. Having said that, I certainly will not object to the bill and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver) has already held a reservation. I thank him for yielding to me, and I thank the gentleman as the ranking member for his support for this and thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson).

Mr. KINGSTON. I appreciate the gentleman and I will not ask him to speculate the likelihood of its passage next year. I certainly hope that it would be favorable, as I felt like we were so close this year.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I too wanted to object with the reservation on this for the purpose of asking the chairman and the ranking member a few questions about the bill. But I also do not intend to object to the bill but I want to reserve the right to do that. So if it is appropriate on the gentleman's time frame, I would like to ask a couple of questions if the gentleman will continue to yield.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure today to introduce my friend, Dr. George Dillard of the Peachtree City Christian Church in Peachtree City, Georgia. George Dillard and his wife, Renee, and his children have been friends of mine for many years. We met in 1992 when I was running for office and George helped me a lot, not just in terms of let us get out and get some votes, but as a candidate, you often go through peaks and valleys and many, many dark hours. And George helped me through those, gave me a lot of advice. He also was one of the first persons that I called when my Aunt Louie died because I wanted to ask him a few questions about her beliefs; and George was there to give me some very sage, Biblical advice. George has been a friend through the period when the guards at the United States Capitol were shot and killed. He was a friend during the trials and tribulations regarding the impeachment debate. He has been a friend through Bosnia and Kosovo, and now Afghanistan. All the perils. He was among the first to call me after the tragedy of September 11 and said, what can I do to help? He has opened this House Chamber in the past with prayer before, and so it is good to have a familiar voice and a familiar face with us. Now, George was pastor in Rincon, Georgia in the first district of Georgia when I was running in 1992, but having done great works there and converted so many souls, he realized he needed to go up to the third district of Georgia where the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) was elected. I think he felt like there must be a need, and so he is now a constituent of my great friend, the gentleman from the third district of Georgia (Mr. Collins). So I am going to yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) and let him complete the introduction of Dr. George Dillard. To George, let me just say thank you.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth). In closing on our friend, Rush Limbaugh, who is so involved leading the way on the conservative cause, we appreciate all the good work that he is doing. And the doors are always open. If he ever wants to take advantage of his status as an honorary member of the 104th freshman Republican class and actually attend one of the gentleman's meetings, please be sure to let everybody know because I think a lot of people would like to receive him on both sides of the aisle because he has won the heart and the respect of liberals and conservatives alike. General Leave

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman bringing that up. Ten years ago, there were something like 200 talk shows in the country. Now there are over 1,000, and the listening audience is something like 15 percent of the radio market. Rush Limbaugh and all of his friends have made it a common staple for something like 40 million to 50 million Americans on a steady basis who use it to get their news, not just entertainment. We have all been on the Ellen Ratner show, Blanquita Cullum, Alan Nathan, Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes. As Rush said, if you do not have someone who disagrees with you, it is like playing tennis without a net. You have to have somebody who will banter with you. He told all of us, conservatives and liberals, get off the bench, get down in the arena and engage in the debate. I know the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) wants to speak. I would ask the gentleman to introduce our friend, the gentleman from Colorado. He has a decent-looking tie on, but I know people will not be able to notice, he is wearing some of the ugliest shoes that have been on the House floor in the history of the U.S. Congress tonight. I think he came slushing through the mountains of Colorado to join us, and we appreciate that.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am joined tonight by the distinguished whip, Tom DeLay. I want to say, kind of listening to our Democrat friends speaking before we spoke tonight, it was inspirational, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to see things are getting back to normal again in Washington. That is what the President has been calling for. And so, doing their part, the Democrats were very partisan and petty. So I appreciate that. I am sorry to say that they are misguided. They want to create a new Federal bureaucracy in the airports, and I for one feel that we should model security the way they do it in Europe and the way they do it in Israel because they have had so much more experience with terrorism. And the way to do that is to have Federal standards for private sector security, not a new government bureaucracy. I would ask my Democrat friends in great sincerity, would they want the Post Office to run the security system at airports? Certainly not. Because we all know that the private sector can be far more efficient and effective at doing a job than one more government agency coming out of Washington, D.C. With this, Mr. Speaker, we are joined by the great man from Arizona, Mr. J.D. Hayworth. I want to begin with saying: No. 15. If you commit a crime, you're not guilty. No. 18. I am not arrogant. No. 20. There is a God. No. 23. The only way liberals win national elections is by pretending they're not liberal. No. 3. No Nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity. No. 4. Evidence refutes liberalism. No. 5. There is no such thing as a New Democrat. These, Mr. Speaker, are among the great gems of wisdom in Rush Limbaugh's 35 undeniable truths, and we want to be talking about our friend Mr. Limbaugh tonight. I would start by yielding the floor to the majority whip, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Tom DeLay.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, that was just Southern hospitality, so we do not have to worry about you in the next game.

Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the distinguished whip. It is exciting to have you with us, because I remember when you were the minority party whip, and that was before the gentleman from Arizona and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht), who has now joined us, were Members of this Congress. They, of course, were part of that great 104th majority-maker class. Gentlemen, I can tell you things were different, but I will also tell you what you already know: Rush Limbaugh going out, reaching out to 20 million very great Americans and getting them all excited about the political process helped get you in Washington. I will be honored to yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth).

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am confident that he will be. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Schaffer).

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I am wondering now if that is an economic comparison. I know he is probably the wealthiest talk show host in America. Is there an economic similarity?

Mr. KINGSTON. I just wanted to be sure. Because the gentleman knows, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) is very famous on Capitol Hill, and I am sure in the great State of Arizona as being somebody who can imitate different speakers, which Mr. Limbaugh is also good at, as is the gentleman from Minnesota, who also can imitate Ronald Reagan so well that you think he is still at the Capitol. But I wanted to say on that subject, number nine in the 35 Undeniable Truths of Rush Limbaugh, Ronald Reagan was the greatest President of the 20th century. I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht).

Mr. KINGSTON. I do want to say, first of all, before we go on, number 35 in the Undeniable Truths, too many Americans cannot laugh at themselves anymore. I think that that is what Rush Limbaugh has taught us to do. It is okay to laugh while discussing politics. With that in mind, I want to point out, all three of you have extremely ugly ties tonight. I also want to tell a story. In 1992, when I was running for office, 2 years before you guys were, I was at a house, Dr. A.J. Morris' house, a supporter of my mine in Vidalia, Georgia; and it was a good crowd. I was behind in my election. It was my first time running for Congress. I was getting beat in Vidalia, in Toombs County, Georgia, where the delicious Vidalia onions that feed the entire world and are the envy of all farming, they are all grown there. But I said to Dr. Morris, I said have you ever heard Rush Limbaugh? He said no. This was 1992. He said I never heard of him. I said he is great. He is this conservative talk show host, he is funny, he is entertaining, very much on the edge. He does not just talk. He has Paul Shanklin come in and do these parodies and he talks in strange words like ``dittoheads,'' or that is what his fans call him, all kinds of things, and he gives updates of different liberal groups and homeless updates and so forth. So I actually got my little handheld recorder, and I recorded on my car the next Rush Limbaugh show, and I sent it to A.J. Morris out in Vidalia. I live in Savannah; Vidalia is about 60 miles away. He said this is great. I sure wish we could get him here. Well, that was in 1992. Now he is on 600 radio stations; and of course, he is all over the airwaves, not just in Vidalia, Georgia, but all over. But the reason why I think that is important is because where I think the conservative movement really turned in 1994 was that air attack led by talk show host Rush Limbaugh, which enabled the infantry, led by Tom DeLay, flying all over the country, going into your district and your district and getting the ground troops motivated, and Mr. Leader, if you can tell us about those days?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, is the gentleman suggesting that he did not get all of his wisdom by listening to National Public Radio? I am shocked.