Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to quote the American Hospitals Association on this, and the reason why I keep getting back to the American Hospitals Association on this bill is that these are the folks whose members have to pay the bills and have to make ends meet on Medicare. One of the things I heard over and over again from our hospitals on behalf of our seniors and directly from seniors is we need Medicare relief, and this is what this bill does. The American Hospitals Association says we are urging Members to vote in favor of this legislation and have recommended that the President not veto this legislation. I am just so concerned that the President is putting politics over people. This is legislation that does seek a solution to solve a problem, and it is not perfect. I do not think we can have a perfect piece of legislation in a legislative body consisting of 435 people and 100 Senators, but it is a step in the right direction. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me.

Mr. KINGSTON. I understood all the Democrats on the Committee on Commerce voted for this; am I correct?

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak to my friends on the other side of the aisle. My dad is 82 years old. He has macular degeneration, and he has diabetes. That means he is legally blind, he cannot read his blood sugar level, and he is trying to live independently. Now, I do know not what my Democrat colleagues think about when they play games with our seniors like my father, but it seems to me that there is a consistent pattern around here for the last 3 weeks to put politics over people over and over again. Here is a bill that has been endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Federation of Home Health Care Providers, the National Association of Childrens Hospitals, the National Association of Rural Health Care Clinics, which I know they do not care about that, because the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy), their leader says, and I quote, ``We have written off rural America.'' Now, I know they are proud about that and I know what this is about, but the fact is, I would like my colleagues to think about people out there who have diabetes, people out there who are in nursing homes, people out there who yes, are scared, because you know what? It is November and every 2 years there are certain members of the Democrat party who cannot get reelected, so they get scared and they know the only way they can keep getting elected is to scare senior citizens. It is not right. I have a 97-year-old great grandmother. She does not appreciate putting politics over people. We are tired of it.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, me say, number one, that I appreciate the gentleman's sincerity on this issue. However, in terms of the President, I have not seen any alternatives. And as the gentleman knows, this bill was endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Federation of Home Health Care Providers, the National Association of Children's Hospitals, the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, the National Association of Community Health Clinics. I hope that the President, rather than to veto it, putting politics in front of people, I hope he will say, okay, here is how we can constructively make changes and fine tune this thing. I think if it was up to the handful of us tonight, we could work out the differences real quick. And I, too, represent a rural area; and we can have genuine disagreements on it, but I do question some of the motives down on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I also want to say to my friend from Texas, I do appreciate, number one, your yielding time for a real dialogue tonight; and, number two, your consistency on trying to hold down the budget numbers, because I think amongst those here tonight, we are all in agreement with you. Of the other issues that are on the table, though, one of the ones that concerns me and everybody else here, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra), who is a chairman on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, is the President's scheme to federalize school construction. As you know, he wants to put in a big union pay-off and have Davis- Bacon in there and that will drive school construction costs up 25 percent on an average. We in rural south Georgia just cannot afford that. That is one reason why I think that we are here tonight, to put schools above politics.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to point out two things. One of the reasons I think we cannot get an answer to the question of how much is enough is because the President is no longer in town. We know that part of the strategy seems to be keep Washington tied up, keep Congress in Washington, and then I will hit the campaign trail. The President is on his way to Kentucky to campaign against the gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup). Now, that must feel great if one is the President of the United States, but we are talking about children here. We are talking about real business here, and we are talking about, it is time to put people in front of politics. The gentleman knows, since he has worked real hard on the dollars to the classroom bill by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) that said our efforts on education would go to the teacher closest to the student in the classroom and not Washington bureaucrats. Right now, when we spend $1 on education, 50 cents never gets out of town. That is not acceptable.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, we are here on a Sunday night. I want to tell my colleagues, I am kind of sad. I would rather be with my family. But I will tell you one thing, it is my duty to be here and fight for the things that I believe in. One of the things that I am fighting for is little old Brantley County, Georgia. Because, see, the President has a scheme to federalize school construction. He wants to have school construction run out of Washington, D.C., for every county school board in the United States of America. We want local control. I want to tell the folks back in Brantley County, Georgia, that you are going to continue to be in charge. We are here to fight for classroom size. I am with the President on that. We need to reduce the size of the classroom. But I am away from the President on Medicare reimbursement. He has threatened to veto a bill that has been endorsed by the American Hospital Association. I am here because the President has threatened to veto a bill that would take away 100 percent health care deductibility, which would make health care affordable for small businesses and farmers. That is worth fighting for. And I am here for the Social Security lockbox, which the President has yet to commit himself to. That is why we are here on a Sunday night, and I am not going to leave until we get this thing done.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for that, because one of our major issues that is outstanding right now with the President is the fact that he wants school construction to be federally controlled; and we want to leave it locally controlled, where less dollars will be spent and local people will decide what needs to be built. It should not be in the hands of Washington bureaucrats. I yield to the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune).

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, last year I was in Macon, Georgia, for the Girls' State Championship Basketball Game, and it was a great thrill when I saw that the Savannah Country Day girls were victorious. Last night, unfortunately, I was unable to attend, but many of the same young women were victorious in winning Savannah Country Day's first volleyball championship, which I believe is also the first volleyball championship for Savannah, Georgia. They do a great job. They work hard and I have, Mr. Speaker, the roster of the young women who played on that team. And I will submit that for the Record, as well as the name of the coaches. Mr. Speaker, I also want to take particular pleasure in bragging about my very own goddaughter, Sarah Sipple, who is one of the team's leaders and one of the great athletes of that school, who was very much in the thick of the action yesterday. I regret I could not have been there in person, but I watched these young women grow up, many since they were 2 years old and 3 years old. I can tell my colleagues, there are great things going on in Savannah, Georgia, with woman athletics; but even more than that, I am proud to say it is going on nationally. Athletics is something that teaches us all to be better people, better team players, better citizens in the long run and to take care of ourselves. It makes us more competitive as a Nation, so I am proud to see that Savannah Country Day School is doing its part, and I am especially proud of the coach and all of these young women. [From the Savannah Morning News, Oct. 26, 2000] Country Day defeats Landmark Christian for Savannah's first title (By Jeff Sentell) There was too much at stake--the program's first state volleyball championship, Savannah's first title in the sport and the second crown for five well-deserving leaders. There were too many people counting on them--fans who wanted to experience another title at the school, future players who wanted inspiration and a community that wanted to experience history. There was their need to fulfill a season-long goal--one that stood so close, yet appeared to be slipping away. As Savannah Country Day began Game 4 in Wednesday night's state Class AA/A title match, those thoughts raced through the players' minds. Each came to the same decision before completing a 15-7, 15-10, 12-15, 15-13 win over visiting Landmark Christian. ``Losing was not an option,'' junior Melissa McNaughton said, ``We wanted it more than anything, so we refused to lose.'' Late in the third game, a long-awaited title for the program and the city, along with state-wide respect appeared a foregone conclusion. The Lady Hornets (29-11) led Landmark 12-8 and owned the serve. They already had impressive victories in the first two games against a team they split two hard-fought matches with this season. Minutes later, the Lady War Eagles (42-9) unleashed seven consecutive points to win the game and stave off elimination. Momentum shifted as well, and the Lady War Eagles knew it. They strutted onto the court for Game 4 with big smiles and were ready to force a decisive fifth game. ``But we focused on the task at hand,'' SCD junior Mary Jane Martin said. ``We knew what we had to do. We pulled it together, and we pulled it out.'' Landmark built leads of 9-5, 11-9 and 13-12 in the fourth game. But an unyielding desire and determination sparked a final surge. Anne Carson's consecutive kills off Lexa Clark's assists finished the job and set off a wild celebration. ``Oh my gosh--I can't describe what this feels like,'' Carson said. ``I'll never forget this. I'll cherish this for the rest of my life.'' ``I've never had anything like that happen,'' Sipple said after escaping a barrage of fans that converged on the team at midcourt. ``It's amazing.'' SCD's fans provided a spark for the team from the outset. It only took 21 minutes for the Lady Hornets to dispatch Landmark in the first game. SCD led 9-3 before the Lady War Eagles became comfortable in the match. More important, the trio of Carson (nine kills), Sipple (17 kills) and Clark (44 assists) found their rhythm, and SCD's supporting cast lent a helping hand. ``Anne and Sarah really hit the ball well, but everybody did well,'' Clark said. ``We knew we could get it done as long as we came together.'' SCD only trailed twice in the first two games, at 3-2 in Game 1 and 1-0 in Game 2, But Landmark rebounded behind the play of Julie Van't Wout (14 kills, four blocks). The 6-foot junior's aggressiveness at the net offensively and defensively caused problems for the Lady Hornets, especially in Game 3. So SCD chose to maneuver around her. ``She's an absolutely great player,'' Carson said. ``So we had to be smart. We had to start tipping the ball and going around the blocks.'' The Lady Hornets also relied on past experiences. They lost a game apiece to Landmark and Athens Academy during last Saturday's Elite Eight tournament. Each time, they rallied to victory. ``That gave us a lot of confidence,'' Sipple said. ``We have been playing so well lately. So we knew we could do it.'' McNaughton added, ``We didn't give up, because we refused to give up. We wanted to be a part of something special, and this is special.'' Elizabeth Eichholz, Betsy Miller, Sarah Sipple--Captain, Julia Train--Captain, Anne Carson, Melissa McNaughton, Mary Jane Martin--Captain, Alison Morris, Lexa Clark, Wendy Mayer, and Sall Sumer. Jade Aaron, Caroline Baker, Alex Brennan, Katie Coy, Marquin McMath, Lyn Reeve, Ashley Jones, Jennifer Ross, Katherine Royal, and Lizzy Sprague. Coaching staff: Ben Ladd--head coach, Carol Schretter, and Phillip Schretter.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize DeLisha Milton as a gold medalists in the 2000 Summer Olympics. We should all applaud her hard work and determination in representing our country in the Olympic Games. DeLisha Milton of Riceboro, Georgia, won the gold medal in the women's Olympic basketball tournament. The defending gold medalists U.S. Women's Basketball Team (8-0) made it look easy when they won the game 76-54 victory over host Australia to finish first in the tournament. The win marked the 34th triumph in 37 Olympic games from the Americans since women's basketball became an Olympic sport in 1976. Milton was a key member of the United States team that won all nine of its games and captured the gold at the 1998 World Championship. She averaged 7.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per contest in the tournament. The previous year, Milton helped the U.S. triumph at the World University Games. Milton completed a standout collegiate career in 1997. As a senior, she led Florida to the quarter finals of the NCAA tournament and earned Southeastern Conference Player of the Year honors. Averaging 19.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, Milton was a first-team All American selection and also won the Wade Trophy, awarded annually to the Nation's top senior in women's basketball. Please join me again in applauding DeLisha Milton on earning the gold medal in the 2000 Olympic Games. Through her hard work and determination she has excelled at the game of basketball. She is a fine young woman with high morals. Our society today needs more people like her that work extremely hard to represent our country. This young woman not only achieved an Olympic medal she proved that the American youth are indeed the best!

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I want to address why this CR, this continuing resolution, is necessary. What it does is it allows our government to keep functioning. Now, there are those who do not want one. That would mean the government shuts down. I do not know if they have quite thought that through, but we do not want the government to shut down. Now, why is the budget not signed? There are a couple of reasons that we think this is necessary to do today. Number one, we are at the point in the budget where the leadership on the Committee on Appropriations is working directly with the White House. Now, the President has been out of town. The President has been in the Middle East. I think it is important for the President to be in the Middle East. I think it is important for America to be doing what America has been doing in the Middle East, to try to get Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Barak together, because what is going on in the Middle East is not just about the Middle East, it is about the whole globe; and I respect the President for dedicating the time that he has to try to resolve that. But obviously the President cannot negotiate the budget and the appropriations bills when he is out of town, so we are having to wait. Now, the President is in town today, but then again tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, he will be at the funeral of his friend, the Governor of Missouri. Many of our Members, Republican and Democrat, including the distinguished Democrat leader, will be there for that important funeral of a very important, well-respected national figure. So there are a lot of Members of Congress who are going to be in Missouri tomorrow. We respect that. That is a bipartisan thing. But during that period of time, there will still be a crew here negotiating on the budget, a crew here talking. There will be people working through the weekend, and that is what the leaders on the Committee on Appropriations and the leadership in the House have been doing and will continue to do. So all of this finger pointing, that we are in this situation because somebody has done something wrong, I guess that is what George Bush was talking about the other day when he said it is time to get some people together who have a can-do attitude in Washington, who want to solve problems, who will reach out to the other side, reaching out to the Senate and the White House. I do not think the American people want to hear all this partisan sniping today. The Members on the other side know that we passed the majority of the Committee on Appropriations bills, I think 12 out of 13, before we left town for the August work period, and we feel good that those were passed. But this is a bicameral process, there are three branches of government; and just because the House passes the bill does not mean it ends there. It goes to the Senate, and the Senate has different visions and different ideas. Then we know also in order to have the White House sign it, they have their own visions and ideas. So we are in this very complicated process of resolving a $1.8 trillion budget for a country of 275 million people, and it should not surprise anybody that it takes a long time. What is it that the House Republicans are trying to do? What is our vision? Well, our vision is simple. We want to pay our obligations first for Social Security. It was the House Committee on Appropriations that said we are going to quit using the Social Security trust fund for general operating expenses. After all, no business in America can mix its pension plan with its operating expenses. Who would do that? Who, but the U.S. Congress? Four years ago we stopped that process, and that has been one of our highest priorities. Our second priority, of course, has been to protect and preserve the insurance policy for our seniors, the Medicare program, and we have done that. You will remember that 3 or 4 years ago the bipartisan Medicare trustees appointed by the President said it is going bankrupt if we do not act to preserve and protect it. We did, and now Medicare is on more solid footing. This year our budget called for a prescription drug benefit for American seniors; not one that would insure Ross Perot and Bill Gates and other people who do not need the benefit, but targeting those who are in the most economic need of a prescription drug benefit. We have done that. We had a program that gave our seniors choices, not a universal required mandatory plan, and yet that was not passed by the Senate. Well, again, that is what bicameral legislation is about. We are going to continue working on that. I am happy to say that this House Committee on Appropriations in the agriculture bill did do something very significant to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, and that is the Drug Reimportation Act. The Drug Reimportation Act allows our seniors to buy lower-cost American manufactured drugs in other countries, such as Canada and Mexico, and take advantage of savings that they can get in those countries that they are not able to get right now, because, if they do, the Clinton- Gore FDA says no, you cannot go to Canada and buy your Zocor. But I will tell you the case of a woman in our office, Myrlene Free. Her sister is on Zocor. If she buys it in Texas, it is $97; but if she goes to Mexico, it is $29. Now, this Republican Congress reached out to people like her and said we want you to be able to do that, and we put some language in the agriculture appropriation bill to allow that. But, better than that, we said this is great news for people in boarder States, but what about the interior States? We are going to let them do it through the Internet, and also let their neighborhood pharmacist reimport drugs. Keep in mind, Mr. Speaker, these are American-made and American-manufactured drugs, the same dosage as they are already taking, and at as much as a 40 to 50 percent savings. That not only helps millions of American seniors, but millions and millions of young mothers raising kids. I have four children. I know how expensive it is to keep a family in good health, and prescription drugs is part of our budget. This bill will bring down the cost of it. Now, we did get an agreement with the Senate on this, we do have an agreement with the President on this, and I think that has been worth fighting for. I think it has been worth the negotiating process. There are other issues out there, such as trade opportunities for our farmers with Cuba. That is still out there. Then we are going to be debating what to do about funding international abortion agencies. Mr. Speaker, that is always a controversial issue, and it is a bipartisan issue. You have pro-lifers and pro-choicers on both sides of the aisle. But this takes time. We have another amendment out there that deals with the situation in Yugoslavia. Should we withhold funds from Serbia? Should we withhold funds from Montenegro because they are having elections out there that have turned out on a positive note right at this point? We want to support Mr. Kostunica; but, on the same hand, what do you do with Mr. Milosevic? That is pending in front of the Committee on International Relations right now. There is another piece of legislation introduced by many Members from the Democrat side, with some bipartisan support from the Republican side, that takes a similar approach in Palestine and says do we want to give Palestinians foreign aid money in the face of what appears is going on in the peace process, or should we use that money as a tool to get both parties back at the table with maybe a more cooperative attitude? These, Mr. Speaker, are important issues. These are bipartisan issues. These are not things that, well, we are going to haggle over and see who can claim victory on this or that, but things that sincere Members of Congress with serious legislative proposals have come to the floor and said, you know what, the appropriation bills are somewhat the last train leaving town, can you put these amendments on the bills? We are narrowed down to the home stretch, and that is what takes so long. But this is America. This is a Republic, where everybody has opinions. That is why it has taken so long for us to adjourn. Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to reconsider their positions and support this continuing resolution, so that we can keep the government operating, not have a shutdown, and finalize these very, very important issues.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I must say, in listening to the rhetoric here and the passion of my colleagues across the aisle, I am a little confused, because they know that the language that is in the House bill is stronger and goes further than the original language offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and all the stuff that we passed on the floor. What we did in the House was we split the difference between the Jeffords language in the Senate and some of our House amendments. But as somebody who has worked for this language, I think this is good, and here is why. It brings down the cost of drugs by putting a needed element of competition into it. We, under this bill, say that individuals can buy their drugs on the Internet or go over to Canada or Mexico and buy American-manufactured drugs at a less expensive price and drug stores can reimport this. There are safety concerns, $23 million for the FDA. There are certain kinds of drugs that we cannot reimport. As far as the sunset provision goes, does anybody believe that in 5 years we are going to retract from this? This just gives time after the FDA works out the safety concerns for the thing to work and for Congress to come back at it. Now, we were not able to get into some of the contractual issues that the Democrats wanted to, Mr. Speaker, because that overturns a profound, I guess, precedent of case laws that have to do with contractual law in America. What we did was as close as we could get. Let me add, the Senate Democrats unanimously voted for these provisions because they know for people like Myrlene Free's sister in El Paso, Texas, who takes Zocor that she has to pay $97 for it in El Paso. She knows that, under this legislation, she can go to Juarez, Mexico, and buy that same American- made Zocor for $29; and it is the same dosage, the same amount, and everything. This is going to help not just seniors but Americans, women with children, families. It is going to help everybody by putting much needed competition. The drug companies are totally against this. They have been running ads in my district against me because I think this is good legislation and I support it, and I urge my colleagues to pass this bill.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, today I recognize Carley Zell as the recipient of this year's Georgia's Older Worker of the Year award. Mr. Zell was given the award during the Georgia Older Worker Conference and 12th Annual Awards Luncheon. The award was presented to Mr. Zell by the Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. Mr. Zell has lived in three centuries and has yet to retire. He has continued to work and contribute to his family and community. Let me take a moment to applaud Mr. Zell's dedication and contributions. Mr. Zell owns Zell Enterprises which he founded in 1958. His company includes rental properties that are located in Brunswick and the Jacksonville Warehouse Co. Mr. Zell started his first job at age 12 delivering newspapers for the Brunswick News. The year after he graduated from Glynn Academy, he served as an apprentice seaman in the U.S. Navy. During his time in the Navy, he managed a shipyard cafeteria that served 30,000 workers daily, as they built ships at the Brunswick shipyards during World War II. Please join me again in applauding Mr. Zell. He represents what is best in America--he is a self-learner, and through hard work and persistence has reached the true meaning of success. Let us all take direction from him and strive to obtain his love for work. He has continually given to his community and never asked for anything back in return. Our society today needs more people like him to inspire and continually give relentlessly.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what is it like to be retired in the 1990s on a fixed income with rising health care costs, high prescription drugs, and expensive, long-term residential treatment? It does not have to be this way, though. That is why this Congress, this Republican Congress, has worked to take social security money off- budget so that the social security trust fund will be secure and the money will not be taken out of that lockbox and used for roads and bridges or congressional salaries. We believe that is an important commitment to America's seniors. That is why this Congress has passed the only prescription drug program, to make prescription drugs available and affordable to our seniors. I might add that the other body across the hall has yet to act on this important piece of legislation. Neither has the White House. But we think it is important. That is why this Congress has worked hard for cops on the streets and local law enforcement grants, to make sure that American seniors at home in their retirement will be safe and secure, so they can sit on their porch or walk down the street and not be worried about being a victim of crimes. Mr. Speaker, it is our moms and dads we are talking about. They looked after us all these years. Let us not forget them.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, recently I had the opportunity to go to Philadelphia, and there I met with Kenny Gamble. My colleagues may remember the Gamble and Huff song writing team who produced music for the O'Jays and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Mr. Gamble is a very successful businessman and music producer. He moved back to South Philly, his childhood home in the ghetto, and is basically starting a one-man urban renewal project. It is a very inspirational project. One of the keystones of that is a charter school that he started. Four hundred kids are in that charter school, with a waiting list of 1,400 children. Why is it successful? Because it is run locally with input from the teachers and the parents. It is something that all the neighborhood and the community can focus on and take a lot of pride in. It does not have Washington bureaucrats micromanaging it. It does not have people from the State capital in Pennsylvania telling them what to do. Madam Speaker, I believe this is a key corner to our education reform effort to get people back home interested and involved in the education process, because our children and our future are at stake. We should all follow Mr. Gamble's lead.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, now we have from the Gore-Clinton administration the formula for turning around education. This was revealed on September 7, 2000, by the Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, and I quote: ``What we need are the three R's in education: relationships, resilience, and readiness.'' Now, is not that odd, because back home in Georgia, none of the parents or teachers have come to me and said, what we really need is resilience in education. Somehow their idea of the three R's is a little bit different. We need local control of education. We need parental involvement. We need the money going to the teacher in the classroom, not the bureaucrats in Washington. We need safe campuses. No wonder the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), a Democrat Congressman, said January 10, 2000, and I quote directly: ``I sit on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and I have witnessed the failure of this administration and Al Gore to do enough to address our Nation's education needs.'' Well, I agree with the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), my Democrat colleague. It does not appear that this administration is connected when it comes to education.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise as a member of the Committee on Appropriations in favor of passing this continuation of the Federal Government process. It is interesting as I sit here and listen to various speakers, they must have remarkably different districts than the one that I represent. The one I represent has Republicans in it, Democrats in it, independents in it, swing voters in it, and a lot of folks who do not vote on either side. Yet I hear all these people whose constituents must think, oh, is my representative not wonderful because clearly all the problems that he or she has is the fault of the other party. No matter what happens, gee whiz, it is those big, bad Republicans. And I would say I certainly hear it from Members of both sides, blaming all their problems on the other party. The fact is, as a member of the Committee on Appropriations, we are in a cycle now that we go through every year and each side tends to rattle its rhetorical saber. They are blaming all the problems on the other side. The reality is we just need a little bit more time. As a member of the Committee on Appropriations, we had most of our bills ready by the time we got out of Washington in August. They were passed on to the Senate. Unfortunately the Senate moves in a different atmosphere, a different calendar, a different sense of urgency, practically no sense of urgency, and sometimes we cannot get the bills done. But the process has been working and this House, this Committee on Appropriations, has moved its bills in an orderly and a timely fashion. Do you get everything you want? No. As a member of the Republican Party, I would like to spend a heck of a lot less. I would like to eliminate a lot of the waste and the duplications in government, and I am not alone in that. Now, there are members of the Democrat Party who want to spend more, and I understand that, too. But you do not get everything you want in the appropriations process. You just need to get together. But I think we owe it to our constituents, all 435 of us, not to stand up here at this hour in the game and blame all the problems on the other party, because if it is that big or bad or wicked up in Washington, maybe you ought to consider a different line of work come November. Because people back home want results. They do not want finger pointing. This step is a responsible step; it is a responsible step that both parties have used for a number of years to get the government to keep operating while we iron out our differences. If it was up to me and other members of the Republican Party, we could adjourn by this afternoon. But it is not up to us. I would say that is true with a lot of Democrats. They are ready to adjourn as well. But I know at the end of the day, I am not going to get everything I want in the budget, and I think most Democrats know they are not going to get what they want in the entire budget. We have got to work through this process, and hopefully we can get everything done; and we can get out of town and both sides win a little. But the object here is not for a Republican victory; it is not for a Democrat victory. It is for the American people to have a victory. That is what we are working for. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. To continue on this, one of the reasons why we are losing good soldiers right now is that the pay is low and they do have to go on food stamps. Last week, I was at the third infantry division while they were deploying to Bosnia. In our area, we have about 2,500 to 3,000 soldiers in Bosnia, as of last week, and I was saying good-bye to them. I asked the colonel how many of these soldiers are married. And he said about 60 percent are married, probably because that is the average right now. What I do not understand is why the Clinton administration has not recognized that the Army today is an army where we have a lot of families. And this deployment situation of permanent peacekeeping by presence, just having our folks there by occupation, gets to be very, very expensive. The gentleman and I were here when we debated Bosnia; we were here when the administration said we will only be there for 1 year. Personally speaking, I voted against getting involved in it because I feared we would be there a long time, and now we are on our 5th year there. Actually, longer than 5 years. As I said good-bye to these young men and women, wondering when they were going to come home, and they are going to come home in 6 months, but who will go after that? In the meantime, how many of them will we lose?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, before the gentleman from Minnesota yields the floor, I wanted to bring up something that, as we work on prescription drug coverage, and it is interesting, the only bill that has passed is a Republican bill, yet as we listen to Gore and the Democrat party, we would think that they have passed five bills and we have not done anything.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what I think is real important to understand is that in Canada and Mexico they can buy drugs made in America by the same drug companies that we buy from at our local pharmacist and they can buy those same drugs, same dosage for 30 percent less, 40 percent less in one case, 25 percent less; and yet, if they live in Minnesota or New York or Maine and they drive over to a pharmacist and buy them, the Clinton FDA stops them. Here is an opportunity that, under the Clinton administration we passed NAFTA, which has cost us a lot of jobs in our area, and yet free trade with Canada would mean they should be able to buy things over there; and yet it is the Clinton administration that keeps our seniors from doing that. And that is something that could affect the cost of prescription drugs right now. Now, my interest and I think the interest of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss) is that, if we can get our seniors to get lower-cost drugs, there is more competition in the system and more competition will bring the prices down; and so we want the folks in Minnesota and on the border States to get their drugs cheaper from Canada because we may be able do that also through the Internet. But we also will benefit when the prices come down, and that is why it is in our interest as a Nation.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman did not have to make this story up, unlike Vice President Gore, who has to absolutely lie about his mother-in-law. The truth is out there. Why not tell the truth?

Mr. KINGSTON. I know also one of the goals of the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Appropriations, and the Committee on the Budget has been to cut the paperwork so that our veterans not only have the money at the VA to provide their benefits but they do not have to go through the long procedures and the clearances and the problems that they are having with Tri-Care; that they can actually go faster to a doctor, get the treatment they want, and get to the clinic closest to them. I know the gentleman has made a major commitment in that direction as well.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman bringing that up. We talk about the differences between the Bush and the Gore plan. I think if we look at the Gore plan, and there is a plan, it has never been introduced for 8 years, but suddenly about a month ago the Gore plan had a new prescription drug benefit. I did not know it until I saw an advertisement on there. Let me ask my colleagues. In fact, I would love anybody to answer. Have my colleagues been sent anything to the office? I mean, we have got New York, Minnesota, Georgia, and Colorado here. Not one office has been sent this allegedly serious proposal. But the Gore plan has one purchaser of prescription drugs. That is the Federal Government. The Bush plan has eight different options to choose from. The Bush plan they can enroll in at any time in their life. The Gore plan they have to chose at 64\1/2\ years old. And if they do not choose then, they are out of luck. The Bush plan says, we are not going to ensure Bill Gates and Ross Perot because two-thirds of the people out there already have a prescription drug plan; we do not need the universal coverage for everybody. The Gore plan says, no, sir. Ted Turner, Ross Perot, Bill Gates are my kind of guys. I want to make sure they get free prescription drugs from the truck drivers back home and the coal miners in Tennessee. And so it is the typical government-mandated, one-size-fits-all, huge Washington-driven entitlement. And that is why I think it should be rejected; and instead of shotgun, we should laser beam our solutions to where the problems really are.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will continue yielding, he has one of the rare and valuable positions as a House Member of serving on the Committee on Agriculture, serving on the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on National Security, and is the incoming chairman of the Committee on the Budget. And I know the gentleman has worked very carefully to protect not only seniors who are retired on Social Security but veterans, and to try to get the United States Government, good old Uncle Sam, to fulfill the promises that have been made to veterans. I know the gentleman is a cosponsor of the Keep the Promise legislation for veterans who have been promised certain benefits, health care benefits; that we are actually going to deliver those, the ones the Clinton-Gore administration have cut and eroded over the last 8 years, but is it not true that the gentleman's budget also has a cushion in there to take care of our veterans as well as the other seniors?

Mr. KINGSTON. Now, maybe combining all three of the gentleman's hats of agriculture, armed services and budget, the gentleman also is providing money to get active duty personnel off of food stamps.