Jerry Lewis

Mr. LEWIS of California

Mr. LEWIS of California. I appreciate the gentleman yielding because, indeed, that was the Reagan administration. And during that time the Democrats were supporting the Sandinistas and we were fighting for freedom.

Mr. LEWIS of California

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield further. The gentleman and I discussed this earlier. On behalf of the leadership, they have given me direction to publicly outline that agreement. We will be coming in at 10 o'clock in the morning. Our bill will be completed before we proceed to any other matters.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. LEWIS of California. On behalf of the leadership, let me try to respond. The gentleman's description of the schedule this evening is exactly on target, and it is our intention, the leadership's intention, to come to the Floor at 10 o'clock in the morning. This bill will be up and the committee's work will be done before we proceed to anything else. The gentleman is correct.

Mr. LEWIS of California

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, we will accept the amendment.

Mr. LEWIS of California

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I do not have a serious reservation to having this bipartisan discussion regarding the growing understanding of the shortfall that lies in veterans health care. My reservation, and it is a serious one, is that it is one thing to want to take credit for doing something about this problem, but we are attempting to do it in a bill that is not going to become law for 2 or 3 months. The gentleman knows that the appropriate committee had an oversight hearing just yesterday morning to begin to draw in the administration, get information, et cetera, in order to lay the foundation for expediting this process. The way to solve this problem and truly in a bipartisan way deal with the challenge that we have in serving our veterans is to come together and move something quickly. Any appropriations bill is going to take longer than that. So I do not want to be pretending today that we are doing something by passing an amendment, when regular order will allow us to move much more quickly. We are trying to lay the foundation for that. That is why we had an oversight hearing yesterday. Mr. Chairman, I would think we ought to proceed with regular order. So in that connection, I have a reservation in terms of what is being done here today. It appears to be a ``credit'' business rather than real business. I would look forward to working with the gentleman in the days ahead. Point of Order

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I have risen to strike the last word, first, because I want to express my deep appreciation to the chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member of the subcommittee for a rather fabulous job done on this bill overall. In a time of short financial circumstances, they produced a very balanced bill that reflects a cross-section of very important issues to the country. I rise also to specifically talk about the job the committee has done relative to Amtrak. It is not like Amtrak does not have problems, and it is not like the chairman is suggesting we ought to shut it down by way of his bill but, instead, to deal with the reality that Amtrak has been going over a cliff for some time now. In the last 3 fiscal years, the subsidy has grown from over .5 billion to over $1.2 billion. And, indeed, others in this town have decided its pathway is such we cannot afford it any longer, so recommendations were made to zero Amtrak. This subcommittee, in a very thoughtful way, in a very tough budget year, laid the foundation to eliminate the very expensive routes to support the northeastern corridor, the routes in the West, and at the same time try to make sense out of this process. It is long past due that we reviewed this policy and put in place something that will work so we have a passenger rail system. If we continue on the path the way that we are, and the amendment presented by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) essentially does that, takes us back to that pathway, eventually the train is going to go over the cliff and Amtrak will be no more. I would suggest that the House recognize a rather fabulous job done by this subcommittee. I congratulate them for their work and in doing so urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the LaTourette amendment and to support the committee's product.

Mr. LEWIS of California

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I am not rising because it happens to be my 19th wedding anniversary. Mr. Chairman, it is my privilege to express my great appreciation for the fantastic work done by the chairman and the ranking member on this bill, and for all of us to come together to recognize the birthday of the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe).

Mr. LEWIS of California. I yield to the gentleman from Arizona.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Let us all join in extending happy birthday wishes to the gentleman.

Mr. LEWIS of California

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate my colleague yielding. Indeed, this issue was discussed extensively in our full committee. There is little doubt that the committee, in a totally nonpartisan way, is interested in sending this message; and we are laying the foundation here to reflect the reality that America is at its best when we express ourselves overseas in as close to a bipartisan way as possible. I must compliment the gentleman for his own statement at this time, but also in the full committee. I think we laid the foundation to let people in the Middle East know how serious we are about a clear message, and this message will be carried forward to the conference with other body as well. So I appreciate my colleague yielding.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. LEWIS of California

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from San Diego for his bringing this item to our attention. I also thank very much the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton). There is no doubt that the committee is very interested in this challenge. We intend to take their message to the conference and look forward to working with them and doing everything that is possible in the conference agreement.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me say to the gentlewoman, I am very empathetic to the question that she is raising. I must say that at this moment the committee is quite anxious to see us go forward with the funding in the VERB program, to measure further its effectiveness. We are very empathetic to that which the gentlewoman is discussing, and we do intend to raise this question with the Senate. It is not an issue that will go undiscussed, and I am very hopeful as we will go forward that we will be able to be responsive to the gentlewoman's request.

Mr. LEWIS of California. I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. LEWIS of California. I have every reason to believe that we will be able to address it in conference.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the point that is being made. I think the listening public, the interested public, should know that the Federal funding for programs like Sesame Street, the popular children's programs, frankly only 2.5 percent of that comes from the Federal Government. Indeed, the billionaire could clearly take care of that. And one more point. For all those people who are calling our offices from San Francisco and New York and otherwise across the country, if each would just send another dollar, they would not have to bother with this; they would save that in the phone bills.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that the debate on this amendment and any amendment thereto be limited to 10 minutes to be equally divided and controlled by the proponent and myself, the opponent.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Capuano) bringing this to our attention. The gentleman knows the difficulty we are facing in terms of funding overall, but it was very significant that the gentleman brought this matter to the committee's attention, and your advocacy is going to be very helpful to us as we go to conference.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate my chairman yielding. I rise just for a moment. As you know, over the years in the Committee on Appropriations. I have not had the chance to serve on the gentleman's great subcommittee. Since I have the job chairing the whole committee now, I have involved myself in the gentleman's work; and I must say to my colleagues, our Members, as well as the public-at-large, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) over the years have done a fabulous job, especially this year in a year of some constraint. We may have to come up with some money for a sound system for ourselves. Mr. Chairman, I just want my colleagues to know how impressed I am with the work both the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) have done on behalf of the American public, whether it be Indian health care, or preschool, or dealing with labor issues that can be very contentious, a fabulous job of priorities. I particularly want to compliment the gentleman for the priority he has given to the kind of research and development that is extending the good health as well as the lives of our citizens. I have been very impressed with those people from NIH but also from the Centers for Disease Control, fabulously involving America in the most important work; that is, healthy lives and longer lives for our citizens. I compliment the gentleman and thank him very much for the time.

Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, it is a privilege to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite).