Nita Lowey

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon [Ms. Furse].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Bentsen]. (Mr. BENTSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds to respond to the gentleman. I want to make it very clear that for those of us who strongly support family planning, we strongly support abstinence on the part of children and in no way are we encouraging sexual activity. What we are trying to do is to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases. We are trying to prevent teenage pregnancy. That is why we are so strongly supportive of family planning, because 80 percent of the youngsters who go to these family planning clinics are already sexually active. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Davis].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Hefner]. (Mr. HEFNER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Harman]. (Ms. HARMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York [Ms. Slaughter].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado [Ms. DeGette].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California [Ms. Woolsey].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds to respond. Mr. Chairman, I just want to say to the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Hoekstra] that many of us are very frustrated and angry at the rising rate of teenage pregnancy. And if the relationship between the parents and the children were so good, then there should not be any concern about those children going to the title X clinics. So let us work together to promote abstinence, because I share the gentleman's concerns and I am very angry at the rate of teenage pregnancy, which is now escalating over the last 10 years. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee]. (Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi], a member of the subcommittee.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro], a member of the subcommittee.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Maloney].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer].

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to strike the requisite number of words.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I rise tonight in strong opposition to this amendment which cuts funds from job safety and health. I want to congratulate the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter] again and our ranking minority member for the important work they did in trying to balance the priorities, and there are so many important priorities in this bill. What this amendment does is pit one program, assisting hard-working families, against another. Mr. Chairman, I hope my colleagues join me in seeing the irony in an amendment which adds funds to a program training high school students for the workplace by taking away funds from the very program which will ensure that they will be safe from job-related accidents once they are old enough to go to work. I am also outraged at this amendment. Mr. Chairman, there is a reason why OSHA was created 25 years ago and my colleagues have clearly stated the improvements that we have seen made in OSHA by Joe Dear and the other administrators of that department. Workplaces can be dangerous. While most employers do act responsibly, there are those who simply do not. I will never forget one, because in 1991, just shortly after I was elected, a tragic fire took place in a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, NC. Twenty-five workers lost their lives and 50 were injured. It was a tragedy on par with New York's Shirtwaist Triangle fire 80 years before. When the Hamlet fire broke out, workers were trapped in the building because the fire doors were locked. In the aftermath of this tragedy, it was like Dante's Inferno, when we hear from the witnesses. I sat on the Education and Labor Committee at the time. Survivors of the Hamlet fire testified before us and, frankly, I will never forget their heartrending words. For the viewers who are listening, they are hearing about OSHA, and sometimes the initials may sound like gobbledygook to many of our viewers, but what they have to understand is OSHA is real and it has a real impact on people's lives. Let me quote: ``I was in the trim room,'' one female witness told us. ``I saw ladies running, running, and they were just screaming and hollering. So I said, I am going with them. And I started running. When we got to the door, one of them stated that the door is locked. So we are trapped in here. So we are going to burn up. And when I look around, I see a big fire and then it was just pitch dark and you couldn't see anything because 50 to 60 of us are running into the area. Some of them were close enough to the door to knock and bang and beat on it. The next thing I know, they were still hollering at the door, stating, somebody let us out of here. Get us out. We are going to die. We are going to die.'' Finally, our witness was able to escape when a bulldozer was used to knock the door open. She told us, ``I was coughing up black soot, big balls of soot. They were beginning to bring Mary Lillian Wall out, who was standing next to me. When they brought her out, she was already dead. They brought Bertha Jarrell out who I grew up with as a child. She was dead. Then they brought Mary Alice Quick out. I grew up with Mary Alice Quick. She was dead. Then they brought Brenda Kelly out who was a friend of mine who worked in the packing room. She was dead.'' Mr. Chairman, government must ensure that hard-working Americans do not have to fear for their lives or their health on the job. OSHA must have the funding to enforce our health and safety laws or, frankly, I worry that we will see more tragedies like the Hamlet chicken plant fire. On an average day, 154 workers lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries and illnesses and another 16,000 are injured. In my home State of New York, the most recent statistics show us that 300 workers died in 1 year while 270,900 faced on-the-job injuries and illnesses. Yet OSHA only has enough inspectors to reach every workplace once every 87 years. OSHA has 100 less staff than it did 10 years ago. So, Mr. Chairman, again, as we said last week, these are shameful and cynical amendments. I have been, throughout my whole years in Congress, and long before that, a strong supporter of vocational education. OSHA needs more funding, not less. Let us not pit one good program against the other. I urge my colleagues to vote against this shameful and cynical amendment.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I want to accept the gentleman's offer to work together to continue to make sure that OSHA continues to serve the people whom it was intended to serve. And I would be delighted to work with the gentleman, with the constraints that I know that the gentleman from Illinois and the gentleman from Wisconsin and the committee worked under, to improve both vocational education funding and OSHA funding, because we want to be absolutely certain that another Hamlet does not take place; and we also want to work to help our young people enter the workplace and get a job so that they can raise a family and feel an important part of this great country of ours. So let us work together, and I would like to work with the gentleman to increase vocational education and OSHA funding because both have an important place in this bill.

Mrs. LOWEY. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Souder] that I am delighted to see the support for special education. And if the gentleman will forgive some of the skepticism among us, we do remember, for those of us who have been working very hard to fight for special education a long time, we do remember that in 1997 the Republicans voted to level-fund special education. We remember that in 1996 the Republicans voted to cut $25 million for early childhood special education personnel training and cut $21 million for innovative special education research and development projects. The Republicans also voted to cut $90 million for special education teacher training. So I, frankly, am delighted to see this support for special education, and I would like to work with the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Souder], with the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter], our distinguished chairman, to continue to increase resources for these very vital programs. But it seems to me, again, to take it from OSHA does not make sense. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Indiana talked about how injuries are going down; however, when we look at the numbers and we see the tremendous need, we are beginning to see, under leaders like Joe Dear, some progress in reforming OSHA. With the help of a bipartisan effort in our committee, and in the gentleman's committee, I am sure, if we are beginning to see progress, let us continue to make progress, to make sure that we protect lives.

Mrs. LOWEY. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I am not sure if the gentlewoman from North Carolina is on the floor, but I talked before about the tragic fire in Hamlet, NC, and there was real action after that fire. In fact, the number of inspectors were increased 100 percent. The leaders of that program in North Carolina happened to have such an exemplary record that the numbers of workplace injuries have continued to decline. So I would like to say to the gentleman from Indiana, let us work together to increase money for IDEA and other special education programs. But while we are working together to improve OSHA, to make sure that we are saving lives, let us look at programs like in North Carolina where their increased investments have really made a difference.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, again reclaiming my time, money is a factor.