Dana Rohrabacher

Mr. ROHRABACHER

Mr. ROHRABACHER. If I could be given the opportunity to answer.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. The local people will be doing that.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. As a young man I body-surfed there and spent a lot of time in that water. That is probably the best example of why the decisions, environmental decisions like the cleanup of Santa Monica Bay, should be left to local people. The question is, at the local level, how pure should we make the Santa Monica Bay, because the people of the local area know that you can have it 90-percent pure and not lose any jobs, but if you push to an environmental extremist position of trying to make it 99-percent pure, hundreds of thousands of people will be thrown out of work. One of the complaints that we have had about Federal Government regulations is just that. because that is like orphanages. The laws now require that people that endanger their children should have their children taken away, and provides a mechanism for doing that, so we don't have to talk about orphanages. We don't have to talk about whether or not we go too far. That is not what this legislation is about. This legislation is about gutting the basic laws. You won't even be able to engage in that debate in Santa Monica over fecal matter in the bay and whether or not the beaches will be closed or not.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. To the degree that Federal money is involved, the Republicans have no problem with us setting regulations for the use of that Federal money. It is just that in this whole mandate debate, it is about when we mandate things and do not provide the money.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. That is a very good example, because unlike the Mississippi where many States are involved, the Santa Monica Bay is totally within the State of California and thus having the Federal Government mandate the solution would be questionable.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. If the gentleman will yield, the gentleman noted or gave as an example the cleanup of the Santa Monica Bay, which is something I know about, coming from Southern California.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield for a question?

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Would you do that at the Federal level, as well?

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Your argument is that what the Republicans are suggesting is a far swing of the pendulum in the wrong direction, but I would hope that you would admit that this is in reaction--I would not admit it is going too far, however, but I hope that you would admit that it is in reaction to a pendulum that has swung so far in the other direction that today, local governments find themselves mandating, whether it is for environmental reasons, which you have gone through earlier on in your talk, or for any number of other areas, they find their budgets are being totally mandated or to a great degree mandated by the Federal Government. Thus, local government and the prerogatives of the local voters are being taken away and coopted by the Federal Government.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, If the Federal Government is mandating the actions and priorities of the States, no wonder the people of California and the State government of California are unable to put themselves into a position of preparing for a crisis and have to come to the Federal Government, when their own moneys are being mandated and how they will spend their own moneys is being mandated by the Federal Government. Shouldn't we leave that decisionmaking, shouldn't we let people in the States be able to make decisions that are most applicable to the States, so if there is an emergency they can then afford to take care of those problems?

Mr. ROHRABACHER

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I am asking my colleagues to join 67 Members of the House in cosponsoring H.R. 359. This legislation will prevent a major rip-off of American inventors and investors by ensuring that Americans have the 17 years of patent protection which was their right prior to the passage of the GATT implementation legislation last year. Hidden in that implementation legislation was a provision not required by GATT that was slipped into the implementation legislation. The provision dramatically reduces the number of years of patent protection for American citizens, permitting foreign nationals, foreign and international corporations to use American technology against us in the world competition without so much as paying royalties to American inventors and investors who created the technology. H.R. 359 will stop the rip-off and perfect the GATT language by purging this provision from part of the GATT that should never have been part of it in the first place.