Ciro Rodriguez

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution honoring our nation's local, state and federal law enforcement officers during Police Week 2000. This weekend, I had the honor of speaking before the Justices of the Peace and Constables Association of South Texas quarterly meeting in Floresville, Texas. We cannot thank our constables enough for the sacrifices they make and the work they do each day to make our communities and homes as safe as can be. These are everyday family men, who get up each morning or leave their homes each night to serve and protect. Each shift, they face an unknown and potentially dangerous situation, whether they are patrolling, serving notice, or responding to call for help. I salute our constables and J.P.'s who maintain a continual and visible presence in our communities, particularly in rural areas, where city and state police coverage is less apparent. Of course, this tribute for Police Week 2000, which this year began on May 14 and will continue until May 20, applies to all levels of law enforcement, and I extend my comments to include all police officers, sheriffs and deputies, troopers and federal law enforcement officers. Peace officers from differing jurisdictions and levels of government have proven time and again that they can work well effectively and get the job done. I applaud officers of all stripes for the hard work and sacrifices they make throughout the country. At this time, I would also like to draw attention to the two tragedies involving law enforcement officers which have befallen South Texas in the past year. On October 12, 1999, in the town of Pleasanton in Atascosa County, Texas, three brave officers of the law fell in the line of duty. Atascosa Sheriff's deputies, Thomas Monse and Mark Stephenson, along with Texas state trooper Terry Miller were all gunned down in an ambush by a lone gunman. Officer Miller, the first Texas trooper who had been killed since 1994 and the 74th trooper killed in the line of duty, left behind a wife and two children, ages 13 and 22 months. Officer Monse, a former Bexar County deputy, left behind a wife and four children. Officer Stephenson, who also served our nation in the military for seven years, left behind a wife and three children. In addition to those who paid with their lives, Atascosa County deputy Carl Fisher and Pleasanton police officer Luis Tudyk, were wounded while carrying out their duty. The other tragedy, in San Antonio, was much more recent. Oscar Perez, a young San Antonio Police Officer was killed on Friday, March 24, 2000 as he served a warrant on a drug fugitive. Aged 31 at his death, he left behind a pregnant wife and two young children, ages 5 and sixteen months. As his 6\1/2\ year career as a San Antonio police officer came to a tragic and abrupt end, we honor him and the 41 others in the history of the San Antonio Police Departments, serves as a reminder of the unique and fatal risks they all too often must bear. Our hearts go out to the families of these brave men and all the others who have in earlier years shed their blood so we can live safely and securely. We honor our slain law enforcement officers so that their own children and loved ones will know that we cannot and will not forget, and keep the memory of their service and sacrifice as an on- going inspiration to those who follow.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I am glad the gentlewoman mentioned that, because I think we all recognize that the solutions to some of our problems are not one answer but a variety of responses. I think some of the responses need to go even beyond the teacher. We have a tendency also to blame the school for everything. It was interesting to see that one of the schools that was cited in Florida by Jeff Bush, by the way, as not doing very good, in fact doing very poorly, was a school district that had a large percentage of mobility. They had a housing project where a lot of the teachers that had those youngsters, they only had them for a few weeks sometimes and they would move on. So that, in some cases, what we need is a combination of programs that help out the community. I had mentioned earlier that programs that help adults become literate are some of the best programs that help younger kids, their kids, to stay in school, so that it is a combination. One of the things that I wanted to share with the gentlewoman was that I got a report by some of the school social workers in Texas that they were having problems with youngsters staying in school, and part of the problems that they identified were child care; that in Texas we have a waiting list of individuals, because the State has chosen not to fully participate on child care for individuals who are in need. The importance of child care for families as well as those individuals that receive the care is great. Other factors that are around the community have a direct impact on our communities. I know the gentlewoman mentioned the fact that if we want a $2 trillion tax cut, then that is what we are going to get, but we are not going to get anything for social security, we cannot get anything for Medicare, and we cannot get anything for education. In fact, it presupposes that the economy will continue to have those surpluses of $170 to $200 billion each year. So we need to be frugal. We need to be responsible in making sure that we meet those needs. I know the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) agrees with me in terms of also the importance of teacher quality and how key that is. Especially one of the things that I like to emphasize is the importance of bilingual education in our schools. When I started school, I did not know any English. I started, and the statistics show that for someone who does not know any English, that it requires 5 to 7 years for them to be able to pick up a second language. In this case, my second language was English, since I knew Spanish. So when I look in terms of my grades, and I spent 2 years back then, and it seemed like every Mexican-American, every Mexican spent 2 years in the first grade, and we had no bilingual education. So I really did not know what was happening until almost the fifth grade. It took me almost 6 years to kind of catch on to what was going on; the importance of bilingual teachers that are well-trained, well educated. I was real pleased to see the administration move on dual language instruction. Most people do not understand that dual language instruction means it is basically what we are doing now with some of our gifted youngsters, it is what we are doing now with some of the people that go to private schools, where we teach them not only one language, but two. We find that that is the best time to learn a second language is prior to puberty, because people do not realize that the accent, if a person has an accent, usually it is a result of the fact that they learn the second language after puberty. If we can begin to introduce in America the possibility, and I am real optimistic that we can do dual language instruction, and we can teach English-speaking youngsters, whether they are English-speaking only, another language, whether it be Spanish or German or other, French.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for those great comments. I think he has brought this to light in terms of one of the issues. And I want to share with the gentleman the fact that when we did a hearing on violence, one of the key things that they found was classroom size and the importance of making sure we had construction money to rebuild our schools in this country. I think it is going to be important to make sure we upgrade our technology. We want to make sure that the digital divide does not occur and that cyber-segregation does not happen. I think it is important that every school have that opportunity to be able to provide for their youngsters what is needed. The gentleman mentioned libraries. I know libraries are having difficulty buying books and also buying the new technology. Those resources are key. And I want to take this opportunity to thank my colleague for joining me tonight as we have talked about this particular issue which is very key, and that is meeting the needs of education in this country. As we move forward, we know that the solution is a variety of answers. Both classroom sizes, making sure we have new construction for our schools, making sure we meet those demographic needs that are out there, making sure that we have after-school programs, making sure that we reach out to those 3- and 4-year-old youngsters with Head Start and a variety of different types of programs, and also making sure we have qualified teachers that are out there providing that instruction that is needed. That requires a commitment, and we are here to let our colleagues know that we are going to make that commitment to make sure that we meet the challenge of the 21st century. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our colleagues for allowing us to have this opportunity to be here tonight and dialoguing on the important issue of education, which, as my colleague recognizes, is very important and very key to all of us and one of the things that we need to all be responsive.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, let me just comment a little bit. I think in some cases in Texas I think we might have gone overboard with the amount of testing. In fact, there was a survey that was done recently on, I think, third graders that took about 22 tests, different types of tests. There is a great deal of emphasis on tests to the point that a great number of our teachers are very concerned that most of the emphasis is basically teaching to the tests, which brings up the issue of the fact that we need to make sure that we prepare our youngsters to be able to think and be able to comprehend and be able to learn without having to teach to the test. Yes, there has been some criticism in some of the schools that that has been occurring and that some of that has been happening. But, again, some of the progress that we have seen has been a result of, not just what happened in the last 4 years. It is like me, I came in 3 years ago. The first month I came in, they balanced the budget. It is kind of like saying I came in in 30 days and took care of the budget for you. My colleagues know that that is not correct. I would say that that has been an effort that has been going on. Part of the credit belongs to Governor White in the 1980s. Part of the credit belongs to a lot of the people that have worked hard down there. We still have a long way to go. Part of the credit belongs to Ross Perot and the committee that he had in Texas and making some things happen. Joining us also tonight is the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown). I am going to ask her to say a few words. I know she is familiar with Jeb Bush there in Florida, and I know she wanted to make some comments as it deals with affirmative action policies that impact on education and various other comments. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown).

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I am on the Committee on Armed Services, and I really feel that part of our national defense is going to be directly tied into the level of our education of our people, just like economics. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from San Antonio, Texas (Mr. Gonzalez), and ask him to join us in the comments.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida for her comments. Mr. Speaker, I also have with us the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gonzalez) who is also joining me from San Antonio. He will be making some comments. The gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown), I know the comments she has made are serious. I know in Texas we have a long way to go, and I want to thank the gentlewoman for those comments. I know she mentioned also a little bit in terms of making sure that we provide for our youngsters. As we enter this new century, we have to make sure that one of those cornerstones is making sure that our classrooms are well wired, that our classrooms are well equipped to be able to handle the new technology. One of the things that, under this administration, I was real pleased to see that we have expanded, when Clinton started, we had only 3 percent that were connected to the Internet. That has gone to 63 percent. It is still not there. We still have a long way to go.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, we are here today to talk about the tremendous progress that we have made in education over the past 7 years. Even better, over the past 5 years, we have seen some measurable results. Fourth grade reading scores in high-poverty schools are up. Eighth grade math scores are up. The gender gap in math and science scores are shrinking. The number of advanced placement tests, the AP tests with scores meeting college requirements increased overall, and more importantly, also for minorities and women. More high school students are taking tougher classes and are including the AP classes which are the advanced placement classes. More women and Hispanics and minorities are going to college than ever before. These are all just over the last 5 years. Mr. Speaker, this is all good news, and the progress we have made has been largely due to the Clinton administration and the efforts they have made throughout the country with good, sound solutions for our Nation's children. Knowing that 90 percent of our school-age population attend public schools, many of us here have worked hard with the administration to ensure that States and school districts are working together to reform their systems where they are. Along with the reforms is the need to hold our students accountable and make sure that they are held to higher standards. Raising standards, which we have been doing and talking about for much of the past decade, means that all children are reading well by the end of the third grade, and making sure that our eighth graders are on the college track and are taking algebra and geometry. This is really a reform that has been working, and it is something that we as Democrats feel very strongly about and need to continue to make that commitment. At the heart of the Clinton administration and the Democrats' reform is the focus on literacy. In 1996, we worked with the administration to implement the America Reads program, which mobilized communities to work together to fight illiteracy. This has been effective, especially with our community colleges working with our local school districts. In addition to the America Reads program, we have made sure that landmark legislation to support local and State efforts to improve literacy through professional development, as well as family literacy programs and tutoring. Let me add that we have found also some startling results, that when we work with parents on literacy, we also find that those youngsters of those parents have a direct impact in making sure that they also stay in school, and a lot of them choose not to drop out. Reading scores in San Antonio have improved over the last 5 years and it is due to these investments that we have made, both in the Federal and some of the local level areas. Clearly, ensuring that our children are literate and that reading is a priority is not a new agenda item. The presidential candidates would like to think that it is new. Reading is not a new agenda and claiming credit for educational reform is unfounded. During a press conference on March 28, Governor George Bush claimed progress for reading scores in Texas. I would like to read an excerpt from the Department of Education press release in response to this claim. That particular claim indicated that educational reform in the State of Texas has happened largely as a solid foundation that was set back in the 1980s by Governor White, and also a particular commission that he had developed by Ross Perot. He was revolutionary at the time and implemented reform measures much like what we are advocating today, in which we are advocating smaller class sizes, which makes sense; a significant increase in funding for education; a focus on qualified teachers and making sure that we do have those qualified teachers. Mr. Speaker, these are the measurements we have been implementing in the last 20 years, items that 20 years ago that we have been contributing to making progress as we move forward. I would like to bring to the attention of my colleagues a cartoon that was in the Washington Post of April 1, 2000, and the young man, as we have here, and the older man who says, here is my plan to boost child literacy, by spending another $5 billion, and then the response is, how can you afford this and your tax cut? The response: Hey, this is my reading plan. Math comes later. We are going to hear a great deal of these kinds of talks. The bottom line is we need to do the math now. The reality is, and we know that for the last 2 years we have had a surplus. Our last surplus was about $170 billion, and it has estimated, and this is an estimation only, that for the next decade, we probably will have approximately $170 billion to $200 billion for the next 10 years. The bottom line is that if we have a $2 trillion tax cut after we figure that out, and we can do the math as this young man here did the math, the result is that what revenues are we going to have for Social Security? What revenues are we going to have for Medicare? What revenues are we going to have for education? The answer has to be none if we go with this tax cut. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to talk about the fact that the Republican opposition has basically proposed two major propositions, and that is, one, vouchers, and the other, block grants. We recognize that in order to respond to these we have a variety of issues that we need to deal with, and the solutions are varied. I want to take this opportunity, because I know we have with us some Members that have joined with me this evening, and I want to acknowledge the fact that we have the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano), and since she is here with me, I want to ask her, since she has done some great, tremendous work, and I want to ask her to comment. I thank the gentlewoman from California for joining me this evening, and I yield to her at this time.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for those kind words. I know you stressed the importance of some of the solutions, and one of the things that the gentlewoman mentioned is also in terms of early childhood. I know how critical that is. I know Head Start has done some tremendous work, and that early start is critical. Reaching out to those 3 year olds and 4 year olds is real important. The quicker we get those youngsters into our educational system, the quicker they will to be able to compete and be able to get that head start that they need. We also have with us another Californian who I have the opportunity of sharing a committee with, the Committee on Armed Services. I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) for joining me tonight in talking about education.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I know the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) mentioned the issue in terms of the number in Texas. It is appalling to see that the law school at the UT, which is supposed to be a little more liberal than most, had accepted 500. Of those, I think they had about four African Americans. Then only one that actually went in. So I would agree with the gentlewoman from Florida that, if they outreach the way they do for athletics, they could definitely outreach to get some qualified African Americans to go to law school in Texas. I know that that is unfortunate that those situations exist. I know when the Hopwood case came up in Texas, we were extremely disappointed that this was not the law of the land. This was a case in the district, and it was not one that should have been. But as soon as that came out, they wanted to make sure they followed it without recognizing that there were still other cases out there that talked about the importance of doing the right thing. In most cases, even after the cases come about, we need to continue to ask people throughout the country to do the right thing. If one has 500 applicants and one does not have a single African American, there is a problem there. There is a need for us to really kind of look at that. We would ask those institutions, they do not need a law to tell them they have got a problem. They should be able to see it.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman for her question. In Texas, we were the last State to go into the CHIPS programs, the insurance program for youngsters. These are individuals who are uninsured. I would remind Americans that in America we have both Medicare for our seniors, we have Medicaid for our indigent, but one of the things that we find is that we have a large number of people working, working Americans, who do not have access to insurance. Texas has the largest number of uninsured individuals. The Clinton administration, one of the things that they have done, as the gentlewoman well knows, is that we have pushed on assuring that these youngsters were insured. Texas was the last State to move into this program. In addition to that, the funding they provided only extended to 60 percent of them, which means that only five to six out of the 10 that actually qualify will be able to get service, which is unfortunate. The gentlewoman mentioned also in terms of not only health but also in terms of nutrition. Even those individuals that qualify for food stamps, we find that there is a study that out of 10 that qualify, less than four are actually receiving it because of the bureaucratic nature that is there. In fact, some of those particular complaints came from the grocery industry in Texas, and people say that there are less people participating. It is because they made it very bureaucratic in nature. I want to go back a little bit in terms of education. The gentlewoman also mentions the importance of early childhood education and how important it is to start. In Texas, we still only fund half-day kindergarten, so we still have a long way from that perspective. We have made some strides, but it has been a combination of years, and a lot of credit has been given to Governor White in the 1980s, and also to the third-party candidate, Ross Perot, who was on the committee that basically helped to revolutionize a lot of the things that we have there. But we still have a long way to go in making sure that we provide sufficient resources. For our teachers, we rank almost 47th in terms of expenditures, salaries for teachers, and in some of those categories. So we are really not pleased with where we are at. I think we have a long way to go. That is why I am real pleased about some of the propositions that we have. One is construction. I know we have been proposing on the House floor the importance of making sure that we have money for construction. Most of our schools, if we look at the studies that have been done, came close to 60 years old. In Texas, some are even older. As the gentlewoman well knows, I live in a home that is 70 years old. That was prior to the microwave. We recognize the importance of making sure we have good wiring for the new technology, and we need to make sure that we get that burst of resources that is needed. Along with construction money, and everyone has said this, when I did hearings on school violence one of the things they said was that we need smaller classroom sizes, so there is an importance to add qualified teachers out there. The administration pushed to put 100,000 new teachers out there, and that is really important, as the gentlewoman well knows; and qualified teachers. So that is key. Along with that comes the need to make sure that we have the classrooms. A lot of Americans out there, we need to recognize the fact that in the 1950s and 1960s we had a boom, the baby boomers. The generation then decided that we needed to come up to the plate and build new schools. Now we have, as the gentlewoman well knows, we have what we call the baby echo, the kids of those baby boomers, our children. So it becomes real important that we also come up to the plate and build those schools that are needed, where the demographics show that we do have a lot of youngsters out there. They are smart youngsters, individuals who are doing extremely well. They are a lot sharper than we ever were at that age. But at the same time, we need to make sure that they have the opportunity to learn and have the technology.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) for yielding. I want to congratulate her on her efforts, and I want to thank her for allowing me to say a few words on this important topic. First of all, I want to commend all Americans who have already taken the initiative and sent their census forms in. Congratulations. I thank them for their efforts. They have shown that people across this country know the value of the census and know their obligation and responsibility. I thank them for doing their part in making everyone count in this country. The last update shows, as of tonight, that 53 percent nationally has been the response. While that is more than half that have responded, we are hoping and we will continue to work at a 70 percent response rate. So we still have a long way to go. In Texas, we had a 48 percent response. We are hoping for 66 percent. We still have a long way to go. I represent 13 counties in South Texas. My district's response rate per county has been as low as 29 percent in Zapata County and as high as 52 and 53 percent in both Bexar County and Comal and Guadalupe counties. Especially where the initial rate is low, we must work hard to make sure that everyone gets counted. This week I spent the Census Day on Saturday at a particular restaurant in San Antonio at the Pico de Gallo Restaurant. The business community came forward providing both a little coffee and pastry for individuals to help fill out those forms. We are going to continue to work on the communities. I am going to ask the leaderships throughout the 13 counties that I represent to reach out and do everything they can to make sure that everyone gets counted. This was a great example on some of our activities that we have had the private sector participating as well as the public sector. I want to take also this opportunity to congratulate the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) and indicate in terms of the difficulty that we are having especially with elected officials of all people that should be responsible and not be making irresponsible comments. I want to highlight the fact that there has been some criticism about the report and about the census this year, when, in actuality, as indicated by the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) the 2000 Census form is virtually the same census form as 1990, with the exception that it has got fewer questions. So when we look in terms of the criticism, especially from a lot of the Republicans, you need to acknowledge the fact that under Bush and in the previous decade we had even more questions. The 2000 census short form contains eight questions. In 1990, it had nine questions. In the year 2000 census form, the large form has 53 questions, down from 57 questions. So it is important that we bring those questions down. Once again I want to also highlight as the gentlewoman from New York did a beautiful job of pinpointing the importance of those questions and the long form that goes to one out of every six individuals. That long form allows us an opportunity to be able to identify a lot of the things that are critical in our country. For one, in terms of family needs and community needs. I head the task force on health care for the Hispanic Caucus. One of the things that we are real conscious about is community health centers. This data will help identify the need for and/or the lack of services in community mental health. And so it becomes real critical that these questionnaires are sent back. When we talk about veterans and the disabled, those individuals that receive SSI, those individuals that are elderly, that are looking forward in terms of Social Security, that data is extremely helpful for this country to be able to identify how many expected over 65 are we going to be having, how many people are disabled, how many veterans we have out there in the country that are in need and disabled, in need of services. All those types of questions that are there are there for a purpose. The question that sometimes comes to light is the question regarding plumbing. We all assume that we all have plumbing, but I am here to tell you that that is not the case in every community. We still have colonias, I have them in Bexar County, in South Bexar County, in the metropolitan areas and I have them in Starr and a lot of the other counties in the rural areas. Those types of questions are critical to make sure we identify those areas that are in need and especially when it comes to zeroing in on identifying resources that are needed. In fact, some of the counties that have not responded are some of the counties that are most in need, that need to be worked on; and we need to look at a little more closely. I am going to encourage you once again to please look at your form right now, and I would ask that you seriously look at filling that out as quickly as possible so that we do not have to send people out there to make sure that we help. If you need help, I would also ask that you call my congressional offices, both in Roma in Starr County in Texas and San Diego in Duval County in Texas and San Antonio. I would ask you to call our offices if you need any help and assistance in doing those forms. In closing, I just want to thank the gentlewoman from New York for allowing us the opportunity to mention how critical this is. I also want to submit for the Record a letter that we will be sending to one of the governors in our State that has made some comments that we feel are very irresponsible. Congress of the United States, Washington, DC, April 4, 2000. Hon. George W. Bush, Governor, State of Texas, State Capitol, Austin, TX. Dear Governor Bush: We are writing to express our deep concern over recent statements you reportedly made regarding the conduct of the 2000 census. As you know, the Republican leadership in the Congress has criticized the information sought in the census forms and has even encouraged Americans to leave some of the information blank if they find the questions objectionable. You joined congressional Republicans in that criticism last week by agreeing that if Americans are uncomfortable with the information they requested, they should leave those questions blank. Collectively, these statements have the effect, intended or not, of depressing the census count. We believe your criticism of the information sought in the census forms is seriously misinformed. The 2000 census forms are virtually the same as the census forms used in 1990, with one exception: They ask fewer questions. The 2000 census short form contains 8 questions, down from 9 in 1990. The 2000 census long form contains fifty-three questions, down from fifty-seven in 1990. The 2000 long form is the shortest long form in decades. Moreover, the Census Bureau sent the forms to the Republican-controlled Congress for approval in both 1997 and 1998, and not a single privacy concern was raised. You have opposed the Census Bureau's plan to use modern statistical methods to correct the 2000 census. Those methods were developed by the Census Bureau professionals at the direction of Congress in conjunction with the National Academy of Sciences, and have been found to be the best way to correct the undercount and overcount of the population that has plagued prior censuses. The correction to the census is about fairness. The 1990 census undercounted a disproportionate percentage of minority populations (e.g., Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans), resulting in Texas being short-changed $1 billion in federal funds that went elsewhere. Despite the best efforts of the Census Bureau, it is projected that even a greater number of Americans will be missed in the 2000 census. Tenuous support of the census will hurt our home State of Texas. A recent study showed that Texas stands to lose around $2 billion over the next decade if the correction to the census is not made. Those funds go to the very heart of family values: schools, employment services, housing assistance, road construction, day care facilities, hospitals, emergency services, programs for seniors, and much more. In opposing the use of modern statistical methods to correct the census, you have consistently said that you favor a full and accurate count. However, a full and accurate count has proven unachievable under the best circumstances, and becomes impossible when leading public officials denigrate the census itself. Your recent statements suggesting that Americans need not complete the census are counterproductive. Thus far, the State of Texas has the fourth lowest response rate to the census of any State. We still have a chance to urge Texans (and all Americans) to fill out their forms. We strongly urge you to clarify your position regarding the census and stop encouraging Americans to leave census forms blank. Furthermore, given the numerous public statements questioning the need to complete census forms, in the event of an undercount, we urge you to reconsider your opposition to a statistical correction to the census so that all Americans are counted. Sincerely, Carolyn B. Maloney, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Gene Green, Silvestre Reyes, Max Sandlin, Ciro D. Rodriguez, Ruben Hinojosa.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, today, in San Antonio, family, friends and members of the community, join in mourning the loss of Oscar Perez, a young San Antonio Police Officer cut down last week in the line of duty. As he is buried today, we all must take a moment to recount not only his story, but the story of every other law enforcement officer who daily risks life and limb to protect us. Only 31 years old, Officer Perez expected last Friday, March 24, 2000, to be like any other, a day of hard work ending with a return home to his pregnant wife and two young children, ages 5 and sixteen months. Instead, as he was serving a warrant on a drug fugitive, he was mortally wounded by gun fire. In one instant, his 6\1/2\ year career as a San Antonio police officer came to a tragic and abrupt end. Law enforcement officers leave the comfort and security of their homes each day to take on their duty to serve and protect. While we have worked hard to reduce crime rates, law officers continue to face real and substantial danger. As we expect them to be on their job day- in and day-out, we run the risk of taking their presence for granted. But Officer Perez, like the 41 others in the history of the San Antonio Police Department, serves as a reminder of the unique and fatal risks they all too often must bear. Our hearts go out to his widow, two children, unborn child and other family members. Words cannot express the grief and loss they must feel. Our hope is that his children will grow up with a deep-rooted appreciation of their father's devotion and sacrifice. He lived to help others. His service to his family, community and country set an example his children can follow with pride.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Let me, first of all, congratulate the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for her amendment. I think it is important that we highlight the importance in terms of treatment. I think we all recognize from both sides of the aisle the importance of looking at both the supply and the demand. And as we do that, I think it is also critical for us to realize, at least from my perspective, I think I am the only one who is here who has ever had a caseload of 60 heroin addicts and I worked as a case worker. And when I was working as a case worker, I just want to share with you the frustrations. It seemed like every election, whether it was a Republican or a Democrat, the DA would pick up a case load of heroin addicts that were selling probably enough to just fix themselves. The reality is that we are not going after the ones that are really selling the items, and we are going after the little guy. If we look at our prisons, we find 70 percent of them are drug-related, a lot of them are black, Hispanic and poor white, but we look in terms of our professionals that are using the drugs out there, we are not doing enough to go after that professional, that individual, that is related to a Congressman, that individual that is an attorney, that individual that is out there, and we are not doing enough there. What frustrates me is that we have even come up with now a report card on other nations, on how they rank. When are we going to come up with a report card on our own district attorneys, on our own communities? When are we going to hold them accountable? If we ask the military to come up with a plan, they have come up with a plan, and this is a military plan; but when are we going to ask our own communities to come up with a plan? I think it is important that we recognize that this is a societal problem. It is a problem that America has. And I can attest, unless we deal with it as a problem that exists within our society, we are not going to be able to make it happen. Let me just share with my colleagues we have 6 million youngsters right now, 6 million kids on prescription drugs. When I practiced as a social worker, one of the things that we were told, and we used what we call the DSM for diagnostic assessments, that we should use the least restrictive diagnosis in dealing with youngsters. That was that we do not give a serious diagnosis unless we had to. We used to have what we called adjustment reaction. That was, if any kid got into difficulties, we used ``adjustment reaction'' and worked on it. But when we first started to tie in the funding in mental health, when we tied funding to whether the person was going to get reimbursed, then we started giving more serious diagnosis to a lot our youngsters in this country, and we really need to watch that real closely. We really need to investigate what we are doing in the area of mental health. A lot of our individuals that suffer from mental illness are some of the ones that are self-medicating themselves and getting involved in prescriptions and drugs, both the legal and illegal. I think we really need to go out there and try to do something in those areas. In addition, if one looks at our media in terms of how it stresses a prescription coverage for any illness that one has, they will have a pill for it. So we really need to kind of look at it and really approach it in a comprehensive manner. If we ask the military again to come up with a plan, we are going to get a military plan. I am going to be supportive of that. But I think that we also need to look at our backyards. We have to stop scapegoating other countries. We have an obligation in our backyards. We need to hold our own people accountable. We need to hold ourselves accountable. Part of that is treatment. I want to share with my colleagues that, when I worked in the area of mental health in the city of San Antonio for what we call the major center, which was the community mental health center, now it is referred to by another name, we had two case workers that worked with adolescents. I was one of them. Two for a population of over a million. That, I can attest to my colleagues, has not increased. We also need, not only in terms of those treatment approaches that vary, some will work with others, some will not, we need, yes, in some cases religious approaches that work with some addicts, others in terms of the methadone program; but we need a combination of all of those approaches. One of the things that frustrate me is that people, especially adolescents, if they suffer from drug addiction, they are not going to come to see you. I can attest to that. You have to go out there and reach out. We need both a medical model and an outreach model or a social work model that goes out there after those youngsters and reaches out to them. The other frustrating thing that we have, and I think that we are definitely not doing enough, is when it comes to our veterans, our veterans are suffering tremendously and a lot of them are abusing alcohol and substance abuse. We need to do more in that area.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Chairman, I agree this amendment is necessary to address some of the critical unfunded requirements the Service Secretaries and Chiefs identified during the recent hearings before the House Armed Services Committee. However, I am concerned because it does not specifically target any funds for real property maintenance. Every Service Secretary and Chief testified before our committee about their inability to fund their facility maintenance and repair accounts at the required level. They've had to use these accounts to pay bills for contingency operations, modernization, spare parts, and other high priority items. Their unfunded requirements lists, submitted to this committee in February, include real property maintenance as one of the top eight priorities for every Service. All of us who are homeowners know that if we don't keep our homes properly maintained, we're going to be facing even bigger bills in the future. I'm afraid we're already there on our military installations. I'n not talking about cosmetic upgrades--I'm talking about things that impact readiness and the quality of life of our troops. Things like airfield pavement repair to prevent pieces of the pavement flying up and putting out an aircraft engine. Or power outages which impact vital systems on the installation. I'm sure any of the Members who have military bases in their districts, or have traveled to our overseas bases, have heard the horror stories of how barracks and dining halls are without heat or hot water because of a catastrophic failure, or of how buildings must be vacated when winds reach a certain speed because failing structural systems make them unsafe. You all have your own examples. We have also seen the ingenuous ways our troops engineer work-arounds just to get the job done--they should not have to work under these conditions! They deserve better. I would urge the Appropriations Committee to add real property maintenance funds for each Service, based on the unfunded priority lists. These funds would allow each Service to immediately fix their most urgent requirements and improve their military readiness.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I was absent this morning due to important business in my Congressional district yesterday and missed rollcall vote 48 on the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century. Had I been present I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) for taking the leadership to talk about the importance of access to health care throughout this country. Managed care reform is needed drastically. I will just quickly give an example of some of the problems we have encountered in Texas. We have recently had a situation where one of the particular companies decided to cut a lot of the rural counties out from having access to health care. The reason why is the reimbursement on Medicare is lower for rural areas than it is for urban areas, so there is definitely areas that we need to work on to make sure that those people in rural Texas and rural America also get the same type of access to health care that is drastically needed. In addition to that, one of the things that I know the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) knows full well is the fact when we talk about the Patients' Bill of Rights, the right for everyone to be able to see the doctor of their choice, especially when they encounter a situation where they need to see a specialist, an accountant, an insurance person should not be the one to dictate whether they should see that doctor or not. It should be that particular doctor, the one to have the say-so. So the Patients' Bill of Rights that we have been pushing for the last 2 years is critical. I am hoping that the Congress will decide to do the right thing on an election year, and hopefully we will be able to make something happen when it comes to the Patients' Bill of Rights bill. I also wanted to touch base, and I know the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) knows full well the fact that we have a large number of uninsured in this country. It has gone over 44 million now. Texas is one of the largest of uninsured individuals. We are talking about individuals, working Americans, working Texans. These are people that are making too much money to qualify for Medicaid, not old enough to qualify for Medicare, yet at the same time are not making a sufficient amount of resources to be able to cover their families and have access to insurance. I know that the CHIPs program, the children's insurance program, has been a great program that has been in the forefront and thank God for President Clinton's effort and the Democrats in pushing that program forward. But we still have a lot to do. States such as Texas, for example, that was one of the last States who actually moved to approve the CHIPs program, decided to move and only fund 55 to 60 percent, so that means that 10 kids that qualify, we will only be able to service six of those based on the resources that were allocated. So there is a real need for us to reach out and making sure that those youngsters get access to health care. I know from a Hispanic perspective, and I head the task force for the Hispanic caucus, we want to make sure that the parents of those children also have an opportunity to get insurance. Those individuals, those parents are also parents that are out there working hard and trying to make things happen for their families. We are hoping that we can expand that CHIPs program to the parents of those children to make sure that they get access to health care. Aside from the fact that things are getting worse in terms of the uninsured and things seem to be getting worse also for managed care systems, we also need to look at Medicare. In the area of Medicare, it is ironic to think that right now if you are on Medicaid for the indigent, you get access to prescription coverage. Yet if you are a senior citizen, you do not have access to prescription coverage. It does not make any sense. It was started, Medicare, during a time when not too many prescriptions were being utilized in the area of getting people taken care of, and now there is a need for prescription coverage and the cost to those senior citizens as we well know is astronomical. In fact, studies that were done throughout this country and specifically in my district, we did a study and we found that our senior citizens are getting charged more for the same prescription than someone who is on a major insurance company. So that the pharmaceutical companies are basically giving breaks and giving discounts to individuals, but when it comes to our senior citizens that are on Medicare they are not getting those same prescription coverages. I know that they are spending a lot of money on lobbying; I know that again some of our legislation to allow our senior citizens to have access to Medicare, but it is something that I feel real strongly about, that we need to make sure that our senior citizens get that access to that prescription coverage and if nothing else for them to get it at the same cost that those other individuals get when they go out there and purchase that prescription. One of the other things when we look at the issue of health care, and it goes beyond in terms of not only the uninsured, the importance of prescription coverage but also in terms of veterans. Last year we worked real hard to try to get a $3 billion increase in the veterans for access to health care. I know that in committee, the Republican side fought us extremely hard. They also fought us on the House floor on an amendment to add those $3 billion. We were able to add $1.7 billion. This year, I was real pleased to see the administration come up with a $1.5 billion increase on veterans health care; but in all honesty, that is just to keep up with existing cost. There is a real need for us to reach out to those veterans. There is a need for us to make sure we fulfill that agreement that we made to all those veterans out there to have access to health care. One of the things that I have seen up here in the last 3\1/2\ years is the fact that as Americans and as agencies that are responsive and talking in our behalf, they definitely did tell our veterans that they were going to have access to health care. That is one of the things that we have neglected to do. One of our obligations is that we have to make sure that those individuals get access to that health care. This year, we are moving forward to try to fulfill some of those needs in the area of veterans needs as well as TRICARE. If I could, I want to just touch base with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) on TRICARE. TRICARE is an issue of those retirees that are out there. A lot of them are having a great deal of difficulty, and these are the retirees, military individuals, a little different than the VA, a different source; but it is one of the areas that they are also having a great deal of difficulty. We are hoping to put some additional resources in that area and to make some things happen for our military retirees that are out there. In conjunction with all the other needs that we have on health care, there is a real need for us to move forward in these areas. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) for the leadership that he has taken in this area.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Yes, I was.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Exactly.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Yes, I was.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Yes, I was.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. That is right.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Let me just share in that area, other States actually get more. We as a State have chosen not to participate fully on that. That is why we only get three prescriptions, because the State chooses to put a limit on those prescriptions. In fact, I authored some legislation to force the Texas House to move forward on that, and I was able to get six prescriptions if you are in a nursing home, six prescriptions if you are in a hospital; but if you are at home, you still just get three.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. That is right. Medicaid, which means indigent. One of our biggest problems as you indicated is those people who make a little bit above the indigent level, which is $12,700 a year for a family of three, those that make a little bit over that find themselves not being able to qualify for Medicaid but find themselves without any insurance whatsoever and having a job where they cannot afford to have insurance. The other issue as we well know is the issue of Medicare. That is an issue that also we find ourselves with a lot of senior citizens not being able to have access to prescription coverage.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to just congratulate the gentleman for outlining the items. Especially I know he has been in the forefront when it comes to health care. I know one of the concerns that a lot of Members had and in conjunction also with the constituencies that are being serviced by managed care systems, that a lot of them are concerned that they do not have any appeal process. I know that we have been trying to push forward in allowing that opportunity that when individuals are denied access to health care, that they can be able to appeal. One of their concerns is that we will have too many lawsuits. I am here to attest to the fact that in Texas we have allowed for that appeal process to exist and we have not had the number of lawsuits and we have had the accountability on the part of the managed care systems to be a little more responsive. I think that the Patients' Bill of Rights needs to go through and we are hoping that it will. I am here just to thank the gentleman for that. I know that he has also been in the forefront when it comes to prescription coverage. In the area of prescription coverage, it just does not make any sense now that in Medicaid for indigents we provide prescription coverage, yet when it comes to our senior citizens we do not. That to me just does not make any sense whatsoever, at a time when we know that we want to take care of our senior citizens, that prescription coverage is also a very instrumental effort and tool to take care of illness. As we all well know, when Medicare started, that was not the case. We did not use prescriptions as much as we do now for taking care of our patients. That is something I think that now is really important and we have got to make sure that that happens. I am also very pleased that we have moved and are beginning to take care of our uninsured. We have the largest number of uninsured in Texas and it is unfortunate that Texas also was unwilling to provide any local resources. Most of the resources for the CHIPS program, the children's program, are resources that were provided through the tobacco lawsuits. There is a real need for local communities to come forward, also, and help out in that process as the Federal Government, the President has moved forward in providing the uninsured children of this country an opportunity to have access to health care. As our leader in this area, I want to thank the gentleman for allowing me the opportunity just to say a few words and to thank him for his efforts. I look forward to working with him during this particular Congress.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Madam Speaker, when I started politics, I started on the issue of school finance and the fact that the only money one has to build one's schools is from one's local community. So if one lives in a poor community, one is going to have less resources. If one lives in a rich community, there is going to be a lot more resources to educate one's child. That is why I got involved in politics, because I saw the disparity. The gentleman from New Jersey is right. Most Americans a lot of times do not realize that the construction of that campus comes from only local resources. Just in the last few years has the State of Texas decided to help out a little bit. Prior to that, every single building in the State of Texas was only through local resources. So it varies from district to district, from county to county in terms of how much they have and whether they can build more classrooms or not. Some decide to splurge and do things that they should not be doing. But the reality is, yes, a lot of communities throughout this country need assistance. They need new technology. They need new wiring. I think it is going to be important for us to be there in the forefront to provide that technology and that infrastructure that will pay for the next generation and our future for this country.