H 5628 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE June 7, 1995

that he has ignored the Ethics Committee.

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RESCISSION BILL VETO WILL

AFFECT DISASTER VICTIMS

(Mr. WHITFIELD asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton is threatening to veto the

Republican rescission bill. This rescission bill will actually pay for emergency spending by cutting money out

of the current year’s budget. Responsible, commonsense action like this

was seldom adopted when liberals controlled Congress.

The rescission bill provides $6.7 billion in disaster assistance to victims in

40 States, including victims in Oklahoma City, flood victims in Missouri

and Kentucky, and earthquake victims

in California. These victims need assistance, but the President is trying to

stop the money by playing politics.

We know he is upset because we reduced funding for his AmeriCorps. But,

Mr. President, don’t veto this bill. It

provides relief money and it is paid for.

Be a compassionate President and

don’t make the victims of these disasters wait any longer for help.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

PRO TEMPORE

fThe SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr.

RIGGS). The Chair would remind Members that they must address their remarks to the Chair and not address

their remarks to the President.

PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER

RECOGNIZING CHANDA RUBIN,

f(Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana asked and

was given permission to address the

House for 1 minute and to revise and

extend his remarks.)

Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, today I take special pride in recognizing a very outstanding constituent of mine. She is a 19-year-old professional tennis player from Lafayette,

LA. I speak of no other than Chanda

Rubin, daughter of Judge and Mrs. Edward D. Rubin.

I am proud to say that Chanda Rubin

just completed her best ever grand

slam performance at the French Open.

Although Chanda fell short to the defending champion in the quarterfinals

yesterday, she proved to be a tough

fighter. Her courage has touched the

lives of many individuals, particularly

young people, across this Nation. I

commend Chanda for her hard work

and I wish her the best of luck in the

future.

BIPARTISAN COMMISSION ON

FUTURE OF MEDICARE

f(Mr. STEARNS asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, just

prior to the Memorial Day recess, in

introduced legislation to establish a bipartisan Commission on the Future of

Medicare. The goal of the Commission

would be to find commonsense solutions to reforming and strengthening

our Medicare system. It would be patterned after the Pepper Commission

that was developed to preserve Social

Security. My colleagues, you should

have received a ‘‘Dear Colleague’’ letter outlining this bill.

The Commission would submit to

Congress a report that would contain

its findings and recommendations regarding patterns of spending under the

Medicare Program, long-term solvency

of the Hospital Trust Fund, need to

eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and

administration of the current program.

I believe we can all work together in

a bipartisan manner. We can then preserve, protect, and strengthen the Medicare system to ensure that our seniors

will have access to this program well

into the 21st century.

KILLING THE AMERICAN DREAM

OF HIGHER EDUCATION

f(Mr. HILLIARD asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise

today to protest another one of the Republican plans to kill the American

dream.

I am speaking of the budget that was

rammed through last week. This budget gutted the Student Loan Program,

taking away the hopes and dreams of

young Americans who will not be able

to go to college. The budget plan is

bad. The Republicans have betrayed

the future of America by getting rid of

student loans in order to cut taxes for

their rich friends.

To finance this despicable tax cut for

the rich, they have sold out the young

people of America. There are some

great kids in Alabama and elsewhere in

this fantastic country who now will

never be able to reach their full potential. We have enticed them and lured

them to sleep with dreams of a bright

future, and the Republicans have

turned those dreams into nightmares.

Wake up, Alabama. Wake up, America.

OVERSEAS INTERESTS ACT

SUPPORT THE AMERICAN

f(Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute.)

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, when the

House resumes debate today on H.R.

1561, the American Overseas Interests

Act, our colleagues on the other side of

the aisle will remind us that President

Clinton doesn’t like this bill and has

said he will veto it.

Of course Bill Clinton doesn’t like

this bill. It kills three Federal agencies

and cuts spending by $3 billion in the

next 2 years. It is not his style to support such cuts.

But it also focuses on vital American

interests by supporting peace and stability in the Middle East. This bill is

about getting nuclear weapons out of

Russia and the other former Soviet

States—and locking in the gains of the

cold war by supporting nations that

want to join NATO.

It recognizes our enemies by cutting

off aid to countries that supply weapons to terrorist states—that give aid to

Cuba—or that consistently vote

against us in the United Nations.

So what if Bill Clinton is threatening

to veto the American Overseas Interests Act? We should still support it. I

urge my colleagues to join me in voting yes on final passage.

(Mr. UNDERWOOD asked and was

MEDICARE CUTS

fgiven permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker,

under the guise of saving Medicare, the

majority would make funding cuts that

would have the effect of reducing benefits to Medicare recipients—and these

funding cuts would be used to fund tax

cuts that would primarily benefit the

wealthy.

This fiscal trickery will not fool the

American people.

We often hear of class warfare. Well,

this majority has just given us

generational warfare with its policies

that make school children compete for

school lunch funding with seniors on

fixed incomes, whose Medicare funding

in turn must compete with tax cuts for

wealthy middle-aged citizens.

In this generational warfare the

weapons are not missile launches but

school lunches, and not stealth bombers but stealth tax cuts. And the greatest irony is that the generation that

won World War II is now at risk with

generational warfare being waged by

this majority.

We can do better, and we can do it

without pitting the American people

against each other.

THE PRESIDENT DOESN’T GET IT

(Mr. WELDON of Florida asked and

fwas given permission to address the

House for 1 minute and to revise and

extend his remarks.)

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, isn’t it ironic that the first bill the

President lost increased spending by

$17 billion, and the first bill he is going

to veto cuts spending by almost $17 billion.

Where has the President been for the

past 2 years? The mandate from the

people in the last election was clear—

cut spending first. Gone are the days

where out-of-control spending habits

are the norm. This new Congress is

showing that Washington must act responsibly to balance the budget. And