Congressional Record UNUM

E PLURIBUS

United States

of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 104th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION

b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m.

Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor.

H 5485

House of Representatives

Vol. 141 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 1995 No. 87

The House met at 10 a.m.

fPRAYER

The Chaplain, Rev. James David

Ford, D.D., offered the following prayer:

We pray, gracious God, that we will

not be content simply to follow old

paths and repeat meaningless patterns,

but that our hearts and minds would be

open to new adventures and new opportunities of service. May Your good

Spirit breathe into our souls a

freshness that cleanses our ideas, our

hopes, and our dreams and may we

truly look to Your guidance for the

days ahead. Teach us to grow in Your

grace and trust in Your goodness, this

day and every day. Amen.

The SPEAKER. The Chair has examTHE JOURNAL

fined the Journal of the last day’s proceedings and announces to the House

his approval thereof.

Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.

The SPEAKER. Will the gentleman

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

ffrom North Carolina [Mr. JONES] come

forward and lead the House in the

Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. JONES led the Pledge of Allegiance as follows:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the

United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under

God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

all.

RELATIVE TO FLOOR PRIVIfLEGES OF FORMER MEMBERS

The SPEAKER. On June 9, 1994,

Speaker Foley reminded former Members of the prohibition of clause 3 of

rule XXXII against former Members

obtaining floor privileges during the

pendency of a matter in which they

have a personal or pecuniary interest,

emphasizing that the test for whether

the rule is being violated is the former

Member’s status as one with a personal

or pecuniary interest rather than their

intent to lobby. On that occasion

Speaker Foley also admonished former

Members from importuning the doorkeepers to waive the restrictions of the

rule, since the Chair may not even recognize a unanimous-consent request to

do so.

The Chair is taking this opportunity

to reiterate the guidelines first announced by Speaker O’Neill under

clause 3 of rule XXXII on January 6,

1977, and again on June 7, 1978, and by

Speaker Foley last year in order to discourage former Members from attempting to exercise their limited floor

privileges when they find themselves

under this restriction and to remind

former Members that the prohibition

extends beyond the floor to rooms leading thereto, such as the Speaker’s

lobby and the respective Cloakrooms.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

RELATIVE TO 1-MINUTES

fThe SPEAKER. The Chair will take

20 1-minutes on each side.

(Mrs. SEASTRAND asked and was

VINE AND WINE

fgiven permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

her remarks.)

Mrs. SEASTRAND. Mr. Speaker, over

the last 30 years, the Federal Government has become far too generous with

the taxpayer’s money. Washington bureaucrats not satisfied with wasting

money on domestic programs find new

and inventive ways to waste it in other

countries.

Here are a few examples of what I am

talking about: The International Institute for the Unification of Private

Law, the International Office of Vine

and Wine, the Permanent International

Association of Road Congresses, the

Colombo Plan Council for Technical

Cooperation, and the International

Natural Rubber Study Organization.

All of these programs have two

things in common: They are funded by

the American taxpayer and they need

desperately to be unfunded by the

American taxpayer.

Mr. Speaker, we realize that the Federal Government cannot continue

spending money as if there were no tomorrow, and we can no longer afford

overseas extravagance. It is time to

streamline bureaucracy and eliminate

the proliferation of silly named programs that have no real purpose and no

real need to exist. The American Overseas Interests Act will reduce our monetary aid commitments overseas to one

percent of the Federal budget, much

more in line with what the American

people want us to do in this Congress.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS FAVOR TAX

CUTS FOR WEALTHY

f(Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, now

that the Republicans have forced their

budget resolution through this House,

it is easy to get lost in a sea of numbers and statistics—to forget about the

impact this trickle-down travesty will

have on the hard-working people of

America.

But I cannot forget—because every

time I walk the streets of my district

in St. Louis, I meet the people who

stand to lose health care benefits, pension benefits, and student loans—all to

pay for a tax cut for the wealthy that

is so unfair, so unnecessary, so