June 7, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H 5629

that means that any increase in spending in one area will equal a decrease in

another. It is simple accounting.

The rescission bill provides muchneeded disaster assistance to people in

Oklahoma City and to victims of earthquakes and floods in 40 States. Yet the

President has decided to play politics

with these disaster victims. By vetoing

the rescission bill, thousands of people

will have their suffering prolonged.

Mr. Speaker, the President just

doesn’t get it. The people want us to

act responsibily and we have.

THE REPUBLICANS’ BAD DEAL ON

STUDENT LOANS

f(Mr. BENTSEN asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, the Republican budget cuts student loans,

plain and simple. The Republicans say

they want to protect the children, they

want to provide incentives for investment, but they want to slam the door

on middle-class kids who want to go to

college.

The Republicans want to cut student

aid by $9.5 billion by the year 2002.

They will start by requiring students

to pay interest on their loans before

they have moved into their

dormrooms, before they have even attended a class.

On average, a Texas student would

pay up to $5,000 more to attend a 4-year

college under the Republican plan.

That’s $5,000 most Texas families don’t

have to spend. Middle-class families

will struggle to pay this amount when

the cost of college is already rising

twice as fast as their incomes.

Students in my district and the entire Houston area would especially be

hit hard by these cuts. Rice University,

one of the premier postsecondary institutions in this country, has 2,584 students enrolled this year in its undergraduate program. Of that number,

2,170 students receive financial aid—

that’s 82 percent of all undergraduates.

Of those students, 715 receive Stafford

loans totaling $4.7 million. It’s difficult

to imagine how these students will find

an extra $3.6 million to complete their

education.

The Republicans just don’t get it

when it comes to student loans. To

compete in a world economy, we must

encourage kids to get a higher education, not discourage them. Higher

costs for higher education is a bad deal

for Texas’ students and an even worse

deal for America’s future.

A PLEA FOR SUPPORT OF AMERICAN OVERSEAS INTERESTS ACT

f(Mr. BALLENGER asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, H.R.

1561—the American Overseas Interests

Act—is the first major step toward reshaping and reorganizing our foreign

policy operations since the cold war.

It begins by recognizing that—with

the end of the long, twilight struggle—

we no longer need the specialized agencies that were created to help in the

fight against world communism.

Nor can we afford them, in a period

when we are facing deficits in the

range of $200 billion a year. H.R. 1561

begins the necessary task of reordering, by eliminating the Agency for

International Development, the U.S.

Information Agency, and the Arms

Control and Disarmament Agency—and

transferring their responsibilities to

the State Department.

Together with cuts in spending of $3

billion over 2 years—that is cuts below

current spending—we are on the way

toward modernizing and streamlining

the way we project American power

and influence around the world. I urge

my colleagues to join me in voting

‘‘yes’’ on final passage of the American

Overseas Interests Act.

MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY

USED TO BALANCE PROPOSED

fGOP BUDGET

(Mr. STUPAK asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, having

spent the last week in my district, it is

obvious to me and to the 130,000 seniors

in northern Michigan that the Republican budget proposals are wrong. In

their budget resolution, they want to

balance the budget on the backs of our

seniors, veterans, and college students.

The Republicans want to cut $282 billion from Medicare over the next several years. They say they must cut $282

billion to save Medicare. Yet Medicare

fund trustee Stanford G. Ross has testified that Medicare needs $130 billion to

remain solvent. Not $282 billion. Why

the extra $152 billion? The Republicans

want that money to pay for the tax

breaks they are giving to large corporations and the top 1 percent of the

wealthiest Americans, the millionaires

and the billionaires, while they slash

Medicare.

You know what else? The GOP plan

as passed by the other body says that

they will pass a balanced budget by

2002, but when you look at the bill,

they still have a $113 billion deficit.

You know where they are going to

make it up? By borrowing from the Social Security trust fund.

Mr. Speaker, the Republicans have

broken their contract by using Medicare to balance the budget and by

using Social Security to balance the

budget.

(Mr. HERGER asked and was given

RECONSIDER THE VETO

fpermission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, President

Clinton has threatened to veto the disaster assistance package produced by

the Congress.

I urge the President to reconsider

that threat.

He should not sacrifice needed disaster assistance on the altar of domestic

politics.

If the President vetoes this bill, he

stops aid to victims of the tragedy in

Oklahoma.

If the President vetoes this bill, he

jeopardizes the peace process in the

Middle East.

If he vetoes this bill, the President

stops funds from flowing to aid victims

of the natural disasters in California.

Mr. Speaker, if the President vetoes

this bill, he allows $9 billion in unnecessary and wasteful spending to be

spent.

Apparently, the President has issued

the veto threat because he wants to appear relevant to the legislative process.

But vetoing this crucially important

piece of legislation seems to me to be a

destructive way to prove relevance.

CHILDREN IMPLEMENTATION ACT

SUPPORT WORLD SUMMIT FOR

f(Mrs. MEEK of Florida asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

her remarks.)

Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker,

as we consider funding for U.S. foreign

aid programs, I hope that Congress will

remember the needs of children and

enact the World Summit for Children

Implementation Act.

We have all seen the pitiful photographs and the television videotape of

children in other countries who are the

helpless victims of poverty, ignorance,

and war—little children who enter life

with great hopes but few chances, and

who suffer terribly because they lack

the most basic of human needs—nourishing food, safe water, basic vitamins,

immunization from disease, rudimentary sanitation, and basic education.

But we do not have to accept present

reality. Progress has been made.

Worldwide, child mortality rates have

been cut in half in the last three decades. Eighty percent of the world’s

children are immunized against disease, saving 3 million children annually.

We need to continue this progress,

and we can do it by implementing the

goals of the World Summit for Children

Implementation Act.

SUPPORT AMERICAN OVERSEAS

This is something we ought to do.

INTERESTS ACT

f(Mr. KIM asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KIM. Mr. Speaker, today we are

going to adopt H.R. 1561, the American

Overseas Interests Act. Everybody

knows that our foreign aid programs

are among the least accountable to our