June 8, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E 1201

In short, the business approach to UI

doesn’t seem to have changed, even though

the bad old days of higher UI taxes and lenient treatment of unemployed workers are

long gone. Whatever the validity of the costcutting approach of the mid-1970s to mid1980s period, employers, should rethink their

‘‘cost above all else’’ approach to UI.

Especially in the current political climate,

the views of employers are of paramount importance. Unless the policies advocated by

employers change, the downward trend of

the past fifteen or twenty years will continue, and this will have serious impacts on

employers and the larger society—not just

on unemployed workers.

The developments of the last fifteen or

twenty years have undercut the achievement

of our national UI goals. This was mainly

due to the effective elimination of the EB

program in 1981, the spread of state restrictions on UI eligibility and the adoption of

harsher disqualifications during the 1970s

and 1980s. Meeting these national UI goals is

important to workers and employers. For

this reason, favorable action on the recommendations of the Advisory Council on

Unemployment Compensation is important

to employers as well as the rest of our society. I hope that employers will review their

UI policy positions in light of the Advisory

Council’s recommendations. This would be

an important step in restoring the vitality of

our UI system.

Thank you, and I look forward to your

questions following the remarks of Bob

Mitchell.

RECOGNIZING SERVICE BY WCTE–

fTV

HON. BART GORDON OF TENNESSEE

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Wednesday, June 7, 1995

Mr. GORDON. Mr. Speaker, WCTE–TV in

Cookeville, TN, provides a great service to the

television viewers of Putnam County and the

Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee. The

enclosed article from the New York Times

shows how the small, but capable staff juggle

many responsibilities and produce quality local

programming.

[From the New York Times, Apr. 17, 1995]

WHERE PUBLIC TV IS MORE THAN A POLITICAL

FOOTBALL

(By Laurie Mifflin)

COOKEVILLE, TN.—When people argue

about public television in Washington, Boston, New York or Los Angeles, they talk

about ‘‘Sesame Street,’’ ‘‘Nova’’ and ‘‘Frontline’’; about whether the political programming is too partisan, about whether opera

and ballet are too elitist, and about slashing

station budgets of $100 million a year or

more.

Here, too, in Cookeville, in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee, public television means ‘‘Sesame Street,’’ ‘‘Nova’’ and

‘‘Frontline.’’ But political programming

means covering monthly meetings of the

Putnam County Commission. Cultural programming means the Smithville Fiddlers

Jamboree and the Tennessee Tech Faculty

Brass Quintet. The budget runs a little over

$1 million. And the station consists of three

rooms and a truck.

The boxy WCTE–TV truck is parked beneath the iron girders and concrete risers of

the Tennessee Tech football stadium, the

station’s home. It is a ‘‘remote truck,’’ divided inside into three cramped carrels lined

with audio and video editing equipment, the

kind of truck television crews use when they

cover events away from the studio.

This remote truck does venture out—to

cover Tech football or basketball road

games—but as soon as it is parked under the

stadium, thick hanks of blue cable are pulled

out and connected to other cables leading to

the station’s control room, because the

truck doubles as the station’s main editing

facility.

So when Donna Castle and Rick Wells return from videotaping teenagers in Cane

Creek Park who are testing leaf and water

samples in a regional ‘‘Envirothon’’ contest,

for example, Mrs. Castle climbs into the

truck and sits down to edit a Hot Puddin’

Cake recipe for that week’s ‘‘Cumberland

Cooking With Cathy’’ show.

Mr. Wells heads to the ‘‘studio’’ on the

other side of the parking-bay wall—a

windowless 20-by-30-foot room with cinderblock walls and klieg lights sprouting from

the ceiling—to operate a camera focused on

teams of jittery high school students competing in the Upper Cumberland Academic

Bowl. And when that taping starts, Mrs. Castle will have to stop editing because David

Dow will need the truck’s control panel to

direct the three-camera Academic Bowl production.

WNET in New York and WGBH in Boston

may be the signature stations of the Public

Broadcasting Service because they produce

many of its best programs, but the mom-andpop stations of small-town America have

deep roots in the public television heritage,

too.

The two dozen or so smallest PBS stations

in the country receive 30 to 40 percent of

their budgets from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so eliminating Federal financing could force them to close up shop.

But ‘‘zeroing out’’ now appears unlikely;

when Congress returns from Easter recess,

the House and Senate will have to reconcile

their versions of bills to cut back financing,

with the compromise likely to be in the 10-

to-15-percent range.

But for Donna and Richard Castle, the operators of WCTE, Channel 22, in Cookeville,

even a 10 percent cut will hurt their barebones budget of $1.16 million (which includes

18 salaries). And because it would be cheaper

simply to pick up PBS’s national programming, Channel 22 would probably cut back

the thing that makes it distinctive: its local

programming.

WCTE was founded in 1978 as part of the

state Department of Education, and Mr. Castle, 58, the general manager, still calls it

‘‘educational TV’’ as often as he calls it

‘‘public TV.’’ The station offers instructional

programs used by local schools and by parents who teach their children at home, as

well as programs informing the community

about local government, local schools, local

cultural affairs and local businesses.

‘‘We’re here for the public, and I try to remember it all the time,’’ Mrs. Castle said. ‘‘If

people around here want to see the Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree instead of something

from the Theater of the Rhinoceros in San

Francisco, that’s O.K.’’

Mr. Castle pronounces himself ‘‘stumped’’

by the Washington politicians who seem so

down on public television. ‘‘We’ve never been

partisan or played politics in any way,’’ he

said of WCTE. ‘‘And when they talk about

public TV being for the wealthy and the

elite, well, that’s sure not true here.’’

Cookeville lies midway between Nashville

and Knoxville, far enough from each for the

area to qualify for Federal money to build an

840–foot television and radio transmission

tower. To the east, the countryside’s rolling

ridges become small mountains; there, television reception requires either a satellite

dish or a huge antenna. Many people cannot

afford either.

‘‘In our viewing area, 60 percent of the people don’t have cable,’’ Mr. Castle said. ‘‘In

the mountainous parts, if you don’t have a

dish, you can’t even get ABC, CBS or NBC. In

some of the historically poor areas around

here, the only station people get is Channel

22.’’

Channel 22, one of the smallest PBS stations in the country in terms of both budget

and viewership, is so small that it falls

‘‘below measurable standards’’ for rating by

the A.C. Nielsen Media Research Company.

Nielsen estimates WCTE’s cumulative weekly audience (house-holds that tune in for at

least 15 minutes a week) at 17,000 to 18,000.

The station gets its modest home rent-free

from Tennessee Tech, whose green campus

graced by red-brick Georgian buildings is the

town’s centerpiece. Of the station’s $1.6 million budget for 1994–95, $393,254 comes from

the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and

$498,315 from the state.

Finding that level of financial support

around Cookeville would be unlikely. Membership in Channel 22, which costs $25 a year,

accounted for $50,000 last year. An annual

eight-night auction at the town’s Drama

Center, run by 200 volunteers, added $72,000.

There are no large corporations here, and

persuading local businesses to underwrite

programs instead of buying advertising on

local commercial stations is difficult.

‘‘We charge $50 a program a week,’’ said

Tina Majors, WCTE’s director of development, ‘‘whether it’s for a local program or

one from PBS, but that’s for a 13-week commitment. Some businesses won’t commit to

that, but they’ll spend $100 for two spots in

a big local event like Horse Show Night at

the county fair.’’

Ms. Majors is WCTE’s newest employee,

hired about 18 months ago because of fears

about losing financing. She is just about the

only one who doesn’t work on programs.

‘‘There’s nobody here who can’t run a camera,’’ Mr. Castle likes to say.

Sue Gibbons, the traffic manager, said,

‘‘Richard and Donna’s three boys grew up in

the station, pulling cable and helping out.’’

Russ Castle, 23, now works for a local radio

station but still ‘‘runs a camera,’’ unpaid, on

all Tennessee Tech football games for WCTE.

His 20-year-old twin brothers, Art and Roger,

attend the University of Tennessee at Martin

and run cameras (also without being paid)

when they are home.

Steve Boots, the station’s young assistant

manager, describes his job as ‘‘anything from

grabbing a broom to hosting a show.’’ He was

the host for the Uppper Cumberland Academic Bowl in early April.

Channel 22’s director of educational programming, Becky Magura, started out as a

college intern in 1980 and has run the camera

on hundreds of football and basketball games

by now. She also produces the Academic

Bowl shows and many segments for ‘‘Upper

Cumberland Camera,’’ a magazine-format

show that appears every Thursday night.

That program—‘‘52 new shows a year; we

don’t repeat,’’ Mrs. Castle says with pride—

has done segments on the effort to restore

defunct movie theaters, on a conference offering advice to women in business, and on a

Tennessee Tech professor using computer

simulation in chemistry experiments.

The station also produces the ‘‘Upper Cumberland Business Profile,’’ an interview program; ‘‘Education in the Upper Cumberland,’’ and ‘‘Cumberland Cooking With

Cathy.’’ ‘‘When she did her Christmas show,

we stupidly said, ‘Send us an envelope if you

want recipes,’’’ Mrs. Castle said. ‘‘We got

over 600 requests. Joyce Hunter and I sat

there and stuffed all those envelopes.’’

WCTE’s productions look and sound as professional on the screen as most shows aired
E 1202 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks June 8, 1995

on Channel 13 in New York. Indeed, its onehour special on the Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree was offered nationally by PBS, and

more than 100 stations picked it up.

Teachers, parents and elderly residents

watch the instructional programming offered every weekday between 9:30 A.M. and

2:30 P.M., including some courses for college

credit. Mrs. Magura, the mother of a 4-year

old, coordinates the schedule with PBS and

makes sure teachers get the guides that go

with it.

‘‘A lot of our rural schools don’t have

VCR’s,’’ she said, ‘‘so teachers watch our

program guide very closely. If something

they want is on at 10:30 A.M., they put on the

TV in their classroom at 10:30 A.M.’’

Mrs. Castle bristles at two frequent criticisms of public television: that it serves only

an elite and offers too much provocative programming.

‘‘People come up to me and say they

watched ‘Upper Cumberland Camera,’’’ she

said, ‘‘and some of them go on and say, ‘Boy

I sure enjoyed that mystery program you

had on.’ So they watch us, and then maybe it

leads them to watch ‘Mystery’ or ‘Nova’ or

Charles Dickens, too.’’

As for programming, she points out that

middle Tennessee has a cultural heritage of

its own. ‘‘Our local programming gives people around here a positive image of themselves, too,’’ she said. ‘‘It gives people things

to feel proud of.’’

HEALTH CARE REFORM

fHON. PETER DEUTSCH OF FLORIDA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, June 8, 1995

Mr. DEUTSCH. Mr. Speaker, while health

care reform legislation has been temporarily

set-aside for other pressing business, we can

not neglect the important issues raised during

the health care reform debate.

A major focus of several of the proposals involved the need to increase the number of

doctors providing primary care services.

Today, too many new physicians elect to practice specialized medicine where they can earn

higher salaries. As a result, there is a deficiency in the number of physicians that practice general family health care or primary

health care.

I would like to direct my colleagues’ attention to the efforts of Dr. Robert Ross, chairman and founder of Ross University School of

Medicine located on the Island of Dominica in

the Caribbean. Dr. Ross has greatly contributed to reversing the trend in the declining

numbers of primary care physicians. Dr. Ross

opened Ross University in 1978 with just 13

students. Since that time, over 2,500 students

have received medical degrees from the university. In fact, Ross University celebrated its

33d commencement on June 3, 1995, at the

United Nations. Ross University graduates

have continued on into medical residency

training and medical practice all over the United States.

Ross University is committed to academic

excellence and requires its students to complete the basic sciences portion of the curriculum in Dominica.Then, they return to the United States to complete their clinical clerkships

in teaching hospitals. Recently, I toured the

campus in Dominica and found the facilities to

be of the highest quality—utilizing state-of-theart technologies.

In addition, many Ross University graduates

have set up their primary care practices in

rural and urban areas that would otherwise go

without the attention of a physician. These foreign-trained medical students help fill the critical shortage of primary care physicians. In

fact, over 20 percent of the practicing doctors

in the States of Michigan, North Dakota, Illinois, Connecticut, and Delaware were educated outside the United States. In New Jersey, the figure is 33 percent, and in New York

this number is nearly 50 percent.

Dr. Ross and Ross University provide a valuable service to the American people. I urge

my colleagues to examine the contribution foreign medical schools can make with respect to

primary health care.

KEEP ACDA INDEPENDENT

fHON. DAVID E. BONIOR OF MICHIGAN

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, June 8, 1995

Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, now is not the

time to be dismantling the one agency whose

sole mandate is to formulate, negotiate, implement, and verify arms control and nonproliferation agreements.

The Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

[ACDA] should remain an independent agency

with the goal of strengthening U.S. national

security through effective arms control agreements. President Eisenhower, who first proposed the agency, and President Kennedy,

who founded it, both recognized the need for

an independent voice on arms control matters

within the Federal Government.

The United States is pursuing the biggest,

broadest arms control and nonproliferation

agenda in history. With the end of the cold

war and the rising threat of proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction, we need a clear

focus on resolving outstanding arms control issues.

Now is not the time to abolish ACDA. Yet

that is exactly what the Republicans are doing

in H.R. 1561, the American Overseas Interests

Act.

The American people want a world that is

safer for their children than the one in which

they grew up. Let us hope we can avoid the

days when school children learned to duck

and cover under their desks at the same time

they were learning their ABCs. An independent ACDA provides an assurance that our Nation will continue to maintain the proper focus

on arms control and nonproliferation agreements.

I urge my colleagues to vote against H.R.

1561.

IN MEMORY OF FLOYD CECEL

fCOUGILL

HON. GLENN POSHARD OF ILLINOIS

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, June 8, 1995

Mr. POSHARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to

honor a very special man, Floyd Cecel Cougill,

who passed away recently after a lifetime of

helping the people of southern Illinois. It is

with great sadness that I offer my condolences

to his family, and say that Floyd’s passing is

a great loss to all who knew him.

Floyd dedicated his life to helping the hardworking people of southern Illinois. At the

young age of 13 Floyd started to work at the

Metropolis Box Factory, and later he made his

way to the Metropolis Bending Co. where he

became a charter member of Local No. 1301

of the Laborers International Union of North

America. In 1949, Floyd founded the Construction and General Laborers Local No.

1320 of the American Federation of Labor,

and served as its business agent until his retirement in 1973. Even during his retirement

Floyd remained active in the union by continuing to serve as an organizer for the Laborers

International Union of North America.

Mr. Speaker, Floyd’s unquestionable personal integrity and honesty gained the respect

of all who knew him. It is for this reason that

people turned to him when they needed sound

advice. It was for his unparalleled commitment

to honesty that Southern Illinois University invited him to serve on a special panel that was

designed to help find solutions to labor-management relations for the entire southern Illinois region. Floyd was always willing to help

solve problems that the working people of

southern Illinois face on a daily basis. His life

was dedicated to helping ensure that these

people had decent jobs and decent lives.

Floyd’s efforts to help the lives of working

people will not be forgotten. The unions he

helped found and the workers he helped to

gain meaningful representation serve as a living monument to his work and dedication.

Rarely in life is one person able to directly

help the lives of countless individuals, but

through Floyd’s hard work, he was able to

serve his neighbors in crucial ways. Mr.

Speaker, I believe I speak for many when I

say Floyd Cecel Cougill will truly be missed,

but will always be remembered.

NATIONAL MARITIME DAY

fHON. RANDY ‘‘DUKE’’ CUNNINGHAM OF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, June 8, 1995

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, today I

rise to pay homage to America’s merchant

mariners. As you may be aware, each year, at

the request of the Congress, the President declares May 22 as National Maritime Day to

honor the Nation’s merchant mariners. The

significance of National Maritime Day was

marked the week of May 21 with special ceremonies and events held in Washington, DC,

and cities throughout the country.

Fifty years ago, on Maritime Day in 1945,

the leaders of the U.S. Armed Forces, including General Eisenhower and Admiral Nimitz,

praised the American merchant mariners who

sailed on civilian merchant ships moving war

materials to Europe and the Far East. These

men and ships participated in every landing

operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific.

Their skill and courage made a vital difference

to our Armed Forces in the European and Pacific theaters of World War II. The American

merchant marine later provided strong support

to our Armed Forces during the conflicts in

Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf.

As a Vietnam veteran, I was grateful for the

assistance of the civilian merchant mariners.