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tripling of the amount of declarable losses on invest-
ments in small businesses.
(2) Estate tax relief for family-owned small
businesses and farms, and an increase in small busi-
nesses eligibility for 10-year installment payments of
estate taxes.
(3) 100 percent deductibility of health care
costs for the self-employed.
(4) Extension of the 5 percent Foreign Sales
Credit (FSC) to software exporters.
SEC. 303. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON REVENUE NEUTRALITY.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Large tax cuts in the 1980’s led to an un-
precedented explosion in the level of debt owed by
American taxpayers.
(2) Tax cuts without revenue offsets increase
the level of spending cuts required to balance the
budget, in vital areas like education, health care,
transportation, and research and development.
(3) It is a priority to balance the budget first,
and to defer tax cuts which reduce revenues until
the budget is actually in balance.
(4) Targeted tax cuts for higher education,
child care, homeownership, increased savings, and
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small businesses can be enacted without reducing
the net level of revenues.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that all tax cuts should be fully offset by revenue
increases, through reinstatement of expiring excise taxes
and the closing of corporate tax loopholes.
SEC. 304. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON CHILDREN’S HEALTH.
It is the sense of Congress that sufficient funding be
provided to insure all currently uninsured children in
America, through health care grants to the States and an
expansion of medicaid in a total amount of at least
$32,000,000,000 over the next 5 years.
SEC. 305. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON MEDICARE.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) The Medicare Part A Trust Fund will go
bankrupt by the year 2000 without congressional ac-
tion.
(2) Some 40,000,000 senior citizens rely on
medicare for affordable, quality health care.
(3) Many low-income senior citizens are unable
to afford projected increases in medicare premiums.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that Congress should enact legislation to extend the
solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund for the next 10
years, using policies which:
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(1) Maintain part B premiums at 25 percent,
with a phase-in of home health care changes.
(2) Provide new preventive and other health
care benefits, including expanded mammography
coverage, coverage for colorectal screenings, coverage
for diabetes screening, 72 hours of respite care of
Alzheimers patients, bone mass measurements for
osteoporosis care, prostate cancer screening, cancer
clinic benefits, and immunosuppressant drugs.
(3) Include sustainable reductions in reimburse-
ments for hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and
other health care providers.
(4) Provide full funding for teaching hospitals
through the Graduate Medical Education program.
(5) Increase health care choices among seniors,
without restricting access to fee-for-service health
care.
SEC. 306. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON MEDICAID.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Hospitals and other health care providers
are already seriously underreimbursed for the actual
cost of providing medicaid services.
(2) Medicaid is the primary source of health
care coverage for the uninsured, including poor chil-
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dren, indigent mothers, and low-income senior citi-
zens in nursing homes.
(3) Medicaid provides critical funding for medi-
care premiums for low-income seniors.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that medicaid legislation should increase coverage
for low-income adults and seniors, and uninsured children,
by providing that:
(1) Any reductions in medicaid reimbursements
to health care providers should be used to expand
coverage for children’s health care, legal immigrants,
and low-income Americans.
(2) Spending reductions should not include ei-
ther a block grant or a per capita cap.
(3) Medicaid should extend its program to pay
medicare premiums for low-income senior citizens,
protecting them from increases caused by home
health care shifts.
(4) States should be given more flexibility in
managing the medicaid program, through managed
care options, and elimination of unnecessary regula-
tions, while fully protecting the quality and availabil-
ity of health care for medicaid recipients.
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SEC. 307. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DOMESTIC DISCRE-
TIONARY SPENDING.
It is the sense of Congress that sufficient funding be
provided for domestic discretionary spending to allow for
full inflationary increases over the period from 1998
through 2002, to fully fund priority areas like education,
health care, transportation, research and development,
community development, crime, and housing.
SEC. 308. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON PELL GRANT LIMITS.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) The spiraling cost of higher education tui-
tion and fees threatens to put the cost of college out
of reach for millions of Americans.
(2) Pell Grants are an effective way to make
college affordable for low-income students.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that Congress should increase the annual limit on
Pell Grants from $2,700 to $3,700.
SEC. 309. SENSE OF CONGRESS IN SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Children cannot achieve their full edu-
cational potential, if the school buildings they are
educated in are falling apart.
(2) The General Accounting Office (GAO) has
determined that it will require $112,000,000,000 to
repair and improve our Nation’s schools.
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(3) Many communities are unable to afford the
full cost of making such needed repairs.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that Congress should enact the President’s school
construction initiative, to provide $5,000,000,000 to lever-
age the repair and construction of elementary and second-
ary schools.
SEC. 310. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING EDUCATION.
It is the sense of Congress that funding should be
substantially increased in a number of programs which in-
crease educational opportunities, including:
(1) Title I grants, to help the disadvantaged de-
velop basic educational skills.
(2) The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund,
to provide computers, software, and technology
training to elementary and secondary schools.
(3) Special education IDEA grants, to provide
services to children with disabilities.
(4) Adult education grants, to provide adult lit-
eracy and other educational programs.
(5) The Federal work study program, to pro-
vide needy students with part-time work.
SEC. 311. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON TRANSPORTATION.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
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(1) Our continued economic growth is depend-
ent on maintaining and expanding our basic infra-
structure, especially with respect to roads and
bridges.
(2) In many sections of our country, our trans-
portation infrastructure suffers from a lack of ade-
quate funding and neglect of maintenance.
(3) For many years, Congress has failed to use
funds collected under the Federal gas tax to pay for
essential road and related transportation needs.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that all new funds collected in the transportation
trust fund should be fully spent on transportation im-
provements.
SEC. 312. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON EARLY CHILDHOOD DE-
VELOPMENT.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Adequate nutrition, quality health care,
educational opportunities, and high quality child
care for children between birth and the age of 3 are
scientifically shown to play a critical role in later
childhood and adult development.
(2) Public spending on health, nutrition, edu-
cation, and child care at the stage of early childhood
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development has proven to be a sound long-term in-
vestment in human resources.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that sufficient funding should be provided in the fol-
lowing programs to meet the needs of infants and toddlers:
(1) WIC (the supplemental nutrition program
for women, infants, and children).
(2) Head Start.
(3) Healthy Start.
(4) Programs for infants and toddlers with dis-
abilities under part H of the Individuals with Dis-
abilities Education Act (IDEA).
(5) Programs under the Child Care and Devel-
opment Block Grant Act.
SEC. 313. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON HEALTH RESEARCH.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is
the world’s leading biomedical research institution.
(2) The National Institutes of Health accom-
plishes its mission of discovering new medical knowl-
edge that will lead to better health for everyone
through supervising, funding, and conducting bio-
medical and behavioral research to help prevent, de-
tect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability in hu-
mans.
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(3) The Federal investment in the National In-
stitutes of Health should be sufficient to keep up
with the pace of biomedical inflation and public
health needs.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that funding for the National Institutes of Health
should be at least equal to the Institute’s annual profes-
sional judgment, which is the best and most reliable esti-
mate of the minimum level of funding needed to sustain
the high standard of scientific achievement attained by the
National Institutes of Health.
SEC. 314. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON RESEARCH AND DEVEL-
OPMENT.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Federal support of research and develop-
ment has led to numerous advances in science and
technology that have greatly enhanced the lives of all
Americans.
(2) Technological innovation has spurred almost
half of the economic development of the past cen-
tury.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that full funding should be provided for Federal re-
search and development programs, including the National
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Science Foundation (NSF) and the solar and renewable
energies programs of the Department of Energy.
SEC. 315. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON CRIME.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Crime continues to threaten residential and
commercial neighborhoods through the Nation.
(2) Juvenile crime continues to grow at a faster
rate than other categories of crime in this Nation.
(3) Intervention and prevention programs have
been shown to successfully turn the tide of violent
crime.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that funding for crime intervention, prevention, and
domestic violence programs should be increased over cur-
rent levels.
SEC. 316. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON VETERANS.
It is the sense of Congress that funding should not
be cut for veterans’ COLA or for housing benefits.
SEC. 317. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON HOUSING.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) According to the Department of Housing
and Urban Development, 13,000,000 Americans
have ‘‘acute housing needs’’.
(2) Current funding for rental housing assist-
ance for the elderly, disabled, working poor, and
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mothers making the transition from welfare to work
is inadequate.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that funding for housing assistance should be in-
creased by providing—
(1) full funding for operating subsidies for pub-
lic housing authorities, as determined by the Per-
formance Funding System;
(2) additional funding for capital grants for
public housing authorities, to repair and maintain
existing public housing units; and
(3) sufficient funding to create 50,000 new sec-
tion 8 vouchers each year for the next 5 years.
SEC. 318. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DEFENSE.
It is the sense of Congress that defense spending
should be maintained at current levels, and that priority
should be given to defense readiness and full funding for
personnel salaries and supplies, as opposed to continued
expansions of large weapons systems.
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