macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 1986-04-22
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. I rise again to express my deep admiration and respect for the chairman. I am certain that he had to bear the brunt of which decision to make. With that we have no quarrel. My concern. Mr. Chairman. is that I. more than no one. want to help the citrus industry in Florida and. more than no one. is interested in controlling the citrus canker. for example. It could impact down to my area of Texas. But the citrus Industry in Florida should realize and know that they come to the committee of jurisdiction first. and this is where I say the erosion is coming that we grant waivers. They will not know that they have to come to the committee of jurisdiction because they will get their money. This is my concern. that it should be done with communication. We do not know if hearings were held. We held no hearings. We know the problem in Florida. So it is a matter of having to join hands and communicate all around and perhaps we. I am sure in this case. would have been in agreement had the communication been made. had we seen the problems. We would have caused the chairman of the Rules Committee not to have to make this decision. This is what I am trying to get at. that we should not have to come and settle it or dump it * on the backs of the Rules Committee or the back of the chairman of the Rules Committee. It should be done with communication. in good order. with cooperation. and with a friendly manner so that we do not have to come and be discussing this on the floor of the House. I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding.
Date: 1986-04-30
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. when a great human being dies all rise to offer their eulogies in recognition of that persons accomplishments and good deeds. and today we gather to pay tribute to our former Texas colleague and a man I regarded as my good friend. Bob Casey. This is an instance when the usual plaudits just do not seem enough although I should add that Bob Caseys life needs no embellishment. It was the perfect example of selflessnessa permanent sketch of love and humane regard. Bob Casey was indeed one of the most effective Members this Chamber has known. His command of the issues was noteworthy and he was an example to be emulated by us all. To be a constitutent of Bob Caseys was to be blessed with excellent political leadership for if you had a problem or needed help. Bob would move mountains to do it for you. We first served together in the Texas Legislature. Then we came to this Chamber. It is here where as a member of the Appropriations Committee Bob Casey accomplished much for the residents of his district. his State. and his country. One shining example is the Houston International Airport which bears his mark. Bob Casey was a true and typical Texantall. commanding and the embodiment of all traits positive. He was a man who earned his spurs and with his passing Texas has lost one of its finest sons. To his family go my very deepest sympathy and my loving prayers.
Date: 1986-04-30
Speaker: DE LUGO (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I am very proud to bring to the attention of my colleagues the following transcript by Mr. P.W. Sparks of St. Thomas. which is a history of the U.S. Virgin Islands flag. The flag was commissioned in the year 1921 by Rear Adm. Sumner E.W. Kittelle. U.S. Navy. who had just been appointed civilian Governor of the Virgin Islands. Mr. Sparks. the author of the following piece and a young shipman at that time. was also the designer of the flag. I have found his comments to be a very poignant recollection of the young shipmans sense of duty and idealism in undertaking this task. That is why I take particular pride in bringing this historical and most informative description of events to the attention of my colleagues today.
Date: 1986-05-05
Speaker: IKE SKELTON (democrat)
Chamber: H

and the gentleman from Connecticut. Mr. ROWLAND. the principal sponsors of this legislation. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of the resolution before us which gives thanks to the Government and people of the United Kingdom for their assistance during the recent antiterrorist operations against Libya. We all know that statesponsored terrorism is an international problem which requires an international solution. The administration has been encouraging our allies to work with our Government in a cooperative spirit. When called upon to render assistance. the United Kingdom answered Americas call for help. While some of our allies talked a lot about the need to face up to Colonel Qadhafi. the British Prime Minister bit the bullet. Margaret Thatcher stood shoulder to shoulder with our President when push came to shove. Her Government allowed United States bombers stationed in Britain to participate in those defensive operations against Libya. I commend Margaret Thatcher and the British people for their determination in facing up to the Libyan menace. The battle against terrorism will not be won by faint hearts. Victory will go to those who refuse to be intimidated by that modernday Barbary pirate. Mrs. Thatcher made a tough and brave decision. This resolution commends her and the British people for their resolve. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution. Mr. Speaker. I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Connecticut . the principal sponsor of this resolution.
Date: 1986-05-08
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I will be very brief. The issue which was addressed by the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee and my friend earlier. we have no basic disagreement. Our problem is that there are areas of philosophical difference. We in the Agriculture Committee have to yield within the art of the possible. what is possible. where we can get consensus. It is not within one mans dominion to frame legislation. but rather a consensus through the Agriculture Committee. through the House. through the Senate. and therefore we have tried and done our best.. but that is the forum where this issue should be debated and enacted and then come to the House. So the disagreement that we have. unfortunately and regrettably. is how it is done and where it is done and who has the basic responsibility. We will insist that that responsibility be placed at the point where the rules and the law state it should be.
Date: 1986-05-08
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. if the gentleman will yield further briefly. we have a basic disagreement on that also. because under the law which we enacted the crops are just going in the ground. so we cannot say that it is not working when we have yet to test to see if the tools we give the Department are working or not. As far as way in the past. I cannot address the past.
Date: 1986-05-08
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Well. Mr. Chairman. if the gentleman will continue to yield. that was done because of the terrible crunch that the gentleman complains about as far as income. We tried not to reduce income. But hopefully it will work and we will try to make it work. We appreciate the gentlemans concern. We are always appreciative of the gentlemans concern and together I think we can address the issue properly under the rules and in the way that it should be addressed.
Date: 1986-05-08
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentleman for yielding. In behalf of our committee. I would be happy to join with the two distinguished gentlemen. because this would negate our authorizing legislation also. It certainly is not right and proper. I will be happy to join with the two distinguished gentlemen to endeavor to find out if this is basically correct information or not.
Date: 1986-05-08
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman. I would like to inform the gentleman. if he was not apprised. that in deference to the gentleman and to the suffering and the hardship which the farmers in the dairy industry in that area have had. the legislative committee. the Committee on Agriculture. authorized me to yield on this issue and not to object because of the pain and the suffering and the need in the area which the gentleman represents. It is for that reason that the gentleman is able to offer his amendment this afternoon. The Committee on Agriculture knew of the emergency. agreed with the emergency. and we are willing to yield on the technical jurisdictional problem to assist the gentleman from Missouri and all of the farmers in that area.
Date: 1986-05-12
Speaker: JOHN CONYERS (democrat)
Chamber: H

for his strong and very capable leadership in thb area of criminal justice particularly with regard to rape. one of the most unreported crimes in our society. Mr. CONYERaS has crafted a bill which is a marked improvement over current Federal law. H.R. 4745 effectively abrogates a number of commonlaw principles and sets forth specific statutory guidelines that define criminal conduct. The proposed legislation modernizes and reforms Federal rape provisions by: First. defining the sexual offenses in gender neutral terms. second. defining a series of gradual sexual offenses. third. affirmatively abrogating the commonlaw marital exemption. and fourth. expanding the jurisdictional scope to cover offenses committed against any person in official detention and those in Federal prisons. I also want to commend the ranking minority leader of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice. Representative GEORGE GEKAS. without whose bipartisan cooperation and assistance the present bill would not be before the House today. The very capable leadership efforts of MR. GEKAS are to be commended. Many of the substantive suggestions that were made by Mr. GEKAS during hearings on the proposed legislation were adopted and incorporated into. H.R. 4745. Those suggestions contributed significantly to making H.R. 4745 as wellreasoned. comprehensive. and rational series of sexual offenses in place of the inadequate laws currently on the books. Mr. Speaker. the proposed legislation is also the result of several years of hard work and commitment by other individuals such as Tom Hutchinson. counsel for the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice. Mr. Hutchinson has devoted a great deal of time and effort to the bill before the House today and the strengths of H.R. 4745 are in large part due to his expertise and commitment. I also want to mention the valuable and expert input of Vicky Portney of the Department of Justice in crafting this bipartisan bill. This bill also benefited by the legal expertise of Doug Bellis of the House legislative counsel office and special mention must be made of the bipartisan support of Raymond V. Smietanka. associate counsel of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice. H.R. 4745 is the result of strong bipartisan cooperation on several levels in an effort to modernize and reform current Federal rape laws. I am very pleased to have been a part of that effort and urge my colleagues to support the Sexual Assault Act of 1986.
Date: 1986-05-12
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. as the Members are aware. at long last we are moving a housing bill forward. The legislation. incorporated in a substitute put forward by our Housing Subcommittee chairman. HENRY GONZALEZ. and the subcommittees ranking minority member. STEWART MCKINNEY. is scheduled to be on the floor this week. While I regard the GonzalezMcKinney substitute as essential to maintaining this Nations commitment to providing decent and affordable housing for its citizens. I want to call attention today to an amendment which I will offer to implement the Fair Housing Initiative Program. As much as I wish we could say racism has been eliminated in our country and no one seeking to buy or rent the housing of their choice faces discriminatory treatment because of their race or ethnic origin. I cannot. Five days of hearings held by our Housing Subcommittee have made it clear that we must be more aggressive and vigilant if the promise of the 1964 and 1968 Civil Rights Acts are to be fully fulfilled. Public enforcement by State fair .housing agencies and private enforcement by nonprofit fair housing organizations must be increased if the problem is to be eliminated. Fair Housing Initiative Program is a small but very necessary component in this battle. It would provide funds. to support the enforcement activities of State and local fair housing. agencies. to increase education and outreach to. inform the public of the meaning of the fair housing laws and to expand the capacity of nongovernmental fair housing organizations to investigate complaints of discrimination. Key to the successful investigation.of fair housing violations is to use testing to collect credible and objective evidence of discriminatory housing practices. Testers are pairs of individuals who are matched as to income. family composition. and other demographic profiles but differ in their race. sex. nationality. or other at-. tributes which are the basis of the alleged discrimination. The evidence they collect .as to their treatment when they apply to rent or purchase housing may be used to prove or disprove an allegation of discrimination. I understand the Department of Housing and -Urban Developmeht supports fully the amendments I shall be offerihg.
Date: 1986-05-13
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution to express the sense of Congress with respect to agricultural loan restructuring and interest rates. as amended.
Date: 1986-05-13
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I yield such time as he may consume to the chairman of the subcommittee. the gentleman fNom Tennessee . who has done yeoman work in this endeavor and in this area.
Date: 1986-05-20
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. our burgeoning trade deficit must be brought under control. In every one of our districts. employment. and company profits are lower than they should be. If we could restore some balance in our trade relations with other countries. the economic wellbeing of our entire Nation could be improved. The recent adjustments in international exchange rates will help. but as we all know. they will not be enough. The legislative actions in H.R. 4800. the Trade and International Economic Policy Reform Act of 1986. are critically needed to complete the picture. I commend our Speaker. Mr. ONEILL. our majority leader. Mr. WRIGHT. and the other Members of the leadership of this House for the wisdom. energy. and courage they have evidenced in bringing this bill before us. H.R. 4800 is tough legislation. and It is critically needed. I am proud to say that I can support H.R. 4800 in its present form without equivocation or hesitancy. As debate on this measure proceeds. I will be expending all the resources at my disposal to assure its ultimate passage. With regard to the Banking Committee provisions comprising title IV. it is my understanding that Mr. BONKER of Washington intends to offer an amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act that would fundamentally alter the basis on which banks could offer export services to U.S. exporters. His amendment would not enhance U.S. export efforts and could indeed hamper them. His amendment runs counter to our intent when we passed the Bank Export Services Act in 1982. and I will be constrained to oppose the gentlemens amendment when it Is offered.
Date: 1986-05-20
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina . chairman of the Subcommittee on International Finance. Trade and Monetary Policy.
Date: 1986-05-20
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York . the chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization.
Date: 1986-05-20
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume in order to conclude. Mr. Chairman. I stand in a very hard situation here. in one respect. that there is a train leaving the station and. regardless of the sentiments of some of my colleagues. it is a vehicle which is going. I do not know where the end is going to be. but as being responsible for activities in part shared with my distinguished colleague from Illinois and members of the committee. we had to choose. Do we have a vehicle onthat train or not? We went the usual way which we do in our committee and acted as responsibly as we could regardless of the political side of the aisle. We acted as we ordinarily do in a bipartisan or nonpartisan way. The main problem that we had was some of the areas of major concern to us are the jurisdiction problems with other committees. We took the road that. if they were not blatantly infringing on another committees jurisdiction. we would incorporate it into what we submitted and then allow someone else to make that decision. This was done. This was done in areas that we had that were constructive and could prove to be helpful. were incorporated into the foreign Affairs Committee section or into the Ways and Means Committee section. Now opposition to the bl per se. that is in each individuals responsibility and right. The agricultural sector. of which we took frcm whatever resources we had including some advance notice from the Agricultural Trade Commission that my colleague from Illinois mentioned. and incorporated it as best we could. It has been said by myself. and others. and I assure you that it is correct. that we have some basic tools that we had in the 1985 Food Security Farm Act. But we could not stand aside and not address as best we could the issue of trying to enhance the position of argiculture and of our producers that are suffering so vastly. I would feel that it would be of great pride to the members of the Agriculture Committee that our section was incorporated by the minority leader in his version that he will submit later. except In two instances. That would prove very conclusively that the work done by the Agriculture Committee was responsible. is fair. Is equitable and hence would not have been incorporated by Mr. MICHEL into his vehicle. Therefore. we now have a position where the Agriculture Committee. having done the responsible thing. would have It in two basic sections. either in the main legislation or in an alternative piece of legislation that will be submitted at a later point. Hopefully. that which we have responsibly suggested to be incorporated into this measure might prove to be of help.
Date: 1986-05-20
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman. He has indeed clarified more forcefully than I could have that what we did was the responsible thing to do. We put it on the train that is leaving the station. Agriculture is in such a stage that we cannot pass up an opportunity to try to assist. This is just another opportunity. Hopefully. the rhetoric that we have heard today will fall by the wayside. and that both sides will get together. we will agree on some compromise down the line in conference committee and do a little bit more. a little bit more for agriculture that yet needs so much. Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 1986-05-21
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to say that. again. as I.said yesterday. that it would be my Intent to arrange for a meeting and for discussions that would involve the gentleman from Washington [Mr. BONKER1. the Alexander Badham Boxer Foglietta Gephardt Gray (PA) Grotberg H 3114 CO Federal Reserve. and I am sure the Chairman. Paul Volcker. would like to be part of this as well. Mr. Baldrige is the gentleman who came to me originally on this legislation and I am sure he would be happy to join us. as well as the distinguished eminant gentleman from Georgia [Mr.
Date: 1986-05-21
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. the gentleman from Iowa . I am sure. realizes that the chairman of the Committee on Banking. Finance and Urban Affairs has conducted the committee with bipartisan support. This legislation originally was enacted with bipartisan support and certainly I intend to continue that and have input from the minority as well because it is always very helpful. To go one step further. we will have these discussions and if they are not satisfactory. then the next step naturally would be hearings by the subcommittee of jurisdiction. which happily I also chair. If necessary. we will have hearings. I have already told my staff to be geared up for this if we find that this is the step that has to be taken next. But at all times. the concern of the gentleman from Iowa also is my concern and that is the separation of banking and commerce. I think that the gentleman from Washington has some very legitimate points that he is making and certainly we want to encourage export trading companies. We want to make sure that the lack of export trading companies to date is not due to any attitude by the regulators that has prevented them from proceeding under the legislative mandate that we adopted before. If we need a little bit of change by regulation or if we have to amend the legislation slightly. we will do so. but we will certainly preserve the safety and soundness of the banking system as well.
Date: 1986-05-22
Speaker: SAMUEL W. SPECK (democrat)
Chamber: H

Associate Director. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Washington. DC. DEAR MR. SPECK: Recent press reports indicate that FEMA has developed a new $1.5 billion plan to set up special command posts in the event of a nuclear attack. I am writing to oppose the kinds of proposals being considered. Let me first say that I do not oppose any sensible planning which we might undertake to prepare for a wide array of national emergencies. My concern is that we take into account the scientific studies which show the. virtual futility of civil defense in the case of nuclear war. Your current proposal also disturbs me by seeming to give preferential treatment to public officials. while letting ordinary citizens fend for themselves. Why does FEMA envision this elitist protection policy when. In emergencies. all people will face the same problems and have the same needs? I also find it alarming that FEMAs $1.5 billion plan places so much emphasis on saving postattack property records as opposed to saving peopleto the extent that either make sense. since a nuclear attack would render much of the nation useless or uninhabitable anyway. It seems more prudent to me to invest in such things as nuclear crisis prevention than in worthless plans to combat nuclear winter. I hope that your agency will immediately table these present plans and focus on the kind of disaster aid which FEMA does well ard which really helps people. Our current budget requirements simply dont allow for extravagant planning activities which offer little real hope of serving a useful purpose. Thank you In advance for your attention and cooperation. Sincerely.
Date: 1986-06-04
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. UDAG is a program whose time is still will the gentlewoman yield on that here. The costbenefit ratio is fantaspoint? tic. The jobs are being created. The