Date: 1982-12-18
Speaker: HOWARD BAKER (republican)
Chamber: H

who is now the majority leader. saying we on the House side would appreciate if they would also televise the action in the other body so that we could watch. The B1 dabate was coming up. Also the Panama Canal debate. I had described in that letter that the opening up of this body to electronic media was like blowing the w4lls of the gallery out all the way to Alaska. Hawaii. Puerto Rico. and the Virgin Islands and letting any American tune in the proceedings in this august body and watch it from the comfort of their own living room. in an old. torn robe. with our first cup of coffee. just as though they had dressed up and spent hundreds of dollars just to fly to Washington. D.C.. go to their Members office and secure guest passes to sit in this gallery and watch us in action here. I still stand by that. But I believe now that there are things happening in this Chamber that are affected by television that are wrong. The other body was supposed to during this 3week lameduck session. according to its distinguished majority leader. debate whether or not they would go on television. They are all wired for it on the Senate side. I think if they watch what happens here during these special orders. in which I am participating right now. they will decide to keep their Chamber darkened. and available firsthand. sight and sound and motion only to those people lucky enough to have the money to come to Washington. D.C.. and get guest passes to the gallery of the other body from their Senators or their Representative in this body. I think we should do everything here in the decorum of how we conduct ourselves on television to encourage that other distinguished body. the other half of the Congress of the United States. to also go on television. But I have noticed. and I have thought about it deeply since I took out five special orders during the last 3 weeks of this lameduck session. I have noticed that it will probably be very healthy for this Congress. and encouragement to the other body to go on the electronic medium of television and probably good for the American taxpayers. that is certainly an irrefutable fact. if we turn off the coverage of the House after the conclusion of official business. There is nothing that says in concrete that we have to televise this Chamber from gavel to gavel. We could go from the opening prayer to the conclusion of official business. and then allow the Members to come down here with special issues that they feel they have to deliver to our hardworking staff and pages. and the police officers who are in private clothes to guard us inside the Chamber. and the extra police staff outside. and all of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it takes to run this Chamber from the electricity down to the last young page waiting to end his day. and the hardest working people in this Chamber from a physical labor standpoint. and that is these great reporters who take down our pearls of wisdom. that that money saved for the taxpayers would be significant if the temptation was not there for Members to go on and on with their special orders instead of saying succinctly at the beginning. taking 5 or 6 minutes of a special order. and then submitting the rest for the RECORD. That RECORD goes out across our 50 States and even to some interested countries in Europe if they are involved in other parts of the world. and goes into every public library in the United States. the written need to stand up here and go on and on. I am here a little bit on shaky grounds. having taken five special orders. some of them on late nights. Each one I tried to end in 5 or 10 minutes. and they were all on subjects like Soviet war crimes. the current use of red rain. yellow rain. blue rain. the seven poison gas agents used by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and Ethiopia. and given to the Communist puppet forces to control Indochina for use against the humble people in Cambodia and Laos. I think that is pretty important. But I did not take the full special order. the 60 minutes to speak on the 60 violations of the SALT I and SALT II treaties. the arms limitation agreements by the Soviets. theother major superpower in the world. I put that almost in its entirety into the RECORD and tried to shorten that RECORD because we were not working on a weekend. but we were going late at night after a long day. On child pornography. I cut that short. and I cut short another special order on the whole state of our defense structure and what is happening to It and the B1. I cut short a special order on our prisoners of war and our men who are missing in Indochina. some of whom I believe are still alive. a slightly nightmarish story. Then one night when I was speaking on the floor an act of rudeness did occur from a fellow Member. He deliberately walked right in front of me. well aware that he was going to cut me off from the cameras or something childish. Other Members on the majority side started deliberately making noise in the background because I was keeping them after hours. they thought. because they were all going to pat one another on the back. which is a fine tradition. in saying goodbye to Members in these special orders. which again is for the RECORD and does not have to be televised. I went up to one of the Members and asked what her problem was. and I said. "Now. wait a minute." Before I even could get out a defense of the importance of my Issue of narcotics. cocaine use. which even struck this Chamber and has one of our Members sitting in a Federal penetentiary at this moment. the wealthiest Member of this House of Repesentatives. Mr. RICoMND from New York. who brought disgrace and ignominy on this body. before I could even defend my special order on cocaine. the lady Meinher in question said. "I know. I know. I know about Henry." If they are aware of that problem on zone side. without impugning anybodys eloquence. impugning their motives or casting any aspersions about the brilliance of the remarks stated here in the well. I think that as important as my special orders were. and cutting them short as I did. that they would have best been served going out to those public libraries through the written record so that this body could at least quickly expedite itself through the personal interest period of Members special orders and not keep going for about 10 people in the gallery. We appreciate their interest. and I am violating a tradition in this House to even refer to television. the other body at length or to the gallery. The Press Gallery. of course. is always empty. That is a slight violation of tradition to refer to the most Powerful part of our system. what Edmund Burke called the fourth estate. but we simply should have initiated on the majority side. because that is where the greatest. I do not want to call it abuse. but the greatest utilization. at tremendous cost to the taxpayers takes place in this well. and that there should be in the 98th Congress. and since people have seen fit to come down here on special orders and advise all of their Members. their fellow Members *on things to do next year in the Congress they will not be a part of. I will just leave one word of advice to you. Mr. Speaker. in the interest of saving money. Why do you not. Mr. Speaker. get the Republican leadership and people of reason on both sides to counsel together to cut bff the electronic coverage of this august body at the end of official business. Because if someone ever decides to take a computer and run a cost accounting on a couple of Members covering the hugs and kisses here in the well and all that stuff about greater love hath no man. because while Members may stay down here and think there is this vast audience out. there hanging on every pearl of their wisdom. I just checked and pne Member who goes on at length here does not have a single staff member in his office now watching their boss on the closed circuit television system of this proceedings. As a matter of fact. I can assure the gentleman they are home watching a football game. If there is anything I repeat in summation going to destroy the best hopes for the American people of getting inside the Chamber of the other body to watch their deliberations and debate. and encourage more people to come over on that floor over there. nigh: on our brave young men who and engage in the give and take of died in California on December 16. debate. it is we who conduct ourselves here in a frugal and swift manner. AGRICULTURAL ISSUES IN AN We are not allowed by the rules to ACTIVE CONGRESS read things. and Member after The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under Member gets in this well and violates a previous order of the House. the genthe rules and reads ad nausem. and tleman from California IS loses that American audience out recognized for 5 minutes. there trying to learn something about Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. our Government. Speaker. the 97th Congress has adoptI would say 95 percent of our Mem- ed a number of major changes in polibers sell themselves short here. If they ces designed to restore vitality to the would not read the staffprepared ma- economy. Like all sectors of the econoterial. or even If they wrote it them- my. the agricultural sector has beneselves. and tried to speak from their fited from the declining rates of Inflahearts more from their minds it will tion and interest. Yet. the administraincrease the level of debate in this tions economic and monetary policies Chamber. most Members will amaze have also exacerbated other agriculthemselves how eloquent they can get tural problems. It would be difficult in trying to express their ideas. for anyone to argue persuasively at - We all have the rightto extend and this point that the U.S. farm economy revise our remarks. And that word is more prosperous today than 2 or 4 "revise" means to clean up the syntac- years ago. tical error and to maybe add a few suc- There is a growing consensus that cinct or trenchant points we forgot in several basic agricultural institutions the course of debate. and policies are in need of substartial I would hope in the 98th Congressand since it Is becoming more and moress monetary realities of international pensive to s bc in mo re an m r e trade in agricultural commodities is become a billion dollar industry every ealute basic fa ogm Likeyear. that people would come into the wiseate dic and indir cs of well or stand at the leadership desk. produtirmt type s of prepare themselves for debate. engageprdcinfrmstyeofaiul pr erse themlvesy fork adbat. ng tural enterprises are escalating rapidin terse colloquy back and forth. andconeven if they want to talk about miss- servation. foreign trade. and domestic ing Americans. Soviet use of poison and international assistance program gas. child pornography. or Judge have played a fundamental role in Wood In Texas. or the Federal Reserve Shaping the U.S. agricultural system. and the bad guy Paul Volcker. what- These are the areas of public policies ever the importance of their subject. which must also play a major role in save it for the written record and overcoming the agricultural sectors shorten down these special orders to current economic problems. give the hardworking people on this The House Agriculture Subeomnit. Hill that keep us going here as Con- tee on Department Operations. Regressmen and Senators a fair break. search. and Foreign Agriculture particularly on weekends. and when (DORFA). which I chair. began inveswe have been in session all weekend tigating many of these Issues during long past the hour of midnight and the 97th Congress. For the benefit of have to come back before the Govern- other Members interested In agriculment shuts down and do more of the tural matters. I would like to summasame next week. rize some of the subcommittees activiI meant my advice sincerely. Some ties. and highlight the policy issues I of the longer special orders I found in- think require further work in the next teresting. But I am supposed to be a Congress. I will arrange any remarks professional legislator aware of every- according to the subcommittees areas thing that is going on around here. of legislative jurisdiction and oversight And I think we should show some re- activity. spect and a little kindness to not only HUMAN NURTIT!ON RESEARCH AND EDUCATION the staff here but the American Two subcommittee hearings were people who would like to follow that conducted Jointly with the Subcomproceedings on that magic box that mittee on Science. Research. and has been such a great tool and such an Technology of the Committee on Scievil tool for communication in our ence and Technology which emphacountry or never will we ever see the sized the need to stimulate human nuother distinguished body sometime re- trition research. to develop methods ferred to by columnists as the House and techniques to better understand of Lords ever ballooning out the walls the relationship between food. nutriof their Chamber from Hawaii to tion. and health. and to transfer the Puerto Rico and by satellite to Europe knowledge base and technology to the where people all over what is left of scientific community and the public. the free world can watch what goes on The hearings were designed to focus in this Chamber. the attention of the new administraMr. Speaker. I yield backthe bal- tion on the continuing need for Federance of my 60 minutes and promise to al support of human nutrition reonly speak for 5 minutes tomorrow search to insure and monitor the nutritional quality of the food supply and the nutritional. and health status of the population. In response to the June 1981 hear ing. the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services submitted to Congress the long overdue joint implementation plan for a national nutrition monitoring system. This plan incorporates. for .Xe first time. the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Nationwide Food Consumption Survey into an operational national nutrition monitoring system. The plan will broaden the ranges of comparable information which is necessary for identification of the nutritional habits. status. and needs of Americans. The plan marked a major step forward and the departments indicated they were committed to implementing the plan in a timely fashion. However. after a series of letters requesting progreks reports from the executive agencies. it was clear the departments had been unable to reach successfully a number of critical goals in accord* ance with the fiscal year 1982 timetable developed only last year. Therefore. a followup hearing was held in June 1982 to again obtain the Departments commitment to the national nutrition monitoring system as well as the broad area of human nutrition research. The departments once again indicated closest attention would be given to the implementation of the plan at the Assistant Secretary level. This series of hearings pointed out the need for a Federal human nutrition research plan and strategy. This need was documented in a May 1982 report which I requested from the General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1980. The GAO recommended that the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) direct the Joint Subcommittee on Human Nutrition Research to develop a Federal nutrition research plan. I am pleased to report that the Director of OSTP has accepted the responsibilities. The need for a human nutrition research information and management system was documented in a DORFA hearing in March 1981. Budget decisions by the Congress and each agency conducting nutrition research were being made without uptodate information of ongoing and planned projects in other agencies. 1 offered an amendment which became section 1427 of the 1981 farm bill calling for development of such an interactive research planning and management system. In August of 1981. the subcommittee and the Domestic Marketing. Consumer Relations. and Nutrition Subcommittees held a joint hearing on the reorganization of nutrition research responsibilities within USDA. This reorganization was viewed by some as a retreat from past commitments to human nutrition research and scientific excellence within the Department. I have noted a number of USDA efforts to accommodate requests from producer or food processing interests which have led to administrative or budgetary policy changes opposed by scientific organizations and consumer groups alike. Many of the controversial Department initiatives in this area. though. are not surprising in light of the administrations basic goals. I will continue monitoring the Departments actions in this area. and will encourage the Department to retain a strong and credible consumer orientation in its scientific. educational. food assistance. and regulatory functions.