I am clear that if we pass the budget enforcement mechanisms here that we are going to have better protection of the programs, such as Social Security, than if we do not. We are facing crises in Social Security sometime in the near future…

I do rise in very strong support of this legislation. We have to remember that about 75 percent of our Nation's youth does not receive a 4-year college degree, and in order to ensure that that percentage of our population is going to…

I rise in support of H.R. 1818, the Juvenile Crime Control and Delinquency Prevention Act. This bipartisan legislation provides us with a balanced approach to addressing juvenile crime, and endorses the concept of holding juveniles…

I rise in support of the arts but in strong opposition to the Ehlers amendment which at its best is an untested way of handling arts funding. The NEA is indeed a lightening rod. It has some basic good ideas. I give them a lot of credit for…

I believe the arts and humanities are important to the cultural life and diversity of our country--to people of all ages, to people in our inner cities, in our suburbs, and in our rural communities--and support efforts to promote the arts…

I am a cosponsor of the Porter-Kennedy amendment to eliminate logging roads subsidies because of a very simple reason. Federal construction of logging roads is a wasteful, unnecessary program that is a bad deal for the taxpayers and the…

I rise in strongest support possible of H.R. 2015, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This budget deal explicitly outlines the parameters by which this Congress will balance the Federal budget and reduce the deficit to zero by the year 2002…

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I rise in support of H.R. 1650, the bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Mother Teresa, a woman who is perhaps as close to sainthood as anyone this Congress is likely to meet. Mother Teresa of Calcutta…

Essentially what is attempting to be done in the legislation now, and the reason I support the rule, is it is an effort to make sure that we will have fair competition for this particular contract. It is as sole source a contract right now…

I do not think either of these bills is going to be the be all and end all in terms of solving the problems with respect to poor people or people in housing in general. But we have to look at which one would do better, and I come down…

very briefly, this is an important point. I understand from talking to the chairman that the community work that we are talking about is very open-ended in terms of what it is. Is it work or is it volunteerism or whatever it may be. It may…

This afternoon, I rise in support of H.R. 279, the bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Francis Albert Sinatra, a man who is perhaps better known to many Americans as Old Blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board, or simply the Voice…

My amendment provides for greater disclosure of franked mass mail costs than is currently provided. It requires that the statement, ``this mass mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense'' be printed on each mass…

Mr. Speaker, the next bill of this series is H.R. 2026, a bill to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint 100,000 $5 gold coins in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the death of George Washington. The beneficiaries of this…

I cannot thank the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Shaw] enough. At a time when somebody had to listen, he did. We do not always do that in this building, and it is just a tremendous honor to him that we are passing this bill today. I thank…

I support all the concepts of the motion to instruct conferees. I think the gentleman from Minnesota has done a good job here, but I would just like to point out where we have gone in the welfare reform package. We had it coming out of…

I will say very briefly, because we do not have much time, it has been a tremendous pleasure working with the gentleman and the others who worked on this for many, many months, in what is truly a bipartisan and bicameral piece of…

I admire the Agriculture Committee chairman greatly, but the Castle-Tanner bill requires all able-bodied food stamp recipients to work within 6 months of receiving benefits. Unlike the Republican leadership bill, Castle-Tanner does not…

I would like to address my comments this morning strictly to this rule, rather than either to Castle-Tanner or to the bill itself, because the rule is a little bit different than some of the rules we normally take up here on the floor, in…

I support both the Castle-Tanner proposal and the Republican welfare reform proposals, and I will speak probably of the Castle-Tanner more tomorrow. But I would like to share with my colleagues my strong beliefs in the need to improve…

page 26, line 9 has very binding language as far as the CDC funding is concerned. It says as follows: Those funds may not be used to advocate or promote gun control. They will not be used for that purpose. As far as the rural health care…

I would like to thank the head of the Committee on House Oversight for what I think is an extraordinary job of dealing with this issue of franked mail. I think we really have in a bipartisan way responsible addressed this particular issue…

considering that our country was founded on certain principles, among them the freedom of religious expression, it is utterly appalling that places of worship--homes to hundreds and hundreds of congregations--have apparently been targeted…

I chair the Domestic and International Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee, which is the authorizing committee for U.S. participation in the multilateral development banks. In this era of…

I believe that our seniors, I believe that our children, I believe that our education programs, I believe that our environmental programs are going to be protected by the budgeting which we have this year. So I rise in opposition to the…