NAN A. S. HAYWORTH: “I realize that Americans are flocking to the beaches and taking with them a variety of reading materials. And so I guess…”

“I realize that Americans are flocking to the beaches and taking with them a variety of reading materials. And so I guess in that sense, Mr. Speaker, it comes as no surprise that we are treated to the latest fiction and rhetorical terror from the leftists in this community who always trust Washington bureaucrats instead of the people. As I listened to the litany of fiction just a few moments ago preceding me in the well, I noticed with interest that nowhere in any of the statements of the gentleman from California was there one scintilla of a request for accountability. Not in the litany of alleged shortages was there a simple request to have an accounting. Now, I guess it should come as no surprise because under the Clinton-Gore administration, Mr. Speaker, do we realize that the Department of Education cannot account for $18 billion of our money? The books of the Department of Education are unauditable. Mr. Speaker, Secretary Riley, President Clinton, Vice President Gore would be well-advised to take a mathematics refresher course. No one doubts that children are our future. No one doubts that education is vitally important. But, Mr. Speaker, how do we serve the people when $18 billion is not accounted for? That is real money. Worst still is the notion that somehow by supplying more and more dollars, even when they cannot be accounted for, to Washington bureaucrats that somehow that magically by osmosis fixes our public schools.”