Sean Patrick Maloney: “my amendments would add to the list of exemptions, children. Surely if we are exempting seniors and social security, we…”

“my amendments would add to the list of exemptions, children. Surely if we are exempting seniors and social security, we should give the same support protection to our children. I regret, Mr. Chairman, that a bill of this magnitude was not given one single public hearing before being rammed through the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. Few people in this Chamber today would dispute the need to provide for relief from unfunded Federal mandates to our cities and States, but instead of taking a scalpel to this problem, we are attacking it with a meat cleaver. No one knows exactly what the consequences may be, particularly for our most vulnerable citizens, our children. Mr. Chairman, it makes no sense to exempt auditing and accounting procedures, treaties like NAFTA, and special emergency legislation such as flood relief, and not provide an exemption for children. Our children cannot vote, cannot speak for themselves, cannot spend millions of dollars to lobby Congress. Maybe that is why our children are in such a deepening crisis. According to the Children's Defense Fund, every day in America three children die from child abuse, 9 children are murdered, 43 children are either murdered or injured by guns, 207 children are arrested for violent crimes. In 1992, 2.9 million children were reported as abused and neglected.”