I speak to my colleagues and to the American public today about a quiet crisis that is occurring in our Nation. This is the crisis that has resulted from our failure to adequately invest in the basic services that will render our Nation…

Mr. Chairman, I intend to support the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum] and his bill, because it is uniform: 12 years for the House, 12 years for the Senate. I would like to give my colleagues my views of some of the things that have…

this morning, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf of an important set of provisions in the Democratic program of putting families first--in this case, the provision that gives families some additional security for their pension…

The second historical point is consistent with what my friend from Virginia has just said, and that is we are at a new point of departure for our surface transportation system. We could date the current era with adoption of the Interstate…

I believe there are a couple of historical notes that should be made at this time. First is, we are introducing legislation to carry on a program which will expire 368 days from today. By introducing this legislation today, we are giving…

we will soon begin a debate on the conference report entitled ``Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.'' I am concerned that, when we commence that debate, we are not going to be in as advanced a position as…

Now in the case of my State, if the council designates jurisdiction of a particular fishery to the State, the officials in Florida would be able to regulate out-of-State vessels, in that portion of the EEZ, regardless of which ports it…

The State of Florida has been firmly committed to the conservation of the State's natural resources. In the past year, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Regional Fishery Management Council had proposed giving authority to the…

Congress has created an anomaly, a catch-22 situation which occurs in one of the most traumatic areas of our society, the hospital emergency room. The anomaly is that under the Federal Emergency Medical Treatment Act, physicians in…

The Alu-O'Hara bill, endorsed by all major police and firefighter organizations, would create a safety net for injured officers by requiring municipalities that receive Federal crime dollars to continue to maintain the same level of…

I would join Senator Mack in commending the city of Gainesville for its diligence in funding a solution to this complex problem. The project should be considered for Federal funding because of the complexity of the problem, the difficult…

I rise today to join in support of the ``Medicare Hospice Benefit Amendments of 1996'' to be introduced by Senator Breaux. The number of terminally ill patients choosing hospice care over conventional Medicare has increased from 11,000…

when we voted on this matter a few days ago, I voted ``no.'' Today, I am going to vote for the conference report, and I wish to explain why I am taking that position. As I assessed the conference report, it seemed to me that we had…

I wonder if my colleague could address one point on this bill. I notice that the term ``Federal means-tested public benefit'' was defined in previous versions of the bill. However, in this conference report, no definition is provided.

I conclude by saying it is with a leap of faith that we undertake this initiative. I think we are doing it at a time which gives us the greatest hope and expectation that faith will be justified.

We are asking that English be the official language of government. We are trying to make sure that this Government conducts the language of its business in English, because that is the one unifying thing about America, is that that is the…

to begin with I would like to congratulate the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Ballenger] and our committee chairman for working on some legislation for a long period of time that really will help people. This Congress has been historic…

State legislators want welfare reform to succeed. In order to succeed, we need adequate implementation time to craft comprehensive welfare reform that best fits the needs in our individual states. Therefore, we strongly support Senator Bob…

if there is one phrase that has characterized the debate on welfare reform, it is the phrase that ``we are going to end welfare as we have known it.'' What we have known welfare as has a number of dimensions. We have focused a great deal…

this is certainly an issue of dollars. It is certainly an issue of impact on local institutions required to provide services. But it is also fundamentally an issue of fairness, fairness in many dimensions. Let me just mention two. One of…

let me just make a few points. The Senator from Pennsylvania has made a very good argument, if we were going to leave the welfare program as we have known it for the last three-plus decades. The whole premise of us being here today until…

the issue presented by this motion to strike is a simple one. We have already spent weeks debating the issue of the benefits for legal aliens--legal aliens. On May 2, we passed a comprehensive immigration bill which outlined the restraints…

in my State of Florida, we are now receiving thousands of refugees and people seeking asylum from countries such as Cuba, generally under agreements that have been reached between the United States Federal Government and foreign…

I think this question precisely underscores why I have offered this series of strikes. We spent a week- plus on this floor in April and May debating a comprehensive immigration bill. We came to a studied judgment as to how, for whom, for…

to be clear, my argument is that this is a redundant and inappropriate piece of legislation to be considering the issue of the eligibility of legal aliens for Federal benefits. That is exactly what we did in the immigration bill. We spent…