Burgess Owens: “today, July 29, is being celebrated as a day when a bipartisan compromise reached its climax in the 105th Congress. We…”

“today, July 29, is being celebrated as a day when a bipartisan compromise reached its climax in the 105th Congress. We have agreement on a tax bill, an agreement on an expenditure bill, and probably before we recess on August 1 we will vote on those two agreements, and there is a great deal of joy in both the majority and minority camp about this. I am not certain that I join the celebration wholeheartedly. There are some great disappointments. But nevertheless, it does demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a bipartisan consensus on some very complex matters. We must remember that the majority party closed down the Government in 1995 over the matter of the budget and the tax package. So we have achieved by negotiation instead of political war a great compromise; and whereas that compromise leaves some of us disappointed on some things like the school construction, which has been left out completely, the President's initiative for school construction was a measley $5 billion over a 5-year period, nothing like the $120 billion that we need across the country to replace infrastructure in schools, but it was a beginning. Even that small beginning of $5 billion over a 5-year period was left out, and I am disappointed by that. I am heartened by the fact that at least empowerment zones for inner-city communities was left in, is left in.”