THIS SEARCH     THIS DOCUMENT     THIS CR ISSUE     GO TO
Next Hit        Forward           Next Document     New CR Search
Prev Hit        Back              Prev Document     HomePage
Hit List        Best Sections     Daily Digest      Help
                Doc Contents      

It is interesting to note that the majority has taken out the mandatory minimums for penalties for Ecstasy, a methamphetamine-based drug which is prevalent in the middle-class white community. This is curious, because crack cocaine, prevalent in the African-American community, Draconian

[Page: H8253]  GPO's PDF

   Now, I oppose mandatory minimums for the same reason the Judicial Conference of the United States recently wrote to Chairman HYDE. They said that mandatory minimums are a bad idea because they treat dissimilar offenders in a similar manner, offenders who can be quite different with respect to the seriousness of their conduct or a danger to society. Mandatories require the sentencing court to impose the same sentence on offenders, when sound policy and common sense call for reasonable differences in punishment. But this bill requires no exception except for those drugs used in the middle-class white community.

   Additionally, I oppose the bill because it attacks our civil rights laws. It contains the charitable choice, as has already been mentioned on the floor. Let me mention that if this bill passes, some sponsors of federally sponsored programs, not church-run programs, federally funded programs will be able to say for the first time in 30 years that ``we do not hire your kind because of your religion.''

   Mr. Speaker, if this bill passes, it contains counterproductive mandatory minimums applied in a racially discriminatory manner and allows religious bigotry to be practiced with Federal funds. There seems to be a suggestion that if the dollar amount is high enough and the programs are good enough, that civil rights can be bought and sold.

   Mr. Speaker, I will not vote for this bill, even though it includes a good Children's Health Care Act.

   Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

   Ms. DEGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. NAPOLITANO).

   Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DEGETTE) for yielding me this time.

   Mr. Speaker, this bill includes provisions for substance abuse and mental health reauthorization, which allows us to think about our Latino adolescents, ages 9 to 14, leading the Nation in attempted suicide, depression, self-reported gun handling, asthma, diabetes, besides an increase in HIV/AIDS cases and teen pregnancy.

   I am sorry to have to recognize the need to pay special attention to this segment of the population who are facing great challenges, and I am thankful for the funding. It will help our communities, schools, community-based organizations work together with families to combat this phenomenon in the United States.

   Mr. Speaker, the violence, the drugs, the cultural assimilation, peer pressure, dysfunctional families, environment, media are all some of the causes we must help our adolescents deal with. Our youngsters are our future; and we must neither neglect, ignore, nor turn our backs on them. They do not vote, but let us give them a voice for the future.

   Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. HUTCHINSON), a member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

   Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. BILIRAKIS) for yielding me this time.

   Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak in support of this bill, especially in support of the bill's provision dealing with the growing nationwide threat of methamphetamine. The legislation is substantially similar to the Methamphetamine Antiproliferation Act that we considered on the House side in Committee on the Judiciary. It was introduced by the gentleman from Utah (Mr. CANNON).

   The bill was brought up in committee after the Subcommittee on Crime traveled across the country and held hearings on the growing problem of methamphetamine. The subcommittee in these hearings heard from law enforcement officials, treatment and prevention organizations, State crime laboratories and concerned community leaders.

   Some of the most compelling testimony came from the meth addicts themselves. One recovering addict said that meth is so consuming, that everything from family to employment, from self-dignity to self-restraint is sacrificed for meth.

   Mr. Speaker, this threat is real and immediate. My own State of Arkansas was recently declared to have the highest number of meth lab seizures per capita in the Nation. A similar story is repeated across the country. The number of labs cleaned up by the DEA has almost doubled each year since 1995. Last year, more than 5,500 labs were seized by the DEA and other enforcement officials.

   This resulted in millions of dollars spent on cleaning up pollutants and toxins left behind by the operators of these labs, which can run as much as $10,000 per lab. But let me emphasize that the legislation, the provisions in the bill concerning meth are balanced in its approach.

   First of all, the bill provides additional resources to fight the production and use of methamphetamine. It provides training for State and local agencies in handling the toxic waste created by meth labs, and it provides for stiff penalties for the manufacturing and trafficking of meth.

   But in addition, besides the enforcement side, it authorizes significant funding for drug prevention and treatment efforts. $10 million is allocated for State grants for addiction treatment, and $15 million for education programs. So it is a balanced approach to dealing with the problem of meth.

   If we look at some of the specifics of the legislation, it makes the penalties for manufacturing and trafficking amphetamine, a lesser-known but no less dangerous drug than meth, the same as methamphetamine. But it increases the penalties when there is a substantial risk of harm to human life or the environment, which is many times the case with meth labs.

   It also criminalizes the interstate transportation of anhydrous ammonia, which is used by farmers in the production of fertilizer, but is also used in the production of methamphetamine. And so to help the farmers, though, the legislation authorizes funds to research alternative substances for farming and other uses that cannot be used in making meth.

   It requires meth lab operators to reimburse society for the environmental and physical damage they cause through their activity. And it authorizes $5.5 million for DEA training of State and local law enforcement in meth lab detection and investigation techniques.

   Mr. Speaker, I could go on about some of the specific provisions of the bill, but it helps us deal with the problem. There are some of the objections raised by the methamphetamine legislation that were deleted from this bill. For example, provisions allowing for delayed notice of a search warrant have been deleted. Penalties for the advertisement of illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia have been deleted. So some of those questionable parts are not in this legislation.

   I commend the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. BIGGERT), who has done an excellent job of dealing with the problem of Ecstasy and the club drugs. Those provisions she has described are also in the legislation.

   Let me just make some personal comments about the drug problem. When I grew up in northwest Arkansas on the farm, I became aware of the drug problems on the nightly news, thinking it did not affect us in the rural areas. But the National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse announced recently that the drug use among young teens in rural America is now higher than in the Nation's large urban centers. In fact, eighth graders living in rural America are 100 percent more likely to use amphetamines, 34 percent of rural eighth graders are more likely to smoke marijuana than kids in urban areas.

   Mr. Speaker, this should be a wakeup call to parents and community leaders in our country. As a former Federal prosecutor, as a legislator, but most importantly as a father of teenagers, my heart aches over the lives that are ruined by the gripping terror of meth that overpowers so many, from the curious teenager to the innocent victim of its violence.

   Recent surveys show that in 1999, 54 percent of high school seniors had used an illicit substance. The number has risen for the past 6 of 7 years. These statistics show that drug-induced deaths now exceed the national murder

[Page: H8254]  GPO's PDF

   Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the objection raised by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. SCOTT). He has indicated that this creates new mandatory minimums. I understand that he now agrees that new mandatory minimums are not provided in this legislation. There are no new mandatory minimums.

   Secondly, there was a question raised about the discriminatory impact of sentences between amphetamine, crack cocaine, and some of the club drugs. First of all, we tried and I think we had a preferable House bill, but this is the Senate bill and I think we probably can improve upon that. I am willing to work with the gentleman from Virginia to make sure that we have equal treatment.

   We are giving direction to the Sentencing Commission, and I hope they come up with recommendations that are fair and nondiscriminatory. But we will be happy to look at that in the next Congress as well.

   So I am pleased to support this legislation. I ask my colleagues to support it as well. It is fair, and it is what addresses the problems that faces our young people today.

   Ms. DEGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. BENTSEN).

   (Mr. BENTSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

   Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Children's Health Act, legislation that would reauthorize children's health research and prevention programs, graduate medical education programs for children's hospitals, substance abuse and drug abuse prevention and treatment programs, and safety of child care programs.

   As an original cosponsor of many of the initiatives that are included in this comprehensive bill, I am pleased that Congress will be acting to protect children's health.

   One of the most important provisions is the reauthorization for 5 years of the Graduate Medical Education Program for independent children's hospitals. As one who represents the largest independent children's hospital in the United States, I strongly support the role that pediatric hospitals play in advancing pediatric medicine in the training of physicians dedicated to children's health care needs.

[Time: 11:45]

   Under the current law, Medicare, which is the main funder of graduate medical education in the United States, does not provide funding for pediatric residencies for freestanding children's hospitals such as Texas Children's Hospital in my district because these hospitals, of course, treat a very small number of Medicare patients who are under the disability program.

   Last year, Congress enacted a law that provided a one-time capped entitlement for pediatric Medicare education programs. This legislation would rightly extend this valuable program for 5 years.

   Mr. Speaker, I am also working with my colleagues to ensure that the pediatric graduate medical education program receives sufficient funding through the annual appropriations process. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives approved for the fiscal year 2001 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bills $80 billion for pediatric graduate medical education, an increase of $40 million, over this year's program. I am committed to maintaining this funding level as the budget is finalized.

   Another important issue in this bill is the pediatric research initiative that would require the National Institutes of Health to conduct pediatric biomedical research at the NIH. In particular, this initiative will ensure that more research is done on how diseases affected children as compared to adults. In most cases, clinical trials are conducted on adults without any consideration of how these drugs would affect children.

   This initiative would also encourage the development of pediatric clinical trials to ensure that safe and effective drug treatments are available. When children face life-threatening diseases, it is very difficult to determine how much and what type of treatments should be given to them because there is insufficient information about how these treatments would affect them.

   With more data in clinical trials, there will be more options for children who are fighting for their lives. The bill also directs the National Institutes of Health to conduct more research on diseases which directly affect children such as hearing loss, autism, asthma and juvenile diabetes.

   I think this is a step in the right direction. I commend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. BILIRAKIS) and the ranking members of the Subcommittee on Health and Environment, and I encourage my colleagues to adopt this bill.

   Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. MORAN).

   Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. BILIRAKIS) for yielding me the time.

   Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the comments made by the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. HUTCHINSON) who has been a tremendous leader on the issue of combatting methamphetamine production, sale and distribution in our country and from my perspective especially in rural America.

   I am here today to speak on behalf of this legislation and, particularly, the meth section, that in large part mirrors H.R. 2987, a bill which I am a sponsor.

   Kansas was one of those locations, certainly Kansas, a rural State, was one of those locations in which the Committee on the Judiciary came to on location to hear about the problems we face in our part of the country. And the stories that were told, the testimony that was taken was very compelling.

   I brought with me today comments made by the sheriff of one of the counties in Kansas who testified before the subcommittee on the Judiciary on the impact of methamphetamines on his rural county, and I think it can be said across the State of Kansas and rural places around the country.

   Sheriff Sherrer's testimony before the subcommittee in part is this, ``the adverse effect of meth on rural America is destroying our way of life. We are now combatting narcotics problems on fertile farm ground; problems that previously existed only in large cities with large police forces having large narcotics and violent crime units. The idea that we are living in Mayberry is a myth.

   ``We are living in a war zone. My office is totally unprepared to combat the rapidly expanding problem of the manufacture of meth in rural Kansas. The money and manpower necessary to combat the problem is destroying my annual budget and exhausting my personnel.

   ``There were 25 labs seized in Pawnee County in 1999.'' And I might add, as an aside, indicate that Pawnee County's population is 7,470. We have had more than 500 meth busts in 1999 in our State alone, and we are going to, unfortunately, exceed that record this year.

   Sheriff Sherrer's testimony continues, ``my personnel are physically exhausted and perhaps even worse is that they are mentally exhausted, 80- and 90-hour workweeks are not uncommon in our attempt to combat the meth problem and still attend to our normal duties. I don't have the budget or the manpower necessary to fight the current meth problem. I have exhausted all manpower and financial efforts to address this problem to no avail. As a law enforcement agency, we are exhausted.

   ``On behalf of all western Kansas law enforcement administrators, concerning the problem of methamphetamine, we are understaffed, underfunded, outgunned and out of our league.''

   I thought originally when I got involved in this issue that it was somewhat beyond the scope of the duties that I normally face as a rural Member of Congress, but this is a problem that

[Page: H8255]  GPO's PDF

   Ms. DEGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 1/2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. MCCARTHY).

   Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise and express my strong support for the Children'S Health Act. This important legislation includes the Children's Day Care Health and Safety Improvement Act, a bill that I introduced with the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. BRYANT).

   Mr. Speaker, I just want to take this opportunity to also thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. DINGELL), the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman BLILEY) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. BRYANT) and certainly my colleague, the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DEGETTE), for the leadership and hard work on this issue.

   Mr. Speaker, we are experiencing a national child care crisis. In 1997, 31,000 children ages 4 and younger were treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries sustained in child care facilities.

   In 1999, in my home district of Nassau County, there were 55 cases of suspected child abuse incidents in child care facilities. Our bill gives $200 million in State grants to improve programs, to improve the health and safety of our children in child care.

   These grants can be used for a number of reasons, train and educate child care providers to prevent injuries and illnesses and to promote health-related practices; strengthen and enforce child care provider licensing, regulation and registration; rehabilitate, which is probably one of the most important parts of this bill, child care facilities to meet health and safety standards; provide health consultants to give health and safety advice to child care providers; enhance child care providers' ability to serve children with disabilities; conduct criminal background checks on child care providers, what I think is really important, especially to give our parents the peace of mind of where they are going to send their child is offering the best services possible, and I think to provide information to parents on choosing a safe and healthy setting for their children or to or improve the safety of transportation of children in child care.

THIS SEARCH     THIS DOCUMENT     THIS CR ISSUE     GO TO
Next Hit        Forward           Next Document     New CR Search
Prev Hit        Back              Prev Document     HomePage
Hit List        Best Sections     Daily Digest      Help
                Doc Contents