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“FEEDING THE HUNGRY OF THE NATION'S CAPITAL, AND REDUCING THE DEFICIT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6259-H6260 on June 22, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FEEDING THE HUNGRY OF THE NATION'S CAPITAL, AND REDUCING THE DEFICIT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to talk about an issue of feeding the hungry in our Nation's Capital. I would like to thank my colleagues for the overwhelming response to our Dear Colleague letter, for the donations of sweet potatoes that were distributed to their office.
I would like to especially thank the gentlemen from Louisiana, Cleo Fields and Richard Baker, for their work with the Sweet Potato Council of the United States, who gave each Member of Congress two cans of whole sweet potatoes. Mr. Fields and Mr. Baker generously donated three cases of sweet potatoes for the hungry. The sweet potatoes will be given to D.C. Central Kitchens, a local not-for-profit organization that provides 2,500 meals a day to men, women and children in area shelters and feeding programs.
Over 100 offices of the Members of Congress have donated so far. It has been so successful that we hope to repeat this again. Several offices have donated additional items. Every item is much appreciated.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my staffer, Jennifer DelVecchio,
[[Page H 6260]] who came up with this idea. Many times people come by our offices and bring us small tokens or some products from back home. When we get such abundant products, some of which sit on our shelves and go to waste, she thought it only appropriate that we reach out and help those in our Nation's Capital, that the food really go to use for those who truly need our help.
Again, I would like to congratulate my colleagues in Congress for supporting this very, very worthwhile project.
Mr. Speaker, let me speak for a moment on something that I think really needs reform in the United States Congress. Yesterday in the Committee on Science I had the good fortune of striking what I considered wasteful spending in Congress. Twenty-five thousand dollars was allocated to gas-cooled nuclear technology, which has been underway for over 30 years. The Department of Science, the Department of Energy, all conclude that this proposal is going nowhere, that commercial application of this
gas-cooled technology is going nowhere.
The President's budget for three times has consistently voted against it. The Senate turned it down in 1993. However, somehow the $25 million has shown up in House appropriations. I won an amendment 25 to 15 to strike this $25 million from the budget.
Today in the committee, however, Mr. Speaker, one of the Members decided $25 million is too much to pass up, and offered an amendment which was successful, to transfer that $25 million to another program.
There is a problem here in Washington, and the problem is people in Congress cannot get their hands out of the wallet, out of the checkbook of our Nation's taxpayers; that every dollar that is on the table, any dollar that is missed by an appropriator, any dollar that is offered up as sacrifice for deficit reduction, is instantly claimed as found money, so they say ``Let us get every cent of that $25 million and find something else to spend it on.''
Mr. Speaker, I can only reach in my pocket so deeply to find the very few dollars that are in it. Every dollar I come out with is my dollar. However, in this institution, the dollars are somebody else's. The card that we vote with is the world's most expensive credit card. We stick this in the machine and we can spend billions of dollars without any consequence.
Mr. Speaker, I am somewhat appalled when this Congress cannot come up with a mechanism that when a Member offers a deficit reducing formula to save the taxpayers money, that saves money from wasteful spending, that we cannot take that money and earmark it and lockbox it away to bring down the Nation's deficit. It is clearly one of our greatest problems. It clearly is driving up the cost of credit for consumers.
Clearly, the cost of credit for buying a home today, a 30-year mortgage, 7\1/2\ to 8 percent, would be brought down over 2 points if we get the Federal Government's appetite for credit to be minimized, and the private sector would then see relief for the average consumer.
However, no, not in this body. I see money, I spend money. I see money they do not want, I will spend it over here. Mr. Speaker, I say to the Members who are listening to this, they need to clearly reflect on what our priorities are. I think we should be in a race to see who can save the most money.
The prior speaker suggested that the Republicans are only interested in voting for bombers and missiles and are not concerned with AIDS and other issues. This Member of Congress voted against the B-2 bomber. This Member of Congress does indeed support increased funding for AIDS research, because I think the cost to the taxpayers will be exacerbated by the cost of AIDS in our community.
Mr. Speaker, it is not fair to characterize all Republicans as mean-
spirited, only interested in defense and not interested in social services.
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