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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 104 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 141 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1995 No. 204 House of Representatives The House met at 9 a.m. and was just to our south, a friendly neighbor- It is true there are a lot of candidates called to order by the Speaker pro tem- ing country. It is an election that who did not run, for a variety of rea- pore [Mr. GUTKNECHT]. Americans had a great stake in, pri- sons. Primarily the presidential cam- f marily because we have invested on a paign time was a very abbreviated per-capita basis probably more money time. It was about 4 weeks or so, and DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO in that election than any other in re- the campaign tactics themselves were TEMPORE cent history. We have a huge American nearly invisible. There was not a lot of The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- taxpayer dollar investment there in campaigning, and there was not a lot of fore the House the following commu- the growth of democracy, and I think interest generated in the country as a nication from the Speaker: it is very important that we have a full result through the normal campaign WASHINGTON, DC, assessment of the way the moneys have tactics that you see for a presidential December 19, 1995. been spent and how that tiny nation is election. I hereby designate the Honorable GIL doing on its path to democracy. The fact that much of the loyal oppo- GUTKNECHT to act as Speaker pro tempore on I think the important thing to say sition, including several of its major this day. now is that the good news from Haiti is parties, boycotted the elections is not NEWT GINGRICH, that there is no bad news; but the bad a good sign for democracy. People who Speaker of the House of Representatives. news is there is not much good news ei- feel compelled to go outside the system f ther. and will not participate inside the sys- MORNING BUSINESS Haiti did not have full, fair, free elec- tem and do not feel welcome or feel tions. But they did have a step in the The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- frustrated or feel it is so tilted they right direction because they were able cannot have a fair chance clearly are ant to the order of the House of May 12, to carry out elections on a countrywide 1995, the Chair will now recognize making a statement when they say, basis for a new President without any ``We are being forced outside the sys- Members from lists submitted by the of the violence that we have seen in majority and minority leaders for tem.'' previous elections in that country. It is also a fact that in Haiti, I think morning hour debates. The Chair will The IRI [International Republic In- voter fatigue is a possibility. They alternate recognition between the par- stitute] was there monitoring the have had a lot of elections, and I think ties, with each party limited to 25 min- progress of their elections, and they that an awful lot of voters are saying utes, and each Member, other than the concluded in the conversations that I the same things to reporters today majority or minority leader, limited to had in a telephone conversation with they were saying to me after the par- 5 minutes. But in no event shall debate our on-the-ground team that what hap- liamentary elections in June, and that continue beyond 9:50 a.m. pened on Sunday in Haiti was impor- is, The Chair recognizes the gentleman tant but it was not conclusive. So I Why should we keep voting for this democ- from Florida [Mr. GOSS] for 5 minutes. think we are in a position now where racy thing? I still do not have a job. I am f we have got a pretty good assessment still hungry. My family is still hungry. I of the electoral process underway, the voted three times. Nothing is better. I am ELECTIONS IN HAITI technical problems they had. What we not sure democracy works. The only thing I Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, while we do not have is a full assessment of know is Aristide is my hero. were at work here this past weekend what happened and where we are going And unfortunately, Aristide was not trying to get out of the budget stale- now to justify the investment of tax- on the ballot because constitutionally mate we are in, there were events payer dollars and the American troops he cannot succeed himself, and a lot of going on in the world that are of very, we have had there and what we should people probably stayed home because very great importance to American in- do next. the person they wanted to vote for they terests. I think it is clear that we had low could not vote for, so they registered In Russia, as you know, there are numbers in the Haitian election both their objection that way. elections there. We are now sifting in terms of candidates who are partici- I think many others stayed home be- through and sorting out exactly what pating and in terms of voter turnout. cause the election was clearly, those those elections meant. The estimates in voter turnout are who were organized were the one party Initially, though, not very much no- called light. The election was called that was ready for it and had all of the ticed at all, were other elections near- lackluster, uninspiring. There are a lot resources and the blessing apparently by in the small, tiny nation of Haiti, of reasons for that. of the international parties, and they b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H 15089 H 15090 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð HOUSE December 19, 1995 just steamrolled it and apparently, ment shutdown, inspired and orches- ministration, and that is simply be- when the election results come in, ev- trated by the same Republican leaders. cause the President of the United erybody believes widely there will be They just do not get it. They do not States is attempting to back out of the one very clear winner, not anybody understand that sending home some agreement he entered into less than a really in second place. I do not know if 300,000 Federal employees a few days month ago with the Congress of the that will be true. I think that is a feel- before Christmas is beyond heartless, it United States. We resolved the last ing that probably kept people from vot- is stupid, crazy for us as a Nation to be partial Government shutdown by com- ing. incurring debts of $80 million to $100 ing to an agreement. There were sev- In any event, when you have a coun- million a day because of someone's eral major terms in that agreement, trywide presidential election that is pride. and one of those terms was that we supposed to be the most historic event The American people sent Democrats would use common economic projec- in the peaceful turnover of democracy and Republicans to Washington to tions to put together a balanced budg- in the whole history of the country's solve problems, not to create them, not et. 200 years and you only get somewhere to say to people who are going to Fed- I know this sounds very technical, between 20 and 30 percent turnout, eral agencies today that their phone but economic projections are the build- clearly it is not working quite the way calls will be unanswered and no one ing blocks of any budget. They are the it should be. will be at the door. What they want us forecasts, in this case over 7 years, of Security was better. Law and order to do is to sit down in a commonsense, how much Government revenue will be was better. Of course, it would be if bipartisan way, deal with our budg- received, how much there will be an in- flationary impact on Government pro- you have Humvees with machine guns etary problems, to make sure we pro- grams and so forth. and soldiers mounted all over the place tect Medicare and Medicaid, to make The agreement by the President of and running around from place to place sure that we do not end up obliterating the United States and the Congress of insuring nothing gets out of hand. So college student loan programs, and to the United States was that we would we have somewhat of an artificial situ- bring a balanced budget in a reasonable use the figures of the Congressional ation there about law and order. period of time. Budget Office. Now, there was an addi- Regrettably, as in every election, we It is time for some of the political tional provision, that the Congres- had intimidations that kept candidates hubris to be set aside. sional Budget Office was expected to out. We had the media shut down Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Speaker, will the consult with outside sources, which, to through intimidations. We had allega- gentleman yield? the best of my knowledge, they have tions of misuse of dollars, all of those Mr. DURBIN. I yield to the gen- done.

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