{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2010-12-22-pt1-PgE2248-3", "2010-12-22", 111, 2, null, null, "REFLECTIONS", "HOUSE", "EXTENSIONS", "ALLOTHER", "E2248", "E2249", "[{\"name\": \"John M. Spratt, Jr.\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "156 Cong. Rec. E2248", "Congressional Record, Volume 156 Issue 173 (Wednesday, December 22, 2010)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 173 (Wednesday, December 22, 2010)]\n[Extensions of Remarks]\n[Pages E2248-E2249]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                              REFLECTIONS\n\n                                 ______\n\n                        HON. JOHN M. SPRATT, JR.\n\n                           of south carolina\n\n                    in the house of representatives\n\n                      Wednesday, December 22, 2010\n\n  Mr. SPRATT. Madam Speaker, when I was elected to Congress 28 years\nago, it was the fulfillment of a life-long ambition. But I had never\nserved in elective office before, and frankly, I wondered how well it\nwould wear--all the back-slapping and glad-handing and garrulous talk.\n  My first revelation was to find that this House is not made up of\nback-slappers and glad-handlers. It is made up of members who work hard\nto get here, many out of patriotic purpose, hoping that they in their\ntime can contribute something worthy of this great country. Most of the\nmembers are extroverted and energetic, and have to be, to get elected\nevery two years.\n  At Davidson College, my alma mater; at Oxford on scholarship; at Yale\nLaw; in the Pentagon as a young analyst, and as a practicing lawyer, I\nmade many good friends, but few as good as the friends I have made\nhere. Of all the things I will miss, I will miss most the fellowship\nand camaraderie.\n  I first experienced Congress as a young Army officer in the Pentagon,\nworking for the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) on defense\ncontractors in financial distress, mainly Lockheed Aircraft\nCorporation. As staff at the Department of Defense, we did a lot of\nwork that I thought staff at Congress should be doing, particularly if\nCongress hoped to be a co-equal branch. The greatest difference between\nCongress then, from '69 through '71, and Congress 12 years later, when\nI came here in 1983 as an elected member, was staff. Committee staff\nand members' staff both had grown greatly, in quality and quantity. As\na result, today's Congress is better staffed and equipped, more\neffective and independent, and a lot closer to being co-equal.\n  I have had the good fortune of working with talented staff in my\noffice and on the committees where I have served; and as I leave, I\nthank them all, because anything I have done of significance, I did\nwith their good help.\n  My first quest in Congress was to get a good committee assignment.\nAfter two days of bidding, I had struck at every option and never\nscored a hit. I was at a loss for where to go when Tony Coelho sought\nme out and offered me a seat on the House Armed Services Committee.\n  The HASC dove-tailed nicely with my district because the Fifth\nDistrict includes Shaw Air Force Base. But as important as Shaw is, I\nlearned that other members had defense interests far larger than mine.\nSince I was not carrying water for a large defense constituency, I had\nthe independence to take on troubled systems, like the DIVAD, the\nDivision Air Defense gun, which my amendment effectively killed; or the\nMX , which I voted to stop at 50 missiles, or binary chemical weapons,\nwhich my amendments helped side-track and eventually derail.\n  In selecting members for every committee, the leadership tries to\nmatch the member's interests at home with his committee in the House.\nThat's natural and to be expected, but we should also select members\nfor ballast--members free to act, ask hard questions, and offer\namendments.\n  At the time I took my seat on Armed Services, the nation was engaged\nin the biggest defense build-up in our peace-time history, and the\ncommittee chairman presiding over this build-up was well past his\nprime. Elderly and weak, he could barely be heard over the din of noise\nin the committee room. When Les Aspin let it be known that he was going\nto run for the chair, and leap-frog six senior members, I was among the\nfirst to offer support. We prevailed, and over the next five years,\nAspin allowed me to set up and chair two panels, the first on Reagan's\nStrategic Defense Initiative, and the second, on the nuclear weapons\ncomplex. Though both were important, neither was receiving the\nattention it deserved by the committee or any of its subcommittees, due\nto other issues or a lack of interest in these.\n\n  Because of our oversight, we were able to pare back the SDI budget;\nshift funds from strategic missile defense to theater missile defense,\nand wipe out a few far-fetched systems altogether. For example, my\namendment deleted funding for the space-based interceptor. In the press\nrelease accompanying passage of the defense bill, the headline read:\n``House Takes the Star out of Star Wars.'' President Reagan did not\nfind it amusing; he vetoed the defense bill, but after many years and\nbillions of dollars, our cuts have stood the test of time.\n  After two years, we had to return SDI to the Research and Development\nSubcommittee, so we set up a new panel dealing with nuclear facilities.\nThe Cold War had enabled our nuclear complex to put off environmental\nand safety issues. To deal with these problems, we shifted nearly a\nbillion dollars from Defense to Energy, and saved over a billion\ndollars by stopping the Special Isotope Separator, a laser-driven\nprocess to produce plutonium, even though the Secretary of Energy\nacknowledged we were ``awash in plutonium.''\n  We scored a number of such successes, but the most satisfying took\nplace largely off stage where we made the case for a moratorium on\nnuclear testing. We first helped Representative. Kopetski draft a bill\ncalling for an immediate cessation of testing, and we then drafted an\nalternative that we thought the Senate would pass allowing for a few\nfinal tests before declaring a moratorium. We proposed the alternative\nto Senators Exon and Hatfield, who took up its support and moved it to\npassage through the Energy and Water Appropriations bill. This saved\nthe moratorium from being vetoed because the super-collider was also in\nthis bill, and President Bush wanted it to be funded.\n  Another satisfying measure: my substitute to the war powers\nresolution authorizing President Bush to use force against Iraq. This\nsubstitute authorized the force needed to search for weapons of mass\ndestruction, but before going further, it called on the president to\nseek the sanction of the U.N. Security Council, as his father had done,\nand to come back to Congress with the case for a broader use of force,\nwhich would be received with a fast-track guaranty, an up-or-down vote\nin the House and Senate. My substitute did not prevail, but it drew 157\nvotes, and gave many members a position they could uphold.\n  I made my mark in the House on defense, but during most of my 28\nyears, my greatest concern was the budget and chronic deficits. In\n1997, I was elected by the Democratic Caucus as ranking member of the\nBudget Committee. I ran against opposition and told the caucus that if\nI was elected, we would ``finish the job'' of balancing the budget that\nbegan with President Clinton's first budget. About the same time,\nErskine Bowles returned to Washington to be the President's Chief of\nStaff, and when he paid me a courtesy call, he told me that he had the\nsame understanding with the President. With the President's\nencouragement, the four budget principals in the House and Senate began\nmeeting, and by May 1997 we had hammered out a balanced budget\nagreement which worked. By 1998, the budget was in balance for the\nfirst time in 30 years.\n  President Bush took office with an advantage few presidents have\nenjoyed, a budget in balance, in the black by $236 billion the year\nbefore. I was invited to Austin, Texas with 12 other members to discuss\ndefense issues with the incoming president. I used my time to encourage\nPresident Bush to apply the surplus in Social Security to buy\noutstanding Treasury debt, and reduce Treasury debt held by the public.\nThis would increase net national saving, lower public debt, and be a\nlong step toward making Social Security solvent. The president-elect\nprofessed interest but not for long, and by 2004, the deficit was over\n$400 billion.\n  President George W. Bush was greeted as he took office by a surplus\nof $200 billion. When he left office in 2009, the surplus was gone, and\nthe deficit projected for that fiscal year was $1.2 trillion.\n  As I leave Congress, the deficit is hovering around a trillion\ndollars and while improving, current deficits exceed the deficits of\nthe mid-1990s by every measure. But the process of resolving both is\nbasically the same: everything must be on the table and everyone must\nbe at the table.\n  As the menu for such a meeting, the President's Fiscal Commission has\nsubmitted a plate full of recommendations. I served on the commission\nand voted for the report, even though I do not support all of its\nproposals. I cast an ``aye'' because our country is in desperate need\nof a plan for balancing the budget and making Social Security and\nMedicare solvent. These will not be popular--far from it--but as they\nshore up our economy, they will prove their worth and raise the\nstanding of Congress in the eyes of our countrymen. I am\n\n[[Page E2249]]\n\nsorry that I will not be here to lend my support, but as a parting\ngesture, I urge the House to go for it.\n  I will remember with pride my 28 years in the House of\nRepresentatives and our positive accomplishments over that time. I am\ntold that only 500 members have served in the House for as long as 28\nyears. I thank my constituents for that opportunity, and hope that\nhistory will show that I used it to make this a better country in ways\nthat stood the test of time.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2010-12-22-pt1-PgE2248-3"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 43.89956104569137, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}