build housing and neighborhoods and empower low-income residents.

In addition, the housing bill-which will have longer term effects must reauthorize expiring programs like HOPE, HOME and CDBG. But it also must go further. Secretary Kemp has several new initiatives-using vouchers to support home ownership, promoting new Safe Havens for the hard-core homeless-that are excellent ideas and have been incorporated in the legislation. In addition, several members of the committee have developed exciting new initiatives to revitalize FHA's support for multifamily housing, expand economic development activities, increase enforcement of the Nation's fair housing and fair lending laws and use housing development in our cities to generate jobs for low-income youth.

I say to you, Mr. Secretary, let us work together to repeat the accomplishments of 2 years ago-enactment of a housing bill that joins the best thinking of both parties and, most importantly, responds meaningfully to the housing needs of families in our cities. I have some additional remarks I'd like to make at a later point, but I will not delay matters at this stage.

I would like to welcome Senator Wofford. He's an expert on the matters that are before us today. He made a remarkably fine speech about the situation in Los Angeles and in urban America, after visiting Los Angeles following the riots. I'm delighted you're with us today, Harris.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Specter?

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER Senator SPECTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just a word or two.

I want to join in welcoming my colleague, Senator Wofford, here. And to say, just briefly, that the delegation from the Philadelphia area, the Congressional delegation, including Senator Wofford and Congressman Foglietta and Congressman Blackwell and others, met with the mayor in an effort to assess the priorities there.

And the number one priority is summer youth jobs, followed closely by generalized job training and the Enterprise Zone issue. As we search for funds, I suggest that we take a very close look again at the vision of the $12 billion allocated on the drug program, which has been allocated two-thirds for law enforcement contrasted with one-third for rehabilitation, education, and the social program side.

I had occasion to talk to Governor Martinez, the drug czar, and also to Dr. Sullivan, to urge that reexamination. If that split were changed from $8 billion and $4 billion to $6 billion and $6 billion, there would be $2 billion additional which would be at hand to address the problems of the cities relating to drugs.

And I just wanted to make that brief comment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Mack?

Senator MACK. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And, again, I will be brief. I do have a prepared statement that I'd like to have included in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, so ordered.

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CONNIE MACK

Senator MACK. And I'd just like to make two points.

One is the Government's obligation is both to protect the freedom and security of our people, as well as to provide an economic environment in which individuals can flourish.

As a underlying and fundamental principle, Federal policies must foster economic growth and opportunity for the poor for, without hope, all is lost.

And the last point that I would make is that while there may be philosophical differences, I think that we ought to take some encouragement from the actions of this committee a couple of years ago, as we put together a housing bill for this Nation.

We started out with some fairly strong differences of opinion, but by the time we concluded, we put together a bill that I think we were all quite proud of, that provided some new initiatives.

And I think that we have the opportunity to do the same here. So I thank you, Mr. Chairman.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR CONNIE MACK

I am pleased to be here and am anxious to see quick and meaningful resolutions to the problems in Los Angeles and other urban communities.

I hope we don't engage in a long exchange here about alleged insufficient spending of the last decade or the failure of the Great Society programs. This will get us nowhere, just like the bitter exchange we had over solutions to the recession. I remember too well the ineffective process we went through here a few months ago when the President sent over his economic growth package. We bounced it around and fought about it for weeks and, in the end, came up with nothing.

We have deep rooted problems in urban America. Before us, we have a panel of solid and creative thinkers who bring important messages. We as the Congress have a responsibility to act in the best interest of the American public and put needless bickering aside.

There are three intertwined issues that have come into focus following the riots.

The first issue is the judicial question relating to the Rodney King verdict. Like so many Americans, I was extremely shocked by the decision. Based on the video alone, I had thought the officers involved would surely be found guilty. I have to believe most Americans felt the same way.

The second issue is the law and order question. No matter how shocking the verdict, violence is always wrong. There is no justification for senseless mayhem, for rioting, for murder. None. Laws reflect fundamental civil principles that cannot be compromised. Each of us bears an individual responsibility to respect the law that is not conditional on whether or not a particular verdict is right or wrong.

The third related issue is the question of urban decay and the despair of the urban poor, the subject of today's hearing. It is not enough to wring our hands about either the verdict or the violence. We must move ahead quickly with solutions to eliminate the frustration and anger felt by the urban poor.

Just as individuals have a responsibility to respect and honor the law, I believe all individuals must be afforded real opportunitythe freedom-to learn, to build a stake in society and to prosper. A system that would indict a welfare mother for setting aside money for her child's education is morally corrupt. Genuine concern for human dignity compels us to enable the poor to improve their own lives and pass a better life on to their children and grandchildren.

The Government's obligation is both to protect the freedom and security of our people as well as to provide an economic environment in which individuals can flourish.

I believe Jack Kemp is right on the mark. If there is anything we all agree on here is Secretary Kemp's genuine commitment to urban poor. We need to act fast to implement the policies Secretary Kemp has been advocating for years.

Last week, I introduced a Sense of the Senate Resolution urging Senate action on these policies. Yesterday, the president formally announced a six point legislative plan which I understand has been met with general preliminary support.

As an underlying and fundamental principle, Federal policies must foster more economic growth and opportunity for the poor, for without hope, all is lost.

We must contribute to an environment in which job opportunities are created and sustained. Enterprise Zone legislation has lingered in congressional committees for years without any real action. This is a travesty.

Home ownership and the accumulation of assets must be encouraged for every American, including the poor. In 1990, the Congress passed the National Affordable Housing Act [NAHA] which included the HOPE proposal for which Secretary Kemp fought so forcefully. HOPE is designed to help public housing residents buy their own homes. Although this committee authorized $855 for fiscal year 1992 for HOPE, a mere $351 million was appropriated. This year, Congress ought to appropriate the requested $1 billion. I have always believed it is fundamentally wrong to assume that poor people are unable to meet the challenges of individual economic success that lead to healthy and vital families and strong communities. America cannot be competitive without the participation of every segment of American society. Achieving these goals of individual excellence and economic growth require us to concentrate our attention on policy initiatives that truly focus on the people we are trying to help.

We cannot afford to make the same mistakes we made with the economic growth package and reduce our efforts to meaningless bitter exchanges. The American people have rightfully opened their eyes to the Congress' inertia. We ought to change our ways in the name of the innocent victims of the Los Angeles riots.

The CHAIRMAN. Very good.

Senator Domenici?

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PETE V. DOMENICI Senator DOMENICI. Mr. Chairman, I want to say just a few words. I too have to lay on the record the fact that I'm supposed

to be in Appropriations on the recision bill. I wish I could be in both places.

Some of you know that I had the privilege of being a mayor for 4 years, 1966 to 1970. Many Federal programs, such as urban renewal the like were around then.

But, frankly, I think this is a different day. I agree with Senator Gramm. We ought to come up with some new ideas.

Essentially, I believe the basic problem is the lack of jobs, good jobs, and the lack of training for good jobs.

Now there may be a lot of sides to that and a lot of different approaches to solving that. But I think, unless we can come up with something that's significant, that builds in an incentive to get trained and better educated, and I think the incentive should be a job.

I don't believe we will raise the educational level without such incentives, and without raising the educational and trained level, we won't raise the standard of living.

And I hope we can do something about that.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR PETE V. DOMENICI

The concept of a crisis in the Chinese language is translated in the phrase "dangerous opportunity." The events in L.A. were certainly a crisis and can be viewed as a dangerous opportunity.

The rioters and looters have gone home. The violence has stopped, but images of man's inhumanity to man will burn in our memory long after the fires in L.A. have been put out.

Our task is to make something, other than a tragedy, out of this dangerous opportunity. Our task is not to wage a finger pointing war. Frankly, there is plenty of blame to go around. There is no useful purpose in looking back. Our task is to look to the future and to devise new ways to improve the quality of life in the inner cities.

In many areas of life, America's blacks still feel they are sold short. Job preferences and quotas can insult the black person who is succeeding; they want to be perceived as succeeding on their own merits. Yet many have done well. A third are now middle class. Once this economic milestone is reached, these families move to the suburbs. It is a natural phenomenon, but it does remove from the inner cities a source of good role models that are desperately needed. It is true, poverty among blacks in inner cities worsened in the 1980's, and their numbers drag down every measurement of economic progress among blacks.

As one example, the average net worth of black households is a mere one-tenth of the average net worth of white households. A very dismal statistic. But where black households are headed by two parents-the norm in the suburbs-18 percent are below the poverty line. Where they are headed by a woman alone the norm in the inner cities-16 percent are below it. These numbers point to the group we need to reach.

Our society needs to reach out to unwed mothers and single head-of-household families. Raising a family without a father around is a life of poverty. The kids start life with two strikes against them. Their environment is probably a crime and drug invested environment. Their schools are not the good schools and the

message from the system is, if you aren't going to college, drop out. Almost 50 percent in many of our inner cities drop out.

And the decision to drop out is probably the most expensive decision any one makes. Wages for dropouts start low and dead_end fast. When you examine the statistics about who did not benefit in the 1980's, the conclusion is inescapable-the poorly educated were the ones who got poorer.

There is a compassionate reason why we must reach out to the inner city families. There is also an economic reason why we must reach out.

These dropouts go on to make up more than a third of our frontline worker force. Turning our backs on those dropouts is tantamount to turning our back on our future workforce. Our economy needs the energy and productivity of the young people in our cities and elsewhere. During the 1990's, there won't be enough people to just throw more and more workers at each task. We will need every worker to be as well trained as possible.

We will hear a great deal of discussion about Federal dollars and Federal programs. The President has a proposal. The Democrats have a proposal. But in addition to a lot of talk about money, we need to really address some social issues. Old fashioned work ethic and American values contributed to America's past success. We, as leaders, as parents, as Americans need to reemphasize and reinvent them for the 1990's.

For example, a higher quality of life for American families is much more than another car, and another VCR, multiple CD players or a designer colored microwave oven. It means more to our children than $125 Reeboks, and $65 Guess jeans.

A higher quality of life deals with values, ethics, and honesty. It means providing some hope for the single mother living in the ghetto. It means that our schools have to nurture kids' self-esteem. It means providing alternatives to the hopelessness of a life of crime and drugs. It requires developing high school curricula that emphasizes the importance of staying in school to learn useful skills for the workbound student. The question is how do we accomplish this.

While there is bipartisan agreement that some low-income programs are not working, we continue to fund them with scarce Federal dollars. We need to terminate programs that are not working and try new approaches. Unfortunately, Congress is not very good at terminating programs.

Once again, the Nation is faced with a crisis, and we do not have the resources to respond or try new approaches. Regardless of whether it is the Los Angeles riots or the Soviet Union, the deficit is paralyzing the Nation from meeting the needs of our citizens and limiting our role as a world economic leader.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator D'Amato?

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ALFONSE M. D'AMATO Senator D'AMATO. Mr. Chairman, in the interests of time, I'm going to ask that my full statement be included in the record. The CHAIRMAN. Without objection.