Conference Report on H.R. 3222, Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2008

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3222, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - November 08, 2007)

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Mr. CLYBURN. Let me thank Congresswoman Slaughter for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to come to the floor today to speak about an issue that seems to have occupied the time of some of my colleagues this morning and that led to a particular story in one of the publications here on the Hill this morning.

It has a headline that is about one of the earmarks in this bill, and let me point to it. It very clearly states, I think it's on page 78, that a $3 million request is being made for the First Tee program. It's found on page 78.

Now, in accordance with the rules of the House, this request was made by me and my name is attached to it because I'm very, very proud of it.

What I'm not proud of, however, is the headline that has been published this morning saying that a ``South Carolina Golf Center Nabs a $3 Million Earmark.'' That is utterly untrue.

This $3 million request is so that we can put on military bases the program called First Tee. This program will be there for the children of the men and women, many of whom find themselves in harm's way, so their children that they leave back here on military bases all over this country, some on military bases in foreign countries, their children will have the opportunity to participate in a nationwide character-building program which happens to use as one of its core components the game of golf, a game that has been made very, very popular by a young man of color, who has made this a sport that young, low-income children and children of color have finally become enamored of.

I just want to make sure that these children who live on these military bases will have the same access to this program that they have to softball, to swimming pools, to basketball that we fund in the appropriations bills every year. We put these programs on these military installations, and we say, softball, swimming, basketball, reserved for you all.

So I just want to say that I cannot prevent headline writers. I used to be in this business. I was in the newspaper business, and I know why we write headlines.

Not one dime of this request will go to any civilian facility in South Carolina or anywhere else in the United States of America. Every single dime of this is to be spent on defense facilities to the benefit of those children whose mothers and fathers are off defending our way of life, so that their children can have the same kind of opportunities that our children have.

And I find it a little bit insulting that we say we are going to reserve this kind of activity for the elite and not make it available to the children of the men and women who are preserving our way of life.

There's something about this. We know who is fighting this war. Rural, low-income families are carrying the burden of this war, and I think we've got a responsibility here to say to their children, we're going to treat you the same way we treat the kids downtown. And the kids in downtown, in Sumter, in my hometown, if they can have a First Tee program, I want those kids at Shaw Air Force Base 10 miles away to have that same kind of program. I want those kids at Charleston Air Force Base, while their families are off, that's where they're all leaving from, that base, to go off to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. They're leaving their children there. I want their children to have the same opportunities on that base as kids have downtown Charleston.

And for us to single this out and write a headline like this, not one dime goes to this center, and they know it.

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