[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 23, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H2645-H2646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 1836, ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TAX RELIEF 
                       RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2001

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 1836) to provide for reconciliation 
pursuant to section 104 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for 
fiscal year 2002, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the 
Senate amendment, and agree to the conference asked by the Senate.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Thornberry). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from California?
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, President 
Bush has said that this bill, which is the tax bill, should be rushed 
through the Congress to, first, stimulate the economy; and then, more 
recently, has been offered as a means by which we can deal with the 
energy crisis in this country.
  Now, unfortunately, this bill does not meet the President's request, 
because it gives no tax relief whatsoever to the people in the bottom 
part of the Tax Code, those people who do not pay income tax; those 
people who will be paying $3 a gallon for gasoline, and who are paying 
enormous rates for electricity in California, Washington, and Oregon.

                              {time}  1930

  Now, in the Committee on Ways and Means, we tried to offer amendments 
on a windfall profits tax, because in the fall and in the winter, 
people are not going to be able to pay their utility bills.
  It is my view that there ought to be conservation rebates in this 
bill. There ought to be a whole series of energy-related issues taken 
up in this bill since this is going to be the tax bill of the session.
  There is no more money left. This is it. We have been told $1.3 
trillion. It is out the door, and there is no chance to come back on 
energy. There is no chance to come back on any of the problems related 
to the economy because of the energy crisis in this country.
  It is my belief that we ought to be dealing with that now. It is a 
crisis. The California Assembly is suing FERC, the Federal Energy 
Regulation Commission, because they will not impose price caps. You 
have a situation where you have price gouging all over the West.
  Energy companies in Texas have gotten 400 percent profit in the last 
6 months. I mean, we all believe in the free enterprise system, but 10 
percent, 15 percent, that is enough, I should think, 400 percent being 
put on the backs of people who are not going to get a penny out of this 
tax bill.
  This bill deals with people like us and above. It does not deal with 
people who are making $25,000 a year for a family of four. They get 
absolutely nothing out of this bill. I think that the President is 
being done a disservice by this House by us not dealing with energy in 
this piece of legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I, for that reason, have raised the objection that I 
think we ought to stop the process, go back to committee and work it 
out. We do not need to go rushing to the conference committee. It will 
be rushed back tomorrow. There will not be a soul in this House who 
knows what is in the bill.
  We can get on those planes tomorrow at 5 p.m., everybody is going to 
say we passed a tax cut; and they are not going to know what they did. 
It is my view that the crisis in energy in this country that is 
beginning in California, it is going to cover the entire country.
  Anybody who does not believe that, they should go to Los Angeles, 
walk around for a week, and you will see what is going to happen in the 
rest of the United States.
  Some of my colleagues are already facing places where gasoline prices 
are up over $2, $2.50 in some parts of this country this last weekend.
  Think of those people who have to commute 30 miles, 40 miles, 50 
miles, 60 miles a day in an SUV that gets 10 miles, 12 miles, 15 miles 
to the gallon. It is going to be expensive, and my colleagues are going 
to hear about it. My colleagues will have passed the only tax bill of 
this session without ever dealing with energy.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, the motion is to go to conference, because 
the tax bill has got to get out before Memorial Day. I wish the 
majority party, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the 
distinguished chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, would say we 
need to get out a bill to help California and the West before Memorial 
Day.
  Why are we rushing on this before Memorial Day when California is 
being bled dry? The gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas) knows 
what is going on in California. We are paying as a State now $3 million 
an hour for electricity. We are paying $70 million, sometimes $90 
million a day, over $3 billion a month.
  No State, even if it is the sixth biggest economy in the world, can 
survive that kind of bleeding.
  Mr. Speaker, 65 percent of the business in San Diego County by a 
report that came out by the Chamber of Commerce, 65 percent of the 
small businesses in San Diego County are facing bankruptcy this year 
because of energy. They cannot survive given the costs of electricity.
  We have social service organizations for our children who we are not 
going to leave behind after the last vote closing up half the time 
because of the overhead in electricity.
  We have schools who cannot teach because of the overhead in 
electricity. We have libraries that cannot buy books because of the 
overhead in electricity. We are bleeding in California and in Oregon 
and in Washington and in New Mexico and Wyoming and Montana. In Rhode 
Island, I heard the prices have just doubled.

[[Page H2646]]

  We need to act as a Congress on this; yet, my colleagues want to rush 
through a tax bill by Memorial Day.
  Mr. Speaker, I think my colleagues ought to rush through by Memorial 
Day a bill to give us some relief in San Diego and California and the 
West.
  My colleagues are looking at me now as if they do not know what I am 
talking about. My colleagues are going to have the same prices and the 
same crisis very soon. We need to put cost-based rates on electricity 
in the West.
  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is FERC in 
California, has said that they have found that these prices are 
illegal. They are illegal, Mr. Speaker, and yet we continue to have to 
pay them.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) 
for his reservation. We ought to be acting on the crisis that exists in 
this Nation and not get out of here to save those who make a million or 
more a year on their tax bills for the coming year.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), 
chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, to do something for 
California.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield to the gentleman from Washington.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the reservation of objection of 
the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott), because this is truly 
the wrong moment to be dealing with this issue when we have a crisis of 
such enormity.
  Let us talk about the amount of action that our friends on the 
Republican aisle want us to take in light of this crisis, which is 
zero, to the people who have cut their energy use by 40 percent in some 
instances to conserve electricity in the State of Washington but whose 
bills have gone up nonetheless.
  The message of this bill is tough luck. Mr. Speaker, we need to 
continue our effort.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my unanimous consent request.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Thornberry). The gentleman from 
California withdraws his unanimous consent request.

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