[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 167 (Wednesday, December 5, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H8890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I do not plan on taking the full 5 
minutes. But we have just gotten through with the defense bill and the 
Select Committee on Intelligence has just passed its conference report, 
and our Nation is at war, and above the regular amount the President 
has seen fit to give a $40 billion supplemental to try not only to help 
people in New York, people at the Pentagon, but this Nation heal 
itself.
  Post-September 11 has seen over 700,000 jobs lost, and yet we still 
have 99 percent of the American people that have their jobs, but if 
someone is one of those of that 1 percent that has lost their job, it 
is critical to them. Many of the people in my own district that has 
happened to.
  We tried to protect those jobs, and I think that we need to do more. 
We also need to help people temporarily. But even more important than 
that, Mr. Speaker, we need to stimulate the growth of the new and the 
old jobs through different measures, economic measures.

                              {time}  1715

  Seventy-five percent of the jobs created are created by small 
business in this country, and I believe that tax relief for businesses 
will act as a stimulus that will enable those businesses to hire more 
people, to hire back some of those 700,000 that have lost their jobs.
  We all know that a company does not just fire people because it wants 
to; it is because they are working with a margin. And when they start 
losing money, either because they are overtaxed or because of the 
system or something like September 11 happens, they are forced to let 
people go. I have people in the hotel industry that only have about a 
25 percent occupancy right now. That is devastating to those 
industries, and this has happened across the board.
  So the things we can do to stimulate the economy is, one, tax relief 
for those businesses. That is important in an economic stimulus 
package, as well as direct pay to some of those folks that need the 
help immediately.
  Secondly, there has been a lot of debate on trade in this House, and 
I think very positively, both those for and opposed. But I believe 
whether you are a union worker or come from the private sector, our 
workers in this country are second to none. Given fair trade and given 
an equal chance, they can compete with any nation.
  Some people debate and look at the trade deference. Well, ask 
anybody, they would rather be from a country that has higher pay, that 
has higher quality, that has higher technology than a country that has 
low pay, low technology, but yet is able to flood the markets. It just 
stands to reason. It is common sense.
  Trade is also important to my State, California. The number one 
commodity in California is agriculture. Those that say they are 
friendly to agriculture should have no second thought on the vote that 
is coming to us tomorrow or the next day on the trade bill sent down by 
the President. The bill tomorrow will improve existing and future trade 
agreements. Not necessarily new trade agreements, but it will enable 
the President to shore up problems that many of my colleagues on the 
other side have brought forward, and I think in some cases rightfully 
so.
  Mr. Carville, who used to work for President Clinton, once said, 
``It's the economy, stupid.'' If we can give tax relief to businesses 
and stimulate jobs, if we can pass trade agreements that will help 
benefit our workers and shore up existing problems, I think that will 
help.
  My constituents want three kinds of security: they want personal 
security; they want to be safe in their schools and on their streets; 
they want to be able to open up a piece of mail that does not have 
anthrax in it; they want economic security, to know they are not going 
to lose their job; and they want national security. For those things, 
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support both the economic package, 
the stimulus package that was passed out of this House, and to support 
the trade agreement that will be brought forward this week.

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