[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 176 (Tuesday, December 18, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H10178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           U.S. TERRITORIES IN DIRE NEED OF ECONOMIC STIMULUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, today as the House considers yet another 
version of the economic stimulus package, and while House and Senate 
negotiators continue to work out a potential agreement with the 
President, I would like again to speak on behalf of my home island of 
Guam and the U.S. Territories in the hope that some of our colleagues 
would understand the dire circumstances that we find ourselves in. We 
need economic relief. We need it now. We need balanced economic relief. 
We need relief that not only speaks big, but also seeks to ameliorate 
the real live conditions of human beings for whom this Christmas will 
be a very dim one indeed. If we go home without addressing their needs 
and their concerns, then we would be in the position of robbing them of 
having a decent and hopeful Christmas.
  Prior to the September 11 attacks, Guam's economy was already 
struggling as a result of the Asian economic crisis. During 1999 and 
the year 2000, Guam's unemployment rate was 15.2 and 15.3 percent 
respectively. For this year, Guam's unemployment rate was already over 
15 percent and is anticipated to be near 20 percent by the end of this 
year. When Members start talking about they have a few hundred or a few 
thousand workers that have been displaced or unemployed as a result of 
the September 11 attacks, and even previous to that, I do not think 
that there is a single community that can match the kinds of trials and 
tribulations that we face in Guam. This unemployment rate that we are 
experiencing today is three times the national average.
  Already the Government of Guam has been seeking ways to ameliorate 
the first phase of tax cuts earlier this year. Because of the nature of 
the tax system in the Territories, in Guam and the Virgin Islands, we 
have a mirror Tax Code. We collect the income taxes, but whatever tax 
cuts are delivered are anticipated to come from so-called local 
revenues rather than national revenues.
  Mr. Speaker, we could not even afford the first level of tax cuts. No 
taxpayer in Guam has yet received the advanced rebates that were 
promised this summer. Considering all of the factors that we have to 
deal with, the unemployment rate, the Asian economic crisis which has 
affected the nature of our economy, the President's tax relief plan 
which hindered the collection of Government of Guam revenues, Guam's 
economic situation has been exacerbated by the September 11 attacks.

                              {time}  1300

  The most immediate effect has been on tourism. Tourism and 
international tourism drives Guam's economy. It is a $3 billion economy 
in which we get about 1.5 million tourists a year, of which about 80 
percent come from Japan.
  Guam was impacted by flight cutbacks and employee layoffs of 
Continental Micronesia, a subsidiary of Continental Airlines, which is 
Guam's largest private employer. Guam is also hindered in trying to 
deal with the dislocation and the misery created by this because we 
have caps on Medicaid. We have a 50/50 share with the Federal 
Government, but we are capped, we have caps on TANF and the fact that 
there is no unemployment insurance available to private sectors in Guam 
means that the between 15 and 20 percent of the working population in 
Guam who find themselves dislocated face a dismal future indeed.
  I have worked over the last several weeks to try to tell this story 
and to try to work on a bipartisan basis to ensure Guam's and other 
territories' inclusion in this stimulus package, no matter how it may 
look like. Particularly, for example, the national emergency grants, 
the President's proposal, when it first left the White House, it did 
not include the territories, an oversight as it was indicated. I am 
very pleased to note that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), chair 
of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, has agreed to make the 
territories eligible should this be part of the final stimulus package. 
We are also talking about making sure that the territories are included 
in any payroll tax rebate which we anticipate could be part of the 
final package. We also want to make sure that health insurance for the 
unemployed again include the territories. Finally, we want to make sure 
that unemployment benefits which are generally available, the extension 
to other American citizens, are also available to American citizens in 
the territories.
  In summary, if we are not able to get all of this and we are not able 
to get the stimulus package, we call on the executive branch to at 
least provide discretionary funding to the territories.

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