[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 178 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H10952-H10953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1400
           ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF FIRST SESSION OF 107TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the 
accomplishments of the first session of the 107th Congress. I am proud 
of this House of Representatives and how it has risen to the challenges 
of this very turbulent year.
  We started this session after the closest Presidential election in 
our Nation's history, with an evenly divided Senate and a closely 
divided House. We conclude it with an admirable track record of 
accomplishments in the face of a Nation that has utterly changed in a 
time of war. The themes we focused on at the beginning--economic 
security, retirement security, national security, and education--still 
occupy our attention at the end.
  We started this session debating economic security. Should we take 
the steps necessary to jump-start our economy? The Congress, amid great 
debate, considered the President's campaign pledge to return $1.35 
trillion of the taxpayers' money to the taxpayers themselves. We 
started in the House with the principle that it is wrong to penalize 
married people with a higher tax rate. We passed legislation to get rid 
of the marriage penalty. We believed it was wrong to tax people when 
they die, so we got rid of the death tax. We believed that all 
Americans deserved some tax relief, so we passed broad, across-the-
board tax relief, which included a refund check for all Americans who 
pay income taxes.
  We believed that families needed help to raise their kids and to send 
their kids to school. We doubled the child tax credit from $500 to 
$1,000 to give parents more money at home to take care of diapers and 
school supplies and braces and all the other things that kids need. We 
also passed tax-free education savings accounts to encourage parents to 
save money for their children's education. To improve retirement 
security, we included monumental IRA/401(k) reform so that people could 
save more money tax-free for their retirement.
  Tax relief is the best remedy for a slowing economy, and there is no 
question in my mind that we did the right thing by passing the tax 
relief package early enough to soften what could have been an even 
greater economic blow to our country. The President signed this 
legislation on June 7. He kept his promise to the American people, and 
we kept our commitment to economic security. But tax relief was not our 
only accomplishment in this historic session of this Congress.
  The President promised to work on a bipartisan basis to reform 
education, to improve our education system so that no child is left 
behind. As a former teacher and coach, I understand how important 
education is to our Nation's future and how complicated school reform 
truly is.
  We worked on legislation that would do the following: children from 
the third to eighth grades would be tested annually in such important 
subjects as reading and mathematics so that we could make sure that 
they are learning. States and school districts will have more freedom 
to decide the most effective way to spend Federal dollars. And they 
will be held accountable for their decisions. Federal funds will be put 
in the programs that have the most positive impact on children, 
programs, for instance, that make sure that all our kids are reading by 
the third grade. Parents will be empowered with information about the 
quality of their children's schools and their teachers so that parents 
can make the best decisions for their kids' education. And parents with 
children in failing schools will be able to use Federal funds to pay 
for private, religious, or community-based after-school tutoring.

  Last week, the House passed the conference report and the Senate 
completed its work and the President will sign this legislation in 
early January. From the beginning, we planned on tax relief and 
educational reform. But the Congress showed it was able to respond to 
an immediate crisis.
  On September 11, the American people were deliberately and viciously 
attacked by terrorists who hijacked four airplanes, crashing two of 
them into the World Trade Towers, one of them into the Pentagon. The 
fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after a heroic struggle by 
crew and passengers that led to the crash of that airplane. Many of us 
believe that the terrorists planned to crash that plane into this very 
Capitol of the United States of America. Those people who stopped those 
terrorists from their dastardly deed did a great service not only to 
the people who work here, the people who serve here, but certainly to 
the American people themselves. We hold those deeds in the greatest and 
highest honor that I think this country can bestow.
  This disaster changed the character of Congress and the face of this 
Nation. I am proud of how this House has reacted. From the moment we 
sang ``God Bless America'' on the steps of the Capitol building, we 
sent the message to the world that we are united in fighting this new 
war on terrorism. We immediately got to work on a series of initiatives 
to go after these murderers and safeguard our Nation from future 
attacks.
  Three days after the attack, Congress passed a bill providing $40 
billion to fund September 11 recovery efforts and to combat terrorism. 
On the same day, we passed a resolution authorizing the President to 
use force against those who played a role in these attacks.
  In the days that followed, we passed legislation vitally important to 
fighting this new war and in protecting America from further attack:
  An airline recovery bill to help those airlines struggling after the 
attack on our Nation.
  An antiterrorism bill to provide our law enforcement officials with 
the tools they need to track terrorists and bring them to justice.
  An aviation security bill to improve safety at our country's airports 
for travelers and airport employees.

[[Page H10953]]

  For bioterrorism, to protect our Nation from this growing threat, 
which we hope the Senate will complete this week.
  The terrorist attacks pushed an already struggling economy into a 
recession. The House responded by passing an economic stimulus package. 
Unfortunately, the other body was unable to pass similar legislation. 
Our bill was a fair and balanced bill that would have helped workers 
who lost their jobs keep their health insurance. Most importantly, it 
would have helped those workers get back to work. It looks today that 
the other body will not complete work on our legislation. I think that 
is a shame.
  One of the biggest frustrations this year has been the lack of 
production from our friends on the other side of the Rotunda. The House 
has led the way in implementing the President's agenda, but on too many 
occasions the Senate has dropped the ball.
  Here is the long list of items that passed this House but that the 
Senate has left for next year:
  We passed the President's faith-based initiative, to give religious 
organizations the same rights as other groups to use Federal funds to 
help America's less fortunate.
  We passed a comprehensive energy bill to step up energy production 
here at home, reduce our reliance on foreign sources of energy, and 
make energy cleaner and cheaper and more dependable for years to come. 
Not only does this bill set us on a more secure road for the future, it 
helps our economy by creating another 700,000 American jobs.
  We passed a bill that banned human cloning for reproduction and 
research to uphold the sanctity of life, as well as the Unborn Victims 
of Violence Act, which makes it a Federal crime to harm or kill an 
unborn child during a violent attack against a pregnant woman.
  We passed Trade Promotion Authority for our President so that he 
could open new world markets for American goods and services, grow our 
economy, and open up 1 million new jobs by the year 2006.
  We passed election reform, to restore the American public's 
confidence in the democratic process and ensure that America's voting 
system is the very best in the world.
  Clearly, the other body has much work to do in the next session of 
the 107th Congress. We also must complete action on the President's 
issue that he said in his election that he wanted every American to 
have access to health care. The Patients' Bill of Rights legislation 
was passed in this House earlier this year.

                              {time}  1415

  The bill has been stuck in conference since August. It is time to get 
that legislation finished. The bill we passed in August aims to improve 
care to expand patient protections, make health care more affordable 
for the many families that lack coverage, and hold HMOs accountable, 
allowing patients to challenge their insurance plans if they fail to 
deliver quality coverage.
  We will have other initiatives. We must authorize the historic 
Welfare Reform Act, first passed in 1996. We will consider proposals to 
strengthen retirement security, including making prescription drugs 
more affordable and available to America's seniors.
  We must also help our President in this historic fight against 
terrorism. Whether it be providing more resources for homeland security 
and getting more money for our armed services, whether it be the effort 
to prepare our Nation for biological and chemical terrorism, or our 
efforts to reform our insurance laws so that our Nation will be 
adequately prepared for the consequences of terrorist attacks, this 
Congress will do the right things for the American people.
  Looking over the events of this last year, I cannot help but note the 
passing of several important Members of Congress: Joe Moakley, a great 
American from Massachusetts; Norm Sisisky, a wonderful person who 
served this House from Virginia; Floyd Spence, from South Carolina; and 
Julian Dixon, from California, all served their country with 
distinction, in different ways, but with the same sense of patriotic 
duty. They will be sorely missed in this House of Representatives.
  In conclusion, let me report to you, Mr. Speaker, that this House of 
Representatives has served the people in a year of turbulence and war 
with distinction. I am proud of our efforts, and I look forward to an 
equally successful year in the second session of the 107th Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not thank the people who make 
this Congress work, who are here day in and day out, in the wee hours 
of the morning, who enroll our bills, who make this institution a great 
institution; and also those people who in the times of terror and 
terrorist attack spent countless hours and days and weeks making this 
place available to the American people so that this Congress could do 
its work. I thank you.
  God bless America.

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