[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 101 (Thursday, July 10, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H6584-H6585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        LABOR-HHS APPROPRIATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would say to my good friend 
that previously spoke on the issue of dealing with the high cost of 
prescription drugs, I accept the challenge, and I believe it is crucial 
that this House address this question, and it is a travesty that our 
senior citizens and others are bearing this enormous burden.
  I hope that we can get to work as a House on behalf of the people of 
this Nation. It seems too long that we have come to the floor and 
simply acknowledged that we are here either paddling water, swimming 
upstream, and maybe causing the American people to drown. We are in 
this boat, leaking boat, because we decided, the majority did, a few 
months ago, that it was more important to give a $550 billion tax cut 
of which the richest of Americans will get somewhere about $90,000, and 
then as we decided to strip our finances to its bare bones, we now come 
and debate today on the floor of the House in a couple of hours one of 
the most appropriations bills we will ever see in the course of this 
season of appropriations.

                              {time}  1900

  And that is the Labor-HHS bill dealing with the neediest of 
Americans, but frankly dealing with all Americans. And, Mr. Speaker, I 
think it is important to simply call the roll with respect to what we 
did today. We passed a bill, although very narrowly, that breaks all of 
the promises to Americans who have worked hard, who have contributed to 
this country, and who believe that we in this Congress are here to 
provide them with a big umbrella, the necessities of life that they 
have helped build in this Nation.
  But what did we do? We cut overall education funding. We promised $3 
billion, but in this budget we only had $2.3 billion or a 4.3 percent 
increase. So in essence, we have left many children behind. This bill 
only provides a $382 million, or 1.6 percent, increase over current 
funding for the Leave No Child Behind Act. So in essence we have 
millions of children that will not be served because of the bill we 
passed today. In real terms this funding is $8 billion short of what we 
need. Special education that I thought was an issue that all of us can 
come together around, we absolutely left that standing by the wayside, 
a $1.2 billion shortfall so the children that need special ed, the 
teachers that need to be in the classrooms to give our children that 
extra added lift will not exist. On title I funding for the poorest of 
our children, $12.35 billion provided in the bill, it is $334 million 
short. The title I program will eliminate being able to serve 9 million 
children. It was promised for 9 million children, and yet we will not 
have that amount of money.
  It reduces our commitment to support college education. It reduces 
the amount of Pell grants compared to 84 percent when Pell grants were 
first established. This amount only meets 38 percent of college costs. 
Nearly 5 million students depend on Pell grants. The majority of them 
have incomes of $30,000 or less. And one of the things that we note in 
this country is that education is the great equalizer, but we passed a 
bill today that totally eliminates opportunities for millions of 
children.
  In Houston, in the heat of the summer, Texas and southern States do 
not get LIHEAP moneys, but every year we face a heating crisis. When I 
say that, it is too hot and we do not have the resources to provide 
individuals with cooling dollars. Every year I organize a heat crisis 
team to go out and solicit air conditioners because my senior citizens 
and the disabled and others do not have the resources. But yet we can 
cut the LIHEAP moneys and treat those southern States that may not have 
the cold weather but have the hot weather in an unfair status. National 
Institutes for Health moneys have been cut drastically. So we have cut 
right at the heart the major resources for research that can help save 
lives.
  I heard our President himself speak about community health centers, 
the need to bring health clinics closer to the people. But what do we 
do? Our community health centers serve 13 million people who lack 
access to health care in rural and urban areas, and yet we have 
inadequately funded those so the very local communities that were 
trying to bring health care to our rural communities, obviously no 
help.
  Unemployment programs, Mr. Speaker, can my colleagues believe it? 
Unemployment at its all-time high, 6.4 percent, the highest in 9 years. 
African Americans at a rate of 1.971 million unemployed African 
Americans. The number of unemployed has reached 9.4 million. But yet we 
voted on a bill today, which I voted against, unfortunately it passed 
by the Republicans, of course, that takes money away from unemployment 
programs, $150.8 million. We take money away from homeland security. We 
take money away from helping the nursing shortage.

[[Page H6585]]

  And then we do things that breaks the camel's back. Just a few days 
ago, I wrote a letter to the Department of Labor when they were closing 
the door on comments about their overtime regulation that would cut 
into the overtime of hard-working Americans. When I said to my 
constituents, Can you believe it, that they are going to give you time 
off, that you do not know when you will get the time off, instead of 
overtime?,'' they were outraged. We put an amendment on the floor to 
prevent that. Lo and behold, it was defeated.
  This Labor-HHS bill is absolutely the worst, Mr. Speaker. We needed 
to vote it down. We did not vote it down. We need to throw it out and 
start working for the American people.
  The unemployment rate jumped to 6.4 percent in June--highest since 
April 1994. The 6.4 percent unemployment rate is the highest 
unemployment rate since April 1994--nine years ago. According to the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics data released this morning, the national 
unemployment rate jumped to 6.4 percent in June from 6.1 percent in 
May. The 0.3 percentage point jump was the largest month-to-month rise 
since the September 11th terrorist attack.
  The unemployment rate was 6.8% in Texas for May 2003--that is higher 
than the national average. The Number of Unemployed Has Now Reached 9.4 
Million. Similarly, the number of unemployed rose to 9.4 million in 
June from 9.0 million in May. Just in the last three months, the number 
of unemployed has shot up by 913,000. Furthermore, 9.4 million is an 
increase of 59 percent in the number of unemployed since January 2001.
  African Americans have cause for real concern because the African 
American unemployment rate for June 2003 is 11.8%, up from 10.8% in May 
2003. There are now 1,971,000 unemployed African Americans.
  Since President Bush was inaugurated in January 2001, the economy has 
lost a total of 3.1 million private-sector jobs--with the economy 
shedding another 31,000 private-sector jobs in June. Indeed, since the 
beginning of the year, the economy has shed an additional 307,000 
private-sector jobs. It is truly astonishing that more than two years 
after the recession began in March 2001, the economy is still losing 
jobs.
  No President since World War II has seen job losses during his 
tenure. President Bush seems destined to break this record. More than 
halfway through his term, he has lost more than 88,000 jobs per month. 
The poor economy under the Bush Administration has had a particularly 
devastating impact on the Nation's manufacturing sector--a sector that 
historically has provided an important underpinning for our economy. In 
June itself, the economy lost an additional 56,000 manufacturing jobs. 
Indeed, overall, 2.4 million of the net loss of 3.1 million private-
sector jobs since January 2001 have been in the manufacturing sector--a 
staggering statistic.
  The unemployment rate for African Americans jumped to 11.8 percent in 
June--up from 10.8 in May, and significantly higher than the 8.2 
percent rate back in January 2001. The unemployment rate for Hispanics 
stood at 8.4 percent in June--similar to the 8.2 percent in May but 
significantly higher than the 7.5 percent in April. Back in January 
2001, the Hispanic unemployment rate was 5.9 percent.
  In June, the number of those unemployed for more than 26 weeks was 
2.0 million--up by 106,000 from May. The figure of 2.0 million is more 
than triple the number of Americans unemployed for more than 26 weeks 
in January 2001--when it stood at 648,000.
  Despite the fact that the recession began more than two years ago, 
the job market remains remarkably weak. The average length of a job 
search is now 19.8 weeks--about five months. Indeed, the average 
unemployed worker has applied for 29 different jobs. It is estimated 
that there are more than three unemployed workers for every available 
job. Back in January 2001, the average length of a job search was 12.6 
weeks.
  In January 2003, House Democrats unveiled a responsible economic plan 
for creating jobs and jumpstarting the economy. According to 
economists, the Democratic package would have created more than 1 
million jobs in 2003, without increasing the long-term deficit--by 
putting money and purchasing power in the hands of consumers, giving 
tax breaks to small businesses and encouraging business investment, and 
providing adequate help to cash-strapped states in order to avoid tax 
increases and service cutbacks at the state level. Unfortunately, the 
GOP-controlled Congress ignored the Democratic plan and instead enacted 
a fiscally irresponsible $350 billion tax cut package targeted to the 
wealthest taxpayers--a package that will create enormous long-term 
deficits, not jobs. Furthermore, the GOP tax cuts will starve key 
investments to promote economic growth, such as education and 
infrastructure, and will leave middle-class taxpayers paying a greater 
share of all taxes.

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