[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 107 (Friday, July 18, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H7158-H7162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




MOTION TO INSTRUCT CONFEREES ON H.R. 1308, TAX RELIEF, SIMPLIFICATION, 
                         AND EQUITY ACT OF 2003

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged motion.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Van Hollen moves that the managers on the part of the 
     House in the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two 
     Houses on the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 
     1308 be instructed as follows:
       1. The House conferees shall be instructed to include in 
     the conference report the provision of the Senate amendment 
     (not included in the House amendment) that provides immediate 
     payments to taxpayers receiving an additional credit by 
     reason of the bill in the same manner as other taxpayers were 
     entitled to immediate payments under the Jobs and Growth Tax 
     Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003.
       2. The House conferees shall be instructed to include in 
     the conference report the provision of the Senate amendment 
     (not included in the House amendment) that provides families 
     of military personnel serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other 
     combat zones a child credit based on the earnings of the 
     individuals serving in the combat zone.
       3. The House conferees shall be instructed to include in 
     the conference report all of the other provisions of the 
     Senate amendment and shall not report back a conference 
     report that includes additional tax benefits not offset by 
     other provisions.
       4. To the maximum extent possible within the scope of 
     conference, the House conferees shall be instructed to 
     include in the conference report other tax benefit for 
     military personnel and the families of the astronauts who 
     died in the Columbia disaster.
       5. The House conferees shall, as soon as practicable after 
     the adoption of this motion, meet in open session with the 
     Senate conferees and the House conferees shall file a 
     conference report consistent with the preceding provisions of 
     this instruction, not later than the second legislative day 
     after adoption of this motion.

                              {time}  1615

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). The gentleman from Maryland 
(Mr. Van Hollen) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton) each 
will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this motion instructs the House conferees to adopt the 
child tax credit bill that was passed by the Senate more than a month 
ago, a bill that the President said he is eager to have on his desk and 
to sign. This motion before the House is identical to the motion passed 
by this House June 12, a motion offered by the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) at the time. It is 36 days later, more than a 
month. Yet we have seen no action. The time has come for the House 
Republicans to stop playing politics with the child tax credit. The 
people who are going to suffer are the 12 million children from 6.5 
million low-income working families, families who earn an annual income 
of between $10,500 and $26,600 a year, families out there working very 
hard day in and day out to make ends meet.
  What happened? How did they get cut out? Let us just go back a little 
over a month just to review a little history here. During the recent 
conference on the tax bill, that was the tax bill passed out of this 
House, $350 billion-plus, a package that disproportionately benefits 
the very wealthiest in our country, during the House-Senate conference 
on that tax bill, a provision was removed. It was a provision that was 
originally offered by a Democratic Senator in the United States Senate. 
It was a provision for basic fairness and basic decency. Indeed, it was 
one of the only provisions in that tax cut bill that benefits low-
income, working families.
  While that bill accelerated tax cuts that had been previously passed 
by this Congress, while that bill accelerated the cut in the tax rates 
for the very wealthiest Americans, and while we accelerated the child 
tax credit for millions of other Americans, the Republican conferees on 
the House and the Senate side decided to remove that one provision in 
the bill that helped those low-income working families, that provided a 
child tax credit to those families with under $26,000 in income.
  It was a shameful moment. But at least the Senate recognized the 
problem and Democrats and Republicans on the Senate side passed a bill 
very quickly to fix that particular problem, to make sure that we 
restored the child tax credit for those low-income Americans who had 
been taken out of the bill. The President, who originally through the 
Vice President, Dick Cheney, had agreed with the plan to remove that 
provision that helped low-income families with a child tax credit, 
reversed position as well and the President said, I want to sign that 
tax bill, the child tax credit fix that was passed by the Senate. And 
then the bill came over to this body. We actually had, as I said, a 
motion to instruct conferees 36 days ago where we told the House 
conferees, let us go with the Senate bill. Yet the House leadership has 
prevented that from happening.
  Next Friday, as the Democratic whip indicated, next Friday, July 25, 
many Americans are going to go to their mailboxes, and they are going 
to find a tax rebate check there. Because of the nature of this bill, 
the wealthiest in our country are going to find some very big checks. 
In fact, the wealthiest 1 percent will receive on average $100,000 in 
tax cuts. Many other Americans will receive much smaller checks. But 
there is one group of Americans that is going to go to their mailboxes 
and find nothing at all and that is the low-income working families who 
were cut out of the bill and for whom the

[[Page H7159]]

Republican leadership in the House refuses to provide relief right now, 
families whom we know are struggling each day as hard as every 
American.
  There is also another group that was left out. It was a group of 
Americans who have been fighting for our country overseas, 200,000 men 
and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat operations and 
in other combat around the world. The House bill left them out, the 
Senate bill provided a fix, and yet this House Republican leadership 
will not allow us to provide that fix now. The House bill contains bad 
news for the children of those 200,000 men and women. It leaves in 
place current law and under current law many families will have tax 
increases because combat pay for their services is not counted for the 
purposes of the child tax credit. So under current law, an E-5 or an E-
6 sergeant with 6 years of service and two children is paid $29,000 a 
year. If he did not serve in combat, both of his children would be 
entitled to the full $1,000 child tax credit. But if he goes to combat 
for 6 months, his credit would be dropped to approximately $450 under 
the House bill. The Senate bill, which the President says he wants to 
sign, is designed to fix it. Let us get on with it.
  Let me just quote from the former White House press secretary, Ari 
Fleischer, back in the week of June 12. Mr. Fleischer said he, the 
President, ``wants to sign that legislation, hopes that the Congress 
will get it to him quickly. He believes what the Senate has done is the 
right thing to do, a good thing to do, and he wants to sign it.''
  Let us get on with the business. Let us make sure that we treat those 
families, those hardworking families fairly. There is no reason at a 
time when the very wealthiest in our country are getting huge tax 
breaks that we should not provide the child tax credit for those low-
income working Americans. It is the right thing to do. It is the decent 
thing to do. Let us adopt this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I respect the gentleman from Maryland as an individual, 
I hear what he has to say; but I must say I disagree with some of these 
points that he has made. We have passed our own bill. Why should we go 
and pass the Senate bill? Our own bill is our own bill. That is what we 
want.
  This is not a new issue or a new motion from our colleagues in the 
House. I once again urge my associates and my Members here to reject 
the motion to instruct conferees. We have debated this issue for 
several days now. I will not prolong the debate, particularly with the 
lateness of this hour and the discussion, the turmoil we had earlier 
for those who are seeking to return to their districts.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman 
from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this motion, 
and I wanted just to say thank you to my colleague from Maryland for 
his outstanding leadership on the issue and for offering this motion 
today.
  Our colleague on the other side of the aisle asked a question: We 
passed our bill over here, why would we want to deal with the Senate 
bill? I think that therein lies the issue. It is probably very cynical 
what the thoughts on the other side of the aisle have expressed about 
the child tax credit; and keeping that in mind, the child tax credit to 
working families who work hard, pay their taxes and they are not going 
to get the benefit of this tax break where the millionaires, about 
184,000 of them, are going to get $93,000 in a tax break come next 
week. The cynicism lies here, that, in fact, the majority leader on the 
Republican side of the aisle said about this child tax credit, that 
ain't nothing going to happen. As a matter of fact, the editorial page 
in the Wall Street Journal just a couple of weeks ago commended the 
majority leader for his action which in fact would be that the bill 
that passed here in the House would never be accepted by the United 
States Senate, the other body, and, therefore, nothing would happen, it 
would die. So what they did here was a political ploy to do nothing. 
That is what is so sad about this.
  Further, the majority leader here, the majority leader in the Senate 
said, We don't have time to do this. We don't have time to do this and 
it's not that important. And then the other night when we debated this 
motion on the floor and it was because this motion, as my colleague 
from Maryland pointed out passed, this very motion passed on June 12 
with a bipartisan majority, 205-201, that meant that Democrats and 
Republicans together voted to do what the other body had done. And the 
chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means said, Well, that's 
not a binding resolution. We don't have to do anything about that, so 
that the will of the majority is thwarted once again. That is what is 
so sad about this.
  Let me just say, it has been 7 weeks. We have discussed how the 
extension of the child tax credit was stolen from 6.5 million families, 
12 million children, a million of whom are in military and veterans 
families. We have discussed how these low-wage-earning families pay 
more in taxes than Enron, a multibillion dollar company who paid no 
taxes in the last 4 or 5 years. It is incredible.
  But this injustice has affected women disproportionately. Two-thirds 
of the parents who will not be receiving this tax cut are women. Fifty-
six percent of single parents will receive no tax assistance from the 
tax cut passed in May, including almost 4 million single mothers 
representing 54 percent of all families that have been left out. Stay-
at-home moms fare little better. More than a million married couples 
with a stay-at-home mom, 55 percent of all married-couple families, 
were left out. They have been left out by this Republican majority. On 
average, the families of these women would have received $276 in this 
year alone had the tax credit been extended to them.
  As I said the other night when we were discussing how families in the 
military and Head Start and teaching in Head Start were left out of 
this tax cut, that might not sound like a lot of money to some, 
particularly those millionaires who are going to get $93,000, what do 
they care about $276, but it can be a difference between a child going 
to school with or without school supplies, it helps the families of the 
9 million children in this country without health insurance pay for the 
health care services that they need.
  Assisting these families, these 12 million children, is a moral 
issue. It is a matter of values. The President said a month ago that he 
wants this House to act on this, to accept the other body's bill, bring 
justice to 6.5 million families. Let us give them that. I would just 
say, I call on the President, because his leadership here in the House 
has seen it and left the field. They do not want to do anything about 
this. So I call on the President, use your moral authority, do 
something about those 6.5 million working families. Yes, they pay 
taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes. They deserve to get 
that child tax credit as well as those millions of others who next 
Friday are going to get their check. And why is it because they make 
$10,500 a year up to $26,000 a year that they are not deserving? It is 
wrong. We should pass this motion to instruct.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Cummings).
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the gentleman 
from Maryland's thoughtful motion to instruct conferees. I thank him 
for his vigilance in standing up for hardworking, lower-income 
families.

                              {time}  1630

  This instruction tells the conferees to ignore the bogus Republican 
child tax credit fix passed in this House and urges them to follow the 
Senate provisions that would extend the child tax credit to lower-
income families to make sure they receive a rebate check when they 
start going out on July 25, 2003.
  Mr. Speaker, the Senate has already passed a bill that would make 
sure that our working families, those earning between $10,500 and 
$26,000, would receive their share of one of the largest tax cuts in 
this Nation's history. That bill costs $9.7 billion; and, unlike the 
huge $80 billion Republican tax credit rammed through the House, the 
Senate bill is paid for.

[[Page H7160]]

  Mr. Speaker, what I find truly astounding by this entire process is 
what it says about our values in this House. We should be trying to 
help all Americans, those with means and those without.
  The Office of Management and Budget recently announced that this 
year's Federal deficit will hit $455 billion. I do not think it is any 
secret that this record deficit is a direct result of tax cuts that 
primarily benefit the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. And yet I ask 
my colleagues can we not spend $3.5 billion of money, money that is 
offset in the Senate bill to let the men and women of our Armed Forces 
who fight bravely for our country and the men and women who serve our 
food, who provide day care for our kids, who drive our buses, collect 
our garbage, to tell them that they matter?
  Because, Mr. Speaker, $3.5 billion is all it would take of the 
trillion dollar-plus tax cut to help 6.5 million working families, 
including families of the brave men and women who served our country so 
heroically in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. Is it too much 
to give these families their minuscule piece of a tax cut to let them 
know they matter as much as a millionaire and that their children 
matter as much as the children of big political donors? Are these 
questions we should really have to answer?
  Instead of helping, the Republican leadership designed a child tax 
credit that was overpriced and not paid for. They loaded it up with 
extra goodies so that it cost a whopping $82 billion. Without Senate 
support they knew it would be nearly impossible to pass out of 
conference and may fail altogether.
  Mr. Speaker, the Republicans did not vote to expand the tax credit. 
They voted to kill it. But I urge my compassionate conservative friends 
to put the money where their rhetoric is.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Mr. Van Hollen of Maryland's 
thoughtful Motion to Instruct Conferees. This instruction tells the 
conferees to ignore the bogus Republican Child Tax Credit ``fix'' 
passed in this House and urges them to follow the Senate provisions 
that will extend the child tax credit to lower-income families to make 
sure they receive a rebate check when they start going out on July 25, 
2003.
  Mr. Speaker, the Senate has already passed a bill that would make 
sure that our working families, those earning between $10,500 and 
$26,000 will receive their share of one of the largest tax cuts in 
history. That bill costs $9.7 billion and unlike the gargantuan $80 
billion Republican tax credit rammed through the House--the Senate bill 
is paid for.
  Mr. Speaker, what I find truly astounding about this entire process 
is what it says about our values in this House. We should be trying to 
help all Americans--those with means and those without.
  The Office of Management and Budget recently announced that this 
year's federal deficit will hit $455 billion. I don't think it's any 
secret that this record deficit is a direct result of tax cuts that 
primarily benefit the wealthiest one percent of Americans.
  And yet, I ask my colleagues, can we not spend $3.5 billion--money 
that is offset in the Senate bill--to let the men and women of our 
Armed Forces, who fight bravely for our country--and the men and women 
who serve our food, who provide day care help for our kids, who drive 
our buses, collect our garbage--to tell them that they matter.
  Because, Mr. Speaker, $3.5 billion is all it would take of the 
trillion-plus dollar tax cut to help 6.5 million working families--
including families of the brave men and women who served our country so 
heroically in Iraq. in Afghanistan and around the globe.
  Is it too much to give these families their miniscule piece of the 
tax cut--to let them know they matter as much as a millionaire and that 
their children matter as much as the children of big political donors. 
Are these questions we should really have to answer?
  Instead of Helping the Republican leadership designed a child tax 
credit that was overpriced and not paid for--they loaded it up with 
extra goodies to that it costs a whopping $82 billion. Without Senate 
support they knew it would be nearly impossible to pass out of 
conference and may fail altogether.
  Mr. Speaker, the Republicans did not vote to expand the child tax 
credit, they voted to kill it.
  But, I urge my compassionate conservative friends to put the money 
where your rhetoric is. Correct your intentional mistake. Pass the 
Senate provisions. These families need the help now.
  Mr. Speaker, that is money well spent.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Doggett).
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, this important motion to instruct conferees 
must be considered in context of what has happened here today and what 
has happened here this year. Today we have seen arrogance boil over 
with the order from the Committee on Ways and Means chairman to have 
the Capitol Police remove some of our colleagues and me from a 
committee room where we were attempting to develop our alternatives to 
pension protection for every worker in the United States. It is that 
same committee from which this child tax credit arose.
  The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) has made clear that one 
of the groups that will be most significantly impacted by the decision 
on this motion to instruct are the children of our military families. 
In fact, it is a very significant amount. According to the Children's 
Defense Fund, a quarter of a million children are in active-duty 
military families who will not qualify for this child tax credit unless 
the gentleman from Maryland's (Mr. Van Hollen) motion is not only 
approved today but followed by the conference committee.
  But this is not the first time that the Committee on Ways and Means, 
the same committee whose chairman sent the police out after Democratic 
colleagues on the committee today, has shown disinterest in the plight 
of our military families. Indeed, there is a bill that has been sitting 
on this desk since March 27 of this year called the ``Armed Forces Tax 
Fairness Act.'' That bill passed the United States Senate unanimously, 
97 to nothing. That bill would ensure that there would be no taxes 
applied to the small $6,000 death benefit payable to the families of 
those who are killed in conflict such as in Iraq, and it would provide 
certain other benefits to military families.
  When that measure came before the House Committee on Ways and Means, 
proceeded to do things like stick on an amendment to help foreign 
gamblers who bet off track at American racetracks, to help companies 
that make tackle boxes, to help a variety of other special interests, 
and they loaded it up. And to add the final indignity, they added to 
that bill called the ``Armed Forces Tax Fairness Act'' a provision to 
grant amnesty to those corporations that renounced their American 
citizenship and posted their mailbox in Bermuda to dodge their 
fairshare taxes to pay for what is happening in Iraq and what is 
happening in America.
  That bill, that disinterest Republicans show here against the instant 
bill we now consider, the child tax credit, and the fact that children 
in 200,000 military families have been left out by this Republican 
majority, by their refusal to accept the thinking in the gentleman from 
Maryland's (Mr. Van Hollen) motion, it is somewhat ironic that this 
very week when the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) makes his 
motion, I understand that the United States Government has decided that 
it will expend money to pay about 200,000 to 250,000 Iraqi military 
officers. The Members heard that right. Iraqi military officers, to pay 
them 200,000 of 250,000 a stipend, with either our tax dollars or money 
they find over in Iraq, I guess.
  Why not do something for the children of 200,000 of our military 
families who have been left out by the same Republican majority that 
showed the callous indifference to let the Armed Forces Tax Fairness 
Act sit up here since March 27? Because they want to use legislation 
like this to advance another agenda. And what is that agenda? It is an 
agenda that says if we sap the strength of the Federal Treasury enough, 
we can totally dismantle our Government.
  We know this week that America has, even according to the White 
House, the largest deficit in the history of the United States, that we 
are headed toward a debt ceiling that keeps going up, $10 trillion of 
debt, and instead of targeting the relief to these military families 
and to these civilian families that are out there working in our 
hospitals, in our nursing homes, picking up the garbage, doing the 
dirty work of our society but working, trying to advance themselves and 
provide for their children, many single-mother households trying to 
provide for their children and work at the same time, why do those 
people get left out?

[[Page H7161]]

  What the Republicans propose at this time is to add to the largest 
deficit in the history of the United States about another $80 billion 
to address the child tax credit because they say if we cannot provide 
most of this relief to the people that make well over $100,000, we are 
not going to do anything for those thousands of military children. We 
are not going to do anything for the person who is out working in the 
nursing home. They do not deserve this benefit.
  The truth of the matter is it has become very clear listening to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the same person who called out 
the police today, that he is not really concerned whether this bill 
passes or not. He made it clear when he talked to the Wall Street 
Journal stating that ``there are worse things than the [child tax 
credit bill] not happening.'' There may be worse things than in a 
single week deciding to pay Iraqi military officers, 250,000 of them, 
at the same time we deny relief to children in 200,000 military 
families, but it is hard to conceive what he has in mind.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman 
from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for a very sensitive motion to instruct, 
recognition that my good friends on the other side of the aisle, many 
of whom really want to support this motion to instruct, many of whom 
find great credibility in our arguments; and I appreciate that, having 
great respect for the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), the 
manager of the motion on the other side of the aisle.
  But what I would say is wanting to do so and not doing is a travesty. 
Frankly, we heard this week that our deficit is almost $500 billion, 
created by the Republicans. The tax plan that they have put forward, 
instead of the child tax credit, costs $80 billion. The tax credit to 
take care of 6.5 million families, some 200,000 to 300,000 children, 
costs only $3.5 billion. I know we can add. I realize that Members in 
this body can add, and they can also subtract. A $450 billion plus, 
$500 billion deficit, the Republicans put a plan on the floor of the 
House costing $80 billion, leaving out 4 million children from a child 
tax credit when all they have to do is turn and go to this well and 
take up the Senate bill that costs only $3.5 billion. It will take care 
of 6.5 million families, including our men and women who are in 
Afghanistan and Iraq. And yet we find a travesty that is occurring when 
our Republican friends refuse to address these concerns.
  I could give all the arguments of who pays taxes and who does not. 
Just take out a calculator. Families that make between $10,000 and 
$26,000 a year pay sales tax and payroll tax. How dare you say they pay 
no tax. More importantly, they are the lowest-paid workers. Our men and 
women in the military get $1,000 a month. The war in Iraq is costing $4 
billion a month. What a difference. And this Republican leadership, 
when their own Members would like to vote for a straight-up vote on the 
child tax credit, refuses to allow them to vote, casting then a pall 
over this particular House.
  On July 25, next Friday, checks will go out to only 2 million 
families. Four million families will go longing for a refund that could 
help energize this economy. It is well-known that the $90,000 that has 
been given to the richest of Americans will not infuse energy into the 
economy. They are not consumers. In essence, they are hoaders of money. 
And they will put it in all kinds of investments, that they will buy 
nothing. But those who have to get school children supplies and 
clothing will make a difference.
  For all of you who think you are rich and can turn a head and smile 
and look one way or the other as if this does not impact you, I am glad 
that I am standing for the least of those, and I would hope that most 
Americans would be concerned because you are sitting in great comfort. 
You are allowed to come, freedom of movement, freedom of rights because 
men and women are on the front lines fighting for your rights. And it 
is an insult, an absolute insult that we do not have Americans that can 
embrace the concept we do care about the least of those.
  I would argue that my colleagues join together and vote for a stand-
alone child tax credit. I ask them to support the motion to instruct.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I think we are going to have to come here 
almost every night to make the point of how outraged we are on the 
Democratic side that the House has not resolved this issue and that 
once again 12 million children are being excluded from the child tax 
credit. I do not know how many times the Democrats are going to have to 
get up here and tell the Republicans that they are not doing anything 
about this issue.
  It is amazing to me, because times are tough. And I said last night, 
and I will say again, in my own family I have young children and I am 
not worried about being able to provide for them.

                              {time}  1645

  But I know that in my district there are a lot of families, parents 
who have difficult times. When we tell them that they are going to be 
excluded from this child tax credit and the checks are going to go out 
next Friday to people who are a little higher income but not to them 
because they happen to be a lower income, it just does not seem fair. 
It is tough for them to get along. Times are tough. There is a high 
unemployment rate.
  The Republicans keep saying that their tax cuts and their tax 
policies are going to turn the economy around, but they are not. 
Certainly not in my State, in my district. And for the Republican 
leadership to keep talking about how they are going to give all of 
these tax breaks to wealthy individuals, even millionaires, but, at the 
same time, do not want to give tax breaks to the parents of these 12 
million children who are earning between $10,000 and $26,000 a year is 
really heartless. I feel for the families, that they are not able to 
take advantage of this and somehow help out. We should be making an 
effort to help them out.
  The worst part of it, too, is when we hear about the fact that some 
of these parents are people that may be in combat or in Iraq and facing 
the potential every day of being killed or seriously injured and yet, 
for some reason, this other piece of legislation that might help them 
out, even if this does not, even if the Republicans do not want to give 
the child tax credit to them, this other piece of legislation that 
would help them out, I guess, is now in conference; but the conference 
has never met.
  The Republicans do not want to address this issue. They just want to 
go home. We are not going to let them go home until they give this tax 
credit to these 12 million children.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. How much time remains, Mr. Speaker?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). The gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Houghton) has 29 minutes remaining, and the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) has 3 minutes remaining.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, if I may inquire of my friend, the 
gentleman from New York, and I have great respect for the gentleman, 
whether he intends to use any of his time. We are obviously getting 
near the end.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. No, I do not, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Woolsey).
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, do my colleagues know that my district is 
one of the most affluent districts in this Nation? In fact, they are 
the people who benefit the most from the Republican tax cuts. But do my 
colleagues know what they are asking me, Mr. Speaker? They are saying, 
why in the world are the 12 million children that belong to the 
hardest-working families and the most struggling families in this 
Nation not benefiting from the child tax credit? They do not understand 
how these low-income families, those who work hard to make ends meet, 
why they cannot get a little bit so they can buy something extra for

[[Page H7162]]

their children, so they can possibly take a vacation, so that they can 
have enough money to buy shoes when the school year begins.
  Mr. Speaker, I was a single mom on welfare 35 years ago, and I had 
three very small children, 1, 3, and 5 years old. I was working. When 
my kids would outgrow their shoes, two boys and a girl, and those boys 
grew like weeds, I am telling you, my heart would stop, because I was 
scared to death I might not have the money to buy them decent shoes. 
The people I work for who elected me, women who had been on welfare and 
who have walked my walk, they know, they know the difference between 
having it all and having enough and making sure that other people have 
what they need to survive also.
  My constituents support the child tax credit. They want to hear just 
why the Republicans refuse to bring it to the floor, and they want it 
debated; and so do I, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time is left.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Maryland has 1 minute 
remaining.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remaining time. This 
is a question of basic fairness. It is a question of priorities.
  This House recently passed a $350 billion tax bill, weighted 
disproportionately to the very wealthiest in this country. And in the 
conference on that bill, we cut out the child tax credit for 12 million 
low-income working families.
  The Senate solution is to take $3.5 billion and address that issue to 
make sure that we treat those children with decency. The House 
Republican leadership has said no. They said, we will only accept that 
$3.5 billion addition if you pass an additional $83 billion tax cut 
package. So they are holding those kids hostage to this other package 
at the same time that we have a record $450 billion deficit in this 
country. As a result of those deficits which have been fueled by the 
tax cuts to the wealthiest, this past week we were $8 billion short on 
the No Child Left Behind bill.
  Mr. Speaker, we are being unfair to the basic priorities of the 
people of the country. We should adopt this motion to instruct.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the noes appeared to have it.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

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