[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 175 (Monday, December 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H12749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRESS BORROWS TO FUND PROJECTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today Congress will take up one of the 
largest single aggregate spending bills in the history of our Nation. 
There are billions more for foreign aide, there are many questionable 
projects and priorities; but what is most glaring about this 
legislation is what is not in it.
  The interesting thing is that much of the money that funds the 
agencies and the projects under this bill will be borrowed. And 
Americans, working Americans, for the next 30 years, will be paying 
that bill. But there is one glaring oversight, one thing that is left 
out where we would not have had to borrow money, and that is to take 
care of the long-term unemployed here in the United States of America.

                              {time}  0945

  Why would we not have to borrow money to take care of them? Because 
there is $20 billion in the unemployment trust fund, taxes that were 
paid in by employers and employees, that were set aside to take care of 
Americans in a time of need when they have lost their job and they 
cannot find another job through no fault of their own. $20 billion is 
there. So out of the hundreds of billions of dollars in this bill that 
will be borrowed and spent elsewhere, including foreign aid, we could 
have taken care of the unemployed in the United States at no additional 
cost.
  So why is it that they have been omitted for the second year in a 
row? Last year we notified the Republican leadership and the President 
that unemployment is a problem outside the Beltway of Washington, D.C. 
People are exhausting their benefits and they need help. That fell on 
deaf ears here in the House. The Republican leaders refused to bring 
forward legislation to help the long-term unemployed. Finally, sometime 
between Christmas and New Year's, when these people were receiving 
notices that their benefits would no longer be coming, Merry Christmas, 
the President woke up and asked the Congress when it reconvened in 
January to extend benefits further.
  Unfortunately, the leaders, again, here in the Congress, the 
Republican leaders, chose to bury deep in that reauthorization of 
extended unemployment benefits something called a look-back provision. 
What it says is if half the people in your State are unemployed today, 
you can get extended benefits. But if a year from today, you still only 
have half the people in your State unemployed, those benefits will 
expire. The look-back provision says your unemployment has to get worse 
before we will extend benefits again. Oregon and many other States are 
falling into this trap now. Our economy has not gotten significantly 
better. There are still many thousands of Oregonians unemployed who 
cannot find work. Many of them fall into this category of long-term 
unemployed. Thousands of them are going to see their benefits expire 
this month and tens of thousands more over the next couple of months. 
But because of this so-called look-back provision, they are no longer 
eligible to get unemployment benefits.
  This is just extraordinary that this Congress would again think about 
leaving town for the Christmas and New Year's holidays and into the 
next year without authorizing extended unemployment benefits for tens 
of thousands of Oregonians and other Americans at no additional cost to 
taxpayers, just spending down those reserves in the unemployment trust 
fund.
  But Congress, the Republican leaders, do not want to do that because 
that would make the obscene deficit look just a tiny bit bigger. We 
would not have to borrow that money to pay those benefits; but it would 
make their $300 billion or $500 billion, however you want to calculate 
it, if you calculate the fact that they are borrowing and spending 
every penny that is flowing into Social Security this year, no more 
lockbox around here, that money will be spent and borrowed and spent 
and borrowed and spent. But if you exclude that, we are in the $300 
billion range, the largest deficit in the history of the United States 
and spending down the unemployment trust fund would, on paper, make it 
look bigger; but it would not be anything that would be borrowing to 
obligate future generations of Americans, unlike the hundreds of 
billions of other spending in this bill.
  So Congress wants to do one thing for this country and one thing for 
some of the people who have the most merit and are hurting through no 
fault of their own in this so-called jobless recovery, people whose 
jobs have been exported, in the case of my district to Canada, Mexico 
and China, under the trade policies of this administration and, yes, 
the past administration, which I opposed. These people want to work. 
They are productive people. They are hardworking people. They are 
willing to work. They just cannot find a job in the jobless recovery. 
So let us just give them a little bit of help in the interim so they do 
not lose their home, so they can feed their kids, so they can keep the 
lights on.
  Do not go home, Congress, until you extend unemployment benefits for 
all Americans.

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