[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 175 (Monday, December 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H12880-H12881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REGARDING THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 108TH CONGRESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening with sadness at the
passing of Joe Skeen. Joe Skeen was a friend of mine, a great member of
this Congress for many years from New Mexico, somebody who served this
Congress with great love, with great compassion, and a steady hand. We
will all miss him. He chose not to run in the last Congress, but he was
a great friend; and his funeral will be this coming Thursday, and later
on we will have a session to honor him.
Mr. Speaker, I also rise this evening to give an end-of-the-session
assessment of the first session of the 108th Congress, to recount our
accomplishments and to review what we have left to do.
This session of Congress commenced as we were engaged in a struggle
against terrorism and as our economy struggled in a near recession. We
opened this session with three major goals: first, to make our Nation
safer from terrorists and those states that support them; second, to
grow our economy and create jobs for American workers; and, third, to
make America a better place to live for all of our citizens. We have
had a notable success in all three areas.
First, we have made this country more secure from foreign threats.
The Congress passed and the President signed three different
supplemental appropriation bills to support our efforts on the war on
terror. This helped pay for the war in Iraq and for our continued
efforts in Afghanistan. And, of course, the American people are greatly
concerned for the safety of our troops in both places, but we must
continue to support our brave men and women as they fight to defend our
freedom and to defeat the terrorists who want to bring death and
destruction to our homeland.
Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime and the Taliban's Afghan regime
actively supported terrorist organizations. Al-Qaeda trained in both
countries. Now, both countries are making the tough, but vitally
important, transition to democratic government. Changing terrorist-
supporting dictatorships into democracies is hard work, but it is
important work for our national security.
We also passed defense appropriations and authorization bills that
included necessary long-term funding for our defense efforts and
included a pay increase for our troops and a historic change in the
disabled veterans compensation. For the first time since the Civil War,
many disabled veterans will be able to receive both their disability
payments and their retirement benefits.
The President also signed into law the Military Family Tax Relief
Act, which provides overdue tax relief targeted to our dedicated
servicemen and their families.
September 11 also proved that we must be vigilant on our home front.
That is why we created the Department of Homeland Security in the last
Congress. In this session we created a Select Committee on Homeland
Security and a Subcommittee on Homeland Security of the Committee on
Appropriations so that this Department would have the proper funding
and oversight. Indeed, the Congress completed work on the first
appropriation bill dedicated solely to homeland security this year.
The second challenge we faced at the beginning of this year was a
slowing economy. The economy faced the twin shocks of a bursting high-
tech bubble and the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Those
shocks undermined both business and consumer confidence, while
shattering investor confidence. We had to do something about it. We
passed the President's economic growth package aimed at restoring
confidence in the business, consumer, and investor sectors. Coupled
with the earlier tax cut signed into law in 2001, these tax relief
bills accomplished all three goals. It gave small businesses the relief
they needed to buy more equipment and incentives to expand their
businesses. It returned more money to consumers so that they could
spend more. And it inspired investors to return back to the markets.
The results have been better than expected. The economic growth rate
hit 8.2 percent in the last quarter. Manufacturing output is at the
highest levels in 2 decades. The Dow Jones has reached its highest
level in 18 months. And the job rate shows the best signs of
improvement in 2 years.
{time} 1800
Aside from the war and the economy, our Nation faced other
challenges.
Health care costs continue to be one of the top concerns of our
citizens. We passed historic reform of the Medicare system that will
now include a prescription drug benefit for the first time in history.
I am very proud that we kept our promise to senior citizens by
delivering this most important reform.
The prescription drug benefit means that never again will low-income
seniors have to face the choice between putting food on the table or
paying for
[[Page H12881]]
life-saving prescription drugs. It also means that seniors with high-
cost drugs will have an insurance benefit that will protect them.
Finally, the average senior will get their drug costs reduced by up to
60 percent because of this far-reaching reform.
Included in this historic legislation was historic assistance for
rural and urban hospitals, as well as other important health care
reforms. I am most proud of the new health savings accounts, tax-free
savings accounts that allows consumers to have more control over their
health care costs. These health savings accounts will revolutionize the
health care market in this country, giving consumers better health care
at a lower price.
Aside from health care, we faced another domestic crisis, the lack of
comprehensive energy policy. From the rolling brownouts of California
to the New York City blackouts, from the turbulence of the natural gas
market to the persistent problems of higher gasoline prices, energy
policy became a front-burner issue.
So working with the White House, we put together a comprehensive
energy policy aimed at making our Nation more energy independent. This
legislation did several things. It created incentives to get the most
out of our natural resources, from promoting greater energy efficiency,
to encouraging the use of renewal fuels such as ethanol. It encouraged
greater reliability for electricity by providing for open access of
transmission lines, while improving the transparency of electricity
markets.
This energy policy has another salutary effect. It will create jobs.
The latest estimates are that it will create up to a million jobs. We
passed the energy conference report by a large bipartisan margin in the
House, and we are waiting for final action by the other body. It is my
hope that this vitally important legislation will not get caught up in
the flurry of lobbying by the trial lawyers. I urge my colleagues on
the other side of the rotunda to drop the delaying tactics and send
this conference report to the President.
Another perennial issue is education. In the 107th Congress, we
passed the President's No Child Left Behind legislation aimed at
increasing accountability and demanding results when it comes to
educating our children. This year, we kept our promise by increasing
education funding to $4.1 billion, the highest Federal contribution to
education in history. Clearly, we are keeping our promise to the
parents and teachers and children of America.
Finally, we passed a series of legislation initiatives designed to
make this Nation a better place to live. We passed the Do Not Call and
Do Not Spam bills, aimed at stopping consumers from being harassed
through the phone and through computer by telemarketers. We passed the
Amber Alert bill, to help keep our children be safe from kidnappers. We
passed historic levels of funding to combat AIDS. We passed the
President's Healthy Forests Initiative, to protect communities from
out-of-control forest fires. We passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act so
that consumers have better access to their consumer reports to protect
against the persistent problems of credit card fraud.
In other words, we delivered good legislation for the American
people. As we get ready for the second session of the 108th Congress,
we still have some work to do. We still have a highway bill to pass.
Nothing is more important to our Nation's economic well-being than a
modern transportation system. I want to get this bill done by early
next spring.
We need to complete the work on the welfare reform bill. When we
reformed welfare in 1996, we helped millions of Americans get a hand up
rather than a hand out. Millions of Americans woke up in the morning
and went to work rather than woke up and went to the welfare office.
They got a job and got a paycheck. We need to reauthorize this bill,
and we need to reauthorize it soon.
We also must find a way to get the budget back to balance. The
attacks of September 11, the war against terrorism, and the struggling
economy have all led to deficit numbers that, while manageable, must be
controlled. This year's nondefense, nonhomeland security discretionary
budget increased by a 3 percent margin, a relatively small increase,
but one that can be improved. Our budget chairman, the gentleman from
Iowa (Mr. Nussle), has worked hard to find ways where we can control
Federal spending. As we debate next year's budget, we will work to find
ways to cut the budget deficit in half through lower spending.
But as we work to control spending, we must also work to ensure that
the economy stays on track. The tax cuts were enacted to help spur
recovery. We must keep them in place to ensure that they finish the
job. Those who want to raise taxes and thus threaten our recovery and
job creation are just wrong. We have already seen that as the economy
grows, the budget deficit falls. Keeping the economy growing is a
sensible way to get the budget back to balance.
Finally, we need to start the debate in this Nation on how to reform
our tax laws. Not only is our tax system too complicated, it also hurts
our Nation's competitiveness. If our companies cannot compete, we lose
jobs here in America. As we reform the Foreign Sales Corporation Tax,
as required by the recent WTO decision, we must also start a discussion
on how we create the best tax system possible to meet the needs of the
people of this country in the 21st century.
I want to thank all Members for their patience and for their
perseverance. Public service in the Congress is not an easy vocation,
and it is especially hard on families. I thank all Members for their
service to this Nation. I would also like to thank the dedicated staff
and especially the floor staff, the clerks and the pages, who work long
and hard to make this place efficient and workable. Thank you for your
fine service to this Nation. I wish you all a happy holiday season, and
God bless you all.
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