[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 116 (Thursday, September 23, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H7543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NEED TO WORK IN A BIPARTISAN MANNER

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, what a better day it would be 
if we could work in a bipartisan manner. We just debated a tax bill 
that could have been made much better for our constituents across this 
Nation.
  I believe in giving some relief to middle-class and working 
Americans, and in fact, included in this tax bill was the child tax 
credit, but, more importantly, to extend and to help with poor children 
in terms of the refundability of a child credit that so many working 
families need.
  This is an ugly bill from the perspective of increasing tax relief 
for those who do not need it, but I could not overlook the importance 
of helping our military families and particularly those men and women 
in combat to get the kind of relief on their earned income tax. We do 
it only for 2 years, unfortunately. The Democrats, we wanted more, 5 
years.
  But it is a start. Today we did not make tax cuts permanent. I hope 
we will not see another tax bill that does not treat working men and 
women more fair and the middle-class more fair and responds to the 
economic needs of this country. I do think, however, we needed more 
dollars for research, and this does so.
  But it is ugly when we do not work together. This is an ugly tax 
bill, but it gives some relief to middle-class Americans.

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