[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 134 (Thursday, October 20, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H9019-H9025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again it is an honor to
address the House. I can tell you that this week has been quite
eventful. As you know, Mr. Speaker, we come every day to the floor to
share not only with the Members but the American people what is
actually going on in this House, and what is not going on in this House
and what should be going on in this House, and it is the House of
Representatives.
And there has been a lot going on this week as it relates to the
budget. As you know, many Members came to the floor to speak pro and
con of this. I will not use the Washington language, but I will use it
in a way that everyone can understand: our relooking at the budget and
making more cuts from the budget that have already been made.
And when I have been coming to the floor recently, Mr. Speaker, I
have been bringing the local publication, the Washington Post to the
floor, just to serve as a third-party validator to the arguments that
have been made here on the floor. I am proud that our leadership on
this side of the aisle, the Democratic leader, the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi), has stood against the winds of power in saying
that there are certain things that we will not do. We who are Democrats
on this side, we will not turn our backs on the American people.
We will not turn our backs on the survivors of hurricanes Katrina or
Rita. We will not stand idly by and watch this country continue
legislatively to go down the tubes because certain people and certain
individuals in power would like to see their priorities and their
projects and their special interest breaks or opportunities prevail on
the backs of the American people.
{time} 1315
I am proud that we have the leadership on this side of the gentleman
from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Menendez) and also the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) to
say no. I am proud of the fact that we have men and women in this
Congress that are willing to stand up and say no to the majority, I
must add, on the majority side who want to see their goals and
objectives carried out on behalf of individuals that have suffered.
Now, I have to commend some of my colleagues here and some of my
colleagues even on the other side of the aisle for standing up to the
leadership
[[Page H9020]]
and saying no, we will not cut Medicaid. We will not cut free and
reduced lunch. That did not just come about because folks thought,
well, it is okay to stand up. That did not come about within the
Republican Conference. But I will tell you how it came about, Mr.
Speaker. It came about because Members came to this floor mainly on the
Democratic side and said, if you are going to do it we are going to
turn the lights up. We are going to raise our voices, and we are going
to let our constituents and your constituents especially know that you
are allowing this to happen.
Mr. Speaker, this is not a victory lap in any way. I do not want
anyone to feel that the tide has changed because as far as I am
concerned individuals that are fighting on behalf of billionaires in
this Congress to make sure that their tax cut is not touched and that
we take away from those that cannot fight for themselves, they are
sleeping in shifts. They are sleeping in shifts because they know that
that is what they have to do to prevail.
I will tell you on this side, even though we are in the minority,
even though we are not in the majority, even though we cannot bring a
bill to a committee and expect for it to pass with the majority vote
because everything is on partisan lines here as of recently,
unfortunately, but I can tell you that even though we cannot agenda
some of the things that we would like to agenda that will help this
country move to the next level and will put us in the right direction,
we are willing to fight with what we have. And what we have is the
opportunity to come to this floor to share not only with the Members,
let the Members know exactly what they are doing so we are not around
here hugging and smiling and cheesing and grinning and scratching where
we do not itch, saying ``that was a leadership call.''
Well, I can tell you right now, Mr. Speaker, as we look at third
party validators, I just want to make sure that folks do not believe
that this is the Kendrick Meek Report and that I just sit in the office
and come up with whatever we want to say. I want folks, I want the
Members to go to the WashingtonPost.com editorial page just today. Like
I said once before, I do not have to go back and pull publications or
pull Time from 2 weeks ago or pull Newsweek from a month ago about
something they wrote about and say that was a great story from the
Sioux City, Iowa Journal about a month ago and I want to bring it to
the attention of the Members. You pick up the paper any day and it is
filled with what this Congress is doing to a certain group of
Americans.
Now, like I said, there has been a lot of discussion about the
budget. It is truly, truly beyond me of all the power and influence of
Members of Congress, you have all kinds of leadership on the other side
of the aisle that has the opportunity to shine in the aftermath of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and some of the biggest natural disasters
that have hit this country in recent days. Do they take the opportunity
to lean on behalf of those that are suffering right now and displaced?
No.
Do they take the opportunity to go in and deal with these Federal
agencies who do not even want us to talk to them directly because they
feel that they are protected by the White House and why do they have to
listen to Congress? We take this opportunity to say that you had the
opportunity to perform and you did not. And because you did not
perform, we are here as the elected people representing the people of
the United States, be if from the affected area or from an area outside
of the affected area, your constituents have federalized you to lead.
No. We are not doing that. The majority side is not doing that. No.
They are seizing the opportunity to carry out the motives of the
special interests. So, Mr. Speaker, when we talk about this issue of a
culture of corruption and cronyism, this is a perfect example here in
the Washington Post editorial number two, entitled ``Katrina's Costs to
the Poor.''
What it is saying here basically is that the Congress voted earlier
this year here on this floor, I must add that I did not vote for it but
the majority did on party line, vote a $35 billion cut in spending for
the next 5 years as it relates to the issue of entitlement programs,
Medicaid, Title I. All of these programs that help financially
challenged Americans that are federally mandated were cut.
Now, we have forces on the other side saying that we will not even
get it up to $50 billion to help the Katrina victims. Well, I can tell
you right now that has nothing to do about health. It has everything to
do about the priorities that the majority side leadership has picked
that they are going to represent. $70 billion in tax cuts mainly, in
this editorial, this is not what I am saying, I am reading verbatim
from this editorial, mainly for the most wealthy, the most wealthy
Americans in this country. They are fighting on their behalf. They are
saying it is okay.
I do not blame the top half. I do not blame the billionaires in
America for what the majority is doing on their behalf on the backs of
the suffering of the American people. I do not blame those individuals.
I blame the people that are saying that they want to save our country
money by cutting entitlement programs to the very people who have sent
us here to protect them. They do not have, the average American does
not have a million dollar lobbyist to walk into the office and
represent them. They have a Congressman that they sent or a
Congresswoman that they sent to this floor to represent them. And if we
fail in that duty, then it is beyond personal responsibility, it lies
on the majority.
I want to make it clear that you have to make the decision on if you
want to lead or you want to follow. And I will tell you there are some
folks in this House that are winning right now because we are not
having a debate. We are just straight out saying that we are going to
cut again the very programs that we just finished, that the majority
just finished cutting, that are supposed to be helping the very people
that we are trying to help. Better yet, we have asked billionaires to
do nothing. We have given them tax cut after tax cut. We have men and
women with sand in their teeth over in Iraq and Afghanistan and we are
asking everyday punch-in and punch-out, retired, on Medicare Americans
to suffer and to pay a price and to take a cut. We are not asking the
most able Americans to do the same.
Now, I can tell you that this editorial goes on to say, Mr. Speaker,
that the individuals that are being protected in this are the high-
priced lobbyists and enriched constituencies. What it means by that by
saying if you can pay to play in this House, then you are in good
shape. You do not have anything to worry about. We have you, or they
have you. And so I am glad that we are coming to the floor to be able
to let not only the Members know but the American people know that this
is an unacceptable practice, that I am glad that we are prepared on
this side of the aisle to be able to put forth an amendment when you
come to the floor with your budget that is going to not only move
Americans forward but decrease the deficit.
This editorial goes on to say, You are saying that you are going to
cut the budget and you are going to be fiscally responsible in managing
the money of this country, but better yet, it does nothing to reduce
the deficit. It increases the deficit.
Mr. Speaker, it is almost laughable if it was not true. And this is
not just Democrats or Independents or some study group out there. You
have the Washington Post, you have a number of other publications out
there that are saying, wait a minute. You are doing this in the light
of being fiscally responsible, but you are not. You are increasing the
deficit. You are finding your money for your tax cuts for billionaires
on the backs of working Americans, and I guess we are just supposed to
sit here because it is in the light of trying to help Katrina victims.
Now I have a personal problem with that and I know the American
people are going to have a problem with that also. We talk about this
issue of a culture of corruption and cronyism, and I think it is
important that we have an opportunity to talk about this a little bit
more. This whole cronyism and individuals that are not qualified to
lead is prevalent here in Washington, D.C., and it is continuing to
happen, and I can tell you right now that it is truly unacceptable.
You want to talk about saving money on behalf of the American people?
According to the AP, four out of
[[Page H9021]]
five companies that won the largest Katrina contracts are being
reviewed for possible waste and abuse. Four of the top 10 companies. So
what we are doing here is we are saying, hey, listen, it is okay for
you to mismanage the taxpayers' money. Not only is it okay, we will
reward you again with a no-bid contract.
That is almost like saying, I have a bad contractor working on my
house. I have already given him $200,000 to fix my house. Let me run
out and get another loan and see if I give him $500,000 to see if they
can really mess that up.
But the sad part about that is I would be doing it with my own money.
But the majority and this administration is doing it with the American
people's money, and so it is very disheartening.
Mr. Speaker, I am so glad to see my good colleague from New York. We
are not in the race for the World Series Championship this year like we
were a couple years ago, being from Miami and New York. But the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano), I am so glad he came down here
today to share in this hour with me.
Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman that he brought
this week this issue up again and again. I think it is very courageous
on his part and very profound.
Secondly, as far as the World Series goes, it is true that the
Yankees and the Marlins are not in it, I also noted that you took our
bench coach, our assistant coach, as your new manager so you will do
better in the future.
One of the issues that come to mind as I was watching the gentleman,
as we know, this is transmitted live on television, I am wondering if
the folks who are watching us today were also the same folks perhaps
that watched the victims of Hurricane Katrina as that national tragedy
hit us. Regardless of whether you felt it was a State or local
responsibility or a joint responsibility with the Federal Government or
whether you think we as a Nation failed or not, those images are in
your head.
Now you see this discussion. What is this discussion about and how do
I see it? We all tend to come have the same feeling but we come to the
table with perhaps slightly different views. My concern is, as a member
of the Committee on Appropriations, is that in the appropriations
process we have the ability to declare an emergency. An emergency means
just that. That while we try to balance a budget and while we try to
have expenditures that meet both the needs and our ability to pay, that
there comes every so often a situation that requires us to spend the
money and deal with the fact that we are spending that money rather
than try to make somebody pay a major price for it.
Of course, my biggest example is the war in Iraq. Now, whether you
support the war or you oppose the war; and, incidentally, one of the
things that we always need to clarify is that opposition to the war is
not opposition to the men and women fighting the war. In fact, I could
argue that you really support them by bringing them home tomorrow and
ending the war. But that is a discussion for another time.
What is a discussion today is that the American people need to know
that the way we pay for the war is by paying for the war. Whatever
amount needs to be spent on the war in Iraq, we spend it. And it has
gone close to or above $300 billion that we have spent.
Now, if I was to be sarcastic up here I would say that basically what
we have done is print the money. We have not taken it out of anybody's
budget. We have not taken it out of anybody's pain. We basically
printed the budget.
Now there is a word in the English language that I try very rarely to
use and that is immoral immorality. The reason for that is who the heck
am I to determine what is immoral and who is involved in an immoral
act, when in fact we are all guilty of a lot of things in the way we
behave in this society. But if there is anything that resembles
legislative immorality it is the suggestion that for you to get whole
again, for you to be helped after Katrina, the way to do this is by
taking money away from the programs that in fact affect the very same
communities in many ways that are being hurt while slipping in,
slipping in permanently this gigantic tax cut for people who did not
need it and some of them who publicly said we do not want it.
{time} 1330
You recall some very wealthy people in this country saying we do not
want that tax cut. We do not need it.
So that what the American people need to understand is that I cannot
imagine, nor have we ever heard of one American who watched the videos,
the scenes of Katrina, and said, good for them. Everyone was
heartbroken and wanted to do something. Our country came together in
the aftermath to try to help. But what I think most people do not know
is that the majority party is trying to slip in all of a sudden a new
legislative morality that says when you pay for certain emergencies,
you have to take it out of somewhere.
Now, where do you take it out of? Well, if you take it out of people
and places that can afford it, then perhaps that is balanced. But to
suggest you are going to take and pay for Katrina relief by cutting out
certain amounts of student loans or certain housing programs or what
may be left of the Food Stamp Program in this country, which is now
down to practically nothing, or to help children in our country, to
suggest that you would pay for that by taking out of there is, in my
opinion, totally improper. It is not in the best interest of who we are
as a country and it does not make us look good.
So we saw many in the last couple of days allow perhaps a momentary
slight retreat on bringing that approach to the House floor. But the
importance of the gentleman's comments and his being here today, and
the reason why I joined him for a few minutes, is the fact that we have
to keep mentioning the issue and the fact that that idea is still out
there; that, again, if we cut the taxes of billionaire, that is okay;
that if we put forth a war that half the country is still questioning
why we are in it to begin with, that is okay to pay the $300 billion;
that it is okay to build schools, hospitals, playgrounds, temples,
churches, and any kind of structure for the people of Iraq. But to
rebuild New Orleans, we have to take it out of a social program or an
educational program. That is what the people need to understand, and I
know that is what we are trying to do here today.
Let me repeat that just one last time, not to be repetitious but to
simply make the point and to drive it home. In Iraq it is not just a
war. The American people need to know that we are rebuilding Iraq.
Incidentally, not necessarily rebuilding anything the former government
destroyed but maybe we destroyed in the process. So we are putting in
new schools, new homes, new temples, new churches, new community
centers, an infrastructure, and new transportation systems. We are
rebuilding a country. But if you were caught up in Katrina, you are on
your own. And if we help you, we are going to take it out of another
part of your life or another part of your suffering.
That is wrong. That is where we have to wake up and say who are we,
what are we, and I believe that we are much better than that. So I
thank the gentleman for his time, and I really hope that we can wake up
soon, in the next week or so, and stop this madness from going forth.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his
comments, and I am glad the gentleman came down to the floor. I think
it is very, very important to have as many voices as possible from
different parts of the country sharing with not only the Members but
the American people what is actually going on right now. Because by the
time the American people find out what we do here, it is too late. It
has already happened to them and they are saying, how did this happen.
Many times they cannot follow the paper trail back to the source.
The gentleman mentioned the war in Iraq. Well, we have to remind
ourselves that Republicans are in control of the House, Republicans are
in control of the Senate, and the Republicans are in control of the
White House, so it is not just the agencies that respond to the White
House. They are the Federal agencies that are out there that are
appointed by the President of the United States. So it is not our fault
that things are going the way that they are going as it relates to
dealing with Americans.
And what we are doing in Iraq is at top dollar. I must add that it is
not
[[Page H9022]]
like building a school in your neighborhood. It is top dollar, because
you have to pay those contractors big money. And a lot of that money
goes towards these special contracts. Four of the contractors that are
carrying out Katrina work in a no-bid contract are under investigation
by this government for mishandling taxpayers' dollars. So we are going
to reward them for wasteful spending and possibly stealing.
People get all teary-eyed when they come to the floor and they start
talking about the troops and how they support the troops; and some say,
well, I support the troops more than you. Well, I support the troops.
Who does not support the troops? We all support the troops. I want to
meet the caucus that does not support the troops. It does not exist. So
let us take that away and start looking at the realities of governing
and oversight and not rewarding corruption and cronyism.
The gentleman talks about the money that it is costing. It is borrow
and spend. The Republican majority is borrowing and spending at the
highest interest rate possible. A lot of Americans receive mail, I do,
and I open it and there you might find a free credit card. You can just
sign right here. And then you read the fine print and you see that
after the first 6 weeks it jumps up to a 21 percent interest rate APR.
It is not a deal. So we are chest beating and talking about how we have
to help these poor Iraqis, but, meanwhile, when it comes down to
Americans here on our soil, suddenly we want to become fiscally
responsible on the backs of those very same people.
There is a lot of hypocrisy in the democracy within this Congress
when it comes down to looking at that. And that is not just because I
am saying it, that is what is actually happening, and that is the
unfortunate part about this whole argument. If we could wait until the
next round of elections and the American people could have their way
with some of the individuals that are running to the floor and cutting
the very things that are helping their own local communities in the
light of being seen as fiscal conservatives, it would be fine. But
guess what, there is too much out there for us to wait that long. It
has to happen now and we have to fight now.
Mr. SERRANO. If the gentleman will yield for just a moment. In this
profession of ours, we like to make predictions and, of course, we like
to be right. I will make a prediction now, one that we have discussed
before, and I hope I am wrong. I hope I am totally wrong. News flash:
Making a prediction; I hope I am wrong.
When this war settles down to something other than it is, because we
are going to be there for at least 10 or 12 years, but when it settles
to something less or different than what it is now, there will be many
of us coming to the House floor putting in legislation to say those
folks coming back need special medical attention, psychological,
physical, all kinds of things. They need special housing and job
training. They need all kinds of help. Well, the very people who are
now saying we support the troops and are jumping all over the place
spending all kinds of money on that ill-conceived war will be the ones
saying we are fiscally irresponsible in trying to take care of the
troops coming back home.
The best way to take care of the troops is, one, bring them home now,
right away; and the second thing is to make sure they are rewarded and
cared for for the pain they went through.
We know, sadly enough and unfortunately, that of the close to 2,000
Americans who have died we all know some personally. What we do not
know, because this government will not tell us, is what is the total
number of thousands of wounded, wounded who will come back, and are
here already, with pain that needs to be dealt with. And the wounded in
a war, as you know, could be getting shot in the hand to losing your
eyesight or losing a leg or an arm. There are serious injuries coming
back, but nobody is talking about that.
So I think the gentleman is right to continue to drive this home so
that the American people can just get a wider look and then make their
own decision, and I thank the gentleman once more so very much.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again I want to thank the
gentleman for taking the time to come and join us here this afternoon.
Mr. Speaker, I am also joined here by our great local delegate, the
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), who has been in
the Congress quite some time and who has seen quite a bit, so I am so
glad she is here and I yield now to her.
Ms. NORTON. Well, I want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Meek) very much for taking out this hour and taking the leadership on
this vital issue.
Mr. Speaker, I was on my way to a markup. I got there and I thought I
saw that there were a few minutes yet, and I said, I have to go down.
Because I want my colleague to know that I heard from some of my
friends on the other side get up and say words to the effect that our
side did not want to see any budget resolution that had any cuts; and
that, see, there go the Democrats again, they think you can just spend
money. And comments like, even though they see the problem, they do not
want any cuts to be made because they say that nobody will be for the
budget resolution changes that are coming down now.
So I said to myself, my goodness, what is coming down now? The
American people need to know that it is a perversion of what is
required, a perversion of what they even say it is, which is an attempt
to do the cuts so that there will be money for the Katrina victims. I
did not think I could let them get away with that when three or four of
them got up with the same message.
I think the first thing to understand, because we have the
credibility to say it, is that the Democrats stand for a balanced
budget, including making some cuts at this time given this emergency.
We have the credibility to say it because we have proposed a budget
that would put us in balance by the year 2012. We have done it. It is
balanced. It is there for all to see on our Web site.
This is the moment. It is a magic moment, and the American people
should look for this moment. This is the moment when the Congress
should reinstate PAYGO. That is the pay-as-you-go notion that in the
1990s brought us to surplus, the surplus that the Republican White
House inherited of almost $250 billion, a surplus as far as the eye
could see, and in the snap of a finger it was gone.
We have pressed this Congress ever since the last administration left
office to keep PAYGO. They have, in fact, said the only thing we are
going to use PAYGO for are for spending other than tax cuts. So, we
have had a perversion of PAYGO. We can do as many tax cuts, and they
have been overwhelmingly for the most advantaged and wealthy people in
our society, and you do not have to pay for those. But if in fact you
are trying to help the poorest people in this society, such as those
who were exposed for the world to see from the Katrina hurricane, then
you better pay for those.
I do not think you could find any substantial number of the American
people who would say, I am right there with you, and so we say, let us
go with PAYGO right now. You will find that there will be Americans,
those who are most concerned with the deficit, those who are most
concerned with helping the poor saying, yes, now is the moment and we
are for it.
Instead, what we see is amazing and brazen in how the resolution that
appears to be coming down would operate. Since tax cuts cannot be
touched, we have been told that, still, over and over again, the
spending cuts are, in effect, going to take from services of the kind
that the Katrina victims need. Do understand that. If you are a Katrina
victim, even if you are middle class now, you need Medicaid when you
did not need it before, you will need food stamps when you did not need
them before.
I saw a woman on television who said, and this is a woman in her
fifties, who said the very notion of food stamps and my family asking
for them is so laughable that I did not even know how to do it. She had
to have her daughter, who had also never been on food stamps, help her
to find out how you apply for food stamps. So we are talking about of
course the poor, the poor to our shame that we all saw but who somehow
we had not seen before, but now we are also talking about hundreds of
thousands of the new poor, or
[[Page H9023]]
the temporarily poor, and those are the victims of Katrina who simply
will not be able to get from one day to the next unless they have
access to the services that have only been available to the poor, like
Medicaid and like food stamps.
{time} 1345
If that is not enough under the topic of perversion, here is another
one. This is supposed to be about cutting the deficit. We still leave
the deficit at more than $100 billion. We do not make any real inroads
into the deficit, so what are we doing? Do we really think the American
people are fooled? I do not think so. I think as technical as this
stuff can get, they are beginning to understand it. We see it in the
polls.
I must say to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek), I was here with
his mother before him; and in my 15 years in Congress, I have never
seen such a gap in the generic poll between Democrats and Republicans.
That tells me our message of who believes in balance and who believes
in making cuts but doing them in the right way is getting across.
I say to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek), the Republicans
started with $35 billion in entitlement spending, no tax-cut spending.
That was cruel, but that is where they were, and that is what we had to
take with all of our protestations. They said, no, that is not enough.
After Hurricane Katrina, they said we need more. We need $50 billion.
They say to the American people with a straight face, we need to do
this for the Hurricane Katrina victims. These are the very victims who
are now having their Medicaid and food stamps cut.
As if there are no offsets on tax cuts, we are looking to the
spending cuts paying for tax cuts and new tax cuts, as much as $70
billion in tax cuts. We have been in the Congress long enough with
Republicans in charge to know they believe in the reverse Robin Hood
notion, take from the poor and give to the rich, but after Hurricane
Katrina, how shameful, on the backs of poor give more in tax cuts.
The gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) was clear when he says he
knows where the rich would be. He said he cannot think of the rich in
New York who would say this is the way to do it after Hurricane
Katrina. We know and we want everybody to know we know where the money
is, and it is in mandatory spending. We know there have to be cuts in
the entitlement spending, and there have to be cuts where they hurt
most, in Medicaid and Medicare. We hate that. But if there is a
balanced budget resolution, we are prepared to eat that pain along with
the rest of the country. What we are not prepared to do, what we are
not prepared to do, after $35 billion in cuts that have already been on
the backs of the poor, to break their backs by, in fact, more cuts to
them.
The House has already cut low-income energy assistance, 8 percent.
There was an 8 percent cut below last year's level. Middle-class people
in our country are pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to
heat their homes this winter, and we are going to cut even further the
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for the poor. We could shout
it from the hilltops because I do not think there are any Americans
anywhere that would sanction that.
Every single winter we have left it at level funding; and to cut it
this year when we know what has happened to energy, we know what has
happened to oil and to gas, and everybody has informed everybody what
they have to get ready for. They are telling middle-class people now is
the time to shore up your houses, put in storm windows, and do the
extras that will save you in your heating bills. Tell that to the poor
people. They do not own the premises. They are the renters of this
country. They are having a hard time finding enough money to pay the
rent. They cannot fix the premises; and if they did, because they are
so poor, they could not buy the storm windows. This is so cruel that
you will not find Americans in any number who will sanction this if we
tell it.
Mr. Speaker, we are going to tell it. We are going to tell it in the
rich and the poor neighbors. We do not have the same access to the
media the other side has, but just wait until we finish telling America
about how you are taking money for Hurricane Katrina victims
supposedly, from other poor people to supposedly pay for them when the
money will in fact go to pay for tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
Let me give one more example that I think will get to the heart of
the problem, and that is the possibility of a 2 percent across-the-
board cut that will cut special education funding below the 2005 level,
further reducing special education.
There is not a Member here who does not hear his school board, his
local officials screaming about special education drinking up the
lion's share of the education dollar. As it is now, we are down to
covering only about 17.5 percent of special education. That is 17.5
percent out of the storied 40 percent we pledged the States we would
cover when we passed the IDEA bill.
Mr. Speaker, who has the nerve to say to States, take from the
traditional children if you have to, because the IDEA bill says you
have to give to your special education children. So this time I say to
my friend, we are not taking from the poor to the rich, we are taking
from our traditional children and giving to our most needy children,
and that is a trade-off nobody in America wants us to make.
Mr. Speaker, I say to my friend before I return to my markup, the
gentleman has done us a service. I do not know how many Americans are
watching, but I do say whatever happens here, we do not have the
majority. The gentleman from Florida took this hour so we could make it
clear that the other side of the aisle cannot come on the floor and say
whatever they want to say, even if what they say are patent untruths,
without understanding that lie for lie, you will find us talking to the
American people to try to set the record straight.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the
District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for her leadership. As I said at the
top of this hour, we thank the Democratic Caucus of this Congress for
standing up on behalf of the American people. When we start talking
about issues, these issues we are all talking about, these issues are
affecting the American people. It is up to us to be able to share this
information. I am glad that the gentlewoman went further into the
budget.
Mr. Speaker, we need to balance the budget. We are the only Members
of the body that can actually say we balanced the budget and we had a
surplus. The majority side cannot make that claim. I was not here, but
the gentlewoman was here. They passed the budget that gave us a
surplus. The other side cannot even say it because they all voted
against it.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is almost like we need to have
an opportunity to come to this floor like every 3 hours. There is so
much going on here, the Members need to know that we are watching them.
The American people need to know and the Members need to know that we
have alternatives, and we are going to present those alternatives
legislatively in committee, we are going to present those alternatives
here on this floor, and we are going to present those alternatives in
Special Orders to let it be known that we are not going to sit by and
watch this country start to slide, not because of the American people,
but because of the majority who are willing to stand on behalf of the
most able Americans as it relates to finances on the backs of everyday
Americans.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt about it. I think
there are so many issues we need to address as a Congress that are
going either unaddressed or the actions of the Congress are hurting the
average American people. That is why the Democratic Party is presenting
proposals that will take us in a new direction. I think the country
needs to go in a new direction. I do not need to go back to Ohio to
figure that out. I think it is all over the country. We had a gentleman
here last night from Oklahoma. We had a woman here from Florida. We had
a man from New Jersey and a man from Ohio. From all over the country
people are saying, Democrats, please take us in a new direction, in a
direction that will change the country, and those are the kinds of
proposals that we are offering.
[[Page H9024]]
As we look back as to what has been happening here for the past 5
years, it has been nothing but appointing crony friends to positions
that are key in executing the game plan for emergency management, and
then the job not getting done, hiding information on the true cost of
the Medicare bill so we have a corrupted system here.
The Democrats want some transparency, and we want the opportunity to
lead so we can take this country into another direction. I found it
very interesting today in The Washington Post there was an article
about a speech that Colin Powell's chief of staff for 16 years, Colonel
Larry Wilkerson, gave. During the course of the speech, he talked a lot
about what has been going on. This is one of the third-party validators
that we like to have at the 30-something group. We like to validate our
thoughts with someone who is independent of us. This is not the Meek
Report or the Ryan Report. This is a 16-year chief of staff with Colin
Powell, and he is a veteran. He was the director of the Marine Corps
War College for quite some time. And what he had to say I found
unbelievable.
He talks about him seeing a cabal between the Vice President of the
United States, Dick Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald
Rumsfeld, by cutting out the bureaucracy that had to carry out the
decisions: ``We have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran,
and generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina.''
If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or major pandemic, ``you are
going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take
you back to the Declaration of Independence.''
This is a guy who has been in the Department of State for 16 years.
This is a 16-year chief of staff, worked at the State Department, ran
the Marine War College. This is a guy who has been around the block. He
is saying if we have a terrorist attack of significant magnitude, we
are going to see the ineptitude of our government.
What the Democrats are saying with our independent commission that we
want to oversee what happened with Hurricane Katrina, we had better
figure out what the answers are here. We had better figure out what we
did wrong because the next time it may not just be New Orleans, it may
not just be the gulf coast and then people are going to come to us and
say in 2005, where was the United States Congress? Where were they in
their oversight duties? Article I, section 1 of the Constitution, the
people of this country govern in the House of Representatives and we
have oversight over everything, over every executive function,
including FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.
The concern is when a man of this magnitude who has been around the
block as many times as he has been, who has watched up close the
misinformation with the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, all this other
stuff, says to us you will not even believe the ineptitude if there is
a major nuclear attack in the United States, the ineptitude of the
government. Now, our job is we should not have to wait.
{time} 1400
And that is why the Democrats want an independent Katrina commission
just like we had an independent 9/11 Commission, bipartisan. And the
committee that is set up right now might as well be chaired by Mr.
Gillespie, the chair of the Republican National Committee, because it
is a partisan committee. The Democrats do not have subpoena power, it
is 11 to 9 Republican to Democrat. And I just feel that that is an
unfair way to go about solving the problems, because it is about CYA,
it is not about getting the facts. And that is a real problem.
And meeting our constitutional obligation, we stand here and we raise
our hand and we swear to uphold the Constitution so help us God. Part
of that responsibility is the oversight that I think we have been
derelict of our duty. And the Republican Congress has been derelict of
their duty, and that is why the Democrats want to take this in a new
direction and change what is going on down here and do that by having
an independent commission that will get to the facts, not to the
politics.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Ohio could not
say it better because that exactly goes to the marrow of this whole
issue, of making sure that we engage not only the Members but also the
American people. If it was something dealing with total politics, you
could say, well, you know, in 2006 it will be dealt with. But there are
so many things that are happening to Americans versus for Americans
that we need change now.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The last part of this article about the Colonel, he
says what my colleague just said, what he was just saying: You and I
and every other citizen like us is paying the consequence. Whether it
was a response to Katrina that was less than adequate certainly, or the
situation in Iraq which still goes unexplained, we are paying the
consequences.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Like I said, he is right and we are going to
see.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. You are right.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I will take some of that, too. Because those of
us that are here in the Beltway, and when I say Beltway we are talking
about here in Washington, D.C. there is a Beltway that goes around this
entire city. Those of us that are drinking the water, breathing the
air, and eating the food here understand exactly what is going on, and
it is our duty as Americans to make sure that we put light where light
is not. And even where you have light, like here under the lights here
in this Chamber, that we illuminate it even more as it relates to
making sure that every Member knows exactly what he or she is doing or
not doing as it pertains to issues that are going to blanket, blanket
and increase cronyism and corruption and going to increase the whole,
or going to promote the whole theory of borrow and spend.
Folks, it is interesting, and the thing about being in Congress is
that it is important that you understand that we all must tolerate one
another. It is not personal, it is just business. And the bottom line
is, is that if you want to talk about the business and you want to talk
about spending, you want to talk about fiscal responsibility, you
cannot just have a backdrop in the back of you at a press conference
and say fiscal responsibility, and fiscal responsibility, that makes
you a conservative. That does not make you a conservative. What makes
you a policy maker and what shows that you have the ability to lead is
being able to march down to the White House and tell the President: We
are concerned about spending. Why don't you veto a bill for once?
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yeah.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. The President of these United States, our
President, you want to talk about being a conservative, has not even
vetoed one spending bill. As a matter of fact, of the transportation
bill that has more fat, pork, everything else, a couple of raccoons in
there, he did not even have the nerve to stop that. We have bridges
going to nowhere. Meanwhile, we have got folks around here in shelters,
and we are asking no one to sacrifice. No. As a matter of fact, the
majority side, the Republican side, they are asking poor people to
sacrifice. They are asking people that their kids are in Iraq right now
and Afghanistan to sacrifice.
Meanwhile, you have billionaires saying: Do not worry, you do not
have to say anything. This is what the majority is saying. You do not
have to say anything, we will protect you. We will protect you,
Republican majority.
So I think it is important that we continue every time that we get
the opportunity, need it be out in the hall, in our office talking to
our constituents, or on this floor talking to our colleagues, that we
know and the American people will know exactly what you are doing to
them, and it will not be something where that: I do not know, I did not
understand what I was doing on that vote. And, if I would have had that
opportunity. Do not come creeping in here under the doorjamb writing
something into the Congressional Record saying, well, I know I voted
for this budget, to cut the budget of a lot of my constituents, but I
really feel this way.
Do not do that. We do not want to have to pick up the Congressional
Record to find that you have a conscience about the vote that someone
told you to do, a twist your arm.
The gentleman from Ohio and I talked the other day about violating
the spirit of the rules of the House of Representatives. The so-called
energy bill that went and passed this floor just
[[Page H9025]]
a couple of weeks ago, held this board open, the voting board here in
this House open for 90 minutes, 90 minutes on a 15-minute vote. We came
up to these mikes and called: Mr. Speaker, point of order. What is
going on here? Did we not have a vote? Oh, wait, I am sorry. You mean
to tell me you are not winning and the special interests are not
winning on allowing them to stick the drill anywhere they want to
drill, and you mean to tell me you are not winning because this is not
a true energy bill that is going to talk about conservation and
independence and go against price gouging? You mean to tell me until
you are able to twist enough arms, or I must add, hammer people, okay,
to the point where they are going to change their vote based on their
thoughts of coming in here and based on the information that they have
on this bill that it does nothing, you are going to hold the voting
clock open until you have your way.
It is almost saying that we are at a little league football game and
I happen to be the guy that bought the jerseys for one team and my
cousin happens to be the ref that has the stop clock, I am going to
tell him to stop the clock because we are behind by 7 points and I have
got to go over and try to twist some arms and try to change the rules
so that we can come up by 8 points, and then I want him to start the
clock all over again. That is breaking the spirit and that is violating
the rules. They are doing things because they can.
But I can tell you one thing, Mr. Ryan. Just like you talked about
that decorated veteran that has worked in the State Department and
worked with Colin Powell, the American spirit will prevail over
politics, and that is what we have to bank on as it relates to this.
So those individuals that have a problem with us coming to the floor
and sharing exactly what is going on, this is fact, not fiction, then
they have a problem with the spirit of America. They have a problem
with the blood, sweat, and tears. They have a problem with folks that
are sitting in Walter Reed right now that laid it down on behalf of
this country that we would come here and represent them. They are
white, they are black, they are Republican, they are Independent, they
are Native American, they are Hispanic, they are Americans. And we are
charged with the duty of coming to this floor and making sure that they
are represented. Even if the majority does not want to represent them,
even if we are in the minority, we do not have the option to say we
were bigger, they were smaller. They had the majority, we had the
minority. Oh, we could not do anything. We are doing everything. As I
speak now, we have Democratic members fighting in committee to make
sure that they can get amendments on to bills to be able to help
Americans. As we speak right now we are preparing to come to the floor
to fight the battle with what we have.
What my colleague from Ohio is saying is 110 percent right. That bill
that you have there, we have over 40,000 citizen cosponsors on it right
now.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. 40,000? Wow. H.R. 3764, you can come to
www.housedemocrats.gov/katrina. We are trying to get a grassroots
movement together, and it sounds like we are well on our way. 40,000
citizen cosponsors for this bill to form an independent commission so
we can go back and review and actually fix problems. Would that not be
novel, for government to go back and actually have an independent
commission, remove the politics, and fix the problem? That is what the
Democrats want.
And all that you said there, I want to make one final point because
we only have a couple minutes left. If you do not believe us and you do
not believe our third party validators, Mr. Speaker, let us just use
good common sense here. Every single cut that is being made to
supposedly pay for Katrina is being cut in a program that does not have
lobbyists. Can you believe that? Medicaid, after-school, free and
reduced lunch, student loans, no lobby groups down here for those
people. So we are going to pick on the little kids, we are going to
pick on the people who cannot defend themselves. But meanwhile, the
guys who are raising millions and millions of dollars for the
Republican majority, we are not going to touch you. We could not
possibly ask in this time of great national crisis, three wars, we have
a natural disaster and high gas prices, we could not possibly go ask
the wealthiest in this country to pay their fair share.
And I say this, and I do not say this lightly. This administration
does not have the guts, the guts, to go and ask the wealthiest people
in this country to help out. It is easy to cut programs for poor
people. It is easy, because you know why? None of those people
associate with the poor Americans. They are not sitting on the White
House lawn drinking champagne and eating caviar.
But show the proper leadership and ask the hard questions and ask all
Americans, including the ones making a billion dollars a year, to pay
their fair share. Our Web site is www.housedemocrats.gov/katrina for
our citizen cosponsorship, and you
can e-mail us at [email protected].
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I thank my colleague from Ohio for joining me.
Mr. Speaker, I also would like to thank the Democratic leader for
allowing us to have this first Democratic hour.
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