[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 26, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H5946-H5950]
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 the remaining time until midnight as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to address the House 
tonight. The 30-Something Working Group is always prepared to come to 
the floor not only to share with the Members but the American people 
about some of the issues that we would love for the entire Congress to 
work on, Mr. Speaker, if we worked in a bipartisan way.
  My friends on the other side of the aisle who just finished talking 
about Iraq, the beautiful thing about our democracy is that we have the 
opportunity to voice our opinion in the way we see it.
  I think it is also important for us to realize what the reality is 
not only here in America but in Iraq and the Middle East and what is 
going on right here in the Midwest, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, or what is 
not going on as it relates to investing in the Midwest, making sure 
that we invest in America, using coal for energy, innovation, and also 
making sure that we can work with our farmers here in the United States 
so we don't have to depend on Middle East oil and we don't have to send 
our men and women into harm's way to make sure that we are able to put 
gas in our tanks here in the United States.
  As you know, in our innovation agenda and also energizing America 
agenda, in our new direction for America, here in this side of the 
aisle we are for investing in the United States, we are for making sure 
that we can cut our dependency on Middle East oil so that we don't find 
ourselves in the middle of these conflicts that we are in right now.
  As you know, we have been talking for several weeks about our new 
direction for America. I am glad Ms. Wasserman Schultz is here again 
tonight, as she always is, and it is great. It is like old times.
  We have been working together for I know 12 years since I have been 
elected. You have been an elected official for 14 years. I met you when 
I came into the Florida House of Representatives. Mr. Speaker, Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz was the chair of the Education Committee when I 
showed up in Florida legislature, and I know that she is going to have 
a bright future here in the House of Representatives.
  But I can tell you what the good news is. It is that we have the will 
and the desire on this side of the aisle to stand up on behalf of the 
American people, making sure we raise the minimum wage for working 
families and those that go to work every day, punch in and punch out, 
know what it means to have a 15-minute break in the morning and a 15-
minute break in the evening.

                              {time}  2330

  For those individuals that are working the midnight shift, we are 
with those families. We want to make sure

[[Page H5947]]

that they are making a livable wage, and when we raise the minimum 
wage, that means that those individuals that are making over the 
minimum wage, those that are making $8 or $9 or $10 an hour, those 
individuals in big corporate America are going to have to look at what 
they are paying them, Mr. Speaker, if we raise the minimum wage.
  That is not what is going to happen, and I think as long as the 
Republican majority is in place that is not going to happen.
  If I can, before I yield to my good friend and colleague and a true 
good friend, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, our districts are right next to 
each other in the State of Florida, we work together, like I said, Mr. 
Speaker, for a period of years, of giving the American people what we 
have received.
  What we received on this floor and what we call, well, we the 
opportunity to give ourselves raises. We do not have to petition the 
Congress to receive a raise. The American people want a raise, those 
hourly workers that are out there. They want a raise, and hopefully, we 
can talk a little bit about that tonight and a number of issues they 
are facing.
  We are going to talk a little bit about Iraq and the realities of 
Iraq. Members can come to the floor, God bless them, and give their 
opinion or their view of what they think is going on in Iraq and in 
other parts of this world, but I think it is important for us to, just 
as simple as picking up the paper or watching the news or talking to 
our constituents, they are saying, Congressman, Congresswoman, my son 
is going off to war on his fourth or fifth deployment or my daughter is 
going to off to war on the fourth or fifth deployment and you are 
saying on the majority side, and from the White House, stay the course, 
stay the course. To do what? And where is the plan?
  But let me just get back to what I was saying about how we give 
ourselves raises here in this House. The Republican majority has made 
it abundantly clear that they do not have the will nor the desire to 
give the American people what they have given themselves, and the good 
thing, Mr. Speaker, about this side and the reason why I can speak 
truth to power and that I can come to this floor with a straight face 
and all of my colleagues, Republican, Democrats and one Independent we 
have in this House, I can boldly say here on the floor of the U.S. 
House of Representatives that veterans have fought for us to salute one 
flag. Those individuals that are in Arlington Cemetery right now, that 
all we have is their memory and their commitment to this country, that 
if we have the audacity to give ourselves raises, Republican majority 
leading the effort to give raises to Members of Congress and vote 
``no'' to allow individuals that are working for $5 and pennies every 
day, punching in and punching out, with all of the gas prices, all of 
the issues of the price of milk, the price of bread, the price of 
college tuition, we are able to do better for our kids and our families 
because the Republican majority said, hey, that is fine, we can give 
ourselves raises, but let not us give it to these others folks.
  Let me say this to those other folks, the American people. Since 1997 
there has not been a Federal increase in the minimum wage. Here are the 
facts, and that is why we come to the floor, Mr. Speaker, to just give 
the facts to the Members.
  This is a Congressional Research Service report April 18, 2006. Any 
Member of Congress, Democrat, Republican, Independent, American, that 
is paying attention to what we are saying right now can go on 
housedemocrats.gov and get this information.
  1998, Members of Congress received $3,100 in a raise; minimum wage 
workers, zero. 2000, Members of Congress, $4,600 raise that the 
Republican majority has given Members of Congress; minimum wage 
workers, zero. 2001, $3,800 for Members of Congress, pay increase, what 
we call cost of living, that is a nice way to dress it up; minimum wage 
workers, zero. Members of Congress in 2002, $4,900 increase, just got 
in 2001 remember a $3,800 raise, $4,900; minimum wage, zero. 2003, 
$4,700; minimum wage workers, zero. 2004, $3,400; minimum wage workers, 
zero. 2005, $4,000, Members just received a $3,400 raise; minimum wage 
workers, zero. 2006, $3,100 in the present year; minimum wage workers, 
zero.
  The Republican leadership has pretty much said over our you know what 
body we will not give minimum wage workers an increase. Meanwhile, here 
in the House, there are plans that are already drawn for Members of 
Congress in 2007, if the American people allow it to happen and not 
evaluate every Member of Congress, because even if you do not make the 
minimum wage, you have to have a conscience about, well, we have 
individuals that are out there. Gas prices have gone up. If you make 
$8, $12, even $18 an hour, you have to have a conscience about these 
individuals that have to pay the same price you have to pay for gas, 
have to pay the same price you have to pay for health care. If you are 
struggling, imagine what someone that is making $5 and pennies have to 
go through.
  So I think it is important and it is very pivotal that we are here at 
11:37 eastern standard time after other Members of Congress have gone 
back to their homes, either resting with their families, in their 
office working, what have you, we are here on the floor carrying the 
water on behalf of the American people.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. That is absolutely right, and we are here 
because it is imperative that we move this country in a new direction. 
Americans are begging us to take us off the course we are on now.
  It is such a privilege to be here with you. We have been good friends 
for more than a dozen years now. It is just a privilege to share a 
community with you, to share constituents who really have been 
clamoring not just in south Florida where we live but all across the 
country. You and I travel the country talking to Americans in so many 
places, and it does not matter. What I found and I know you have, too, 
it does not matter what walk of life they come from. It does not matter 
whether they are wealthy or middle class or lower income. No one that I 
have spoken to says, Debbie, yes, yes, you know, let us keep it right 
the way we are going, you know, just keep going in the same direction 
because everything is great. It is almost laughable to say that.

  The minimum wage is a perfect thing to highlight in terms of the 
example that we need to throw out there to show where our priorities 
would be if we were in control, and we know we are not, versus where 
the Republicans' priorities are. We try to use third party validators 
so it is not just the Kendrick Meek, Tim Ryan, Bill Delahunt, Debbie 
Wasserman Schultz show. We want to make sure we use legitimate 
references to demonstrate and back up the things we say.
  Many time what we talk about here can seem like inside baseball. The 
terminology we use can seem a little esoteric so we try to boil it down 
for folks.
  Let us take the minimum wage. You talked about the minimum wage 
historically and what it means in terms of real dollars today. Let us 
talk about the minimum wage and the fact that it has not been raised in 
9 years, what that impact is on the average family in terms of the 
difference of what things cost in the last 9 years.
  So, if you take a look at this chart, this is what real economic 
change under President Bush has been like. While we have not increased 
the minimum wage since 1997, as you referred to a few minutes ago, 
there are plenty of things that have increased in cost.
  Over on the left-hand part of the chart, the minimum wage has not 
increased at all, yet whole milk has increased 24 percent since 1997. 
Bread, 25 percent. A 4-year public college education has increased 77 
percent. Health insurance has increased 97 percent, and that is if you 
can even get it because there are 46 million Americans that do not have 
health insurance and millions of small business employers who have 
dropped their insurance coverage for their employees because it has 
reached the point of unaffordability, with upwards of 15 percent 
increases every single year.
  Let us look at the price of regular gas. It has gone up, while the 
minimum wage has not, 136 percent. And so what does that mean? 
Sometimes people cannot get their mind around percentages and what 
those mean.
  So let us take a look at what Americans are paying for in terms of 
gas prices. The Americans now are paying 100 percent more for gas than 
when President Bush first took office, and he

[[Page H5948]]

has the nerve to stand in this chamber and to give speeches across this 
country talking about how he thinks that America is addicted to foreign 
oil and we need to get a handle on how we are going to expand 
alternative energy resources. Really? With what funding? Where is the 
initiative? Where is the proposal? Where is the legislation? Because 
all of it just gets rubber stamped here. When we propose any of those 
things as a solution as a Democrats, what do Republicans do? They vote 
``no.'' No, no, Mr. President; yes, Mr. President. Just the bobblehead 
Republicans do whatever is asked of them, and it is certainly not to 
expand the opportunity to invest in the Midwest in terms of our energy 
resources versus the Mideast.
  So, if you look at the price of a gallon of gas, when President Bush 
began his term, January 20, 2001, the average price of a gallon of gas 
was $1.45 and today, it is $3.01.
  Now, what I attribute that to, and what I attribute the seeming 
indifference on the part of the Republicans and their leadership here 
towards this problem, it has got to be because there is no other 
explanation that they are not filling their own gas tank. It has really 
got to be that they are not the ones that are actually putting the gas 
in their car themselves because, if they were, they would realize that 
now, instead of pennies, remember when we were younger and our parents 
would fill the gas tank and the fastest number that scrolled on the gas 
tank itself was a penny? Well, now, it is dimes because that is how 
much prices have increased in terms of gas.
  The only thing I can think of, Mr. Speaker, that I can attribute the 
indifference of Republicans towards the energy crisis and the gas 
prices that Americans are facing is that they have not filled their 
cars with gas since gas pumps looked like this.
  This is a gas pump or at least an example of a gas pump and what one 
looked like in the 1950s, and perhaps it is just that it was so long 
ago that they filled their gas tanks themselves. I am not sure who is 
filling their gas tanks. Maybe they all have drivers. They really only 
focus on the needs of the wealthy. So perhaps people are driving them 
around. That really, for me, is the only explanation.
  I really fail to understand why they continue to allow oil companies 
the ability to not pay royalties to the Federal Government in exchange 
for utilizing our oil reserves, the ability and the right to drill into 
the ocean floor and draw up oil that is on land owned by the Federal 
Government. They are supposed to pay subsidies and royalties. We have 
passed legislation on at least two occasions since I have been here, 
and I am only a freshman, that have essentially forgiven those 
royalties and given mutli-millions of dollars back to the oil companies 
and into the pockets of the CEOs and the wealthiest few people. It is 
absolutely mindboggling to me.
  We, as Democrats, have the priorities of the American people 
straight. We understand that we need to move the country in a new 
direction, Mr. Speaker. We need to make sure that we expand access to 
health care. We want to make sure that we actually invest in 
alternative energy resources so that we can truly, within 10 years, 
become independent of foreign oil resources and invest in the Midwest 
instead of in the Middle East.
  We want to make sure that we can get a handle on this deficit. You 
and I have young children, and right now, if we stay the course and 
continue in the direction that this President and this Republican 
leadership has taken us in, our children and our children's children 
will be saddled with the deficit and the Nation's debt that this 
President has mired us in, all by himself, and by his Republican rubber 
stamp colleagues that we work in this chamber with.
  If something is not done, our children, I fear for the world that 
they grow up in, not just in terms of foreign policy but in terms of 
domestic policy.

                              {time}  2345

  What is going to happen to our kids when they grow up in a world 
where we are underfunding education, where they do not have access to 
health insurance, where gas prices are so out of control and there is 
no mass transit for them to use as an alternative so that they can get 
to work? What are they going to do in a world where the deficit is 
continuing to skyrocket and we are going further and further in debt to 
other countries? What are they going to do?
  Hopefully, we are going to be able to get this country back on track 
after the November elections.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, I talk to my 
constituents, and I talk to the American people that are walking 
through the halls of Congress. You know, this is the summertime, Mr. 
Speaker, and, as you know, we have a number of visitors that visit the 
Capitol of the United States here. We wear these congressional pins. 
And last night when we left at 12 midnight there were Girl Scouts out 
front.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. That is right.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You are a Brownie Troop leader, or a Girl Scout 
leader.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. No, I am a Brownie Troop leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I used to be a Boy Scout Troop leader in Scott 
Homes some years back in Miami. But those little girls were at the foot 
of the steps taking pictures of the front of this Capitol of the United 
States, the Capitol of our great country. And, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, I 
have children, you have children, but this is really not about our 
children, because they are going to be okay, Mr. Speaker.
  Ms. Wasserman Schultz's children have names that end with Wasserman 
Schultz. They will get into the schools they need to get into. They 
will get the access they need for education. Doors will open for them 
that would not open for other children in our districts.
  My children's last names end with Meek, and they will be treated 
differently than other children, need it be Johnson or Hermanowski, or 
what have you. They will be treated differently than them.
  So this is not about our children. This is about the folks that 
elected us to come here to this U.S. House of Representatives to 
represent them. This is about making sure that they have a fair chance 
at life, just like our children.
  Members of Congress, a number of them in the House and Senate, our 
children are going to be okay. They are going to be okay because their 
last names end with the names of Members of Congress. But what about 
those individuals that woke up early one Tuesday morning to vote for 
representation? What about those individuals that walk in here as 
employees into this Capitol, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, to serve the 
American people? Will they get the same access that we have? Will they 
have the same access that Members of Congress have as it relates to 
health care? Will someone open the doors for them?
  I will answer that question. No. And I am not saying every person 
should be treated the same as Members of Congress. But the way things 
are going now, if you are a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, and 
you are thinking of voting in the next election, you have to be 
concerned.
  Mr. Speaker, there are prominent Republicans that are referring to 
their colleagues as ``they.'' The former Speaker of this House is 
referring to his Republican colleagues in Congress as ``they,'' because 
he doesn't want to be associated with them. I will tell you why, Mr. 
Speaker. And I am going to break out this chart again. And you know 
something, I can break this chart out every 5 minutes of the day, every 
5 minutes of the day, because it is so revealing and it takes it home 
as to exactly what we are talking about.
  This is why I am here a few minutes before midnight. That is the 
reason why I think it is important we continue to share with the 
American people what is going on, and with Members of Congress. I have 
my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle that say, 
Congressman, that little red, white, and blue chart you break out every 
day, aren't you tired of it? And my answer is, no. It is the hard 
reality of what is going on in the republic, as we stand now as a 
country.
  We have other countries that are looking at us in a different way. 
And, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, everyone looks at the United States of 
America, and just because the Republican majority says that everything 
is fine doesn't

[[Page H5949]]

necessarily mean that it is. Because here are the hard facts.
  The hard facts are these, Mr. Speaker. President Bush and the 
Republican majority has borrowed $1.05 trillion, $1.05 trillion, from 
foreign nations. Historic. And my next chart tells you who we are 
borrowing it from, and they are owning a part of the American apple pie 
not because they had to pay $56 to fill up their F-10 pickup truck, not 
because of their indiscretions, but because of the indiscretions of the 
Republican majority.
  We have 224 years of history in this country, with 42 presidents 
before this President, and they were only able to borrow $1.01 
trillion. Those are the facts. That is from the U.S. Department of the 
Treasury. It is not the Kendrick Meek report or the Debbie Wasserman 
Schultz report or the 30-something report because we think it works 
towards our position and not leveling with the American people.
  I can tell you without looking at this chart, Mr. Speaker, I can tell 
you exactly what is on it because I have read it so many times to so 
many groups and here on this floor.
  Who are we borrowing it from? Who is owning a piece of the American 
apple pie? Japan, at $682 billion; China, at $249.8 billion; the U.K., 
at $223.2 billion; the Caribbean, at $115.3 billion; Taiwan, at $71.3 
billion; and the OPEC nations, that I can go on and talk about these 
countries that we have issues with, Iran, Syria, oil-producing Middle 
Eastern countries that we are borrowing money from that we have issues 
with. They own a piece of the American pie at $67.8 billion; Germany, 
$65.7 billion; Korea, $66.5 billion; Canada, $53.8 billion.

  These are the countries that are buying our debt. And it is not 
because of what the American people have done but what the Republican 
majority has allowed to happen. They have rubber-stamped everything the 
President of the United States has sent to this floor. And that is not 
what article one, section one of the U.S. Constitution calls for.
  We use the Constitution as guiding principles on behalf of this 
country. I am not here on behalf of the House Democrats. I am here on 
behalf of the American people, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz is here on 
behalf of the American people. There is a reason why prominent 
Republicans are saying that they are totally lost at what the 
Republican majority has done, Mr. Speaker, and that is that fact that 
that the American spirit will rise up out of partisan politics.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I will definitely yield, Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you. Because with everything that we 
have laid out here over the last 20 or so minutes, what is clear is 
that we are moving in the wrong direction. The priorities of the 
Republican leadership here are completely out of step with the 
priorities of the American people. So, instead, what the Republicans 
here have attempted to do is to shift the focus and attention away from 
what is really going on and engaging in the politics of distraction.
  Now this that I have in my hand is about to become a scarcity. It is 
a social studies textbook, an American history textbook, which, Mr. 
Speaker, I would argue that in our high schools will soon be obsolete. 
We won't have any reason to use these any more, particularly the 
section on how a bill becomes a law. Because last week we actually 
brought a bill to the floor that was defeated in the Judiciary 
Committee, a bill that related to court stripping, stripping the courts 
of the right to review cases related to the Pledge of Allegiance and 
whether under God was constitutional or not.
  Now that question can be debated all day, and there are varying 
degrees of opinions on that subject. But we teach our children in 
public schools the concept of how a bill becomes a law, as created by 
our Founding Fathers, this system of checks and balances and the 
separation of powers. And because the Republicans are moving this 
country in the wrong direction and don't share the priorities of the 
American people, they have had to deflect attention away from what is 
really going on here and focus on things like the Pledge of Allegiance, 
gay marriage, and flag burning.
  Today in Judiciary we literally spent, Mr. Meek, 6\1/2\ hours on one 
bill and one amendment related to the separation of church and state. 
Now, Mr. Meek, when you go home, do your constituents, does the father 
of four who leaves for work in the morning, when you see him on the 
street, does he stop you and say, Kendrick, I really want you to go to 
the Congress and focus on the Pledge of Allegiance? Or do you think it 
is more likely, and in your experience, do they tell you, you know, I 
just wasn't sure how I was going to fill my gas tank today?
  Or how about the parents of kids who are fighting over in Iraq? Do 
you think they are really worried about whether we amend the 
Constitution to ban gay marriage? Is that at the top of those parents' 
list, or is it more likely that at the top of their list that their 
baby comes home to them?
  What is going on here?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely, I would be happy to yield.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I think what is important here, at least when I 
go to speak to the American people, and even in my own district, and as 
you know we travel. We defeated the privatization of Social Security, 
to allow individuals on Wall Street that were looking forward to 
receiving over $500 billion under the President's plan to privatize 
Social Security. We had over 500 town hall meetings throughout this 
country. You had town hall meetings in your district.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We had over a thousand.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. A thousand. Okay. I am glad you corrected me, 
because we want to make sure we give facts, not fiction.
  I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that we make an important note 
here, and I am asking the Members and the American people, Mr. Speaker, 
to vote principle over politics. You have to vote principle over 
politics.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Meek, from what I have seen here, that is 
impossible for these people.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I just want to make a point here, Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz. This is to the Members, to place on their conscience what the 
American people may very well think
  Let's say I am a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, and I am a voter, and I 
am paying more for gas. There is a war going on that my leaders are 
telling me we are going to stay the course, but no plan, and energy 
independence and innovation is not a priority.
  If we were in the majority, let's just say for instance that we are 
in the majority and this is not happening. Let's say I am a veteran, 
and I have to wait in rural America for the clinic that is only open 3 
days a month, then I have to think about the principle over politics. 
Maybe I am going to vote for the other person this time because my 
family is suffering. Maybe my kids are not getting what they need as it 
relates to education. Maybe that is not in line with the principle of 
what we are talking about here.
  So I think it is important, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, as you point this 
out, that Members of Congress and the American people will have to 
think this time. I told you I have given up on the Republican majority. 
They have had all the time in the world to do what they have to do.
  Look at what we are paying on the debt because of the irresponsible 
spending of the Republican majority and giving tax cuts to billionaires 
and millionaires. Look at the debt we are paying because we have 
borrowed all that debt from foreign countries. Look what we are doing 
on education. Look how far down it is for every teacher, for every 
mother or grandmother or grandfather, what have you, who wants to see 
their generation of children and grandchildren have a better 
opportunity than what they have had.
  Look at what the Federal Government is investing in their education. 
Look at what is happening in homeland security. Republican Members of 
Congress on the majority side can burn all kind of jet fuel, at 
taxpayers' expense, flying down to the border talking about how we are 
going to get tough on immigration. But look at what they are doing for 
homeland security and look at veterans.
  Hello! We are saluting one flag, and I talked about this earlier, 
those that have made the ultimate sacrifice, those that are away from 
their families.

[[Page H5950]]

Look at what the Republican majority is investing in their future and 
what they have promised in terms of providing health care and other 
benefits. Look at what they are investing versus what we are paying on 
the debt.
  So just because, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, as I yield back to you before 
we close, just because they say it doesn't necessarily mean it is true.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Four months, Mr. Meek. Less than 4 months. 
This may be the last evening that we spend as the 30-something Working 
Group until we come back from the August recess. The 30-something 
Working Group has an opportunity each night to talk about the direction 
we want to move this country on behalf of Democrats and the next 
generation.
  All of the charts and information that we have talked about tonight 
are available on our Web site, www.housedemocrats.gov/30something. We 
appreciate the privilege that the leader gives us each night to talk 
about the priorities of the Democratic caucus and the American people, 
and it is a privilege to be here with you once again.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you, Ms. Wasserman Schultz. It was good 
coming back to the floor with you.
  As you know, in the 30-something Working Group, we not only come to 
the floor but we meet every week. We have staff evaluate things for 
factual purposes, and I am glad that we are coming to level with the 
American people about what is going on.
  Mr. Speaker, before closing out, we would like to honor Tim Frieman, 
who has worked here in the Democratic cloakroom for 30 years. We 
appreciate his contributions and all that he has done. We had a great 
reception, Members, bipartisan, went down here in the Capitol and 
honored him. We appreciate him and his family for their contributions

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