[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 9, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H245-H249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2230
                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is 
recognized for 45 minutes.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be before 110th 
Congress. I can tell you that as the 30-something Working Group has 
been coming to the floor for 3-plus years and talking about what we 
would like to do if we were ever in the majority, and the American 
people saw fit to give the Democrats the majority here in this House 
last November. And we are appreciative and grateful, and I am glad to 
be here with my good colleague Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
  Mr. Ryan is around here on the floor somewhere, Mr. Speaker. I 
believe he is hiding because of the lashing, or it is hard to put it in 
words, that the Florida Gators, who, it was reported that it was said 
that they shouldn't even get off the bus to play against the number-one 
ranked Ohio Buckeyes.
  But I am going to yield to Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and then we will 
get into the meat of our discussion, because Ms. Wasserman Schultz has 
a degree and paper hanging on her wall from University of Florida, and 
on her car she has Florida tags. I mean, she is a real Gator. I just 
kind of happen to be from the State of Florida.
  But go ahead, Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Congratulations.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much. We are all Gators today. It 
is a Gator Nation. And we were just thrilled that the fighting Gator 
football team came to play yesterday, dominated Mr. Ryan's team, 
although Mr. Ryan went to Youngstown; so he is not technically a 
Buckeye, but I guess anyone who hails from the State of Ohio is a 
Buckeye. And we enjoyed showing the Buckeyes that we belonged in that 
game, and we are just very proud of our Florida Gators.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman from Florida would yield, I am 
happy to take my whooping like a man, Mr. Speaker. And let me just say 
to you, Mr. Speaker, and any of the other Members who may be Buckeye 
fans, not only was the game horrible, a complete whooping, but then I 
woke up this morning and the first thing I did was I called Mr. Meek, 
and I said, ``Mr. Meek, I had a terrible dream last night. It was 
awful. Let me tell you about it.'' And he reminded me that it actually 
happened. And then our first meeting this morning, I ran into Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz, who was in her beautiful outfit that she has on now 
but also the University Florida Gator glasses, and her Coke this 
morning had a little cozy on it that was also blue and orange. So she 
is very humble about her victory last night. And the only thing I can 
say is that the coach of Florida is an Ohioan, born just a few miles 
outside of my district. That is all I am hanging on to.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We will give him that.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is all I am hanging on to. But it was a great 
game, and you have got a great coach and a great team, and see you on 
the basketball court.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, you did take it like a man. We were 
watching the game together, and it was great for college football and 
great for all of us here in the country to see the underdog win. And it 
kind of tells our story here in the U.S. House of Representatives. And 
I just want to thank everyone on behalf of all of us. But tonight we 
are going to take a moment because, Mr. Speaker, when we come back to 
the floor, we have a number of freshmen that are coming in that are new 
30-somethings that were elected in this election, and they are going to 
come to the floor. I believe, and all of us in 30-Something Working 
Group believe, that we were effective in the 108th and the 109th 
Congress, communicating with the American people. We want to thank not 
only the Speaker but also the majority leader, Mr. Hoyer; and also Mr. 
Clyburn, who was our Democratic leader, now our Democratic whip; and 
now Mr. Emanuel for his good work, who is our chairman of the 
Democratic Caucus; and Mr. Larson, who is the vice chairman, for all 
the support they gave the 30-Something Working Group, including the 
Members on the Democratic side of the aisle.
  We talked about what we would do, Mr. Speaker, if we had the 
opportunity to get into the majority. And I am happy to report that we 
talked about putting in standards on PAYGO, making sure that whatever 
we appropriated, wherever we spend, that we also identify how we are 
going to pay for it so that we can get away from owing all of these 
countries money as we owe now. And there is a lot of work that has to 
be done that the Republican Congress has left us with.
  Looking at records like this, $1.05 trillion borrowed by the 
President and the Republican majority in the 109th Congress and the 
108th Congress over 42 Presidents at $1 trillion. So all of the charts 
you see here tonight, Mr. Speaker, will only be resurrected, if I could 
use that word, every now and then because the charts are going to be 
talking about what we have done. We did that last week.
  Today we implemented the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, all of 
them, here on this floor. And we had some of our Republican colleagues 
join us, and we are going to work in a bipartisan way to make sure that 
we do what we told the American people we would do in our Six in 2006 
plan.
  Also, I think it is important, on Wednesday, we are going to raise 
the minimum wage. Tomorrow the minimum wage will be raised here on this 
House of Representatives floor. This House that we talked about time 
after time again that we would do if given the opportunity. Later this 
week, securing low prices on prescription drugs, giving the Federal 
Government negotiating opportunity with the drug companies. Also stem 
cell research, ethics reform. These are things that the 109th Congress 
under Republican control, they didn't even do it. And we have done it 
within the first 100 hours, and we have a lot more that we would like 
to do. So I would not only like to thank our good friend, Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz, which our districts neighbor each other in Florida, but Mr. 
Ryan and Mr. Delahunt, Uncle Bill, in his absence.
  Mr. Speaker, he apologized for not being here tonight, and I told 
him, this is the first night that we are on the floor coming back in 
the majority. And, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you, as I yield to my 
colleagues, Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Ryan, that I know from me and 
from all of us in the 30-Something Working Group, we are forever 
grateful to the American people for allowing us to have the opportunity 
to lead in a commonsense way on their behalf. And it took Republicans 
and it took independents and it took Democrats and it took the Green 
Party and it took folks who

[[Page H246]]

voted for the first time because they had hope that we are going to 
move this country in a new direction. And I am so happy to our 
leadership and also to the members of the Democratic Caucus that we are 
following through on what we said we would do. It is going to be 
painful, but we are going to do it because the American people want a 
new direction. I am so happy that I am a member of a caucus and a party 
that has said they are going to do something, and they are actually 
doing it. That is a paradigm shift here in Washington.
  I yield to Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much to my good friend, Mr. Meek, 
and it is so wonderful to be with my good friends in the 30-Something 
Working Group. We spent so many nights here talking about the need for 
us to move this country in a new direction, a new direction for 
America. That is what, Mr. Speaker, you and others talked about during 
the campaign. We went out and talked about making sure that we could 
increase the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years; have the 
student loan interest rate; fully implement the 9/11 Commission 
recommendations; make sure that we repeal the energy industry subsidies 
that they don't need because they are the most profitable industry in 
the entire world so that we can truly fund alternative energy 
resources; eliminate the prohibition against negotiating for lower 
prescription drug prices; and putting the stem cell research bill on 
the President's desk once again; and making sure that we can finally 
establish some accountability with this administration on the war in 
Iraq.

                              {time}  2240

  At last we will have the opportunity to bring them in and ask them 
the tough questions that our good friends on the other side of the 
aisle refused to ask for years.
  We had an opportunity as the 30-something Working Group to point out 
and contrast what we would do in the majority if we were given that 
opportunity versus what the Republican leadership was doing for the 
last 12 years. And the American people responded and gave us that 
opportunity.
  Some people might have started at the top of this hour, kind of 
scratched their head and wondered why we were talking about the 
University of Florida national championship and the Gators victory, but 
there is some analogy, all kidding aside.
  The Gators showed that they came to play last night when no one 
expected them to win, when for months people didn't give them any 
chance of coming out on top and winning the national championship. I 
think that our victory on November 7 is analogous to that because 
certainly at the beginning of my first term in Congress 2 years ago, no 
one gave the Democrats a chance. No one gave us a snowball's chance of 
reaching the point that we did on November 7 and being able to elect 
enough Members to truly move this country in a new direction.
  In part because of the Members that joined us on the floor each night 
and our Democratic Caucus colleagues who were so committed to get the 
message out and talking to their constituents and really appealing to 
the issues that the American people cared about, as opposed to the 
special interests and the culture of corruption and the pall that was 
cast over this Capitol for so long, now we are finally being given that 
opportunity. It is incredibly important.
  One of the most amazing things for me as a woman was that last 
Thursday we were able to watch history in the making when the gavel was 
passed to Speaker  Nancy Pelosi as the first woman Speaker in United 
States history. I had my twin 7-year-olds on the floor that day, and I 
know you had your children on the floor with you that day, Mr. Meek, 
but the opportunity for our kids to see, and especially for little 
girls in America, to see that really anything is possible in America, 
for that, for us to be able to witness that was just incredible.
  And today for us to be able to witness Speaker Pelosi preside over 
H.R. 1, the passage of H.R. 1, which was the first bill that we adopted 
in the 100-hours agenda that fully implements the 9/11 Commission 
agenda. The Republicans minimally implemented those recommendations, 
and that is why the 9/11 Commission co-chairmen gave them Ds and Fs, 
because they had not allocated funding on the basis of risk and 
vulnerabilities. They had not created and rehearsed State and local 
emergency response plans. They had not addressed the interoperability 
issues between intelligence agencies and first responders. There were 
at least 10 items. They have not protected privacy and civil liberties 
with an oversight function. They have not improved air passenger 
screening. They were not checking all the cargo. There was no funding 
or mechanism to check all of the cargo that came through our ports.

  H.R. 1 that we adopted today implements that right now. It was a 
thrill to watch Speaker Pelosi preside over the passage of the first 
item in our 100-hours agenda.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman is right. Last week 
during all of the Speaker ceremonies, one of the things was a mass up 
at Trinity College where the Speaker went to college. There were two 
pictures up on the altar. One was a picture of a kid in Darfur and the 
other was a kid from Hurricane Katrina. There were pictures of these 
kids from New Orleans and Darfur all over. I think that kind of 
symbolized where this Speaker is taking this House of Representatives, 
that is, we are going to act in the best interest of those kids to 
protect them by implementing these recommendations.
  I think the frustration we see on the other side of the aisle, and 
there is always a level of frustration because you are in power and 
then out of power, but the one level of frustration from the other side 
of the aisle is this stuff isn't brain surgery. We have been waiting 
years to implement some of this stuff. The minimum wage, 10 years. The 
9/11 Commission report has been out for a long time. Some of these 
other things such as negotiating drug prices, we are actually going to 
get this stuff done in the first 100 hours of legislative business we 
are doing here. I think there is a level of frustration on their side 
because some of them wanted it and it couldn't get through, or they 
don't want it and we are implementing it. But this agenda has the 
support of the American people.
  In some ways, these are broad parameters for us. But take the PAYGO 
rules. We are going to make sure that we are only spending money that 
actually comes into the Treasury. We are not going to go out and borrow 
from China. I know our friends who were here before were talking about 
we are going to get rid of all of the tax cuts. We are going to 
implement middle-class tax cuts, and we are going to ask some of the 
people who have been making millions, if not billions, of dollars over 
the past couple of years to pay more. If you are making millions of 
dollars a year, we are going to ask you to pay more in taxes. And the 
reason we are going to do that is we are either going to ask you or we 
go and we borrow it from China. You are benefiting a great deal from 
the economy that we have here, from the political system we have here, 
and we need your help in balancing our budget.
  Now, there is nothing that has more of an effect on average people 
than increased interest rates. As we borrow money and borrow money, 
money becomes scarce in the market, and interest rates go up. If you 
try to buy a house or car, interest rates have gone up and you are 
paying more. We are going to keep those tax cuts for the middle class, 
and we are going to ask the wealthiest to pay a little more. And by 
balancing the budget, we are going to try to reduce interest rates, and 
that will lead to another economic boom like happened in 1993 when 
President Clinton and a Democratic Congress balanced the budget. That 
is the way it is going to be.
  We are proving to the American people, and this is the exciting part, 
I think the American people took a leap of faith on us. In the last few 
days, we have actually done what we said we were going to do. Later 
this week we are going to continue to do what we said we were going to 
do, and next week we will do what we said we were going to do. And when 
the President gets here to give his State of the Union, he will have a 
Democratic agenda lying on the table to have to discuss, and that 
includes the war in Iraq.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) 
is making an excellent point. If you can

[[Page H247]]

elaborate more on what you were talking about, I think that is very 
important.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. When you talk about PAYGO, and we were talking 
earlier about the college loan interest rates and in cutting these 
interest loans in half for both parent and teachers, the bottom line is 
we are going to cut those interest rates and make college more 
affordable. You are also talking about the minimum wage and the stem-
cell research which we want to talk a little bit about tonight. We are 
talking about bread-and-butter issues, investing in science and cutting 
interest rates in half, making sure the bottom is lifted up. I think we 
have a lot going on.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Expanding access to higher education was one 
of the critical elements, is one of the critical elements of the 100-
hours agenda because America is all about opportunity.
  Our good friends on the other side of the aisle talk about prosperity 
and how it is essential to make sure that Americans can continue to 
prosper, and we absolutely believe that. But there is no denying that 
prosperity isn't possible in this or any other country without an 
education.
  If you are denied access to education because of the lack of 
affordability, because you can't pay for it or because your ability to 
repay a loan is prohibited because the interest rate is so high that 
you are paying for the rest of your natural life and it takes such a 
huge chunk of your income that eventually you have to decide not to 
pursue an education, then prosperity isn't possible.
  As you have in this chart, and Mr. Meek is going to talk about 
minimum wage, we lag behind the world in terms of global education 
standards. You have thousands of students who will graduate with 
engineering degrees this year. And look at the difference in numbers: 
600,000 engineering degrees in China; 350,000 engineering degrees in 
India; and 70,000 engineering degrees in the United States of America.

                              {time}  2250

  Now, if that isn't an example and evidence of where we need to focus 
our priorities and make sure that we expand access to higher education 
so that we can grow that number, then our ability to be competitive 
globally is severely, severely impacted, and individual's ability to 
prosper is severely impacted.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, just to be fair, these numbers have 
been shifted and I have seen different numbers for China, India and the 
United States. But the bottom line is no matter which ones you are 
looking at, they have a significant advantage on some of these. You 
look at our math and science scores, they have gone up a little bit, I 
think in the fourth grade range, but not nearly where we want them to 
be. We still have a tremendous gap between the wealthiest and poorest 
districts. We have a tremendous gap between minority districts and 
white districts. We have got a lot of work to do.
  The No Child Left Behind Act is coming up this year to be 
reauthorized and hopefully funded at the levels. Hopefully we can make 
the kind of changes that we always hear about on the campaign trail 
when it comes to education, teachers grabbing us about No Child Left 
Behind. We have a brutally competitive world out there waiting for us, 
and these changes need to happen, and some of them need to happen in 
the first 100 hours.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. If the gentleman will yield, one of the things 
I wanted to point out is it could ultimately, as we continue to do 
these 30-something hours, it could be easy to presume now that we are 
in the majority that we would come here and only talk about the 
Democrats' agenda and what we are planning to do, and we are going to 
spend quite a bit of time talking about that during these hours.
  But I think it is important that our colleagues and others who might 
hear us talking tonight understand that the reason that our taking the 
majority in the Congress was so important, besides our being able to 
implement an agenda, is the accountability factor.
  We are going to come here, now that we are in the majority and 
control the agenda here, it is absolutely our responsibility because we 
have the ability to do it to hold this administration accountable, to 
ask questions, to hold hearings, to bring them here and make sure that 
they answer questions about their policies that the American people 
showed us on November 7 they don't agree with.
  It is going to be incredibly important in the time that we spend on 
this floor that we not only talk about our agenda, but what we are 
doing to make sure that we restore the Congress' role, constitutional 
role, where we hold the administration accountable and reestablish the 
system of checks and balances.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I think it is important, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz, and also Mr. Speaker and Members, a perfect example of the 
balance of power. Now, in the 109th there were a lot of things said. I 
won't be giving any speeches any time soon saying I was proud to be a 
Member of the 109th Congress, because we had Members that were 
indicted, we had Members that were saying ``I have a list, and if you 
are not on my contributors' list, you can't have a meeting with me.'' 
We had the K Street Project. We had a number of other things. We had 
the page scandal.
  We had a number of things, because no one was policing the body of 
this U.S. House. No one took responsibility on telling the special 
interests, no, you can't have that. No one took the responsibility in 
standing up to the big oil companies and saying we are going to 
legislate on behalf of the American people.
  When we start talking about investing in alternative fuels on this 
floor within the next couple of days, next week or what have you, that 
is going to be something that no one dreamed would ever take place.
  I am holding this chart up because we have been holding it up, 
especially in the 109th Congress, to talk about the increases that 
Members of Congress have received in pay and what the American people 
have received, zero, since 1997 as it relates to an increase in the 
minimum wage.
  Guess what? This chart, we can send it over to the National Archives 
across the street, because tomorrow we are going to increase the 
minimum wage.
  Guess what a little legislative leadership brings? Now the President 
is saying ``I am for the increase in the minimum wage.'' Isn't that 
something? And when we get on that board tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, I 
guarantee you that there are going to be a lot of Republicans that are 
going to say, you know something, and they are going to send a press 
release out and say ``I voted for an increase in the minimum wage.'' 
Unheard of in the 109th Congress.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Unheard of in the 108th Congress, unheard in the 
107th Congress.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And on and on under Republican control. So I 
think it is very important for everyone to understand when we have 
legislative leadership, the writers of Constitution said there is going 
to be a legislative, an executive, a judicial. They did not say 
executive and legislative together. They didn't say someone calling 
from the White House and saying this is the way the vote is going to go 
down, and if you like it or not, this is what is going to happen.
  I have been talking to some of my Republican colleagues, and we all 
have great relationships with our Republican colleagues, many of them. 
We had an issue with the Republican leadership leading them down the 
wrong road, and we even tried to correct some of those issues here on 
the floor saying, you know, we want to get in the majority, but we care 
about the American people first, so, please, vote for our amendment, 
when we could get one on the floor, a motion to recommit, saying we 
want to make sure the American people are involved in this. We couldn't 
even pull one Republican on many of those issues.
  But tomorrow, thank God for our democracy, thank God for folks that 
voted for Democratic control of the House, we are going to have many 
Republicans that are going to vote. It is not going to be where were 
you yesterday, it is going to be thank God we are able to do something 
for the American people. So that is where we are.
  When Ms. Wasserman Schultz talked about legislative leadership, it is 
important. We have to be bold and we have to be bipartisan. I am just 
so happy that we are going to have the opportunity to do that. That is 
major,

[[Page H248]]

Ms. Wasserman Schultz, that is major, Mr. Ryan, for the American people 
to vote for change and to see it, immediately. Not, well, when is the 
next election? What? Two years and some change.
  We are not even out of January yet, and we are already voting in a 
bipartisan way because of the leadership of the Democrats that say we 
have to increase the minimum wage, something we told the American 
people we would do. So I am excited about the fact, Mr. Ryan, that we 
are able not only in our lifetime but in our political lifetime to be 
able to deliver to the American people something that is important.
  Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Ryan, when we come back to the floor, 
we are going to have members of the Freshman Caucus, of the Democratic 
Caucus, that are going to be joining us here on this floor. These are 
individuals that are fresh, out of not only the campaign, but out of 
private life, to bring to this House the kind of input that we need.
  One thing we are committed to do in the 30-Something Working Group, 
there is an old spiritual that says ``we are in no ways tired.'' We are 
in no ways tired, because we have a war that is going on, we still have 
people without health care, we have a deficit that is continuing to run 
out of control. But we have now passed legislation to pay as we go. We 
now have the will and the desire to do the right thing on behalf of our 
veterans. All of the things we talked about.
  So I look forward, Mr. Speaker, to coming to the floor to not only 
report on progress, but also to ask the Members on both sides of the 
aisle and the American people to give us the kind of input that we 
need.
  We had the rubber stamp, Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Ryan, that we 
asked the American people what should we do with the rubber stamp. I 
want to thank Mr. Manatos with the Speaker's office, I like to say 
that, with the Speaker's office, that facilitated that asking of the 
American people.
  We are going to keep the rubber stamp, the Republican Congress rubber 
stamp of the 109th, to remind us that we never, ever want to go back to 
a rubber stamp Congress. It is not good for the country and it is not 
good for our future, and it is not good for the men and women that are 
our veterans and those that are now serving for our independence for us 
to be able to salute one flag. It is not good. That is not what the 
Constitution called for and that is not what we are going back to.
  So there was a discussion of destroy the rubber stamp, or put the 
rubber stamp on E-Bay and give it to the Troop Relief Fund or whatever 
the case may be. But the overwhelming e-mails that we received in the 
30-Something Working Group was keep the rubber stamp as a reminder of 
what you don't want to do in the 110th, if God is willing, in the 111th 
and the 112th and so on and so on Congress, to not allow that to 
happen.
  So, Mr. Ryan, I just want to say, I know Ms. Wasserman Schultz joined 
us in the 109th, I want to thank you personally on the 108th, because 
it was kind of lonely. It was just the two of us. Every now and then we 
would get other members of the 30th-Something Working Group. I want to 
thank you for sticking in there over the years, and then when you are 
in the majority, commit to coming back with the same enthusiasm to say 
not only thank you, but to say that we are going to continue to work 
and we are going to continue to reach out and continue to do the things 
that we did in the minority to make sure that we have a strong majority 
and make this country stronger.

                              {time}  2300

  And I want to thank Ms. Wasserman Schultz for all the things she 
does. And I don't know how she does it all, being a mom. I am a dad, 
but to be a mom is a totally different definition. But she comes to 
this Congress and brings not only what she brings from the Florida 
senate, but the same kind of energy, integrity and good will on behalf 
of the American people, so I want to thank you and all the other 
Members.
  I want to thank Uncle Bill for being an individual that is receiving 
Medicare. He is a Medicare recipient now. The fact that he comes to the 
floor.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. When we are here early, he comes to the floor.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Right. When we come earlier, he comes to the 
floor.
  And Mr. Manatos, he is the glue that keeps this whole thing together. 
I can't say enough about him. I want to thank him for all the work he 
has done. Even though we are all paid to do what we do, Mr. Speaker, it 
takes an extra wanting to serve the American people to come to this 
floor night after night.
  And I want to take just a personal point. I want to thank my family 
for allowing me to be here, because I have two kids and a wife here in 
Washington, D.C. with me. They allow me to come to this floor. But the 
whole thing comes down to the fact that we have men and women that are 
deployed for 15 months at a time, so at least I can go two to three 
blocks to the Capitol at 10 o'clock at night, give them voice and those 
out in America voice that are punching in and out every day trying to 
figure out how they are going to get health care for their kids, how 
they are going to move in a direction where they will be able to have 
some savings and a tax cut as a middle class.
  So I am very thankful. You all can tell I am a little emotional 
tonight. I see folks here, the Capitol Police and other folks here 
working tonight, saying, Congressman, you have a big smile on your 
face. It is my first time being on the floor in the majority. It is not 
only a historic majority but I am glad to be part of change and glad to 
do something on behalf of the American people.
  Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Cheers, brother. I couldn't agree with you more, 
and we want to thank you too for your leadership. We have had a good 
couple of years where one of us is inevitably tired and cranky, maybe 
hungry, and the other one has said, we have to go. We have to go do it. 
We have to keep going.
  But when you look at what we are able to do, and I was just glancing 
over at the minimum-wage stuff, 13 million people would likely benefit 
from the increase. 7.7 million women, 3.4 million parents, and 4.7 
million people of color will benefit, with an average family of three 
getting $4,400 more a year in their pocket. That is why you do what you 
do. That is why you get into public life.
  You start looking at some of the funding streams for community health 
clinics and safe and drug-free schools, and the Pell grants, and we are 
not going to be able to wave a magic wand, because we are in a heck of 
a hole, so it is going to take us a few years to get out of this, but 
we are going to start bringing some balance to this process. And I 
think average people are going to start being represented here under 
the dome.
  We are not perfect. We will probably make some mistakes along the 
way, but I think they are going to be mistakes of us trying to do the 
right thing and make things happen. This is an incredibly complex 
system we run, with 435 Members from different walks of life, different 
States and different regions to try to make things happen. Then to go 
across the hall and try to agree with 100 people from 50 States, and 
balance that off the President and the executive branch is difficult, 
but I think we are laying down some good framework here that we can 
work in the next few weeks and hopefully in the next few years that 
will affect average people's lives.
  So, cheers. And now to my Gator friend.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you. I think the key word you touched on 
is balance. That is why I am thrilled, and I know the two of you are as 
well, to have the opportunity to restore balance and to restore the 
American people's confidence in their government again.
  Because, Mr. Meek and Mr. Ryan, that is one of the things that was a 
casualty of the last several years, with the headline every other day, 
every day sometimes, about a colleague of ours on the other side of the 
aisle being indicted, as Mr. Meek said, or arrested. We have former 
colleagues in jail. We have lobbyists that inappropriately tried to 
influence this process that are in jail.
  This election, I think, was a reflection of the American people's 
desire for change and to move in a new direction. And one of the things 
that Speaker

[[Page H249]]

Pelosi has talked about, and talked about so often in the campaign, is 
what her speakership and our majority will be about is making this the 
most bipartisan Congress in the United States history, with the 
inclusiveness and the participation that Members on both sides of the 
aisle will have an opportunity to have, and that that is incredibly 
important.
  That extends beyond just the Members here, but extends to the voices 
of the people that we are serving. The net roots, for example. That is 
a community that has been so instrumental and so involved in getting 
the message out about what people in the country care about. I know 
that the three of us have interacted during our time on the floor here 
with folks involved in the net roots and they have given voice to so 
many people exponentially that would not have had the ability to get 
our message out. It is incredibly important.
  Inclusiveness and balance and confidence in government is I think 
going to be the watch words that will be really the clarion call of our 
majority, so I really look forward to that opportunity.
  I tell you, where we are at this stage of our careers and our lives, 
I have been in public office now for, gosh, I guess it is 16 years, 
which is kind of amazing. But it is actually 16 years, and I have spent 
4 of those years in the majority in the State House. Mr. Meek, we 
served a couple years in the majority together in the State House, and 
that is the last time that I had an opportunity to actually advance an 
agenda. We definitely spent a lot of time honing our defensive skills, 
and I think we have gotten pretty good at that and comparing and 
contrasting. But at the end of the day, most of us, the vast majority 
of us ran for office in order to make the world better, and now we have 
that opportunity.
  Like you said, Mr. Ryan, we might not always do it right, but it 
won't be for lack of good intentions and it won't be for lack of trying 
to stand up for those who have no voice, which I think will be quite a 
marked contrast compared to, and I hate to directly question the 
intentions, but compared to the intentions of some over the last few 
years. That is the most diplomatic way I can put it.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Very diplomatic. I want to make one final point 
before we close up here.
  If the elections didn't go the way they were supposed to, or the way 
they did, I should say, and this was still a Republican-controlled 
House and a Republican-controlled Senate, just to put all this in 
context, what would have happened is the President would have said that 
we want to put 20,000 or 30,000 more troops in Iraq, and this Congress 
would have got out the rubber stamp, and it would have been a done 
deal. And in several months there would be a $100 billion supplemental 
and there would be 30,000 more troops in Iraq, and we would be further 
down the line. There would be no question that that is exactly what 
would have happened.

  So the power and the force of the American people in their statement 
that they made basically says we are going to have a discussion about 
this. Now, how this ends up, we don't know. But I know from a personal 
perspective there is going to be some strong resistance to adding any 
more troops, and we are going to have a discussion about money and 
everything else.
  Now, we don't have a caucus position, but the bottom line is this: 
there is going to be a discussion. And that is what is great about this 
country, and that is what is great about the elections. It is not just 
going to get rammed through this House, and the American people are not 
going to feel helpless. They are going to feel like they are here.
  I know we are ready to wrap things up. Mr. Meek, great game last 
night. You are actually a Miami of Florida fan.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Miami of Florida? I can tell you are from Ohio.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Miami of Florida.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Go Rattlers.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is what I said.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. No, you said I am actually a Miami of Florida 
fan. I can tell you are from Ohio. Miami of Ohio? We say Miami, 
Florida. We don't say Miami of Florida. But thank you, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. All I am saying is that last night he was like a 
big Gator fan.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We are all big Gator fans.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Now, I can see Ms. Wasserman Schultz, because I 
have seen the outfit. But you, all of a sudden they win and you are now 
a big fan.
  But I want to congratulate you. This is not poor sportsmanship. Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz, I want to congratulate you as well. Thank you for 
all your hard work.
  And I yield to my good friend.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, you claimed Ohio State, but you live 
in Niles, Ohio, far from where Ohio State is located.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Wait a minute, I want to clarify, it is the Ohio 
State university.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I am not yielding to you. I am yielding to Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz for closing. I am going to close, then you are going 
to give the Web site. Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I just want to close by saying that I look 
forward to the opportunity to continuing the balance that we have been 
trying to strike the last number of years and having the opportunity to 
implement our agenda, to move this country in a new direction, and 
begin to establish some real accountability and oversight with this 
administration.
  I look forward to joining you on the floor with the 30-something 
Working Group and having our new colleagues, the new additions, the new 
recruits in the 30-something Working Group, which is the freshman 
class.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you, Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
  I can tell you that in the 30-something Working Group we do, Mr. 
Speaker, kind of mix it up here and there, but I think it is very, very 
important. I am glad we came tonight just to reflect on the work, and 
to say thank you to the American people, and to say thank you to the 
staff here in the House, and to say thank you to all of our families.
  I would like to say thank you to our personal staff that work in our 
offices. We get together, Mr. Speaker, and we go over this information, 
what works best here for the American people. So we just don't come to 
the floor. We actually spend a lot of staff time. So we want to say 
thank you to our staffs.
  Once again, we would like to say thank you to the Speaker for 
creating this group and sticking with us and giving us the resources 
that we need to come to the floor night after night, and we look 
forward to continuing to do that.
  The good thing about this 30-something Working Group, Mr. Speaker, is 
that this wasn't a project to get in the majority; this was a project 
to work on behalf of the American people. So in the majority we will 
continue to do the things we did in the minority because we still have 
people out there that need the kind of representation in a sensible 
way. This is not partisan. We are going to read off the song sheet of 
whatever the Democratic National Committee puts out. That is not what 
it is all about. It is about giving voice, commonsense solutions, and 
moving in the direction that we have to move in.
  So we look forward to working with our Republican colleagues. And I 
am so honored, Mr. Speaker, to yield to Mr. Ryan to give the Web site 
out, and then I am going to yield back our time. But since we no longer 
can use our old Web site, because we are in the majority now, Mr. 
Manatos had to write it on some notebook paper to give out to the 
Members until we get our Web site memorized.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are still maintaining our grass-roots approach 
here with the legal pad. WWW.Speaker.gov/30something.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Can you give that out one more time?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. WWW.Speaker.gov/30something.

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