[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 13, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H6400-H6402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE 30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Giffords). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is
recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, we are going to be brief. We just
wanted to make a few more points here before we wrapped things up.
One of the issues that is a major issue for the country, for the
Congress, for the American people, for people living on border states,
is Customs and border protection.
We sat here many nights, Mr. Meek and I, and listened to our friends
come on the other side and give 5-minute speeches, 1-hour speeches, on
the issue of immigration, on the major threat to the United States of
America of illegal immigrants coming over our border.
In this homeland security bill that our Republican friends
filibustered today and yesterday, there is $8.8 billion for Customs and
border protection. $1 billion is provided for border security fencing
and tactical infrastructure, along with 3,000 additional Border Patrol
agents being funded.
Now, we have a bill that they agree with. I mean, you want to talk
about the Potomac Two-Step, Mr. Meek? We have got a bill here that,
across-the-board, everybody agrees with. You ask them why they are not
voting for it, and they say, because we are against earmarks.
We say there are not any earmarks in here. Now why are you voting
against it? Politics.
We have got to get past this, especially on an issue so critical as
this.
Now, we added $27 million for 250 additional Customs and Border
Patrol Agents for commercial operations and validations of commercial
vehicles, verifying that trusted shippers have placed necessary
security measures mandated in the SAFE Port Act. I mean, I don't
understand. I mean, you know, this is my fifth year here, but I don't
understand.
We are trying to pass a homeland security bill, and one of our
friends, our buddy from North Carolina on the other side, said today
that we should have passed the defense bill first. That was his big
argument he made today, when we just passed a defense supplemental bill
for $120 billion, with close to $100 billion of defense spending in
there. We just passed one, and the funding goes until September 30th.
We are talking about protecting the homeland, Mr. Meek. We are not
talking about all these other great things we are doing. This is
essential. This is our constitutional duty, is to protect the country.
Article I, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, Mr. Meek,
creates this House right here, and that is our first obligation, to
make sure that we support that.
So I think it is important that those folks who are at home find out
what is going on in this bill. Those folks in our own congressional
districts across the country, who are members of law enforcement, who
are police, fire, they need to know that we had millions and millions,
and it probably adds up to billions of dollars, in here.
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One of the things you hear about is intra operable communication
grants. If you hear from our local police and first responders, it is
that they don't have the proper equipment in a crisis situation to
communicate with each other. So we put in here $50 million to continue
a program to help local police, firefighters and first responders to
talk to each other during a crisis.
Fire grants, $800 million; that is $500 million above the President's
request
[[Page H6401]]
to address communications and staffing problems facing local fire
departments.
Emergency management performance grants. And $300 million for all
hazard grants, State and local emergency managers, national emergency
management agency performance grant report. There is a $287 million
shortfall in that program. We are trying to fix it. We are trying to
fix it. And we had a filibuster last night until 2 in the morning last
night.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. We are trying to slingshot the firefighters and
first responders in for a win. We are trying to give those protecting
our homeland on the front line, we are trying to give them what they
need.
There is an old saying that the field mouse is fast, but the owl can
see at night. I think it is very, very important that everyone
understands that even though procedural, and it may be funny in the
Republican conference, oh, we showed them, remember the Congressional
Record reflects what one says and what one does.
If you want to take the time, and I want to say in the 30-Something
Working Group we want to be correct. We found eight motions to rise
last night. As we talk about this, when I go back home I tell my
constituents, we are doing everything possible to end this war in Iraq.
The last thing that we want to do is not give our service men and women
what they need while we get through this partisan impasse.
Secondly, it is going to take a bipartisan fix to deal with Iraq.
Democrats cannot do it alone because we don't have the votes. We have
put benchmarks and redeployment of combat troops and moving our troops
out to the peripheral, giving more responsibility to the Iraqi
government, defunding some of the things that we said we would fund to
the Iraqi government based on the fact that we don't want to reward
lack of work or bad behavior or lack of accountability.
And I think as we start all of these different agencies that are
looking into these issues, as they start to release the reports and as
we start to look at them, we look at the lack of funding and the lack
of accountability that has taken place in Iraq. As we look at this, I
came to the floor to share with my Republican colleagues and be on the
record so that Americans will know that you all of us have a choice.
Over 70-plus percent of Americans, and I am not going to an exact
number, but 70-plus percent of Americans would like to see us out of
Iraq.
Democrats, Republicans, people that vote for the first time,
Independents, are waiting for the kind of leadership that should happen
and needs to happen, but it has to happen in a bipartisan spirit. I
didn't see any Democrats saying we will not participate in overriding
the President's veto. I want to also say that the President wouldn't
even have the opportunity to take out his veto pen if it wasn't for a
Democratic Congress bringing that issue to the floor and voting in the
affirmative to make it happen. It would not have happened. I share that
with my constituents and Members of Congress.
I think it is important when we look at the issue, 218 gets us to
where we need to be in terms of votes. But we need more Members to tell
the President, we will not stand for the status quo because American
lives are at stake. We know that many members of the Bush
administration are well intended. I don't think that they are saying we
are going to continue to carry out bad ideas that bring about bad
results. I don't think that is premeditated thought. But those of us
who are paying attention, reading and listening, understand that what
we are doing now is not the answer.
I can commend many of the Members for voting or against the spirit of
benchmarks and voting for accountability. I commend that. But July 15,
September 15, it is going to be an opportunity for folks to be able to
hear information and to be able to bring that information to the House
of Representatives and for us to take a vote and for us to take a vote
in the affirmative.
Sp those who went to the White House and said, we will stand against
our very own colleagues in Congress if you try to override the
President, to think about it. Think about it if you are going to go
down there again. Think about appropriation bills where America is in
need of domestic attention. The will of a majority here in this House
is concerned about education, concerned about health care, concerned
about the lack of resources our veterans have. We are concerned about
our transportation and infrastructure. We are concerned about moving in
the direction of creating our own energy, investing in the Midwest
versus the Middle East and concerned about homeland security.
Do you want to continue to stand with the President against the will
of the majority of the Congress when the American people are on the
side of the U.S. Congress as it relates to Iraq? How many times do you
want to walk through the gates of the White House and stand with the
President on this very issue?
So I want to, I implore my colleagues, my Republican colleagues, I am
not saying, stand with Democrats; I am saying, stand with your
constituents. Stand with the American people. Stand with what is making
sense right now, and that is making sure that we get our troops out of
the middle of a civil war.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Two points I want to make before we wrap things up
here tonight. I appreciate what you've said.
One of the provisions in this Homeland Security bill, and I keep
going back through here to see what our Republican friends
filibustered, and we have heard a lot over the last couple of years
about airport security, obviously after 9/11.
I want to share with the American people, Mr. Meek, and get into the
Congressional Record exactly what is in this bill for transportation
security. There is $6.62 billion, $307 million above last year, $219
million above the President's request.
There are three major components of this bill: Explosive detection
systems, there is $849 million for procurement, installation and
maintenance of equipment to protect commercial aircraft. This allows
the TSA to address the most pressing needs identified in their recent
aviation baggage screening study. They studied it and said, here is
what we need. We said, here is $849 million, get what you need to make
the American people safe when they fly.
Air cargo explosive screening, $78 million, which doubled the amount
of cargo screened on passenger aircraft.
Our friends on the other side of the aisle filibustered this bill. It
did not pass because of what they were doing.
Secure flight certification, TSA would certify that no security risks
were raised by TSA secure flight plans that would limit screening of
airline passenger names only against a subset of the full terrorist
watch list, another mechanism to protect the American people.
Three major components of protecting the people when they travel,
make this process easier and safer at the same time; our Republican
friends filibustered this issue last night and today.
I want to end with one point. Conservatism is dead. I want to be
completely clear about this. This isn't a George Bush, Madam Speaker,
has screwed things up so bad we can fix it if we are just more
conservative. Republican House, Republican Senate, Republican
President, implemented the neoconservative foreign policy and
implemented the conservative agenda without any inhibitions, without
any barriers. It was all implemented.
Their tax policy, their spending policy, their foreign policy, their
domestic policy, all passed the Congress and was implemented, and we
have the largest gap between the wealthy and the poor since 1929. We
have a foreign policy disaster that doesn't even need an explanation it
is so atrocious. From the Middle East and all over the world, we are
less safe today than we were just a few years ago because of this
philosophy on government.
They have run down government for a decade and a half to two decades
now, and when you turnaround and you need health care or you need FEMA
to be able to react to a natural disaster, it doesn't work because you
ran it into the ground. The philosophy doesn't work. It is not
enlightened. It is not flexible. It is eight key words, and if you
can't fit the whole problem of society and the complexity of society
into those eight key words, then it doesn't work. And that is what we
have seen happen.
We need a government that can change, that is responsive, that adapts
[[Page H6402]]
to the needs of our society. And our conservative friends have wrecked
it. Now we have the keys to the car, and we are trying to do some
things that are constructive. And we understand that they were
incapable, Madam Speaker, of governing, but it doesn't mean that they
should then impede us from doing it. That is what we want to do here.
Port security, border security, fire grants, police, first
responders, all of these things are in this bill that our friends
filibustered, and you will see our agenda implemented. You have already
seen it in the increase in the minimum wage. You will see it with more
community health clinics. You will see it with funding of Head Start.
You will see it with Early Start and after-school programs, safer food.
You will see it with transportation investments. You will see it from
the Democratic Congress.
Their agenda has been implemented over the last 6 years without
anybody to stop them, and it doesn't work, period-dot. The field mouse
is fast, but the owl sees at night.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, it is almost like that was a
benediction of our Special Order here today. I just want to say,
because you are going to have to yield back your time, that I want to
not only commend those who work here in the House, the Clerk's Office
and the Sergeant's Office and the Capitol Police and the folks from the
physical plant, clerical staff and what have you, I appreciate it. It
was a long night last night, and it has been a long week.
Also, Mr. Ryan, I think it is important, I want to thank you for
coming down to the floor. I want to thank Mr. Sestak for coming to the
floor, my good friend from Pennsylvania, who spoke in a very forceful
way about this issue of Iraq.
Madam Speaker, I am glad that, on the Democratic side of the aisle,
we still have the resolve that we had when we were in the minority. Mr.
Ryan and I both have an opportunity now to serve on two wonderful
committees.
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I actually serve on two. He serves on the mighty and very powerful
Appropriations Committee that he reminds me of constantly, and I have
the opportunity to serve on the Ways and Means Committee and the Armed
Services Committee, through waiver of the Democratic Steering
Committee.
So the fact that we would come to the floor to say that we promised
the American people that we were going to do things differently and
that we had a new direction and still feel that it's our job to come to
the floor and ask our colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle to
work with us and work by us on these national security issues and the
issues that are facing our children I think speaks to the level of
intent that we had of saying, if you give us the opportunity to lead,
we will lead.
So, with that, I thank Mr. Ryan for allowing me to be a part of your
hour.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Meek. It's always an
honor and a pleasure to be with you. If I don't get an opportunity to,
I'd like to wish you a happy Father's Day.
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