[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 162 (Wednesday, October 24, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H11995-H12001]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sarbanes). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to address the House 
once again.
  I share the sentiment of my colleague in recognizing Senator 
Wellstone. He was definitely a cornerstone here in this building for 
public service and really was a student of many of our great leaders of 
the past and gave voice to health care in a way that no other can do 
it.
  As you know, in the 30-Something working group, we come to the floor 
every day, or just about every day we are in session, to share with the 
Members the things that we have to continue to work on here in the 
House in a bipartisan way and also share with the Members the 
importance of making sure that we stand up on behalf of those Americans 
that need our assistance.
  At this time, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to my colleague to 
address the House for as long as he would wish to do so.
  Mr. LAMPSON. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me and for 
allowing me to take a minute or two to talk of a person who has done 
something significant for our country.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a distinct honor and a privilege to be a Member of 
this House and to be from the great State of Texas and to have in my 
district the home of American manned spaceflight,

[[Page H11996]]

the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, or JSC as it's called. The largest 
industry contractor at JSC is a company called United Space Alliance, 
or USA, and it operates the space shuttle for NASA and helps train our 
astronauts, who also call JSC home.
  For more than a decade, the head of USA has been a gentleman whose 
name is Michael J. McCulley. The company's president and CEO, Mike has 
led his company through some of the most difficult, and some of the 
most exciting, days in the history of the space shuttle. In just a few 
short weeks, he will step down from USA to begin a well-deserved 
retirement. He probably won't go far away. I rise today to salute this 
good man and his leadership.
  Mike came to his duties at USA from the front lines of space 
exploration. As a shuttle pilot, he has flown Atlantis into Earth's 
orbit and seen firsthand the majesty of this planet from space. But 
even before that, Mike was a naval aviator and test pilot, having 
operated more than 50 different types of aircraft, flown from the 
U.S.S. Nimitz and the U.S.S. Saratoga, and at the beginning of his 
naval career even served aboard atomic submarines in the depths of the 
oceans. That, my friends, is a true explorer of both inner and outer 
space.
  People like Mike McCulley show that in some of our most challenging 
times, there will be those ready and willing to serve the American 
people, placing their lives at risk for exploration, discovery, and 
achievement. Only through that kind of courage, that kind of selfless 
service, will our Nation's scientific advancement in space be assured 
and be continued.
  On behalf of this Congress of the United States of America, I hope 
that Mike and his wife, Jane, and their family will accept our thanks 
and our best wishes on his well-deserved next phase of an exciting, 
all-American life. Congratulations, Mike.
  Mr. Speaker, if I may continue while our colleague who has control of 
the time has gone to make a critical vote in the Ways and Means 
Committee, in speaking about Michael McCulley, there are two other 
things I would like very much to raise as an issue. I started speaking 
about space because Mr. McCulley is one of the great Americans who has 
played a significant role in moving us forward technologically in this 
world, and I am concerned right now that we are not moving ourselves, 
as a Nation, forward in science and technology, engineering and math 
studies for our youth. We are not challenged, it seems, to have the 
same kind of commitment for research and development, for exploration 
as we once had. And, unfortunately, other nations are stepping up to 
the plate to take our place. So it is my hope that we will find a new 
and renewed interest in funding space exploration and making sure that 
NASA has the moneys necessary to perform the tasks that it is required 
to do as a science organization for our Nation.
  I find it fascinating that in the early 1960s, when we were having 
difficulties as a Nation, when our Nation happened to be at war and we 
were having civil strife and were having financial problems in the 
1960s; yet John Kennedy, a new, young, enthusiastic President, stepped 
up to the plate and challenged us to go to the Moon, doing something 
that not many people thought was possible. And at the same time many of 
the naysayers and doubters were saying, how can we possibly do that 
financially? But we made the commitment. We put the money where it was 
necessary. And our young people learned how to do it and made an 
unbelievable success for us and changed the world, created new 
industries.
  The information technology industry has grown from our need to be 
able to communicate with people in space. We have seen medical advances 
to the extent that lives are now being extended. People are living a 
higher quality of life because of what we have learned, what the 
technological advancements have been because of our involvement in 
space. All of these things changed America and, to a large extent, 
changed the world.
  But in the last several years, we seem to have had a continuous 
slackening of the support and the commitment that we made or we saw in 
earlier years in space. For example, during those Apollo years in the 
1960s, when we were going back and forth to the Moon, and in the early 
1970s, 6 percent of the Nation's budget was committed to NASA. Today, 
that number is around six-tenths of 1 percent, 10 times less. So we 
have expected a major science agency of this government to do more but 
to do it with significantly less, and we can't continue to do that.
  Now we are starting to see the impact of other programs that we have 
learned along the way. We have critical satellite systems that fly 
overhead in space that give us information about weather and about 
Earth science, about the environment of the Earth. Those satellites in 
many instances are getting old. As they get old and cease to operate, 
we must have something to take their place, and that something must be 
in place before these existing satellites die or else there will be a 
gap in knowledge and information. And a gap in information, for 
example, on the gulf coast, where I live and where Mr. Meek lives, 
would put people in harm's way. They will not have the advance warning 
of an approaching storm and be able to prepare their property or 
prepare their families to get out of harm's way. Those critical areas 
are important for us to acknowledge, to commit to, to believe in, and 
to fund. A gap in that knowledge means that our families will not be as 
safe as they were with the knowledge.
  As we weaken our commitment to science and to NASA and we lose some 
of the hope that these systems will continue to operate, and just think 
if our information technology satellites went out of service, what 
would we do without our PDAs? What would we do without our Blackberrys 
and our cell phones? If they stop working, then we stop communicating, 
and we communicate with the world.
  So it is my hope that we will find a renewed commitment and fund NASA 
to a greater extent than what we have been doing so. It is my hope that 
the billion dollars that the Senate has found to put into the Commerce, 
Justice, and State portion of our budget, which we will be taking to 
conference very soon, will find the same kind of support in the House 
of Representatives that it has found in the Senate and that we will 
support this commitment so that, instead of having to choose between 
doing the work for space exploration or science, we can do both because 
it is the commitment that the people want us to make to give them the 
hope for a better tomorrow, to keep us growing with our quality of 
life, to keep us having hope that our children will go and get the 
education necessary to do the things that will give us the kind of 
lives that we have strived for for such a long period of time.
  Mr. Meek, I appreciate your yielding to me. I got to talk about 
Michael McCulley, who is a friend of mine, who has led a major space 
effort for this country for a long period of time and also to just sort 
of put forth some of my passion, which is to make sure that we get NASA 
funded properly out here on the table so that we can continue that 
dialogue.
  I don't know what your topic was, but thank you for letting me butt 
in, and I would be happy to answer any questions, if you have them.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I am just very pleased that you came down at the 
time that you did come down and share with us about how important the 
NASA program is, especially to not only the development of the country 
but to our young people and those that have contributed and dedicated 
their lives to helping us along the way in the sciences, not to compete 
against States but to compete against other countries as it relates to 
the forward lean that we have to have.
  We are going to talk about children's health care and a number of 
other issues, but we are glad that we kicked off with the NASA program.
  Mr. LAMPSON. The Children's Health Insurance Program is critically 
important. It's critically important to giving children the opportunity 
to grow up healthy enough to want to do well enough in their early 
years in school so that they will have an opportunity to go off and 
study math and science and engineering later on. It's a big deal for 
all of us.

                              {time}  1545

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You're 110 percent right. And being from 
Florida, as you know, we have a number of NASA assets in Florida. And 
even when I was

[[Page H11997]]

in the Florida legislature, we were very supportive of programs that 
gave kids a jump start in the math and sciences to be eligible for NASA 
programs and other private programs that are out there as it relates to 
innovation and space.
  Mr. LAMPSON. Well, I thank you for your commitment. I thank you for 
all the work that you have done to further the Children's Health 
Insurance Program. This body has come very close to making it law, and 
it's my hope that we will succeed very quickly to make sure that the 10 
million children in this country who do not have access to this health 
care are covered.
  So thank you for your good work, and I look forward to continuing to 
work with you to make it a success.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you so very much. And as we speak, there 
are those in the Capitol dome trying to make sure that children's 
health care gets its fair share from this country of ours.
  I would just like to share with the Members some of the good things 
that are happening under the Capitol dome.
  We have passed, Mr. Speaker, a number of measures that have been 
bipartisan and major as it relates to legislation. The 9/11 Commission 
recommendations are something that the House and Senate both passed, 
and that was signed into law. The largest college aid expansion since 
the 1944 GI Bill saved, on average for every student, I would say 
almost every American because, as it relates to college loans and 
student loans, the responsibility for paying many of those loans back 
fall back on parents and grandparents. So that's $4,400 in interest 
that the American people don't have to pay.
  The first minimum wage increase in a very long time, double-digit 
years, was passed by this Congress. And it was because of the 
Democratic leadership and some of our friends on the Republican side 
that voted for the passage of that bill that we now have an increase in 
the minimum wage.
  Innovation Agenda to promote 21st century jobs, passed by this House, 
signed into law. The Reconstruction Assistance Program for gulf coast 
disasters and hurricanes was passed and signed into law. The largest 
veterans health care increase in the 77-year history of the VA passed 
off of this floor and is still in a holding pattern as it relates to 
that becoming law or empowered by not only the President but the 
legislative process. Also, the landmark Energy Independence and Global 
Warming Initiative that was passed by this Congress.
  Now, I think it's important that we look at the record-breaking roll 
call votes that have been taken thus far by this Congress and the work 
philosophy that we have in the 110th Congress versus previous 
Congresses. And you know that two of the initiatives that have passed 
on a bipartisan vote that I did not mention that the President has 
vetoed was the expansion of the life-saving medical research on stem 
cells that passed in a bipartisan way by this House and by the Senate 
and was vetoed by the President. And the most recent veto is the one 
that's dealing with health care for 10 million children and working 
families that passed off this floor on a bipartisan vote, came 13 votes 
shy last week of overriding the President's bad veto, had the votes in 
the Senate to do so, but it's something that we're working on right 
now, Mr. Speaker. And that's one of the reasons why I came to the floor 
today, and my other colleagues that will be joining me a little later 
on, to talk about the SCHIP plan.
  I can tell you, as we stand here, Mr. Speaker, to address these 
issues dealing with children's health care, one said, when I was on the 
floor last week, well, the Congressman is talking about health care. 
The CHAMP, or SCHIP, bill is dealing with insurance. Well, I can tell 
you, when you're talking about insurance, you're talking about health 
care. If you don't have insurance, you're not going to be able to 
afford health care, especially the preventive care that the CHAMP bill 
or the SCHIP bill calls for. So, if you take the opportunity to go meet 
the average American that has a child that is not covered under health 
insurance, you're going to find an individual who will share with you 
that, without it, they can't go to many of the doctors offices where 
they can at least pay a small fraction or at least afford preventive 
care and the annual checkups that children need.
  We're in a situation right now, Mr. Speaker, that we have children, 
if this SCHIP bill or CHAMP bill is not reauthorized, we're going to 
have children without health care, without health insurance. Whichever 
way you cut the cookie, they're going to need a way to pay for health 
care or you might as well look forward to parents going down the 
drugstore aisle trying to correct the sniffles and trying to head off 
fever and trying to head off other situations that young children run 
into. But those are just the minor issues. What about the bigger issues 
that, if detected early, can be prevented if we have the kind of health 
insurance that would be helpful for children?
  As we start to look at a re-approach on this bill after the 
President's veto, I know that the Speaker and others, and in reading 
through not only the newspapers but also in meetings that have taken 
place, we are still holding hard on the 10 million children insured. 
Now, I think that's very, very important that we head in that direction 
and that we stand firm on the 10 million.
  Last week, I was sharing with many of my Republican colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle, those of whom were in the 13, because there 
are some that are saying that they are with the American people, they 
don't necessarily have to be with the Democratic Caucus because this is 
not about the Republican Conference or the Democratic Caucus, this is 
about children having an opportunity to have health insurance to be 
able to have quality health care, and that's what it's about. And I 
want to commend my colleagues that are on the other side that have 
voted on behalf of not only their districts but young people in America 
and their families.
  So, now we're down to correcting a wrong. Last week, I talked about 
the story, Mr. Speaker. In all great pieces of legislation and every 
initiative there is always a story before you get to the glory, and 
we're still writing the story. And I think, as we go into the final 
chapters of this SCHIP debate here in the House of Representatives and 
the Senate and we deliver another product to the President of the 
United States, I think it's important for those who voted against 
overriding the President on this issue, think about what you have done. 
You might not have felt the full brunt of the displeasure of the 
American people for the Congress, where many of our children are 
insured because we have health insurance and we have the kind of 
insurance that will cover our children, and that there are families 
that don't celebrate the same thing that we do, that there is going to 
be a great level of displeasure out there. And I want to say that out 
loud because I want to make sure that Members understand exactly what 
they're doing.
  No one came to Congress to vote against health care for children. I 
don't think anyone jumped up and said at any political forum or debate, 
when they were debating, need it be a Republican primary or a 
Democratic primary, to say, ``You know, one of my goals when I get to 
Congress is that I'm going to vote against children's health care.'' I 
think they wouldn't have even made it to the Halls of Congress. I'm 
speaking to that individual Member that decided not to, whatever the 
situation may be.
  I haven't seen, in my 14 years of public service, Mr. Speaker, a bill 
that I am 110 percent in support of and agree with every section in 
that bill. When we put together legislation, there is always something 
in the bill that you wish you could have more of or not have at all in 
the bill. And it's very unfortunate, especially when we're in a body of 
compromise, when we're talking about children that will become 
uninsured if we don't pass this bill, I think it's important for us to 
realize our place in this debate. I commend those that voted. You were 
supposed to vote for that. I'm glad you did. I'm glad you voted for the 
SCHIP program.
  Let me just run some numbers. One may say, well, we're concerned 
about cost as it relates to providing insurance for children to have 
health care. Well, one day we're going to compare this as it relates to 
war, because a lot of folks get into the chest-beating posture or 
session when it comes down to the war in Iraq. And we're concerned 
about what happens with children tens

[[Page H11998]]

of thousands of miles from the United States of America. I'm concerned, 
also. But I'm really concerned about what is happening with children 
here in the United States. And I think it's something that we all 
should pay very, very close attention to.

  One day in Iraq costs $330 million. That will cover 270,000 kids. One 
week in Iraq costs $2.3 billion. That's 1.8 million kids who can be 
covered under the children's health care bill. One month in Iraq is $10 
billion. That's one month that can cover 8.1 million children as it 
relates to health care. And the cost of 40 days in Iraq is $12.2 
billion. That will cover 10 million kids' health care. I think it's 
important to look at just over one month that will cover a full year of 
health care for 10 million children. Just a couple of days over the 
average month will cover 10 million children.
  So, when we start lining our priorities up of where we stand as a 
Congress, and I'm talking to the real minority here because there are 
very few Members of this House that are voting opposite of where the 
American people want us to be, and that's providing health care. Polls 
have shown here in the United States over 80 percent of Americans are 
saying that it's important for us to have children's health care. So, 
you have a very small percentage saying that they don't agree with 
this, and maybe they need more information.
  But when you have Members of Congress, and we're talking about lights 
on, lights off, health care for 10 million children or not, that's a 
simple decision for one to make. If you have issues with the 
application of it, it has to be better than what we will not have if we 
don't reauthorize it and reauthorize it for 10 million children.
  I think it's important that you understand a number of the coalitions 
that are here. And I'm spending the time on the floor, Mr. Speaker, to 
share this with the Members because this is, A, what do we look for in 
legislation? We look for bipartisanship. That's what the American 
people always say. They would love for Democrats and Republicans to 
work together. You have that in this bill. I mean, for this to be a 
partisan body, you have to look at the significance of having a 
bipartisan piece of legislation with major Democrats and major 
Republicans that are on board on the legislation.
  You also have to look at the second issue that I think is very, very 
important; the fact that it passed both House and Senate 
overwhelmingly. And you have to look at that as a component and a proof 
to the leadership and the reason why we have to insure children, 10 
million children in the United States of America. That's very, very 
significant. Don't let anyone belittle the work that has happened on 
both sides of the aisle with Democrats and Republicans sending a bill 
to the President.
  I would also add on to that point the fact that the President vetoed 
the bill. And you had a commitment from the Senate, the United States 
Senate, that they would override the President of the United States on 
this issue because he's wrong. That's what is so good about our 
democracy. That goes back, not just a bill on Capitol Hill, it goes 
back to those days that used to come on Saturday morning to let young 
Americans know how this process worked. And then in the House we took 
the vote and we fell 13 votes short of overriding the President. That's 
very, very significant.
  I came last week and commended those groups, those nonpartisan, 
volunteer groups that are dealing with children's diabetes, that are 
dealing with a number of issues, polio, the doctors that came to 
Capitol Hill, the March of Dimes, all the different foundations that 
are out there doing good things and passing good information out and 
encouraging Members to sign on and get that vote. We couldn't have had 
the kind of vote that we had last week if it wasn't for those outside 
organizations and Americans and parents and grandparents and children 
saying we should have health care.

                              {time}  1600

  When they see the kind of numbers that I am reading off, spending 
$330 million in Iraq in 1 day, that's just 1 day. I can get down to 
$3,300 and change every second that we are spending in Iraq. And you 
have folks here that are mumbling and grumbling about the cost of an 
insurance bill that will provide health care to 10 million children, we 
have 40 plus Governors out there in the 50 States that are out there 
saying that we need this bill. I want to break this down because I want 
to make sure that the Members, I don't want to use a lot of acronyms, I 
don't want to get into a lot of programs and all of that because I'm on 
the Ways and Means Committee and there's enough acronyms there to talk 
about health care. I'm on the Armed Services Committee and there is a 
plethora of acronyms that we could use there and all kind of big words. 
I want to make sure that everyone understands what it comes down to. 
You are either with insuring 10 million children or you're not. Period. 
Dot. There is no in between. There is no ``maybe I need to take more 
consideration'' or ``maybe I need to look at this a little further.'' 
We have already taken one vote that has passed the House 
overwhelmingly. We have already taken a second vote that fell 13 votes 
short of a two-thirds vote to override the President of the United 
States. And now we're about to take another vote. So it's almost like 
three strikes and you're out.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been on this floor now coming on 5 years, 
speaking not only to the Members but also making sure that staff and 
everyone else understands the significance of every vote that we take. 
And if this was about politics, I always say it, look in the 
Congressional Record time after time again, if it was about politics, I 
could just sit in my office and let just the electoral process take its 
course.
  I do believe that Members who are not voting for children's health 
care are making a career decision. That's what they're doing. Now, if 
this is the last day of school for Members and they're retiring after 
this term that is a whole other thing. But for those who want to 
continue to serve not only their districts and the American people, 
they have to pay very close attention to the vote that they are taking 
here on this floor. Insuring 10 million kids is bigger, in my opinion, 
than winning some sort of, you know, one or two political races. I am 
not into that. I was sent here to Congress, and many of us were sent, 
all of us were sent here to represent the folks back home. And I 
guarantee you, the folks back home are not saying, ``Please don't 
insure children. Whatever you do, Congressman, make sure you don't 
insure 10 million children or 5 million children. Just make sure you 
don't do that, and you have my vote.'' There is not anyone back there 
saying that. And so I think it's important for us, when we get into 
this process, I think it's important for us to share with Members what 
we are here for. Like I said, once again, there are some things in the 
bill that I don't agree with, but when you start talking about the 
insurance for children that my children celebrate, I wasn't elected for 
me to have my children to have health care and I look at my 
constituents and say, ``Run for Congress one day and you can be like 
me.'' That's not what it's about. It's about us being able to stand for 
them.
  I think it's also important to look at even with some of the media 
accounts about some of the things that are going on here in Washington 
that we are working hard on, the Democratic side of the aisle, because 
Americans voted for change, Mr. Speaker. They didn't vote for the 
status quo. Republicans had the majority last time. There were 
Democrats and Republicans and independents who said, You know 
something, we gave you an opportunity. My kids and my grandkids and the 
fiscal situation this country is in is more important than my party 
affiliation. And we have seen throughout the country, Republicans say, 
``I'm going to vote for the Democrat this time because I want to see 
change.'' Now that change is here and I read off a list of bills that 
were passed in a bipartisan way. These are not just Democratic bills, 
we beat our chests and say, ``Not one Republican voted for it.'' Yes, 
there are one or two there. But the majority of the major bills that 
have passed have passed with some Republican votes, and that is 
important to the process.
  USA Today, War Costs May Total $2.4 trillion. When you look at the 
cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it could cost $2.4 trillion 
the next decade or nearly $8,000 per man, woman and child in this 
country according to the Congressional Budget Office that is

[[Page H11999]]

scheduled for release and that took place here today earlier. A 
previous Congressional Budget Office estimate put the war cost at more 
than $1.6 trillion. This one adds to the $705 in interest. And if you 
take into account, Mr. Speaker, as we continue to go on as it relates 
to the war in Iraq, as we look at the borrowing from foreign nations 
and then we turn around and we also bring a bill, I'm going to add to 
those points, we bring a bill that we show how we are going to pay for 
the bill so that we don't have to continue to borrow from foreign 
nations, so that we don't have to continue to see our kids having to 
pay some $8,000 per man, woman and child because of the decisions that 
were made here on this floor in previous Congresses.
  So how do we have a paradigm shift? Well, we come about bringing 
about that paradigm shift through good policy and bipartisanship. So I 
am speaking to the 13 that voted against, helped us fall short of that, 
of overriding the President. It could have been a different day the 
following day after that vote, but it wasn't because we had some of our 
Republican friends not voting with us.
  I am going to put a pin there, and I am going to allow my good friend 
from Ohio (Mr. Ryan). First of all, I just want to say, sir, that I'm 
sorry about your Indians. I'm really sorry. As you know, I e-mailed you 
and told you that I was with you. Being a Dolphins fan, I'm switching 
sports now, but I'm having a rough year, and I wanted someone to have 
some joy that I knew. And I know you, sir, and I know you're excited 
about your Cleveland Indians. And they fought hard. But I'm sorry, sir, 
that they didn't make it through the process.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We're still struggling. There are a lot of 
emotional issues that Cleveland Indians fans have had for a long time. 
And then you factor in the Cleveland Browns and the drive and the 
fumble and Michael Jordan singlehandedly beating us a couple of times 
in the playoffs and you add this to the mix, we have some psychological 
issues we need to deal with, Mr. Speaker, and hopefully we will be able 
to work through them.
  But today is the day that we are talking about the excess in spending 
on the war. We hear a lot back in our districts, I'm sure you do in the 
Seventeenth District in Miami, and I hear in the Seventeenth District 
of Ohio, we hear about the rising cost of health care. We hear about 
the rising cost of education. We hear the problems that we have 
incurred in this country because we haven't invested into developing 
alternative energy sources in the United States of America, and we 
haven't developed them fast enough.
  We have all these issues that local communities deal with, Community 
Development Block Grant money that they get from the Federal Government 
that local communities can build sidewalks and roads and sewer lines 
and they can use all this money. That is Federal money that works its 
way down to local communities. And when we look at the needs of local 
communities, every single day in the paper in Ohio, it is water lines, 
it is sewer lines. In the summer it is what sports do we have to ask 
the kids and the parents to pay for this year? Why are we cutting the 
art programs? Why don't we have enough money to handle the septic and 
the sewer systems in our local community? For years, the Federal 
Government continued to make those investments. And what we hear now 
coming out of the executive branch, Mr. Meek, is that we don't have the 
money to do it.
  Now, we are talking about providing health care for 10 million kids, 
poor kids, who live within 200 percent of poverty, a family of four 
making maybe $40,000 a year. What we are arguing on our side is that we 
think it is in the best interests of this country, all of us together, 
not one family or this family, all of us, is that if we provide and pay 
for health care for these 10 million kids and their families, because 
we believe on this side and our friends on the other side who voted 
with us, not the President, we believe that if we make this very small 
investment of $35 billion over 5 years, that we are going to have a 
healthier country, that we are going to have kids who aren't sitting in 
the classroom getting other children sick, that they are going to be 
able to concentrate and focus.
  We sit here and we say, ``We need more people to major in math. We 
need more people to major in science. We need to compete with the 
Chinese. They graduated thousands and thousands of more engineers than 
we did in the United States of America.'' Part of that is we need our 
kids to be healthy. We need them to be able to concentrate in school, 
not sneezing and getting colds and pneumonia and not missing classes. 
We need them to be healthy. And that is the basic concept behind the 
State Children's Health Insurance Program.
  To have the President, after he began a war that is going to cost us 
$2.4 trillion, with a T, tell us that we don't have enough money to 
provide health care for these 10 million kids is a complete outrage and 
doesn't really make any sense. Now, I think it is important, Mr. 
Speaker, for the Congress to know and to be reminded that over the past 
6 years, with a Republican President, a Republican House and a 
Republican Senate, that this President and that Congress, those 
Congresses have borrowed more money from foreign interests than every 
President and Congress before them combined. Over $1 trillion in 
foreign money. Now, the same Congress and the same President asked to 
raise the debt limit, meaning we can go out and borrow, as a country, 
more money, five times he asked to raise the debt limit. Then, on top 
of that, the final number is the increase of the debt under this 
President is $3 trillion. So he raised the debt by $3 trillion, raised 
the debt limit five times. Now we have a war that is going to cost us 
$2.4 trillion, with a T, and he says, ``We don't have enough money, Mr. 
Speaker, to provide health care for 10 million kids at $35 billion, 
with a B, over 5 years.''
  For 40 days in Iraq, we could pay for 10 million kids to get health 
care for a whole year. Forty days in Iraq. And what is the investment 
going to get us? It is going to get us healthier kids. It is going to 
get us kids who can concentrate and pay attention in school. It is 
going to save us money in the long run because we are not going to cart 
these kids off to the emergency room 2 weeks later with pneumonia when 
we could have taken care of them with maybe a small prescription. Those 
are the kind of prudent investments that we want to make in this 
country. Those are the kind of investments that we should be making in 
this country.
  We talk a lot in this country about what are we going to do in the 
next century? We lost manufacturing, and we are not sure what the new 
economy is going to look like. But there are some things we know about, 
Mr. Speaker. We know that our kids in Niles, Ohio, or Youngstown, Ohio, 
or, Miami, Florida or wherever you are from, are competing more 
directly with the students in China. We know that our kids are now 
competing. The old steel belt and the old rust belt in Ohio is 
Cleveland and Youngstown and Akron and Pittsburgh. For the longest 
time, those cities used to compete with each other and those businesses 
used to compete with each other. Now this whole region is competing 
with Shanghai. And our kids are competing more directly with those kids 
in China, India and all over the world, 1.3 billion people in China, 
1.2 billion people in India. We only have 300 million people in the 
United States of America. We are at a real disadvantage when it comes 
to just mass numbers. And democracy is not always easy, either. If you 
want to open up a factory in China or you just clear a neighborhood 
out, you give everybody 25 bucks, they give you a week to get out. 
There are no environmental laws. There are no worker rights. It just 
happens. The government comes in and moves everything along. Democracy 
is sometimes a little more difficult, in a good way. We have rights; 
property rights, human rights and all kinds of different things that 
citizens in China don't have.
  But my point here is this, we only have 300 million people. So if you 
look at what the Democratic agenda, the 6 in '06 and what my friend 
from Florida has been stating, what we have been trying to do is very, 
very simple. We're trying to invest into those 300 million people so 
that they're healthier, so that they're more educated, so that they are 
able to live the American dream. Now, no one here is saying that 
everyone needs to be a winner. We understand that life is life. There 
are winners and there are losers. But as a

[[Page H12000]]

country, we want to make these investments because we all benefit from 
it. We all benefit from that.

                              {time}  1615

  The investments we are making now, just look at our agenda now. One 
of the first things we did, we raised the minimum wage for the first 
time since 1997 so that we are lifting people up. One of the second 
things we did is we reduced the cost of college education, or tried to. 
We cut student loan interest rates in half. So when you go out and 
borrow for your kids to go to school or a student borrows next year to 
go to school, the interest rate will be 3.4 percent, as opposed to last 
year when it was 6.8 percent and that money was going to the banks. 
They were making a heck of a lot of money off of it.
  Mr. Speaker, we are saying keep those rates low; let's improve access 
so that everyone can go to a community college and get a skill or they 
can go off to college and get an associate's degree or a master's 
degree or Ph.D. so that they are educated to compete. What we also did 
was increased the Pell Grant by $1,000 over the course of the next 5 
years. Is that as much as we want? No. Absolutely not. We are not even 
close. But we are moving in that direction. It's tough, when you have a 
war that is costing you $2.4 trillion, to come up with any money to 
make these kinds of investments. But that is what we wanted to do, and 
we have changed the direction in regard to college education.
  Now, if you're a kid going to school in Ohio, where we had the new 
Governor come in and he froze college tuition for 2 years so there will 
be a zero increase next year and a zero percent increase the following 
year, if you add that to what we have done with the student loans and 
the Pell Grants, you're talking about saving average families thousands 
and thousands and thousands of dollars. An average student loan, 
because of the interest change we made, an average family will save 
$4,400 over the course of the loan.
  Now, we are not coming out here beating a drum, saying we have got to 
cut taxes, we have got to cut taxes for millionaires. We are saying if 
you send your kid to school and you take out a loan, we just saved you 
$4,400. If you have someone in your family, or one of your students, 
kids that are going to school that are working for minimum wage, they 
got a pay increase. If you're utilizing the Pell Grant, you're going to 
get more of that. These are good, solid investments we've made. In 
addition to this, we have the State Children's Health Insurance 
Program. So these kids have opportunity.
  Now one of the other things that really isn't on the agenda to talk 
about, but the Senate just passed it last night, we are trying to pass 
it again through the conference committee and hopefully get the 
President to sign it, but the President said he was going to veto it, 
is the Health and Education bill, where we are making investments to 
build community health clinics so that people who don't have health 
insurance now can at least go to a health care clinic and get some 
preventive care.
  Mr. Speaker, I just found it stunning, and I think a lot of other 
citizens of this country did as well, and I know many Members of 
Congress have found it stunning too, when we were having this big 
debate about children's health and the President said, Well, they have 
health insurance. They can go to the emergency room.
  I found that absolutely stunning that the President of the United 
States, in 2007, his solution or lack of solution is to say that these 
kids could just go to the emergency room. Now, I am sorry, but that is 
unacceptable. Not only is it bad economics, it is unacceptable from a 
moral position.
  It has been frustrating, but I want the American people, Mr. Speaker, 
to understand what we have done through the House is passed 
legislation. And my friend with the great reform of the Small Business 
Administration, our friend from Pennsylvania, creating an angel 
investor fund and basically retooling the SBA for the 21st century in a 
high-tech economy, the things that we have done have been investments 
into our country and into our people.
  Now, I'm sorry. Giving $100,000 tax break to someone who makes 
millions of dollars a year is not benefiting anybody because they are 
not even taking that money and investing it back into our country. They 
are investing it probably in China and India. What we are saying is we 
are going to make these investments.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to follow up on a couple of points 
that the gentleman from Ohio mentioned, one of which was this idea 
that, well, these kids who don't have insurance can just show up at the 
emergency room. What I hear people who are of that mindset say is this 
SCHIP program is too expensive, there's not enough money to cover these 
kids and, therefore, I don't want to pay for them; somebody else can 
worry about that, send them to the emergency room.
  But here's the problem with that way of thinking. We do pay for it 
when they show up at the emergency room. They show up there, they get 
covered, and, as the gentleman indicated, an earache that could have 
been knocked out with antibiotics turns into something more serious, a 
cold turns into pneumonia. Other situations that could be easily 
treatable, they instead turn into bigger health problems. We all pay 
for that because, in this country, when a hospital has uncompensated 
care or debt based on the fact that people don't have insurance but 
still show up for treatment, we are the ones that pay for that.
  The reason that when you go to a hospital an aspirin will cost $15 is 
because of the cost shift that takes place when somebody, one of these 
children without health insurance shows up at the hospital, usually in 
the least cost effective way possible in the emergency room. So that is 
what happens when the President or someone else says, Well, let's just 
send them to the emergency room and everything will be fine. We are 
paying for that. That is why health insurance premiums go up, that is 
why costs are skyrocketing, and that is the cost shift that takes 
place.
  On another point, I wanted to mention, and we are talking about our 
successes, some of the things that have happened in this Congress, I 
wanted to relay a story that took place over the weekend. I was holding 
a town hall meeting in my district and we were taking questions and 
someone asks the question, Well, when are you guys going to do 
something about the cost of college? I have got a kid in college. When 
are you going to lower the cost of higher education?
  I said, That is a great question and I want to apologize to you 
because you should be aware of the fact that we have done something 
about that. This is not something that is on the drawing board or just 
passed the House or is awaiting signature. This has been signed and 
enacted, $20 billion of relief for parents and students for higher 
education. The largest expansion of higher education funding since the 
GI bill in 1944 passed this House, passed the Senate, and has been 
signed into law by the President.
  Maybe we haven't done as good a job as we should be doing in getting 
the message out. This is a major legislative victory for this Congress 
and for this country. We cut in half the interest rate on student 
loans, from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent, which, by itself, if we did 
nothing else, would save the average student borrower in this country 
$4,400 by itself.
  But that is not all we did. We increased Pell Grant funding to 
$5,400, the largest increase and the highest amount available in 
history, in the history of the Pell Grant program. We increased funding 
for Perkins loans. We increased the availability and the types of 
students and the types of schools that can qualify for Perkins loans. 
Just as important, we capped at 15 percent of discretionary income the 
amount that the student borrower will be required to pay in paying back 
their loans.

  So they will not be forced into debt over their heads, and they will 
be able to have a more manageable debt burden when they graduate and 
when they start in the workforce and their income is not that high. 
These are good achievements. That was all in that bill.
  So what I said to the person who asked this question was, this was 
something you took the time to show up at the town meeting to ask this 
question. This was the number one issue of concern to you, and that is 
why you asked me this question. And we did something about it. This 
Congress has

[[Page H12001]]

helped you on the issue that is of the greatest concern to you. It is 
going to help millions of Americans, parents and students around this 
country, afford higher education, afford the cost of college.
  We have had tremendous legislative success. As you have talked about, 
more days in session, more rollcall votes, more legislation passed, 
than any Congress in recent history, maybe in the history of the 
country to this date. So we have legislative success.
  I wanted to not let the time go by without talking about that College 
Cost Reduction Act, because that is going to affect people's lives.
  So I yield back now to the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Meek.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you, Mr. Altmire. The good thing about it, 
and Mr. Ryan and I were in a meeting the other day, and I think it is 
important, very important, and I was sharing a little earlier today 
about giving thanks to those out in the field. And when I say ``those 
out in the field,'' those Americans out there, because the President 
said he wasn't going to sign the College Interest Rate Reduction Act or 
what have you, the $4,400 that Mr. Ryan alluded to.
  If it wasn't for the American people pushing for that, it wouldn't 
have happened. If it wasn't for the American people saying that we 
wanted a minimum wage after double-digit years of no minimum wage, it 
would not have happened. If it wasn't for the American people stepping 
up at the last given Tuesday when we had the election for this House 
saying that we wanted to move in a new direction, it would not have 
happened.
  I think it is important for us to look at this American spirit rising 
up again on the children's health bill. When we look at health 
insurance and we look at health care for children, the American people 
are going to make that happen, because hopefully we will have an 
opportunity to vote on that bill again. Hopefully after taking the 
number one vote that was a bipartisan vote, sending a bill to the 
Senate, the Senate sent a bill to us, and we voted out the bill and 
sent it to the President, and the President, two votes that took place, 
overwhelmingly bipartisan, the President vetoes the bill, okay? And now 
you are going to have a real third opportunity to vote again.
  I don't know if those that have voted against the previous bills, if 
they want to continue to do it, because their excuse is to say, Well, 
you know, there was something I didn't understand on that first vote. 
Congressman, you mean on the second vote you still didn't understand? 
And then on the third vote? Well, maybe you are not in the business of 
making sure that children have health insurance so they can have health 
care.
  So I am hoping that we can come together in even a greater way in 
passing a children's health care bill that covers 10 million children. 
I think it is important. I agree with the Speaker. I am glad she has 
put her foot down and this Congress has put our foot down and said we 
are going to do this. Because at the end of the 110th Congress, there 
is not going to be a short list of accomplishments; there is going to 
be a long list, because there has been a drought for a very long time 
to bring the issues and concerns back to those who attended your town 
hall meeting.
  Congressman, what are you doing for the district? What are you doing 
for us? Yes, it is wonderful about the war. We know that is going on. 
All of us share in making sure our men and women have what they need to 
have and all of those different things, but what are you doing 
domestically? How does this affect my children?
  Mr. Ryan talked about someone is going to sit next to a child that 
doesn't have health care, and if that child is sick, you can have all 
the health care in the world. Your child is coming home and they are 
going to bring whatever that other child has into the household and 
then everyone is sick, and now we have employers without employees, and 
we can go on and on and on. It is a domino effect. I think it is 
important that we continue to highlight that.
  But I appreciate the fact you all have brought light to all of this. 
Even Mr. Ryan was talking about a democracy. I think a democracy is a 
good thing. I think it is playing out well. Even though we fell on the 
short end, 13 votes short of overriding the President, a major 
accomplishment with having the Senate vote in an overwhelming way and 
having the votes to override the President, and having a supermajority 
vote here in this House based on the strong Democratic leadership of 
even bringing the issue to the floor in the first place.
  So I am excited about it. I do have faith in the American spirit. I 
know it will rise up. Those that have sent us here, those that do not 
work in the Capitol, those counting on us to do the right thing.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think it is important, too, to recognize we are 
just beginning. I think we have moved into a new direction. We are 
clearly not done. We are clearly not close to being done. No one here 
is satisfied. No one here will say, This is great; we have really 
accomplished everything we wanted to. We can go out and turn out the 
lights and let someone else finish the business.
  We have got a lot more to do, if you look at what we want to do with 
alternative energy, if you look at what we want to do as far as 
continuing to try to reduce the cost of education, K-12 and whatnot.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We are out of time, Mr. Ryan. I want to thank 
Mr. Altmire and yourself.

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