[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 156 (Sunday, September 28, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2141-E2142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       CONSOLIDATED SECURITY, DISASTER ASSISTANCE AND CONTINUING 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 24, 2008

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, this bill will provide the necessary 
funding to keep federal agencies up and running through March 6, 2009. 
While most agencies will continue to be funding at fiscal year 2008 
levels there are three agencies, the Department of Defense, Military 
Construction-Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Homeland Security, 
that will receive full-year funding at fiscal year 2009 levels.
  This massive funding bill is necessary in part because Congress 
lacked the will to consider fiscal year 2009 funding through the 
regular legislative process. Had each of the 13 annual appropriations 
bills been deliberated separately there would have been an opportunity 
to debate and reform portions of federal spending. Debate and 
reformation are an important part of the process because they allow 
funding to be shifted to more accurately reflect the priorities and 
needs of the American people.
  With our economy in crisis it is more important than ever to ensure a 
budget that creates jobs and improves job security for hardworking 
Americans, provides all citizens with healthcare and affords an 
exemplary education for our children that will give them the skills to 
compete in today and tomorrow's world. It is significant that the 
federal budget in fiscal year 2008 was not reflective of my 
constituents' needs and priorities.
  Unemployment is continuing to rise. The latest unemployment 
statistics show that our national unemployment is at 6.1 percent and 
Ohio's unemployment is now 7 percent. At the same time the number of 
jobs vanishing in America outpaces the number of jobs being created. 
This net loss of jobs coupled with high unemployment is a disastrous 
combination. Home foreclosures continue to rise and more families are 
expected to fall behind. In Cleveland the foreclosure crisis continues 
to worsen substantially. 47 million Americans have no health insurance 
and another 50 million Americans remain underinsured.
  Fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills dedicated only approximately 6 
percent of the discretionary budget to education, training, employment 
and social serices. Roughly another 5 percent was dedicated to health, 
4 percent for services and benefits for our veterans and approximately 
5 percent was devoted to income security. The vast majority, over 50 
percent, of the discretionary budget was spent on national defense. In 
addition, the Department of Defense budget has received a 6 percent 
increase between fiscal years 2008, and 2009 while the Departments of 
Education, Labor and Health and Human Services will continue to be 
funded at fiscal year 2008 spending levels.
  The United States military is unmatched. We outspend the rest of the 
world combined two to one. Yet the bill follows a misguided strategy of 
buying weapons that provide Americans with no increased safety. This 
bill fails to match real threats to our security with appropriate 
defensive measures. Our foreign policy should promote economic 
stability worldwide, thereby eliminating the true roots of terrorism, 
desperation. This bill does the opposite by swelling policies of fear 
and aggression. H.R. 2638 contains a host of provisions that do a grave 
disservice to the American public.
  This bill devotes $10 billion to missile defense. These funds include 
a third interceptor site for the Ground-Based Mid-Course Defense (GMD) 
program despite a lack of assurance that the system will work or is 
needed for the safety of our nation. Congress' continued funding of the 
GMD only lends credence to the Administration's misguided claims the 
system is necessary to defend the U.S. from a long-range ballistic 
missile attack from Iran despite the fact that Iran is unlikely to pose 
such a threat to the United States in the foreseeable future.
  Furthermore, the bill appropriates $3.6 billion for the Army's future 
combat systems; $2.9 billion for the Air Force's next generation 
aircraft the F/A-22 Raptor and $3.6 billion for the F-35 Joint Strike 
Fighter which is a next generation aircraft for use by the Air Force, 
Navy and Marine Corps.
  The security of America lies not in defense spending but in ensuring 
well paid jobs for hard-working Americans, guaranteed health care and a 
strong education for our nation's youth. We must shift our priorities 
because our current spending trends are threatening our social fabric 
and economic security.
  Another detrimental provision in the bill allows the longstanding 
moratorium on drilling on the outer continental shelf to expire, which 
is a policy that will provide virtually no relief from high gas prices 
in the short or long term. It will instead lock us further into an 
unsustainable energy future and pave the way for drilling in our 
precious Great Lakes, our drinking water source. If we were serious 
about lowering prices now, we would focus on that which can actually 
make a difference now, which is energy efficiency and curbing the 
profit seeking behavior of the oil industry.
  Although the budget priorities in this bill are out of touch, it does 
contain important provisions that are needed by the American people and 
by my constituents in Ohio's tenth district. These programs and others 
all have merit, deserve more funding and will have a positive impact 
during these tough economic times. Unfortunately this bill holds these 
admirable initiatives hostage to our nation's bloated and often 
counterproductive defense spending.
  For example, this bill provides an increase of $23.5 million over 
fiscal year 2008 for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). In 
Cleveland and around the nation families are turning to food pantries 
for emergency food assistance. Food pantries are continuing to 
experience increased demand and are finding it increasingly difficult 
to meet the needs of the community. As jobs continue to decline and 
food and fuel prices continue to rise, more middle-class families are 
seeking this emergency food assistance.
  This bill will provide an additional $1 billion over fiscal year 2008 
funding levels for the Nutrition for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) 
program to help combat the struggles families face with rising food 
costs. The bill grants $2.5 billion more than the fiscal year 2008 
level for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to ensure that 
families

[[Page E2142]]

stay warm in the upcoming winter months. I also support the $250 
million for weatherization programs that will help families lower their 
energy use and combat the hardships associated with increasing energy 
costs.
  This bill contains $7.51 billion to carry out the $25 billion 
Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. These funds 
are critical to our domestic automobile industry because they will help 
manufactures to re-equip and expand U.S. facilities to produce high 
fuel-efficiency vehicles and parts. This program is important in Brook 
Park, Ohio at the Ford manufacturing plant, where the equipment 
currently used to manufacture the six-cylinder engines will need to be 
replaced to accommodate demand for fuel-efficient cars. This can help 
to ensure that jobs in Cleveland are secure as well as pave the way for 
additional jobs by transitioning to the vehicles of tomorrow such as 
hybrid electric cars and fuel cells.
  While help for the auto industry is clearly long overdue we are 
allotting this money without a broader and more comprehensive strategy 
that addresses the problem, not the symptoms. Building the plants of 
tomorrow is a good step but without rethinking and reforming our flawed 
NAFTA-style trade policies, the U.S. automobile industry will remain 
under threat. Triggering surges in automotive imports into the United 
States while limiting the demand of U.S. made products at home and 
access to markets abroad exacerbates U.S. competitiveness. These faulty 
trade policies are responsible for enormous auto trade deficits and the 
loss of tens of thousands of well paid American jobs.
  This body must stop passing legislation that does not reflect the 
real needs and priorities of the American people. We cannot continue to 
spend approximately half of our total federal budget dollars on the 
development of weapons systems and excessive military capabilities 
while the American people go without jobs, health care and good 
schools. We owe the American people better.

                          ____________________