[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 4, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H2928-H2931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 JOINT MEETING TO HEAR AN ADDRESS BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE GORDON BROWN, 
  PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN 
                                IRELAND

  The Speaker of the House presided.
  The Majority Floor Services Chief, Mr. Barry Sullivan, announced the 
Vice President and Members of the U.S. Senate who entered the Hall of 
the House of Representatives, the Vice President taking the chair at 
the right of the Speaker, and the Members of the Senate the seats 
reserved for them.
  The SPEAKER. The Chair appoints as members of the committee on the 
part of the House to escort the Right Honorable Gordon Brown, Prime 
Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 
into the Chamber:
  The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer);
  The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn);
  The gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson);
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra);
  The gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro);
  The gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton);
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Berman);
  The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal);
  The gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre);
  The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson);
  The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Chandler);
  The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner);
  The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor);
  The gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence);
  The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter);
  The gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. McMorris Rodgers);
  The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter);
  The gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy);
  The gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen);
  The gentleman from New York (Mr. King);
  The gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh); and
  The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri).
  The VICE PRESIDENT. The President of the Senate, at the direction of 
that body, appoints the following Senators as members of the committee 
on the part of the Senate to escort the Right Honorable Gordon Brown, 
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland, into the House Chamber:
  The Senator from Nevada (Mr. Reid);
  The Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin);
  The Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry);
  The Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd);
  The Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Feingold);
  The Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer);
  The Senator from Maryland (Mr. Cardin);
  The Senator from Virginia (Mr. Webb);
  The Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen);
  The Senator from Delaware (Mr. Kaufman);
  The Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell);
  The Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kyl);
  The Senator from Indiana (Mr. Lugar);
  The Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker);
  The Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson);
  The Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch);
  The Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso); and
  The Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
  The Majority Floor Services Chief announced the Acting Dean of the 
Diplomatic Corps, Her Excellency Heng Chee Chan, Ambassador of the 
Republic of Singapore.
  The Acting Dean of the Diplomatic Corps entered the Hall of the House 
of Representatives and took the seat reserved for her.
  At 11 o'clock and 7 minutes a.m., the Majority Floor Services Chief 
announced the Right Honorable Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
  The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Northern Ireland, escorted by the committee of Senators and 
Representatives, entered the Hall of the House of Representatives and 
stood at the Clerk's desk.
  (Applause, the Members rising.)
  The SPEAKER. Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and the 
distinct honor of presenting to you the Right Honorable Gordon Brown, 
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland.
  (Applause, the Members rising.)
  Prime Minister BROWN. Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, 
distinguished Members of Congress, I come to this great capital of this 
great Nation, an America renewed under a new President, to say that 
America's faith in the future has been, is, and always will be an 
inspiration to me and to the whole world.
  Two centuries ago, your creation of America was the boldest possible 
affirmation of faith in the future. It's a future you have not just 
believed in but a future you have built with your own hands.
  On the 20th of January, you, the American people, wrote the latest 
chapter in the American story, with a transition of dignity, in which 
both sides of the aisle should take great pride. And on that day, 
billions of people truly looked to Washington, D.C., as a shining city 
upon the hill, lighting up the whole of the world.
  Let me thank President Obama for his leadership, for his friendship 
and for giving the whole world renewed hope in itself.
  And I know you will allow me to single out for special mention today 
one of your most distinguished Senators, known in every continent and a 
great friend. Northern Ireland today is at peace, more Americans have 
health care, children around the world are going to school, and for all 
those things, we owe a great debt to the life and courage of Senator 
Edward Kennedy.
  Today, having talked to him last night, I want to announce, awarded 
by Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of the British people, an honorary 
knighthood for Sir Edward Kennedy.
  Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, I come in friendship to renew, for 
new times, our special relationship that is founded on our shared 
history, our shared values and, I believe, our shared futures.
  I grew up in the 1960s as America, led by President Kennedy, looked 
to the heavens and saw not the endless void of the unknown but a new 
frontier to dare to discover and to explore. People said it couldn't be 
done but America did it.
  And 20 years later, in the 1980s, America, led by President Reagan, 
refused to accept the fate of millions trapped behind the Iron Curtain 
and insisted, instead, that the peoples of Eastern Europe be allowed to 
join the ranks of nations which live safe, strong, and free. People 
said it would never happen in our lifetime, but it did, and the Berlin 
Wall was torn down brick by brick.
  So, early in my life, I came to understand that America is not just 
the indispensable Nation; you are the irrepressible Nation.
  Throughout your history, America has led insurrections in the human 
imagination. You've summoned revolutionary times through your belief 
that there is no such thing as an impossible endeavor, and it's never 
possible to come here without having your faith in the future renewed.
  Now, I want to thank you on behalf of the British people because 
throughout the whole century, the American

[[Page H2929]]

people stood liberty's ground, not just in one world war but in two. 
And I want you to know that we will never forget the sacrifice and the 
service of the American soldiers who gave their lives for people whose 
names they never knew and whose faces they never saw, yet people who 
have lived in freedom thanks to the bravery and valor of the Americans 
who gave that last full measure of devotion.
  Cemetery after cemetery across Europe honors the memory of American 
soldiers, resting row upon row, often alongside comrades-in-arms from 
Britain. And there is no battlefield of liberty on which there is not a 
piece of land that is marked out as American, and there is no day of 
remembrance within Britain that is not also a commemoration of American 
courage and sacrifice far from home.
  In the hardest days of the last century, faith in the future kept 
America alive, and I tell you that America kept faith in the future 
alive for all the world.
  And let me do a tribute to the soldiers, yours and ours, who today 
fight side by side in the plains of Afghanistan, the streets of Iraq, 
just as their forefathers fought side by side in the sands of Tunisia, 
the beaches of Normandy, and then on the bridges over the Rhine.
  Almost every family in Britain has a tie that binds them to America. 
So I want you to know that whenever a young American soldier or marine 
or sailor or airman is killed in conflict, anywhere in the world, we 
the people of Britain grieve with you. We know that your loss is our 
loss, your family's sorrow is our family's sorrow, and your Nation's 
determination is our nation's determination that they shall not have 
died in vain.
  And after that terrible September morning, when your homeland was 
attacked, the Coldstream Guards at Buckingham Palace played the ``Star 
Spangled Banner,'' our own British tribute, as we wept for our friends 
in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
  And let me, therefore, promise you our continued support to ensure 
that there is no hiding place for terrorists, no safe haven for 
terrorism. You should be proud that in the years after 2001, that while 
terrorists may destroy buildings and even, tragically, lives, they have 
not, and will not ever, destroy the American spirit.
  So let it be said of the friendship between our two countries that it 
is in times of trial, true; in the face of fear, faithful; and amidst 
the storms of change, constant.
  And let it be said of our friendship also, formed and forged over two 
tumultuous centuries, a friendship tested in war, strengthened in 
peace, that it has not just endured but is renewed each generation to 
better serve our shared values and fulfill the hopes and dreams of the 
day, not alliances of convenience. It is a partnership of purpose.
  Alliances can wither or be destroyed, but partnerships of purpose are 
indestructible. Friendships can be shaken, but our friendship is 
unshakable. Treaties can be broken, but our partnership is unbreakable. 
And I know that there is no power on Earth that can ever drive us 
apart.
  We will work tirelessly with you as partners for peace in the Middle 
East; for a two-state solution, proposed by President Clinton and 
driven forward by President Bush, that provides for nothing less than a 
secure Israel, safe within its borders, existing side by side with a 
viable Palestinian state.
  And we will work tirelessly with you to reduce the threat of nuclear 
proliferation and reduce the stockpile of nuclear weapons. And our 
shared message to Iran, it is simple: We are ready for you to rejoin 
the international community, but first, you must cease your threats and 
suspend your nuclear program.
  Past Prime Ministers have traveled to this Capitol Building in the 
times of war to talk of war. I come now to talk of new and different 
battles we must also fight together, to speak of a global economy in 
crisis and a planet imperiled.
  These are new priorities for our new times, and let us be honest. 
Tonight too many parents, after they put their children to bed, will 
speak of their worries about losing their jobs or the need to sell the 
house. Too many will share stories of friends or neighbors already 
packing up their homes. Too many will talk of a local store or business 
that has already gone to the wall.
  For me, this global recession is not to be measured just in 
statistics or in graphs or on a balance sheet. Instead, I see one 
individual with one set of dreams and fears, then another and then 
another, each with their own stars to reach for, each part of a family, 
each at the heart of a community, now in need of help and hope. And 
when banks have failed and markets have faltered, we the 
representatives of the people have to be the people's last line of 
defense.

  That's why for me there is no financial orthodoxy so entrenched, 
there's no conventional thinking so ingrained, there's no special 
interest so strong that it should ever stand in the way of the change 
that hardworking families now need.
  We have learned through this world downturn that markets should be 
free, but markets should never be values-free. We have learned that the 
risks people take should never be separated from the responsibilities 
that they must meet. And if perhaps some once thought it beyond our 
power to shape the global markets to meet the needs of the people, we 
now know that that is our duty. We cannot and must not stand aside.
  In our families and workplaces and in our places of worship, we 
celebrate men and women of integrity, who work hard, treat people 
fairly, take responsibility, look out for others, and if these are the 
principles we live by in our families and neighborhoods, they should 
also be the principles that guide and govern our economic life.
  And the world has learned that what makes for the good society also 
now makes for the good economy, too. My father was a minister of the 
church, and I have learned again what I was taught by him: that wealth 
should help more than the wealthy; that good fortune should serve more 
than the fortunate; and that riches must enrich not just some of our 
communities but all of our communities. And these enduring values are, 
in my view, the values we need for these new times.
  We tend to think of the sweep of destiny as stretching across many 
months and years before culminating in decisive moments that we call 
history. But sometimes the reality is that defining moments of history 
come suddenly and without warning, and the task of leadership then is 
to define them, to shape them, and to move forward into the new world 
they demand.
  An economic hurricane has swept the world, creating a crisis of 
credit and a crisis of confidence. History has brought us now to a 
point where change is essential, and we are summoned not just to manage 
our times but to transform them.
  Our task is to rebuild prosperity and security in a wholly different 
economic world, where competition is no longer just local, but it's 
global; and where banks are no longer national, but they're 
international. And we need to understand, therefore, what went wrong in 
this crisis, that the very financial instruments that were designed to 
diversify risk across the banking system instead spread contagion right 
across the globe. And today's financial institutions, they're so 
interwoven that a bad bank anywhere is a threat to good banks 
everywhere.
  But should we succumb to a race to the bottom and to a protectionism 
that history tells us that in the end protects no one? No. We should 
have the confidence, America and Britain most of all, that we can seize 
the global opportunities ahead and make the future work for us. And 
why? Because while today people are anxious and feel insecure, over the 
next two decades, literally billions of people in other continents will 
move from being simply producers of their goods to being consumers of 
our goods, and in this way, the world economy will double in size. 
Twice as many opportunities for business, twice as much prosperity, the 
biggest expansion of middle class incomes and jobs the world has seen.
  So we win our future not by retreating from the world but by engaging 
with it. America and Britain will succeed and lead if we tap into the 
talents of our people, unleash the genius of our scientists, set free 
the drive of our entrepreneurs. We will win the race to the top if we 
can develop the new high-value-added products and services and

[[Page H2930]]

the new green goods that the rising numbers of hardworking families 
across our globe will want to buy.
  So, in these unprecedented times, we must educate our way out of a 
downturn. We must invest and invent our way out of a downturn. We must 
retool and reskill our way out of a downturn. And this is not blind 
optimism or synthetic confidence to console people. It's a practical 
affirmation for our times of a faith in a better future.
  Every time we rebuild a school, we demonstrate our faith in the 
future. Every time we send more people to university, every time we 
invest more in our new digital infrastructure, every time we increase 
support for our scientists, we demonstrate our faith in the future.
  And so I say to this Congress and this country, something that runs 
deep in your character and is woven in your history, we conquer our 
fear of the future through our faith in the future, and it is this 
faith in the future that means we must commit to protecting the planet 
for generations who will come long after us.
  The Greek proverb, what does it say? Why does anybody plant the seeds 
of a tree whose shade they will never see? The answer is because they 
look to the future. And I believe you, the Nation that had the vision 
to put a man on the Moon, are also the Nation with the vision to 
protect and preserve our planet Earth.
  And you know it's only by investing in environmental technology that 
we can end the dictatorship of oil, and it's only by tackling climate 
change that we can create the millions of new green jobs that we need 
and can have.
  For the lesson of this crisis is that we cannot just wait for 
tomorrow today. We cannot just think of tomorrow today. We cannot 
merely plan for tomorrow today. Our task must be to build tomorrow 
today.
  And America knows from its history that its reach goes far beyond its 
geography. For a century, you have carried upon your shoulders the 
greatest of responsibility: to work with and for the rest of the world. 
And let me tell you that now, more than ever, the rest of the world 
wants to work with America.
  If these times have shown us anything it's that the major challenges 
we face are global. No matter where it starts, an economic crisis does 
not stop at the water's edge. It ripples across the world. Climate 
change does not honor passport control. Terrorism has no respect for 
borders. Modern communication instantly spans every continent. The new 
frontier is that there is no frontier, and the new shared truth is that 
global problems now need global solutions.
  And let me say to you directly: you now have the most pro-American 
European leadership in living memory. It's a leadership that wants to 
cooperate more closely together in order to cooperate more closely with 
you. There is no old Europe, no new Europe. There is only our friend 
Europe.
  So, once again, I say we should seize this moment because never 
before have I seen a world willing to come together so much. Never 
before has that been more needed and never before have the benefits of 
cooperation been so far-reaching.
  So when people here and in other countries ask what more can we do to 
bring an end to this downturn, let me say this. We can achieve more by 
working together. And just think of what we can do if we combine not 
just in a partnership for security but in a new partnership for 
prosperity.
  On jobs, you the American people, through your stimulus proposals, 
could create or save at least 3 million jobs. We in Britain are acting 
with similar determination. But how much nearer an end to this downturn 
would we all be if the whole of the world resolved to do the same?

  And you are also restructuring your banks. So are we. But how much 
safer would everybody's savings be if the whole world finally came 
together to outlaw shadow banking systems and outlaw offshore tax 
havens?
  So just think how each of our actions, if combined, could mean a 
whole much greater than the sum of its parts: all, and not just some, 
banks stabilized; on fiscal stimulus, the impact multiplied because 
everybody is doing it; rising demand in all our countries creating jobs 
in each of our countries; and trade once again the engine of 
prosperity, the wealth of nations restored.
  No one should forget it was American visionaries who over a half a 
century ago, coming out of the deepest of depressions and the worst of 
wars, produced the boldest of plans for global economic cooperation. 
They recognized that prosperity was indivisible. They concluded that to 
be sustained it had to be shared.
  And I believe that ours, too, is a time for renewal, for a plan for 
tackling recession and building for the future, every continent playing 
their part in a global new deal, a plan for prosperity that can benefit 
us all.
  And first, so that the whole of the worldwide banking system serves 
our prosperity rather than risks it, let us agree at our G-20 summit in 
London in April on rules and standards for accountability, 
transparency, and reward that will mean an end to the excesses and will 
apply to every bank, everywhere, and all the time.
  Second, America and a few others cannot be expected to bear all the 
burden of the fiscal and interest rate stimulus. We must share it 
globally. So let us work together for the worldwide reduction of 
interest rates and a scale of stimulus that is equal to the depth of 
the recession and round the world to the dimensions of recovery and, 
most of all, equal to the millions of jobs we must safeguard and 
create.
  And third, let us together renew our international economic 
cooperation, helping emerging markets rebuild their banks. Let us sign 
a world trade agreement to expand commerce. Let us work together also 
for a low carbon recovery. And I am confident that this President, this 
Congress, and the peoples of the world can come together in Copenhagen 
in December and reach a historic agreement to combat climate change.
  And let us never forget in times of turmoil our duties to the least 
of these, the poorest of the world. In the Rwanda museum of genocide, 
there is a memorial to the countless children who were among those 
murdered in the massacres in Rwanda. There is one of the face of a 
child, David. The words beneath him are brief; yet, they weigh on me 
heavily. It says: Name, David. Age, 10. Favorite sport, football. 
Enjoyed making people laugh. Dreamed to become a doctor. Cause of 
death, tortured to death. Last words, ``The United Nations will come 
for us.''
  But we never did. That child believed the best of us. That he was 
wrong is to our eternal discredit. We tend to think of a day of 
judgment as a moment to come, but our faith tells us, as the writer 
said, that judgment is more than that. It is a summary court in 
perpetual session.
  And when I visit those bare, rundown, yet teeming classrooms across 
Africa, they're full of children, like our children, desperate to 
learn, but because we've been unable as a world to keep our promises to 
help, more and more children, I tell you, are being lured to 
expensively funded madrassas, teaching innocent children to hate us.
  So for our security and our children's security and these children's 
future, you know the greatest gift of our generation, the greatest gift 
we could give to the world, the gift of America and Britain, could be 
that every child in every country should have the chance 70 million 
children today do not have, the chance to go to school, to spell their 
names, to count their age and perhaps learn of a great generation who 
are striving to make their freedom real.
  Let us remember that there is a common bond that across different 
beliefs, cultures, and nationalities unites us as human beings. It is 
at the core of my convictions. It's the essence of America's spirit. 
It's the heart of all our faiths. And it must be at the center of our 
response to this crisis, too.
  Our values tell us we cannot be wholly comfortable while others go 
without comfort; that our communities can never be fully at ease if 
millions feel ill at ease; that our society cannot be truly strong when 
millions are left so weak. And this much we know: when the strong help 
the weak, it makes us all stronger.
  And this, too, is true. All of us know that in a recession the 
wealthiest, the most powerful, and the most privileged can find a way 
through. So we don't value the wealthy less when we say that our first 
duty is to help the not-

[[Page H2931]]

so-wealthy. We don't value the powerful less when we say our first 
responsibility is to help the powerless. And we do not value those who 
are secure less when we say our first priority must be to help the 
insecure.
  These recent events have forced us all to think anew, and while I 
have learned many things over these last few months, I keep returning 
to something I first learned in my father's church as a child. In these 
most modern of crises, I am drawn to the most ancient of truths. 
Wherever there is hardship, wherever there is suffering, we cannot, we 
will not, we will never pass by on the other side.
  But you know, working together there is no challenge to which we're 
not equal. There's no obstacle we can't overcome. There's no aspiration 
so high it cannot be achieved.
  In the depths of the Depression, when Franklin Roosevelt did battle 
with fear itself, it was not simply by the power of his words, his 
personality, and his example that he triumphed. Yes, all these things 
mattered, but what mattered more was this enduring truth: that you, the 
American people, at your core, were, as you remain, every bit as 
optimistic as your Roosevelts, your Reagans and your Obamas.
  And this is the faith in the future that has always been the story 
and promise of America. So, at this defining moment in history, let us 
renew our special relationship for our generation and our times. Let us 
work together to restore prosperity and protect this planet, and with 
faith in the future, let us together build tomorrow today.
  Thank you.
  (Applause, the Members rising.)
  At 11 o'clock and 43 minutes a.m., the Right Honorable Gordon Brown, 
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland, accompanied by the committee of escort, retired from the Hall 
of the House of Representatives.
  The Majority Floor Services Chief escorted the Acting Dean of the 
Diplomatic Corps from the Chamber.

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