[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 137 (Friday, September 25, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H9977-H9979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman 
from New York for the purpose of announcing next week's schedule.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank the gentleman from California for yielding.
  On Monday, the House will not be in session.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour debate 
and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 
p.m.
  On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for 
legislative business.
  On Friday, no votes are expected in the House.
  We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The 
complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of 
business today.
  In addition, we will consider Senate 1707, a bill to authorize 
appropriations for fiscal year 2010 through 2014 to promote an enhanced 
strategic partnership with Pakistan and its people; the conference 
report on H.R. 3183, Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 2010; and additional motions to go to conference on 
appropriations bills.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman.
  Reclaiming my time, according to Politico, the Speaker announced at 
your caucus meeting on Wednesday that she intends to have the final 
version of the Democrat health care bill drafted by the end of next 
week. My question is: Was the Speaker's statement accurate? And do we 
expect floor action on the health care bill in the House?
  Mr. CROWLEY. A bill will be brought to the floor when a bill is ready 
to be brought to the floor. I would leave it at that. The bill will be 
brought to the floor when it's ready to be brought to the floor.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Was the Speaker correct? Do we think it 
is going to be brought to the floor or ready by next week?
  Mr. CROWLEY. Well, if the bill is ready to be brought to the floor by 
next week, it could very well be that case. The bill will be brought to 
the floor when the bill is ready to be brought to the floor.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Will the bill be drafted by next week so 
people on the other side could actually see it?
  Mr. CROWLEY. Again, the bill will be brought to the floor when the 
bill is ready to be brought to the floor.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Well, I thank the gentleman for his 
answer.
  Earlier this week on Monday, our Republican whip, Eric Cantor, held a 
bipartisan town hall on health care with Democrat Bobby Scott, both of 
Richmond, Virginia, showing bipartisan action. Following the town hall, 
the majority leader on your side told the media that he would like to 
meet and discuss health care reform with us, and we have expressed our 
willingness to meet with him. But we have not been asked by the 
majority leader yet.
  Do you believe that we will be at any time soon, so that our leader 
can continue to carry on that bipartisan conversation?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank the gentleman for his question. I think the 
gentleman knows, as do I, that the majority leader is a man of his 
word; and if he gave his word to do that, I anticipate that he will 
follow through on that. I can't speak for him. But knowing if that's 
what he said, I'm sure that he will follow through on that request.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. We look forward to that. Being one of the 
signatures early on in this health care discussion to a letter that the 
leadership on this side sent to the President saying that we were 
willing, able and wanting to sit down to discuss health care, we're 
still waiting for the President to allow us to have that discussion in 
a bipartisan manner.
  I do believe that the work that our Republican whip, Eric Cantor, and 
Congressman Bobby Scott on your side of the aisle, that the 
bipartisanship that they showed down there was very positive. We look 
to your majority leader coming forward and following up and having that 
discussion with our leader.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I think we all welcome bipartisanship on this debate, 
and we hope in the end that this will be a bipartisan solution to what 
is a problem not only for Democrats and Republicans but for all 
Americans. I think if we could have more productive town halls around 
the country like the one you referred to that took place where the 
facts and the issues can be exposed, talked about and deciphered, I 
think we will all be better off for that.

                              {time}  1145

  Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman.
  I would like to know from one standpoint early on and within here as 
we look across America and we look at the jobless and the idea that we 
want to create jobs here, many on this side of the aisle worked very 
hard on a stimulus bill that focused on small business, where 79 
percent of all jobs are created. We wanted to focus on job creation. We 
presented that to the President. Unfortunately, that did not get put 
into the stimulus.

[[Page H9978]]

  But the President told us that unemployment would not rise above 8.5 
percent if we passed the Democrats' stimulus. Since the signing of the 
stimulus bill, Americans have lost another 2.5 million jobs and 
unemployment is now at 9.7, much higher than what the President said it 
would be.
  Will this House bring any legislation next week to help create jobs?
  I yield.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  I don't think there's any question that these have been very, very 
difficult months and, quite frankly, years that the American people 
have been suffering through. We have looked consistently at months--
prior to recent months--of 600,000, 700,000 jobs lost per month, quite 
frankly, going back to the previous administration, under the Bush 
administration, where the job loss was at its height. I'm happy to note 
that that job loss has been diminishing steadily over the past few 
months, and, in fact, we saw an additional 21,000 fewer jobs lost in 
this month than the prior month.
  Having said that, the road to recovery remains a long one, and we 
understand that. That's why we took the steps that this administration 
took, following up on the legislation passed in the prior Congress to 
help stimulate the growth of jobs in this country. And I believe, as 
many of my colleagues do, that increasingly there are signs that the 
economy is turning around. I know that Mr. Bernanke, Federal Reserve 
Chairman said, ``The recession is likely over at this point.'' I think 
those are very optimistic statements, and I appreciate the chairman's 
response to a query.
  But I do think we still have a long way to go, and we will work to 
ensure that job loss is not only stemmed but that we have actual job 
growth. And we anticipate when the Recovery Act is fully appreciated 
that we will begin to see job growth in this country.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, I appreciate the 
gentleman's willingness to work together. And knowing that with the 
stimulus the President said unemployment would not go above 8.5, and 
now it's 9.7, and sitting on Financial Services listening to Mr. 
Bernanke saying that it will continue to rise, would your side of the 
aisle be willing to work with us so we could reprogram the money in the 
stimulus to actually be job creation or help pay down this national 
debt so our country could actually be stronger? Do you see any future 
ability of making that happen?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank the gentleman.
  I'll just restate for the record: The CBO, the CEA, Moody's all 
estimate there are 1 million more jobs now than there would have been 
without the Recovery Act that we passed here in the House. The 
Congressional Budget Office said in the budget economic update that 
``even though some elements of the CBO's forecast, particularly the 
unemployment rate, have clearly worsened, such revisions to the 
forecast reflect a much sharper deterioration in underlying labor 
market conditions than had been anticipated rather than a smaller 
impact of the legislation.'' In addition, the CBO also said that ``the 
fiscal stimulus provided under the American Recovery and Investment Act 
will significantly boost economic activity above what it otherwise 
would have been.''
  So I think, going back to what I said before, we're seeing a reversal 
in job loss. We are not at zero yet, but as I said before, 21,000 fewer 
jobs were lost in the prior month than they were the month before that. 
I think that's showing that it is stemming, it is slowing down. And we 
anticipate that if it continues in that way, which we all hope for and 
anticipate it will, we will begin to see job growth.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, when the President 
first got elected, this side of the aisle invited him to our conference 
and we sat down and had a discussion about which direction the stimulus 
bill should go. We actually had a very honest debate.
  This side of the aisle wanted to focus on job creation. Our focus was 
about small business. That's where 79 percent of the jobs are created. 
And the President said, Well, why don't you write out a bill and bring 
out some ideas?
  So a number of us worked together, a lot of hours, a lot of nights, 
crafting legislation. And we put this together, and we actually sat 
down and said, You can't just write down legislation; you need to score 
it. The idea is for the American people to know what this would cost 
and how many jobs would it create. And as we put that scoring together, 
do you know it created twice as many jobs with half the amount of money 
in the stimulus bill? And we handed that to the President. 
Unfortunately, it did not get into the bill. And the President said 
that it was more important on the time of when the stimulus bill 
passed, and not what was in it; he said if the bill was passed now, 
unemployment would not go above 8.5 percent.
  Well, I don't need a CBO study to understand that's not true. It's 
now at 9.7. And I think the American people want us to work together to 
create jobs, not to sit here and somehow celebrate the idea that only 
21,000 jobs were lost. We need to be able to work together and 
celebrate a million new jobs created. We have legislation that allows 
it, that focuses on small business, focuses on job creation. And I look 
forward that this Congress could come together.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Will the gentleman yield once again? I just want to 
respond, if I could, to the gentleman.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. I'm glad to yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Thank you for yielding.
  I appreciate your words of desire for more bipartisanship, and I 
would just suggest that the Recovery and Reinvestment Act that we 
passed reflected more bipartisanship in the legislation than was 
reflected by the vote that took place here on the floor. I think there 
were many attempts to include some of the ideas and thoughts from your 
side of the aisle that were included in that bill, and I can talk about 
a number of them. But it was not reflected in the overall vote that 
took place. I, too, hope that in the future we can have more of a 
reflective vote of bipartisanship on issues like that, as we had this 
week when both Democrats and Republicans voted 331-83 to extend 
unemployment for those Americans who are still out of work, who are 
looking and struggling to find employment. And I hope the Senate will 
act to pass that bill and send the bill on to the President as soon as 
possible.
  I appreciate the gentleman's yielding for this discussion.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, the gentleman is 
correct. The bipartisan vote for the stimulus bill was a ``no'' vote. A 
number of people on the other side of the aisle also saw that that bill 
would not hold us to only 8.5 percent unemployment, that there was a 
better way, a better idea.

  The one thing I would always ask the gentleman and those on the other 
side, bipartisanship means the power of the idea wins at the end of the 
day. So when a paper is presented that shows it creates twice as many 
jobs with half the cost, the pride in ownership should not be there. We 
should allow the American people to actually win, that jobs being 
created is a much better place for America. And when that is presented 
again, which we will always gladly do, to sit here and work with you, 
because we want to put people before politics. We want to create an 
America that is strong, and we want to leave America not in debt.
  So as we move forward, I would always challenge everybody on this 
floor: The amount of the national debt that is accumulating in this 
administration is unheard of, and we have to make sure, this generation 
that's going before us, that we leave an America better off than we 
were before.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. I would be glad to yield.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I appreciate again his comments and his desire to work 
in a bipartisan way to help lift America out of the doldrums that it's 
in, lift America out of what has been called ``the Great Recession.''
  I think it's also important to note that we didn't get here in the 
last 9 months. And we can decry the overspending by this administration 
all we want, but we also have to reflect upon the overspending of the 
prior 8 years, which I recognize the gentleman was not serving in the 
House of Representatives at the time, when the other side

[[Page H9979]]

of the aisle increased the spending and increased the deficit beyond 
anyone's wildest dreams.
  So I appreciate your thoughts. I too want to help stop putting debt 
on the backs of my children and my grandchildren. We both share that. 
And we all need to work together in a bipartisan way to help this 
President. As he has said, his desire is to slash the national debt in 
half, and I think we're going to work together to make that happen.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, if the President only 
slashes it in half, it's still the highest deficit that we have ever 
had.
  I am one who likes to look forward. I may have only been here 3 
years, but the one thing I have seen, if you take the entire history 
since the creation of this country, there have been 44 administrations. 
If you just take the first 43, from George Washington to George Bush, 
and you add up all the amount of debt that was accumulating, and that's 
from the creation of this country to our battles with Britain, to World 
War I, to the Depression, to World War II, Katrina, Afghanistan, Iraq, 
Vietnam, Korea, the creation of a highway system, it is equal to the 
amount of debt that is going to be doubled. That is something that 
cannot be maintained. That is something that cannot be happening.
  The way to get out of it, you have to control your spending and you 
have to create jobs. That's why the power of the idea needs to win at 
the end of the day.
  So we will continue to come up with the ideas. We will continue to 
try to work in a bipartisan manner, and we will continue to hand them 
to you. But the only thing I ask of you is when you see something that 
would create twice as many jobs with half the cost, let's put people 
before politics, let's put America first, and let's move forward to the 
future.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I would ask the gentleman, as a point of clarification, 
was that from George Washington to the beginning of George Bush's term 
or the end of George Bush's term?
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. It's to the end of George Bush's term.

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