[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 24, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2313-H2316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       MOVING THE ECONOMY FORWARD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I doubt that we will be here for a full 60 minutes, 
but there are some things that we really do need to discuss, 
particularly following the previous speaker as he talked about the 
American Recovery Act and the things that have actually been done to 
really move the American economy forward.
  One of those things was the stimulus bill, the American Recovery Act, 
that is now just about 13 months old. In that American Recovery Act, 
there was a major element dealing with green technology, green jobs, 
which I think most Americans and most economists feel is where the 
future lies. We know we have an energy security issue. We know we 
import far more than we could possibly afford in foreign oil. We have 
to become energy independent. And in the American Recovery Act, there 
was an enormous advancement in research and in subsidies to encourage 
green technologies.
  I would like now, with the permission of the Speaker, to enter into a 
colloquy with my colleague, and I would like to yield to our colleague 
from Maryland, (Mr. Sarbanes).
  Mr. SARBANES. I thank my colleague for yielding, and I appreciate him 
for convening this discussion this evening on jobs in general. And I 
would like to focus, as you mentioned, on green jobs in particular.
  You mentioned the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which, when 
you look at it, was really the first major down payment and investment 
that we've had in this country really ever in this kind of green 
technology, which is going to jump, I believe, over time will jump the 
economy forward in a significant way.
  One of the things all of the economists agree on is we're in a 
transitional phase. There are industries and jobs that once existed in 
plenty that are now going to be transitioned to a new place, and we 
have to create new economic frontiers and new space to create these new 
jobs. There is no better place to do that than with a green economy.
  One of the things that excites me the most, I must tell you, is that 
I believe if we can get a new energy framework in place--and we 
certainly made our efforts here in the House to do that with the 
American Clean Energy and Security Act and other efforts that have been 
undertaken--if we create a new energy framework, new rules of the road 
for what investments in clean technology can mean, then what you're 
going to see is businesses all across this country, investors, are 
going to start putting their investments into clean technology.

                              {time}  1745

  Right now they are kind of hanging back a little bit because they 
don't know what the rules of the road are yet. They don't know how to 
measure that investment in a new technology in a renewable energy 
source, for example, against traditional investments. If we can get a 
framework in place for them, I think they will come and they will fill 
that space. So you will see entrepreneurs and businesspeople jumping 
into that space and creating these new clean technologies.
  The other thing you will see--and all of this will result in job 
creation. The other thing you will see is ordinary citizens stepping 
into that space. One of the things I perceive, there is a

[[Page H2314]]

growing trend among our citizenry to become stakeholders in this green 
revolution, to take personal ownership of cleaning up the environment 
and thinking of things that they can do right at the household level, 
right there in their own homes, right there in their own neighborhoods.
  One particular effort that I am very interested in, and I have 
introduced legislation to this effect, has to do with these programs 
called PACE programs. PACE is an acronym for Property Assessed Clean 
Energy program. What these are is a local municipality will decide to 
borrow funds and make those available to local homeowners so that those 
homeowners can borrow that money and then invest it in retrofitting 
their homes to make them more energy efficient. And there is actually 
legislation moving through the Congress right now that would create two 
new categories--Silver Star and Gold Star, under a Home Star umbrella--
of energy efficiency to try to encourage people to achieve these high 
standards of green technology and energy efficiency in their own homes.
  What the PACE programs do is make these loans available to a 
homeowner who can then take that, invest it in upgrading and 
retrofitting, you know, their HVAC system or whatever it may be, and 
then the repayment on that becomes part of the property tax payment 
over time, so it runs with the house. Then the next homeowner that 
comes in takes that obligation and continues to pay on the property 
tax.
  The bill that I have introduced attempts, as many other initiatives 
do, to try to facilitate this more by making the bonds that can be 
issued by municipalities tax free. That makes them more attractive to 
investors, who will then begin to provide the capital for this kind of 
retrofitting, and they can turn around and make it available to 
homeowners. So it's a win/win.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might just interrupt you for a moment, Mr. 
Sarbanes, this is actually happening, and your piece of legislation 
will expand what is taking place. I know that in California, the City 
of Berkeley put this program into effect about 2 years ago, but it was 
a real struggle for them to find a way in which they could sell the 
bonds. Now, your proposal would, as I understand it, provide a tax 
exempt municipal bond opportunity so investors would be willing to do 
this.
  This is a very, very powerful thing in Berkeley, and a couple of 
other cities in California that have initiated this, they are putting 
solar panels on the roof that are good for 20, 30 years, and, as you 
say, you sell the home, the payment mechanism, the repayment mechanism 
then goes to the next buyer. This is really an excellent concept, and 
you are moving this thing one step forward.
  Where is your bill right now? What is happening with it?
  Mr. SARBANES. Well, we are gathering up cosponsorship for the bill. 
And I appreciate your comments, because this is designed to kind of 
jump this movement forward.
  There are communities in the municipalities across the country that 
have begun to put these PACE programs in place. Annapolis, Maryland, 
which I represent, is another one. And what we are trying to do is 
create a more inviting environment for these sorts of programs. This is 
just one example of how we can partner with good legislation and good 
initiatives and good leverage coming from the legislation here. We can 
partner with the citizenry out there in our communities to do the right 
thing and to get back to the jobs priority.
  If we begin to get homeowners making these kinds of changes, that is 
going to have a tremendous positive impact on all of those businesses, 
a lot of them small businesses who are in a position to do this kind of 
retrofit.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, let me give you an example that I know in my own 
district, the East Bay, Contra Costa County and Alameda County. The 
community colleges are putting together educational programs for the 
men and women that will start their own businesses to do that 
retrofitting, to do the insulation, the caulking of the doors and 
windows. We need a million caulkers out there in order for our homes to 
be energy efficient, but they have to be trained. The installation of 
the solar panels, that's a kind of employment opportunity for small 
businesses to get up and get going, often in conjunction with the 
manufacturers.
  So what you are doing with your legislation is to provide a 
foundation, a financial foundation, that the small businesses or that 
the homeowner would then take advantage of the loan and the small 
businesses would then have the opportunity to engage with the homeowner 
to do the work.
  This is the kind of thinking that we are finding on the Democratic 
side of the aisle, how to leverage. And your piece of legislation, 
together with the educational programs that have also passed this House 
in the last several months, all come together to create jobs.
  Mr. SARBANES. Let me give you another example, and I appreciate again 
your comments, because I think they are right on the mark. Let me give 
you another example of where the ordinary citizen can take ownership of 
the problem, can really become part of the solution to these issues and 
these challenges that we have.
  I represent a lot of the area that, you know, thinks every day when 
we get up about the Chesapeake Bay, which is a national treasure. In 
fact, I think there are 41 or 42 Members of Congress who have districts 
that include tributaries that flow into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 
So there are a lot of folks who have a stake in the health of the 
Chesapeake Bay.

  One of the things we are wrestling with is storm water runoff. You 
know, every time you see it rain, on the one hand you know it's making 
the flowers grow, and on the other hand you know that it's sweeping up 
a lot of oils and other toxins and putting those into the Chesapeake 
Bay, because we can do better in terms of the way we collect and 
disburse that rainwater so that it doesn't have such a negative impact 
on the bay.
  I just did want to mention, one of our colleagues, Donna Edwards, 
Congresswoman Donna Edwards from Maryland, has introduced something 
called the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act. What this 
recognizes is that we need to really explore and develop technologies 
that can address this storm water runoff, and the term she is using for 
that is ``green infrastructure.''
  This bill would create five centers of excellence across the country 
to begin to develop these technologies and help communities respond to 
this important challenge. Again, if you can help communities do this, 
ordinary citizens take ownership at that level of what's happening to 
the environment, in my case and Donna's, what's happening to the 
Chesapeake Bay, they become a critical part of the solution and they 
generate an interest in new technologies, which, in turn, generates 
jobs. It is all a part of this kind of leading edge, using the 
environment as the leading edge of a new economy that can produce new 
jobs for future generations, and that's what's so exciting about this.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Your comment about Chesapeake Bay brought back 
memories. In the mid-1990s, I was Deputy Secretary at the Department of 
the Interior during the Clinton period, and during that time there was 
a major effort under way, What are we going to do about Chesapeake Bay? 
How do we save the bay because of the enormous decline in crab fishing 
and the shellfish and other very, very important environment, but also 
economic assets that were in Chesapeake Bay.
  Now, you and your colleagues are carrying this thing a step forward 
using the programs to generate new ways of keeping water that flows in 
the bay, or cleaning water that flows into the bay. I want one of those 
centers of excellence in my district.
  I represent the delta of California, the Sacramento-San Joaquin 
Delta, and this is an enormous environmental problem. The fish are 
declining, fisheries, invasive species. We know clearly that the 
contamination from various sources is a problem. So maybe we can get 
one of those centers of excellence in California also.
  But what's at stake here is the knowledge necessary to solve our 
environmental problems and, simultaneously, from that knowledge will 
come the new technologies and the new jobs which will be useful, not 
only in Chesapeake Bay or the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, but we can 
then export that.

[[Page H2315]]

  Mr. SARBANES. We are in a terrific place now where we have the 
opportunity not just to do the right thing for the environment but, at 
the same time, to create a tremendous number of jobs and economic 
opportunities for the workforce out there. It's a wonderful alignment, 
and it's one that we need to take advantage of with smart legislation.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you. I was just thinking about the legislation 
that passed before I arrived here, the effort, it was called climate 
change legislation, but it was far more than that. It really dealt with 
national security. And that legislation is now over in the Senate and 
perhaps will become--will pass the Senate or we will have a conference 
committee to put it together.
  But from that climate change legislation, it's really national 
security. And the discussion we were just having here on the national 
security side and about climate and about jobs, all of those things 
come together. If we are able to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, if 
we are able to transition to low-carbon fuel sources, whether they are 
solar or wind or wave or whatever, we will also enhance our national 
security.
  I would like to take just a few seconds, actually a few minutes, 
talking about some of the other things that were in the American 
Recovery Act of last year.
  There was a $400 per person tax credit for men and women that were 
working so that they would have more purchasing power. That's $800 for 
a family of two. There was the tax credit for colleges. And in the 
legislation that we just passed 2 days ago, along with the health care 
reform, there was an enormous expansion of the Pell Grants so that kids 
can go to college, so that they could get the education that they 
needed; for community colleges, an expansion for community college Pell 
Grants.
  Again, changing the way in which we look at employment, employment is 
more than just a job. It's preparing for the next job. And in that 
corrections bill, sometimes called a reconciliation bill, that was 
accompanied with the health reform, we had the program to expand the 
support for men and women that wanted to go back to school and men and 
women that were in school. We also expanded, over time, the ability for 
those men and women to pay those loans back. Presently, it's 15 percent 
maximum for each year of employment when they are employed. We are 
going to reduce that to 10 percent so that they can spend their time 
acquiring a home, a wife, kids, a husband, and be able to continue to 
pay back the loans over a longer period of time. Very, very important, 
but unnoticed in the health care reform. But much noticed in the health 
care reform was the employment for the employers, the small business 
tax credit for those employers that continue to provide insurance for 
their employees.
  I remember a phone call that I got from a radio station. A fellow 
phoned up and said, Well, how does this piece of legislation, the 
health care reform, help me? My wife and I are a small business. We 
have two employees: my wife, myself. What's it do for me?
  And I was able to respond that when this bill becomes law--and it is 
now the law of the land. The President signed it yesterday. When it 
becomes law, it will do this for you. Thirty-five percent of the money 
you spent purchasing that insurance for you and your wife will be a tax 
credit. You will be able to deduct that from your taxes, literally 
reducing the cost of the health insurance by 35 percent. As you grow up 
to 100 employees in your business, you will continue to receive that 
tax credit for every insurance policy you buy for your employees.
  In 2014, that tax credit goes to 50 percent, an incredible reduction 
in the cost of health insurance for small businesses all across 
America. And it goes into effect now, January 1, 2010, now that that 
bill has been signed. It is a very, very significant reduction in the 
cost of health insurance, allowing men, women who are in business, who 
have a small business, maybe it's a gardening business or a home care 
health business, to be able to continue to provide that insurance.
  On another scale, I received a press release today from a group in 
the San Francisco Bay Area that points out that they are in strong 
support of what the President does.

                              {time}  1800

  This is 1,500 biotechnology businesses in the Bay Area that have 
banded together in an organization called Bay Bio. They said, this is a 
tremendous assistance to us.
  Small businesses, which I just talked about the tax credit available 
to them, but also there are billions of dollars in this bill for 
research on pharmaceuticals, biological pharmaceuticals, enormous 
impetus for those businesses to produce the biological pharmaceuticals, 
the next generation of pharmaceuticals, drugs to help us in our health 
care when we become sick, all kinds of things, from diabetes to cancer 
treatment and everything in between.
  The pharmaceutical industry in the biological area has an enormous 
push. They have 12 years to recoup their investment. It's given to them 
in the health care reform.
  So when our colleagues over here on the Republican side say there's 
nothing in this, well, wait a minute. I've got 1,200 businesses in the 
biological communities in the Bay Area alone saying, this is a great 
inducement for us to produce new biologicals that will help people with 
their health care.
  Also, in the fuel business, the same thing applies in the enormous 
effort that's under way to do biofuels. The incentives are built into, 
not just the health care bill, but also into the previous American 
Recovery Act to push along a whole new industry that will create an 
enormous number of jobs throughout the Nation.
  So the health care bill is far more than just health insurance. It's 
also an inducement for businesses to invest and to create new 
businesses and new pharmaceuticals to keep us healthy and to repair our 
bodies when we become ill.
  I want to talk just now a few moments about another aspect of the 
health care reform. We heard, before I took the microphone here, about 
the health care reform bill not being paid for. That's simply not true. 
The health reform is actually funded; it's funded in a variety of ways. 
But one of the most important ways is the considerable reduction in the 
cost of health care.
  I had a gentleman come into my office earlier yesterday talking 
about, oh, my, in the health care reform bill there's an opportunity 
for us to engage in keeping people healthy. A major part of that health 
care reform is about keeping people healthy. It's wellness. It's 
prevention of medical illnesses. And he was looking at this and he 
said, here's an opportunity for me and my colleagues to expand our 
business. And he talked about a company that's coming to California 
that will take an idea about wellness. And this is specifically for the 
senior citizens, and it is specifically in the legislation. Wellness 
for Medicare.
  He said, the bill allows us to change the way in which the Medicare 
services are provided. Instead of just fee-for-service, we can do 
capitation, and there's an incentive in there for us to keep people 
healthy.
  The company operates out of Florida. They're now going to come to 
California. They're doing 50,000 seniors in Florida, proving that they 
can reduce the cost by 20 percent by keeping people healthy, keeping 
seniors from having to go to the hospital, having to go to the 
emergency room. They want to import it to California.
  They're going to move it and ramp it up to 500,000 seniors in a 
wellness program, you know, everything, I suppose, from the food that's 
being served and the meals that the seniors prepare to, I suppose, 
exercise and yoga and other kinds of activities, again, emphasizing 
wellness rather than sickness.
  Nobody talks about that from our Republican colleagues, but that's in 
the bill. And if that 20 percent reduction is available, we're talking 
about hundreds of billions of dollars over the years ahead. So there 
are many, many parts to the program.
  I want to just conclude with discussing another part of the health 
care reform, and this is good for businesses, it's good for parents, 
it's good for children, and this is the insurance reform.
  I was the insurance commissioner in California for 8 years, 1991-1995 
and 2003-2007. And during my tenure, I

[[Page H2316]]

know the terrible things that the insurance companies were doing to 
their customers.
  First of all, a person would buy a health insurance policy, they'd 
pay into it year after year after year, then they would get sick, 
probably a significant issue. Maybe they get diabetes or cancer, some 
other, maybe a heart illness; and it would get expensive and the 
insurance companies would go back, they would actually pay a bonus to 
their people to review those claims, go back to the original 
application that may have been made years before, and find an error, 
perhaps it was something as simple as having acne when they were 
teenagers, or an asthma attack at the age of three. They would then use 
that to cancel the policy, leaving the person high and dry, in deep 
financial trouble.
  The health care reform law signed by the President yesterday says, no 
more, no more rescissions. Those days are over. The health insurance 
industry in this year will be prohibited from rescinding policies and 
dumping people after they become sick.
  Now, for those that are already sick and don't have a health 
insurance policy, the legislation provides for people that are 50 to 
65, who have a preexisting condition, and this is the population that 
is literally unemployable because they're sick. They have some 
preexisting illness. And nobody, no employer up there would want to 
pick them up because they know that if they were to hire that person, 
the cost of health care for all of their employees would go up. So 
those people are left out.
  But under the new law, there is a solution for them. It's a high-risk 
pool that starts immediately. It goes into place in the next 90 days. 
And those people, and there are millions that fall into this category, 
they will be able to get insurance. They will not have to face 
bankruptcy. They will be able to be employable.
  This is an enormously important thing, and I've seen this in my days 
as insurance commissioner. We didn't have the ability to deal with this 
except in a very narrow way in California, with what we call the high-
risk medical insurance program. But now, with the Federal Government 
assistance, people will be able to get insurance.
  The same thing for young children. Infants, the day they're born, 
they come up with some serious illness. Let's say it's a heart issue. 
That child cannot be insured under the old program. But now that the 
President has used his left hand to sign the legislation, we now know 
that those children, from the day they are born until they are 26, will 
be able to get insurance and their parents will be able to insure not 
only themselves, but also their child.
  The day I was sworn in, 2 days after I was sworn in, I stood here on 
the floor and I spoke about the health care reform that I voted on on 
November 6. And I spoke about a dear friend of mine whose child was 
born with a kidney ailment. He and his wife struggled for years to find 
the money to pay for the insurance. Their insurance was canceled. They 
had it when the child was born, but their insurance was canceled by the 
insurance company because the kid had a very serious kidney problem.
  With the new law in place, the hardship that that family has gone 
through for now 20 years is over. The insurance policy that they had 
the day the child was born cannot be canceled. And so for that family 
and millions of families like that, the insurance reform provides an 
immediate benefit.

  And for all of the men and women out there and the mothers and 
fathers that have a kid that is approaching the age of 23, and about to 
be thrown off the families insurance policy, know this: with the bill 
that was signed yesterday, and in 6 months, that child, young adult 
will be able to stay on the family's health insurance policy until the 
age of 26.
  And I cannot even begin to count the number of calls that I've had, 
and emails I've had saying, oh, thank God. I know, as a parent, that my 
child will continue to have health insurance at least until they're 26. 
And then at that time, 2014, the rest of the program kicks into place.
  Final point is this, and that is, preexisting conditions for all of 
us. At the end of this year, those preexisting conditions will no 
longer be the case.
  Final point, and then I'm going to close, long before my hour is 
over. And my final point is this: this legislation is fully paid for. 
Part of the pay, part of the money to pay for this is an obscene bonus 
that the insurance companies were granted 6 years ago, and that is 
known as the Medicare Advantage bonus. The average cost of providing 
Medicare insurance was calculated, and the insurance companies were 
given a 15 percent bonus to do what they should have been able to do 
without any additional money. We're going to end that bonus. We're 
going to take that money and plow it back into the Medicare program.
  And the Medicare program, by law, no benefit reductions. That's what 
the law says. I hear a lot of other talk out there and a lot of scare 
tactics, but the fact is that the Medicare Advantage program will 
continue, but the bonus that was given to the insurance companies, an 
unnecessary multi-billion dollar bonus, is going to end and the money 
will be put back into the basic Medicare program so that the financial 
solvency of the Medicare program will be extended 9 years.
  Now, that's important to everybody that is approaching Medicare and 
is in Medicare today. So people are going to continue to want to live 
to get into Medicare. That's what's out ahead for the Medicare 
recipients.
  And I talked about the wellness program earlier.
  Final point is this: on the financial side of the health care reform, 
the deficit of the United States Government in the years 2010 to 2020 
will be reduced by $132 billion. That's in the first 10 years. So that 
is a reduction in the deficit. It comes about by reducing the amount of 
money that will have to be spent by the government on health care as a 
result of all of these reforms that are in the bill, some of which I've 
talked about tonight.
  In the next 10 years, 2020 until 2030, the deficit will be reduced by 
$1.3 trillion, an enormous amount of money. So whatever the discussion 
you've heard out there in public, and all of the mischaracterizations 
of this bill that have been going on for months and, indeed, almost a 
year now, the facts are the deficit will be reduced, the program is 
fully funded, and it provides very, very necessary benefits immediately 
to small businesses with a tax credit to help pay for their insurance; 
for individuals, ending the insurance discrimination; and for seniors, 
a major new effort to keep you healthy so that you can enjoy life more, 
and the cost of the Medicare programs will be reduced.
  With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back and thank people for the 
opportunity to explain a very, very important part of the new America 
that we will have in the years ahead.

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