[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 27 (Friday, February 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E284]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAZIE K. HIRONO

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 17, 2011

  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this continuing 
resolution, which endangers our fragile economic recovery by throwing 
more Americans out of jobs. Rather than focusing on the creation and 
retention of jobs, this bill gives the pink slip to hundreds of 
thousands of Americans. Who's getting the pink slip? Nurses, teachers, 
police officers, and firefighters, among others. At the same time, 
states and counties are having to lay off these essential personnel as 
they struggle to balance their budgets. How will putting more people in 
the unemployment line create jobs? These job cuts strike at the heart 
of the middle class in America.
  At a recent press conference in Washington DC, Speaker John Boehner's 
response to the job losses (later estimated at nearly 1 million jobs) 
caused by the bill was, ``So be it,'' in apparent resignation or 
indifference to the pain these cuts will cause to individuals and 
communities across our country.
  In addition to increasing the ranks of the unemployed, the Republican 
leadership is making the cuts on the backs of the most vulnerable among 
us. At the same time, they are damaging our nation's long-term economic 
prospects by cutting needed investments in education, innovation, and 
infrastructure.
  No vulnerable group is safe from the Republican cuts. Head Start is 
slashed by $1 billion and child care by $39 million, ending at least 
50,000 jobs nationwide and ending services to more than 200,000 
children. In Hawaii, newly opened Head Start classrooms serving 700 
children would need to close their doors, giving these children no 
place to go for quality early education to prepare for success in 
school and in life.
  This bill cuts basic K-12 education services for all low-income 
schools by $700 million nationwide and cuts after-school programs by 
$100 million. This anti-education bill also bursts students' dreams of 
college success, reducing Pell grants by an average of $700 for some 
19,000 low-income college students in Hawaii, and Direct Loans to 
30,000 Hawaii college students.
  The Republicans' budget cuts would completely eliminate all Native 
Hawaiian Education programs. I joined with Representative Don Young of 
Alaska to offer an amendment to reinstate funding eligibility for 
Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian education programs. We worked hard to 
explain the importance of these programs to our colleagues, and the 
Young-Hirono Amendment passed 331 to 117.
  In fact, this bill as introduced reflects a particular bias against 
Native Hawaiians in that it also eliminates funding for Native Hawaiian 
health care and Native Hawaiian housing programs.
  The backbone of our health care system is dismantled by drastically 
cutting funding for community health centers. These centers, which 
serve the most vulnerable in our population, are cut by $1.3 billion. 
In my rural district, spread over 7 inhabited islands, community health 
centers are used by everyone in the community due to the shortage of 
primary care physicians. In Hawaii our network of community health 
centers serve nearly 127,000 patients, one-third of whom are Medicaid 
eligible.
  H.R. 1 threatens women's health by eliminating a safety net program 
that provides family planning services and lifesaving preventive care 
to 3 million Americans every year. By eliminating funding for the Title 
X Family Planning Program, the only dedicated sexual and reproductive 
health clinic on Hawaii Island may have to close its doors. The Planned 
Parenthood health centers on Oahu and Maui would be forced to reduce 
their clinic hours.
  I hope seniors in our country are taking note. This bill dramatically 
cuts funding available to the Social Security Administration by $1.7 
billion below what they need to maintain promised service levels. 
Social Security already operates at very low cost. Overhead is less 
than 2 percent of the total budget for Social Security. The bill 
eliminates 3,500 jobs in the Social Security Administration and delays 
payment of earned benefits for hundreds of thousands of retirees, 
survivors, and disabled workers.
  I've heard Democrats and Republicans alike acknowledge their support 
for infrastructure spending. Yet this Republican bill cuts funding for 
transportation infrastructure and housing by 24 percent compared with 
the President's budget. These cuts to infrastructure are the largest 
cuts on a percentage basis in the bill--cuts to programs that we know 
create jobs and improve the quality of life in our communities. These 
short-sighted, short-term deficits cuts will lead to long-term 
continuing deterioration of our infrastructure, which will cost us more 
to fix down the road.
  Under this bill, Hawaii would lose $11 million in desperately needed 
funding to upgrade our sewers and wastewater treatment plants. Hawaii 
would also lose $5 million for new energy-efficient circulator buses 
recently awarded by the Federal Transit Administration.
  These deep cuts in infrastructure funding are opposed by groups as 
diverse as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. The Republican 
majority hasn't brought a single measure to the floor this Congress 
that will help create jobs. Instead they are focused on cutting jobs. 
When you cut billions from programs, you are cutting jobs. No amount of 
rhetoric will cover up that fact.
  We should be eliminating billions in tax breaks for the oil and gas 
industries. Instead, the Republican Majority has cut research in energy 
efficiency and renewable energy programs. And because many on the other 
side of the aisle choose to ignore science that contradicts their 
preferred view of the world, the bill makes radical cuts to funding for 
entities such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 
climate and ocean monitoring programs.
  The bill also cuts funding for medical research and for small 
business and economic development assistance programs. These cuts will 
stifle innovation, limit job creation, and threaten our competitiveness 
in the global economy.
  I've only cited a few of the short-sighted, anti-middle class, anti-
senior, anti-woman, and anti-education provisions in the bill. I'll be 
voting no, and I urge all my colleagues to do the same. We need to 
focus on creating, not eliminating, jobs; on sparking, not depressing, 
innovation; and on investing, not disinvesting, in education for our 
next generation.

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