[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 191 (Tuesday, December 13, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H8739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              GOP POLICY RIDERS AND THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleagues today 
to call for an immediate extension of the emergency unemployment 
benefits, including those who have hit the 99-week limit.
  Also, I want to ask for the extension of the payroll tax holiday for 
millions of Americans. I also urge my colleagues to reject attempts to 
attach these urgently needed economic recovery actions with partisan 
proposals to gut the Clean Air Act and support Big Oil at the expense 
of middle and low-income individuals.
  Republicans in the House have already tried to pass hundreds of anti-
environmental bills, amendments, and policy riders. Apparently, this is 
not enough. Now Republicans want to combine repealing important Clean 
Air Act provisions with the extension of the payroll tax cut.
  Ironically, Mr. Speaker, repealing these Clean Air Act standards for 
industrial boilers would cost our economy $21 billion to $52 billion 
per year in higher health care costs resulting from asthma, lung 
cancer, emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and premature 
deaths.
  Not surprisingly, Republicans have also included expediting approval 
of the Keystone pipeline in exchange for a payroll tax extension. This 
is unacceptable. The proposed route for the Keystone pipeline is 
currently being reviewed and revisited by the State Department. Also, 
past State Department environmental impact statements have been found 
to lack key information on the real and potential environmental impacts 
of the pipeline.
  Republican politicians must stop playing games with the American 
people and holding hostage the recovery of our entire economy just to 
score political points with their extreme Tea Party base. Instead of 
wrapping special interest policy riders and polluter giveaways into a 
tax extender package, Congress should focus on those policies which are 
demonstrated job creators; that is, the payroll tax cuts, domestic 
clean energy incentives, and unemployment compensation extension.
  We must not fail to do the work of the American people, and we must 
not fail to extend these critical benefits before they run out. I call 
on Republicans to quickly bring a clean bill to the floor that extends 
emergency unemployment benefits for the millions of job seekers who 
continue to struggle to find a job in the middle of an economic 
disaster that the careless deregulation of the banks, two wars, and tax 
cuts for the wealthy created.
  Also, it's really unconscionable that, while we're trying to increase 
the time limit for unemployment compensation past 99 weeks, the 
Republicans now want to reverse this to 59 weeks. This is just down 
right mean-spirited.
  So let's have an up-or-down vote on a clean bill that extends the 
temporary reduction of the payroll tax cut for millions of Americans 
who really cannot afford a tax hike. Let's have an up-or-down vote on a 
clean bill that isn't filled with special interest policy riders and 
polluter giveaways. Let's have an up-or-down vote on a clean bill that 
keeps millions of families out of poverty.
  Failing to extend these critical benefits would cripple our recovery, 
endanger the public health of our communities, and cost the economy 
over a half million jobs. We can't afford to ignore the needs of the 
millions of Americans who have run out of time and who are now losing 
their homes, falling out of the middle class, and relying more and more 
on government assistance.
  We really should be taking actions to implement targeted programs and 
policies that ensure that we are a Nation that truly will provide 
ladders of opportunity and the removal of barriers to the American 
Dream. We should be taking strong action to protect public health and 
the full implementation of the Clean Air Act as a tool for cleaning up 
pollution from these power plants and commercial boilers.
  We also should be working with other countries to reduce the impacts 
of climate change and to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts. 
This is nothing short of a national emergency, and we must do more to 
support middle and low-income families, protect the health of our 
communities, and support our hospitals and local businesses and get 
people back to work. This really should be a moral imperative during 
this holiday season.

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