[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 172 (Wednesday, November 20, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H6145-H6152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RESTORE THE AMERICAN DREAM
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Deluzio) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. DELUZIO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
Mr. DELUZIO. Mr. Speaker, the American people are sick and tired of
powerful corporations ripping us off, junk fees, small businesses
struggling, union busting, price gouging, bad trade deals, all of it.
I am convening this Special Order hour today because I am committed
to fighting back. I am here because we need to revive and restore and
strengthen the American Dream for all who are willing to work for it. I
know my constituents are. I know the American people want more from
this body.
In the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt confronted
these same forces in a different time head-on, saying: ``These economic
royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of
America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away
their power.''
Absolutely. There is no freedom if families are struggling to meet
basic needs. There is no liberty if we are ruled by oligarchs. No one
is going to say that profits don't matter; they do.
Something else has to matter more: Our safety has to matter. Our jobs
have to matter. Our communities have to matter. This country has to
matter.
For those things to matter, we have to break this corporate
stranglehold on our economy and our country. The American economy works
just great if you are a billionaire or if you are a giant corporation,
but too often our system fails hardworking people.
We need an economy and a government that rewards hard work, not just
extreme wealth.
Where I come from and where I grew up, that is something that we
value. I represent the good people of the 17th District of
Pennsylvania, western Pennsylvania. We believe in hard work. We believe
in patriotism. We believe in sacrifice.
We are the folks who made the steel that built this country. We have
answered the call in every war. We have
[[Page H6146]]
done hard work, like so many across this country have done. We saw a
story that rewarded that sacrifice with trying to strip us for parts;
shipping good jobs away overseas; gobbling up small businesses,
squeezing them; seeing big, powerful corporations put their lust for
profit ahead of our safety.
We have to stand strong against those forces, a lot of them created
by corporate power that are making life worse for people. It is making
life more expensive and too expensive.
If American capitalism is going to succeed, we have to have
competition. We have to take on anticompetitive monopolies, give small
businesses and entrepreneurs a shot to succeed and compete, and make
sure that our safety and our communities aren't collateral damage in
the way of profits and make sure that workers have some say and dignity
on the job and the freedom and forum to join a union.
The American Dream has been snatched away from far too many Americans
who are hardworking, who are good and decent people, who want to have a
shot at dignity and security. It is a devastating reality for folks to
live with. It is unacceptable to me. I know it is unacceptable to many
in this Chamber.
Some folks are angry about it. They are sad. They should be. They
should expect more of this body, and they should expect more of their
government.
I think we need to lay a path back to the American Dream. I am
honored to be joined by so many colleagues tonight who will join me in
this fight to restore and strengthen the American Dream. With a strong
economic message of taking on corporate power, local action, being
unafraid to fight the bad guys when we need to, we can deliver for the
American people to bring down costs, to reward hard work, and to make
life better and cheaper.
We can make sure the American Dream is revived and strong for
generations to come.
I am proud to yield time to one of my colleagues from just next door,
the great State of Ohio (Mr. Landsman).
Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for hosting tonight.
It is crystal clear that people are frustrated. They are frustrated
with politics. They are frustrated with the economy, and they want
costs down and an economy that is built for working people, the middle
class, and our small businesses. I think it is really important for us
to have this conversation and to start with the reality.
The reality is that the system is rigged, and it has been rigged for
decades. It works for the superwealthy while everyone else is left
behind, facing higher prices and a tax system that helps the rich get
richer.
This started in the 1980s with huge tax giveaways to the wealthy
while gutting oversight and regulations.
The result is that the system is producing the outcomes it was
designed to produce. The top 1 percent in the United States now holds
12 times the wealth of the bottom half of American households. That is
what this system produced.
Think about that: 1 percent of Americans own more wealth than half of
all American families combined.
When people look at their bank accounts, they are frustrated and when
they get their grocery bill and their tax bill and they are wondering
where all their money went, they know. They see on their phones and on
the news how rich the rich have gotten. That is where their money has
gone.
The superwealthy and powerful have seized more and more of our money
and more and more of our power.
Let me say that again: The superwealthy and powerful have seized more
and more of our money and more and more of our power.
Since the pandemic, billionaires have become $3 trillion richer.
Their wealth has grown three times faster than inflation. Corporate
profits have gone up 54 percent. Wages have only gone up 26 percent.
Mr. Speaker, what is Congress' solution?
The 2017 Trump tax bill was a massive handout to corporations and
billionaires. The majority of the benefits went almost entirely to the
top 1 percent, and it added $2 trillion to the national debt.
Here in these Halls, folks want to do it again. Members of Congress
who have continually bent a knee to billionaires and their corporate
PAC donors are now going to take their money, follow their orders, and
give them the tax giveaways they want. They are going to gut regulation
and allow for more corporate consolidation, which means that consumers
lose more and more power in the marketplace and pay more and more for
goods and services.
I don't accept corporate PAC money because I know that my
constituents expect us to be with them, not the superwealthy.
Most politicians, unfortunately, do take corporate PAC money, and I
believe it is one of the reasons why there is so much pushback to
Medicare negotiating lower prescription drug prices or attempts to
privatize Medicare or any effort to pursue commonsense gun reform.
Think about how much the gun manufacturers make. It is billions and
billions of dollars.
Mr. Speaker, many of them are all in on spending trillions on the
superwealthy through tax reform because it helps their own interests.
It is not what people want.
People are struggling, and they want change. They are tired of the
status quo. They are saying that over and over. For decades, that is
what they have been given. We have appeased billionaires and big
corporations while leaving working people, the middle class, and small
businesses behind.
In the next Congress, we have an opportunity to pass a new tax bill.
What if 100 percent of all tax reform benefits went to working people,
the middle class, and small businesses?
The last time Congress passed a big tax bill, almost 90 percent went
to the top 1 percent. What if 100 percent of any tax cuts went to
working people, the middle class, and small businesses? It should be
paid for by making the superwealthy just pay all their taxes, just like
the rest of us.
Big corporations and the superwealthy don't need our tax cuts. The
middle class, small businesses, and working people need them. By giving
people enough money to support their families, pay for their groceries,
and contribute to our economy, we are all better off.
Everyone at the top should pay all of their taxes so every American
can pay all their bills.
Mr. DELUZIO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his
words.
The gentleman is right. We have to confront this corporate power. We
have to build an economy and a government that rewards hard work, not
just obscene wealth. We talk about how we all feel that squeeze. We
feel that power hurting us.
We all hear from our constituents about the cost of groceries and the
cost of food. They don't have a choice to not feed their families. We
are feeling it and we are hearing constantly about the pressure folks
are under to make ends meet and to put food on the table.
People's paychecks aren't going as far in the grocery store and the
checkout line. It hurts budgets. It hurts families.
They are asking: Who is responsible? Why is this happening?
No doubt, a few years back, food and grocery supply chains were
affected by the pandemic, but a Federal Trade Commission Report made
clear that the disruptions from the pandemic disproportionately
impacted small firms because larger companies tried successfully to
protect their power and their market share.
{time} 1815
There is very little competition across much of the grocery sector.
It is not marked by heavy competition. The four biggest grocery
retailers account for nearly 70 percent of sales across the country.
Among food suppliers, four firms control more than 60 percent of
sales in most grocery categories. That is not terribly competitive.
Without real competition, large grocers and retailers have got power
to--guess what--set prices that we all pay for. We have seen price
gouging by these corporations well above the level of inflation.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentlewoman from Washington
(Ms. Jayapal), who I acknowledge and know has been fighting hard
against not just corporate power, but to bring down costs for folks,
especially in the grocery stores.
[[Page H6147]]
Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania for
yielding. I am so grateful for his leadership every single day on
behalf of hardworking Americans across his district and across our
country.
Mr. Speaker, something is wrong in this country. Families go to the
grocery store and they can't afford milk or eggs or cereal that their
kids like. Poor and working-class people are struggling under the
weight of inflation. They can't make ends meet, and at the same time,
the richest 1 percent and corporate CEOs are still taking home record
profits.
A recent poll confirmed that two-thirds of Americans think: one of
the biggest problems facing us today is that a handful of corporations
have too much power. The numbers back this up.
Despite rising costs that are squeezing poor and working people
across the country, corporate profits are bigger than ever. It is a
simple story of corporate monopolies price gouging consumers.
Let's start with eggs because I like to eat eggs every morning. I
think there are a lot of people who like eggs and look at the price of
eggs. It is a staple.
Before the pandemic, the price of a dozen eggs hardly ever went over
three bucks, but in 2022 and 2023, we saw record-high prices for eggs.
Now, according to Farm Action, this price increase was because
dominant egg producers used inflation and avian flu as a cover-up to
extract profit margins as high as--wait for it--40 percent on a dozen
eggs.
This should come as no surprise because there is a long record of
collusion in the egg industry. In 2023, a jury found that Cal-Maine and
other egg producers actually did collude to fix egg prices.
Let's look at diapers, another issue that is so big for so many
families across the country.
Bloomberg reported in July 2021 that the cost of Pampers nearly
doubled from 25 bucks for 200 diapers to $40 for 168 diapers, and that
price increase was just in 6 months. More money for fewer diapers.
It is true that there was a shortage of some diaper materials during
the pandemic, but--guess what--those shortages stopped, and you didn't
see the prices stabilize. You didn't see the prices of key materials
coming back to normal.
When you go to the store and you see diaper brands like Huggies and
Luvs and Pampers, the real story is, turn them around and see who they
are owned by because all of these different brands that are on your
grocery shelves are owned by only two companies: Procter & Gamble and
Kimberly-Clark, accounting for about 70 to 80 percent of the market.
Even as the cost to make diapers has gone way down, these companies are
still keeping the prices high, and they are reporting record profits.
Mr. Speaker, I will go to healthcare because it is another place
where my constituents and people across the country are talking about
the high cost of healthcare. We have seen big insurers, private equity,
and other big corporations buying up hospitals and other healthcare
providers. My home State of Washington has been particularly affected.
A handful of healthcare systems now control 90 percent of the hospital
beds in the State of Washington.
Some studies have found that these mergers are especially bad for
people in rural areas because it actually causes smaller clinics to
eliminate services like obstetrics or pediatrics, or even to close
entirely. All of this has led to unprecedented corporate control over
healthcare in my home State and across the country.
People across the State and across the country are seeing the
negative effects of this increased corporate power in their daily
lives. A family physician who worked at a clinic in my district
testified that the quality and availability of care decreased after the
clinic was bought by a large national healthcare network. Another
witness testified that the price that her insurer paid for monthly
infusions to manage her chronic illness nearly tripled from $24,000 to
$74,000 per visit without any increase in the quality of care.
The president of the Washington State Nurses Association testified
that he had seen increased costs and decreased access to care for his
patients. All of these stories confirm what we now know: Corporate
greed in healthcare or in any industry raises costs and makes life
harder for Americans.
It does not have to be this way. As elected officials, it is our job
to ensure that government is keeping these corporations in line and
keeping prices low for the American people.
I will tell you a story about what government can do when we fight
corporate power. In 2015, two grocery store chains merged: Albertsons
and Safeway. They wanted what corporations always want in these big
mergers and that is more money for themselves, their CEOs, and their
shareholders. They said that the deal would be better for people in my
home State of Washington and across the country. They claimed that the
merger would pass on savings to consumers and not line the pockets of
CEOs, but what actually happened?
Well, here is what actually happened: Instead of streamlining, dozens
of stores were closed. Those closures created food and pharmacy
deserts, making it harder for many people in already underserved
communities to get fresh food or get their prescriptions. Older adults,
students, people with disabilities, people in rural communities, low-
income residents, those are the ones that suffered the most. Workers at
the stores that closed, by the way, also lost their jobs. Despite all
of those corporate promises, workers and consumers were the ones who
suffered. That is what happens when government does not challenge
corporate power and monopolies. We lose.
When Albertsons announced in 2022 that it was going to merge this
time with Kroger, people were rightly worried. They were worried that
the prices would go up, they were worried that there would be fewer
choices and deserts in their communities, and that more grocery stores
would close. When asked about the merger, one Washingtonian told The
Seattle Times that she was worried that her local store would close.
She said: If there are no other grocery stores that I can walk to, I
don't know what I am going to do. This is my store. Another said that
he worried that the merger would make it so that these guys' prices
would go sky-high. Workers worried that it would be harder for them to
bargain for better pay and working conditions, that store closures
would mean layoffs, and that their families would face uncertainty and
hardship once again.
This time something was different. My colleagues and I urged the
Biden administration to challenge the proposed deal, and the Federal
Trade Commission agreed that we could not allow another bad merger to
go through.
The FTC and many State attorneys general, including in my State,
challenged the deal. While that challenge is still in court, we have
delayed and will continue to work on blocking this bad deal.
This is just one of the stories of what can happen when an
administration, when a government takes on corporate greed the way that
the Biden-Harris administration did, the way that Democrats have done
on everything from egg prices to collusion by landlords driving up
rental prices.
I will be honest, I am worried that the Trump administration may not
keep up these fights against corporate power, especially as we see the
proposed cabinet being stacked with people who have close ties to Wall
Street. We certainly saw the last Trump administration conduct the
largest corporate tax giveaway in history, putting hundreds of millions
of dollars into the hands of big corporations like Verizon and Facebook
and Amazon while shorting regular Americans.
We have seen the extreme conservative appointees on the Supreme Court
accept lavish gifts from their big business buddies, while overturning
government efforts to clamp down on corporate power.
We cannot allow the next administration to repeat these mistakes. We
need to hold their feet to the fire. We need to make sure that they are
working in the interest of all Americans, not just big corporations and
the wealthy. We don't want a situation where the wealthiest in this
country, once again, get gold bars and working people get maybe 8 weeks
of groceries. That is bread crumbs. That is not what middle-
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class working people and poor people across America deserve.
That is why I have a lot of real solutions to these problems. My Stop
Corporate Capture Act would give the people, not big corporations, a
say in government. My Stop Anticompetitive Healthcare Act would give
the government the power to challenge hospital mergers and protect
access to quality healthcare. Of course, my Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act
would make sure that the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.
When we take on corporate power, we win for the working people. When
we lower prices, we win for working people. We allow people to put food
on their table. We can raise wages, so Americans don't have to work
three jobs to get by. We can stop corporations from being so big that
they don't care if they are failing consumers, and we can make sure
that government works for all of us.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague Representative Deluzio from
Pennsylvania for his leadership on this issue and on so many issues
facing us today.
Mr. DELUZIO. Mr. Speaker, I certainly thank the gentlewoman from
Washington for her strong leadership and fight against these horrible
mergers that are anticompetitive that we are all paying for and for so
much fight on behalf of working people across this country.
We know that when corporations throw their weight around, all too
often our constituents are hurt, small businesses are hurt, and workers
are hurt. It is also dangerous at times. We know that when there are
monopolies, our supply chains are weaker. There is more likely to be
something that happens that might hurt us.
I am reminded of the baby formula shortage we saw in this country in
the early part of 2022. It was set off because Abbott Labs, a company
that dominates that industry, had a recall of its formula due to
dangerous bacteria outbreak in one factory. Multiple babies died.
They had to shut down their factory in Michigan. It was a horrible
situation. Shutting down just one factory, one, caused a nationwide
shortage. In many places, store shelves were bare. Families were
scrambling across the country, particularly families with babies that
had special dietary needs. Delaware, Kansas, and Tennessee reported to
be the hardest hit States. We felt it in places like Pennsylvania. My
then-young son wasn't quite a year old. My own family worried about
whether we could find formula and thank goodness we could.
There is research saying that some of those impacts might be still
ongoing, that infant health suffered during this shortage, that babies
may still feel the effects of that. Our supply chains can never be so
weak that one single factory can cause such havoc all over the country.
It is not just that these powerful companies make our supply chains
weaker, they distort our democracy. They weaken faith in our elections.
They corrupt with the money through our elections and our campaigns.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois
(Mrs. Ramirez), who I know is a hard fighter for campaign finance
reform and to protect this democracy.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Deluzio for convening
this Special Order hour, and I am grateful it is on a topic that I
believe is so critical to so many of the conversations that we are
having right now.
You are talking about babies still impacted. You brought me back to
thinking about what it was like for me growing up. I grew up in
Humboldt Park in the city of Chicago. I saw my immigrant parents work
pretty long hours in minimum wage jobs. My dad worked two jobs, my mom
worked two jobs, and somehow she also managed to give a lot of time to
her local church.
What they couldn't afford was childcare. My mother worked first shift
so my dad could work third shift, and they could figure out how to make
sure that their kids always had someone at home. That meant that my
parents could barely ever see each other.
My parents' experience is not very different from the reality of so
many others right now. I witnessed the struggles of my community to
secure stable housing, to ensure quality education for their children,
and to raise a family with the rising cost of living.
Let me be very clear: Working people are still struggling. The cost
of living in America is too damn high. Too often I hear my
constituents, my neighbors talk about having to make a decision: Can I
go to the grocery store and buy the eggs and the milk, try to get some
spinach, try to get the bread, pay the $2,200 a month for a two-bedroom
apartment in Chicago, and then afford my inhaler?
Mr. Speaker, oftentimes what ends up happening is that people have to
choose between being able to feed their children and their healthcare,
feeding their children and an inhaler in one of the richest countries
in the whole world. Why is it so hard for us to move a working people's
agenda in Congress? You would think there is more of us that come from
working class than ever before. Some of us actually understand what it
is like to have to help our parents who are probably making $100 too
much for Medicaid so they need help covering their healthcare.
{time} 1830
There are more of us here who are working class, but somehow a
working people's agenda in this place doesn't seem to be a priority.
We ask ourselves: Why don't the American people trust that we are
working for them?
Well, let me answer that question. When unchecked corporate power and
greed in the marketplace meets unchecked corporate money in politics,
well, we have a problem. It is the families in Illinois' Third, Fourth,
Fifth, in your own districts, who end up suffering because of it.
We know that price gouging, price-fixing, predatory algorithms, and
corporate monopolies put profits and production over people. It is why
I joined my colleagues in sending a letter, that Congresswoman Jayapal
was just talking about, opposing the Kroger-Albertsons merger, because
we have to resist the consolidation of corporate power if we are going
to protect working people.
I am also a proud cosponsor of Congresswoman Omar's Shrinkflation
Reduction Act which would enhance price transparency for consumers and
combat the deceptive practice of shrinkflation.
I go to my local grocery store. I can literally see the difference
between what people in my community are paying and what someone else in
a community that has four grocery stores pays. They usually pay 25
percent more. We need the kind of accountability that bills like this
will bring.
Shrinkflation practices hide behind the language of inflation, but we
know that actually consumer exploitation is intended to defraud us so
corporations can continue to profit, while providing less product.
We know how corporations are able to get away with these practices.
It is because they use their profits to buy the same exact people who
are responsible for holding them accountable. Yes, I said it. Big money
in politics, whether poured into elections or directly in the pockets
of corrupt public servants, give special interests and corporations
outsized influence in our democracy.
So when a good bill comes before us, when a good bill comes to the
committee, somehow we can't actually debate the bill because it is a
good bill. It should pass. These corporations have the power to buy
elections and buy elected officials.
Our democracy is weaker and our communities suffer when the voices of
working families are buried under the influence that millions can buy.
We see it too often. It is why we need bills like H.R. 1118, the
DISCLOSE Act, to end the scourge of dark money buying our democracy.
I am a cosponsor of the act that Representative Pappas introduced
because it does a couple of things. It requires super-PACs and dark
money groups to disclose donors who have given $10,000 or more during
an election cycle. It requires those spending money on ads to disclose
their donors. It cracks down on the use of shell corporations to hide
the identity of a donor.
If you are donating to an elected official or candidate, the public
should know who you are. The DISCLOSE Act bill does just that. If our
democracy is not for sale, which it shouldn't be for sale, then mega-
donors should not be
[[Page H6149]]
attempting to buy our democracy. It means we have to bring the full
power of the Federal Government through regulations, through
accountability, and through transparency to fight for working people,
for our constituents.
It is also why I think it is so important that we are cosponsoring
legislation like Congresswoman Jayapal's bill, which is the Stop
Corporate Capture Act, H.R. 1507. This bill institutes reforms to
rightsize the influence of corporate interests over regulatory process,
it increases transparency of government rulemaking decisions, and it
establishes a mechanism for the public to hold agencies accountable.
We have to do everything possible so that the American people trust
that those of us that are in the people's House are actually here for
them because the reality is that they don't.
They do see us as people who are here to enrich ourselves, people who
are here to hear ourselves speak. Working families demand
accountability, and they have given us a mandate. They are asking us
for bold solutions to economic justice, and it means taking on
corporate greed.
As we get closer to an administration that has promised to weaken the
pillars of our democracy more than ever, I think it is going to be
critical that Progressives and every Democrat, frankly, every elected
official that is here for working families, get together to unite and
address corporate greed. If we don't, we will continue to see what we
see now, which is corporations becoming wealthier than wealthy can
possibly be, while poor people continue to have to choose between
healthcare and feeding their children.
I thank Congressman Deluzio for the opportunity to speak today. I
thank him for bringing up such an important, critical issue. I look
forward to working with him in the next Congress.
Mr. DELUZIO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois for
her powerful words.
This democracy is not for sale. That should not be something that is
controversial in this Chamber or anything else. Our constituents expect
us to fight for all of them.
One of the places that we have seen this consolidation, this
concentration, this raw power really hurt folks is in agriculture. We
see it because we know that food production is a key step in that
grocery supply chain, and we know we hear from our constituents that
the cost of groceries is too high. We are all paying too much for food
because of this consolidation that we see in agriculture. Folks are
getting ripped off. They are tired of it.
This increased consolidation also puts the squeeze on smaller, local
farms, family farms, small businesses, people often deeply rooted in
their communities, in my community, the communities of so many of the
Members of this Chamber.
This summer I visited a farm in my district and met with farmers from
the Beaver/Lawrence Pennsylvania Farm Bureau roundtable. Some of them
are livestock producers. They sell their meat or poultry to be packed
and processed. The meatpacking and processing industries are some of
the most heavily consolidated in the country, and they have very little
competition.
For the past decade, the four largest meatpacking and processing
corporations in the United States have maintained about two-thirds of
the country's market share. Some independent research has found this
consolidation to be even higher with the largest four firms holding up
to 85 percent of the market share in beef processing and around 60
percent in poultry. That is not very competitive. It doesn't meet the
spirit of competition that we want and need for American capitalism to
succeed.
I heard at that meeting in Beaver County, that compared to larger
competitors, these folks had to wait longer to get their livestock in,
to be taken in by these giant processing corporations. They are having
a hard time negotiating fair prices and fair compensation.
We are all going to pay for the squeezing of those farmers and those
small businesses. It may also be a violation of Federal law, the
Packers and Stockyards Act.
After hearing from these constituents, these farmers, I wrote to the
Agriculture Secretary and called for action. That high level of
consolidation, once again, is driving up costs for all of us. That
market power also means that processors have increased buying power
that they can use to dictate prices to smaller farmers who struggle to
stay afloat.
Mr. Speaker, we need a strong agriculture industry. We need family
farms that make it to that next generation. We have got to promote
competition for the food industry, for the farm, the grocery store,
every part of that supply chain.
That also means we need antitrust enforcement with some teeth, with
some muscle behind it, and with real consequences for violations. This
next Congress and administration should be willing to do that work, to
take on rip-off monopolies, and to create an environment that fosters
competition.
That is the spirit of American capitalism that I think we all want
and that our constituents expect of us. It is one where small
businesses and farms can grow and thrive.
Mr. Speaker, one place we have really seen small businesses feel the
squeeze are local pharmacies. If you walk across any Main Street in
most of our districts, any of our districts, they are great small
businesses that anchor our communities. They may be multi-generational
businesses. Pharmacies are one of those places that people like;
pharmacists get to know their patients. Those are relationships that
are important for people's health, and they add to the vibrancy of our
communities.
People suffer when they lose competition, when we lose those small
businesses across our communities. I visited Towne Drugs in Aspinwall,
an independent local pharmacy. I was there with other pharmacists, as
well as small business owners. I heard stories about how pharmacy
benefit managers, or PBMs, are frequently steering customers toward
their own chain pharmacies. It hurts the bottom line of independent
pharmacists.
Many of these PBMs are often vertically integrated, where they have a
mail-order pharmacy, a retail pharmacy, and maybe an insurance business
on top of that PBM or pharmacy benefits manager business. They often
charge high or ridiculous fees for paperwork errors as a way to not pay
those pharmacists and those pharmacies full price.
I heard about inconvenient higher prices for customers. I heard about
patients being steered toward more expensive medications or specific
pharmacies dealing with relationships and networks and all the rest.
In Pennsylvania this year alone, estimates are around 80 local
pharmacies have closed. Those are options that are now gone. It is not
just smaller, independent pharmacists. The big chains are feeling the
squeeze, too. It means fewer options and worse service for patients who
need a prescription, who need to get their drugs filled. It is not good
for our economy.
Mr. Speaker, once again, it is that out-of-control corporate power
that is making people's lives worse, hurting small businesses, hurting
patients, hurting our communities and our Main Streets.
We need action on PBM reform. I am a cosponsor of several measures
here including the HELP Copays Act, and the PATIENTS Act. These are
just some examples of bills that I think this Chamber should pass in
advance to fight back, to protect local pharmacies, to protect
patients, to protect competition that we need in the healthcare
economy.
We have got to keep up that fight against this out-of-control
corporate power to lower healthcare costs, a place that we hear from
our constituents all the time, and to protect small businesses.
Another example here where we see corporate power making life worse
is not the healthcare problem. We see it in the Golden Arches,
McDonald's. People don't think of McDonald's as a small business. Of
course, it is a big corporation. It operates as a franchise system.
Many franchise owners are small business owners.
Yet, the internet reminds us that those franchise owners for a long
time did not have the ability to fix their own ice cream machines. You
would see the out-of-order signs. It was impossible to get a McFlurry.
The reason why is only the technicians licensed by the company that was
making McDonald's soft-serve ice cream machines
[[Page H6150]]
were allowed to do the repairs. They limited the number of technicians
so there were long waits for servicing. That is why those machines were
broken. That is why you couldn't get a McFlurry. This shouldn't be that
be hard.
Finally, we saw the Federal Trade Commission take action and call out
the bad guy here. Now the U.S. Copyright Office has issued a new set of
exceptions, allowing restaurants to repair their own copyrighted
equipment used in commercial food preparation at the retail level. That
means finally McDonald's soft-serve ice cream machines should be
getting back online. Those repairs should be moving. We will see those
McFlurries flying through again.
Again, this is that same problem, the right-to-repair policy, which
is what we are talking about. A right to repair is about the freedom
across industries to fix stuff and not let big companies and
corporations gatekeep the information that people need to fix things.
The American people work hard. They have ingenuity. We know how to
make repairs. This is about freedom in our economy. This is about
making sure that small business owners, whether it is auto shops, in
this case McDonald's franchise owners, can make repairs.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is fundamentally American to see that
competition and to make sure that we are not seeing gatekeeping over
who can fix things, whether it is a tractor or an ice cream machine.
We have also seen powerful companies use that power--not just greed--
power to jam us with fees, junk fees that are often very deceptive.
Hidden at the end of a transaction, you see an advertised price. All of
a sudden, there are fees at the end of the transaction as you go to
check out, from tickets to flights to hotels, credit card fees, food
delivery apps. This has become pervasive in our economy.
I was on one of the main streets in my district, Lincoln Avenue in
Bellevue, about a year or so ago, talking with small businesses about
these junk fees.
I heard from the general manager of a pizza shop who told the story
of how his customers in the business were suffering because of third-
party delivery apps. They were seeing inconsistency between what was
available on the menu and what customers were seeing. They were seeing
big fees taken out of their orders. Customers were mad because service
was getting worse. It wasn't working out for his business.
In fact, I went next door to the ice cream shop. I told them what I
was there to work on at the pizza shop. They told me the same story.
These apps were hurting their small business, as well.
{time} 1845
In fact, that pizza shop had to rename. They hired their own delivery
driver to bring it in, which was an expense, but it made their business
better.
It tells you how impactful and bad those hidden fees are on a small
business owner like a restaurant, like a pizza shop, that they were
willing to defend their reputation, defend their business, make an
investment, hire in-house, and change the name. Ultimately, it was
worth doing that because of these predatory junk fees that we see from
middlemen.
It is unfortunately, though, the newest version of a story we have
seen for far too long: a big corporation hurting a small business, and
third-party middlemen using these hidden fees to deceive customers into
paying more. Again, it might be tickets, a flight, or a hotel. Those
junk fees often have very little connection to the service or the
product being provided.
I think they are a lose-lose for our local economy and working
families, but those junk fees might be a great profit source for a
third-party middleman or a powerful corporation.
I will give an example, and most sports fans will be familiar with
it, Mr. Speaker. This past summer, I used StubHub to buy tickets to a
Pittsburgh Pirates game. It was actually Paul Skenes' debut. I was
pretty excited to see him show up for the Buccos. I took my family. We
got jammed and slammed with junk fees, like everyone else who buys
tickets these days.
The fees were more than a quarter of the overall ticket price. Those
fees are often hidden until the very end of the transaction. It is not
the advertised price.
Companies like Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation, control
the market from tickets to venues to music promotion. Live Nation
directly manages more than 400 artists and controls about 60 percent or
so of promotions of major concert venues across America. They control
more than 265 concert venues in North America alone.
Through Ticketmaster, Live Nation controls about 80 percent or more
of major concert venues' primary ticketing for concerts. That is not
competitive. It is not a competitive market, Mr. Speaker.
What are they doing with that power? They are driving up prices with
things like junk fees. They are making activities like concerts and
going to a game out of reach for too many families. These are important
events, games, competitions.
I mean, my goodness, I am from western Pennsylvania. A Steelers game,
a Pens game, or a Pirates game is a big deal for people. We love our
teams. I know I am not alone in that in this Chamber, Mr. Speaker. Fans
are all paying for this.
When these powerful companies cut exclusive deals that hurt venues,
that restrict other venues, that rip off performers, it hurts a lot of
people and hurts the fans. This behavior seems to be more than just a
rip-off. It is probably also illegal.
The Justice Department has filed suit to split up Ticketmaster from
Live Nation. That case remains pending in the courts.
Folks are tired of getting ripped off. They are tired of
congressional inaction here. They expect us to take on this corporate
power.
We know that when massive corporations are allowed to take on small
businesses and deceive their customers, we all pay for it. Western
Pennsylvania certainly knows that story. We are not alone in that.
As I heard that day in Bellevue and across my district, small
businesses are strong. They are resilient. They are flexible. They
adapt. They need our help here in the Congress. It is about their
workers, and it is about our communities. I know that we can step up to
it. We have to do more.
According to a 2019 study, 85 percent of Americans experience a
hidden or junk fee for service. That was in 2019. That was before the
COVID pandemic, where we saw much more reliance on, say, food delivery.
I know we have to do more.
I will quote the general manager from that pizza shop that day who
told me: ``These fees may seem small, but they really add up.''
That is what it is all about, Mr. Speaker, those fees hurting folks,
hurting small businesses that we have to stand up for, that we have to
fight back on.
Mr. Speaker, I want to also talk about our national security, which
is maybe not a place we think that consolidation affects us, but it
does.
I have the great privilege, Mr. Speaker, to serve on the Armed
Services Committee. I wore the uniform earlier in my life, before I
came to this Chamber. I will tell you, we have challenges with the
defense industrial base. We need it to be strong and resilient to meet
the challenges not just of today but of tomorrow.
When it comes to our defense industrial base, the suppliers, the
manufacturers that make stuff here, we need to have them do better. We
need to better protect public money and make sure our Department of
Defense is ready and equipped to answer whatever our country might
require of our servicemembers. We have seen the same trends across our
economy in our defense industrial base.
In 1990, there were more than 50, 51, prime contractors in our
defense industrial base. That number now is down to five. That is heavy
consolidation. You see it right here, 51 to 5. These are the companies
that make ships, missiles, rockets, you name it, all the things that we
need that are central to our national security and our defense. We have
gone from 51 to 5.
This reduction is depriving the American people of competition for
key elements of our defense. I hear it from military leaders in the
committee. I
[[Page H6151]]
have seen it in reports that the Pentagon has penned that too often the
current defense contractors are delivering not on time. They are behind
schedule, and the costs are too high. The quality isn't what it should
be, what the American people expect.
We have to fight back against this consolidation, Mr. Speaker. I
think we need more competition in our defense industrial base. It is
ripping off our military, which means ripping off the American people.
There is public money we have to protect.
I think there is support building in this Chamber on both sides of
the aisle to strengthen competition here to make sure our defense
industrial base is stronger and to protect public money.
I have taken action along with colleagues. This year's National
Defense Authorization Act, the defense bill, included my Best Price for
Our Military Act. That is an important measure. It is a bipartisan
bill. It closes a timing loophole that defense contractors are using to
delay providing critical certified cost and pricing data to the
Pentagon.
My bill now requires these contractors provide this data before
contract agreement so that we can see whether we are getting the best
deal or whether we have to go back to the negotiating table. It lets
officers do a more informed analysis and be better stewards of public
money.
I hope to see this included in the final version of the defense bill
that we will pass and send to the President.
I know defense contractors and others lobbied to increase the
threshold point where they are required to report their pricing data to
the Department of Defense under the Truth in Negotiations Act. In 2018,
this threshold jumped from $750,000 up to $2 million. That meant, below
that threshold, they didn't have to provide that data. That is less
oversight. I think we need more.
The goal of our Defense Department is to provide security, defense
for all of us, for the national interest of the United States. It never
should have and doesn't have the goal to enrich giant defense
corporations that produce products that are too often behind schedule,
overpriced, and don't meet the quality that we expect, that we in the
Congress require.
We need to ensure that our sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines, and
guardians are equipped with the very best. That is patriotic, that we
protect public money.
Strengthening oversight enforcement within DOD, taking on price
gouging, working with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department
of Justice Antitrust Division, all of that is about fostering more
competition that we need in our defense industrial base.
Corporate power doesn't just hurt competition in defense. It doesn't
just lead to higher costs. It does those things, but it puts our safety
at risk. We saw it with the impact to families who were worried about
finding baby formula, infant formula. We see it in sectors of the
economy all over the country that when corporate power grows too
strong, it can put us at risk. It can treat us and our communities like
collateral damage in the way of their profits.
We saw that on February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in
East Palestine, Ohio, across the border from my district and my
constituents in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We saw it on the news, a
flaming pile of train cars, a horrible derailment caused by
incompetence and greed at that railroad.
We saw brave first responders rush in to help. That is what people
do, they rush in to help and serve others. They didn't know what
chemicals they were dealing with, which is its own problem. The local
communities felt like they were left out of the loop. They didn't know
what was happening.
Then, we saw a decision to do a controlled release, sending a toxic
fireball into the sky that we now know was chemicals, including vinyl
chloride. That was later deemed to be unnecessary.
The findings of the National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB,
included concerns that Norfolk Southern and its contractors
intentionally misled the on-site incident commander and local and State
officials, pressuring them to order the vent and burn that sent that
fireball flying into the sky. They were toxic chemicals. That is
corporate power run amok. It hurt my constituents, and it hurt our
neighbors in Ohio.
It seemed to me that railroad and its contractors pushed that vent
and burn because they cared more about their profit than our safety.
They cared about getting rail operations moving more than they cared
about making sure we were safe. That is unacceptable.
It is not just my community in western Pennsylvania and our neighbors
in Ohio. We know there are tracks across this country. Communities like
mine live near and along the tracks. This happens again, and it happens
a lot in this country, unfortunately. We have to make rail safer. We
have to bring down the rates of derailments and require more of these
railroads.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko), one
of my colleagues who I know is a strong supporter of rail safety. He is
with us to make sure that we protect communities like ours.
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Representative Deluzio lending
his voice on the House floor to speak to some of the injustice out
there. Certainly, representing a district that has immense amounts of
rail, it is important for us to address safety, consumer ridership, and
also the economy.
Over these past months and years, we have seen far too many
hardworking Americans struggling to get by and crippled by costs.
Recent data shows that more than one-quarter of Americans are living
paycheck to paycheck. We need to be sensitive to all of these
perspectives as they relate to working families.
Meanwhile, corporate greed and wealth disparity are at an all-time
high. One of the countless recent examples of billion-dollar
corporations putting profits over people's lives came during and after
Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall, wreaking death and
destruction across the southeastern United States. In their wake,
complaints of price gouging poured in as families trying to flee the
devastating storms reported skyrocketing costs for airline tickets,
gas, hotel rooms, and more.
Despite many States having anti-price-gouging laws--these vary from
State to State--the largest corporations can often easily avoid
liability. That is why, last month, I joined a dozen of my
Democratic colleagues in a letter led by Senator Elizabeth Warren
calling for a Federal anti-price-gouging law to protect American
consumers.
Unchecked corporate greed has hurt everyday Americans for far too
long. Democrats are ready to face this issue head-on. Unfortunately, it
doesn't seem that President-elect Trump and Republicans share the same
commitment. Rather than working with us to drive down the cost of
living and make big corporations pay their fair share, they have
announced their plans to expand the Trump tax scam.
Expanding this unpopular law will only further cement massive tax
breaks for Trump's billionaire buddies like Elon Musk while sticking
the working-class people who voted for him with higher costs on
everyday goods through his half-baked tariff scheme.
Experts from both sides of the aisle have said plainly that if these
GOP policies are implemented, they will send prices surging and claw
back any progress we have made to stem inflation. These are not the
types of policies that the American people signed up for.
Republicans and Democrats alike need to stand together to enact a
bipartisan tax plan that would lower taxes for working- and middle-
class families while ensuring everyone pays their fair share, including
Trump's billionaire buddies.
If they aren't willing to join us in this effort to support middle-
class Americans, we will fight back however we can, and that is a
promise. Of course, it involves all sorts of angles that speak to the
doability for working families, making certain that regulations speak
to the needs of consumers for rail safety, growing the economy, and
providing efficiencies so that American families are justly served.
We need to do a lot of business in the upcoming session, and we need
to do it with American families in mind, those working families who
struggle in the economy. We need to make improvements and let fairness
be our guide.
[[Page H6152]]
I thank Congressman Deluzio for his leadership on behalf of working
families and on behalf of safety. I know we both have districts that
require that sort of laser-sharp focus. It is an honor to serve with
him. I thank him for raising his voice and boldly speaking for justice
for our American consumers.
{time} 1900
Mr. DELUZIO. I thank the gentleman from New York for his strong words
and his commitment to his constituents, to safety, for hardworking
people having a shot at the American Dream, which fundamentally is what
I think we all want here.
We heard from Members representing districts across the country, a
broad ideological spectrum of folks tonight, all talking about ways
that corporate power has hurt their communities or hurt their
constituents--it has hurt competition--and expressing their
willingness, our shared willingness, to fight, to fight back for our
constituents.
I represent a competitive district. I will say, Mr. Speaker, I have
the best district in the country. I might get some argument from my
colleagues about that. This is a place, like so many others, where
folks want the American Dream to be strong. I think every Member here
would say the same of their constituents.
If you work hard, you play by the rules, the American Dream is within
your reach. That is what we are trying to do. I have been laser
focused, as have so many of our colleagues here, about lowering costs,
taking on corporate power to protect small businesses and workers,
fighting against lousy trade deals that hurt places like western
Pennsylvania, making stuff more in this country, more manufacturing,
cracking down on junk fees, on price-gouging. That is really hurting
folks and really hurting our Main Streets.
These economic priorities, they are good policies, and it is popular
because the American people want us to fight for them. They don't want
to get ripped off. They want to see real American capitalism that is
marked by competition.
The survey data here is clear. This is a poll from ABC News and The
Washington Post from July, 85 percent of Americans say higher costs are
a very important issue, one of the single most important issues they
feel that we should confront.
There is a tendency by some in politics to try and please everybody.
Okay. You know, I am a little sick and tired though of folks around
here, whether they are in this Chamber or out in the think-tanks
looking for a win-win in every situation.
You know what? Sometimes, there isn't.
Sometimes there is a toxic fireball shot up into the sky near your
community when there are small pharmacies getting killed, when there
are junk fees hurting your constituents. Sometimes there is a bad guy,
and you have got to fight them.
The American people want us to fight for them. I am proud to see so
many of my colleagues join me in that fight. The goal here is simple,
and it is popular. Make life better. Make it less of a rip-off. Take on
the corporate power that has been hurting so many of us.
I think that is the path back to the American Dream, along with
strengthening and revitalizing our American manufacturing. Sometimes
you call it the villain. I know we need more competition across our
economy. We need to be unafraid of the fight, and we have to do it.
We are ready to go to the mat for the American people, for our
constituents, to strengthen the American Dream. That is the vision.
That is my vision. I know I am not alone in that. It is one that I know
will resonate in the Rust Belt, the Sun Belt, the Coast, all over this
country.
I thank my colleagues, my caucus members who joined me, I appreciate
your leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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