[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20219-20220]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          STATE OF THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simmons). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the state of the 
economy. The events of September 11 have had a terrible impact on our 
economy and one of the hardest hit areas has been the tourism industry. 
Travel and tourism are at the heart of America. They help fuel the 
engines of growth in both small and large cities throughout our Nation. 
And few cities in America rely as much as the City of Anaheim, 
California, which I am proud to represent. Anaheim is home to 
Disneyland, a tourist attraction like no other. It is the happiest 
place on Earth. And it is the West Coast's biggest convention area, the 
Anaheim Convention Center.
  Last week, I was shocked to hear that Standard & Poor's had put the 
City of Anaheim on a credit watch because of concerns of a downturn in 
tourism. They indicated three areas in the United States where tourism 
may not come back, and one of them was Anaheim. Anaheim is especially 
vulnerable because its budget, its city budget, is heavily dependent on 
tourist spending. Over 54 percent of Anaheim's general fund revenues 
come from sales and bed taxes. A downgrade in their bond rating would 
make it more difficult to sell city bonds for projects. It would also 
lead to higher financing costs. The last time that this city, my 
hometown, the City of Anaheim, was placed on credit watch was in 1994 
during the bankruptcy of the County of Orange.
  Thousands of jobs are on the line in my district, jobs at gas 
stations, at restaurants, at rental car dealerships and at hotels. 
Taxicab drivers are having a very difficult time trying to make ends 
meet. Jobs are in jeopardy at many airline subcontractors in my 
district who make the flight control actuators and the nose wheel 
steering systems for commercial aircraft. This is only a partial list 
of the businesses that are beginning to fail in the area of Anaheim and 
central Orange County. Approximately 15 percent of the private 
workforce in Anaheim relies on tourism. That is higher than over half 
of the largest areas where tourism is a dependent industry for cities. 
Half of the city's top 10 employers are based in the tourism industry.
  Last month, Congress helped the airlines with the airline bailout 
bill. That was for the airlines. However, we left the workers behind. 
They received nothing, the workers who are or, in so many cases, were 
the heart and the soul of the airline and tourism industry. That is why 
I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 2955, which would provide financial 
assistance, training and health care coverage to employees of the 
airline and related industries who lost their jobs as a result of the 
September 11 tragedies.
  What type of economic stimulus package can best help the tourism 
industry and the people I represent, many of America's workers? As 
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned, it is better to be 
right than to be quick. Yes, we need to get this right, but what we 
must do is be honest with each other. The American public must 
acknowledge that any economic stimulus package will likely push the 
Federal budget into deficit. We spent $40 billion the Friday after 
September 11. We spent $15 billion the next week on the airlines. Now 
we are talking about a stimulus package over $100 billion. We need to 
understand that this money that we are spending, plus the regular 
spending that we are doing for the coming year, will put us into 
deficit. We need to work in a bipartisan fashion to develop a 
responsible stimulus package that boosts the economy in the short term, 
yet lays the groundwork for long-term prosperity. An effective stimulus 
package will help the economy get back on its feet by putting money in 
the hands of those who will spend it.
  Last week I was disappointed to hear President Bush describe a 
stimulus plan that I think is built on ill-advised tax cuts, some of 
those tax cuts that he did not get done in the first package that he 
passed through the Congress. The effect of the President's plan

[[Page 20220]]

would be less to stimulate the economy than to lock in long-term tax 
cuts. Given that so much of the imaginary surplus that was meant to 
finance the tax cuts has disappeared, this plan is ill-advised.
  All items in an economic stimulus package should be temporary, not 
permanent. We need to provide immediate stimulus without doing harm to 
the long-term budget outlook. I support a short-term package that 
boosts consumer confidence, encourages investment and maintains fiscal 
discipline which will help keep our long-term interest rates in check. 
I hope that that is what Congress decides to help the people with.

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