[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23149]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           FIRST THINGS FIRST

  (Mr. PRICE of North Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, in recent months, we have 
passed legislation to rebuild the communities ravaged by terrorism, to 
bring down the Taliban and root out the al-Qaeda network, and to make 
our skies safer for the flying public. But there is one glaring 
omission, left out of the airline bailout bill, left out of the 
aviation security bill, and that is the workers laid off in the 
aftermath of these attacks.
  What we have known for weeks is now official: Our economy is 
spiraling downward in a recession worsened by the events of September 
11. North Carolina's unemployment rate for last month was 5.4 percent, 
the highest it has been in almost 9 years.
  In this time of financial crisis, we need a recovery plan that 
includes all our citizens, not just the big corporations looking to 
benefit from a preexisting Republican tax cut agenda. Our Republican 
friends have found time to pass a 16-year refund of the alternative 
minimum tax for large corporations, but precious little for the working 
people who need extended unemployment benefits and reimbursement of 
their COBRA health care coverage.
  These priorities are way out of whack and we must reverse them now.

                          ____________________