[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18945-18946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         DEMOCRATS ARE WORKING TO GET OUR ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on a separate point from what 
I wish to discuss this evening, let me acknowledge that I had an 
opportunity to meet with one of my firefighters from Houston, Texas, 
and I do want to emphasize the important role that firefighters play in 
homeland security and as first responders.
  I hope that we will be able to address their concerns, particularly 
as it relates to one legislative initiative that I am supporting 
dealing with H.R. 3992 which addresses the question of providing the 
added resources and personnel to ensure that both fire trucks and fire 
stations are well equipped with the necessary personnel. I believe 
however we resolve these matters dealing with volunteer firefighters as 
well as our full-time firefighters, we do realize that they are, in 
fact, very viable and vital first responders, and we should address 
their concerns.
  It is my sense and position to move and hope that we will move H.R. 
3992 as expeditiously as we can. We had a hearing in the Committee on 
Science, and I hope that we will be able to do that on behalf of the 
American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe there is a lot that we can do on behalf of the 
American people, and as I have watched the base of the economy crumble 
beneath us, if we really went back home and asked who is hurting or 
what needed to be improved or corrected, most would say that they would 
ask that we get the economy back on track.
  It is important that the voice of those Democrats who are seeking to 
do so be heard. I am somewhat disturbed that the House majority has 
failed to address the real serious questions of the economy. In the 
backdrop of a very high and moral decision of whether or not this 
Nation goes to war, we have lost all sight of those who are hurting.
  Let me just give some points that are worth noting. Household income 
is down for the first time since 1991. This is not household income of 
those who can afford to throw away a few dollars, cut out one more 
midwinter trip away to the islands or to some European attractive 
vacation spot. This is the household income of those who are trying to 
make ends meet, trying to send young people to college, pay their 
mortgages, or, like in the State of Texas, trying to scurry around to 
find substitute insurance to the Farmers Insurance Company that has 
shut down in Texas, causing 700,000 families not to have home 
insurance. This is real. Mr. Speaker, I have sent a letter to the 
Attorney General of the United States, and I am waiting for a response, 
for him to determine how he can be of assistance to those 700,000 
families in Texas.
  Poverty is up for the first time since 1993, affecting 1.3 million 
more families than last year; 1.8 million jobs have been lost, and 
unemployment is up 5.7 percent. Health care costs are soaring; and 
again we say to the senior citizens in our community, prescription 
drugs prices are five times the rate of inflation, but yet this body 
has not been able to pass a guaranteed Medicare prescription drug 
benefit. People are hurting.

                              {time}  1800

  The stock market has lost $4.5 trillion of its value, more than was 
lost in the Hoover administration in that collapse. All of the history 
books will point to the stock market crash of 1928. We have surpassed 
that. The market just ended its worst quarter since the crash of 1987.
  Thousands of employees have seen their retirement savings evaporate. 
401(k) and other defined contribution plans lost $210 billion. The 
index of

[[Page 18946]]

leading economic indicators fell .2 percent this month, double the 
decline experts had expected. And a $5.6 trillion surplus has become a 
$2 trillion deficit.
  We have work to do, Mr. Speaker, and we are not doing it. Thousands 
and thousands, I am exaggerating, of course, hundreds and hundreds, 
tens of tens of suspension bills going nowhere; but yet we are failing 
to address the pain and the hurt of those who are suffering from this 
economy. We have got to strengthen pensions by giving employees the 
same protections that executives get. We have got to allow those who 
are living with companies that are bankrupt, Mr. Speaker, to go into 
the bankruptcy court, pass a prescription drug benefit, protect Social 
Security, and provide jobs. I simply ask for this Congress to do its 
work.

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