[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21327]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       ADMINISTRATION STACKING DECK AGAINST AMERICAN STEELWORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of hundreds of 
thousands of steelworkers, not only in the great State of Ohio, but 
across this country, many from my district. These times for the 
steelworkers have been made even worse by an administration that has 
really stacked the deck against them. We have suffered the worst job 
loss record since the Great Depression. Nine million Americans are 
unable to find a job, 3 million have lost their jobs since President 
Bush has taken office, and 195,000 of those live in the great State of 
Ohio.
  In particular, the steelworkers, many men and women across the 
industrial Midwest who have given their lives, in many instances their 
limbs, to feed their families and make sure their kids can have a 
better life than they had. Twenty-six steel companies have gone 
bankrupt.
  I found it very interesting the other day that the President of the 
United States made his way into Ohio in an election year to talk about 
manufacturing, and he made his way through the gated communities of the 
State of Ohio. As his motorcade rode through, he landed in Richfield, 
Ohio, one of the wealthiest suburbs in the State, to talk about the 
decline in manufacturing. He did not go to Youngstown, he did not go to 
Cleveland, he did not go to Toledo, he did not go to Mansfield. He went 
to the suburbs.
  It is time we have a manufacturing policy in this country again. We 
sign trade agreements that continue to send our jobs, once to Mexico, 
and now they are leaving Mexico and they are going to China.
  One quick story. Before the break, at the end of July, we passed two 
trade agreements, two new ones, two new NAFTAs, one with Chile, one 
with Singapore. We want to export more. No labor standards, no 
environmental standards.
  We had many Members of this Chamber come before us and indicate how 
great these free trade agreements are, how they were going to make 
America stronger, that we have free trade, we have this free exchange 
of goods, it is great for everybody, it lowers the price for the 
consumers.
  Later that night, early into the next morning, we tried to pass a 
drug reimportation bill. We basically wanted to free-trade 
pharmaceuticals to drive the price down. The same people who were 
advocating the free trade of textiles and cars and steel and everything 
else were the same people that were saying we cannot be free-trading 
pharmaceuticals.
  The only direct link for that position is where are you getting your 
campaign contributions. If you are for free trade of textiles, you can 
raise a lot of money. If you are for protectionism for pharmaceuticals, 
you can raise a lot of money.
  Which brings us to the issue of health care. There are 41 million 
uninsured in this country. Eighty-two percent of the 41 million are 
from working families, industrial unions, people who go to work and 
work hard every day. And on every contract that they try to negotiate 
is the issue of health care costs, premiums, copays, prescription drugs 
going up by 15 percent, skyrocketing. Premiums increased by 12.7 
percent in 2002 compared with 0.8 percent in 1996.
  Mr. Speaker, we are not going to win this battle with money. It is 
going to take us uniting together, like we did in the past century, 
voter by voter by voter, if we want a policy in this country that 
advocates for the poor, that advocates for the middle class and that 
tells the pharmaceutical companies that have been the most profitable 
industry in this country in the last 10 years, that you cannot get 
money from the government to begin your research and development, 
public money, and then stick it to the consumer on the back end with 
inflated drug prices.
  We need the unions of this country, the steelworkers of this country 
to unite again in an energized effort to take this country back so it 
is not who has the money gets the proper legislation; it ends up with 
who got the votes gets what this country not only needs, but really 
deserves.

                          ____________________