[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21560-21561]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AMERICAN PARITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the President announced to the American 
people yesterday that he intends in their name to borrow $87 billion on 
top of the $79 billion he borrowed earlier this year to rebuild Iraq, 
Afghanistan, and continue the struggle in that area.
  Now, I would hope that the Congress this time will choose to 
scrutinize this request. The last time the President just breezed 
through here and the Congress said, $79 billion, no problem. So I would 
hope every penny will be reviewed.
  I would hope that this Congress would choose to pay for this instead 
of borrowing $87 billion, indebting our children and grandchildren, by 
freezing tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country. We could 
pay for it if we just stop cutting taxes.
  But I really want to focus on a part of that which the President 
proposed, $20.3 billion on top of $2\1/2\ billion he requested earlier, 
to rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq, to build schools, electric grid, 
water and sewage, oil infrastructure, transportation, communications, 
housing, public buildings, roads and bridges, and money for the police, 
fire, the first responders.
  Now, we are going to borrow $20.3 billion in the name of the American 
people, and we are going to send it to Iraq to rebuild their country. 
Now, it has not been long since we heard from the Bush administration 
that this would be free, the architecture of the war in Iraq.
  Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a House subcommittee in March that Iraq 
would generate $50 to $100 billion

[[Page 21561]]

of oil revenue over the next 2 to 3 years. We are dealing with a 
country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively 
soon. Mr. Wolfowitz is somehow still in good standing with this 
administration despite the fact that he was wrong by about $100 or $200 
billion here. And the American people are going to be asked to pay for 
it.
  Now, it is time for a little fairness and equity here. I have 
introduced with the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) a bill, the 
American Parity Act, which says that if the President is going to 
request $20.3 billion to provide jobs and rebuild the infrastructure of 
Iraq, schools bridges, roads, highways, water systems and dredge the 
ports, all things which he is not funding here in the United States, 
then we should have dollar for dollar matching for that under the 
American Parity Act and put people to work here in the United States, 
invest in our infrastructure, roads and bridges.
  Now, I had someone say to me, well, wait a minute, you are proposing 
to make the bill bigger here to borrow. Yeah, that is right. We would 
borrow $20.3 billion to invest in our Nation in long-term projects, 
putting people to work today but also investing in roads, bridges, 
highways, water systems, things that will last us for decades.
  Now, I do not object to borrowing money to invest in America and to 
put people into work in America, but I have a real problem with 
borrowing $20.3 billion to invest in the infrastructure in Iraq while 
ours is crumbling here at home.
  The President has proposed a zero fund, no funding of the dredging of 
ports in my district and elsewhere around the country, yet he is 
proposing to dredge ports in Iraq.
  The President has not proposed a penny for the Federal Government to 
partner in waste water systems, yet it is estimated we have a $16 
billion annual deficit under Federal mandates in water systems that 
were being put in our communities from the party that said they were 
not going to send unfunded mandates.
  Mr. Speaker, where is the money to help the communities meet those 
Federal requirements?
  On Interstate 5 just in the State of Oregon, I know this goes on 
around the entire United States, we have a $4.5 billion bridge 
replacement problem. That would put a lot of people to work. But the 
President is telling the Congress that there just is not money to put 
into the roads and bridges and highways here in the United States, and 
he is trying to reduce the spending. We are at a stalemate over a new 
transportation bill because the President says there is no money to pay 
for it. But somehow we can borrow $20.3 billion to do those same 
projects in Iraq. When is the President going to propose to either fund 
or borrow the money to fund similar projects here in the United States 
of America? With the American Parity Act, if it were adopted as part of 
his proposal, we would fund, dollar for dollar, comparable projects in 
the United States, putting tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of 
Americans to work and provide some fairness and equity and at least 
some return to the American taxpayers for their borrowing.
  But I fear that this administration and the leadership of this House 
is not that interested in funding infrastructure work here in this 
country, but they are perfectly willing to borrow the money in the name 
of the American people to rebuild it in Iraq. It is a sad day for the 
United States Congress.

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