[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16397-16403]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hensarling). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Meek) is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again, it is an honor to 
address the American people and also Members of the U.S. Congress, and 
there are so many issues to talk about tonight.
  As many of the Members know and the American people know, once a week 
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Democratic leader, 
has allowed the 30-something Working Group to come to the floor to 
share with the American people issues that are facing not only young 
Americans but Americans in general. We have 14 Members in our working 
group, and we work throughout the week and here in the Congress to make 
sure that we give voice to issues that are facing Americans throughout 
our country.
  I must say that being from Miami, Mr. Speaker, I just want to share 
with the Members and the American people, we are so glad that the 
people of Los Angeles allowed for the Miami Heat to be able to receive 
Shaq. We look forward to the Miami Heat going to the NBA not only 
finals, but championship this upcoming season. Shaq is going to bring a 
new flavor to Miami, and all Miamians are very proud to have him there 
and also his family; and we welcome them all. We look forward to a 
successful Eastern Conference playoff and even regular season, and I 
will tell you, not being a season ticketholder myself, I look forward 
to saving up my money to get an opportunity to see him in the Magic 
City.

                              {time}  2200

  Mr. Speaker, let me share for a moment with the American people that 
week after week the 30-something Working Group has had an opportunity 
to come to the floor to speak to the American people about the issues. 
This week we had a visit from the WWE, which is the World Wrestling 
Entertainment Association. These are wrestlers that came to the U.S. 
House of Representatives to talk about their initiative that they are 
working on throughout the country.
  Everywhere the WWE is going, they are registering voters, and they 
are working with the democratic way of making sure that every vote 
counts in this upcoming election. We know that many Americans, many of 
them are young; a lot of issues facing Americans right now are issues 
that are working towards our future. It does not matter what age you 
are, but especially for young people. I commend WWE for the work they 
are doing. They were here Monday night at the MCI Center registering 
voters. Their number is up to a million voters who have already 
registered for the upcoming election.
  I am very excited about Americans who have not had an opportunity to 
vote in the past that are taking an opportunity to vote this time; and 
wrestlers, entertainers are telling them it is important that they 
vote. There are issues facing the economy, the environment, the war in 
Iraq; and we are glad they are there.
  I have a picture, if I may, of three of the WWE wrestlers that came 
to the Capitol on Monday. This fine gentleman is myself. I wanted to 
wrestle once upon a time, but I do not think I can hang with these 
guys. We have Maven, who is an outstanding young man. We had an 
opportunity to hear his views on voter suppression.
  This is Hurricane. We had an opportunity to see him Monday night. He 
is a very popular young man and has a bright future in the wrestling 
entertainment world. And then we have Chris Nowitski, who is a Harvard 
graduate. He graduated from Harvard and now wrestles in the WWE. They 
all have a voter consciousness. And here is our very own, the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), who wanted to have a lights-out cage match with 
these gentlemen. He said as long as he has his track shoes on, he will 
be okay.
  Mr. Speaker, we want to commend these men for coming and helping to 
get out the word about democracy and making sure every voter takes 
their American right and has an opportunity to vote so their voices are 
heard. It was good. We had an hour-long meeting, and we opened it to 
the press to allow them to come in and hear these fine gentlemen. I am 
glad they have taken time out to share in a bipartisan and nonpartisan 
way the importance of voting.
  Mr. Speaker, I must share the issue of voter suppression. This is 
going on throughout the country, and I must say to many of those 
students that are going to return to colleges and institutions and even 
to those parents that are sending their kids off for the first time to 
a college in a city that they have never been in before, many of those 
individuals have registered in high school through their social studies 
programs and government classes. We do it in Florida, and in many 
locations throughout the country the same thing happens. We want to 
make sure that these young people know they can register.
  In November, November 2, they are going to be at the location where 
they are going to school. We started getting reports of young people 
going to register to vote before they recessed for the spring, and now 
in the middle of August they are going to return for the fall semester; 
but they were told they were not eligible to vote because they did not 
live in that particular city. Taken from my good friend, David 
Letterman, and hopefully I will get out of here in time to be able to 
catch the show, if you live in Sioux City, Iowa, and you are attending 
university in Akron, Ohio, you should have the opportunity to vote 
there. The Supreme Court said in 1979, if you are a registered student, 
going to school there, you have a right to vote in that location.
  Mr. Speaker, there is also rhetoric that is being shared with many 
students that want to vote at their college campus, if they register, 
they will lose their out-of-state or in-state aid they will receive, or 
their scholarship will be in jeopardy because they were brought in as 
an out-of-state student. That is not true, and there are no 
repercussions to take part in our democracy. We want to make sure we 
get that word out to all Americans.
  I think it is important for every parent and grandparent, for the 
grandparents that have given their hard-

[[Page 16398]]

earned money to make sure their bloodline has a better opportunity than 
what they had, that they have the opportunity to educate themselves, 
and they have also an opportunity to share in this democracy. They have 
feelings, too. As it relates to growing and skyrocketing tuition costs, 
they have to be heard on that. They have to be heard on the 
environment. A lot of things that are happening that were not happening 
years ago, they have to be heard on that. They have to let it be known 
that we want alternative fuel sources in the United States of America. 
If they are not heard, it may not happen.
  They have to be heard on the issue of student loans, of skyrocketing 
costs of college tuition, and that they are graduating in debt. We want 
them to take part in the American Dream. That is what it is all about, 
to buy a home and get a piece of the rock. And we want them to have a 
credit report so that they will be able to be eligible to get a loan to 
buy a house.
  So for 18 to 30, young people being able to have an opportunity to 
vote, if we can raise the level in that demographic, what we call it in 
the political world, we will have a better America. We will have a 
safer America, a cleaner America, and a healthier America. I think that 
is very important.
  That is the reason why the 30-something Working Group formed itself 
under the leadership of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), 
because she believes in a better America. She believes if given the 
opportunity to be Speaker of this House that we will be able to top-
shelf many of the issues that are facing young Americans. So not only 
now but post-election, we will be coming to the floor to share these 
philosophies and issues with the American people.
  Also as it relates to voter suppression, we want to make sure if 
anybody wants to find out more information about it, go on the 
rockthevote.com Web site and find out more information on voter 
suppression, or you can take the opportunity to contact us here in the 
House of Representatives. We are going to give voice to those 
individuals that may run into problems.
  This is our Web site here. We have our e-mail address, 
30somethingdems@
mail.house.gov. Also our Web site, we have democraticleader.house.gov/
30something. I will share the Web site and the e-mail address again 
later on. You will have an opportunity to be able to allow us to fight 
on your behalf. We are not talking about just Democrats; we are talking 
about Independents, Republicans, Green Party, what have you.
  We feel to be able to have a stronger America, safer and healthier 
America, it is important that our entire country takes part in the 
electoral process. If one does not take part in the electoral process, 
we will not bring about the kinds of change that everyone cares about. 
That is what we are about. We are about making sure that everyone, and 
I mean everyone, not just folks from Florida or Ohio or the 
Californians or Texans, we want to make sure that everyone participates 
in this process. We want to make sure that everyone can have their 
voice heard, and that is why it is so very important.
  Tonight we are going to talk about several issues. One we are going 
to talk about is our breach in intelligence. We are also going to talk 
about many issues facing Americans. And guess what, we even have a top 
10 list tonight that we will give birth to tonight so when we return 
after Labor Day, we will continue on with our top 10 list.
  I have been joined by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), who is an 
outstanding Member of the House of Representatives.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to say to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) 
that I shared our picture on the Capitol steps. I talked a little about 
how you wanted to have a lights-out cage match, and as long as you had 
your tennis shoes on that it would be okay.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, did the gentleman explain that I was 
not the man with the green hair in the picture? Was that clarified?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I think it is obvious. The man with the green 
hair has more muscles.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That hurts me.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is love.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The Hurricane is in the green hair, along with the 
Maven. I have not watched professional wrestling since Jimmy Superfly 
Snuka and the Wild Samoans. And so to now meet the next generation, and 
I am sure the gentleman touched on this, how great it is that they are 
taking part in trying to reach young people to get out the vote. They 
have registered over a million kids already.
  Did you get into the voter suppression?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We talked about, but it would not be complete 
without your views.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That was really the issue yesterday when we were 
here. There is a huge voter suppression issue where young college kids, 
and I talked about it last week, how young students who live in college 
towns are going to register to vote at the local board of elections or 
supervisor's office, and they are being told they cannot vote there 
because they are not a permanent resident. Or if they do register to 
vote in that town, they will lose their financial aid, they may be 
prosecuted for fraud, lose their health care coverage. There are issues 
which have dissuaded young college students from actually registering 
to vote.
  Once we started hearing about this, we went back and did some 
research. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) did most of the 
research. He found a Supreme Court decision back in 1979 that said that 
even if you live in a dorm, you can register to vote in that community.
  We have just been getting flooded with e-mails from people all over 
the country, young students who have tried to register to vote in 
certain areas and have been denied. They have been told that the local 
prosecutor would prosecute them for fraud or that they would lose their 
financial aid. So if you tell a young student that they are going to 
lose their financial aid if they register to vote, they are not going 
to vote.
  Then we turn around and say why do young people not participate in 
the process? So to have the Hurricane and the Maven here was special. 
It was special.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, 
everyone forgot about us. Walking through the halls, they wanted to 
touch the Hurricane and the Maven. They said these guys are just 
Capitol regulars.
  Mr. Speaker, athletes nine times out of ten get a bad rap for being 
about business. This is a capital city. These gentleman could have been 
doing anything. They could have been somewhere relaxing, kicking back, 
doing what they wanted to do. They were doing what they wanted to do. 
They wanted to make sure that not only young people but wrestling fans 
throughout the country could just pause for a moment and realize the 
seriousness about their vote and about their voice being heard. This is 
serious business.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Big time.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We are at war.
  If I can say, 897 American troops are not coming home. We honor them, 
but they are not coming home. That means 897 individuals will no longer 
see their family members ever again.

                              {time}  2215

  That means that 5,394 American troops, not coalition troops, American 
troops, injured, dealing with the war in Iraq, just Iraq. This is not 
talking about Afghanistan, going after the Taliban and 9/11. Do not get 
me started.
  The real issue is serious. We have to make sure that the men and 
women that follow the WWE, and that is what these gentlemen are trying 
to do, let your voice be heard. They are not telling them how to vote 
or who to vote for. They are just telling them that they have to get 
registered and that they have to get out the vote.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. What is interesting is that after having 
discussions, both of those gentlemen, they were in Cleveland a few 
months ago, maybe last year some time, and they came to Kent State 
University to have this discussion. We had a chance to talk a little 
bit. One, and I will not say which

[[Page 16399]]

 one, is a Republican. The other is a Democrat. And so it is a very 
bipartisan issue of just getting kids registered and getting them out 
and engaged in the process.
  Last week, since you brought it up about the soldiers, and then I 
want to quickly move back to the voter suppression because I have 
someone who wrote in, e-mailed in from Ohio State University after 
hearing me last week talk about voter suppression.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I must say, the gentleman from Ohio does that 
well. He reads the e-mails. He gives the Web site. I gave the Web site 
out earlier. I want to apologize to the gentleman from Ohio for giving 
the Web site out because that is what he does.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I practice reading these e-mails. I do not just 
come to the floor and expect myself to have the rhythm. I practice.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. The gentleman just wants to make sure that the 
individual who e-mails, that he does not skip a word. Every word is 
important. Every little nuance is important. We are not here to talk 
about travelogues or footlockers. We are here to talk about serious 
business.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Let me read this since we have come back to it. 
Here is a young kid, a young student, a graduate of Ohio State 
University, still residing in the 12th District in Ohio. She was told a 
few years ago by the local Franklin County board of elections when she 
registered herself to vote, told by someone in the office that if she 
registered in Franklin County she could lose access to college funding 
because her parents were of another voting district. On and On. 
Currently I'm an assistant manager for a bookstore across the street 
from the Ohio State campus. In March I went to the Franklin County 
board of elections office on Broad Street in Columbus to pick up 500 
voting registration forms to set on display for the many students that 
walk through our doors each day.
  So here is someone who wants to go out and try to recruit people to 
make sure they get registered to vote. Put them on display. The lady at 
the office that provided me with the registration form asked that we 
warn students that their financial aid could be affected if they should 
choose to register in Franklin County. Being that this information was 
consistent to what I had heard when I was a student, I assumed this was 
accurate information and placed a warning sign near the applications. 
After watching Representative Ryan on C-SPAN last night, I have 
realized that what I was told may be erroneous, illegal information and 
this really upsets me because I have noticed that some students have 
been hesitant to pick up the application. I would like to know if this 
is indeed a case of voter suppression. If not, I would be glad to help 
fix the problem.
  So here is a student that not only wanted to vote for themselves, 
they were willing to go and get 500 applications, set them down at the 
bookstore, and say, let's register to vote, let me get these young kids 
involved in the process. She actually was so confused that she put up a 
sign saying they may lose their financial aid.
  The gentleman from Florida and I are here tonight to tell the Speaker 
and everyone else who is listening that that is not true. The Supreme 
Court ruled in 1979 that students can register to vote on campus even 
if they live in a dorm or off campus. They can register wherever they 
want in most States. Do not be deterred. Do not let anyone tell you 
that you cannot sign up to vote. I am 31 years old. The gentleman from 
Florida is 37 years old. I know this is probably going to be the 
biggest election of my life. And there are people who are 60 or 70 
years old that are telling me that this is going to be the biggest 
election of their life. Do not let someone tell you that you cannot 
register to vote. We have the 1979 Supreme Court decision. We have the 
WWE wrestlers. If you have a problem at the local board of elections, 
we will call up the Hurricane, we will call up the Maven and we will do 
what we have got to do.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Nowinski, also. We cannot leave him out. Our 
Harvard grad.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We cannot leave out the Harvard grad.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Who is a wrestler.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I have had conversations over the past couple of 
weeks with some people in the entertainment industry whom I think also 
are going to be willing to take this and promote it to their fans as 
well. This is something that is really catching on that I think we 
really need to make sure that everyone knows, ride the wave out and let 
them know. If you have a particular story like the gentleman who heard 
us on Friday from Columbus, Ohio, send us an e-mail to 
[email protected]. Or you can also e-mail our friends at 
smackdownyourvote.com. You can e-mail them or studentsuffrage.com, 
also, a new organization.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Studentsuffrage.com. They have good information 
about voter suppression. I just want to from that e-mail let you know, 
we have to remind the American people and Members of the House, this is 
not the 30-something report. This is not the Representative Tim Ryan 
report nor the Representative Kendrick Meek report. This is for real. 
People who would think we are joking, it is unconscionable for someone 
to even put a sign out as much as we are trying to encourage young 
people to come out and to take part in this democracy, that anyone 
would say that you would suffer financially from voting. Leave alone 
from voting, from registering to vote. I am from Florida. Do not get me 
started. I am just going to say that when we look at individuals taking 
part in this democracy, we are not talking about Democrats only. Let us 
make sure we are straight on that because we will get some folks who 
come in on the other side of the aisle, the 30-something Dems, they 
have Dems on the back of 30-something, they are only fighting to make 
sure the Democrats have a right to vote. That is not true. We want 
Republicans to vote. We want independents to vote. We want democracy. 
We want to make sure that their voices are heard. We want to make sure 
that we have a better America as we move forward. If we do not have a 
voting America, then we are not going to have a better America. If they 
are not turned on or turned off about what is going on, we need 
individuals like WWE. We need them to have a fair shake when they go to 
register to vote. And for someone to a student, think of a student, and 
I am sorry, I am getting a little wound up here, think of a student 
that would even take the prerogative to register to vote when they have 
all of these issues to worry about, exams, term papers, making sure 
that they get registered in their classes. They want to do what they 
are supposed to do, what their parents have done, and that is register 
to vote. We want kids, we want parents. Parents, if you are listening 
to us here tonight, even Members of the House, if you have children 
that are attending, or of the other body or even of the Bush 
administration, I must add, if you have children or, I must say, let us 
just be bipartisan, if you work for Senator John Kerry or Senator 
Edwards or what have you, we want you to be able to call your kids and 
make sure that they have an opportunity to vote. The bottom line is 
that we have to crush this. We have to crush this right now. We want 
people to let us know. We want to fight on behalf of those individuals. 
We want to make sure that they know that they have a voice, even here 
in the U.S. House of Representatives, that they have a voice. For all 
the folks who stand up here and say, I support the troops. No, I 
support the troops more than you do. No, you don't support the troops 
as much as I do. I support the troops even more. I have a tattoo 
saying, I support the troops.
  Let me tell you something, we want some folks enthusiastic here in 
this House and in this democracy, I must add, here in the United States 
to be supportive of democracy. There may be some individuals that are 
actually scared that people may very well vote in this country and if 
they vote, they may no longer be here. But that is the price we pay for 
being public servants in this process. I am saying, bring it on. Allow 
Americans to vote, especially

[[Page 16400]]

young people. My goodness, I am taking out my deficit chart here. $477 
billion in Federal debt and this is using the Congressional Budget 
Office. The number is probably higher. $477 billion. That means 
children at birth already owe the Federal Government money. This is 
serious business. This is not a joke. This is $477 billion, the highest 
deficit in the history of the republic. So for those of us in this 
House that want to drape ourselves in the flag and talk about how we 
support the troops and I am more American than you are, you look at 
this number. This is nothing to be proud of. I have two children. I 
have a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old. I do not want them asking the 
question, what were you doing when this was going on? Why don't we have 
Social Security now? To my uncle who is a Korean War veteran, why do I 
have to wait 6 months at the VA to see an ophthalmologist? Why don't I 
have health care, for the 43 million Americans that are working. These 
are not individuals that are sitting at home, looking at cable and 
saying the job situation looks sad. These are people that are working 
every day. So how are we going to resolve those issues that are facing 
everyday Americans? $477 billion, that is not a small number. We are 
knocking on the Bank of China and Japan every 3 weeks saying, guess 
what, we're the United States of America. We need money to pay down the 
debt.
  So this voter suppression issue, some people may say, it's just 
rhetoric. This is for real. These are the individuals that are going to 
have to pay this. That is why we need them engaged. Everyone that comes 
to Capitol Hill, we have a lot of young people walking through the 
Capitol. We see them in the hall. They come. They identify with us. 
They want to talk to us. They want to talk to Members of Congress. But 
when they get back in the fall, do you think that it is going to be a 
lower tuition rate there? I do not. Why? Because of this. $477 billion 
because we do not have the money to be able to help State governments. 
State governments do not have a credit card with a U.S. Treasury here 
and, I must add, we are not in control. News flash to Members of the 
Congress and the American people. They cannot say, well, you know, the 
Democrats, tax-and-spend Democrats. Hey, guess what, ladies and 
gentlemen, the last time that the budget was actually balanced in this 
House, the Democrats had control. And we passed a balanced budget 
amendment in this House without one Republican vote. Without one. Maybe 
two or three could have come over. Without one. When we start talking 
about this issue of spending and the deficit, we need to talk to the 
hand. You cannot talk to me about that, because the real issue is that 
the Republican Congress put us in the situation that we are in now.
  Believe me, there is a good argument for it, if someone was to mike 
up on the Republican side of this House and some of them are very good 
people. Some of my best friends are Republicans, okay? I am going to 
let you know that right now. I will tell you that many of those 
individuals feel the way that we feel, fiscal conservatives, concerned 
about the Federal deficit. They have children, too. And they are 
concerned, too. And every time someone from the other side of the aisle 
tries to step out and say I am going to do the responsible thing and 
make sure that we spend within reason, make sure that we invest within 
reason, that I will not give a tax break that I know that we cannot 
afford, that I will no longer send States that are over $87 billion in 
deficit right now, because States do not have a credit card. They pass 
that cost on to State universities. They pass that cost down to local 
governments and they have to pay the bill. So this voter suppression, I 
say to Members of this Congress, members of the Bush administration, I 
hope they are listening. This is serious business. Yes, we know 
November 2 is going to go and come but this deficit will be here, for 
our children and in many cases our grandchildren to pay the cost. Even 
seniors now will pay the cost. Prescription drugs, they will pay the 
cost.

                              {time}  2230

  Adequate health care for every American, will pay the cost. For 
everyday working Americans that know what it means to have a 15-minute 
break in the morning and a solid 30 minutes and not-a-minute-over lunch 
break, and 15 minutes in the afternoon, they know what I am talking 
about. So those are individuals that we are trying to represent. That 
is why their children have to have an opportunity to vote, and that is 
the reason why the 30-something Working Group wants an opportunity to 
fight on behalf of that individual that sent the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Ryan) that e-mail to make sure that they have a right to not only 
vote but, guess what, a right to register.
  Goodness gracious. I am from Florida. We talk about voting in 
Florida. Now we are having in the United States an opportunity to talk 
about just registering. So when we look at that, it is important that 
we fight. Now, the National Secretaries of State Association, which is 
a bipartisan organization, not a Democratic organization, but a 
bipartisan professional organization, has joined in this effort with us 
to make sure that these individuals will have an opportunity to vote.
  So I want to apologize for my being a Congressman just for a few 
minutes because it is a great amount of frustration.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman does not have to 
apologize. Let us go, after that passionate display, over to our e-
mail, 
[email protected]. If there is some kind of voter 
suppression going on where people are telling them they cannot register 
at their local board of elections because it is on a college campus or 
because they are a student or because they live in a dorm, I ask them 
to give us a call. We will help them negotiate the waters with Smack 
Down Your Vote, with Hurricane and the Maven and our guys from WWE who 
are helping us out; we will be happy to help them.
  I know I just sent around a letter last week contacting all the local 
members of Congress in the State of Ohio. We are going to send a letter 
off to the Secretary of State in the State of Ohio. I know the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is going to do that in Florida. So we 
start contacting the Secretaries of State in these different States. 
The National Secretaries of State Association is going to help us also 
communicate to their local board of elections to let them know that 
this is something that can really happen with young people. So 
[email protected], send us an e-mail.
  One of the issues that the gentleman from Florida was talking about, 
about how this is their future, the future of the country is at stake, 
and how we need young people to participate in the process, and I will 
tell my colleagues why. Not because young people are just inherently 
great, but young people have certain qualities that this democracy 
needs, and they have a way of replenishing the system here with some 
new ideas, and so in a way they are great. We need new ideas in this 
institution. And we are in the process of creating a new economy, and 
we need them.
  And the disagreement they have with many on the other side is that 
they consistently have chosen to give tax cuts to people who make 
millions of dollars a year and are not invested in the Pell grants, not 
invested into low, low, low-interest student loans, not invested into 
the States to allow them to reduce the costs of college and reduce the 
tuition costs that a lot of these kids will face as they go back to 
school in the fall. And the gentleman said, You know how I know they 
are going to have higher tuition? Well, you know how I know? Because 
they have already said in Ohio State it is going up 13 percent. In 
Akron it is going to go up 10 percent.
  So I want to share this, and we did this earlier. We had an Ohio 
working group that was out here earlier, and I shared some of these 
graphs, but I want to share these with the people watching here. One of 
the greatest threats to the United States of America, Mr.

[[Page 16401]]

Speaker, is China. China. And give me a minute here because I am going 
to have to segue into making my point.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I further yield to the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Ryan).
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that. He is a generous 
man. I am getting choked up here with the gentleman's hospitality.
  Exports from China. And I went over this about an hour ago here, but 
I want to do it again just in case we have some new people watching. 
This is out of Wired Magazine, and Ryan Keating on my staff ran across 
this, and I want to thank him for his insight into these particular 
issues. Top five exporters of electronics, countries: China in 2002, 
$8.8 billion in exports of electronics; United States of America, $2.5 
billion. Let me repeat. China, $2.5 billion; United States, $2.5 
billion exporting electronics. So China is cleaning our clock. Top five 
exporters of telecom equipment: China, $36.4 billion, United States 
$21.6 billion. Getting our clock cleaned in the telecom equipment 
industry.
  We will go over here to the green. Top five exporters of assembled 
computers, when we signed all these trade agreements and we said we are 
going to compete with all these countries, we are going to have to have 
the high-tech jobs. That is what everyone always told us. Top exporters 
of assembled computers: China, 3.8 billion; USA, 2.4 billion. Getting 
our clock cleaned by China for assembled computers.
  Here is the point I want to make with this pie chart and two other 
graphs here. Top five sources of engineering graduates, if we want to 
get the new economy going, if we want to make sure that our economy can 
compete in this very competitive global economy, one of the things we 
need to do is we need to have engineers who are creating, finding 
better ways of doing things, finding more efficient ways of doing 
things. Engineer grads in 2001: United States, 59,000; China, 219,000 
engineers in 2001, graduated from China. 59,000 in the United States of 
America.
  And I ask the gentleman from Florida, the Speaker, and everyone else 
who is listening here tonight, how are we going to compete in the 
global economy when we have 59,000 engineers graduating, China has 
219,000, European Union has 179,000, Japan has 104,000, Russia has 
82,000, and the United States of America has 59,000? How are we going 
to compete in the global economy when we do not have enough engineers 
out there creating the new economy?
  And we have talked here before, Mr. Speaker, about the space program 
and how the goal for the United States was to go to the Moon; but that 
was the sexy, glamorous part. We are going to land on the Moon and 
everyone can see it and it is great. But the idea was to make sure that 
we are educating mathematicians, scientists, engineers, chemists, 
people who are going to be able to participate. There was a goal there 
to go to the Moon, but all that was to make sure that we were educating 
people in the process of getting there. Yes, it is great to get to the 
Moon. Yes, we can do experiments up there. But imagine all those people 
who got educated in those specific sciences and never ended up working 
for NASA. They ended up in the private sector driving our economy.
  Let me share two more charts here; and I do not like to get too 
statistical because, one, it makes me nervous, but we have got to wake 
up and smell the Starbucks. Other countries emphasize science and 
engineering education. This is the percentage of first degrees awarded 
in the natural sciences and engineering.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is important. Natural sciences, 
engineering.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Natural sciences, engineering. And I am not saying 
I was the sharpest knife in the drawer when I went through college, but 
what I am saying is I know enough and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Meek) knows enough, and I think the American people know enough of what 
we need to do to compete. So look at this chart. Percentage of first 
degrees awarded in natural sciences and engineering: China, 73 percent; 
Japan, 66 percent; Germany, 59 percent; South Korea, 45 percent; United 
States, 32 percent. So China is at 73 percent. We are at 32 percent. 
And how do we expect to compete with all these people if we do not have 
enough people participating in the sciences and in engineering?
  One final chart. These are people entering graduate school and 
engineering, physical sciences, math and computer sciences in U.S. 
institutions. The green line is U.S. students and permanent residents, 
59,000, roughly, as I stated earlier. The red line is foreign students 
at U.S. institutions, almost 83,000.
  I do not want to get bogged down in the numbers; but my point is that 
because we are not investing in education, because this administration, 
this House, this Senate, this Congress, has chosen time and time again 
to give tax breaks to the top 1 percent while we have 250,000 students 
across the United States of America who are college eligible but will 
not go because they cannot afford it, we have a problem.
  And we have a problem that we can fix, and this is why I am here at 
almost 11 o'clock at night. This is why the gentleman ran for Congress. 
This is why we spend long hours going to parades and shaking hands and 
working here late at night during the week, because we believe that 
there is an answer to this problem that is going to make the United 
States stronger. And what we have been arguing here on the Democratic 
side, and many Republicans have been arguing this as well, but the 
leadership, the President, the leadership in the Senate, has not been 
responsive, the Pell grant now only accounts for 40 percent of one's 
college tuition. In 1973 or 1974 when the Pell grant was started, the 
Pell grant would take care of almost 80 percent of a student's college 
tuition. We had a commitment to education. We had a commitment to make 
sure that we could keep driving this economy by having engineers and 
scientists out in the private sector pushing it along, starting a 
business, working for a business, making it grow, helping it grow time 
and time again.
  We did not have the banks involved in the student loan business. Why 
do the banks have to be cut in on the whole deal? I have nothing 
against banks. They own my house right now; so I do not have anything 
against them. But they do not have any business being involved in a 
student loan. We cannot help them make profits. We are trying to get 
kids educated, and that is what this country needs to do. We need to 
make it a priority, and I think this is something that has got to come 
from the President of the United States. I love John Kerry's plan. He 
wants to double the Pell grant. He wants to give $25 billion to the 
States that has to be spent to lower tuition costs. He wants to help 
kids get low-interest loans. He wants scholarships for math and science 
students. These are things we need to do.
  And I went off and I apologize, but the frustrating part is that this 
is solvable. These are solvable problems, and that is the beauty of 
this system. And we can fix this. I think we have to fix it because 
really the future of the country is at stake. When we look at trying to 
compete with China and they are cleaning our clock in electronics, 
telecommunications equipment, assembled computers, and the United 
States workers are losing their jobs and scrambling over to see if they 
can get to Wal-Mart, we have got a real problem. And I think if we made 
this a national commitment, and I hope President Kerry would make it a 
national commitment, but if we do that, I think we still have some time 
left. And the scary thing is the clock is ticking.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Ryan) for sharing that with the American people. I know he 
needed those charts to make sure that he can show the picture, but he 
was kind of brushing against kind of like a Ross Perot kind of feeling 
there. I started thinking he was going to say in a minute, You are not 
listening. But I think it is important. We try to make this not normal 
C-SPAN watching for the viewing public and for the Members

[[Page 16402]]

of Congress. We want to make sure they hear what we have to say. But if 
we are going to compete, guess what, we have to have players on the 
field that are the numbers. It is almost like football. One cannot line 
up with five people and expect to beat a full defense there with five 
people on offense.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) 
is a former football player.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. That is correct.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. What position did the gentleman play?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I played a little defensive end. That was when I 
could legally hit someone. But we will leave that out here because 
there is no hitting in the Congress, I must add.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That saves lives.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. That saves lives.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to talk a little bit about intelligence for 
a minute, if we can.

                              {time}  2245

  Then we are going to get into our top 10 list after intelligence. I 
am just going to talk about that for a minute, because the American 
people are going to get an opportunity to hear more about intelligence 
as the week gets a little older.
  We know that there has been a lot of talk, that there has been a 
Senate report released. The Senate Intelligence Committee put out a 511 
page report, which is a bipartisan report. It gave a pretty good 
picture of what was going on in the CIA, of what possibly went on in 
this administration as it relates to intelligence analysts that were 
subject to political pressure.
  There is going to be a second tier to this report, and guess what? It 
is going to be after the election.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Absolutely.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Wow. Is that not a news flash?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield, we are trying to 
engage young people here in the voting, participating in the process, 
and they hear this garbage that ``we are not going to tell you until 
after the election. Then, you know, then we will give you the truth.''
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Once again, this is not the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Meek), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) and/or the 30-
something Democrats working group report. This is a report from the 
Senate, or the ``other body'' Intelligence Committee.
  I must say that the Democrats on that committee did file a dissenting 
view, basically saying intelligence analysts were subject to political 
pressure.
  I will say this: We had some very honorable Members whom I respect 
and, we are both members of the Committee on Armed Services, I am also 
a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, and this is 
serious business. We have men and women right now getting sand in their 
teeth over in Iraq right now based on intelligence.
  Right here in this well, right above the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Ryan), our Commander-in-Chief shared with us information that we know 
now is false, or was given bad information.
  This is serious business. This is the reason why we have got to deal 
with voter suppression. This is the reason why everyone who has a voter 
registration card or will become eligible to get a voter registration 
card should make sure they let their voice be heard at the polls.
  I for one and the gentleman for one and the 30-something Democrats 
for one are not scared of American people voting. Democrats, 
Republicans, Independents, Green Party, whatever party you are a member 
of, we want you to vote, because in this democracy things will happen 
better for our future.
  This report will be coming out. There will be a lot of rhetoric about 
who did what, who did not say this. We know the CIA director, Mr. 
Tenet, resigned. We know that there are others that should resign.
  No one gets fired from this administration, I must add. For all of 
the issues that have gone on in this country, no one has been asked to 
resign. Everyone has done a superb job.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. They have not made a mistake.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. They have not made a mistake.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The first administration in the history of the 
United States of America that has not made one mistake.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I will tell you this: It would be good for 
politics. But, do you know something? I have to go back to the numbers. 
The numbers speak for themselves.
  The reason why this is serious business and the reason why week after 
week we come back and the reason why we have a Committee on Armed 
Services, hopefully that will have hearings that would hold the higher 
echelons, and I mean the secretary and undersecretary and everyone over 
at the Pentagon that is wearing a shirt and tie and suit that is 
appointed, that are calling the shots for men and women. They say well, 
you know, we wait to hear from our commanders in the field. We do not 
make those decisions.
  Mr. Speaker, I remember a day when everyone at the Pentagon took 
credit for what was going on. Now it is like, well, we are waiting to 
hear from this general and this other general, and, until we hear from 
the field, we are not going to do anything.
  Mr. Speaker, 897 and climbing. A coalition of troops that one may say 
is over 132,000 American troops, enlisted, Reserve, National Guard. 
And, guess what? Over 6,000 individuals that did not say, hey, I am 
ready to go. They were called up and sent. And also 4,000 troops were 
relocated from other parts of the world that we need them to go to 
Iraq.
  The last I checked on 9/11, it was all about the Taliban and al 
Qaeda. And, guess what? They are in Afghanistan doing what they want to 
do.
  Yes, we commend the troops. Do not get me wrong. I do not know a 
Member in this Congress, I have not encountered an individual out on 
the street, either here in Florida or Washington, D.C., that says I am 
not with the troops. So we can just put that debate aside.
  I think it is important that the American people understand that we 
all support the troops. For anyone that spends 30 or 40 minutes talking 
about how he or she supports the troops, we need to focus on other 
things about the intelligence of why we are in Iraq in the first place.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We want to protect the troops.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And protect the troops, and making sure that 
Reservists who signed up to protect this country, they will fight for 
20 years if this country asked them to fight. That is not the question. 
It is about decisions that are being made here inside the Beltway. It 
is about the individuals that are being driven around with tinted 
windows in black cars and Suburbans with police escorts. We are talking 
about those individuals.
  Guess what, I say to the gentleman from Ohio? The U.S. Congress and 
the Committee on Armed Services are the individuals charged with making 
sure that those individuals are held accountable. We have the 
leadership of this House on the other side of this aisle here that 
says, oh, we do not need to bother the Pentagon. They have a lot work 
to do. We do not need to ask the Secretary to come down here. He has a 
war to fight.
  Well, guess what? The last I checked, we need some help, and we need 
some oversight.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Article I, Section 1. The people govern.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. So I want to move on, if we can. If the 
gentleman from Ohio would, he can remove that e-mail address. We want 
to make sure the American people get an opportunity to see it. He is 
going to help me out here.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This is unbelievable. This is unprecedented.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Unprecedented. We want to make sure that people 
know that we are here, that we mean business.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And I am not Vanna White. I want you to know from 
right now, I am not Vanna White.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. No one is calling the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Ryan) Vanna White. No one wants to.

[[Page 16403]]


  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Are we ready? I do not know what to do here. I just 
pull this off?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. What you do at the top, you start at the very 
top.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I am nervous.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I want to let you know, this is the top 10 
reasons why young Americans need a change in leadership. I just want to 
make sure our viewing public has their eyes on this, or our friends at 
C-SPAN have their eyes on this chart here, because it is important.
  The top 10 reasons why Americans need a change in leadership. Can you 
take number 10 off.
  At the top, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), look at that.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Oh, yes.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Not sure how you will be able to pay your share 
of the $2.9 trillion deficit and afford Outcast tickets. That is 
important there. The Outcast tickets are important.
  I want to add to the American people that the Congressional Budget 
Office says that is the next 10 years. It will be $477 billion, which 
is the current deficit for this fiscal year. That is right now where we 
stand. That is number 10.
  Number 9.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Here we go.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Look at the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan). The 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is about to get a contract here in a 
minute.
  New dorm rooms run by Halliburton overcharge you by $900,000.
  That is possible. I want to let you know that is very possible. That 
happened.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If you think your college tuition is high now, wait 
until we privatize your dorms and turn them over to Halliburton. Then 
you are in trouble.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Let us go with number 8.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I am ready.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. We have to get moving here.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I am nervous.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Because young people cannot get sick, 30 percent 
of young people do not have health insurance. That is an important 
issue. That is number 8.
  The top reasons why young Americans need a change in leadership.
  Go ahead with number 7.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I like this number 7. I had a chance to peek.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You can talk about it later.
  Young people concerned over the prospect of another Cheney swearing 
in. Oh, wow, that is interesting.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is because when he was in the Senate with 
Senator Leahy, he keeps swearing.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Let us go from there.
  Number 6: MTV spring break coverage lacking. Only 15 students able to 
afford the Cancun getaway. Worse teen unemployment since 1949.
  That is very serious.
  Go ahead. We have got a couple more here. Number 5: Students dismayed 
that 10 Crackerjack box tops now worth the same as Bush's Pell Grant.
  Go ahead, number 4: Because John Ashcroft has got to go.
  So, number 3, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) has got to move 
faster. Number 3.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I know help me out.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. A draftee is not what you meant when you said 
you hope the Bush policies would help you find a job.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) has got to 
give me a chance to drop the thing.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Just drop it to the floor. We will clean it up 
later.
  Number 2, cannot buy self-help books titled ``I am da bomb'' in fear 
that the homeland security officers will investigate you under the 
Patriot Act.
  Number one, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is doing a fine job: 
Because this is your country and what is at stake is your future.
  And that is very, very important, that the American people understand 
that that is important, and that goes for everyone and every age group.
  We want to make sure this top 10 reasons why young people need to 
change leadership in America is all in being able to frame this issue, 
to let them know what the issues are. We know that we put a little 
humor to it, but, at the same time, it is very real, it is very 
accurate.
  We need to give folks our website. We are running out of time. We 
have probably a minute or so left.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We have 2 minutes.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And make sure we give them the web site so we 
can continue to communicate with Americans.
  To the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), I must say he is going to have 
the last word tonight and close this out. That it is a pleasure being 
here with the gentleman and a pleasure working with the 30-something 
group. We look forward to hopefully a democratically-controlled House 
when we return back here after November so we can talk about offense 
and not defense.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. [email protected]. 30, as in the 
number, [email protected].
  I agree. We are wrapping things up this week. This will be our last 
30-something probably until September. We will be here for a few weeks, 
and then off to the elections. So, hopefully you can send us an e-mail. 
Let us know what you think.
  But part of what we are trying to do here is share with the American 
people what we are learning while we are down here and just present the 
facts. It has not been partisan, but we have, I think, illustrated 
tonight and over the past few weeks kind of what we want and the 
direction we think the country needs to go in. So I appreciate the 
opportunity to be with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) here. The 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) does a fine job, and I am happy to be 
his wing man.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this is the conclusion of the 30-
something working group. We appreciate the opportunity to address the 
American people and the House of Representatives.

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