[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19725]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     CONGRESS SHOULD NAME POST OFFICES, BUT NOT AT EXPENSE OF ITS 
                            RESPONSIBILITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, on the subject of the marriage amendment, 
the House majority leader said earlier today, ``It is our job to make 
the laws in this country. And as easy as life would be for us, if the 
most controversial bills we had to vote on was to rename a post office, 
that's not what we were elected to do.''
  I find it ironic that the majority leader used the naming of post 
offices, especially for this Congress. I have done my own research. As 
it turns out, this Republican Congress, the 108th Congress, the House 
and the other body, has been hard at work at naming post offices. In 
fact, under the Republican leadership, we have named an impressive 92 
post offices, and we just did 4 more today.
  We have also named 22 Federal buildings, passed 34 resolutions 
honoring athletic teams, and introduced 35 resolutions creating 
commemorative postage stamps. That is in stark contrast to when the 
Republicans first took control of the House in the 104th Congress. They 
only managed to name 12 post offices. This Congress has done 92.
  In the 106th Congress, they only squeaked out a pitiful three 
resolutions honoring sports teams and sports achievements. Clearly, the 
108th Congress, this Republican Congress, has proven to be the most 
adept at naming post offices and Federal buildings, and honoring sports 
achievements and conceiving of new postage stamps.
  Now, let me tell you something; it takes a lot of time and effort to 
name a post office. First, you have to decide which post office. Then 
you have to figure out what name. Then you have to pick a name and 
build support for it among your colleagues. The final test is to get a 
vote on the name, which is no small feat when you consider that, 
historically, only 1 out of every 100 bills ever sees a floor vote. In 
this Republican-led Congress, however, 80 percent of the post office 
naming bills introduced in the House have actually passed. That is 
something to be proud of.
  But while we have spent all this time naming post offices, we could 
have been dealing with the problems which are facing the American 
people. After all, while this Congress is busy alleviating the apparent 
backlog of nameless post offices in America, we have lost 1.7 million 
private sector jobs. Median household incomes have fallen by more than 
$1,500. Household bankruptcies have skyrocketed, and today we see in 
articles that health care costs in America are rising at close to three 
times the rate of inflation.

                              {time}  2100

  In Iraq, more than 1,000 Americans have been killed. Reconstruction 
has been pushed to the sidelines. There is mounting violence, and we 
have not found any weapons of mass destruction or had any oversight 
hearings in this Congress as to why we went to war on that premise.
  Mr. Speaker, today the majority leader quoted former President John 
Kennedy in justifying the votes we had. So in the same spirit, I will 
quote President Kennedy: ``To govern is to choose.'' And unfortunately 
this Congress, the Republican Congress, has made some tough choices. 
Time after time the Republican leadership has been forced to choose at 
their own making between naming post offices and using its control in 
the House, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court to improve the lives 
of millions of Americans. More often than not the Republican Congress 
has chosen to name post offices.
  Please do not misunderstand. I am not opposed to naming post offices. 
In fact, I cosponsored a few of them myself. Congress should do these 
things, but we should not do it at the expense of our other 
responsibilities.
  We should not do it as an excuse not to deal with the health care 
crisis, not to deal with the access to higher education crisis we have 
in America, not to deal with the fact that wages and income are 
stagnant in America, not to deal with the fact that we have a war being 
waged and we do not have a policy or a President that is cognizant of 
the fact that it is a burning morass, as three leading Republican 
Senators said last week.
  We have only passed one of the 13 appropriations bills we are 
required to pass. We have not passed a Transportation bill that we are 
required to pass that would employ millions of Americans. We have not 
passed a higher education reauthorization bill as we are required to 
pass. We have not passed a budget under a Republican Congress. We have 
failed to reauthorize a series of things we are required to do, and yet 
we have taken on the responsibility of naming 92 new post offices.
  Our Nation and economy rely on the most basic functions of this 
Congress, yet we have failed in both those activities. We can do 
better. Congress can name post offices and keep our Nation moving 
forward.
  Mr. Speaker, Election Day is only weeks away. I hope when the 
American people go to the polls, it will reflect on the kind of job 
this Congress has done. The Republican leadership made their priorities 
clear. The 108th Congress will be remembered for its leadership on the 
naming of post offices.

                          ____________________