[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7777-7778]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION IN 109TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, Republicans and Democrats alike in this 
House can take a great deal of pride in the work product that has come 
forward in the 109th Congress. We know that for 8 years there has been 
an attempt to pass bankruptcy reform legislation, to finally bring some 
common sense to our bankruptcy law. With a strong bipartisan vote, 
Democrats joining with Republicans, we finally have been able to bring 
about bankruptcy reform.
  We know that frivolous lawsuits have been a tremendous problem, and 
class

[[Page 7778]]

action reform is again another very important bipartisan victory that 
we have been able to bring about.
  Securing our borders. Our national security is our number one 
priority in this country. It has to be constitutional, but securing our 
borders is very important. With a strong, bipartisan vote, we have been 
able to pass the Real ID legislation which has now been attached to the 
very supplemental appropriations bill which also enjoyed very strong 
bipartisan support.
  The highway bill enjoyed strong bipartisan support with Democrats and 
Republicans coming together to work on this important issue.
  We also know that trying to save small businesses and family farms 
has been very important, and that is why Democrats and Republicans came 
together to permanently repeal the death tax, one of the most onerous 
taxes of all, and we also know that dealing with the prospect of a 
horrible terrorist attack is something that we had not contemplated up 
until September 11, 2001. Now we have seriously considered the prospect 
of that by passing very important Continuity in Government legislation 
which enjoyed the support of 122 Democrats along with Republicans.
  Mr. Speaker, just last week we saw 41 Democrats joined with 
Republicans to pass the very important energy legislation geared toward 
reducing the cost of gasoline which is one of the great challenges our 
constituents face.
  We have enjoyed those strong bipartisan victories: bankruptcy, 
highway, continuity in government, border security, energy, and repeal 
of the death tax. These are very important bipartisan victories, but it 
is also important to note that we have had a very important bipartisan 
win just today, and it is because of the policies of President Bush and 
the United States Congress that we have been able to see the Syrians, 
after 3 long decades, finally extricate themselves from Lebanon.
  I had the privilege of joining with a bipartisan delegation of my 
colleagues, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), the gentleman 
from Washington (Mr. Hastings), the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Gingrey), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Crenshaw) join with us in 
going into Beirut, Lebanon. We had a chance to meet with young students 
who were great activists at Martyr's Square at the grave site of Rafik 
Hariri, the former Prime Minister who was tragically assassinated. 
These students said because of what the United States of America and 
the Coalition forces did in Iraq, laying the groundwork for 8.5 million 
people to vote on January 30, 2005, they were willing to stand up and 
free their country, and they were willing to die to ensure that the 
people of Lebanon would be free.
  Mr. Speaker, I have to say while we have enjoyed a wide range of 
bipartisan victories in the 109th Congress under the very able 
leadership of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), it is also 
very important to note that under his leadership and the leadership of 
President Bush, we have been able to see democracy spread throughout 
the Middle East. It is exactly what President Bush said, and thank God 
we vigorously pursued that policy.

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