[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22022]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  DEMOCRATS WILL HIT THE ROAD RUNNING WITH AN AGENDA FOR ALL AMERICANS

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, when Democrats take over the House in 
January, we are going to hit the road running, moving forward on an 
agenda that every American should be able to embrace.
  Within the first 100 hours, Democrats pledge to bring legislation to 
the House floor that would increase the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour 
to $7.25 an hour to more than 6 million American workers.
  We will also give the Secretary of Health and Human Services the 
ability to negotiate lower drug prices, something that the Republican 
drug law specifically prohibited.
  We will also repeal billions in tax breaks for big oil companies, 
companies that experienced record profits this summer while they were 
gouging the American consumer.
  Democrats also plan to help college students with skyrocketing 
college costs by cutting their student loan interest payments in half, 
something that could save future graduates about $5,000 over the 
lifetime of the loan.
  All of this, plus fully implementing the 9/11 Commission's 
recommendations, and we will do that all in the first 100 hours.

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