[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 311-312]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DEFINING EARMARKS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, again, thank you for the 
leadership given today and yesterday by Speaker Pelosi and the House 
leadership for putting us on the right course. And it is interesting to 
listen to my good friends, and they are good friends, who are on the 
other side of the aisle and to listen to the conversation on the 
Nation's headline stations about the commitment Democrats have made to 
come to work. And we are delighted that in the last couple of votes we 
saw almost unanimous votes as relates to our open government.
  But let me, as a Member who comes from a district that depends a lot 
on the interests and concern of this Congress about issues of 
empowerment of nonprofits and charitable organizations who struggle 
every day to mentor children, to provide economic empowerment. 
Sometimes they provide assistance where government cannot. And they are 
the recipients of earmarks. And I think it is important that we define 
earmarks so that the maligning that has occurred because of some 
inappropriate use of earmarks really doesn't hide the value of allowing 
these tax dollars to go back, not through government bureaucracy but 
right to the people.

                              {time}  1430

  An example of that is the Texas Southern University Laboratory 
School, a school that is placed in a public housing complex that 
educates the children and other surrounding children in that 
neighborhood in a progressive and op-educational system, so much so 
that their test scores have excelled beyond public school. It is, in 
fact, formerly a school that had been embraced by the public school 
system, and now has been spun off to Texas Southern University, a 
teaching college, and the housing authority.
  We have an earmark, of which I am very proud to have all of the 
scrutiny that anyone might want, that would provide dollars to continue 
this interesting and provocative way of teaching our children so that 
inner city children, children that would be pegged as not being able to 
be creative, are actually passing their science tests, their math 
tests, and they rush to school because they have a lust for learning. 
That is an earmark.
  What I believe in this bill has been passed on reform is 
transparency. And any day of the week, I would be willing to associate 
my name to track where these monies go and determine whether there are 
any special interests that come back to me. You will find a complete 
slate in this particular earmark. And all other earmarks as this bill 
will allow, we will be able to say this is what this earmark is for. It 
is not a special interest, it does not go back to give any individual 
Member any kind of advantage.
  These earmarks are crucial, such as earmarks for the Northeast YMCA, 
that deals again in the far reaches of the 18th Congressional District 
but helps youngsters develop leadership skills; or the earmarks that go 
to public health clinics that will help create a greater opportunity 
for first-line health care for the elderly and working Americans in the 
working class.
  Again, this should be a Congress not wracked with special interests 
but a Congress who really believes in the people who went out to vote 
in this last election. So I am proud to be associated with this 
lobbying reform that has as one of its key elements the right for the 
American people to know where their tax dollars are going. And any day 
that any one of us is fortunate enough to receive an earmark, you 
should have the ability to be able to review it.
  Let me also say as we move forward into the 100 hours of legislation 
how proud I am to be part of the overall package. And let me say to 
those of you throughout the community who have had those kinds of 
questions, like one of the questions that I have been asked, when are 
we going to raise the minimum wage, let me respond to the small 
businesses who might say this is going to be an extraordinary burden. I 
would remind you that when we raised it in 1997, you survived.
  It has been 10 years since we raised the minimum wage. Those 
individuals who receive an increase in the minimum wage are the 
consumers of America. They will be in your small stores in your 
neighborhoods. They will be in your small businesses. They will provide 
the backbone of your increased economic benefit. So we should not look 
to the increase in the minimum wage as undermining small businesses. It 
will not. It will create such an infusion of dollars and provide 
additional dollars of saving, even though it is a measured increase 
that it increases over a period of time.
  What a difference it will make for those individuals supporting 
families, single parents, double parents, working families still on the 
minimum wage. What a difference it will make for them to have an 
opportunity to grab hold or to aspire some day in their life to the 
American Dream. We cannot continue to be this great country without 
having this opportunity.
  As I close, Mr. Speaker, let me simply say the minimum wage is vital; 
as are the 9/11 Commission recommendations, finally to be able to 
secure America; and, lastly, I look forward to bringing to the floor 
what America has sent us here to do, which is to find a dignified way 
of bringing our soldiers

[[Page 312]]

home with dignity and respect, with a thank you for what they have done 
on the front lines of Iraq. That is the challenge for America. That is 
the challenge for those of us who have come in the majority this time.

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