[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. LaTOURETTE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, it is nice to see you in the Chair 
again, and I think you are getting the short straw in your caucus when 
we give these 1-minute speeches.
  It is always nice, Mr. Speaker, when the veil lifts and you finally 
get to understand something. I have been puzzled since 2007 when the 
Democrats became the majority party in the House of Representatives, 
when gas prices went from $2.22 to $4.14 over the summer. I was puzzled 
why they passed such meaningful legislation as National Train Day and 
so forth and so on.
  But two that caught my eye was the bill honoring cats and dogs and 
then the Monkey Safety Act. I thought they were chastened in this 
Congress, as we saw the unemployment rate go from this level to this 
level, and if I had a bigger chart, it could keep on going up.
  But again, there is sort of a theme. While people are losing their 
jobs in America, they again passed the Monkey Safety Act and the Shark 
Conservation Act. I am thinking to myself, What's their fascination 
with animals? And it wasn't until I read Speaker Pelosi's government 
takeover of health care bill, if you go over to page 1,255, it makes 
veterinary students eligible for up to $283 million in Federal 
scholarship and student loan forgiveness.
  What's with the animals?

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