[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3101-3107]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Guinta). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands 
(Mrs. Christensen) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  I want to thank the Democratic leadership for giving the 
Congressional Black Caucus this time to stand in solidarity with our 
sisters and brothers in Wisconsin, in Ohio, as well as those in 
Indiana, and anywhere the rights of workers are being trampled upon. 
The similarities in what is going on here in the Nation's Capital and 
in the Wisconsin capital are not only striking, but it's the kind of 
coordinated attack against working men and women that we have become 
accustomed to seeing from Republican legislators and Governors.
  I don't understand why Governor Walker can't take ``yes'' for an 
answer. The unions have agreed to most, if not all, of the concessions 
he asked for; but rightly, they will not--and should not--give up their 
right to collective bargaining.
  No one knows better than the African American community what unions 
have done to lift people out of poverty, to ensure them decent jobs 
with decent wages and protections in the workplace. Not only African 
Americans, but all Americans have benefited from the work of our labor 
unions.
  What Governor Walker is doing is not about balancing a budget or 
reducing a deficit any more than the cuts in spending are up here. It's 
about busting unions, thus making it possible for companies to run 
roughshod over workers' rights--a place no one in this country should 
ever allow us to go back to.
  For the life of me, I can't understand what Republicans have against 
children--or is it just poor and middle class children? The Governor 
and his allies in the State legislature would rather take teachers out 
of the classroom--killing jobs--and jeopardize the education of 
Wisconsin's children than raise property taxes just a little bit to 
help cover the cost of providing a quality education even after the 
teachers have agreed to give up some of their health and pension 
benefits negotiated in their contracts.
  In fact, it is my understanding that, just like the Republicans here 
insisted on tax cuts for the wealthy, who did not need them, before 
anything could be done to help struggling families, Governor Walker 
also enacted tax cuts as soon as he came into office. The spending 
cuts, as I understand it, would not have been necessary in Wisconsin if 
those tax cuts had not been enacted, just as the devastating cuts in 
health care, education, community economic development, and job 
creation programs in homeland security and public safety would not have 
been needed here if we had not given the wealthy a tax giveaway in 
December.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she might consume to the 
former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who is always here, 
standing for the rights of workers, for the rights of children, for the 
rights of people everywhere, Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California.
  Ms. LEE. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
  Let me thank the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands for, once again, 
coming to the floor and organizing us to make sure that we sound the 
alarm, to make sure that we put out the facts

[[Page 3102]]

about what is taking place. Tonight, of course, we are talking about 
the union-busting efforts of Governor Walker in Wisconsin.
  So thank you, Congresswoman Christensen, for your leadership and for 
your tireless work.
  I am pleased to participate in this Special Order tonight as we 
provide some perspective about the importance of preserving and 
respecting the process of collective bargaining and of supporting the 
rights of public employees to protect union benefits won by virtue of 
the blood, sweat, and tears of unionized workers.
  We are talking about the implications of the union-busting efforts 
undertaken by Wisconsin Governor Walker; but the reality is there is a 
sweeping antiunion sentiment overtaking our Nation, and public 
employees who are union workers are being used as scapegoats to balance 
State budgets. This practice is not only wrong; it is cruel and is 
calculated. Let's take a look at the facts.
  In Wisconsin, for example, Governor Walker is attempting to ram 
through legislation that cuts State employee benefits and strips unions 
of their collective bargaining rights by allowing them to bargain only 
on wages, keeping benefits and other issues off the table, severely 
limiting union say on hiring, firing, assignments, and other work 
rules. The Governor appears ready to rush through radical changes that 
would take away rights from workers without making any effort--any 
effort--to talk to those workers, much less negotiate a fair agreement 
with them.
  Governor Walker is calling employee unions unreasonable, but his 
administration has made absolutely no effort to work with or to even 
contact any of the unions he is attacking. He is demonizing public 
employees who are protesting at the capital. That's why 74 percent of 
Wisconsin residents oppose this and the Republicans' bill to take away 
these rights from the struggling middle-income/middle class residents 
of Wisconsin.
  His proposals are an affront to all workers. When he says that State 
employees should contribute more, all he is really saying is that they 
should accept massive cuts in salary without being offered a seat at 
the negotiating table.

                              {time}  1700

  And we're not talking about huge salaries here.
  This is not about budgeting; this is about union busting. And it is 
the kind of policy that will only hurt workers in the State and across 
the country, but it only leads to stalled economic growth and the 
slashing of jobs.
  The process of collective bargaining has led to the rise of the 
middle class. It is a fair process that allows employers to sit at the 
table and craft an agreement that serves both parties. It's a 
fundamentally American process. It's a democratic process. Yet Governor 
Walker is bent on undermining decades of hard-earned concessions won by 
organized labor and its membership. If the Governor is successful in 
his union-busting efforts, we will see further assaults around the 
country on union workers and in other States that are really 
experiencing budgetary woes.
  So in response to Governor Walker's action, elected officials--and we 
are very proud of and stand in solidarity with the elected officials in 
Wisconsin--decided to protest against his actions.
  Public employees have shown that they are serious about balancing the 
budget by agreeing to Governor Walker's pension and health care 
requests, concessions that the Governor himself says will solve the 
budget challenge, but still it seems like this is not enough. The 
Governor's efforts are denying the rights of tax-paying nurses, 
educators, emergency response workers--all people who probably are our 
next-door neighbors. We all know public employees who this will hurt. 
These are union workers who need and should have a voice.
  At the same time, he is pressing for a bill that will do nothing to 
fix the budget. This bill will shatter relationships among educators 
and school leaders, undermining current innovations around teacher 
compensation, evaluation and improvement. It will really have a 
chilling effect on teacher recruitment and sends a terrible message 
about the value of public service.
  Mr. Speaker, there are ominous signs on the horizon that reflect a 
growing sentiment by Governors who seem bent on union-busting, anti-
democratic initiatives to really undo longstanding collective 
bargaining agreements. Union workers and public employees are being 
used as scapegoats to balance the budget. Teachers, nurses, police, 
firemen and others who perform their jobs dutifully are being treated 
shabbily by this Governor and those who share his union-busting and 
anti-collective bargaining philosophy. I hope that cooler heads 
prevail, and I urge the Governor to pull the State back from this 
radical governmental overreach.
  I see my colleague from Wisconsin, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, will be 
with us. And I just want to say to Congresswoman Moore that my 
constituents in the Ninth Congressional District stand in solidarity 
with you and with all of those bold and brave leaders who have left the 
State, and also on behalf of all of the union workers and all of those 
who have come to the Capitol to say enough is enough. So thank you, 
Congresswoman Moore, for your leadership.
  Thank you, Congresswoman Christensen.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Lee, and thank you for 
your leadership.
  We have a number of women leaders here, and I would like to now yield 
to the gentlelady from Maryland who has been a leader on many issues, 
including during the health care reform debate to make sure that those 
who were insured were protected, Congresswoman Donna Edwards.
  Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you, Congresswoman Christensen.
  I'm here today because I look at the fight and the struggle of the 
workers in Wisconsin, the public sector workers, as connected, the dots 
connected to the struggles of workers across this country.
  For 20 years we've seen an erosion of the organized labor force, the 
organized workforce. And it isn't just the private sector workers who 
have lost over these 20 years. It's also our public sector workers. And 
this is the fight in which we're engaged now, Mr. Speaker.
  The union movement and collective bargaining have brought us minimum 
wages, not for our organized workers, but for those of us who are not 
organized, have brought us decent workplaces, safe working conditions, 
health care insurance, disability, vacation, family and medical leave, 
and the list goes on and on.
  And so I want to step back in our history a little bit, Mr. Speaker, 
and take a look at what has happened to the organized workforce--jobs 
shipped outside this country for private sector workers, a depletion of 
the organized workforce. We've also seen a circumstance where our State 
and municipal employees have done everything that we've asked them to 
do even in a tough economy in saying that they will make concessions, 
as all workers have in this economy, because they believe in holding 
the line for all of their workers so that people will not have to lose 
jobs. But they've taken furloughs, they've taken pay freezes, they've 
taken cuts in benefits. And even in Wisconsin, we know that the 
workforce there, the public sector workers have given on all of those 
money issues.
  And so we have to ask ourselves, Mr. Speaker, what is at the bottom 
of this. And what's at the bottom of this, in my view, Mr. Speaker, is 
that this is about busting up unions. We started with the private 
sector workers. We've put a kibosh on the ability of all of our workers 
to organize and to bargain for themselves, and now we're with public 
sector workers.
  So I think that this is a race to the bottom, Mr. Speaker. It's a 
race to the bottom for the American worker, and so the struggle for 
workers in Wisconsin is a struggle for all workers.
  When a worker is asked to give up $50 a month in contributions to a 
pension plan or $100 a month, let's think about what that means for 
that family. That

[[Page 3103]]

$50 or $100 is the difference between having oatmeal and cereal and 
milk and eggs and paying the utilities every month. That's what $50 or 
$100 means. It's not something that's just thrown away.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, I stand here with my colleagues in deep 
solidarity with the workers, the public sector workers of Wisconsin, 
because I know that as sure as their struggle goes, the struggle with 
all workers goes across the country. And we have to link those fights. 
We have to end this decades-long race to the bottom, Mr. Speaker.
  We're being asked to look at trade agreements where we trade away 
private sector jobs, our public sector workers, our teachers, our 
firefighters, our law enforcement, people who take care of our children 
on a day-to-day basis. We're saying to them, you're not valued; you're 
not worth enough even in this economy. I don't think that that is the 
message that the American people want to send.
  And, Mr. Speaker, clearly the polls show that across this country a 
vast majority, an overwhelming majority--upwards of 60 percent--of the 
American public believes in the right to bargain collectively. And what 
is collective bargaining? Collective bargaining is sitting around a 
table, having a fair shake, getting a fair deal, and dealing as equal 
partners.
  Let's look at what's happened in Wisconsin and across this country. 
Contracts were struck. Now, if a contract were made in the private 
sector and one of the parties wanted to renege on that contract, the 
other party would probably take them to court. They would be in 
litigation.
  Yet here in Wisconsin and across this country, workers are being 
asked every day, they're being told every day that the person who is on 
the other side of an equal-bargaining table is going to renege on a 
contract. There is something deeply anti-democratic about that.
  So I'm here, Mr. Speaker, because public sector workers in Wisconsin 
deserve our solidarity. As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
we know deeply of the struggle for freedom and for justice, and we know 
an injustice when we see it; And we are witnessing what looks to be an 
injustice in Wisconsin and Ohio and Indiana and perpetrated all across 
this country when it comes to the rights of workers and the ability to 
organize and the ability to bargain collectively for a decent 
workplace, for decent wages, and for the ability to take care of one's 
family and oneself.

                              {time}  1710

  We stand toe-to-toe, shoulder-to-shoulder, and union card-to-union 
card with our public sector workers and with all workers across this 
country who deserve not a race to the bottom, Mr. Speaker, but a race 
to the top.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Edwards, and thank you for 
those really strong words to encourage our union members in Wisconsin 
and Ohio and Indiana and wherever else unions are under attack. We 
appreciate your being here with us this evening and for reassuring 
those workers that you and the Congressional Black Caucus are standing 
firmly with them.
  At this time I would like to yield such time as she might consume to 
the gentlelady from Ohio, a former mayor, also a strong fighter for 
children, for the poor, and for the underserved, Congresswoman Marcia 
Fudge.
  Ms. FUDGE. Thank you so very much.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong opposition to attempts 
by the Republican Governor of Wisconsin and the Republican Governor of 
the State of Ohio, from which I hail, to undermine collective 
bargaining for public employees.
  In my State, Ohio Senate Bill 5 is a measure currently under 
consideration by the Ohio General Assembly that would strip State 
workers of their collective bargaining rights. Today, this bill was 
approved by the Senate's Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee. It 
now moves to the State Senate floor for a final vote, which could begin 
as early as today.
  This vote comes after Ohio State and local union workers gathered in 
protest yesterday at the statehouse. Just yesterday, more than 8,500 
people surrounded the statehouse to express their disapproval.
  I firmly support the right of public employees to collectively 
negotiate. Who are we as a Nation when we tell our firefighters, our 
police officers, and other public protectors that they don't deserve a 
say in their working conditions? Does a teacher's experience or 
education have no economic value?
  Ohio's proposed legislation is less about fiscal responsibility than 
it is an overt political attack on public workers who speak with a 
collective voice.
  As labor battles erupt in State capitals across this country, a 
majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective 
bargaining rights of public employees.
  I want to join with my colleagues today to just talk a bit about what 
is happening not just in Wisconsin--although we are here today because 
of all that has gone on in Wisconsin.
  And I would now yield back to our chair so that we may discuss this 
in another form.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Certainly.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. And before we begin that, I'd like to just ask 
unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which 
to revise and extend their remarks and to enter extraneous material on 
the matter under discussion this evening.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. And to begin this dialogue, I'd like to turn now to 
the gentlelady from Wisconsin who feels it and who knows it, Gwen 
Moore.
  Ms. MOORE. Well, thank you so much for yielding, and thank you, Mr. 
Speaker, during this hour.
  I want to thank the Congressional Black Caucus members and the women 
of the Congressional Black Caucus for joining me here today. The 
Congressional Black Caucus has always been known as the conscience of 
the Congress because we understand budgets, and these initiatives to 
break the collective bargaining agreements are being presented to us in 
the context of a budget. And we all know that budgets are not about 
numbers, and this is proof of that. It's about values. And where you 
place your money is where you place your heart.
  And so I'd like to talk about the situation in Wisconsin.
  You know, there are a few things that have been misinformation, just 
let me say that, around this budget. And I appreciate the fact that we 
have a physician here with us this evening who is an expert on the 
Medicaid program. We have an attorney here with the gentlelady from 
Ohio. And we have the gentlelady from Maryland who is an expert on all 
kinds of programs that deal with family issues.
  So I need you to help me sort out some of the things that have been 
misinformation and disinformation in this campaign.
  Let me say that I once served on the Joint Committee on Finance and 
put the budget together as a State senator in the Wisconsin 
Legislature. So I know that the opening balance to the budget was a 
$121 million surplus. Now, that's not a lot of money when you consider 
that $65 million is required for a statutory minimum balance in the 
account. But it left a cushion of $54 million in those accounts. 
Nothing like the $3.6 billion deficit that the Governor likes to 
present as his raison- d'etre for these draconian cuts in collective 
bargaining.
  Now, what is a structural deficit? A structural deficit simply is the 
difference between what the agencies of the government request and what 
the Governor provides. And so when is the last time the agencies have 
gotten every dime that they've asked for? Never. So it's a phony 
structural deficit. But given the fact that our Governor, just like any 
Governor, has budget challenges, I respect the fact that, you know, 
sometimes you have to make unpleasant cuts.
  So what the Governor proposed to do was to realize savings by 
requiring that State employees, except for the police

[[Page 3104]]

and fire and State troopers, pay 5.8 percent of their pension funds and 
a little over 12 percent of their health care funds, and to make those 
contributions, generating $725 million in savings. Miraculously, the 
unions agreed to do that.
  But the Governor said, No. No, I do not want to negotiate with you. I 
want to strip you of your rights to collective bargain. And the exact 
words of the bill were that they were prohibited from bargaining about 
anything related to their conditions of employment.
  So I was wondering if I could yield to the gentlelady from Ohio and 
talk about that kind of legal jargon, that they are unable to negotiate 
on any conditions of employment except for the 1 percent wage within 
the consumer price index.
  Ms. FUDGE. Let me just say to you--and I thank you for yielding and 
allowing me this time--as mayor of a city, I balanced budgets for 9 
years. I understand what it takes to balance a budget.
  But let me just suggest to you that Wisconsin, being very similar to 
Ohio, when you look at the fact that wages and benefits for public 
employees in the State of Ohio account for only 9 percent of the 
budget, so Ohio is saying, as you are, that they've got this huge, huge 
deficit. They're saying we've got an $8 billion deficit. Well, just 
like in Ohio, if we were to fire every single public employee in the 
State of Ohio, we would save about $2 billion this year. They would 
still have a $6 billion deficit. So public employees are not the 
problem.
  And for them to suggest that the only thing they can talk about is 
wages is ridiculous. It is nothing more than a smokescreen. They are 
basically saying: We are taking all of your rights. And that is what it 
boils down to legally is that they really have no rights at all. There 
is no collective voice. There is nothing that they can do to protect 
themselves. They have taken away their seniority, their security. It is 
just, to me, the most barbaric thing I've seen in a long time.
  Ms. MOORE. Will the gentlelady yield?
  Ms. FUDGE. I will yield.
  Ms. MOORE. There are some things that I don't understand.
  Now, another myth and an untruth that has abounded in this debate is 
that somehow these public sector employees who are very well educated--
I mean, some of them are nurses, school teachers, career executives in 
State government. Well-educated people make less, it is true, they make 
less than their peers in the private sector because as part of their 
compensation they have accepted less in wages so that they could have a 
pension, so that they could have health care benefits.

                              {time}  1720

  And so the misinformation, the effort to gin up antagonism against 
public employees is totally faulty. Because the pensions, and I want 
you to share this with me as a lawyer and as a former chief executive, 
the pensions are obligations because people have already earned that 
money in lieu of the salary they may have received in the private 
sector.
  Ms. FUDGE. My colleague, who also is a lawyer, was talking about that 
earlier in her remarks today.
  Ms. EDWARDS. If the gentlewoman would yield, I think that we have to 
be really clear here that this is not a valid substantive debate. I 
think that we tend to want to address substantive arguments to refute 
the misinformation that you describe. This is an ideological debate 
that is about one thing only, and it is about busting up the union. 
It's an ideological debate. It's about privatizing a pension system. 
It's an ideological debate that says that services can be provided 
better in the private sector. So I think we have to be very clear here 
that if this were a valid substantive debate, then I think that the 
workers of Wisconsin would win on that. This is an ideological battle.
  It's an ideological battle that's rooted in tearing apart, slashing 
and burning public sector workers under the ruse, under the guise of 
balancing a budget.
  Ms. MOORE. Will the gentlelady yield?
  Ms. EDWARDS. I will.
  Ms. MOORE. It is very interesting that you should raise that, because 
in fact the governor of our State, in his previous capacity as the 
Milwaukee county executive, hired private security guards for the 
county jail. And a court just this past January ordered Milwaukee 
County to restore those public servants to their jobs. And in fact, 
they are required to do that. And it was all presented as a budgetary 
crisis. The Court found that the county exec, now our governor, had 
overstated the savings that would be realized by privatizing those 
county prison guards. And it's been the same tactic.
  Indeed, the police and firefighters and State troopers were excluded 
from the collective bargaining prohibitions and the prison guards were 
not. And as a State legislator, and I served with our current governor, 
he did introduce a bill to privatize our prison system. So that's a 
very important insight.
  Ms. FUDGE. I would say just to take a step further what my colleague 
has said, there is an assault on working people all over this country 
and in this House as well. As these communities and these States have 
become Republican controlled, we now hear as we talk about our own 
budget and our own CR that we have to deal with entitlement programs. 
And they continue to throw in there Social Security. It is not an 
entitlement program. It is funded by payroll taxes and taxes on 
employers. It is not an entitlement program. But we still today hear 
them talking about wanting to privatize it.
  They want to take away the rights of workers across this country. 
It's not going to stop in Wisconsin, or Ohio, or in Indiana, or in 
Florida. It is a plan. And we need to realize it now, because all 
workers, and those as you talked about who are retired, are going to 
feel the effects of this as we go forward. So this is just the tip of 
the iceberg. This is a battle we have to win.
  Ms. EDWARDS. If the gentlewoman would yield, we have just gone 
through an exercise and continue to go through a budget exercise here 
in this Congress with respect to Federal workers. So I have said to 
some Federal workers your struggle as a Federal worker is connected to 
the struggles of private sector workers, is connected to the struggles 
of public sector workers at the State and municipal level. And let me 
tell you about that.
  First, we have Federal workers who are facing a 2-year pay freeze. 
And they have accepted that because they are good public servants. Then 
they face the mythology of people who say that Federal workers are 
greatly overpaid when it comes to the private sector. But just as in 
Wisconsin, when you examine deeply the work that the workers do, you 
examine their job skills compared to the private sector job skills, and 
what you find is in fact they are greatly underpaid in the same job 
categories requiring the same skills and education as their private 
sector counterparts.
  Now, I don't want to suggest, Mr. Speaker, that in fact private 
sector workers have made out like bandits over the last 20 years, 
because what we know is that private sector workers, including the 
organized workforce, have faced stagnant wages and benefits over the 
course of the last two decades. And that's why I think it's really 
important for us to connect the dots with workers, because I think that 
opponents out there who would like to privatize the public workforce, 
opponents out there who would like to delegitimize and disaggregate 
unions, who would like to bust them up, also want to suggest that in 
fact it's the public sector workers fighting against the private sector 
workers fighting against the Federal workers.
  No, this is an entire workforce, as my colleague from Ohio has 
pointed out, across the board, across this country that has suffered 
massive, massive assaults on working people, on middle class people 
when it comes to wages and benefits. And Wisconsin serves the purpose 
of highlighting for us the transparency and the meanness of what it 
takes to go after working families.
  Ms. MOORE. Reclaiming my time, you know, I will tell you there are a 
couple of other myths I want to bust before I turn to the gentlelady, 
the doctor, physician in our caucus, to talk

[[Page 3105]]

about Medicaid a little bit, because that links in with this union-
busting effort. You know, Congresswoman from Maryland, you talk about 
trying to pit private sector workers against public workers, I am happy 
to say that those unions in the private sector in Wisconsin have stood 
firm with the public sector employees.
  I am happy to report to you that the firefighters and the police, 
those unions that were exempted from this collective bargaining fiasco, 
stand firm with public employees. Why? Because they get it. They get it 
that the gains made by organized labor inure to all workers.
  In Wisconsin in the 19th century, May 5, 1886, five people in my 
district, in Bay View in Wisconsin, were killed, and four were wounded, 
attacked by troops called on, sicced on them by the then-Governor 
Jeremiah Rusk, fighting for the 8-hour workday.
  Workers in unions have won the weekend, safety conditions in the 
workplace. Workers have won these benefits, and they have inured to the 
private sector. And those people who are in the private sector need to 
respect the sacrifice, the blood and the tears.
  You know, Wisconsin was a State where the first workers comp law 
passed, the first State to have unemployment compensation. It was the 
birthplace of AFSCME. This has been a progressive State.
  We have 14 very brave State Senators who have left the State so that 
they would not have to vote on these draconian union provisions. And 
the governor has said that because they are leaving that there are 
going to be massive layoffs and firings, and it will be their fault.

                              {time}  1730

  Well, I just wanted to point one thing out. He revealed his budget 
just yesterday afternoon, and he has reduced State aid. He has reduced 
shared revenue to all of the counties, villages, cities, and 
municipalities to the tune of $6.9 million. He has reduced aid to 
schools, kindergarten through 12th grade and technical colleges, to the 
tune of a billion dollars.
  So these local communities, school districts, will have to lay off 
snow shovelers and teachers. Teachers will find themselves in 
classrooms with, they predicted, as many as 60 kids in them.
  They are cutting Medicaid in this State, and I will get back to that 
later, because they are draconian cuts.
  In the meantime, we are providing $7.6 billion for roads. That's 
local money and Federal money together. We are providing a total, 100 
percent tax relief for capital gains taxes for businesses that locate 
in the community for up to 5 years. We are providing, his special 
sessions bill provided at least $200 million worth of tax breaks at the 
same time we are reducing school aid by a billion dollars.
  I see that the gentlewoman from Washington D.C., also a very esteemed 
attorney, has come to join us here. We are talking about the loss of 
the collective bargaining agreements in Wisconsin, something that has 
no fiscal impact, but that the governor insists must be a part of his 
budget.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. 
Norton).
  Ms. NORTON. I am in solidarity with the gentlewoman from Wisconsin 
and with my friend from the Virgin Islands as well, those who have come 
down, and in special solidarity with the workers in Wisconsin, in Ohio, 
in Indiana, who are fighting for their collective bargaining rights. 
Now, unlike the gentlewoman from Wisconsin, I don't know whether paying 
5.8 percent into their retirement benefit is good or not, or whether 
paying 12 percent of their health care costs, I know it's double or 
triple the amount. I don't know about any of that.
  I do know that when you have health care and retirement systems, 
there is usually a quid pro quo. You take less pay.
  But I don't know the answer to that. All I know is that in a 
democratic society, where people have won collective bargaining rights, 
those matters are bargained at the table.
  I am here to reinforce the importance of collective bargaining rights 
that are now on the table of the country, beginning in Wisconsin, 
spreading rapidly and, watch out, they could come, this insidious 
movement against collective bargaining could even come to the Congress 
of the United States. We have to stop it in its tracks in the Midwest.
  In any free society, there are four or five rights that everybody 
will cite, the right to free speech, the right to religion and, guess 
what, the right to bargain collectively. Once you have established that 
the workers have elected a union, it is one of those fundamental 
rights.
  I want to say to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin, if one of the 
developing countries that we always complain are not democratic enough, 
were to take away the collective bargaining rights of some of its 
workers, well, you would have to fight people at the well in order to 
quell the stampede of people saying you have violated a fundamental 
right of a free society.
  I have just come from a hearing on the Postal Service. It was amazing 
to hear management and the private sector say that the reason you have 
a post office today and that it hasn't gone down the drain is because 
the workers across the table from management have helped them to manage 
the downsizing of the Postal Service.
  The best thing that you can have when there is downsizing to be done 
is, indeed, to have a union. Because when people know that the 
downsizing, that the rights they hope they had that they don't have 
have been bargained for, they will accept those rights in a way they 
would not if management came in and just pulled them himself. That is 
what Governor Walker is trying to do right now.
  Ms. MOORE. You know, you have made a very good point. If you going to 
downsize and if you are going to make those sacrifices, number one, our 
workers have said we will negotiate that. We will try to help our 
State.
  But if you are going to downsize at least you ought to think that you 
are doing it for the public good. You don't want to think that you are 
doing it so that could give $200 million in tax cuts so that you could 
privatize the nuclear power plants in the State. You would think that 
if you are going to pay 12.8 percent of your own health care that that 
would mean that at least the Governor was going to protect the most 
vulnerable who are on Medicaid.
  But I am sorry, it's sad to be able to share with you, Dr. 
Christensen, that in his budget he is limiting a family care program, 
it's a Medicaid program to pay for in-home services for seniors and 
people with disabilities, to only those who are currently enrolled; all 
the 2,000 people on the waiting list, no services. He is going to seek 
permission from the Federal Government to cut eligibility standards, to 
cut off certain categories of nonpregnant or nondisabled adults or 
lower eligibility, and he is not a fan of Planned Parenthood. He wants 
to cut off family planning services for men.
  He is expecting--right now, they are forced to continue their 
maintenance effort, at least until July, when the enhanced FMAP runs 
out. But he is again seeking those waivers so that he can cut off 
categories of people.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. If I could just say for a moment it sounds very 
much like what's happening here.
  As the gentlewoman has said and our other colleagues have said, this 
is not just an issue for Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana; this is an issue 
for our country. And the same thing that's being done in Wisconsin is 
what is being done here.
  Tax giveaways to the wealthy and to business while we cut health care 
programs, education programs, community, economic development programs 
for people across America who need them.
  And that's why we have decided today, as a caucus, to come here and 
to voice our support and to give encouragement to the workers and to 
your legislators who have had to leave Wisconsin to prevent these 
devastating cuts that will further damage the health of--and I am sure 
your State is no different from other States, where the poor people of 
color, women, are

[[Page 3106]]

not getting the kind of health care that they need.
  What we need is to make sure that the benefits that we passed last 
year in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are implemented 
in Wisconsin and everywhere. What your governor is doing is going 
backwards instead of forward.
  Ms. MOORE. Backwards instead of forward, $900 million from our school 
system, $250 million in State aid for the University of Wisconsin 
system, $71.6 million from the technical college system, low-income 
children and families requiring women who receive TANF, temporary 
assistance, they are cutting them by $20 a month, 3 percent of the TANF 
check.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. And the check is not that big to begin with.
  Ms. MOORE. The check is small.

                              {time}  1740

  There is some talk of requiring them to move from 28 hours of work a 
week to 30 hours of work a week and reducing the amount of child care 
that they can get.
  Again, the theme for this budget, our Governor's budget, is that 
Wisconsin is open for business. Well, no State can be open for business 
by slamming the doors of educational opportunity and denying babies, 
poor people, and seniors health care. It is more a case that we're 
selling our State to business interests.
  I would yield to the gentlelady from D.C.
  Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentlelady for yielding because I want to 
bring this right home to what is happening on the floor of this 
Congress as we speak. There is too little recognition of what you have 
indicated that when you cut agencies, you strangle services. That goes 
for the Federal sector as well. And I think we have to be very wary 
that this could come to the Federal sector. Federal workers have been 
targeted. They've got a great big bull's eye on their backs. They are 
among the best educated workers in the United States.
  Bear in mind, I say to the gentlelady, because this will particularly 
be important in your State, the deadly deficit commission warned that 
no cutting should be done in this year, 2011, small cuts perhaps in 
2012 and no real programmatic cuts until 2013. And they gave as a 
reason--this is the deficit commission--they gave as a reason that you 
would strangle the recovery. It's a fragile recovery. Mr. Bernanke 
spoke. I don't know if anyone mentioned that.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. We haven't mentioned it yet.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Bernanke spoke. I'm not on that committee, but I 
heard what he said. He has said, as well, don't harm the recovery. You 
don't, in the midst of a bear recovery, start acting as though you had 
a full-fledged economy. Everybody has been talking about a double dip. 
They are going to find out what a double dip is. If we had what 
independent observers say, 700,000 jobs gone because of these cuts, 
gone in Wisconsin, gone from the Federal Government, there is no way 
for us to recover. We cannot kick workers to the curb without having an 
effect on the recovery itself.
  Watch out, Wisconsin. And particularly I say to my Republican 
colleagues, watch out that you don't bring it here and don't mess with 
collective bargaining of our Federal employees the way you're doing in 
Wisconsin. This is not Wisconsin.
  Ms. MOORE. In January, our economy nationwide gained 36,000 jobs, 
hardly anything to brag about. But I can tell you this: this Wisconsin 
State budget fires 21,600 State employees alone. And when you consider 
the cuts to municipalities, cities, villages and counties, there are 
thousands more that are going to lose their jobs. So you talk about 
hurting the recovery, how can you recover when people don't have jobs 
to consume and those who do have jobs find their income cut by 6 and 7 
percent because of these givebacks in their pensions and for their 
health care?
  Not only that, they're balancing the budget on the backs of children 
and on the backs of seniors, but they're also penny wise and pound 
foolish. I live on a Great Lake. Twenty percent of the Earth's fresh 
water is in those Great Lakes. And what does this budget do? It reduces 
the ``burden'' that municipalities have in cleaning the water. It 
reduces standards for water cleanliness. It ends the recycling program. 
So it is penny wise and is probably going to destroy the environment, 
reduce educational opportunity and reduce health care to the most 
indigent and vulnerable in our population.
  But we're giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Wisconsinites to 
encourage them to invest, 100 percent forgiveness of capital gains 
taxes, $7.6 billion for roads, and we are going to privatize the 
nuclear power plant. One of the great contributors to the Governor's 
campaign happens to be in the nuclear power plant business. And we're 
all doing this in the name of balancing a budget.
  I hope that the people in Wisconsin don't fall for this trick.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I'm sure they're not because people across America 
are not falling for it. The New York Times/CBS did a poll. They showed 
that the majority of Americans--and I'm sure in the States that are 
facing these issues--oppose efforts to weaken collective bargaining 
rights of public employee unions and are against cutting the pay or 
benefits of public workers to reduce State budget deficits. They oppose 
weakening collective bargaining by 60 percent, including large numbers, 
and not just Democrats but independents, they oppose cutting pay and 
benefits. The majority of Americans, over 56 percent, oppose cutting 
pay and benefits. And most of those who were surveyed are not union 
members and don't have union members in their family. So the American 
people get it. They don't like what they are seeing.
  Ms. NORTON. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Surely.
  Ms. NORTON. This is very important because it means that Americans 
understand a fundamental right when they see one. And they are saying, 
and they know best of all, we're willing to take these cuts, don't go 
into people's fundamental rights, in fact, don't cut as much as you 
were doing.
  Look, this majority rode into town on the promise of jobs. Where is 
the jobs bill? Instead, they proceeded forthwith to cut jobs. They cut 
jobs first in the health care bill. Now they are cutting hundreds of 
thousands of jobs on the floor with their own version of deficit 
reduction. All we're asking for is balance.
  The workers in Wisconsin are willing to take cuts. They said so. 
Look, we'll take your cuts, Governor. Don't take away our collective 
bargaining. Everybody is willing to share. The Governor wants it all. 
Collective bargaining is about sharing. They need collective bargaining 
to get a fair deal for all concerned in Wisconsin.
  And I compliment the gentlelady from Wisconsin for reinforcing her 
workers and reinforcing what the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands 
has told you is the view of the majority of the American people.
  Ms. MOORE. I thank you so much, gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, 
for pulling this hour together.
  As my aunt used to always say, the truth will set you free. And I 
hope that those who have watched this debate will try to see through 
some of the partisan bickering that has gone on.
  Just to reinforce a few points that we've made, the effort to take 
away the ability for union members to not only collective bargain for 
themselves, but when they win those rights, so-called freeloaders, the 
people who are not in the union, benefit from those gains. That has 
nothing to do with budget issues. It has nothing to do with money. 
Those rights are things that have something to do with your conditions 
of employment, your ability to relate to your employer and to negotiate 
with him on non-economic issues as well economic issues.
  This budget crisis is a creation of this Governor. We started out 
with a surplus budget in Wisconsin, and the first thing he did when he 
came into office was to provide at least $300 million in tax benefits 
to the very wealthiest

[[Page 3107]]

and then declare that we now have an emergency.
  I would yield back to the gentlelady for closing.

                              {time}  1750

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. So you did say that the emergency was sort of 
created?
  Ms. MOORE. Exactly. That is the same reason that the Governor, then- 
county executive, lost his case by firing those 26 guards because he is 
creating, once again, the same pattern, creating a false emergency.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Do you see the same thing happening here in this 
Congress?
  Ms. MOORE. Exactly.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you.
  I want to thank all of my colleagues for joining us this evening to 
talk about this issue. Again, this is not about budgeting. It is about 
union busting, and it is the kind of policy that will not only hurt 
workers in the State and across the country, but it only leads to 
stalled economic growth and the slashing of jobs. It is the kind of 
policy that hurts our Nation.
  We want to make sure that our workers in Ohio and Wisconsin and 
Indiana and everywhere know that the Congressional Black Caucus stands 
with you. We want to let our country's labor leaders, the union 
leadership know that we stand with them and support them, and that we 
have the highest respect and support for the Democratic legislators who 
have drawn the line and did what had to be done to stop the egregious 
attacks on the middle class and the poor.

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