[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6765-6766]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   COMMENDING CONGRESSMAN PETER WELCH

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like share the good work being done 
by my friend and colleague in the House of Representatives, Congressman 
Peter Welch.
  As Democrats and Republicans continue their discussions, I am proud 
that Peter is bringing a Vermont perspective and Vermont values to the 
debate. He understands the dangers the United States faces if we 
default on our debt, but the burden of addressing our mounting national 
debt must be shared fairly. Budgets are a reflection of our national 
priorities, and we simply cannot balance our budget on the backs of the 
most vulnerable alone.
  I applaud Peter for bringing his reasoned and responsible message to 
the debate. I ask unanimous consent that an article on Congressman 
Welch from today's The Hill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 Rep. Welch: Partisan Division Begs Clean Vote To Raise Nation's Debt 
                                Ceiling

                            (By Mike Lillis)

       Lawmakers seeking a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan to 
     accompany the looming debt-ceiling vote are deluding 
     themselves about the efficiency of Congress, according to the 
     Democrat spearheading the push for a clean debt-limit bill.
       Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who has emerged in recent weeks 
     as the staunchest proponent of a standalone debt-ceiling 
     hike, said the parties are simply too far apart ideologically 
     to reach a budget deal in time to avoid the market turmoil 
     many fear would attend inaction on the debt limit.
       In a sit-down interview with The Hill from his fourth-floor 
     Longworth office, Welch noted the recent fight over 2011 
     spending took the country to the very brink of a government 
     shutdown.
       The battle over the long-term budget will be even tougher 
     to resolve, he warned, and thus should be tackled separately 
     from the must-pass debt-limit hike.
       ``If the leadership thinks it can make progress on some 
     steps that would move us toward a better long-term 
     sustainable budget--fine,'' Welch said Monday. ``But if any 
     of us are candid--and we saw how just the simple question of 
     trying to keep the lights on in the government brought us to 
     the midnight hour--do we realistically think that the gap 
     between the [Democrats'] approach on the budget and the 
     [Republicans'] approach on the budget can be bridged in that 
     period of time?''

[[Page 6766]]

       Congress's systemic dysfunction was on display last month, 
     Welch charged, when Standard & Poor's revised its U.S. debt-
     rating outlook from ``neutral'' to ``negative.'' That move 
     was largely influenced not by fiscal considerations, he 
     noted, but by ``a lack of confidence in Congress and its 
     ability to make the compromises that are required to get from 
     here to there.''
       With that in mind, Welch last month spearheaded a letter 
     urging Democratic leaders to unite behind a clean debt-limit 
     bill. It was endorsed by 114 Democrats. The potential 
     economic fallout of flirting with default, he warned, is too 
     serious to saddle the debt-ceiling vote with politically 
     charged budget conditions.
       ``This is not a matter of ripping up the credit card; this 
     is a matter of paying off the credit card,'' Welch said. 
     ``And if you don't allow us to do that . . . we're basically 
     saying we're going to stiff our creditors.''
       For almost a century, Congress has set a cap on the 
     nation's debt, allowing the government to issue bonds to fund 
     its deficit spending--up to a certain level.
       Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has projected the 
     government will surpass the current $14.3 trillion ceiling on 
     May 16. Recognizing the improbability that Congress will act 
     before then, Geithner on Monday told lawmakers he can take 
     ``extraordinary measures'' to stave off default for several 
     more months. He set the new deadline at Aug. 2.
       All sides of the debate agree that Congress will ultimately 
     raise the debt ceiling. The question remains how it will do 
     that.
       Republican leaders have insisted that the debt-limit vote 
     be coupled with a strategy for bringing down deficits over 
     the long haul--a sentiment shared by a growing number of 
     Senate Democrats.
       ``The vehicle upon which something is likely to be achieved 
     to reduce government spending is the debt ceiling,'' Senate 
     Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters 
     Tuesday. ``I don't intend to vote to raise the debt ceiling 
     unless we do something significant about the debt.''
       In the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) suggested 
     Tuesday that Republicans might stage a vote on a clean debt-
     ceiling bill just to prove it can't pass--a strategy Welch 
     blasted as a ``political stunt.''
       Rep. John Larson (Conn.), chairman of the House Democratic 
     Caucus, said this week that Democrats are ``amenable'' to 
     strategies that couple the debt-ceiling vote with a long-term 
     deficit-reduction plan--with a major caveat.
       ``They just have to be consistent with not touching Social 
     Security, Medicare, Medicaid and dismantling the social 
     compact between the American people and [their] government,'' 
     Larson told The Hill on Tuesday.
       Therein lies the trouble, as GOP leaders are eyeing cuts to 
     all of those programs as part of their deficit-reduction 
     plans.
       Leaders from both parties, representing both chambers, will 
     meet Thursday with Vice President Biden in the first official 
     attempt to reach a long-term budget agreement.
       Welch, a chief deputy whip, doesn't have much faith in a 
     quick resolution.
       ``The more the clock ticks, the more apprehension you'll 
     start to see in the markets,'' he warned. ``When this 
     happens, it could happen very quickly--and with devastating 
     consequences.''
       It's not the first time Welch has emerged on the national 
     stage amid a thorny budget debate. In December, he was among 
     the fiercest opponents of the agreement between Obama and 
     McConnell to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts through 
     2012, even for the wealthiest Americans.
       This week, he tempered that criticism with a bit of 
     pragmatism.
       ``It was not a great deal, but it was the best deal [we 
     could get],'' he said. ``My criticism also acknowledges that 
     the president had his reasons, and we in the House--the 
     Democrats--didn't have the votes.''
       Welch was also highly critical of the cuts to low-income 
     energy subsidies contained in Obama's 2012 budget proposal--
     cuts Welch said would ``literally freeze'' his constituents 
     who rely on them to pay their heating bills.
       ``A lot of us understood that the president was making a 
     statement,'' Welch said Monday of that critique. ``I 
     respected what motivated the president.''
       In some sense, Welch's rise to prominence is as improbable 
     as passage of the clean debt-ceiling hike he's lobbying. The 
     third-term liberal is a relative newcomer to Capitol Hill. 
     And the Vermont he represents hardly shares the national 
     political reputation that characterizes many of its New 
     England neighbors.
       Yet lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say Welch's 
     emergence is no accident. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a Blue 
     Dog leader who shares a Capitol Hill apartment with the 
     liberal Welch, said his roommate studies hard and uses his 
     experience as a state legislator to great advantage in 
     Washington.
       ``Peter is a nerd, just like me,'' Cooper said in an e-
     mail. ``He actually takes the time to read legislation and 
     understand the issues, which has become a rarity in 
     Washington. Coming from state government, where you need to 
     balance the budget every year, he understands the importance 
     of paying for legislation. This has made him a key consensus 
     builder in the House and one of the strongest advocates of 
     fiscal responsibility in the Progressive Caucus.''
       Rep. Peter Roskam (Ill.), the Republican chief deputy whip, 
     called Welch ``a happy warrior''--the rare legislator who 
     ``firmly believes in a set of principles'' but is also quick 
     to engage the other side.
       ``When the country looks at Washington, they feel like 
     members are just talking past each other,'' Roskam told The 
     Hill this week. Welch, on the other hand, ``is very 
     engaging.''
       The bookshelf in Welch's office tells a similar story. It 
     holds volumes by Nancy Pelosi as well as T. Boone Pickens; it 
     boasts the 9/11 Commission Report but also a collection of 
     poems by Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet and mystic.
       Welch is also one of the few Democrats willing to go face 
     to face with Sean Hannity, the conservative--and 
     characteristically combative--Fox News pundit.
       Welch conceded Monday that he ``got the Democratic 
     treatment'' during his recent Hannity appearance. But only by 
     reaching across the aisle, he said, will lawmakers in 
     Washington ever be truly effective.
       ``A lot of us get in arguments as though it's an 
     ideological battle to be won, rather than a practical problem 
     to be solved. . . . That doesn't work for the country,'' he 
     said. ``I hope that we all can take a step back--all of us--
     and see that there's real advantage to us trying to work 
     together.''

                          ____________________