[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13666-13672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN THE 112TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. TONKO. This evening we'll spend some time here in Special Order 
on the House floor to address a great bit of unfinished business that 
rests before the House. And we have just returned from what is a 5-week 
recess where Members of this House were back in their districts and 
addressing the events of this session. It has been labeled by many as a 
do-nothing Congress. This evening we're going to talk about that do-
nothing agenda.
  We have attempted in every which way to encourage the Congress, the 
House, to address legislation that speaks to job creation and economic 
recovery, continuing to build upon the achievements of the 111th 
Congress, and we're now serving in the 112th.

                              {time}  2000

  But for me, it's my second term in the House. The very first term for 
me, the 111th Congress, was deemed by several polls out there to be one 
of the most productive in decades where there were many things taken up 
by this House that responded to the needs of America, middle class 
Americans, Americans of all stripes, who required initiatives from this 
House.
  We were in the midst of a very dark period, a recession that gripped 
this economy that put 8.2 million people at risk by their losing a job 
through no fault of their own. We were losing as many as 800,000 jobs a 
month.
  So the devastation of that impact on the American economy, bringing 
America's economy to its knees, needed a response from government.
  The President acknowledged an agenda that would move us not only into 
a response against the recession but putting us at the cutting edge of 
a modern economy. Investing in research, investing in science and 
technology, investing in an ideas economy, investing in

[[Page 13667]]

an innovation economy--that's the sort of priming of the pump, if you 
will. That's essential for us to respond in substantive terms for us to 
utilize government as a tool that is productive and enabling and 
empowering the middle class, empowering our small business community, 
empowering our entrepreneurs.
  That was the hope-for. And it happened in the 111th Congress.
  But something drastically happened with the change in leadership in 
the 112th Congress. We now have been ranked in single-digit percentage 
approval. Below 10 percent is the approval rating for this Congress, 
some of the lowest points achieved, or earned, by this Congress in its 
history as a House.
  That is a very telling statement. How do we go from the most 
productive in decades to most unfavorable in the history of the House?
  We have a reactionary response from those who want to destroy the 
essence of government. They do not weave any sort of government program 
activity into the fabric of response to a very difficult period in our 
economic history. It is one that is unpopular and unproductive. It is 
one that is being rejected by people out there.
  When I go back to my district, I hear it from Republicans, Democrats, 
Independents alike: Why can't something get done? There's a paralysis 
here. And it's because there's a rejection. There is a sense of 
partisanship rather than partnership. There is an outright attempt to 
deny anything coming to the House as a request to get productive and 
progressive policy done.
  So there are things that languish. There is this crush of big tasks 
that rest before the House, work to produce a jobs bill, work to 
produce a response to the ag crisis, the reauthorization of our ag 
bill, work to invest in the middle class.
  It's been this House, when controlled by the Democrats, that spoke to 
the opportunities, the ladders of success, if you will. The Democratic 
conference in this House was all about, has always been about, in my 
tenure here, about producing ladders of success. You know, we believe 
in that American principle that you work hard, act with responsibility, 
play by the rules, and expect to taste success.
  Well, we haven't seen that sort of cooperative spirit from the new 
Republican majority in the House.
  You know, we believe, as Democrats, that you produce those ladders of 
opportunity. You allow people to climb toward their American Dream. We 
enable people to utilize their gifts, their talents, their passions, 
their skills to empower themselves, their families, the small 
businesses. And so we stand for this wonderful three-legged stool that 
speaks to the empowerment of small business, forever the pulse of 
American enterprise, that looks to create jobs that are then tethered 
very strongly with small business citizenship into the local community 
grain.
  Then we talk about investing in entrepreneurs, those dreamers, the 
movers, the shakers, the builders of society that have forever been the 
American spirit, the pioneer spirit.
  I represent a district in upstate New York that is the donor area to 
the Erie Canal. And that canal produced not only a port out of a little 
town called New York City but gave birth to a necklace of communities 
that became the epicenters of invention and innovation.
  The empowerment of the entrepreneur--another strong underlying 
principle of the agenda of Democrats in the House.
  Finally, a thriving middle class--making certain that we utilize the 
policies that can be created in this House that will empower with tax 
fairness, empower with investment in the worker, in education, higher 
education, apprenticeship programs to empower the middle class and 
small businesses.
  We have measures that we have asked to be brought to the floor. There 
is a denial of any sort of single jobs bill before the House. We have 
requested over and over again to invest in that agenda the empowerment 
of America through small business, entrepreneurs, a thriving middle 
class. It's been rejected.
  Tonight I'm joined by a colleague from the State of Connecticut, 
Joseph Courtney. Joe Courtney is a strong believer in this government 
process. He's a strong believer that when we can prime the pump and 
when we can utilize government to make a difference, when we can create 
programs that speak to the honest-to-goodness agenda for all strata of 
America, but utilizing that middle class strata--small business, 
farming as a small business--making certain we utilize every strength, 
every sector of our economy and not just relying on a service sector, 
especially the financial services that we did that brought us into a 
crisis situation--we can incorporate all of the sectors of the economy.
  One of those prime sectors? Agriculture.
  Representative Courtney, it is great to have you joining us this 
evening in this colloquy.
  The agriculture industry from coast to coast is a heavy-duty 
important industry. You sit on the Ag Committee. As a representative 
from Connecticut, you know the importance of agriculture to your State. 
I know the importance of agriculture in upstate New York, throughout 
New York.
  Reauthorization of an ag bill is fundamental, is it not, to go 
forward and create opportunities?
  Mr. COURTNEY. It is. Thank you for, again, taking the time tonight to 
speak on the floor of the House.
  This is a place where the eyes not only of the country but the world 
are on us right now in terms of whether or not this body is going to 
have the strength of will to act and deal with, again, all of the 
ticking clocks which you've mentioned earlier: the fiscal cliff at the 
end of this year; sequestration; and at the end of this month, a farm 
bill reauthorization.
  Again, for those watching tonight, I think it's important to have a 
little context here, which is that up until this year, every 5 years 
since the end of World War II, Congress has acted to enact a farm bill 
which is a 5-year policy bill that sets up all of the ground rules for 
a vast array of issues that surround producers in this country, the 
folks who get up every morning and milk the cows and plant the crops 
and harvest the crops.
  It deals with issues of rural development. Small-town America depends 
on USDA rural development funds and programs to build everything from 
sewers, hospitals, health clinics. Again, all of the infrastructure, 
which again, small towns by themselves really don't have the financial 
means to create.
  Conservation programs, forestry, food policy, nutrition policy.
  Again, the farm bill is a profoundly important measure that sets up 
both producer and production policies and agriculture but also consumer 
ends in terms of food safety, food security, et cetera.
  Incredibly, we are at a point right now where at the end of this 
month, at the end of September, the last farm bill will expire. If 
Congress does not act, then farm policy will revert to what the state 
of the law was in this country in 1949. Again, that statutory construct 
is so completely disconnected from the reality of what farms and 
agriculture is today in the 21st century that it defies, really, the 
powers of any Secretary of Agriculture to implement.
  But, again, as you point out, when you look at the U.S. economy 
today, agriculture is leading the way in terms of growth, in terms of 
exports, in terms of renewed activity even in New England, which is not 
viewed as sort of a big farm State. But the fact is that specialty 
crops, which I'm sure in upper State New York we're seeing again 
growing farmers markets, are really the renaissance and movement 
towards making sure that foods that we serve our kids in cafeterias are 
on the dinner tables in American homes.

                              {time}  2010

  Again, people have just a heightened interest in terms of making sure 
it's local and fresh, and the farm bill sets up the policies that make 
that movement continue to grow.
  Well, where are we tonight? The Senate passed a farm bill. They 
passed a farm bill back in June. It was a bipartisan measure, hard-
fought. It took 3

[[Page 13668]]

weeks to make its way to the Senate floor, getting through all the 
procedural hurdles. Yet Republicans and Democrats in the Senate came 
together with a farm bill which does great things in terms of reforming 
agriculture policy in this country. It eliminates direct payments to 
farmers, which saves the taxpayers $23 billion over the next 5 years. 
So it actually helps the deficit in this country by passing the Senate 
farm bill. It reforms dairy price supports, which is critically 
important right now because, again, the structure that is in place 
today really was shown to not be adequate in 2009 when milk prices 
crashed during the recession. It sets up a new risk insurance program, 
which will allow dairy farmers to actually have some confidence and 
security about their future.
  It does, again, a great job in terms of protecting and maintaining 
the network of food supply for Americans who are struggling to put food 
on the table. It's a good, solid, bipartisan measure that really 
addresses all of the challenges of the 21st century.
  In the House, we actually reported out a farm bill out of the House 
Agriculture Committee with a strong, bipartisan vote. It has problems. 
Frankly, it cuts too deeply into nutrition. But this is an issue which, 
again, people who are close to it are very confident can be worked out 
in a conference committee if the House floor will take up a farm bill. 
And the Speaker, to this moment, has refused to even signal that he 
will schedule a vote for a farm bill to move the process along.
  So, literally, as the clock ticks towards the end of September, 
farmers and producers all across America are, in horror, looking at 
this Chamber, looking at this Speaker, and saying: Are you kidding me? 
You won't even schedule a vote so that we can work through a bill on 
the floor and send it to conference committee so that we can actually 
get real movement and get a farm bill passed?
  A couple of hours ago I was with the National Farmers Union just down 
the block here, where, again, we've got farmers from California to 
Maine who are gathering here in Washington, D.C., the American Farm 
Bureau, specific commodity crop producers who are flooding the Halls of 
Congress saying we need a farm bill.
  This should not be a partisan issue that should gridlock, again, one 
of the most vibrant and critical components of America's economy. And 
yet to this moment we have still gotten no signal from Speaker Boehner 
and the Republican leadership that they will even schedule a vote. It's 
incredible. I mean, the Agriculture Committee in the House produced a 
bipartisan bill. They did their work. Chairman Lucas, Ranking Member 
Peterson--I was there for the 13-plus-hour markup to get that bill 
through the floor--they did a great job in terms of navigating and 
getting a bill to the floor. This was done before the August recess. 
The Speaker refused to bring it up before we went home for 5 weeks. 
Five weeks have passed. Farmers all across America are demanding 
action. We're back in town, and yet nothing has been scheduled in this 
Chamber to bring up a farm bill that we can send to the conference 
committee and get some real action and results. Totally unacceptable.
  Let me just finish before I throw the baton back to you. At the end 
of August, dairy price supports expired. Again, the last farm bill had 
a measure, it was called a Feed Adjuster Index, which would basically 
allow farmers who were facing high feed costs to get help and relief. 
Anybody who looks in the financial pages can see that corn prices are 
hitting record highs because of the drought out in the Midwest; feed 
costs have gone through the roof; fuel costs are going through the 
roof. All the input costs for running a dairy farm are at record highs, 
and yet, as of a couple of weeks ago or a week and a half ago, the 
dairy farmers of America had basically the rug pulled out from under 
them because this Chamber did not move and do its job back in July and 
get a farm bill passed out of this Chamber and sent to conference 
committee.
  So they were sort of the first wave of victims of Republican inaction 
in this House to move a farm bill. At the end of this month, it will be 
the rest of American agriculture that will have the rug pulled out from 
under it and revert back a statutory structure to 1949, which is the 
state of the law, if we don't move forward and get a farm bill done.
  So I'm glad you scheduled this session tonight, Congressman Tonko, 
because I think the American people need to hear that Democrats stand 
ready to roll up their sleeves, get to work on this floor, pass a farm 
bill, send it to the conference committee, work with the bipartisan 
majority in the Senate to pass a farm bill, and help the American 
farmers and producers who every single day are making sure that the 
system of food production and supply works. It is a very fragile 
system, as we're seeing with the drought out in Iowa, and people in 
this Chamber are treating it with just, in my opinion, outrageous 
neglect by not really doing their constitutional duty, showing some 
leadership, and bringing a farm bill up for a vote in this Chamber.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Courtney, you're a great friend. You're a 
great friend not only to me, but to this House, to the district you 
represent, and to the State of Connecticut. And you're such a good 
friend because of the academics that you put into the job. I have 
watched you in action, and I know that you are about building 
consensus.
  But what we have here, you talk about, doesn't this become even more 
urgent an item with the drought situation that we've had across this 
country? Grain prices are going to rise. So to have some stability and 
security--predictability--into the ag outcomes for many sectors of 
agriculture, it becomes even more critical. And to go back, to revert 
to a 1949 formula, is sinful. It's immoral.
  People talk about the lack of sensitivity, the lack of productivity, 
but we're talking about immoral outcomes here that don't enable people 
to do their work. I mean, this is a small business--in many places 
large business--but agriculture runs that gamut. For many, it's small 
business, it's family business, it's a way of life, and we're denying 
that very fabric of this country.
  I know groups have come together in atypical fashion--outside groups 
that are putting pressure here--they have come in partnership to say: 
Hey, look, get this done, as you're suggesting, get it done. You've 
done some of the basics. Why are you ignoring this number one industry 
for many States?
  Mr. COURTNEY. And just to follow up on that point, again, the Senate 
farm bill included within it disaster relief assistance--not just for a 
short period of time, but for 5 years. Again, the House did bring up a 
so-called ``disaster relief'' bill right before the August break--
something which the American Farm Bureau dismissed as inadequate in 
terms of actual agricultural policy in this country--used as a pay-for 
taking money out of conservation, which, again, as critical a priority 
as almost anything else in the farm bill. Again, it was just an almost 
pathetic attempt to provide political cover for people who knew that, 
again, with the catastrophe happening out in the Midwest, they couldn't 
possibly leave town without at least trying to make some small gesture 
towards acknowledging that that was actually happening.
  But, again, the Senate measure includes a full disaster relief. The 
House committee bill which came out has full disaster relief. That's 
what, really, the American agriculture community is looking for.
  Tomorrow, on the steps of the Capitol, there will be a huge rally 
with farm groups from all across America gathering on the steps. 
Senator Stabenow and Congressman Collin Peterson from Minnesota are 
going to be out there leading the charge. We understand that some 
Republican Members are going to show some courage and get out there on 
those steps and join those farmers in saying we need a farm bill now to 
be voted on in the House of Representatives. And it's time for the 
Republican leadership to listen to the people who, again, are out there 
busting their tail every single day making

[[Page 13669]]

sure that there's food on the table for this country.
  Mr. TONKO. You know, I listen to you, and your State was tremendously 
impacted by Irene and Lee last summer. My State was tremendously 
impacted. We reached for those very pots--that we've emptied with the 
Republican solution--that served our communities so very well with 
disaster funds. We can't tamper with some of those legitimate set-
asides because they're there, they're required by acts of Mother Nature 
or by manmade situations where we need to have disaster dollars 
available.
  But you can't help but quantify. I mean, you just imagine the 
extrapolating out of jobs, the impact of jobs if you don't get this 
done, the ripple effect into those ancillary businesses that feed into 
the needs of agriculture. It is a tremendous opportunity for us to grow 
stability in the economy. And to not do this, this do-nothing 
Republican Congress is devastating the economy. We could have made 
major strides, we could have gone forward with a lot of attempts to do 
good.
  Now, what I sense here, from what you've talked about with these 
poison pills that have been adopted or placed into their solutions, or 
the ignoring of agreed-upon legislation in committee, this is a 
recurring theme. I mean, we saw the FAA, the Federal Aeronautics 
Administration, impacted again by delays, games that were being played 
because they need the full loaf or they want it their way. There is no 
sense of consensus that is driving these outcomes. And so we delayed 
for months the FAA outcome, which challenged, put at risk hundreds of 
projects, tens of thousands of construction jobs that were going to 
speak to safety at our airports.
  We saw it with student loans. You were so actively involved with 
that. You were outspoken in your criticism of perhaps doubling our 
students' interest on their loans. And they, again, inserted poison 
pills. We waited until the midnight hour to get something done--with a 
lot of unpredictability again.

                              {time}  2020

  We saw it with the payroll tax relief that we were trying to do for 
middle-income America and small businesses. Couldn't get it done. 
Waited till the last minute. Poison pills that delayed progress.
  This is a recurring theme, is it not?
  Mr. COURTNEY. It is of course. And again, another example of a 
measure that really is just teed up and ready for action in the House 
is the postal reform. We have a postal system right now which is both 
technically and substantively in bankruptcy. The obligations of the 
postal system in terms of its expenses and pension costs now exceed the 
revenue that's coming in.
  And once again we have a situation where the Senate has already 
acted. They passed a bipartisan postal reform bill. My colleague from 
Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, Senator Joe Lieberman is the chair of the 
committee that put together, again, a significant bipartisan coalition 
to get a postal reform bill through which would provide stability in 
the finances of this system, which, again, is in bankruptcy.
  Nothing has happened on this side of the campus, of the Capitol in 
terms of any action in terms of bringing a bill to the floor to make 
sure that, again, the postal system, which goes back to the birth of 
our country, is not going to capsize into hopeless bankruptcy. I mean, 
just totally inexcusable to have an issue like this, which, I challenge 
anyone to point to any time in American history where the postal 
service has become sort of a partisan political football. Yet this 
Republican leadership has done nothing to bring a postal reform bill to 
the floor.
  Violence Against Women Act, again, a measure which is really a law 
enforcement measure in terms of giving our police and court systems and 
victim advocates the tools they need to eliminate the scourge of 
domestic violence in this country. My wife is involved, actually, in 
multidisciplinary teams back in Hartford, Connecticut, in terms of 
dealing with this issue as a pediatric nurse practitioner.
  Again, the Senate passed a good, strong bipartisan bill. We had a 
partisan measure that just turned the clock back in terms of protecting 
victims who, again, are here on temporary visas, again, as some kind of 
statement, I guess, about immigration. And yet this is a measure which 
has not been sent to conference by this side of the Chamber, and we 
have a situation, a priority such as domestic violence which has 
traditionally been completely nonpartisan since it was first enacted 
back in the 1990s, and no action is being taken by this Republican 
leadership who seems intent on going home pretty soon and just 
basically leaving town until election time.
  I mean, it's just stunning that, you know, farm bill, postal reform 
bill, violence against women, we should be able to do these things 
tonight and give this country some confidence.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Courtney, you talk about the reducing of 
VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act. If the spirit and letter of that 
law has been to protect women, why would you weaken certain 
protections?
  There's this order of meanness and selectiveness and insensitivity 
that has abounded in this House, where they reduce efforts that have 
been championed over the decades, hard-fought efforts, bipartisan 
efforts, bicameral efforts, the executive branch working with the 
legislative branch, making certain that the heart and soul of this 
reform through the ages has been about making America stronger.
  You know, it's we, the people, working toward a more perfect Union, a 
more perfect Union. We've made such wonderful progress. We have 
acknowledged the needs of women, where they were ignored in legislative 
or statutory concepts. We go forward. And now it's like, as you 
suggest, rolling the clock back, being insensitive to so many needs out 
there and reducing the fabric of our government. It's like trying to 
speak to an archaic sort of quality that's driven by extreme thinking. 
It's the tail wagging the dog in the conference where this extreme 
thinking has taken over the majority and this do-nothing Republican 
Congress is not responding, not stepping up to the plate at a time that 
it's very, very critical.
  We saw this economy challenged more greatly than perhaps the 
Depression of the past that really was a prime test, but in many of the 
lives of today's working Americans, this is the first-time greatest 
experience, a challenge before us. And when we should step up and be 
the champions, the fairness and justice and resolve to move forward 
with progressive policy, we're getting almost the reverse. It's the 
antithesis of what's required here.
  Mr. COURTNEY. And I would just say that the inaction of this 
leadership--today we received an ominous warning from Moody's Investor 
Services which warned that basically that Congress's failure to strike 
a deal on the fiscal cliff some time within the next 6 months or so 
will lead to a downgrade of this country's financial rating. Again, 
Moody's preserved the Triple A status last August when we had the last 
self-induced crisis by the Republican majority on the default issue. 
And so the warning is out there. Incredibly, the Speaker, when he was 
asked about this later in the day today, basically said he has no 
confidence that we can strike a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.
  I mean, again, we're talking--it is September 11, a day when we 
should be coming together and reflecting on our unity as American 
people. And to have that kind of negativity at a time when we've been, 
the same day we were warned that the country could capsize into a 
downgrade, and just basically throw up his arms and say, well, he has 
no confidence we can put that deal together, I'm reminded of the old 
military saying, which is, you know, lead, follow, or get out of the 
way.
  And really, for a Speaker to basically say, at this early stage, that 
he has no confidence that this body, which has gone through world wars, 
depressions, a civil war, and has always been able to really show that 
the genius of the Founding Fathers to create a structure where 
decisions can be made is somehow incapable of dealing with the issue 
that we're confronted with today is just a, really, just shocking 
admission

[[Page 13670]]

of abdication of leadership. And really, it just--it signals that, you 
know, we need to have a change here in this Chamber, one way or another 
if we're going to deal with the problems that are looming on the 
horizon, which was your opening comments.
  Mr. TONKO. And I agree with you. I think that the brinkmanship that 
was utilized in the debate and the development of a response to the 
debt ceiling crisis was an attachment of bells and whistles and all 
sorts of extraneous materials that were being applied in an 
inappropriate way. We needed to move forward and address an order of 
crisis. America knows that, they understand they play by the rules and 
you pay your bills.
  But it was this attempt to weaken a process, and it was an attempt to 
stall and delay and make a political statement at the expense of having 
our then credit rating downgraded by S&P. So the outcome here was a 
devastating one.
  And, you know, it is really unfortunate that we're not heeding the 
need out there. I believe the American public has been stating 
emphatically they want solutions. They want us to come up with a 
response to an economic crisis. They want to know how we're going to 
move forward with this idea economy, innovation economy, clean energy 
economy. They want to see us move toward energy independence. They want 
to see us addressing transformation of the economy. They want advanced 
manufacturing that requires training of workers that begins with 
education investments, all of these things. They want us to develop 
solutions.
  They don't want paralysis. They don't want this divide, this great 
divide. They don't want the partisanship.
  They want partnership. They want solutions.
  We saw what happened when you can advance solutions in this House. 
You and I enjoyed the 111th Congress and the productivity of that 
Congress. And to have moved to this sort of paralysis is unacceptable.
  And the do-nothing Republican Congress is being watched very 
carefully here, and I believe that this coming election will be a very 
telling statement about rejecting the sort of delay, the rejecting of 
the games being played, a rejecting of the disinvestment, a rejecting 
of the defunding and the dismissiveness of a role that government could 
and should play in very important areas.
  You ask these other economies out there with which our American 
business is competing. We're in an international race on innovation. 
You know, much like the race, global race on space in the sixties, when 
this country came together in resolve after a Sputnik moment, when they 
dusted off their backside and said, Never again, and we're going to 
move forward and we're going to be the Nation to stake that flag on the 
Moon.
  We won because we resolved to do it. We did it with great passion. We 
did it with intellect. We did it coming together as a people of all 
sorts of political stripes, and we worked together as one Nation.

                              {time}  2030

  You're right, on this given day of 9/11, when we reflect upon those 
tragedies and when our virtues as a Nation--our liberties, our 
freedoms, our opportunities--were challenged and threatened and numbed 
us for a moment, we came back with great resolve. Let's show the 
passion here that we did in the sixties to win that global race in 
space. Let's invest. Let's go forward. Let's make certain we don't tie 
the hands of America behind her back. Let's move forward and invest in 
an economy, in a race that is important to our efforts to maintain our 
leadership on the international scale.
  Mr. COURTNEY. I think, as Moody's indicated, with the fiscal cliff at 
the end of this year and with the sequestration on January 1, there 
really is only one place where this can get resolved, and it's right 
here in this room. There are ideas that are on the table which, I 
think, clearly show a middle ground--in fact, more than a middle 
ground--as a way of solving these problems.
  The President has put on the table an extension of the Bush tax cuts 
for 98 percent of Americans that would entirely protect their present 
tax status with no increase in taxes. Obviously, the cliff will cause 
middle class families all across America to pay more if there is no 
action in this Chamber. In fact, it provides for 100 percent of all 
Americans the extension of the Bush tax cuts on incomes up to $250,000. 
Any income above that would revert back to the Clinton era rates. That 
change would provide about $1 trillion of deficit reduction for our 
country at a time when the structural deficit that the Bush tax cuts 
created is obviously scaring investor services like Moody's.
  This is a proposal which is not a 50/50 deal. It's a 98 percent deal 
in terms of protecting those existing tax cuts, and it's a 100 percent 
deal in terms of protecting people's taxes up to $250,000.
  Mr. TONKO. A point oftentimes lost. Even millionaires and 
billionaires would get their tax breaks on a first order of income, 
$250,000.
  Do you know what stands in the way? If we have to be totally frank 
here, they want to make certain that millionaires and billionaires 
continue to get their bonanza of a tax break. Well, do you know what? 
We know what got us into the economic crisis. We had a tax cut for 
millionaires and billionaires primarily that was never paid for. We 
fought two wars off line, off budget. So one of the first orders of 
business that the President wanted to address was putting together an 
honest budget. You didn't have the mechanism, the payment mechanism, 
for the millionaire-billionaire tax cut, and you have to bring that 
cost of the war into the budget.
  We need to move forward with a sound and reasonable approach to 
economic relief. The middle class has taken it on the chin, and it's 
their turn. They need to be relieved, and we need to invest in those 
orders of comeback that will empower our middle class. What I think is, 
with the efforts that have been made here in the House, the requests 
made in the House are very legit: Do what you can afford. Keep the 
economy going. To me, it's about aggregate demand for goods and 
services. So, if you relieve the middle class, if you strengthen their 
purchasing power, if we had that thriving middle class, someone needs 
to buy your product; someone needs to make your product. If you empower 
that middle class, it's a formula for success.
  As you point out, Representative Courtney, it is 98 percent of the 
general public that will enjoy that empowerment and 97 percent of the 
small business community. There is a way to go forward with a 
reasonable approach that really speaks to that strata that needs the 
most assistance today.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Six nights ago, we saw someone get on the floor of the 
convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, and very methodically and with 
great clarity explain exactly the points that we're talking about here 
tonight.
  President Bill Clinton, someone who today enjoys a 69 percent 
approval rating, got on the floor of that convention. While he was 
President, the public finances of this country came into balance for 
the first time in over a generation, and 22 million new jobs were 
created under his watch. If anyone has credibility in terms of a 
perspective on economic and fiscal policy in this country, it's 
President Bill Clinton.
  What we have talked about here tonight is about reverting to the 
Clinton era rates on incomes above $250,000. We know as a Nation that 
that does not smother and punish success. It will not smother and 
punish our economy. Those rates were in place when 22 million jobs were 
created in the U.S. economy in the 1990s.
  Today, what's interesting is that Mr. Romney, the Republican 
Presidential candidate, is very careful not to criticize President 
Clinton. In fact, he tries indirectly sometimes to even embrace him. 
Well, he ought to embrace his positions on fiscal policy because, if he 
did, we could pass a bill on this floor in no time flat, solve the 
fiscal cliff, defuse sequestration, and get this country back on track 
with more than just policies: with a new infusion of confidence, both 
within our country

[[Page 13671]]

and, frankly, in financial markets around the world, that this place is 
capable of actually making some decisions and that this place is 
actually capable of action.
  The former President's comments in Charlotte obviously got a rock 
star reception all across the country because that's what people are 
hungry for--reasonable solutions coming from people who have 
demonstrated that they actually can administer and be good stewards of 
the U.S. economy. I think that, for the Republican leadership of this 
Chamber to ignore that type of compromise and reasonable approach to 
solving the fiscal problems we face today is politically very 
dangerous.
  Again, if you really look closely at the Romney campaign, they are 
loath to even say anything negative about Bill Clinton or his time in 
the White House. Do you know what? They're very careful also to avoid 
talking about his policies, which basically President Obama and the 
minority here, even with some significant modifications to accommodate 
the other side, are prepared to move forward on. Let's really, I think, 
heed the advice that he gave this country six nights ago and move 
forward with these policies.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Courtney, you talk about that event. When 
he made his presentation, he did that long-term review and a rather 
shorter focus over the last couple of years--the first term of 
President Obama's. Yet, when he talked about the track record over the 
last decade, he talked about 28 years of Republican leadership versus 
24 years of Democratic leadership. He talked about the outcome in jobs, 
and said, under the Republican watch, 22 million jobs, I believe, were 
created. Under the Democratic watch, there were 42. So, he said, let's 
look at the record. Let's check the scorecard. Then he did the short-
term outcome of President Obama's administration. He was talking about 
the numbers of jobs created and gave a zero to what the Republicans 
were advancing in the House.
  It's pretty obvious that there is this outcome of success. People 
constantly refer to the Clinton years now. What happened there? Well, 
we undid the surplus that was created. We spent down on a tax cut that 
wasn't paid for. We fought two wars that weren't on line with the 
budget. It's obvious we know what happened. Why would we give the keys 
back to someone who drove us into the ditch?
  So this whole effort in this administration with 30 now consecutive 
months of private sector job growth and the President's asking for 
Congress to move forward with an agenda that has had obvious positive 
results and its being denied and held up, played with, entered in with 
poison pills is not what the American public wants. They want those 
solutions, and they are denying those solutions. I think the do-nothing 
Republican Congress has caused great pain and has denied progress for 
the comeback scenario that we so desperately require and that the 
middle class and all of America so rightfully deserve.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you for taking the time tonight to really set the 
record straight on a lot of these issues. I would note that Bloomberg 
News actually did a fact check of the Clinton speech the other night 
and basically came back and gave it a clean bill of health. Frankly, if 
you contrast that with the speeches that took place in Tampa and if you 
go to PolitiFact and go through some of the remarks that were analyzed 
by that Pulitzer Prize winning service and the number of pants-on-fire 
lies that they ascribed to some of the comments that were made on the 
floor of the Tampa convention, there is a sharp contrast.
  Again, I just want to thank you for taking the time to remind the 
American people this evening about the fact that there are items that 
we can move forward on today. Literally, we could reconvene the House 
here at a quarter of nine on 9/11 and pass a farm bill, pass the postal 
reform bill, get moving on the Violence Against Women Act, and we could 
deal with the fiscal cliff if people with reasonable and nonpartisan 
scorched Earth partisanship came forward and saw what is obvious, which 
is that the tools are there to fix these problems. Thank you for your 
leadership and for holding this session this evening.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Courtney. I thank you for your 
outstanding leadership. You've been there on the student loan issue. 
You've been there on the ag reauthorization measure. You've been there 
on the American Jobs Act.

                              {time}  2040

  We know that there has been a formula for success driven by the 
President for the American Jobs Act. He has asked for Congress to move 
forward. The Senate has, in a bipartisan way, moved forward with 
efforts to address a middle class tax cut. The President has asked us 
to complement that with the American Jobs Act that enables us to move 
forward with investments in educators, allowing for teachers and class 
size to be addressed, making certain that our young people, our 
workforce of the future are able to enjoy that self-discovery, that 
sense of identity that they require in the classroom. What are their 
gifts, their passions, their skills, their talents? How can they best 
contribute their fabric to the American scene?
  That is part of the American Dream. That is part of the investment 
that provides those underpinnings of support, that builds an economy 
with capital investment, physical investment, human infrastructure 
investment, all of which are required in order to have the holistic 
response. With the American Jobs Act formula, the President is saying, 
Look, we've grown 30 months of consecutive private sector job growth. 
We've enabled the economy to come back powerfully. We're investing in 
that order of business.
  He's also asked that that public sector element which has been 
reduced, that has offset some of the progress, has reduced some of the 
progress because of pain at those State capitals putting together their 
budgets, he said, Look, let's from a big picture point of view. Invest 
in educators, in public safety, in police officers, in firefighters, in 
emergency personnel.
  On a day like today where we humbly reflect upon the pain this Nation 
endured, the loss of lives, nearly 3,000 people impacted by the acts at 
the Pentagon, in a lonely field in Pennsylvania, and, yes, in 
metropolitan New York, we are reminded most humbly, most sensitively, 
most lovingly of that dreadful moment. And we saw how important our 
public safety elements are, our first responders, critical to that 
situation. It showcased a very noble measure in a very painful and dark 
moment in our history what those role models are, who they are. That's 
their everyday work. It was showcased in a very magnified way. But 
every day we reach to their skills, their talents, their strengths.
  The President is saying invest in that public safety element, invest 
in our firefighters, in our police officers, in our emergency 
responders. He's asking for that in the American Jobs Act. We've done 
pieces of it, but we need to do the entire package to have the strength 
that this economy requires for its comeback.
  He talks about infrastructure improvements through an infrastructure 
bank that is part and parcel to the outcome, making certain that our 
infrastructure is strong and able to move our situation of a comeback. 
Commerce requires the shipping of freight. It needs the infrastructure. 
Our communities require that investment in infrastructure; otherwise, 
they go it the way of a property tax or a less progressive tax 
structure.
  We know what needs to be done, and the denial here by the do-nothing 
Republican Congress is not acceptable. It's painful. It's immoral. It's 
insensitive. It's un-American. To put partisanship ahead of partnership 
is unacceptable.
  We know that the American spirit requires better than that, so we 
need to respond to America's working families. We need to respond to 
the hope that ought to be delivered to the doorsteps of families across 
this great Nation. Our history is replete with investment, investment 
to take us to new ages, new elements of success, new impacts on the 
world scene.

[[Page 13672]]

  Earlier, I had spoken of the mill towns that became epicenters of 
invention and innovation. It was their product delivery coming out of 
the mill towns, out of those 24-hour-a-day operations that impacted the 
quality of life, not just in these United States, but in nations around 
the world. People were lifted by discovery and product development in 
this Nation. And as we move forward, we need to advance our 
manufacturing agenda, we need to invest in the research, and we need to 
invest in the innovation.
  I'm reminded of some of the incubator outcomes at campuses within the 
21st Congressional District in upstate New York in the capital region 
of Mohawk Valley that I represent, incubators at public and private 
sector institutions, clean room science activity going on in lab 
formats at community colleges, working with our nanotechnology 
industry, our semiconductor industry, advanced battery manufacturing. 
All of this requires a plan, a holistic plan that allows for the 
unleashing of talent and opportunity from the American public. Someone 
before our times invested in our future.
  Throughout our noble history, throughout our growth as a Nation, 
there were those who believed in America and invested in her people. We 
can ill afford to go back. We can only go forward, as was made mention 
by the President and many of his administration that were speaking at 
the convention, many legislators who appeared at the convention and 
spoke about the agenda to constantly move forward, embracing the 
American Dream in the process. That American Dream is what inspired so 
many to journey to this Nation.
  We are, in major fashion, a compilation of journeys. Other than our 
Native American sisters and brothers, it's the immigrant population 
that traveled to these shores embracing that American Dream, believing 
in a brighter tomorrow, understanding that if they put their mind and 
heart and soul to work, that better opportunities would be there, that 
they could climb the ladders of success, that they would not pull up 
those ladders when they reached the mountaintop, but extend additional 
ladders to everyone to climb that ladder of success until they reached 
that American Dream.
  That has been the saga of this great Nation. That has been the 
profoundness of this Nation, the greatness of this Nation. Why would we 
change course now? We saw what ill effects came of some bad policy or 
lack of sound stewardship of our resources. Let's learn from that 
history, but let's also learn from the history of greatness where 
America struggled through tough times, faced immense challenges, but 
powerfully spoke in a way that engaged that American spirit and put it 
into policy format, resource advocacy, and budgets that spoke to a 
soundness of a future for America.
  Our best days lie ahead if we pursue that agenda that shows its 
belief and its promise in America's children and working families. The 
undeniable progress that we can make speaks boldly to us. We've seen an 
administration reach out to this Congress asking for a partnership, a 
bipartisan response, one that will allow all of us to share in the 
great success that can follow. We've seen what happens when we go 
forward with some of the measures of progressivity.
  We have a grid system that was challenged as early as 2003, where we 
know there is a need for investing in the capacity of that system that 
was designed for regional utility matters, and now we're wheeling 
electrons from region to region within States to States to States and 
from nations to nations. We know that we have to step up to the plate 
and invest in that utility infrastructure. We know that there are 
deficiencies in our routine, traditional infrastructure that require 
our investment.

                              {time}  2050

  We know that there's a need for energy transformation so that we can 
grow with the American intellect, that intellectual capacity that 
enables us to provide for the innovation, the American independence, 
the American security that can be dealt with through renewables, and 
energy efficiency as our fuel of choice and outstanding discoveries 
that can be made in a way that are most powerful, and research that 
equals jobs.
  We see it happening all around us, and it's not like we have the 
luxury to decide not to do it. We're in the midst of an international 
competition.
  And unlike the sixties, where it was U.S. versus U.S.S.R., we are now 
with many more competitors on the international scene. They are 
partnering with their governments. They are partnering in a way that 
provides research monies, incubator space, higher-ed communities that 
are growing in leaps and bounds while we languish with a do-nothing 
Republican Congress that wants to promote delay, insert poison pills, 
or just deny progress in a partisanship way that is not speaking to the 
American spirit that was imagined and planted by our Founding Parents.
  You know, tonight, for this past hour, we as Democrats have enjoyed 
sharing our thoughts about what a productive Congress could be in terms 
of shaping our future, what a productive Congress could mean to 
fairness and justice and equitable opportunity for generations to come.
  Our children are watching, they're measuring our actions much more 
than by our words, more so by the achievements that we can assess. 
They're watching carefully, and we need to move forward in a way that 
finds us working together to build consensus. When we insert the ``we'' 
in us, it is much more powerful than the ``me'' in us.
  This House has had great moments when they've rolled up their sleeves 
as Members and have come to the table and said, America beckons. Her 
people need that sort of response. True leadership will move forward in 
a way that allows us to enjoy the taste of success.
  You know, tonight, as we've talked about the paralysis that has 
gripped this House, as we talked about the denial that has been part of 
the outcome that has been demeaning and destructive at times, I reach 
to the assessment by very nonpartisan congressional scholars, in this 
case Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. They have been, over the years, 
very much bipartisan in their criticism and critiquing of the behavior 
in Congress.
  I just want to quote from their report:

       In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when 
     we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no 
     choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies 
     with the Republican Party. The GOP has become an insurgent 
     outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; 
     scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding 
     of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the 
     legitimacy of its political opposition.

  Tonight I will close with that statement because I think it's a 
challenge. It's a challenge to us to forget about the unproductive 
nature of the last several months and move forward with a newfound 
order of resolve that will enable us to acknowledge that some of the 
greatest moments in American history came with some of her darkest 
hours where with that regard, that true American spirit we're able to 
rise to the occasion, reach to the best intellect and the best 
temperament of this Nation as she came together in an order of 
consensus and where our best days followed that sort of agreement.
  We can build upon success. We can learn from history, the soundness 
of history that saw us respond and rise to the crushing situations that 
gripped this Nation and move forward with a sense of greatness, a sense 
of accomplishment, a sense of fairness and empowerment and, most 
importantly, a delivery of hope to the doorsteps of individuals and 
families across this great Nation. America's greatest moments are truly 
lying ahead if we can embark upon that challenge before us.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________