H1524 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- HOUSE February 13, 2009
making lithium ion batteries so that we can make electric cars right here in America and start selling them across the world. And I hope some of my brethren across the aisle will not vote against research so we can find a way to burn coal cleanly, against research to make electric cars more affordable to Americans, against research to make our houses more efficient.
This is a plan to start an economic energy revolution. We should pass it and be proud of it today.
f VOTE ``NO'' ON THE STIMULUS BILL (Mr. COFFMAN of Colorado asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. COFFMAN of Colorado. Madam Speaker, buried in the stimulus bill that we will be voting on today is a provision that will gut the welfare reform measures that the Congress passed in 1996. The legislation will move us down a path that will take us away from welfare reform that required work, training, and education in exchange for benefits, back to the old system that says to single young women that, as long as you don't get married, don't get a job, and keep having children, that we will continue to subsidize you at taxpayers' expense.
The old system that this legislation moves us to kept generations of American families in poverty, and I urge a ``no'' vote on the stimulus bill.
f PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 1, AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 168 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. RES. 168 Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider the conference report to accompany the bill (H.R. 1) making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes. All points of order against consideration of the conference report are waived except those arising under clause 9 of rule XXI. The conference report shall be considered as read. All points of order against the conference report are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the conference report to its adoption without intervening motion except: (1) 90 minutes of debate and (2) one motion to recommit if applicable.
POINT OF ORDER Mr. DREIER. Madam Speaker, I make a point of order against the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will state his point of order.
we will maintain or create somewhere between 3 million and 4 million jobs in the construction industry and the energy industry; we will maintain jobs of teachers and firefighters and policemen. We will pass this bill today in the House of Representatives, and I am glad, because in Colorado we need this effort, we need these jobs, and so does the rest of the Nation.
f KEEP OUR COMMITMENT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (Mr. COLE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask that we all uphold the honor of the House and keep our commitment to the American people.
Less than 3 days ago, my good friend and colleague, Mr. LEWIS of California, asked this House to instruct our conferees not to record their approval of the conference agreement on the stimulus bill until the text of that agreement had been made available in an electronic, searchable, and downloadable form for at least 48 hours. That motion passed unanimously.
Essentially, we gave our word, the word of the people's House, to all Americans, guaranteeing them that they would have ample opportunity to review this proposed legislation.
This bill was filed last night. It is over 1,000 pages long. And, with the exception of omnibus legislation, it is the largest spending bill this House has ever considered. Madam Speaker, I must confess, I haven't had time to read the legislation; my staff hasn't had time to read the legislation; I doubt my colleagues have had time to read the legislation; and, most importantly, the American people have had no time to read the legislation.
So now, less than 10 hours since we could first see this 1,000-page bill, we are poised to break our commitment to the American people and to pass this legislation with little or no time to even read it.
f ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN (Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, one of the attributes of this economic recovery plan is it is not based on yesterday; it is based on tomorrow.
It is not your grandmother's recov ery plan where we just built asphalt and concrete; it is built on the new high-tech green collar jobs that can truly give us a prolonged burst of economic recovery. And that is why, when I vote for this today, I am going to be proud that we are launching a new Apollo clean energy project to give this country the thousands of green collar jobs, to start selling high-tech clean energy products to China, to start
reach our highest unemployment number since the Great Depression. But this unemployment number does not tell the complete story.
Last month alone, 731,000 people simply gave up looking for work out of frustration with the lack of employment prospects, and today 13.9 percent of Americans, or more than 21 million of our neighbors, have either given up looking for a job or are working in a job that is no longer full time. These workers are underemployed.
These numbers are a stark reminder of how important it is for us to get these people back to work, and that is why we need to pass the economic recovery package today without delay.
Madam Speaker, we have an opportunity to create or save 3.5 million jobs. Let's do the right thing and get these people back to work.
f THE JOBS BILL HAS TURNED INTO A SPENDING BILL (Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania.
Madam Speaker, a couple of months ago, the talk from congressional leadership was to produce legislation that was about providing jobs for America's families and small businesses, with lots of opportunities for our needed investments.
Sadly, what was supposed to be a jobs bill has turned into a spending bill that is going to provide about a $7.70 tax break for workers while adding $9,400 of debt, plus or minus some, with interest, for each family that is going to have to be paid by our children and grandchildren. I think if you have got one person working in that family, it is going to take a few years of saving up all those tax credits in order to pay for this bill.
Plus, unfortunately, we still never got guarantees that the billions of dollars worth of automobiles, buses, furniture, computers, and everything else here even has to be made in the United States of America. I am not very happy about that, and I don't think Americans should be, either.
f RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT (Mr. PERLMUTTER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, we just can't ignore the facts. The facts are, we lost 600,000 jobs last month and the prior month and the prior month, and some 3.6 million jobs last year. Banks have failed. We have had a real contraction in the economy.
My friends on the Republican side of the aisle, their position is, ``Just say no. We like the status quo.'' We can't afford the status quo anymore, ladies and gentlemen. We must act. This is a time for bold action, and in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act
4 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR-FM-K13FE7.004 H13FEPT1