Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, as the Co-Founder of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, I rise in strong opposition to this shameful bill, H.R. 3567.

This is a distasteful and misleading bill that tries to make it seem like every American in poverty is somehow immoral or criminal.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of TANF recipients want nothing more than a good job to support their families and build a bridge to reach their American Dream.

Now, no one wants TANF dollars to be spent in casinos or in adult entertainment venues, but this bill does nothing to actually

prevent that. Shutting down ATM's in those locations doesn't stop the money being spent there. In addition, this bill would force states to certify nearly every small business as a non-liquor store and how are the standards to be established and maintained?

This bill would create an entire nation wide bureaucracy to address a problem that affects less than 4 one hundredths of one percent (.04%) of all TANF funds and would completely fail to save any money at all.

Instead of passing a jobs bill, Republicans are once again just looking to distract from the real issues, this time by attacking American families in need.

This bill is just a sad attempt to divide our nation by mimicking the Ronald Reagan myth about the Cadillac driving welfare queen. It was untrue then and it is still untrue today.

As a single mother who once relied on food stamps and assistance to get by during a very difficult period in my life, I am appalled to see Republican politicians attack struggling American families just because they need a helping hand. TANF benefits keep children in homes and in school. TANF benefits keep American families from suffering abject poverty.

What we should be doing is helping these families reignite their American Dreams, not making blanket accusations against every low income family in America.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Let me first thank Congresswoman Gwen Moore for her very passionate and very clear statement. I thank both she and Congressman Ellison for their unwavering leadership and conviction on the real issues facing the American people today.

As a former cochair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and as a cofounder of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, I rise in strong opposition to this bill.

Mr. Chairman, members of the Progressive Caucus are here because, once again, the Republican leadership would rather attack the President than help the millions of struggling seniors, people with disabilities and their families who are faced with a system that fails to meet their very basic needs. This should really be a nonpartisan issue, but we are here today because Republicans are more focused on ending Medicare and repealing a long-term care program than they are on creating jobs to put Americans back to work.

Last year, the Republicans' first order of business was to eliminate--mind you, eliminate--the Medicare guarantee for America's seniors under the Ryan budget proposal. This year, it's the same old story. Instead of focusing on jobs or on extending middle class tax cuts, unemployment assistance, or fixing the Medicare physician pay rate, this Tea Party Congress continues to waste time on pointless bills just to score political points.

Repealing the CLASS program will do nothing--nothing--to address the long-term crisis for the 10 million Americans who need care now and the 5 million more who will require it over the next 10 years. Killing this program without offering any alternative is, frankly, irresponsible. The law may not be perfect, but repealing the bill does not make the problem go away. We should be doing everything we can to ensure that senior citizens and the disabled also have a shot at the American Dream. We should not destroy this for them just because of their ages or their disabilities. Why in the world would the Republican Tea Party want to throw them under the bus?

We should work to find a real solution that meets the needs of the millions of baby boomers who are retiring now, of the senior citizens and the disabled, and we should work to ensure that they get the long- term care over the next decade that they will need. Rather than repeal this bill today, we need to give experts time to identify changes that would make the CLASS program stronger, and Congress needs to focus on the real priorities of the day, which are jobs and the economy.

We have work to do, and we don't have a minute to waste. Let's not waste another year without a jobs bill

and without extending vital unemployment benefits and payroll tax reductions to millions of Americans while our economy continues to recover. It is time for the Republican Tea Party to stop walking away from our senior citizens and the disabled and to work with us to continue middle class tax cuts, unemployment assistance, and to ensure that seniors can keep seeing their doctors.

We need to come together now to enact bold programs and policies that provide equal opportunity and equal access for every single American no matter their race, no matter their employment status, no matter their humble beginnings, no matter their ages, no matter their disabilities. Americans can't wait. This Congress should not wait. We need to really figure out a way to do the right thing on behalf of our senior citizens and the disabled, but I have to say that today, unfortunately, this bill moves us in the wrong direction.

I yield back the balance of my time.

As the founder of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, I rise again today to remind this body about the crisis of poverty in America, which really should prick the conscience of every Democrat and Republican. As we begin to consider legislation for this year and budgets for the fiscal year 2013, we must do more to help millions of Americans living in poverty.

We must do more for the millions of Americans who are looking very hard for a job and working hard every day to move up the ladder of opportunity, really trying to remove these very difficult barriers.

We must not balance our budgets on the backs of the most vulnerable, the poor, and low-income individuals, and we cannot allow any budget cuts or authorize new spending on programs that will increase poverty or increase income inequality in America.

We also must commit to taking bold steps to reducing the devastating impact of poverty in America, and that is by creating jobs. It's inexcusable and immoral to fail to take the strongest possible action to bring immediate help to those Americans in need.

We cannot continue down the path that leads to increasing poverty, inequality, and income disparities which focus more and more wealth in the hands of the few and leave millions of Americans behind. With nearly 50 million Americans in poverty and half of all Americans in low-income households, we cannot wait. We must act now.

Mr. Speaker, poverty doesn't just hurt families and the children who grow up in families trapped by poverty, but it costs our Nation hundreds of billions of dollars in lost productivity and slows the Nation's economic growth. We must act to strengthen funding for programs that not only prevent hunger, homelessness, crime, and maintain access to education, but we all must create initiatives to demand goods and services which boost our economy. That means that small businesses across America need customers, and they need customers right now.

So we must extend the expiring unemployment benefits. We can't abandon the millions of job seekers before they find a good job. We should also immediately add an additional 14 weeks of tier I unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who have completely exhausted their benefits after 99 weeks. Far too many Americans have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits and are still unable to work. We must not abandon these 99ers.

To achieve these ends, we must ensure that we protect the efficient and effective programs we already have in place and provide strong investments that spur immediate job growth. And we have the resources to do this if we commit ourselves to increasing fairness in taxation to ensure that the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share and enact a reasonable Tax Code that includes financial transactions which will not only raise vital revenue but set some limits to the wild, out-of- control speculation and vulture capitalism that nearly brought down this entire economy.

Also, we must take a bold approach in how we allocate the large savings from our defense budgets as we bring our troops home from abroad.

I'm confident that the President will speak to the moral and economic crises of income inequality and will not forget the long-term unemployed, the poor, our seniors, our students, and the middle class in his State of the Union speech tonight.

I hope the Republicans and Democrats in this body take heed and tomorrow pass the American Jobs Act for the good of the country.

I want to thank the gentlelady for yielding and also for her tremendous leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to encourage all the conferees on H.R. 3630 to fully consider the chilling effect on the economy of any failure to fully extend unemployment benefits.

While we are all pleased to see the economy slowly improving, unemployment rates continue to be unacceptably high; and, yes, there are four individuals looking for every one job. This job recovery still has not created enough jobs in our country.

I have participated in many job fairs in my district, along with the Congressional Black Caucus; and we have witnessed thousands and thousands and thousands of people lining up for the jobs that existed. People want to work. It's not that people are sitting around waiting for their unemployment benefits. If there were jobs, people would work. So we need this bridge over troubled waters until we find out a way to create the jobs that people deserve.

We must immediately extend all expiring unemployment benefits. The conferees should also strongly consider adding an additional 14 weeks of tier 1 unemployment benefits for the millions of 99ers who have completely exhausted their benefits. We don't remember that even with the extension of unemployment, there are between 2 and 3 million people who will not be eligible because 99 weeks is the limit.

So we can't abandon those individuals. We have to pass, and we're asking for Congressman Scott's bill and my bill, H.R. 589, to be included in any final legislative agreement.

So, Mr. Speaker, I am pleading for this body to really understand that until we figure out a way to create jobs, people want to work. It is our

moral responsibility to create this extension of unemployment benefits to include an additional 14 weeks for people who have hit the 99-week mark. That's our duty and our responsibility, and I hope that you'll put this in our package.

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC, January 23, 2012.

Hon. Dave Camp,

Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, House of

Representatives, Longworth HOB, Washington, DC.

Hon. Max Baucus,

Chairman, Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, Dirksen SOB,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Camp and Chairman Baucus: As you and your

colleagues on the conference committee address the extension

of payroll tax relief and unemployment compensation benefits,

restoration of Medicare payments to physicians, and other

matter, I urge you to fully consider the ongoing impacts of

the crisis in unemployment and long term unemployment, not

only on the millions of affected individuals and families who

are living life on the edge, but to also consider the impact

on our nation's struggling economy.

While we see some slow improvements in the jobs numbers,

unemployment rates continue to be unacceptably high and the

rates of long term unemployment as well the length of time

that the unemployed are out of work are both at record highs.

We must immediately extend the expiring emergency

unemployment benefits to the maximum authorized levels and we

should also immediately add an additional 14 weeks of tier I

unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who have

completely exhausted their benefits while struggling to find

work.

Far too many Americans have exhausted all of their

unemployment benefits and are still unable to find work.

Abandoning these job seekers will only further depress the

economy and will fail to reduce our deficits as these so

called 99er's will begin to fall into poverty and begin to be

eligible for other needs based federal benefits.

With nearly 50 million Americans in poverty and half of all

Americans in low income households, we must take bold action

now. It is only by providing these millions of struggling

American families with adequate and immediate relief and a

genuine long term pathway out of poverty that we can put

America back on track to prosperity and economic growth for

all.

I strongly urge the members of the conference committee to

consider my legislation, H.R. 589 for inclusion in any final

legislative agreement.

Sincerely,

Barbara Lee,

Member of Congress.

Thank you very much. I thank the gentlelady for her kind remarks, and I also thank Congresswoman Christensen for her leadership. She serves as the first vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and has led on so many issues in this House on behalf of our country and on behalf of her constituents. Thank you very much.

Let me also take a moment to thank Congresswoman Fudge and Congresswoman Jackson Lee, Congressman Bobby Scott and Chairman Rangel for their leadership in defending the most basic element of our democracy--the right to vote. I'd also like to thank our Congressional Black Caucus chair, Emanuel Cleaver, for his focus on this very critical issue. His leadership is making such a difference on so many important issues in our country.

The right to vote is our most fundamental right that guarantees and preserves all other legal rights. When Americans lose their right to vote, that endangers their ability to defend further attacks on their rights.

The assault on voter rights continues in 2012. In this election year, a coordinated campaign designed to block access to the polls to tens of millions of Americans threatens to undermine our democracy and change election outcomes. And sadly, Mr. Speaker, it's no secret which communities these laws are designed to disenfranchise--communities of color, students, elderly Americans, impoverished families, and the disabled.

Let me say that the Republican legislators and Governors who are pushing these antivoter laws know exactly what they are doing. They saw the election results of 2008, with the surge of voter participation from Americans who had never voted before. They see the rising tide of Americans who seek to change their country by doing their basic civic duty on Election Day. Instead of embracing change, they are desperately trying to avoid change by undermining our voting process.

These Republican legislators are proposing partisan laws that require voters to show a government-approved photo ID before voting. Those who are truly concerned about voter fraud have plenty of actual, documented problems to take on. Why aren't they going after those who spread false information meant to trick voters or public officials who improperly purge eligible voters or political operatives who tamper with election equipment and forms? Instead, they all are pushing laws designed to change election outcomes by reducing voting, repressing turnout, and turning the clock back.

Now, I have an aunt who is 100 years old, who was born at a time when records were not kept like they are today. How in the world would my aunt know where to start to find her birth certificate to be eligible to qualify for a government ID? How can I ask her to pay to do the research so she can figure out where her birth certificate may be and then pay to get a government ID to vote? Outrageous.

One hundred years ago, my aunt did not have the right to vote. Thanks to the hard work of those who came before us, my aunt witnessed the expansion of voting rights to women with the 19th Amendment and the protection of African American and other minority voters with the Voting Rights Act. These regressive laws seek to turn my aunt back to where she was a century ago when she could not vote and her fundamental right to fully participate in our democratic society was cut off, mind you, just cut off by unjust laws.

These partisan laws are shameful and a disgrace to our country. These antidemocratic efforts have no place in a modern democracy, and we must unmask these shameful attempts to disenfranchise voters.

We encourage democracy and voting rights all around the world. I was an observer in the first election in South Africa where President Nelson Mandela was elected. I was an observer in the nineties in Nigeria. I witnessed long lines of people waiting patiently to vote. People believed and said to me that in America voting was encouraged rather than discouraged, so we need to stop these partisan efforts that strike at the core of our democracy. It really is, Congresswoman Christensen, fundamentally anti-American.

We have to win this war against voters. We should be about dismantling and reducing barriers so we can reignite their hope for the American Dream.

I want to, again, thank you for your leadership, and Congresswomen Fudge and Jackson Lee, and Bobby Scott and Mr. Rangel and the entire Congressional Black Caucus for their calls and their hard work to protect the right to vote for all citizens across this Nation.

We must protect voters from these attempts to deny access to the heart of our democratic process. We need to move forward and encourage more voter participation. People need to know that they have a stake in this system and in this democracy. These laws were designed to stop that.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me just say to the prior gentleman who spoke, Mr. Jones, that I appreciate him continuing to call for the end of the war and occupation of Afghanistan and bringing our young men and women home because, of course, we know that this war has created undue hardship, so many deaths, and really has been the longest war in our lifetime. And so thank you, Mr. Jones, for your leadership.

I am the founder of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, and I just have to rise today on behalf of the caucus to continue to talk about the tide of poverty that is sweeping our country.

As we begin now the second session of the 112th Congress, we must do more to help the millions of Americans living in poverty, looking hard for a job, and working hard every day to move up the ladder of opportunity and earn their share of the American Dream.

Mr. Speaker, on January 4, The New York Times reported that economic mobility--the ability to work hard and make your fortune from humble beginnings, which is the fundamental cornerstone of the American Dream--is getting harder and harder to achieve in America. Americans have fallen behind and are increasingly cut off from their dreams of having a job and supporting their families.

How in the world did this happen? The failed policies of the past administration only helped the richest among us become richer and concentrated greater wealth into the hands of a wealthy few. And today, House Republican leadership has failed to address the needs of most Americans.

The only way that our economy can recover and reduce poverty is to create jobs and to expand access to the economic opportunities. We find that the lack of opportunity and economic mobility is worse at the bottom, and without a real commitment to change, it will only get worse.

The Republican-led Congress has been too beholden to their extremist Tea Party base to reach the necessary compromises to move our Nation forward and to begin the hard work of rebuilding and growing our economy for all Americans.

Now, President Obama did stop the economy from going off a cliff, and Congress must work with the President to put our Nation back on the road to recovery and growth.

We continue to have unacceptably high unemployment, and we all know that the rates of unemployment and the rates of poverty in our minority communities continue to be about twice the national average. But even these painful and these shameful statistics may not completely show just how much Wall Street has focused their efforts on stripping communities of color of the little wealth that they have managed to accumulate over the last few decades.

The Pew Research Center found that minority households were hit disproportionately hard by the housing and financial crisis. The Pew Center found that from 2005 to 2009, median wealth fell by 66 percent among Hispanic households and 53 percent among black households, compared with just 16 percent among white households. As a result of these declines, the typical African American household now has, mind you, just $5,677 in wealth; the typical Hispanic household has $6,300 in wealth; and the typical white household has $113,000 in net worth.

So the facts speak for themselves. Wall Street targeted minority homeowners and minority communities, and we must respond accordingly.

It is long past time that we as a Nation enact bold programs and policies that ensure that we are a Nation that truly does provide equal opportunity and access to the American Dream rather than allowing, for example, minorities to be targeted for policies and programs that undermine their ability to achieve the American Dream. We

must begin immediately to have an up-or-down vote on a clean bill that extends vital emergency unemployment benefits for the 99 weeks for the millions of job seekers who continue to struggle to find a job and are no longer eligible for unemployment compensation.

Mr. Speaker, the majority of Americans who are struggling to find a job now are already no longer getting unemployment benefits due to the 99-week wall. But people want to work. There are four people, however, looking for one job, and that is a fact.

So we need to pass H.R. 3638, the Restore the American Dream Act, for the 99 percent, a package of job-creation measures and policy reforms introduced by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. This bill would significantly boost employment and create jobs in the short term and improve the fiscal outlook in the long term. It's the right thing to do. Instead, this Tea Party-led Congress has wasted an entire year without any jobs bills, without extending any new help to the millions of Americans in need.

We can't wait and neither should Congress. Let's help to make sure that the poor and the unemployed Americans find good-paying jobs and make that our number one priority. We must remove these obstacles to reignite the American Dream.

I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the political games that the Republicans continue to play. We know that an extension of unemployment insurance is one of the most effective ways to get our economy going again, and it's the right thing to do, especially because people are just living on the edge right now. Yet the GOP is ready to cut unemployment benefits for 2.2 million Americans.

They're ready to raise taxes on 160 million Americans by $1,000. Yet they want to lower taxes for those in the 1 percent. The GOP is ready to tell 48 million seniors that they will no longer have access to their doctors. This is really outrageous. It's un-American, and it's wrong. This jobs crisis is a national emergency, and long-term unemployment is at unprecedented levels. We need an up-or-down vote on this Senate compromise.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I just wanted to say, perhaps the gentleman was confused about which bill I was talking about. I was talking about the Senate compromise, which 39 Senators voted for, which the President supported, which came over to the House as a bipartisan bill. That's the bill I'm talking about.

Mr. Speaker, while I am deeply concerned about Iran's capacity to develop nuclear weapons and I support targeted sanctions against Iran, I voted no on H.R. 1905, the Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011 because I do not believe it would accomplish its stated goal of reducing the threat from Iran.

I am concerned that at a time when more nuanced diplomatic tools are needed to successfully address this important and multifaceted effort to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, this legislation would dangerously limit the flexibility of the U.S. Government to engage directly with Iran to turn back these efforts. The Administration has made it clear that the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act (CISADA), enacted just last year after careful deliberation by both the House and Senate, is an adequate and effective tool for addressing the threat potentially posed through multilateral negotiations with Iran. I have spoken directly with officials at the State Department and they tell me they are very concerned that piling on additional sanctions could have the counterproductive result of sending the already destabilized economies of our European allies into a tailspin and threaten the stability of the global economic recovery.

I am also troubled by the 601(c) provision inserted during mark-up of the bill, which takes the unprecedented step of restricting dialogue between U.S. and Iranian officials. The controversial provision would prohibit contact between U.S. diplomats and any Iranian official who ``would pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the vital national security interests of the United States.'' This is dangerous and would have prohibited the efforts that secured the release of two of my constituents, Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer, along with their friend and fellow U.C. Berkeley alumnus Josh Fattal, who were detained for years in Iran after being arrested while hiking near Iran's border with Northern Iraq. Furthermore, not only is it unclear how restricting negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program would advance our security interests, it should be clear that taking this option off the table is counterproductive in addressing the very real threats that Iran presents.

It is my hope that my colleagues will address these issues in conference and return a bill for final passage that considers what it takes to effectively undertake national security strategy execution. It is time for us to stop posturing and to understand that far from a reward to withhold, diplomacy is a critical tool for protecting United States national security interests.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank Congresswoman Slaughter, the gentlelady from New York, for her leadership and for yielding.

This is not the open and transparent process the Republicans have promised the American people. Instead, we have had a closed-door process that has stacked this critical spending bill, a bill that is necessary to make our government and our Nation function, with a bunch of special-interest riders. For example:

Gutting the budget of the IRS, that will not reduce deficits caused by the Bush tax cuts for the 1 percent, and that's in this bill.

Helping to spread HIV and hepatitis C through dirty needles will not help our economic recovery. Yes, that will happen in this bill.

Denying the women of Washington, DC, the right which other women have throughout the country, the right to health services, the right to have an abortion with the city's own money--not Federal funds, mind you, not Federal funds but other funds. We are denying, again, low-income, mostly African American minority women that right in this bill. Why in the world would we want to include this type of a rider in a bill to fund our government? It makes no sense. It's mean-spirited and it's wrong.

Also, why would we want to continue to have provisions to pollute the air that we breathe and the water that we drink? That's in this bill, with some of these riders. That will not raise the failing median income of American workers. Unfortunately, again, this bill does that.

Funding abstinence-only sex education, we know that fails. That won't create the millions of jobs necessary to grow the American middle class and to help more people from falling deeper into poverty.

This recession--and for many, it's still a depression--is hurting millions. Half of all Americans are either in poverty, near poor, or low income. We should be focused on lifting these families up and reigniting the American Dream.

Thank you.

In this bill, we should have focused on creating these ladders of opportunity, removing barriers and helping to reignite the American Dream for all Americans. Instead, we're scoring, I believe, political points on the backs of Washington, DC, women and millions of poor and struggling individuals and families in this country.

The process that this bill underwent as we brought it forward to this floor was not a good process. I think had we had regular order, due process, we would have been able to figure some of these issues out.

Let me thank the gentleman for yielding and also thank our chairman and ranking member and subcommittee chairs, really, for bringing together a bipartisan bill to the floor. But I cannot support the bill because, once again, poor and low-income communities are taking the brunt of the terrible cuts.

While there are good provisions in this bill, what we have, however, is a bill loaded with special interest, Tea Party Republican riders at the expense of low-income people, especially women of color, right here in Washington, D.C.

Cutting off low-income women in Washington, D.C. from access to the same health and reproductive services available throughout the country is really not critical to preventing a shutdown. Forcing the continuation of abstinence-only sex education that fails to meet the needs of young people, that's not critical to preventing the government shutdown. Increasing the spread of HIV and hepatitis C through dirty needles is not critical to preventing a government shutdown.

Finally, let me just say this bill continues to fund over $2 billion a week, mind you, $2 billion a week on a war without end in Afghanistan. We must allow the Afghan people to control their own destiny and immediately begin to pull our great young men and women in uniform out of harm's way.

First let me thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding. He is a former member of the Intelligence Committee, and I just have to thank him for his tremendous leadership and for his opening statement which laid out many of the concerns that many of us have about this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this very controversial bill that directly attacks the bedrock values of America. I'm talking about the constitutional guarantees of due process for those charged with crimes.

Now, against the wishes of President Obama; our Defense Secretary, Mr. Panetta; the Director of National Intelligence, Mr. Clapper; and FBI director, Mr. Mueller, this bill allows the Federal Government to seize suspected terrorists, including United States citizens, and hold them in indefinite detention.

Arresting citizens and holding them without trial violates the Fifth Amendment's due process guarantees. This bill fundamentally is un- American, and it threatens all of our liberties. We cannot allow those who seek to terrorize the American people to win by trashing the very civil liberties at the heart of our national identity. Giving up American ideals will not make us safer. This legislation undermines our national security and our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to enter into the Record this letter from 26 retired generals and admirals concerned about how the United States treats detainees. These veteran national security experts wrote this rare public letter denouncing the detention provisions.

I will conclude with the words of those honorable retired generals and flag officers who warned that this legislation ``both reduces the options available to our Commander in Chief to incapacitate terrorists and violates the rule of law, and would seriously undermine the safety of the American people.''

I ask my colleagues to defend the civil freedoms which we all cherish, to support our national security, to support our democracy, and to vote ``no'' on this very dangerous bill and this rule.

November 28, 2011.

Dear Senator: We are members of a nonpartisan group of

forty retired generals and admirals concerned about U.S.

policy regarding enemy prisoner treatment and detention.

We write to urge you to vote for Amendment 1107 to the

National Defense Authorization Act which would strike all of

the controversial detention provisions in sections 1031, 1032

and 1033 and, in their place, mandate a process for Congress

to consider whether any detention legislation is needed.

As retired general and flag officers, we clearly do not

make this request lightly. It is clear, however, that there

is significant disagreement over the impact on our national

security of these provisions. There should be no disagreement

that legislation which both reduces the options available to

our Commander-in-Chief to incapacitate terrorists and

violates the rule of law would seriously undermine the safety

of the American people.

We appreciate that our leaders are constantly striving to

make America more secure, but in doing so, we must be careful

not to overreact and overreach, resulting in policies that

will do more harm than good. At the very least, the current

detention provisions merit public debate and should not be

agreed to behind closed doors and tucked into legislation as

important as our national defense bill.

Sincerely,

General Joseph P. Hoar, USMC (Ret.); General Charles C.

Krulak, USMC (Ret.); General David M. Maddox, USA

(Ret.); General William G. T. Tuttle Jr., USA (Ret.);

Lieutenant General Robert G. Gard Jr., USA (Ret.);

Lieutenant General Charles P. Otstott, USA (Ret.);

Lieutenant General Harry E. Soyster (Ret.); Major

General John Batiste, USA (Ret.); Major General Paul D.

Eaton, USA (Ret.); Major General Eugene Fox, USA

(Ret.); Rear Admiral Don Guter, USN (Ret.); Major

General William L. Nash, USA (Ret.); Major General

Thomas J. Romig, USA (Ret.); Major General Murray G.

Sagsveen, USA (Ret.); Major General Walter L. Stewart,

Jr., ARNG (Ret.); Major General, Antonio `Tony' M.

Taguba, USA (Ret.); Brigadier General John Adams, USA

(Ret.); Brigadier General David M. Brahms, USMC (Ret.);

Brigadier General James Cullen, USA (Ret.); Brigadier

General Evelyn P. Foote, USA (Ret.); Brigadier General

Gerald E. Galloway, USA (Ret.); Brigadier General Leif

H. Hendrickson, USMC (Ret.); Brigadier General David R.

Irvine, USA (Ret.); Brigadier General John H. Johns,

USA (Ret.); Brigadier General Anthony Verrengia, USAF

(Ret.); Brigadier General Stephen N. Xenakis, USA

(Ret.).

Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleagues today to call for an immediate extension of the emergency unemployment benefits, including those who have hit the 99-week limit.

Also, I want to ask for the extension of the payroll tax holiday for millions of Americans. I also urge my colleagues to reject attempts to attach these urgently needed economic recovery actions with partisan proposals to gut the Clean Air Act and support Big Oil at the expense of middle and low-income individuals.

Republicans in the House have already tried to pass hundreds of anti- environmental bills, amendments, and policy riders. Apparently, this is not enough. Now Republicans want to combine repealing important Clean Air Act provisions with the extension of the payroll tax cut.

Ironically, Mr. Speaker, repealing these Clean Air Act standards for industrial boilers would cost our economy $21 billion to $52 billion per year in higher health care costs resulting from asthma, lung cancer, emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and premature deaths.

Not surprisingly, Republicans have also included expediting approval of the Keystone pipeline in exchange for a payroll tax extension. This is unacceptable. The proposed route for the Keystone pipeline is currently being reviewed and revisited by the State Department. Also, past State Department environmental impact statements have been found to lack key information on the real and potential environmental impacts of the pipeline.

Republican politicians must stop playing games with the American people and holding hostage the recovery of our entire economy just to score political points with their extreme Tea Party base. Instead of wrapping special interest policy riders and polluter giveaways into a tax extender package, Congress should focus on those policies which are demonstrated job creators; that is, the payroll tax cuts, domestic clean energy incentives, and unemployment compensation extension.

We must not fail to do the work of the American people, and we must not fail to extend these critical benefits before they run out. I call on Republicans to quickly bring a clean bill to the floor that extends emergency unemployment benefits for the millions of job seekers who continue to struggle to find a job in the middle of an economic disaster that the careless deregulation of the banks, two wars, and tax cuts for the wealthy created.

Also, it's really unconscionable that, while we're trying to increase the time limit for unemployment compensation past 99 weeks, the Republicans now want to reverse this to 59 weeks. This is just down right mean-spirited.

So let's have an up-or-down vote on a clean bill that extends the temporary reduction of the payroll tax cut for millions of Americans who really cannot afford a tax hike. Let's have an up-or-down vote on a clean bill that isn't filled with special interest policy riders and polluter giveaways. Let's have an up-or-down vote on a clean bill that keeps millions of families out of poverty.

Failing to extend these critical benefits would cripple our recovery, endanger the public health of our communities, and cost the economy over a half million jobs. We can't afford to ignore the needs of the millions of Americans who have run out of time and who are now losing their homes, falling out of the middle class, and relying more and more on government assistance.

We really should be taking actions to implement targeted programs and policies that ensure that we are a Nation that truly will provide ladders of opportunity and the removal of barriers to the American Dream. We should be taking strong action to protect public health and the full implementation of the Clean Air Act as a tool for cleaning up pollution from these power plants and commercial boilers.

We also should be working with other countries to reduce the impacts of climate change and to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts. This is nothing short of a national emergency, and we must do more to support middle and low-income families, protect the health of our communities, and support our hospitals and local businesses and get people back to work. This really should be a moral imperative during this holiday season.

I want to thank the gentlelady for yielding time and for her leadership on an issue so critical to extending a safety net to those who are desperately looking for jobs and who need this bridge over troubled waters at this point.

Mr. Speaker, the Republican bill would gut unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans who are looking for work when there are, roughly, four people for every one job. It would reduce unemployment benefits down to 59 weeks from 99 weeks at a time when we are facing a serious crisis among our long-term unemployed. It makes no economic sense, and quite frankly, it is heartless.

The Lee-Scott amendment would have replaced these Republican Christmastime cuts with real extensions of unemployment benefits, and it would have added an additional 14 weeks of unemployment insurance for the millions of Americans who have already exhausted their benefits, but the Republicans did not make any amendments in order--no fixes allowed to the heartless and senseless cuts that this contains.

This bill is really a sham. It's a shame, and it's a disgrace. It will cost our Nation jobs, and it is a slap in the face to job seekers. We should really be about the work of reigniting the American Dream, not making it more of a nightmare for people as this bill would do.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include extraneous materials and statements into the Record.

First let me thank Chairman Cleaver for organizing this timely special order and for his leadership on these issues that are so critical for millions of Americans who are looking for work and living on the edge.

Mr. Speaker, I rise with my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues to call for an immediate extension of emergency unemployment benefits and to extend the vital payroll tax holiday for millions of Americans.

We must not fail to do the work of the American people and we must not fail to extend these critical benefits before they run out.

Republican politicians continue to play games with the American people and threaten the recovery of our entire economy just to score political points with their extreme Tea Party base.

If you believed, even for a moment, that Republican politicians truly cared about the plight of the millions of Americans who are struggling to find a job and did not care just about protecting their special interests and getting more tax breaks for the super rich, then this bill should end all doubt.

H.R. 3630 reveals their true colors.

This latest bill, the so called Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011, is another slap in the face to the millions of Americans who are struggling to find a job and are living in poverty or on the edge of falling into poverty.

Republicans are holding hostage critical unemployment benefits and threatening every working American with a tax hike so that they can advance the special interest agenda.

I call on Republicans to quickly bring a clean bill to the floor that extends emergency unemployment for the millions of jobseekers who continue to struggle to find a job in the middle of the economic disaster that the careless deregulation of the banks created.

Let's have an up or down vote on a clean bill that extends the temporary reduction of the payroll tax for millions of Americans that has been critical in boosting demand and lifting our economy.

Let's have an up or down vote on a clean bill that isn't bogged down with riders and special interest spending.

Let's have an up or down vote on a clean bill that keeps millions of families and 1 million children out of poverty.

Failing to extend these critical benefits would cripple our recovery and cost the economy over half a million jobs.

If you speak to nearly any business person, they will tell you that they are not hiring and

not expanding, not because of ``uncertainty about the tax code'' or ``burdensome regulation,'' but because they are certain that they don't have customers.

Failing to extend these critical benefits and cutting off unemployment benefits during the holidays would strip 2 million customers out of the economy by March and over 6 million customers out of the economy by the end of the year.

We could not make a worse decision than to cripple our recovery by failing to protect millions of families and children from poverty, because that is just what unemployment benefits does, it keeps 1 million children from falling into poverty.

Mr. Speaker, our economy is on the way to recovery, but much more must be done.

We may have seen a small drop in the national unemployment last month, but during that same month that saw a .4 percent drop in unemployment nationally, we saw a .4 percent rise in unemployment for African Americans.

There can be no clearer reminder of the ongoing racial and ethnic disparities that continue to plague our Nation and keep minority communities suffering disproportionately higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and tragic health disparities like the unconscionably higher rates of HIV infection.

100 million people--1 in 3 Americans--live in poverty or the zone just above poverty. The budget shortfalls caused by the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and his two unfunded wars are causing massive lay-offs in States, counties and cities across the country and those lay-offs are again striking minority communities at disproportionate rates.

Not only must we immediately extend the emergency unemployment benefits, but we should also immediately pass legislation that I, along with my colleague Congressman Bobby Scott introduced, H.R. 589. Our legislation would add an additional 14 weeks of tier I unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who have already completely exhausted their benefits.

Mr. Scott and I have introduced an amendment which would replace the draconian cuts to unemployment benefits contained in the Republican bill with a clean extension of the existing Emergency Unemployment Compensation and H.R. 589 which would give some help to the 99ers who have completely run out of unemployment benefits.

We cannot ignore the needs of the millions of Americans who have run out of time and are now losing their homes, falling out of the middle class, and relying more and more on other forms of government assistance.

We should be taking strong action to implement targeted programs and policies that ensure that we are a Nation that truly does provide equal opportunity and equal access to the American Dream.

This is nothing short of a national emergency and more must be done immediately to put in place programs that directly address the on-going crisis of poverty and unemployment in America by creating millions of new jobs now.