Floor Statements

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

Mr. Chairman, as a physician, a mother, and as a person of a racial minority, which often bears the disproportionate impact of pollution, I rise in opposition to H.R. 2250 as well as H.R. 2681, which was just passed, and I rise in strong support of the Waxman amendment, which I urge every colleague to support.

Both bills, H.R. 2681 and H.R. 2250, essentially wipe out EPA's regulations, first of cement kilns, now of industrial boilers and incinerators. It would have serious public health impacts because it would allow for the high emissions of dangerous pollutants, which would cause more asthma, heart attacks, birth defects, impaired brain development, which I'll come back to, and other illnesses at a time when we're working to improve the health of all Americans, to reduce health care costs, and when we are already struggling to remain competitive.

All EPA is asking these entities to do is to meet the best existing standards in the industry--existing standards--standards that they've had years to meet.

Mr. Chairman and colleagues, allowing these regulations to go forward is critical because these entities emit lead, arsenic, particulate matter, and other toxic substances, especially mercury. If the Republican majority proponents of this bill have their way, we will see more than 15,000 more cases of aggravated asthma, over 1,500 more heart attacks, over 600 more cases of chronic bronchitis every year, and we will also have over 100,000 additional missed working days, which means lost productivity--all at a time when we're trying to improve the health of all Americans, as I said, and improve American competitiveness.

But most importantly, the large boilers and incinerators are the second-largest source of mercury, which, as you've heard, is a grave risk to our children both before and after birth, especially on their brain development, which makes these bills especially dangerous to the public health and can damage the learning and, thus, the social and economic potential of our children, as mercury stays in the environment for a long time.

As an African American, I have to be particularly concerned. With more than 60 percent of polluting industries located in or near minority communities, it is clear that the learning and other neurological deficiencies caused by mercury would primarily impact our communities. This not only ought to concern African Americans, for the children of Latinos, Asians, and American Indians would also be more likely to be impaired. It should be of concern to all of us.

All the time spent on this bill and the other bill that was just passed that the House majority leadership knows are going nowhere is a pure waste of time and a waste of money. I guess it's not important, because it's being used to try to kill programs they've never liked. They probably think it could hurt President Obama if it doesn't pass. It also protects the big corporations. Beyond that, it creates no jobs. It just creates the potential to cause more sickness and premature deaths, to damage the potential of our children and, therefore, to damage our country's potential as well.

The claims of lost jobs, I believe, are highly exaggerated. Bringing forth and pushing these extremely misguided and dangerous bills says that the proponents are willing to put our country and the future of their and our constituents--of their and our children--at risk.

I ask my colleagues to vote for this amendment, this amendment that protects the public health and that will save our children from a life that would not be what we would want for them, one in which they might not be able to enjoy all of the benefits of this country or fully realize their potential or the American Dream.

Support this amendment. Reject the underlying bill and all of the bills that attempt to weaken the EPA. Vote, instead, for our children, our grandchildren and this country.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, October 10th marks the 100th anniversary of China's Wuchang Uprising which led to the creation of the Republic of China, ROC, that now exists on Taiwan. The uprising marked the end of the Qing Dynasty in what is now the ROC, effectively ending 2,000 years of imperial rule and resulting in East Asia's now- oldest republic.

It is worthy of note that the Republic of China was born at a time when many repressive and colonial regimes ruled much of East Asia.

Its founding father, Sun Yat-sen, had hoped the ROC would one day develop into a fully democratic society modeled on many of the same principles and norms that he had observed while an adolescent in Hawaii. And though it came to pass well after he left this world, and on a different land mass, his dreams of representative democracy are an undeniable reality on Taiwan today.

The ROC's emulation of American principles and ideals has not been limited to the political arena. Time after time, whether it be in the struggle against fascism, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or joining us in calling for the removal of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the ROC--be it housed on mainland China, or Taiwan--has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States to defend and promote the very values and ideals that inspired Dr. Sun to create the ROC in the first place.

In recognition of all of the foregoing, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the Republic of China on Taiwan on its 100th anniversary, while also acknowledging its Founding Fathers' foresight and--most of all--thanking the government and the people of Taiwan for their loyalty, friendship and support for an entire century.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Congressional Black Caucus is pleased, and we thank the Democratic leadership for allowing us, once again, to come to the floor for the Democratic hour.

General Leave

First of all, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous material on the subject under discussion this evening.

At this time, I am joined by two of my colleagues. I would like to yield to the gentlelady from Ohio, who, for 2 years religiously, had the responsibility in the last Congress to lead us in these Special Orders--with a lot of conviction and great information to share with the American people.

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio.

Thank you, Congresswoman Fudge, for that legislation and for your leadership on so many issues that are important to the people of this country.

I would next like to yield such time as she might consume to the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus--again a leader on many, many issues, whether it be health care, global health, AIDS, as well as developing our agenda that we've continued even into this Congress of creating pathways out of poverty--Congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland, California.

Thank you, Congresswoman Lee. You were the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus as we created and passed the Affordable Care Act. And without your determination, many of the important provisions that we felt were important to our communities and to communities across our country would not have been there. We thank you for that.

And thank you for reminding us that the Affordable Care Act is a jobs bill. It is reported that it may produce as many as 4 million jobs. And so it's not only a bill, an act, a law that would allow over 30 million people to finally become insured and provide access to quality health care for many people who have never had it, but it will also create jobs.

It's interesting how health care is connected to so many of the other things that we are dealing with. Two of the most important things that have to be fixed, if we are to get out of this recession: We have to create jobs, and we have to fix the foreclosure crisis.

There was an article in The New York Times today by Craig E. Pollack and Julia F. Lynch that was entitled ``Foreclosures Are Killing Us,'' and it caught my eye. I just want to read a little piece of it into the Record:

``A growing body of research shows that foreclosure itself harms the health of families and communities. In our 2008 survey of 250 people undergoing foreclosure in the Philadelphia area, 32 percent reported missing doctors' appointments and 48 percent said they let prescriptions go unfilled, significantly higher rates than others in their community. A paper released last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that people living in high-foreclosure areas in New Jersey, Arizona, California, and Florida were significantly more likely than those in less hard-hit neighborhoods to be hospitalized for conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart failure.

``More than one-third of homeowners in our study had symptoms of major depression.'' The N.B.E.R. study found significantly more suicides also.

So these issues and these problems that affect, in large part, minority, racial, and ethnic minority populations are responsible for some of the health disparities that we talk about.

I yield to the gentlewoman from California.

Absolutely, absolutely.

We have been joined by another former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and the leader of our Health Care Task Force, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and I would like to yield such time as she might consume to her.

Thank you, Congresswoman Waters, and thank you for the work that you've done to ensure that our financial regulatory agencies have women and minorities on their boards, for the work that you've done to help homeowners stay in their homes and address the mortgage crisis, and for all that you do.

You know, even though many of the people who came to those fairs didn't get a job, they got hope, and many of them had given up. I'm sure that re-energized them to go out and keep looking. If they didn't get a job then, they will get one. Thank you so much for your leadership on that.

I'd like to yield now to the gentleman from Michigan, Congressman Hansen Clarke. Thank you for joining the ladies this evening.

Thank you, Congressman Clarke. Your passion is clear, and Detroit doesn't have a stronger advocate than you, and we are pleased to be a co-sponsor of your bill. Thank you for joining us.

As you've heard, the Congressional Black Caucus is here this evening. We're still waiting for the first jobs bill to pass this Congress. And as you've heard from my colleagues, we need to begin with the American JOBS Act which was proposed by our President Barack Obama. And just to be clear, while we're advocates for the African American community, we are advocates for everyone; and this bill is good for everyone, everyone who lives in this country, and it is a good bill for our country.

We happen to feel that putting people back to work in this country now is more important than fighting over an election that is more than a year away. The American JOBS Act provides tax cuts that will help businesses grow and create jobs, it will help provide incentives to hire the long-term unemployed, and it will keep teachers and other essential workers like police and firefighters in their jobs where we need them to be; and it will strengthen, repair, and build needed and faulty infrastructure and in doing so will create even more jobs; and it will give people a decent job which will allow them to take care of their families, to buy what we make here in America, and it will stimulate economic growth.

It would give every American worker and their family a tax cut through extending the tax payroll tax holiday and do more to fix the mortgage crisis that got us here in the first place by allowing more refinancing of mortgages. It would help our fellow Americans take better care of their families, putting their children in better schools, supporting small businesses, building consumer confidence and spurring the spending that our economy needs to get back on track. This is what this Congress ought to be doing, not focusing on the solitary goal of making President Obama a one-term President. That is a losing proposition anyway.

No one should be willing to let our fellow Americans suffer, fall into and become mired in poverty, remain unemployed, lose homes and to cause our economy to crumble further just because they have political and whatever other differences with our President.

Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership, led by the Tea Party extremists, are taking this country in the absolute wrong direction by insisting on cutting and cutting and cutting important programs and services like the Women, Infants and Children program, Maternal and Child Health and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs at a time when there are more people and more children in poverty, by working to deny the opportunity for health care to the over 30 million people who we worked so hard to get insured, including sick children, and people who would otherwise go bankrupt because of catastrophic illnesses over which they had no control, people who are already getting care because of the Affordable Care Act that is being so wrongly maligned.

I agree with some of the posters I saw in the newspaper this weekend calling for jobs, not cuts; jobs, not cuts. That is what we have been saying all year, including here on the floor of the House every Monday that we've been in session. If our leadership listened instead of talk, talk, talk, I believe that is what they will hear the American people at large are saying: jobs, not cuts.

And we have a golden opportunity to listen to them. For over the last 2 weeks, there has been an ``occupation of Wall Street'' because while homeowners and pensioners and many people have suffered because of their meltdown, we have not seen the kind of remedies for the folks on Main Street, the side streets or the rural roads that would make them whole. They are speaking loudly and effectively on their and on our behalf.

And then right here in Washington, D.C. today and for the next 3 days the Take Back the American Dream conference is here. They will be on the Hill on Wednesday calling on us to end the nightmare that the dream is turning into for far too many people and to restore the American Dream access which has been the hallmark and the pride of this country.

What is happening at this conference and the one in New York is that Americans are saying enough is enough. And they are fighting back against the cuts that are making it hard for far too many people in this country to survive.

They're fighting back against attempts to repeal health care reform, fighting back against proposals that would weaken Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and fighting back against voter suppression laws. They're fighting for jobs, for a future for our children, and they're fighting for our democracy.

It is so very interesting this talk about President Obama and Democrats waging class warfare all because we want everyone in this country to do their part to help this country recover from a deep recession, all because we want to let tax cuts that were only supposed to be around for 10 years that have now been extended to 12 years finally expire like they were supposed to. Come on, colleagues, let's be honest. They were never meant to be permanent.

And how many jobs have these tax cuts created as was loudly touted they would do? In 2001, at the end of the Clinton administration, he handed over this government with an over $2 trillion surplus. Now, after those tax cuts enacted in 2001, after almost 12 years of them, we are in record deficits and the worst recession since the Great Depression. And President Obama did not create that; he inherited it.

The poverty rate is at the second highest in 45 years, and it is hitting, as you've heard, African Americans and Latino Americans hardest. The share

of Americans in deep poverty, with incomes below half of the poverty line, is at the highest level ever recorded. And African Americans are more likely to be in extreme poverty.

While we hear a lot about how much of a share of taxes the richest 1 percent or the richest 10 percent pay, let me remind everyone that white Americans' wealth is 20 times--and you heard it earlier, but it bears repeating--20 times that of African Americans and 18 times that of Latinos. And that between 2000 and 2007, not 10 percent, not 20 percent, not 40 percent, but 100 percent, all of the increase in wealth went to the top 10 percent in this country--all, the top 10 percent. The gap between rich and poor got wider. The rich got richer; the poor got poorer. That's a very dangerous trend for the future of this country.

And then unemployment has reached record highs as well. You don't hear about it much. You hear it from us. But in far too many places, our rural and our urban areas, communities of color, unemployment remains in double digits. African American unemployment nationally is over 16 percent, but as you've heard, we know that it is higher than that in many parts of our country.

So if we want to talk honestly about class warfare, class warfare is what too many people in this country have been experiencing since 2001. And now that we have a President who wants to end it, he is being accused of class warfare. If we really want to end class warfare, my colleagues, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should be supporting rather than opposing him. Let's get real.

In all of our 40 years, the Congressional Black Caucus has always been a caucus of action. Our agenda has been consistent, and we've pushed every Congress and every President. And so we resent anyone trying to put a wedge between us and our President to further their own agenda, one which is clearly not ours.

But we continue to be the conscience of the Congress, as Maxine Waters coined when she was chair, the ``fairness cops of our Nation.'' That is why, when we could see none of our 40 job-creating bills come to the floor under the leadership of our chairman, Emanuel Cleaver, and the Jobs Task Force chair and former CBC chair, Maxine Waters, we called on the private sector as well as government agencies to come with us across the country to get people working again. And that is why we worked so hard with our Hispanic and Asian colleagues to get the Affordable Care Act passed. And we will work just as hard to see that it gets implemented. We are not going to sit quietly and let a vital door that is just opening for many to be slammed shut in our communities and communities like ours who need it most.

Many scholarly reports have shown that just eliminating health disparities could save $1.24 trillion in just over 4 years in indirect and direct costs, in addition to saving lives. So if we really wanted a deficit reduction, eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity is deficit reduction at its best.

And that's why we will continue to work relentlessly as a caucus to save homes, to build and equip better schools, to support regulations that protect our families and all families from the health and other effects of pollution. We have also worked together on budgets. And because we know that our country can invest where needed in health care, education, green energy, and job creation and reduce the deficit at the same time, we are preparing to send our recommendation to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. It will likely be based on our proposed 2012 budget. And it will end class warfare by allowing the high-end Bush tax cuts to expire while strengthening the middle class, continuing to create pathways out of poverty for our fellow Americans, and protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

This country, Mr. Speaker, is fortunate to have a Congressional Black Caucus fighting on its behalf. And it is not only our duty, but it's our honor and privilege to do so.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

I am very worried about our country. Democrats and our President are calling on the Congress to pass the Jobs Act so that our fellow Americans who have been unemployed can go back to work; so that teachers, firemen, and police can keep their jobs; so that those whose incomes have dropped will have a little more money to spend on their families; so that our children will have schools that show we care about them; and so that struggling small businesses will get the help they need.

Building the political will to do this requires not only patriotism; it requires compassion. After watching the Tea Party debate, where the audience and some candidates indicated an uninsured person should be left to die and where there was loud applause for capital punishment, I wonder if we can still feel another's pain.

This calls out to the good people that I know who remain the majority in this country to do more, to speak louder to drown out the voice of hate, and to renew and strengthen the values that have always made the United States of America the greatest country in the world.

We are commanded to love our neighbor. As my pastor preached last Sunday, if we do, we will not wish our neighbors ill or do them harm.

This evening, I am again pleased to join my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to talk about jobs for this first hour, and we are really pleased that we're going to be led off this night by our Democratic whip, The Honorable Steny Hoyer, the person who has led us in the Make It In America agenda.

Thank you, Democratic whip, for joining us, and please come back and join us anytime that we're on the floor. And thank you for reminding everyone that the people of this country just cannot wait 14 months to go back to work to take care of their families.

At this time I would like to yield to Congressman Davis from Illinois.

Thank you, Danny.

This morning I was with the postmasters at their convention, and they're facing some difficulties and are having to downsize. And those are some jobs that we know that you and Elijah Cummings, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ed Towns, and Lacy Clay have been working to protect; and we thank you for that.

At this time I yield to the gentlewoman from California, Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Thank you, Congresswoman Waters. We want to thank you for your leadership in leading the jobs task force for the CBC and for being such a strong voice for those who are continually being left out and left behind.

At this time I would like to yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Thank you, Congressman Butterfield, and thank you for pointing out the fact that America's corporations are sitting on billions of dollars. They have an obligation. As I understand it, they claim there is uncertainty, and so they are holding onto their funds. But there can't be any more uncertainty in our corporations than in the families around this country who are hurting because they need a job.

Thank you again, Congressman Butterfield, for joining us. At this time, it is my pleasure to yield to the leader of our Congressional Black Caucus, Reverend Emanuel Cleaver. And thank you so much for your work and reminding this Congress and this country on the importance of job creation for America's families and for leading us on that tour over the August recess.

Thank you, Chairman Cleaver, and thank you for the perspective that you always bring to these discussions, helping us to focus on the important issues, sometimes the underlying issues that often get overlooked.

Yesterday and today, we've taken time out of our daily routine to remember the over 3,000 people who went to work on a bright, sunny morning and whose lives were snuffed out in three dastardly acts of terrorism. We remember and honor them and their families and the first responders who returned to help and also met their death on September 11, 2001. We pay tribute also to the men and women of our Armed Forces who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing our fight against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and those who are still there protecting us and the world from attack.

Today, I had the honor of addressing our postmasters at their annual convention and remembered Thomas Morris, Jr., and Joseph Curseen, who died after being exposed to anthrax sent in the mail in the weeks after as they worked at the Brentwood postal facility here in Washington. We didn't look at those who died or talk about those who died as Republicans or as Democrats or Independents. They were workers in both the public and private sector, who some groups today are trying to pit against each other. We honor them all and their families for their sacrifice.

Tonight, we've been focusing on the workers that remain with us, but most especially we are singling out for our attention--to the attention of this Congress and for all Americans--those who have no job and for whom, until now, it had appeared as though there would be no legislation to come to their aid. But thanks to our great President, there's now a bill before us, and we're calling on both bodies to pass it as soon as possible and without taking it apart. The 1.9 million jobs and the 2 percent economic growth projections are dependent on those two things--that we pass it promptly and that we pass it intact.

Most importantly, as President Obama said, and all of us know, the American people cannot wait 14 months until after the next election. They have already been hurting too long and they need those jobs. They need our help today.

As you heard, the Congressional Black Caucus did not wait either. We felt the pain and anxieties in our communities and communities across the country and used our August recess to partner with the private sector and some government agencies to bring jobs that are needed so desperately into our communities now. People of all ages, all educational backgrounds and levels came out in the thousands everywhere that held those job fairs.

Mr. Speaker, the people of this country are crying out to us to put them back to work, to allow them to make it in America and to be able to take care of their families and our Nation once again. Sure, there are things in the President's draft bill that some of us are not particularly fond of that we're willing to accept for the integrity of the entire package and for the good of our country. And others, like Social Security and Medicare, we accept the President's goals and hope that we can work with him to achieve them through any alternative measures wherever our approaches might differ.

The ladies in the markets in the Caribbean at home in the Virgin Islands used to what we call ``marry'' different fruits and vegetables for sale. You had to buy the two of them, whether it was limes and peppers or yams and okra, you had to buy the two; the vegetables were married. The purpose of that, of course, was to get everything sold by tying something everyone wanted to something that might not be as popular. Now I know that was not our President's approach, but he did put together a package that could best appeal to us so that we could all come together and buy it as a package. And so, Mr. Speaker, and colleagues, that is exactly what we should and must do.

Creating jobs and stimulating our economy is critical not just to our present, but to our future. This is not an issue that's about the President, and it ought not to be about the next election. Neither is it about the CBC or Members of Congress, or about Republicans or Democrats or Independents. It's about the welfare and the well-being of the American people and of our country, which I know all of us care about.

We are in a crisis. In crises, people always come together to the aid of each other, as we did on 9/11/01 and in the weeks and months after. So it's our hope and prayer that this Congress can do the same thing now.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of our time.

Tonight, our President will speak to us and all America and will call on Congress to put America back to work and our economy back on a stronger track to recovery. House and Senate Democrats have kept up a steady drumbeat for jobs since we convened in January.

As our Democratic leader says, it's as easy as ABC--make it in America; build our infrastructure; and focus on community recovery, which so many parts of our country desperately need right now after tornadoes, storms, floods and fires, with more storms to come.

I support our President's call to action and ask all of my colleagues to do the same, but I also hope that we in Congress can make sure the jobs package we pass is big enough to do the job. We are where we are now because we listened to the deficit hawks and agreed to a Recovery Act that was not big enough to bring us out of the recession.

Our constituents all over this country are hurting, and I really hope we can put aside partisanship and put them first. We can get an important two-for because job creation is also deficit reduction. When we make sure our fellow Americans can take care of their families, we will also be making sure America can begin to take care of its debt.

Today, the Senate will begin debate on the debt ceiling agreement. It is being billed as a two-step approach to hold President Obama accountable:

To hold the President accountable or to hamstring his agenda to revive and redirect our economy to domestic manufacturing and clean energy--or to limit investment in infrastructure, education and health care?

To hold our President accountable or to stifle our meager recovery to make it harder to create jobs and lower the unemployment rate?

To hold our President accountable or to use the forced caps to undermine Republicans' main target--the Affordable Care Act? Saying there will be no cuts to Medicare services is a sham because cuts to Medicare providers will reduce beneficiaries' access to needed care.

To reduce domestic discretionary spending to the lowest level since Eisenhower years? We might as well resign ourselves to giving up our place of leadership in the world.

We do need a clean debt ceiling but with no conditions; and, yes, we need to reduce our deficit. I didn't like the suggestion that all of the Bush tax cuts expire when I first heard it, but if we end them now, we could save $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

Not a bad place to start.

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

We should be here today passing a clean debt ceiling and creating jobs; but in these challenging times of high deficits and a fragile economy, when it is critical that our limited spending priorities be focused on programs that can achieve results and encourage the creation of jobs and economic growth, the majority is, instead, bringing an unprecedented attempt to gut pollution controls and public health protections in order to give bigger profits to Big Oil and other special interest polluters.

By attaching more than three dozen policy riders to H.R. 2584, the House GOP is attempting to use a spending bill to make backdoor changes to 40 years of important Federal laws.

H.R. 2584 makes drastic spending cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, as you've just heard, and to the Department of the Interior. It fuels a multi-front assault on America's air, water, lands, wildlife, and public health; and it severely undermines the environmental integrity of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. In doing so, this legislation cripples the budgets of key Federal agencies charged with protecting American citizens and natural resources.

The bill is laden with contradictions and regressive reforms:

It slashes funding to the Environmental Protection Agency by $1.8 billion, yet restores $55 million in oil and gas subsidies;

It dramatically cuts the U.S. Fish and Wildlife budget by 30 percent;

It zeros out funding to list new endangered species;

It reduces the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget by 18 percent from the President's 2012 budget and wholly eliminates funding for NOAA's climate service;

It cuts the Land and Water Conservation Fund by 80 percent--a program that has been critical to my district of the U.S. Virgin Islands and to everyone's districts. H.R. 2584 renders this program's funding to its lowest level in history;

It cuts $19.7 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities, threatening support for teachers, community colleges, museums, libraries, and archives of important historic documents and many others, as well as the preservation projects that enhance local economies and create jobs.

Another program that is affected is one that's near and dear to my community. That's the National Heritage Area program. I have recently introduced a bill to create a National Heritage Area on the island of St. Croix, which we have been looking forward to, not only to preserve and protect some of our local historical treasures, but as a badly needed economic development tool that would create jobs. National Heritage Areas are some of the most effective public-private partnerships for resource conservation and heritage tourism supported by the Federal Government. National Heritage Areas have matched every dollar of Federal support with $5.50 of other public and private funding, demonstrating a high yield of return on Federal resources.

I am appalled that this bill puts so much energy into tearing down America's foundational environmental protections, especially as the Representative of a place with some of the highest greenhouse gas emissions per square mile in the country. Instead of working on the bigger looming issue of our deficit crisis, this bill flies in the face of decades of bipartisan support for the protection of public health and environmental issues.

It does not put the American people first as it should. It further endangers them by allowing for more dangerous air pollution. It does not clean up urban and other critical waterways. It threatens clean water that millions of our constituents depend on. It shuts the door on endangered species, and ties the hands of our Federal agencies.

As leaders, we should not advance a budget that eliminates critical protections that our constituents so desperately need. We should not turn a blind eye to corporate polluters while holding the right of our future generations to clean health and a clean environment hostage just as the leadership is holding the well-being of the poor and middle class Americans and the economic security of our country hostage to an absolutely necessary lifting of this debt ceiling.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote against the fiscal year 2012 Interior and Environmental appropriations bill and any antienvironment and antipublic health and anti-American amendments that may be offered.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to an outstanding faith and community leader from my congressional district in the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Very Reverend Kenneth F. Gaddy, C.Ss.R., a Redemptorist priest who has served the St. Croix community for 21 years.

On Sunday, July 31, 2011, the Holy Cross Catholic Church will honor Father Gaddy for his years of bountiful service to the Church and the parish before he leaves the Virgin Islands for a new assignment. Born to the late John and Beatrice Gaddy, Father Gaddy was the third of six children. He attended Catholic school for elementary and part of his secondary education. In 1977, Father Gaddy entered the Redemptorist Formation system, in Northeast, Pennsylvania. He went on to further his studies and in 1984, he graduated from St. Alphonsus College in Suffield, Connecticut, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. Father Gaddy completed his theological studies at Washington Theological Union in 1988 and on May 14, 1988, he was ordained to the priesthood.

Father Gaddy's first assignment was to St. Boniface Church, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In January of 1990, he was reassigned to St. Patrick's Catholic Church on the island of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and arrived in the Virgin Islands during a tremendously challenging time in our history--just months after Hurricane Hugo devastated the island of Saint Croix. He served as an Associate Pastor for six years, and then in August of 1996 he was appointed Pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Father Gaddy served as Pastor for 9 years before he was appointed director of the Blessed Peter Donders Formation Residence in July of 2006.

Mr. Speaker, in July of 2008, Father Gaddy was appointed pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church on Saint Croix, where he is currently serving. He credits two Redemptorists, The Rev. Jerome Moody and The Rev. Henrique Schulterbrandt, for encouraging and supporting him in his decision to pursue his studies to the priesthood. Several years later he was introduced to Rev. Carlyle Blake, another Redemptorist, whose friendship and mentorship continue to this day.

Father Gaddy believes firmly that we stand on the shoulders of those who precede us and it is our responsibility to keep their memory and contributions alive and to provide shoulders for those who come behind us to stand on. He also believes that we are all responsible for building upon what has been entrusted to us and that we are to leave our community better than as we inherited it.

The Saint Croix community will not soon forget the ministry of Father Gaddy, his impassioned sermons, his wise and down-to-earth demeanor, and most certainly we will not forget his infectious laughter and kind- hearted smile. He is a great listener who exudes sincerity and humbleness.

He has shared our ups and our downs, our trials and our triumphs, our grief and our joys and has become a much beloved and integral

part of our community. We wish that Father Gaddy were not being reassigned, but wherever he goes, however far, he will always be a Virgin Islander and more so a Crucian.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands and a grateful flock, I wish Father Gaddy continued success, and on behalf of the Congress of the United States, thank him for his long, dedicated and bountiful service to the parish of Holy Cross, the community of St. Croix and the Diocese of the U.S. Virgin islands. May God continue to richly bless him with good health and long life in service to the Almighty God.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I rise to introduce an amendment that would simply add a provision to H.R. 1938 to recognize that the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would increase carbon emissions and make it harder to address global warming.

Permitting Keystone and allowing the transport of heavy petroleum product from the Canadian tar sands to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico has serious environmental and economic ramifications. Reports indicate that the production of fuel from tar sands can yield greenhouse gas emissions nearly three times as high as those produced from conventional extraction.

While my colleagues and I last Congress worked to reduce greenhouse emissions by 2020, Canada has projected that their emissions will grow 25 percent by 2020, with those from tar sands being the single largest contributor. This is not something that we should be working to expedite.

H.R. 1938 makes a series of findings related to the Keystone XL pipeline. Some of these findings are a matter of opinion, and some are just flat-out wrong. All of these findings share one characteristic-- they all support the pipeline. And inconvenient facts are not included. In fact, there are a lot of inconvenient facts about the pipeline that the American people should know.

Tar sands require far more energy to extract and process than conventional crude oil.

The result is that emissions from using tar sands fuel are approximately 9 to as high as 37 percent higher than from our baseline fuel mix. This pipeline would almost double our current use of tar sands fuel. At a time when

we're trying to curb carbon emissions and stop global warming, Keystone makes us more reliant on one of the dirtiest sources of fuel currently available.

In short, tar sands oil threatens our air, water, land, and economy, and will increase already dangerously high greenhouse gas emissions and demand for natural gas. It has no place in the clean energy economy.

On page 3-198 of the State Department's Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, it is estimated that Keystone XL pipeline could increase carbon pollution associated with U.S. fuel use by up to 23 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year. This is equivalent to the annual emissions from an extra 4.5 million passenger vehicles.

The SDEIS further indicates that most of the greenhouse gas emissions will come from the production of crude oil, refining of the crude oil, and combustion of the refined products. Transportation of the crude oil to the refinery and transportation of the products to the market also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. This does not include the range of secondary carbon emissions to be considered as well.

In a letter to the State Department, our very own EPA indicated that the extra greenhouse gas emissions associated with this proposed project may range from 600 million to up to 1.15 billion tons of CO2 over Keystone XL's lifecycle.

It's unfortunate that while the Department of State and EPA have recognized the huge risk that would be incurred, the proponents of H.R. 1938 simply ignore them. While some will tout that the Keystone XL will enhance energy security, the other side of this equation must be considered.

Now is not the time for us to increase harmful air emissions and further jeopardize the people in our environment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, my amendment really says nothing about the placement. This is also a problem. And while I realize that we will be using oil for a long time, it's time for us to begin to move towards a clean and greener economy and to slow down global warming and do what we can to protect the public health.

My amendment is in direct opposition to the finding. The finding says the XL pipeline will result in no significant change in total U.S. or global greenhouse gas emissions, when EPA and also the supplemental EIS from the Department of State clearly says: range from 600 million to 1.15 billion tons of CO2, assuming the life cycle that's projected, and also that the range could be equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of fuels in approximately--this is from the State Department--588,000 to 4.5 million passenger vehicles, or the CO2 emissions of combusting fuels used to provide energy consumed by approximately 255,000 to 1.9 million homes.

In addition to that, the social cost has not been assessed. The social cost to agricultural productivity, human health, property damages from flood risk, ecosystem services due to climate change. So even though this has been under discussion for a long time, there are a lot of things that have not been considered.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, while we're trying to reduce the emissions, when you look at Canada, primarily because of the tar sands, their emissions are projected to rise by 25 percent. So I continue to offer my amendment and ask for the support of my colleagues.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this evening the Congressional Black Caucus is pleased that our Democratic leadership has given us the opportunity to once again come to the floor for the first Democratic hour this evening.

I want to just talk a little bit about some of the people who came and visited me in my office in my district this morning. I had a visit from AARP leadership and some of their advocates and volunteers this morning in my St. Croix office. They came to bring this petition to the office, signed by hundreds of people just on one of my islands. And it says:

``Dear Members of Congress,

``Seniors and future retirees earned their benefits after a lifetime of hard work and paying into the system. Yet some Members of Congress from both parties are considering harmful cuts to Medicare and Social Security''--I know nobody in the Congressional Black Caucus is considering those kinds of cuts--``as a part of a deal to pay the Nation's bills. A deal like that could dramatically increase health care costs for seniors and future retirees, threaten their access to doctors, hospitals and nursing homes, and reduce benefit checks they rely on to pay the bills.

``Instead of cutting the benefits of seniors and future retirees, Congress should be reducing wasteful spending and closing tax loopholes. Instead of shifting more health care costs to seniors, Congress should be working to hold down health care costs for everyone,'' as the Democrats worked very hard to do last year when we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

So these undersigned are calling on us to oppose any deal that would make harmful cuts to the Medicare and Social Security benefits Americans have been working on for all these years. And this is just the beginning, Mr. Speaker and colleagues. There will be more of these petitions to come.

Some of the participants that came to my office this morning are: Aloma Peters, Lucie Rodriguez, Elizabeth Torruela, Nicolas Encarnacion, Luz D. Sierra, Theodora Moorehead, Ann Thomas, Ellarine Batiste, Joan Sackey, Miguel Ramos, Ramomta Cagnes, Doris Brown, Paul Simmonds, Denyce Singleton, Genny Dargan, and Lumoz Ayala, but representing the hundreds of people that sent this petition to the Congress of the United States.

In my district, and they talked about this this morning, we have one of the highest utility bills in our country, and they're just trying to figure out what they would do if their Social Security checks were not coming to them next month.

But a default is not just catastrophic for individuals on Social Security. It would be catastrophic for everyone. It's catastrophic for our Nation and our economy. The poor, of course, would lose their safety net and the ability to pull themselves out of poverty, the help that they need.

And the middle class will also pay a price. It would be so catastrophic that mortgage payments would increase by over $1,000 for the average family. Credit card interest would increase by $250 for the average family. Families could pay an additional $182 per year on utilities. I'm sure our utilities in the Virgin Islands would be much higher than that. And families could pay an additional $318 per year on food. They could lose thousands of dollars in their retirement savings.

We are so proud and honored to have a leader like Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has represented us in all of the discussions at the White House, and has stood strong for Democratic priorities and kept the voices of House Democrats and the interests of the American people on the table.

We have heard of two different proposals that are coming forth this evening. It's interesting that Speaker Boehner has brought forth a proposal with, still, no tax hikes. We were never talking about tax hikes, Mr. Speaker. We were talking about letting the temporary Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire, as they were always intended to expire.

His proposal speaks about entitlement reforms and savings. I just read the letter from the AARP, the petition, at least in part, which calls on us to save Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Yet the Republican proposal would include entitlement reforms and savings.

And again, here comes the balanced budget amendment, a budget amendment that would be required before the end of the year. And then a short-term lifting of the debt ceiling, something that will not bring the stability to our economy and that would still put our credit in the world at risk.

He says it's a two-step approach to hold President Obama accountable. Is that what this is all about? Or is it that we're trying to restore the good faith and credit of this Nation?

Their two-step approach to hold President Obama accountable, I don't think he needs to be held accountable. He's been a good President, and he doesn't need us to help him be accountable.

They have cuts. They want cuts that exceed the debt hike, the hike in the debt ceiling. I think that's a new one. I thought that originally we talked about having a balance between the lifting of the debt ceiling and the cuts.

Caps to control future spending. Well, we know what that would mean. All the programs that our communities, the communities that we represent, would lose funding for programs that they need. Again, here comes the balanced budget amendment and entitlement reforms and, of course, no tax hikes.

Now, I've been joined by several of my colleagues, and I'd like them to join in this Special Order if they are ready at this point in time. And I'm always pleased to be joined on these Monday evenings by the gentlelady from Houston, Texas, Congresswoman

Sheila Jackson Lee, and we're glad to yield to her such time as she might consume.

I thank you, and I thank you for bringing the charts so we can see very clearly how much money is lost from just not taking the tax cuts back to the Clinton tax rates. You can imagine, and I'm not doing any math on the floor, either, but how much money we have lost during the time those cuts have been in place and will continue to lose through next year.

The Republican proposal that is being brought to us now, I don't see any investment for the future. No investment in education, no investment in relieving ourselves of our dependence on foreign fuel or continuing to invest in health care or creating jobs. There is nothing like that. It is just cut, cut, cut; and the economists also tell us that this is not the time to be cutting spending.

We have a budget guru here with us this evening, the person who leads us every year in putting together a fantastic Congressional Black Caucus budget, one that not only invests in the future and in all of those things that I talked about, but also has every year, has found a way while investing to also reduce the deficit.

I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Virginia.

Will the gentleman yield?

Does it require a balanced budget?

But the caps would be in place.

They would be in place as part of the bill, but you couldn't raise any revenue.

That happened so often with some of these bills.

I thank you for taking us through the history of how we got to where we are, because there is a lot of rhetoric that tries to hide how we got here: the fact that hard votes were taken in '93, that President Clinton did leave a large surplus and that, by the end of President Bush's term, we were in a deep deficit and then in a recession--a recession that was not created by this President but inherited by this President. When they talk about, yes, President Obama has increased the deficit, what should he do--allow us to fall deeper into a recession?

They have never accepted increased taxes, not in any crisis.

Thank you again for joining us and for laying out that history.

I thank you for adding that again.

At this time, I would like to yield to the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congresswoman Barbara Lee from Oakland, who is also chair of the Out of Poverty Caucus. A lot of times--well, even up to this weekend--nobody is talking about the poor.

I thank you for starting the Out of Poverty Caucus and for leading us through an agenda that continues even today of pathways out of poverty and for bringing us to the floor every day for the last couple of weeks to talk about how the Republican policies, the bills that they are proposing and the way they're holding the debt ceiling hostage are hurting the poor in our country.

Thank you, Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

I just want to mention that when we had our job summit about a week and a half ago, we passed out some information to those in attendance that added up about 30 job-creating pieces of legislation that just the CBC has introduced in this year. I don't believe that the Republican majority has brought any job-creating bills to the floor, and in this recovery, that's what we need, jobs.

I know sometimes we were accused of class warfare, but we're not pitting the poor against the rich or the middle class against the rich. We just think that everyone needs to be on the side of our country. We are calling for shared sacrifice and for fairness.

And really, this ought to be a clean raising of the debt ceiling. The cuts we're talking about that are going to hurt the people of this country are too important for us to be rushing through and using to hold the debt ceiling hostage.

So let's not hold such a critical thing as our ability to pay our bills and take care of our seniors, our children, our people with disabilities, and preserving our creditworthiness not only for Americans but the whole world depends on us, and we cannot let them down. We cannot let the American public down, including my constituents. We cannot let our country down and all of the countries in the world who depend on us.

With that, I thank my colleagues for joining me. I want to, once again, thank the AARP for their petitions and for their strong advocacy on behalf of not only seniors but all Americans and our country.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Offered By: Mrs. Christensen

Amendment No. 3: At the end of the bill (before the short

title), insert the following:

Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership has taken us to the brink of a default crisis by holding the debt ceiling and our ability to pay our bills hostage. Their latest slash, burn, and kill Medicare and Medicaid bill, otherwise known as Cut, Cap, and Balance, is putting the full faith and credit of our Nation at risk and threatening critical safety nets for our seniors, people with disabilities, and the poor, including our Nation's children.

Medicare covers over 4 million African Americans, over 4 million Latinos, and close to 2 million of other people of color--citizens with higher poverty rates who have some of the most serious health problems. Our seniors and people with disabilities rely on Medicaid for long-term care and there are 9 million dual eligibles, low-income seniors and younger persons with disabilities, who are enrolled in and rely on both Medicare and Medicaid.

Nearly three in every four poor or near-poor African Americans and Latinos are covered by Medicaid, but 64 percent of low-income black children and 63 percent of low-income Latino children are on Medicaid. Medicaid also provides critically important support to all Americans who lost their jobs as a result of the economic downturn.

In the Affordable Care Act, the Democrats strengthen Medicaid. And contrary to what you hear from our Republican colleagues, we use $500 million in savings identified in Medicare to strengthen it, to extend its solvency, and to begin to close the doughnut hole.

In this risky standoff, it is clear that Medicare and Medicaid payments are at risk, and African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities, and the poor who are already underwater and who rely on them for coverage, will bear the overwhelming brunt of the cuts, as will the providers and facilities that care for them. This is unacceptable. Then the loss of the economic multiplier effect that States would experience as a result of Federal Medicaid cuts would be even much greater than the amount of the Medicaid cuts themselves.

We're calling on the Republican leadership to do what we all know must be done to release the debt ceiling and all of the people who are being held hostage with it, the poor, racial and ethnic minorities who we stand here on behalf of today with the Out of Poverty Caucus.

I quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, ``Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.'' We must avert the default crisis. Colleagues, let's lift the debt ceiling, let's pay our bills, and let's avoid an economic catastrophe that the good people of this country do not deserve and cannot withstand.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1315. This bill reeks of financial irresponsibility under the disguise of protecting the American consumer. H.R. 1315 weakens and not strengthens the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

H.R. 1315 would grant the same regulators who failed so spectacularly to protect consumers and stop the financial crisis broad leeway to block CFPB rules. Bank regulators did not bother to stop dangerous mortgage lending and credit card practices because they were not independent of the lenders they regulated. They put near-term profitability ahead of consumer protection.

If we have learned anything from our current financial crisis is that strong consumer protections would have reduced, rather than increased, systemic financial risk. Consumers would have had less unsustainable debt. Banks would have fewer losses and been more financially stable. The real estate market would not have gone belly up. Families would not be finding themselves homeless. The economy would not have been pushed to the brink of collapse. Nonetheless, that did not stop the financial regulators like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) from claiming that protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices would harm bank ``safety and soundness.''

Mr. Chair, what about consumer ``safety and soundness''?

H.R. 1315 would ensure that bank regulators who want to block the CFPB from preventing abusive but lucrative practices--like unjustified, burdensome credit card interest rate increases or exploding ARM loan-- have an easy excuse and a very good chance of succeeding. Less than one year after historic financial reform legislation was signed into law, Republicans are now trying to undermine the new CFPB. At a time when our economy is close to defaulting, we cannot continue to protect those who were responsible for our present economic situation.

And Mr. Chair, I would be remiss if I did not use this opportunity to applaud and commend Professor Elizabeth Warren for being our inspiration on behalf of the people of this country and for her excellent and dedicated work in standing up the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

I urge my colleagues not to support this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be here this evening once again with my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues to talk about the need for jobs, jobs, and more jobs, and how we ought to be dealing with the debt limit and our debt crisis. Let me begin with jobs. That's not a new topic for the Congressional Black Caucus, because our communities unfortunately have a long-term and intractable history of unemployment.

Every year that I have been here, and I'm sure for the 40 years of our existence, job creation has been a priority, and that includes summer jobs for our young people, something we still have not been able to get the Congress to recognize and fund as critical to the well-being of our young people and our communities. In this Congress alone, CBC members have introduced more than 30 job-creating pieces of legislation, and we've cosponsored many, many more introduced by our Democratic colleague.

Need I remind you that the Republican leadership has still, today, done nothing to create one job. Meanwhile, unemployment remains a crisis in our country, and in the African American community it's a catastrophe.

And where is the patriotism of our corporations who are sitting on billions of dollars and still not hiring? I would say that if there is uncertainty in that sector, the corporate sector, welcome to the club.

As the gentleman from Arizona said, lack of confidence. But the cause of this lack of confidence in the corporate sector, in the banking sector and on Wall Street has got to do more with the gridlock, I think, that's caused by the Republican leadership who won't even consider the balanced approach that the President is asking us to take. And all this time the rest of the world is looking at us, watching this sorry mess that we're calling governing. I can't imagine that our allies in those countries around the world that look to us for leadership have much confidence in us either right now.

I am pleased to be joined this evening, Madam Speaker, by several of my colleagues, but I'd like to begin first to yield such time as he might consume to a reverend, to the former mayor of Kansas City, now our distinguished leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.

Thank you, Chairman Cleaver, and thank you for making it so very clear to those listening this evening what the real situation is in this country and how important it is for us to act to help the American people.

You have heard Reverend and Chairman Cleaver talk about the job situation and the floods and other challenges the American people are facing. And now to add insult to injury, instead of passing a clean increase to the debt ceiling, as we have done in the past, our country and our good credit is being held hostage by Republicans, pushed by their tea party members, who demand drastic and deep spending cuts, cuts beginning in the last quarter of this calendar year, against the advice of some of our most expert economists in this country.

The cuts in this new Cut, Cap, and Balance Act that we heard the talking points on this weekend and tonight, as our Budget ranking member Van Hollen has said, put more Americans out of work while this country is still recovering from the worst recession since the Great Depression.

In the earlier hour, we heard a lot about Republican leadership, but I think they are leading us down the wrong path, the wrong path for this country and for most Americans. That bill, which will be on the floor tomorrow, would cap spending at the levels in the Republican budget that are below 2008 spending levels. It would make it near impossible, if not impossible, to make the investments that we need in education and health care, in research and infrastructure to secure our future. And it would still, with all of that, extend even more tax cuts to special interests. All it would do is hamstring our Nation's growth at a time when we are falling behind. It is not going to help to restore confidence, as the gentleman from Arizona said. Only lifting the debt ceiling will do that.

I have heard my colleagues say that the bill on the floor tomorrow will protect Social Security, Medicare, and veterans payments, but I am not too sure about that because the cuts and the caps that they will impose are likely to lead us down a primrose path, with no way to fund those programs later on, causing us to have to renege on our promises to our seniors, our veterans, who have protected us, have been willing to make the sacrifices to protect the freedoms we enjoy.

Also targeted in that bill tomorrow, or subject to the caps, are SNAP, or food stamps, at a time when their policies are leaving more of America's families and especially their children hungry. It would include cuts to unemployment when we should really be adding 14 more weeks of unemployment, as the bill that Barbara Lee has, as H.R. 589 would do. It would be cutting school lunches when sometimes that is the only meal that some children have that is really balanced.

It would cut college loans and Pell Grants, as though we are trying to go back to a time we don't want to go back to when only the wealthy could afford a college education. We cannot move our country forward by denying education to so many of our people. And all of this without letting those tax cuts expire and continuing to let some of the wealthiest in our country go without paying their fair share of taxes. The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act is not the way to go. Lifting the debt ceiling, doing it without having it being held hostage to cuts and bills like this balanced budget amendment, is what we should be doing.

At this time I would yield to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas, who always comes with a lot of information and words of wisdom and inspiration.

I thank you so much for your charts. You're really pointing out who would be hurt by the Cut, Cap, and Balance, or as you call it, the tap dancing bill. Sometimes you have to call it what it is. So thank you, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, for joining us this evening.

I listened to New York Times columnist Tom Friedman yesterday, and I think we ought to put his talk on with the one that he had with our Nation's governors on DVD and make it required listening for some of our stonewalling colleagues. He put an adjective on the debate or so- called negotiations that have been staged these last few weeks. He called the debate ``idiotic.'' Now, some may agree, some may disagree with that.

But he further said, and this I do agree with, that it is not worthy of our country and a disservice to our children.

So just like the other 74 times since 1962, 74 times that a clean, noncontroversial lift of our debt ceiling has been done, we should have done it a long time ago, and that's what we ought to do now. And then after that, whether we use Bowles-Simpson or Rivlin-Domenici or what's left of the Gang of Six--I guess it is now just Democrats--their plan is a starting point; we need to begin coming up with a solid deficit reduction plan that isn't done on the backs of our poor, our middle class, our children, our seniors, and our people with disabilities. And one that is as the President has called for, one of shared sacrifices. It's the only fair way. It's the only American way.

And while important to securing the future, deficit reduction by itself is not enough. We are still in a recession, a recovery, but it's very slow, and it's uneven. What we need now are jobs, jobs, and more jobs. We need to continue the work of the Recovery Act and add to the 3 million jobs that we either saved or created with that bill and that act. We need to rebuild our manufacturing base as the Make It in America Democratic agenda would do. And we have to revive the housing market to help families stay in their homes and restore the opportunity for every American and those who came to live

in this country to achieve what we call the American dream.

We need to do what we have always done best--to create. We need to regain our place as the innovation capital of the world. And to do that and to secure a sustainable future for our children, we have to invest in the work of bringing our country back from 25th in science, 17th in math, 14th in reading, and 12th in college graduates.

The issue should not be cut, cut, cut. I agree with Tom Friedman on that as well. But it should be how do we do what is necessary to bring our beloved Nation back to the first-place standing which is where it always must be and what our families and our children deserve.

As the African proverb said--this is really what's happening now--the elephants are fighting and the grass is getting crushed.

This should not be a fight over political ideology. Democratic leaders have shown their willingness to compromise on many of the programs we hold sacred. What those compromises are and how large they are I think will determine where the CBC stands when the time comes to vote.

But there can be no compromise, as you've heard from my colleagues tonight, on Social Security, which has nothing to do with the deficit whatsoever, or on Medicare, which we have done so much to strengthen and lengthen in the Affordable Care Act, or on Medicaid, which would not only cause undue but grave harm to the poor and all of the States and territories that we represent.

So I say to my fellow Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol, let's raise this debt ceiling. Let's forget this crazy debate about cutting programs that hurt our fellow Americans and do it in a clean vote so that we can get back to the important critical business of creating jobs, of rebuilding our country, of putting in place a strong foundation for our future, of restoring our image in the world and holding on to our position of leadership.

I yield the balance of my time to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

What you are saying, though, is we would never be able to raise any revenue because it takes two-thirds of both bodies to be able to do anything to increase revenue.

I thank the gentlelady from Texas.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.