Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Smart family, the Polly Klaas Foundation, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the thousands of families still searching for their missing children, I rise today to join our chairman in offering hope that we will establish a voluntary, nationwide AMBER Alert system to find children.

I want to compliment the chairman for moving this bill so speedily through the House of Representatives.

The AMBER Alert was named after a little girl named Amber Hagerman who was kidnapped and killed by her abductor. The community rallied around her family to begin a search that resulted in the AMBER Alert program.

In 1997, a Washington State child homicide study, which examined over 600 child abduction murder cases from all over the country, found that the first 3 hours of a child's abduction are critical to bringing this child home safely. This is the reason that we are seeking an AMBER Alert program.

To date, AMBER has been credited with the safe recovery of 52 children, including, very recently, a 12-year-old California girl reunited with her family after a witness saw the car described in AMBER Alert messages transmitted across the State.

We know the AMBER Alert system works by allowing communities to tap into the resources of an educated public, prepare law enforcement and engage the media in reuniting children with their family. The media and an educated public were absolutely critical in the safe return of Elizabeth Smart.

President Bush and his administration showed strong and early support for our legislation last year and took the first steps by providing grants to States and localities to help establish AMBER Alert programs. It is now time for Congress to codify AMBER Alert and provide additional funding to power all communities with the tools and resources to react quickly to child abductions and bring these children home safely to the arms of their parents.

We witnessed a very joyful reunion of Elizabeth Smart and her family 2 weeks ago. I know that President Bush is committed to signing AMBER Alert into law very soon. I also know that our leadership will keep its commitment not to allow it to languish in a conference committee.

Mr. Chairman, would it not be wonderful never again to have to name another piece of legislation after a little child who died? I urge our opponents and supporters everywhere to get together with us on AMBER Alert. It is a wonderful opportunity to establish a great system. Let us support this legislation today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1308, the Tax Relief, Simplification, and Equity Act.

Among other items, the bill contains an innovative solution to one of the most difficult challenges we face as policymakers--conserving our land while ensuring that it remains a source of economic activity.

What has been lacking in the Pacific Northwest is cooperation and collaboration between environmentalists, the business community, and local government on how best to solve difficult environmental issues. Until now.

Recently, numerous programs in Washington State have been developed that provide a road map for how everybody can come together to achieve environmental protection.

In particular, numerous conservation groups have been working with large landowners in an attempt to purchase sensitive parcels of land and protect them from development. What they're lacking is access to capital.

This bill will give them tax-exempt bond financing to preserve these lands. In exchange, the land must continue to be used as a productive resource and managed with the input of a diverse group of interests.

In the interest of progress in land conservation, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, when you pass major reform of a part of government as huge, as magnificent as welfare, you need to make sure that nobody falls through the cracks. That is the reason we are looking at this bill once again, 6 years after our accomplishment of welfare reform. It gives us a chance to review all the areas of the legislation and to make mid-course corrections where we need to.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Cardin substitute and in strong support of H.R. 4, the Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act. This is critical legislation which builds on the great successes of the 1996 law to move people out of poverty into self- sufficiency. I want to thank my colleagues who worked very hard to bring this very important legislation to the floor once again today.

In 1996, we made historic changes to the welfare program. We transformed the welfare system from a permanent entitlement program that tolerated an average of 13 years on government dependence to a temporary assistance program that provided people the incentives to start working again, provided them the opportunities to gain the necessary skills to retain a job and provided them the great feeling of worth that comes from becoming self-sufficient.

We have an opportunity today to build upon our successes while improving this program to further assist individuals and families move out of poverty.

A terribly important element of encouraging welfare recipients to work is providing access to child care services. As a single parent who raised two children, I understand that quality child care is not an option, but a necessity, especially for many working mothers. Nothing is more important than the well-being of our children.

Mr. Chairman, I am very happy that this legislation gives working women greater access to child care services. As more parents, especially single mothers, enter the workforce, we must ensure they can access child care services to fit their needs.

For these reasons, our bill provides an additional $2 billion for child care, despite the fact that the welfare rolls have declined by 60 percent and despite the fact that the welfare reform bill has more than tripled spending on child care over the last 6 years, because we need to help in the area of infant care, of evening and weekend care and care for disabled children.

Our bill also gives States much greater flexibility to transfer more TANF funds toward child care services. This means an additional $3 billion over our additional $2 billion will be available for child care. The additional funding, along with the new flexibility options, will help States to offer more child care services for parents and for single mothers on the path toward a better future.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart), who, even though a junior Member, has been very active in our work to provide additional child care money.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), who has been very effective in securing $2 billion additional for child care.

Mr. Chairman, what the gentlewoman from California may not know is that if she opposes H.R. 4, she will be voting against $477 million additional dollars for child care in the State of California.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson), very much an advocate of child care from her background and experience.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown-Waite), a new Member of the United States Congress, to talk about the child care provisions in H.R. 4.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to reiterate some things that we have heard talked about when we refer to child care. This year, an additional $2 billion will be provided for child care over and above what has been spent in the last 6 years in the welfare reform bill. The fact is that the dollars spent for child care over that period of time have tripled.

In addition, we want to help the States with their flexibility. If they wish, they can shift up to 50 percent of their TANF funds, $5.5 billion of which remain in State coffers right now, to child care. Why do we do this, Mr. Chairman? We do it because we think that the 1996 welfare reform bill has been tremendously successful. Caseloads are down by 60 percent. Nearly 3 million children have been lifted out of poverty. More people are now on the path to independence. Employment of single mothers has risen by 70 percent, but we know much more needs to be done to bridge the gap between a paycheck and a government handout. We think that if we increase the funding for child care, this will help. It will help a lot.

So I maintain, Mr. Chairman, that we must defeat this other bill, and we need to support H.R. 4. It is our proposal. It has worked in the past. It will increase effectiveness in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the million worker comment made by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel). I think it is very important for us to know the history of what has already happened in the area of unemployment compensation and why we are going to add some additional assistance for people who come from States like mine.

The Democrats make it sound like we have not helped at all the unemployed, whom we already have helped. We have helped those million unemployed workers. We have helped them consistently through this last year. They make that assertion about the million people being let down, but already we have helped one million people under the Federal expanded benefits that we put into effect last year in March of 2002. They have all already received Federal unemployment benefits that averaged $250 a week generally for 13 weeks. On top of that, generally 26 weeks of regular State benefits which they had received previously, and I think that is very important. In States like Washington State, my State, there have been additional expanded benefits.

So to talk about not helping one million folks who have been unemployed is to move from the truth, Mr. Speaker, and I think it is important to clear that up.

My second point is in addition to the one million folks, we are going to help two million additional people. Plus, we will be extending benefits that ran out on December 28 for 800,000 additional people. Let us not get mixed up in the rhetoric of partisanship here and let us talk about what we can do to help unemployed people who very much want to hold jobs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English).

Mr. Speaker, I would comment to the gentleman from Michigan that this assistance which we are providing in today's legislation will assist 86,000 new individuals from his State of Michigan.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would remind the gentleman from Ohio that our unemployment compensation assistance provided last year, from his State we assisted 123,000 individuals. And with the passage of today's bill, which is very important to be passed on the floor today, signed by the President tomorrow so there is no gap in assistance from December 28, we will be assisting an additional 61,600 folks from the State of Ohio.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

It is very important for us, Mr. Speaker, to debate, and we will debate over the ensuing months, an economic growth plan that will stimulate the economy and create more jobs. Everybody right now on unemployment wishes that he or she had a job. We are going to have that debate. It is vitally important. Today we are debating what we can do in the interim to assist people who, not by their own choice, are out of a job.

We are talking about a $7 billion piece of legislation today that will assist a huge number of folks who were not covered before by unemployment compensation. We have already spent $19 billion with assistance last year. I think it is vitally important that we continue the debate on this bill so we can get passage of it on the floor today, combined with the piece of legislation passed by the Senate yesterday, and get it to the President tomorrow so we can begin to help people whose unemployment benefits ended on December 28; and we can do this without disruption in the dollars they will receive so they can have some peace of mind as they move through this very, very tough time in their lives.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I retain the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to remind the gentleman from Washington of what the situation was last fall when we began to debate the extension of unemployment compensation. The leading plan was one that was proposed by

his party on the Senate side. It was a $5 billion plan. It called for a 3-month extension of unemployment benefits. It called for an additional 3-month phaseout. What we have done in the interim, led by people who are from States like Alaska and Oregon and Washington, States where we are very, very concerned about our extremely high level of unemployment, not led by people from Virginia, where the unemployment rate is something like 3.8 percent over the last 3 months, or Georgia, where the unemployment rate is 4.6 percent, low unemployment rates never thought to be even possible to achieve by economists in years past, but we have put together a piece of legislation which considering the state of our economy is a generous piece of legislation. It takes care of an additional 2 million people who were not helped before. It extends benefits for some 800,000 folks nationwide whose benefits were interrupted on December 28, and this is specifically Federal dollars I am talking about. I am not including the State unemployment programs.

We are at the point where we have a 5-month extension that we are providing of unemployment benefits to folks who have been put out of their jobs through no choice of their own plus a 3-month phaseout of these benefits, plus we are helping an additional 800,000 whose benefits are interrupted. So this is a bill that is almost twice as much, certainly almost twice as much as what we were talking about last fall. It is generous, and I think it is a very good bill, and I think the fact that as we pass it today, as it is signed into law by the President tomorrow, that will allow for no interruption in the receipt of Federal unemployment benefits by people in the States. We are also assisting States so that they can use their funds later, not at the beginning.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would remind the gentleman from Washington State that just late last fall, I think in December, senior Members of his own party leadership were talking about what a wonderful bill the unemployment bill was that then was far less generous than what we would like to do today. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), for example, last fall said, ``Tomorrow the House will meet one more time before adjourning for the year. We could simply take up the bipartisan Senate bill which has the 3-month extension and agree to it unanimously. That action would send a positive signal about our willingness to work together to solve our economic problems.''

I submit that this additional 2-month extension, our bill is 5 months, plus a 3-month phaseout that assists 2 million additional people, is far more generous. So I think a dark day is perhaps not the right characterization for what we are doing today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart).

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I will remind the gentleman from Wisconsin that 37,000 people would likely be helped by this additional bill; and also remind him that that piece of legislation we looked at very late and very briefly last fall was a provision that was far less expansive than this one. In the time that we have had in order to put together legislation on which the Senate and the House together would agree and the President would sign, we have come up with a larger program that extends unemployment benefits for 5 months with a phaseout of 3 months, and I think a far better piece of legislation, I am sure the gentleman from Wisconsin would agree.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, the unemployment rate in my State is 6.6 percent. That is a hugely, incredibly large number of folks who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves without jobs. This is occurring in many States around the Nation.

The attempt we are making today, which is a huge assistance to folks who are out of jobs, a bill that totals $7 billion, that includes 2 million additional people who will be assisted, 2 million people who will be assisted through additional help over the 4 million who we have already helped through our legislation that provided benefits last year, is hugely important.

In my own State, Washington State, many layoffs have been due to the aerospace industry. The adverse impact of the economy on our aerospace industry concerns me, because I have thousands of aerospace workers who live in my district. I do not want to see them without jobs. If they are without jobs, I want to help to stimulate the economy so they will not much longer be without jobs. But the fact is, they are now.

I am very pleased that we are beginning this new session of Congress by heading in the right direction by providing much needed benefits to all Americans who are out of jobs. Under this legislation, unemployed workers who had Federal unemployment benefits that remained after December 28, when, by the way, we had put into place on the floor of the House a 5-week extension which would overlap into this session, so we could take a look and see what additional work we needed to do, which is what we are doing today, these folks will now receive the balance of their benefits. It is very important to those whose benefits were interrupted.

Further, workers who exhaust the regular State unemployment benefits in the coming months will become eligible for up to 13 weeks of Federal benefits in all States and up to 26 weeks in States like mine that have high unemployment, as we do in Washington State. In my State, this will help 56,000 additional people. That is 2.7 million people all over the country who are recipients of unemployment benefits who need help. These are folks who are still looking for jobs.

I think we need to put ourselves in their place. I think we need to feel how they feel when they need to meet a mortgage, to pay for the costs of food and heat in their homes. This is a vitally important piece of legislation that we are discussing today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this vitally important bill. I know there is debate on what additions we could make to this, but this is a generous bill and it is going to help a lot of people in my State and other States around the Nation. It is going to assist almost 2 million additional people today, in addition to the 4 million we have assisted in the past through other provisions that were passed last year.

I think it is a generous piece of legislation, and I think it is an imperative

as we begin the debate to stimulate this economy and create those jobs that folks right now would like to be holding.

I have great faith in this body. I know that we will do the right thing: that we will pass this piece of legislation today so in coordination with the Senate we may send this to the President, so by tomorrow he can sign this bill, and create no interruption in the Federal benefits received by folks whose benefits were stopped on December 28.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.