Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked the official end of United States military operations in Iraq. President Obama has fulfilled his promise to bring all of our troops home by December and, for that, I commend him.

I objected to the invasion of Iraq at the outset, and I have vigorously opposed it since. As we withdraw from Iraq after nearly nine years of war, there is no sense of ``mission accomplished'' because the mission was incomprehensible. We invaded the country under false pretenses and deliberate misrepresentations: no credible evidence pointed to the existence of weapons of mass destruction and, not surprisingly, none were found.

It is my hope that history books accurately will record the sorry consequences of invading a sovereign nation on the basis of adulterated evidence. That is what we did in 2003, and our country has paid, and will continue to pay, dearly for its foolish rush to war. Today, Iraq's economy is in shambles, its coalition government is fragile, anti- Americanism runs high, and violence abounds.

Since we launched this war, nearly 4,500 American soldiers have lost their lives and tens of thousands have sustained lifelong injuries. Their sacrifice must be honored and remembered. One way to do so is by not repeating the grievous mistakes that led us into Iraq. My fear is that those who sought this war again are urging conflict--this time with Iran. George Santayana warned that ``Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'' Let us reflect at length on the punishing costs of war and its unforgiving legacy.

Madam Speaker, today we celebrate an action that took place 220 years ago when we passed the Bill of Rights. But I rise today to express my dismay at the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act yesterday. Not only did this bill curb our ability to keep America safe, it made a mockery of our constitutionally protected rights.

But there is a larger point about the state of this country which is worth noting. Over the past several months, this body has wasted precious time writing a defense authorization bill with so many unsavory provisions the President threatened to veto it.

National security officials from all political spectrums condemned it as dangerous and unnecessary. In the end, the bill was watered down in response to many of the serious concerns about the bill, though it did not go nearly as far as it should. The final bill still contains restrictions on transfer of Guantanamo detainees and grants the President the power to indefinitely detain without trial American citizens in military custody. It shows just how far along the slippery slope our country has moved since 9/11 in authorizing sweeping powers to the President at the expense of our civil liberties.

Let's be clear. The over-militarization of our counterterrorism efforts goes against American values and civil liberties, though some people continue to justify it through fearmongering. We saw this after the horrific events of 9/11 when President Bush signed into law the Patriot Act that dramatically expanded law enforcement agencies' ability to search telephone, email, and financial records without a court order in the name of intelligence gathering.

One section of the Patriot Act even allows the FBI to review library

records, to look at which books you're reading.

In short, what we've done over the past decade is embrace national secrecy over national security. And the NDA bill took the Patriot Act to a whole new radical level. What the advocates of this bill don't seem to realize is that the American public is already paying a price in the name of keeping our Nation safe.

In September the Center for Investigative Reporting and NPR conducted a joint investigation into private security at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. They found that the mall security personnel stopped an average of 1,200 people a year. Nearly two-thirds of those people belong to racial and ethnic minorities. Personal information from the suspicious activity reports from the mall were sent to the FBI. So they've got an FBI file. Some of these people were reported for looking at the security guard in a ``suspicious'' way.

An Army veteran was questioned for nearly 2 hours about a video he made inside the mall. One man left his cell phone on a table in the food court, and an FBI agent showed up at his family's home asking if they knew anyone who might want to hurt the United States.

These intrusions create a chilling effect that causes law-abiding Americans to think twice about exercising their basic constitutional rights to speech and assembly.

James Madison, as you heard, wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and he once said, ``The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become instruments of tyranny at home.''

That could not ring truer than yesterday. This is a sad day for our liberty and freedom when we give to the President--we may like the President, we may think he's a great man--but to give that office the power to hold Americans without trial in military custody indefinitely is eroding our right to a free trial and an ability to confront our accuser. Those things that are in that Bill of Rights are being taken away from all of us.

Now, we think it won't happen to me. Be careful. That's what people thought in a lot of other places in the world. And suddenly, as Martin Niemoller said in the German prison camps, ``And then they came for me, and there was no one to stand up.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill. We surely need to ensure that the TANF program does not expire, which is the basic purpose of this extension, but we would be remiss if we didn't say that the status quo falls short of what is needed in these difficult times.

Nearly one out of every two Americans is scraping by in poverty or with very low income. We're talking about people below $44,000. That's the people who are just barely making it with a family of four in this country. That's what the Census Bureau found when they used the new supplemental poverty measure based on legislation I proposed in the Congress. That means about 150 million Americans are struggling to get by.

Just 2 days ago on this floor, the response to this epidemic of suffering from the Republicans was to just suggest that we ought to cut off unemployment benefits to millions of Americans. Now, imagine yourself in the middle class--and there are a lot of people who think they're in the middle class. Think about what that means when somebody says, We're going to make it harder for you to get unemployment benefits when you need them.

It is morally wrong and is terrible economic policy. We need to follow a much different path, one that focuses on reforming programs so that they better respond to Americans in need.

I was here when we did the reform of 1996. In 1996, this country was going like a bat. We were really making money, and anybody could find a job if he was willing to go in and ask, which is not the situation today. This welfare program is not meeting the needs of what's going on out there.

Now, if you've watched television recently, you could have seen on ``60 Minutes'' families who are living in cars. Now, how do you get to a car? Well, first you lose your job. Then you get on unemployment insurance. You lose your health care, too, by the way when you lose your job. Then your unemployment insurance runs out. You've got 99 weeks of that, and it's gone. Where are you now? Well, um, you've still got the house. You've been paying for that on the unemployment, but now your house is in foreclosure. The next thing you know, you're living in the car.

We've got thousands of people in this country who are in that circumstance. They are increasingly taking all of the money out of their IRAs and all the money out of their pension plans. Every single dime they've got is gone. They're losing their homes, and all they have, if they're usual families, are food stamps. That's what we offer them. In the richest country in the world, one in two people is in poverty or near it, and we're offering them food stamps, and are saying, Go find a job, when there are four people looking for every job out there.

Only one out of every five poor children in America receives any direct assistance from this program we're talking about today, and those few who do get helped receive very little. As more and more people lose their unemployment benefits, this hole in the TANF safety net is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. We ought to start repairing that hole rather than ignoring it as it grows.

We are crushing the middle class in this country with our social policy at this point. The data show that our social safety net works but that the real problem is that we don't fund it and that we haven't kept it up to date with what the modern economy is doing. People used to go unemployed, and then in a while the job came back. The jobs are not coming back anymore. Technology is changing it all.

I support extending TANF, but today's bill is a Band-Aid of underfunding an outdated policy that hasn't kept up with the problems that struggling Americans are facing every day. We must do better by the middle class in this country--or Occupy Wall Street is going to be everywhere.

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 931 I was detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Well, it's getting close to the Christmas tree, and here we come finally getting around to dealing with unemployment with the most drastic attack on the unemployment system that we've had since 1933 without any hearings. I hear people talk about the Ways and Means Committee has talked about this. There hasn't been a single hearing on the proposal that's put here before us on the end of the session cutting a Federal program from 73 weeks to 33 weeks. You're taking 40 weeks of unemployment away from people who have thought this country cared, and it turns out the Republicans don't care at all.

This is bait and switch. This is like going on a used car lot and the guy shows you a Chevrolet over here and says, That's a thousand bucks.

By the time you find another car that's worth nothing, that's been in a wreck, you drive out thinking you had the thousand- dollar car you were getting.

This is a phony attack on unemployment. Nobody should think of it as anything else. The press releases will say, We extended unemployment benefits. Yeah. Well, you pulled the rug out from under the long-term unemployment. This is not the usual unemployment. This is unemployment where we have the highest long-term unemployment in the history of this country in the last 50 years.

It's a bad bill. Vote ``no.''

There is a lot of mourning among the comedians of this country that Herman Cain has left the field, but I think the Republican caucus is now stepping in to give the comedians things to laugh at.

This bill is about dust. This is dust to throw in the American people's eyes so they won't see what's going on here. We're going home a day early. Why aren't we staying here tomorrow? Because they haven't got anything to do or they can't figure out how to do it. I don't know which it is.

In fact, we have never put out a jobs bill from this House now in 11 months of the Republican majority, who said jobs are the issue. Boy, we've got to get jobs. They haven't produced a single job in 11 months off this floor. They're letting the unemployment extension expire. Beginning in January, 5 million Americans are not going to get benefits from the unemployment insurance because the Republicans have to throw dust in the people's eyes so that they won't see. But they know. They're not stupid.

The American people can see through this game. They know we're going home because you can't get your act together. You run this House and you can't put a bill out here to extend unemployment benefits. Now, I understand that the unemployment bill is an issue, but you can't extend the payroll.

Madam Speaker, what's wrong with the Republicans that they can't get their act together to somehow extend the reduction in the payroll tax?

That's going to take a thousand bucks out of every middle class person's pocket in the next year--but what are we talking about today? Dust. Ah, dust. I can just see it on Jon Stewart--or maybe it will be Sean Hannity. I don't know which it will be.

The fact is that this Congress has been a do-nothing Congress on the issues that affect the American people. The middle class is getting clobbered, and you're talking about dust.

It reminds me of this business we went through, this manufactured stuff, about raising the debt limit. It was such an awful thing, so we created this committee that was going to cut $1.2 trillion. That was magician talk. You don't want to talk about raising the debt limit. You want to talk about this committee that did nothing because the six members on the Republican side who came to that committee said from the very start that they would not raise taxes, that they would not look at revenue.

In my view, if you're serious, you sit down and you talk about everything. The last 3 weeks of that committee, they never even met. That was dust in people's eyes.

Get them to talk about a commission. We had all this talk about a commission. Are they going to do this, are they going to do that, what's going to happen? In fact, everybody around here knew it was a lot of baloney from the start, and that's what this is today, more baloney.

You know, Yogi Berra, who is one of my favorite philosophers, said, this is deja vu all over again. We did this last Christmas, we didn't extend the benefits, and we're doing it again this year.

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow's a sad day. Don Berwick, Dr.

Berwick, will step down as Administrator of Medicare. It's a bad day for seniors.

But the Senate Republicans are happy because they believe that getting rid of Don will end the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. When the Senate Republicans blocked a vote on Dr. Berwick, they made it possible only for a recess appointment for 18 months. Why do the Republicans fear Dr. Berwick so much? Hard to say.

His career has been spent improving the quality of health care. He believes that we can have good quality health care at low cost. They're synonymous. He put patients first, believing in evidence-based medicine, and collaborates with others in the public good.

His sin was that he once said a nice word about the British health care system, and therefore he has to go.

Dr. Berwick's a great public servant, and the Republicans demonized him. Republicans have cynically prevented America's seniors from having the benefit of Dr. Berwick's vision and experience, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

We will do the Affordable Care Act in spite of the fact that Dr. Berwick is gone.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Sensible Estate Tax Act of 2011. This legislation offers a thoughtful comprehensive approach to reforming our estate tax system that is supported by voters across all income levels. As America comes out of one of the worst recessions in its history, this Congress must carefully consider all sources of revenue that are not only effective, but fair and equitable. This estate tax embodies those values.

The past decade of failed tax policies have killed jobs and resulted in significant income and wealth disparity in this country. The promise and strength of America lies in a system that benefits everyone. These tax policies have steered us away from this promise and crippled the American economy. The middle class continues to shrink as more and more wealth flows to the top--and this country's current tax system makes this unfairness worse. The current estate tax policy is the poster child for the unfairness we all see.

That is why I am introducing this legislation. This bill will bring the estate tax back to the rates and exemptions from before the Bush tax cuts--a time when this country experienced continued prosperity and budget surpluses.

Specifically, the Sensible Estate Tax Act of 2011 will return the top marginal rate to 55 percent and lower the exemption for individuals to $1 million. It will also reunify the gift and estate taxes, and provide for permanent portability of any unused exemption. Accountants and taxpayers have been asking Congress for a permanent and fair estate tax so they may properly plan their affairs. This bill does just that. Additional estate tax loopholes are also addressed, including a 10-year minimum on grantor retained annuity trusts, limitations on the generation skipping transfer trust exemption, and rules for consistent basis reporting.

Today's law allows for up to $10 million in wealth to be transferred tax-free at death. And some of my colleagues across the aisle say even that is not enough. In a country that cherished the ideal that where you are born should not determine where you end up, it is inherently unfair that the average middle class family pays income tax while the children of rich parents can inherit $10 million tax-free.

Succeeding financially in life is a wonderful American right and the families of wealthy people should benefit from that good fortune. But no one gets wealthy on their own--financial success for any American is achieved by using the roads, schools, and public services that all Americans pay for. It is only fair that they reinvest in the country that provided them with so much opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, today we have another triumph for the Republican public relations office. Their job is to hide the fact that the select committee of 12 isn't going to get anything done and their members are going home for Thanksgiving. But what will they talk about? A failure? No. They want to give them something. So this balanced budget amendment--that's why we're out here debating a rule on a job- destroying, poorly thought-out amendment to the Constitution. This House is considering an amendment to the Constitution that did not go through the regular order, is not even the product of any committee debate. It has not been an open and thoughtful process.

Mr. Speaker, the job of this Congress at this time should be creating jobs. For 11 months, the Republicans have talked about it but have done nothing. Now, instead of wasting the people's time with this doomed and irresponsible constitutional amendment, we should deal with this country's serious economic concerns, one of which is the Chinese currency manipulation and how it hurts American businesses and our workers. It's time for this House to vote on the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act.

The Speaker needs to stop standing in the way of this important legislation. We've been discussing this issue with the Government of China for more than 8 years. American manufacturers should not be forced to compete against a 28 percent discount on imports from China, all because of China's predatory currency practices. This legislation will help to provide meaningful relief to U.S. companies and our workers who are injured by the currency manipulation of China.

This is a bipartisan measure. The China currency bill passed the House last year with a strong majority of Republicans. The majority of the House has cosponsored this bill, including 62 Republicans, and we can't get it up.

The Senate has already passed a similar bill with a strong bipartisan vote. The Speaker is the one who has his foot on it because he's got his foot on the Rules Committee, and they won't bring it out.

American workers expect every one of us on both sides of this aisle to fight against China's predatory trade policies and to fight for American workers. We should be fighting for the American economy rather than pandering to the Republican base with this terrible attempt to use the Constitution as a partisan playground and a way to hide from the American people that we're not doing what they sent us here to do, which was to create jobs.

Madam Speaker, 8 days from now is Thanksgiving. We're all going to sit down to a nice plump turkey and enjoy ourselves.

Well, not everybody. All across this Nation, we're seeing people protest. They're young people, middle-aged people, and older people-- even parents with kids--and these folks are mad. They're seeing Wall Street companies profit after getting us into the economic mess we have; and, at the same time, they're among the millions of people in this country who are unemployed, that are still without a job. There are four people looking for every job out there. It's not easy. And Congress, the Republicans, are sitting on their hands again. We're coming up to the end of the year.

I want my Republican colleagues to take notice: If you continue to push the unemployed and struggling Americans and, instead, focus on tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, the Occupy movement will be in your districts, on your doorsteps next November. Unemployment benefits should be extended immediately.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman from Texas that we ought to be doing everything we can for American workers. The time has come for this House to vote on the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act.

My friends across the aisle need to stop standing in the way of American jobs. It's time to act. We've been discussing this issue with the Government of China for more than 8 years, and this Republican majority has done not one blessed thing. American manufacturers should not be forced to compete against a 28 percent discount on imports from China due to China's predatory currency practices. This legislation will give meaningful relief to U.S. companies and workers who are hurt by China's currency manipulation.

This is a bipartisan measure. Amazing. The same bill passed the House last year with an overwhelming vote, including with a strong majority of Republicans. Now, of course, that was last year. The majority of the House this year, 230 Members, have cosponsored this bill, including 62 Republicans. A similar bill passed the Senate by a large bipartisan vote. American workers expect every one of us on both sides of the aisle to fight against China's predatory trade practices and to fight for American workers.

The question you have to ask yourself, Mr. Speaker, is: How long are we going to have to wait for a jobs bill to come from the Republican side? It seems like it may never happen until after the election of 2012.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Japanese- American veterans who served so courageously during World War II in the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the

Military Intelligence Service. In recognition of their extraordinary service, they are being honored with the Congressional Gold Medal.

I am especially proud to join 26 veterans, six widows of veterans, and more than 320 family members who are here today to attend the award ceremony on behalf of Washington State's Nisei Veterans Committee. We come together to acknowledge and to thank the Nisei veterans and their families for their sacrifice and their patriotism.

As an Honorary Nisei Veteran, I have had the opportunity to talk to many of these veterans, their children, and their grandchildren as we remember the soldiers and their proud, fearless service to our country, which is all the more exemplary given that some of their families were held in U.S. internment camps solely because of their race.

Mr. Speaker, the Nisei Veterans have helped to enrich the Seattle community and strengthen our country. Their service and legacy are an inspiration to us all. I am privileged to be a part of the ceremony in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Seattle 826, a recipient of the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

Seattle 826 is a nonprofit writing and tutoring center dedicated to helping youth improve their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Through after- school and in-school programs, writing workshops, and field trips, Seattle 826 and 300 volunteers have reached over 2,000 students in the past year. The organization has even helped some students publish their writing, giving them invaluable experience and confidence for the future.

I am proud that Seattle 826 is located in my District, the Seventh Congressional District of Washington. Since Teri Hein first started the organization in 2004, its contribution to the community has been essential, and the benefit to youth has been tremendous.

The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award is the Nation's highest honor for out-of-school arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of America's young people, particularly those from underserved communities. I am pleased that Seattle 826's work has been recognized by the President and First Lady with this prestigious award.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support employers and businesses that provide paid sick leave to American workers across the country. Workers should be able to take care of themselves or family members who are sick without risking losing their jobs or a day's wages. The businesses in my district have worked closely with the City of Seattle, and particularly Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata, to be leaders on this issue. I want to commend the City of Seattle for recently adopting paid sick leave for workers, demonstrating direct support for working families

and protecting public health. Seattle joins with San Francisco, Milwaukee, Washington, DC and Connecticut in taking a big step to ease some of the burden on working families. I also applaud the work of the many coalitions across the country that are building support for implementing paid sick leave for the forty-four million workers who cannot take the time off they need.

Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut recently sponsored H.R. 1876, The Healthy Families Act, which I support. This piece of legislation requires certain employers to allow workers to earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work. The Healthy Families Act provides workers with the flexibility to address their own health needs as well as those of their family members. This Act also keeps public and private health care costs low by enabling workers and their families to seek early and routine medical care. This creates a vital safety net for working parents who shouldn't have to risk a day's wages or losing their jobs when they or their family members get sick. Thank you Mr. Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this bill because it is an attack on women, and it does nothing to deal with the job crisis of this country.

Madam Speaker, this is nothing more or less than an attack on poor women.

I stood beside the bed of a couple of women in the Buffalo General Hospital in 1963 and watched them die because of back alley abortions.

I was in the State legislature in 1970 when we, in the State of Washington, granted, by referendum, a vote of all the people, the right of women to have an abortion. Now the question is how to get it paid for.

Well, when I came to Seattle, if you wanted an abortion, what you did was you went down and bought a ticket to Japan; you flew to Japan, had an abortion, had a day of shopping in Tokyo while you made sure that you were okay medically; and then you came home. Rich women never had any problem, but the women that I stood next to as they died and left 12 kids without mothers were poor. And that's what this is really all about. It is an attack by the right wing who consider that they wrap themselves in theological raiment and then attack poor women. Christ wouldn't have done that.