Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor once again to come before the House. I would like to thank Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi for allowing us to have the time and the Democratic whip, Mr. Hoyer; Mr. Clyburn, our chairman; and Mr. Larson, our vice-chair.

Mr. Speaker, we have been coming to the floor all this week. We are going to be talking tonight about our plans to hopefully move this country forward. Maybe we can work together in doing that in a bipartisan way. Mr. Ryan is here at the top of the hour tonight, and I am so glad that you are here.

Mr. Speaker, it is very easy to say that, trying to let them know that we are moving forward because that is what we are trying to do, Mr. Speaker. We are trying to move this country in the right direction. Unfortunately, I must add there has been a lot of discussion here under the Capitol dome about who we are going to do business with, how we are going to do business with them, and how we are going to prevent ourselves from getting into a situation like this ongoing port situation that is some back-room deal that took place with a special committee, and we are finding out more and more about it each day.

When we start, I do not really want to focus on that, Mr. Speaker. I want to focus on the fact that we talk about working in a bipartisan way. The Republican Party here in this House is in the majority. That means that the majority has the opportunity to lead in a comprehensive way, including all Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, as we start to move down the road to not only making this country financially secure but secure its borders and secure all America.

There is no probably about it. You are saying they probably will raise the debt ceiling. There is no probably about it. It is going to happen.

We have our rubber stamp here because you know that they are going to rubber-stamp this deal. They are going to take this stamp out, and they are going to rubber-stamp raising the debt ceiling. What does that mean? What that means, by some $821 billion, raising the debt ceiling, even more, beyond where it is now, and that is just the number that I received recently that Secretary Snow has predicted we need to raise the debt ceiling by.

It is because of the love affair with special interests, giving oil companies more subsidies or more money in the time that they are making record profits. It is when the President says let us make tax cuts permanent for billionaires, knowing that we have been fiscally irresponsible, Mr. Speaker; and I think it is important, I was about to just give some information that is pretty fresh about what happened last night in Appropriations Committee, and I think it is important for us to reflect on this.

We talk about bipartisanship. We talk about working in a comprehensive

way. We are trying to make that happen. Like you said, we are trying to bring this government back into pay-as-you-go fiscal responsibility, making sure that we do things in the right way.

I just want to say that the Democrats, we want to keep America safe, and I know Republicans want to do it, too; but we are following the 9/ 11 Commission recommendations of trying to move towards 100 percent container screening. Now, there are some other countries on the globe, I know one in particular, that is doing that, and I think it is important for us to be the superpower of the world, we are supposed to be financial superpower of the world, and we are only checking less than 5 or 6 percent of containers; and I think it is important that I point this out. That is not what Democrats called for. That is what the 9/11 Commission called for, because we believe in working with those that have researched issues and flushed them out so that we can move forward in protecting Americans.

It is not something that came out of the back rooms of some Democratic club somewhere in Sioux City, Iowa. This came about by professionals coming together, past Members of this House, Governors, security people, testimony from FBI, CIA, port directors, individuals that specialize in terrorism.

That is just like our innovation plan. We did not over a cup of coffee and a muffin say, well, what do you think our innovation plan should be, and write it on a napkin. We went out to the CEOs. We went out to the universities of higher learning. We went out to everyday, front-line employers and asked them what do you think we should do as it relates to innovation and where we are lagging. We went to students that are trying to get into the math and sciences and said what do you need.

We went out and we talked to America. We did not just come up with a plan in the back rooms, and we definitely did not get in a room with the special interests and say let us write a bill like the oil industry has had the opportunity to do and some other industries have had an opportunity to do.

I am not holding the oil industry or any other industry at fault here. They are just doing their job. I hold the Republican majority at fault that has allowed us to get in a situation that we are in now.

Real quick, I just want to make sure, just fresh from last night, from the Appropriations Committee, we offered amendments to strengthen how government reviews foreign transactions by mandating a review of all foreign transactions. That amendment was offered, and it was voted down. All Democrats voted for it. Republicans voted against it with the exception of one Republican that voted with the Democrats. That is strengthening, making sure that all transactions are reviewed, not just a few, but all so that we do not have to continue to walk down the same road.

The second vote that came about was by Mr. Sabo, basically providing $3.4 billion for critical homeland security shortfalls, including a $1.5 billion for port security needs. I think that it is important to say that, again: party-line vote, 27 Democrats voted for it, 34 Republicans voted against it.

I am glad that we get this information from the committees, and we are sharing with not only the Members who probably were not, there some Members with respect in the Appropriations Committee because all Members are not on the Appropriations Committee, but also, the American people should know. The American people should know exactly what we are trying to do here.

When I say trying, we are trying. If we were in the majority, it would be done. We would have all transactions reviewed dealing with foreign countries. It will happen. We would have had a Hurricane Katrina commission by now, and we would be taking action on what we should do to correct it, and so the oversight would have been different on Katrina. So I think it is important to bring these fresh votes to the floor, not even 24 hours ago.

So what you are saying, Mr. Ryan, is that education could have $250 billion; am I correct?

Like homeland security and veterans?

Just wanted to be clear.

OPEC countries.

I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) for spelling it out, and I do not want you to miss your plane. I want to thank you for coming down and sharing that information. We needed to hear it.

We have a number of Members running around here because they are following. They are following the Republican leadership on the Republican side and voting in a way that they probably could not go out on a street corner in their districts and if they were to ask 10 people, do you believe in this vote that I took, it would be probably two, maybe one and a half that may say that makes sense, give bigger subsidies to oil companies which are making record profits while we are paying more at the pump.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for putting the ``something'' into the 30-somethings.

Mr. Ryan, it comes down to leadership. That is the word, leadership, and making sure that the folks that woke up early one Tuesday morning to elect every Member of this House, if a Member leaves midterm, gets sick, whatever the case may be, I do not want to be in Congress any more, there has to be an election called and it has to be filled. The Governor cannot appoint someone like in the Senate.

I think it is important for us to be able to point out the irresponsibility that not only the President has carried out as it relates to being fiscally sound, not putting this country in a bad posture.

You have a chart there that talks about what we are facing right now. I am going to take maybe 5 minutes and go down the line, just in case a Member did not see us last night or the night before. I think it is important for everyone to understand what is going on.

Our good friend, Secretary Snow, the Secretary of the Treasury, wrote this letter about raising the debt ceiling on December 29, 2005. I was thinking about the new year, enjoying family. I was not in my office writing a letter saying we need to raise the debt ceiling. I do not blame Secretary Snow; I blame the policies of this Republican majority.

It says, ``We will be unable to continue to finance government operations.'' Basically, he is saying we have to raise the debt ceiling, but that is the punch line. That is enough to send me running saying we need to do something immediately.

If the Democrats were in control, we would not have to go through this process because we believe in balancing budgets. The Republican majority says we want to cut it in half, or eventually by the year 2084 we would cut it in half. We are not saying that. We have balanced the budget, and we are about paying as we go so we do not get further into debt.

Secretary Snow wrote to Mr. Spratt, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, just to say he has to now go into what they call the G Fund, the Government Security Investment Fund, that is for the Federal Employee Retirement System. They are saying they can no longer pay into that because there is no money to do it.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Ryan is 110 percent right.

Let me say this, Mr. Ryan. He says, starting today, February 16. Now that is when you have waited as long as you can. When you write a letter talking about an action that you are going to take on that day, the same day, not that we cannot do it a week from now. Not that we can't do it on the 18th; I cannot do it the day I sign this letter.

It must have been faxed.

March 6, this letter is very, very alarming. As you can see through our discussion, we have stamped the rubber stamp Congress onto it. We have this rubber stamp, and it should be very familiar to the Members right now.

This is about the fact that they are going to do exactly what the administration asked them to do, and that is why we are in this situation and not able to meet our obligations.

We are going to go down memory lane real quickly. This is saying for the first time in U.S. history we will not be able to meet our Federal Government obligation, our financial obligations. That means paying our bills if the debt ceiling is not raised immediately. The Secretary is going into in this letter that he is going to have to use his special powers that he has been given to divert and no longer pay into and suspend paying into not only the G Fund but other governmental accounts, and it has to happen as soon as possible.

Mr. Ryan, how did we get into this situation, and who do we owe? How did we make history? And when I say ``we,'' the Republican majority. Well, they made history by following the President, and by following the President, they made it in a wrong way, Mr. Speaker. No other time in the history of this country, no other time since the beginning of this country, and I am saying the history, and I am trying to crumble this thing down, since the beginning of the United States of America have we ever been in this situation and borrowing from foreign nations that is now reaching the 50 percent mark that we are going to owe foreign nations; $1.05 trillion we have borrowed from foreign nations.

We have the Republican Congress right under the President's picture because the President could not do it on his own. Forty-two Presidents, $1.01 trillion, 224 years; it took 224 years for 42 Presidents to borrow $1.01 trillion from foreign nations.

Mr. Ryan, that means that the Great Depression, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, all of the issues we have had as a country, they knew being financially sound as a country and paying our bills as we go, that borrowing, record-breaking borrowing from other countries was not a good thing to do, Democrats and Republicans. This President and this Republican Congress in 4 years.

So what is going to happen if we do not bring it under control now? You know we cannot do it alone. We have to have the majority to bring a stop to this.

Borrow and spend.

To be able to paint this even further for the Members, I am going to put a couple of countries up, more than a couple up, thanks to the Republican majority, that own a piece of the American pie. This bothers me in putting these countries up, but I think it is important that we spell it out.

Mr. Speaker, when American civilization 500-600 years from now, when they start digging into the Congressional Record to find out what happened at this time, because I will guarantee you this, and I was talking to a group of veterans that came to my office today, this Congress, this Republican Congress, the 109th Congress and the President of the United States will go down in history, not in history of, oh, wow, something great happened, history in saying what were they doing? How did we get to the point that we owe so many foreign nations money? How did they buy a piece of the American pie? Why wasn't this an alarming time?

We want them to be able to unearth this map here.

U.K., they own $223.2 billion of our debt. The U.K. did not make us do it; they just were available to say fine, because you are going to owe us.

Germany, that should mean something to some veterans, $65.7 billion of our debt.

Taiwan, folks talk about Taiwan, many of the toys that are floating around the United States are made in Taiwan; and what they are doing with

the money, they are buying our debt, $71.3 billion that they have of our debt.

Canada, the country just north of the United States of America, they own $53.8 billion of our debt.

Korea, and that should mean something to our veterans, $6.5 billion they have of our debt. We owe them.

OPEC nations, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, I can go down the line. OPEC nations, oil-producing nations, while we are here paying record- breaking prices for gas, they are flipping that around and getting a piece of the American pie financially at $67.8 billion, OPEC nations.

China, Red China.

Communist China, $249.8 billion of U.S. debt they have purchased. We owe them.

Japan, the island of Japan I must add, the island of Japan, not as big as the United States, but we owe them a whopping $682.8 billion. We owe them. The American people owe them. And we owe them because of the policies of the Republican majority and the White House.

Now, Mr. Ryan, let me say this. I do not care what party an American is affiliated with, if it is Republican, Democrat or Independent, or someone who does not vote at all. The bottom line is you are going to receive the tab for this. You are, not your children's children's children. You are. They are going to pay their fair share, but I guarantee if this Republican Congress continues to head down the track that it is heading down now, more countries will be on this map.

Like I said last night, when creditors call your house for you to pay them, they call you by your first name. They disrespect you from the beginning. They do not say, Mr. Ryan, maybe you can pay us whenever you feel like it. No, they say, Tim, you are going to pay this bill now. These are the terms; and if you do not do it, this is what we are going to do.

Mr. Speaker, I can see folks saying Mr. Tim Ryan and Mr. Kendrick Meek and Ms. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Delahunt and the rest of the 30-something Working Group, they are just down there talking fiction. This is fact. We should be alarmed. We are alarmed, and more Members of this House should be outraged by the fact that we have allowed these countries. It is not because of their doing; it is because of the votes that went down on a party-line basis, not votes that went down along lines that are in the better interests of the people of the United States of America.

I challenge Members to go to your constituents and say, is this okay with you all? Is it okay that foreign nations own $1.6 trillion of our debt? And this has all happened over a period of 4 years, and I want you to reelect me. I guarantee you there would not be a Member of this House that would put this on a T-shirt and say ``reelect me.'' That is the reason why people need to understand how important this is.

Mr. Ryan, I want to say something about that chart that is right behind you. I am going to tell you, Mr. Speaker, how the American people end up going through what we call here in Washington the Potomac two-step. I will break it down a little further, how they get fooled, what one may say, bamboozled, hoodwinked. You go that way; I am going this way.

Let me just quarterback this thing for a minute, Mr. Ryan. As you can see, the increase in foreign borrowing is $1.16 trillion on this chart. What the President has done and what this majority, the Republican House, has done, Mr. Speaker, is they have said, well, we will put it in this column and further down here in the corner where you have a $0.02 trillion increase in domestic borrowing, we do not want folks to really know what we are doing. We want to borrow from these other nations and let us make a big deal here at home because if we make a big deal here at home, maybe, just maybe, Mr. Ryan, the American people will say, wait, slow down, easy on that credit card.

That is an interest rate. It is a $230 billion interest rate per year, more than what we are investing in education, more than what we are investing in homeland security, since the President and the Republican majority are supposed to be the big homeland security people. More than what we are doing there.

Mr. Ryan, I know it is tough because I am living it, getting in this building at 8 o'clock in the morning, being in the middle of meetings, running from this end, going to committee meetings, going to try to figure out what happened in the secret port deal, running over here and trying to get over to Armed Services so that we could hopefully get the truth of what is happening in Iraq or what is really going on. You have to run over to your other committees and try to figure out what is happening, meanwhile answering constituents' phone calls.

And, Mr. Speaker, meeting about what is happening in this dome, trying to find out what is going on, talking to staffers, I am going to tell you, I am just going to come clean, Mr. Speaker, we have got Republican staffers talking to the 30-something group about what is going on in the back scenes. That is how bad it is right here. That is how bad it is.

Congressman, excuse me, do not look at me, I just want to tell you something.

Congressman, here is a little note here. Maybe you need to talk about this because this is happening.

That is how we are able to unearth this stuff. That is how we are able to share with people what is going on. We have got Americans emailing us, saying, Hey, I am in the military and I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Expose this.

The VA in my rural community is only open on the second Wednesday of each month, and they are talking about stopping that from happening.

Meanwhile, we have got folks around here advocating on behalf of billionaires, saying they want to make the tax cut permanent, or they want to give record-breaking subsidies to industries that are making record-breaking profits. And we have American families. Some are small businesses that are trying to provide health insurance for their employees, and we cannot help them?

The President marched down this aisle here. The Republican side stands up and claps, and we are all clapping when he comes in because he is the Commander in Chief and the President of the United States and the ``leader'' of the free world. And then we start talking about health care on only one side of the aisle. The Republican side can get up and start clapping. We are thinking the President is going to come with a comprehensive plan that we can all work together in a bipartisan way, a major paradigm shift in providing health care, Mr. Ryan.

No. What does he do? I just want to use an example. It is almost like going to the refrigerator, taking out a carton of milk, and saying, Oh, this is sour. Let me put it back in. Maybe it will be fresh tomorrow.

On the health care plan, they want to go back to health savings. There is already evidence that that is not working. We want to increase that plan. What do you have to do to be a part of the health savings plan? A, you have to have some savings. So you have to invest not only for your kid's college fund, where in the President's budget

and the Republican budget they are cutting student aid, and talk about innovation, that students will be able to compete against the kids in China and these other countries that are cleaning our clock right now as it relates to training and innovation and all these other areas, not because our students are not up to the fight. It is because we are not putting forth the kind of platform they need to be able to educate themselves financially.

So, Mr. Ryan, when we start talking about this issue of responsibility, it is not serving Americans enough for us to go the extra mile.

A supermajority of Members, Mr. Speaker, right now are already home. But let me tell you something. It is important that we continue to hammer at this nail.

Mr. Ryan, I want to commend you for doing what you do. And I know it is hard. I know it is hard to come here and do it, because we are doing it together along with other Members of this House.

But, Mr. Speaker, I am going to say it time after time, that we must stop using the credit card and spending it on things that are not improving U.S. cities, that are not protecting America, that are not educating our children, and that are not bringing down gas prices that Americans are paying through the nose for right now.

So it is important because we are in this thing together. And I am going to tell you it is almost like the Congress being in first class and the American people being in coach. If the plane is going down, we are going down together. And I think it is important that we put a stop to using this credit card.

Mr. Ryan, I want you to put that chart up again about how much we are paying on the debt service. I want you to put that up because that goes right into what I am talking about. I want you to explain it one more time because the reason why I was able to make it through school was that my teachers kept going over the stuff, and we have got to make sure that some folks are coachable here because this is the information that is prepared and we get this from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, also from the Budget Committee.

Mr. Ryan, would you just explain that so people will understand what I am saying.

For a change.

Mr. Ryan, I want you to get the Web site information up because I want to make sure Members have accurate information.

Also, I would just like to say that Members can go onto the Web site and get any of these charts that we have shared with them in the past and tonight so that they can see exactly what we are talking about if they need further information, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Ryan.

Mr. Ryan, I want to thank you. I want to thank Mr. Delahunt for being a part of this 30-something hour.

Mr. Speaker, we would like to thank the Democratic leadership for allowing us to have the time. It is an honor to address the House once again.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 7 p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until Monday, March 13, 2006, at 2 p.m.

If the gentleman will yield, let me just basically say, Mr. Delahunt, the bottom line is backroom deals are nothing new to the Republican majority. They do it every day, every hour.

That is the reason why we are in the situation we are in now as it relates to our fiscal situation. They are meeting with these special interests in the back halls of Congress, not here on the floor of the House, but in the back halls of Congress, and we wonder why things are the way they are.

Do you want to talk about irresponsibility? The bottom line is we can't even print them fast enough. Secretary Snow writes a letter saying we have to raise the debt limit or they will not be able to continue to finance government operations. That is on December 29.

There are so many letters, I just don't have time. The bottom line is here, February 16, just last month, again, the Secretary writes and says that we have to raise the debt limit, and if we don't do it, as a matter of fact, no, today, on February 16, he is going to have to go into the G fund, the retirement fund for Federal employees.

One more letter, Mr. Ryan, if you would bear with me. Here again, March 6, 2006, he is saying, hey, I am going to have to exercise some of the power that has been given to me by Congress. We no longer can operate unless you raise the debt limit.

The bottom line is, Mr. Delahunt, that you cannot believe what the Republican majority tells you as it relates to, oh, we want to cut the budget in half. Oh, trust us. We will make sure that we are fiscally responsible.

The bottom line is these letters by the Republican Secretary of Treasury, as a matter of fact, Mr. Snow, I think he is a nice guy. He is the accountant for the United States of America.

He is a CPA, and he lets us know when we are running out of money. The bottom line is that he is saying he has to take drastic steps. Never before, this last letter just written days ago, it says for the first time in the history of the United States of America, we may not be able to reach our obligations to foreign nations.

Madam Speaker, I think this is something we need to be very alarmed about, and we need to do something about versus being alarmed about, but we need to do something about it immediately.

I am glad that you are breaking this down so that Members understand exactly what we are talking about. I just want to say that all of these letters that we have received from Secretary Snow raising the debt limit, Madam Speaker, Republicans have given the administration and themselves these increases in the debt limit.

Mr. Ryan, can I just walk down there and just rubber-stamp that chart there? This rubber stamp says ``Official rubber stamp. I approve everything that George W. Bush does, Member of Congress.''

You can talk, sir, but I just want to have permission to come down there and rubber-stamp that, because all of these letters that have been written by Secretary Snow, I guarantee you that the Republican majority will grant him the raising of the debt ceiling so we can owe foreign countries more money.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Delahunt, you are 110 percent right. The bottom line is who is going to level with the American people, tell them the truth about what is going on? If you are not prepared, say you are not prepared and then take the steps to get us prepared.

The American people, we are an understanding people. We know we run into real issues every day in our own homes, but for the President to say, A, he did not know anything about possible levee breaks or individuals being in a detrimental situation and loss of life, the video proves that that is not the case. Time after time, again, this administration has been caught on camera, okay, saying one thing to the American people and something else is going on in the background.

As you know, we have asked for a Hurricane Katrina Commission, just like the 9/11 Commission, so we can get down to the bottom of this. It is not to say, hey, Mr. President, you were wrong; Louisiana, you were wrong; New Orleans, you were wrong; other gulf coast cities, you were wrong; and Mississippi, you were wrong. It is not finger pointing. It is making sure that we correct it. If we find ourselves in a bad situation, we have got to make sure we correct it.

Speaking of correction, I think it is important that we share, Madam Speaker, the fact that we are going down almost a path of no return. This Republican majority, Madam Speaker, is out of control, out of control in a way that they are borrowing as much money as they can possibly borrow from who? Foreign nations, foreign nations that we have questions about.

There was just some press accounts today talking about Iran. Iran's President is shooting verbally back at the United States of America, saying, bring it on. The bottom line is that this administration has put us in a posture, Madam Speaker, to where that if we say something about Iran, that we want to get serious with, and they should not chuckle when we say it, and that is what is happening right now.

As it relates to fiscal responsibility, I just want to speak for a moment very boldly on the fact that we have tried to do everything we can as a minority, and as you know, as the minority party, we do not have the votes to be able to push the policy in the direction we need to push it, pay-as-you-go. When you are in a situation, when you are borrowing more from countries, record-breaking borrowing from countries that at $1.05 trillion, let me just

add the Republican Congress to that because the President cannot do it by himself, $1.05 trillion from foreign Nations, more than any other time in the history of the Republic in 4 years, from 2001 to 2005, versus 42 Presidents before this President and this Congress were only able to borrow $1.01 trillion from foreign nations in 224 years, it is alarming. I want to say that we have tried to stop that from happening.

On March 30, 2004, Republicans voted by a 209-209 to reject the motion by Representative Mike Thompson of California, who is a Democrat, to instruct conferees to use pay-as-you-go policies. Also, again in 2004, vote number 97, we believe in third-party validators, they voted down. Similar vote on May 5, 2004, Republicans voted 208- 215, Republicans on the 215 part, to reject a motion by Representative Dennis Moore, once again Democrat. In 2004, vote number 145, similar vote on November 18, 2004, Republicans voted to block an amendment by Representative Stenholm, who is no longer in Congress, to not raise the debt limit and to be able to use pay-as-you-go.

Mr. Ryan has two other examples there that are recent that Mr. Spratt has put forth, pay-as-you-go amendments. Again, Republicans voted against it. Again, Mr. Spratt did it, and H. Res. 393 in 2005, budget resolution, failed. No Republicans voted for it, bottom line. I am trying to read the chart from here.

Let me just say this, Madam Speaker. I think it is important that we document this and we share this with the majority and with all of the Members that we have done everything in our power to stop this Republican Congress from putting this country in further debt to foreign nations. That is incompetence. That is jeopardizing America's security. That is jeopardizing America's financial security.

If anyone knows what it means when a creditor calls your house talking about you need to pay me, you know exactly what I am talking about. The creditor calls your house, they call you by your first name. They disrespect you from the beginning, and no other time in the history of the country, this is not Democratic stuff, this is U.S. Department of Treasury information that we have here, they are disrespecting the United States of America. Democrats have nothing to do with that. We have tried to turn the tide on the dependency that this Republican Congress has in raising the debt limit.

Now, the Secretary of Treasury has asked us to raise the debt limit again by $821 billion. That is going again to allow Iran, Japan, Red China and other countries, OPEC countries, Iran, Iraq, Madam Speaker, Korea, that should mean something to some of our veterans that allowed us to salute one flag. This is a problem. This is a major problem. That is a problem that not only Democrats, Republicans and Independents should be concerned about, but the Americans that are not voting now need to rise up and say enough is enough.

Madam Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I think it is important for us to realize the history of this in the wrong way, in the wrong way. This is not something that we have dreamed up. This is not something that just happened yesterday.

I am just going to read what Secretary Snow said, Secretary of the Treasury, appointed by the President, confirmed by the Republican Senate. I think you have to pay attention to what he said. This is not what we are saying but what the Secretary said.

In a letter to Congress he urged lawmakers to pass a new debt limit ceiling immediately to avoid the first default on its obligations in U.S. history. For the first time in U.S. history. This is a Republican Congress saying trust me, a Republican White House saying trust me, a Republican Senate saying trust me, we know what we are doing. The first time in U.S. history. That is a fact. That is from the lips of the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

He goes on to say that the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government, he is saying to the leaders of the House and Senate, that the full faith and credit commitment, referring to the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution, that we will pay our bills. What he is saying now is that for the first time in U.S. history we will not be able to pay our bills. This is not a situation created by us. We tried to stop it with PAYGO and went through the whole process with that. This is the Secretary of the United States Department of Treasury.

I am sorry, Mr. Ryan, you are going to have to yield to me.

Mr. Ryan, you have to yield to me. The President has said that he has not known about a lot of things and then we found out later.

He thinks someone might have said something to him about it.

Let me just say this, Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Democrats on this side of the aisle have great credibility when it comes to homeland security. Great credibility. I am on the Homeland Security Committee. We asked the Department of Homeland Security.

Madam Speaker, we brought the President and the Republican majority along, kicking and fighting, not to do it. Now, we did it, but they do not want to provide the oversight, when I am saying the Republican majority.

I just want to mention a few things now that we are getting into this subject, because I want to put what we are doing first versus what they are not doing.

September 29, during a meeting of House and Senate conferees, Democratic Congressmen Obey and Sabo and Senator Byrd offered an amendment to increase funding for port container security by $300 million. House conferees defeated the amendment on party-line votes.

2004, October 7. During also a House and Senate conference committee, the same Democratic Members offered an amendment to increase and enhance funding by $150 million. Republicans defeated it on a party- line vote.

On June 18, 2004, Democrats supported the same amendment to increase port and container security by $400 million, because this is what the Coast Guard is calling for, Mr. Delahunt.

This is not where we are just picking a number out of the sky. And this is not all they need. We are trying to give them a little bit more, and I will yield to Ms. Wasserman Schultz in a minute and she will talk about what is being checked and what is not being checked.

We are trying to do something about it. We are trying to protect America. So it goes on, Mr. Delahunt, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and it goes on and on. If we had enough time, I could read all this off.

So when folks start talking about where are the Democrats on this issue, just because the Republicans say it, it does not necessarily mean it is true. We have facts, Madam Speaker, and the Congressional Record on our side and commitment to the American people and the safety of our country on our side.

The bottom line is that the Republican majority talks about things, and we do things. When we are in the majority, we will do it. We will not talk about it. We will talk about what we have done and how we are doing it.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz, can you share with the Members this chart?

The U.S. Coast Guard.

Parliamentary inquiry, Madam Speaker, did you use the word ``rhetoric'' at the beginning?

Madam Speaker, thank you very much for the information.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Gunnery Sergeant Lorenzo V. Chance, who is retiring after more than 22 years of service in the United States Marine Corps.

Gunnery Sergeant Chance was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina where he graduated from Cape Fear High School in 1983. He began his military career at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Paris Island, South Carolina, where he attended basic training in 1984. His assignments included the MOS's of Rifleman, Administrative Chief, Drill Instructor, and Marksmanship Instructor.

Throughout his distinguished career, Gunnery Sergeant Chance has served in a wide variety of assignments in the Marine Corps including:

September 1984-1986--Administrative Clerk, HQMC Manpower Branch;

November 1986-December 1987--Embarkation NCO Marine Wing Headquarter Squadron-1 Okinawa, Japan;

January 1988-December 1991--HQMC Programs and Resources Division, Assistant Security Manager ensuring the personnel, physical, and information security of a division of 60 persons, hundreds of highly- sensitive documents, and equipment;

January 1992-June 1995--Military Entrance Processing Station Montgomery, AL, Processing Specialist, interviewing and processing thousands of applicants into the U.S. Armed Forces;

July 1995-November 1997--Paris Island, SC, Senior Drill Instructor Third RTBN, K Company and, Operations Chief/Acting First Sergeant, Support BN, Special Training Company, a direct impact in the ``Making of Marines'';

December 1997-April 2002--HQMC PP&O, Current Operations Branch, Marine Corps Command Center where he served as an Assistant Watch; Team Chief, SNCOIC Marine Corps Exercises Employment Program, and Post 9/11 Crisis Action Team Operations Chief. During this period he was also assigned various other duties, including service as a Member of the Headquarters Marine Corps, Inspector General's Readiness Assessment Team, responsibility for globally inspecting Marine Corps units for deployment capability and, in the 2000 Presidential Inaugural Committee, SNCOIC of the Street Cordon.

Finally, from May 2002 through November 2005, Gunnery Sergeant Chance served the 435 Members of both the 108th and 109th Congress as SNCOIC Marine Corps Congressional Liaison Office. He was also the Senior Enlisted service member to the U.S. House of Representatives during this period. During this period, Gunnery Sergeant Chance was responsible for directing, and organizing numerous congressional and staff delegations around the world. His attention to detail in making these very important trips logistically successful is noteworthy.

Gunnery Sergeant Chance has been very effective in carrying the Marine's message to the halls of Congress. By his exemplary professional competence, sound judgment, and total dedication to duty, Gunnery Sergeant Chance has reflected great credit upon himself and has always upheld the highest traditions of the United States Marine Corps. He has made a lasting contribution to the capability of today's Marine Corps and has helped shape the future of tomorrow's Corps.

His superior performance of his duties highlights more than 22 years of honorable and dedicated Marine Corps service. I know that my many colleagues who have come to know and rely on Gunnery Sergeant Chance extend to him our warmest thanks for his service and our best wishes for happiness and success in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to once again address the

U.S. House of Representatives. We would like to thank the Democratic leadership for the time, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and our Democratic whip, Mr. Steny Hoyer, and also Mr. James Clyburn, who is our chairperson.

Also, we would like to come to the floor once again, Mr. Speaker, to share not only with the Members but with the American people the priorities not only of the Democratic Party, but of this side of the aisle on the Democratic side, and also the priorities of all Americans. Our vice chair, Mr. John Larson, communicates in the best way to many, many Democrats, Republicans, and Independents about our plan on this side of the aisle.

It would not be a plan, it would actually be action if we were in the majority. I think it is important to come up with a comprehensive approach, Mr. Speaker, and using a team effort to move us in the right direction as a country; whether it be homeland security, innovation, affordable health care, or other initiatives that we all embrace. If we can come together in a bipartisan way, then America will be stronger, and also other countries throughout the world will be stronger based on our leadership.

Unfortunately, we are not providing that leadership right now. When I say ``we,'' I am talking about the Republican majority coming together with Democrats and finding a bipartisan way to approach many of the issues that are facing our country right now. That is very, very unfortunate. The work of the 30-something Working Group is to make sure that we can promote ideas that all Americans embrace, not just Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, but all Americans, even those that are not taking part in the voting process that we have throughout the country.

One may call it apathy of voting, but I think that I would phrase it as a number of Americans having very little trust in this system, very little trust in what goes on here in the Congress, very little trust in what happens over at the White House. And I think it is very, very important that we have a paradigm shift. I will go further and add that we need a shift in thinking here in Washington, DC, so that all Americans feel a part of this process; so that all Americans feel that they are being leveled with; and that all Americans know that the individuals that they elected from their communities, their cities or counties, that they have their best interests at heart when they come here to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Today we are going to talk about a number of issues, issues that are facing everyday Americans and things that we should be promoting here as Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, some of the things I think are very disturbing that not only I am reading in the paper but Americans are reading in the paper and watching on the news.

The whole issue as it as relates to port deals, America being sold off not by foreign countries but by the policy that we pass here on this floor that have accumulated more debt in 4 years to foreign nations, foreign nations are buying U.S. debt, unprecedented in the history of the Republic. Ever since we have been a country, no other time such as this time have other countries owned so much of our debt. I think it is important for us to remember because there are a number of my constituents and a number of Americans that have fought hard. Literally, their grandparents have fought hard for them to salute one flag. I think we are putting that spirit, that good history that we have and the future they fought for to allow our children and grandchildren to salute one flag, not to have foreign interests owning our debt. I think it is very, very important that we pay close attention to that.

I am glad to be joined tonight by Ms. Wasserman Schultz from South Florida.

Congresswoman, I am glad we are continuing to have a level of consistency on not only challenging the Republican majority. The gentlewoman knows if we were in the majority, it would not be talk. We would be on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives talking about things that would make the lives better of Americans. I think the only thing that is stopping us from doing that is having enough votes in this House to have that vision turn into reality. I look forward to that day because I believe in this year Americans will have an opportunity to be able to promote their ideas and what they feel. Be it a Democrat, a Republican, a Green Party or an Independent, or a brand new voter, they will be able to have their voice heard.

We like third-party validators, and I think it is important for the American people to understand this is not something that Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Ryan or other members of the 30-something Working Group just dream up. I think it is important as an American, leave alone a Member of Congress. I am alarmed and very, very concerned about what is happening. I have children. I pray to God that they have children and the family line continues.

But I am concerned about right now. I am concerned about what is happening as relates to the irresponsible policies that have been passed by the Republican majority.

We are all friends. We all put our pants on one leg at a time, or what have you, but I think it is important that we alert Americans about this unprecedented time in the history of the country. I am saying right now as we speak, this moment.

I want to hold up, this is an article that came out today. It is an AP story. Any of the Members in their office can pull this up from the AP Web site. I think it is important. It says ``Treasury Details Its Steps to Avoid Debt Limit.'' I want to read a couple of paragraphs here. Treasury Secretary John Snow, and this is Secretary Snow, he is a good guy. He is just an accountant for the United States of America. We appreciate his service and what he does in the Treasury Department. But John Snow told the Congress yesterday that the administration has taken all prudent and legal actions, to include tapping certain government retirement funds, to keep from reaching the $8.2 trillion national debt limit.

Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned about this because now we are tapping into funds that not only Federal workers but the people on the United States of America count on us to be able to govern correctly. In a letter to Congress, Snow urged lawmakers to pass a new debt ceiling immediately to avoid the first default on obligations in U.S. history.

Mr. Speaker, I am not talking about something that I embellished. This is what Mr. Snow said from the Treasury Department.

If I am the Republican majority, leave alone the leadership, I would be alarmed. I would sit up in my bed and say, we have to do something about it. What is unfortunate is that I know, as sure as my name is Kendrick Meek, representing Florida's 17th Congressional District, and by that we have been validated to represent the people of the United States of America, I know the Republican majority is going to rubber- stamp what Secretary Snow needs, because it is an outrageous example of the kind of spending and borrowing that this majority has taken us into.

I think it is important to promote what we have been trying to do on this floor as Democrats, time after time again, promoting pay-as-you-go versus borrowing. We are not out of control, the Republican majority is out of control. It is not just me name calling or finger pointing. This is fact, not fiction. I can see if it were fiction and if we were doing what we call in Washington, DC, the Potomac two step. I go left, you go right; no, this is what is printed not only in the Congressional Record, when you have the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Republican Senate, we have to be very alarmed. For Republicans and Independents that are paying attention to what we are saying on this floor, and other parties, they cannot say oh, that is just the Democrats glossing over the facts.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz, there have been in this Republican House, and I am just going to talk about President Bush being in office, this Republican majority, I am going to point the letters out and let you go ahead and drive your point.

December 29, a letter written, Mr. Speaker, in the closing days of 2005, the closing days, the 29th. Americans think about what they were doing on the 29th. Many Americans were off work, those that had jobs and what have you, celebrating with their families, thinking about the new year.

Secretary Snow found his way to the office to send this letter to one of our colleagues over in the Congress, over in the Senate, that says, ``We must raise the debt limit or we will be unable to continue to finance government operations.''

That is just for this round. I mean, I think it is important that we get staff to be able to get the rest of the letters that Secretary Snow wrote.

Here is a letter just written in February, February 16. This letter is to the ranking member, Mr. John Spratt, who is the ranking member on the Democratic side, again saying, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, we must do this now, Mr. Speaker, saying we must raise this debt limit as soon as possible or they are going to have to go into the Federal retirement system and stop paying into that system.

I want to say to the Federal workers, because we believe in third party validators and also believe in telling the truth, the Secretary goes on to say, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, he believes once the debt limit is raised, we will be able to pay back into the retirement system.

These letters are coming so fast and furious, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, we can't get them up on the big board. Here is a letter, March 6, that was just yesterday. Secretary Snow, this is alarming, he is saying, did you receive my two letters beforehand?

Then he talks to the press. We have a problem. NASA is also located in Florida, but also in Houston, but Houston, we have a problem. He is saying to the United States Congress, we have a problem.

How did we come about the problem and having to raise the debt ceiling? It is because of the policies of the Republican majority that have rubber stamped everything the President said do.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz, yes, there are a number of letters and alarms going off.

President Bush.

The question, Mr. Speaker here is, does the Republican majority have the will and the desire to make the kind of change we need to take or make to protect this country? The will and the desire.

Now, the will may be there, but the desire is questionable. And I think it is important, because there are other priorities that the Republican majority, and I would say some of them join in with some of us Democrats, very few, unfortunately, it is in the single digits, because we are not able to promote some of things that we need to promote to protect this country.

Now over the weekend, there were a lot of pundits out there talking about, wow, you know, this thing may very well change, this thing meaning the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, because the Republican majority, Mr. Speaker, has fumbled the ball time after time again.

Since this is now NCAA time, they have lost the ball when they were supposed to shoot a shot on behalf of protecting this country. The other team is taking it the other way. I think it is important to get in the spirit. We have to break this thing down so that we all understand. Some people say we need to put the cookie on the bottom shelf so that everyone can reach.

I think it is important. I am using a metaphor, but I think it is important that everyone understands. Folks are wondering why we are alarmed. Now I can tell you, I speak here with great confidence, Mr. Speaker, because I have the facts here not fiction. I think it is important, Mr. Ryan, that we share with people that on January 29, 2005, during a meeting of the House and Senate conferees, our ranking Member on Appropriations, Mr. Obey, offered,

along with Senator Byrd, one of the longest-serving Senators over in the Senate, offered an amendment to increase funding for port and container security by $300 million.

The house conferees defeated the amendment along party lines. When we say along party lines, I want to make sure the Members understand. That means Republicans voted one way against that, increasing the funding so that we can be able to do what was said, secure the containers more.

Can we get that container chart up here, because I want to make sure, just in case the Republican majority, some of the Members have their television turned down, that they are able to see what we are talking about. Because I think it is important. There it is right there. It is already there.

These containers here that are being checked, the 5 percent of them, and I am questioning that as a Member of the Homeland Security Committee if it is really 5 percent. As Democrats, Mr. Speaker, we are not saying that we want to do something about it, we are trying to do something about it. But the Republican majority is not allowing us to do so.

And we want to make sure that we share with them, because we want their constituents to know and we want our constituents to know that we are fighting on their behalf. All of us are Americans saluting one flag.

On October 7, 2005, during a meeting of House and Senate conferees, that is when House and Senate Members come together. When the House and Senate pass their individual bills, they select certain Members to be able to go into a room and work out the differences between that bill.

That goes back to in our generation a cartoon, I am Just a Bill on Capitol Hill. Again, Senator Byrd and Representative Obey, offered an amendment to increase funding to enhance port security by $150 million, Republicans defeated it on a party-line vote.

I wanted to do a couple more.

Mr. Ryan, wait. Hasn't the President and the Republican majority said, we want to listen to people in the field and give them what they need when they ask for it? Am I correct?

We are trying to work in a bipartisan way.

Mr. Ryan, it is not a point. This is fact, Mr. Speaker. I think it is important that we say June 18, 2004, Democrats supported an amendment to increase port container security by $400 million. Republicans have refused to allow it to be considered, the amendment to be considered. That means they moved on a procedural way.

June 9, 2004, Democrats supported Obey amendment once again in Appropriations Committee to increase container security by $400 million. Republicans defeated it on a party-line vote. That is House report 108-541, page 128.

Now, we have all of this stuff that will be on the Web site, Mr. Speaker, so that other Members can get to it, and it goes on and on and on.

Enough of this, the Democrats do not have plans. That is what the majority wants you to believe. We have plans. Unfortunately, they cannot be reality because the Republican majority does not want to work in a bipartisan way. And it is upsetting. It is beyond upsetting because our country is being jeopardized. Meanwhile, we have individuals that are hired by the Republican majority going out here talking to these cable shows and Sunday shows on spend. This is not about spend. This is about making America stronger and more secure.

The bottom line is the reason why, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, many of the Republicans are getting a little shaky now, because on this subject, Mr. Speaker, we have been on top of it. The record speaks for itself. Fiscal responsibility: we have been on top of it. On securing America: we have been on top of it. On innovation: there is not an issue that Americans are looking for that we have not tried to address and continued to try to address even though we are in the minority. Being in the minority is not an excuse for us. It is just something that does not allow us procedurally to allow these American ideas to bubble up and allow the American people to be prepared.

You want to talk about fuel. We can talk about that too. You can talk about energy. We can do all of these things. But until the American people truly understand that what they hear from the Republican majority is not necessarily fact, then we are going to continue to go in the wrong direction as it relates to the history of this country.

Being a Member of this Congress, I almost feel that we are just as important as the Continental Congress, the first Congress, because now, no other time in the history of the country have we been in this kind of posture as a country, not due to the fact what folks are doing on foreign soil. It is what the Republican majority is doing to us right now based on friends and family and a number of things that have taken place in this Chamber unprecedented.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz, I am sorry, I wanted to make sure I got that out because I think it is important, not only third-party validators, the Congressional Record, and actions we have taken, because it does not upset me, the fact that this stuff is not being reported the way it should be reported; but I am extremely concerned about the fact that we have the Republican majority that is not even shaken by this. Meanwhile, 50 percent of our debt, almost 50 percent of our debt is being owned by foreign interests.

Mr. Speaker, it is a no-brainer, and we called for a vote last week, Mr. Speaker, to stop the port deal, period. Forty-five days for what? What do we have to think about here? That 45 days later we are going to say it is okay for foreign interests to be able to operate six of our major ports, including New York, that the whole thing, 9/11, should mean something? Our major ports, fine, that is okay, but let me tell you something, we do not have to wait 45 days to not do the deal. You got folks in the Republican majority who say, well, you know, after 45-days we are going to--after 45 days, the facts are still going to be the facts.

The Coast Guard raised the question of security as it relates to this port deal, and deals like this happen every day here in Washington, D.C., under this Republican majority and this White House. The President dared the Congress to pass a bill because he would veto it. That is on the record. I did not say it. He said it.

You know something, I would like to tell the Republican majority to leader it. We are trying to call for a vote, and I guarantee you there will be another attempt to call a vote this week. We want to separate the leaders from the followers. We say we want to balance the budget, which we have done. The Republican majority say they want to cut it in half. You take the choice what you want. Do you want to continue to have foreign countries buy our debt? But that is for individuals willing to be followers. The thing about the United States is we believe in leadership. We want to lead. We do not want to follow.

The bottom line is the Republican majority is fine with following economically, following as it relates to leadership on this port deal. They have a problem because they have been rubber stamping everything that the President has said. The President says let us turn right, okay, let us turn right; okay, let us turn left, they turn left. That is not what the Constitution says.

We did not stand out in front of the precinct saying, hey, I am running for Congress; I am willing to do everything that the President asks me to do, regardless of how you feel about it. That is not what we ran for office for, Mr. Speaker.

So when we look at these deals, I think it is very, very important. Secretary Snow is asking us to raise the debt ceiling by $82 billion. Who is going to buy that debt? Who is going to buy it?

Can I for a minute talk about who is buying it and who will buy it? Here is my map here again. This is not a weather map. This is a map to talk about who is going to buy this $821 billion that Secretary Snow is calling for, not because he feels like it. It is because he has to.

I am going to start off with the big one. Japan, $862 billion of our debt. Japan is not a county anywhere in any of these States. China, Red China, China has all the jobs. China, that has a positive trade with the United States but we do not have positive trade with them, are buying up our country while

the Republican majority is sitting here saying do not worry about it America, trust us. The UK, $223.2 billion owned of the United States of America debt. Taiwan, $71.3 billion. Korea, that should ring a bell with some people and especially some of our veterans, $66.5 billion. Germany, Germany should ring a bell with some of our veterans, $65.7 billion of our debt, and Canada, just north of, us $53.8 billion. OPEC Nations, oh, wow, who are they? It happens to be Saudi Arabia, happens to be Iran, happens to be Iraq.

$67.8 billion. So, Mr. Speaker, when we start talking about raising the debt ceiling and responsibility, we balanced the budget. We did not have these issues. When I say ``we,'' I am saying the Democratic Congress balanced the budget without a single Republican vote.

The reason why I speak boldly on this issue is the fact that it is fact and it is not fiction and that we are sharing it with them. The real issue, when you talk about the ports, some Members may say the bill that you have and a number of Members signed on to in the Senate, a number of Members who have signed on to it, Mr. Speaker, they are saying, well, you know, I do not represent a port city or a coastal city so I do not have anything to worry about. Well, guess what, these containers that we see here are all throughout America because these containers are loaded on to trucks and trains, and they go through America. If a terrorist wants to put a nuclear device in one of these containers to be put into activation in a certain U.S. city, they have the power to do so because they know that we only check 5 percent. That is not because we cannot check more. It is because we cannot get amendments passed here as Democrats in the minority to check more and protect America. So I think it is important we do it.

I did but go over it again.

Mr. Ryan, you are 110 percent right. As we close, Mr. Speaker, since we have only 3 minutes or so left, once again we have seen this chart, and as I have said before, it will be in the National Archives. We are not trying to make history, but just to report what is going on here so the American people will know this.

In 224 years of great history in this great country of ours, 1776 to 2000, 42 Presidents, $1.01 trillion was borrowed from foreign nations. That is 224 years. And in 4 years, from 2001 to 2005, President Bush, and we don't want to leave out the Republican Congress, borrowed $1.05 trillion from foreign nations, in 4 years, jeopardizing the financial security of this country.

Mr. Ryan, you are 110 percent right to be alarmed.

You are 110 percent right to be alarmed.

Mr. Speaker, I challenge the Republican majority to give us a good way to talk about this. They can't. They can't, Mr. Speaker. We hope we can have what we call a paradigm shift, a change in the way we do business here in Washington, D.C., not on behalf of the Democratic Party but on behalf of the American people.

So we are looking for a comprehensive game plan, Mr. Speaker, because we have one. We have one on this side. History is on our side. The precedent is on our side of trying to do something about it. We ask for the majority to join us in this.

Mr. Speaker, with that we would like to thank not only the Democratic leadership but also many of us here in the House who are trying to work hard on behalf of the American people. I know we all are, but I think it is important that we bring these issues to the forefront.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 11 o'clock and 45 minutes p.m.), the House adjourned until tomorrow, March 8, 2006, at 10 a.m.

Madam Speaker, I would like to yield to my good friend from Virginia.

Thank you. We in the 30-something Working Group, and as other Members come to the floor, we talk about these issues that are facing Americans and this issue of selling off our country, borrowing off of our country to foreign nations. You start talking about China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, even the Caribbean countries. They cannot do it by themselves. They have been able to accumulate over 45 percent of your debt thus far because the Republican majority has handed it to them.

I must say, you are a part of Congress, and a number of you who are part of Congress were on the floor when we balanced the budget. The Republicans are talking about cutting it in half. We actually have experience in following through on our side. So we have to continue to come to the floor and share not only with the Members but with the American people about what we can do and what we want to do. We do not want to sell off our country, and that is what it is all about.

The work that you all do in the Budget Committee is so very, very important to us all.

You are welcome. I must say, Madam Speaker, it is an honor to come to the floor once again. I know that the Members appreciate the information that we provide to not only the Democratic Members but also Members of the Republican side, the majority. I think it is also important for us to point out issues that are working against Americans and those issues and bipartisan pieces of legislation that are working for America. And we have to see more of that.

I think it is important for us to also reflect on the fact that right now more than ever we need to have a forward lean in getting our fiscal house in order as we start moving through this budget process and also making sure we come clean with the American people on all fronts.

This afternoon we are going to not only talk about our fiscal house but we are also going to talk about making sure we are straight with the American people. The whole reason we come to the floor is there are so many disturbing things that are happening in our country. I am not talking about everyday Americans. I am talking about those who are elected to come here and represent, need it be a lack of oversight or need it be something that the executive branch has done, that this Congress, the majority side has rubber stamped.

Here on this side we have a number of examples of how we have tried to put America back on the right track, not only in leveling with them on homeland security, leveling with the American people as it relates to protecting our ports and our airports and seaports, but also as it relates to the dollar. A lot has happened in the last 4 years, and we have to share that information with them.

I am so glad my good friend and also a part of the 30-something Working Group, Mr. Artur Davis from Alabama, is continuing on. I know you were part of the last hour with the Budget Committee. I appreciate the work that you all have done thus far, the work that you are doing, looking at what the President has done.

I was hoping maybe you could shed some light on when we start talking about the President during the State of the Union. We were both here. He talked about innovation. He talked about it; and when he released his budget, I heard the talk, but I did not see the walk afterwards as it relates to the fiscal situation. But I appreciate your work on the committee, and maybe you can shed some more light on this, sir.

Madam Speaker, I mean, we are willing to follow the rules. We are ready. We are ready to do what we have to do to be able to put this country on the right track.

The bottom line is that the Republican majority, time after time, because they are not doing their job by keeping the executive branch in check, Madam Speaker, things like videos that are broadcast throughout the world, commander-in-chief says I did not know anything about Hurricane Katrina, it was a shock to me, I learned 72 hours after the hurricane, blankets and everything is on the way to New Orleans, and we are going to do what we have got to do. Then lo and behold, in this great democracy of ours, a video surfaces where the President was informed of the power of this hurricane and that 12,000 people evacuated or went to some sort of high ground in the Superdome and that we are going to have massive flooding, and that this was bigger than Hurricane Andrew that hit my community almost 12 years ago, Madam Speaker. The President's in Crawford, Texas, on video phone, and he says we are ready and we are prepared to respond. Then he shows up a couple of days later, goes back to the White House acting like he is shocked.

That is what I am talking about, leveling with the people, but it is easy to say that you do not know because you have said it before. Well, I did not know anything about the intelligence, no one told me, no one told me about a special port deal dealing with the questionable, quote, unquote, new ally. No one told me; I did not know. I feel sorry for the White House spokesperson. Goodness gracious. I mean, the guy must have an ulcer by now because he has to come week after week, day after day now, and say, well, you know, we did not know, we did not know.

I am sick and tired, and I do not care, if I had no party affiliation in this House, I am sick and tired of folks here in Washington saying they do not know. Somebody knows. This stuff just does not happen on its own, and it is very, very wrong for someone to sit up here and insult the American people. I think the American people have had enough of this stuff. The polling indicates they have had enough of it and the Republican majority.

We are here saying let us get together on innovation. Let us make sure our country is ahead of other countries in innovation and the sciences and math. Let us educate our children in broadband access. We are here with this innovation document almost every day. Madam Speaker, we encourage Members to go on housedemocrats.gov. We say it every day. This has been out for several weeks. The ink's pretty dry. We can bring the big binder down here if someone wants to get a copy of that.

They do not want to level with the American people. We have got men and women in harm's way right now based on weapons of mass destruction, and a lot of folks are running around here saying we did not know. We have got CIA agents that have been outed; oh, I did not know anything about that; I do not know how that happened; I do not even know the lady. Okay.

I just want to go down memory lane here, and it is continuing to unfold. Here the Republican majority just last year this time, well, let us just put it this way, 3 months ago, this time embracing and boasting about the K Street Project. Yes, we have the K Street Project, and guess what, if the lobbyists are not in tune with us, then they do not even get to come into our office, if they are not a part of the K Street Project.

It is basically you pay your dues to the Republican National Committee or the Republican Congressional Committee and you get access. Oh, well, that is fine. And are you a part of that project? And Democrats, who if they even have a Democratic affiliation, they could not even go into a lobbying firm. They had to be okayed and checked off by this so-called K Street Project that grew out of the Capitol, not into the Capitol.

So I do not blame lobbyists and special interests for that. I blame folks that walk in here and have voting cards just like we do on the majority side.

I am going to say this, too, Madam Speaker, it is disturbing. Folks run around here saying we need lobbying reform. Well, you know, I do not recall the lobbyists walking in here knocking on the door of the Republican majority, saying you know something, I want you to make me contribute to your campaign; I want you to make me hire your ex- staffers; I want you to make me do things that I ordinarily would not do because I think I need to have some sort of approach for the best person; but if you send a person to me and I want to have access to this House, to this Senate and to the White House, I have got to play by your rules.

I doubt if that happened. I guarantee you that did not happen, and now after a certain lobbyist has said guess what, you are an attorney and you were educated at one of the best schools here in this country. A man says, okay, I know you accuse me of being a part of the Washington inside game, what a lobbyist does, he goes to trial, do we have to go through a jury pool selection? The guy says I am guilty, right here, handcuff me, please hurry up before I do something else, and I am willing to help you with some folks on Capitol Hill that I did business with on a daily basis for access into the process, okay, then the Republican majority comes out and says that K Street Project, hey, that is wrong. All right. Well, there is something really, really wrong with that.

Then you wonder exactly what you are talking about, how did we get to allowing countries to borrow $1.16 trillion of the American apple pie. How did Japan infiltrate the United States of America, owning a piece of the American pie? How did Red China get into it? How did the OPEC Nations like Saudi Arabia and other questionable lists get there when people start talking about this?

So when folks come to the floor and try to have a moment of clarity, I have to kind of just stand up and say, hey, the 30 Something Working Group, we have been talking about this stuff. Folks can talk about a green assault or they can come with a positive message. I am going to take from Mr. Ryan. You show me a way to talk positively, how we are selling our country off to foreign Nations and we will do it if it is okay.

I know Mr. Ryan wants to say something, and I am going to go to Mr. Davis because he has been holding something for a very long time, but I had to get that out, because as an American, let us just put the Democratic thing aside.

This is our country, too. This is our country, too, but Madam Speaker, I may represent too many veterans, too many troops in harm's way, allowing us to salute one flag. Maybe I am just a little bit too attached to my constituency, but I tell you one thing, they defended this country for us to be up here in this chamber representing them in a way they should be represented.

I will be doggone if we let whoever it is in the majority or what have you run this country, continue to run this country into the ground, and we do not have the prerogative to say anything.

We are in the minority. There is very little we can do because we cannot put a bill on the floor, but we are going to do everything we can do to step on the line, cross the line, because this country's being sold over to foreign Nations, and folks are running around here talking about security. They do not even want to level with the American people even about a hurricane.

Well, Mr. Davis, the bottom line is, and Mr. Ryan said it last night and I will say it again, the American public is very coachable. The bottom line is: So shall it be written, so shall it be done out of the White House, and we have got to protect the President.

Let me tell you something. The President has Secret Service, all that good stuff, and about 100 staffers, or more than that.

A thousand staffers. A whole army of them wearing suits. And I will tell you this. Everyone respects the commander in chief, but the thing about our Constitution, our democracy, and the three branches of government means that we don't have to follow the President when he is heading us down the road.

He is not a king. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Thank you for making that very clear.

But it seems that folks don't understand that that is the case.

Now, I have Republican constituents that are very highly upset. Some of them got into the Republican Party looking for fiscal responsibility because that is all they sold, Madam Speaker. But the bottom line is, when you look in the final analysis, who is spending the money now? Who is borrowing the money now?

The thing is, we balanced the budget. We had surpluses as far as the eye could see, yet within a matter of a few, short, single-digit years this country is far beyond a point of return if we don't stop this Republican Congress from doing what they are doing.

He is real good.

You are friends, Mr. Ryan.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz just joined us, and I can tell both my colleagues right now what is wrong here. We talk about folks not leveling with the American people, which is wrong, and they are still not. They are still not.

We come to the floor because we think it is important that people understand what is going on. We have been talking about the debt ceiling being raised, and I want to be able to raise this again, because this stuff is historic. We know it, but I want to make sure the Members know what is going on. This is historic.

It is historic in a way that in the middle of the holiday season last year, on the 29th of December, when I was with my family.

Getting ready for New Year's, looking forward to the New Year, and Members of Congress were back in their districts, as we all should be, with pies being baked and all kind of good stuff.

Yes, things like that. And Secretary Snow obviously was in his office that day, the 29th of December 2005, Madam Speaker, and he wrote this letter to one of our Senators informing him of the current $8.1 billion ceiling that we had.

Currently, the debt limit is $8.1 trillion. He wrote billion in this letter. I am just reading what he says there. It says billion. It doesn't say trillion, it says billion.

Well, it could be a typo.

But he is basically just talking about the debt ceiling, that it will be reached in 2006; at this time, unless the debt ceiling is raised, we will no longer be able to continue financing government operations.

This is on the 29th of December. On February the 16th he writes another letter, Secretary Snow. We talk about him. We have his portrait here. He is a nice guy. He is just trying to figure out how to run this thing because the Republican Congress is handing him a fixed deck.

He writes John Spratt, who is the ranking minority member on the Budget Committee here in the House, an honorable man, and he says, on December 29th I wrote the Congress regarding the need to increase the statutory debt limit. Because the debt limit has not been raised, I must inform the Congress that pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 8438(h)(2) that it is my determination that by reason of the fact the public debt limit has not been raised, I can no longer pay into the retirement system.

That is the retirement system that we call the G Fund, which basically puts forth the dollars for us to be able to invest in the retirement system of the Federal employees. He can no longer do it. He goes on, to relieve the Federal employees, that when the debt ceiling is raised that he would be able to continue the investment there.

Now, if you can just bear with me for 1 second, because I have to go through this and make sure everyone is clear. Again, this chart is one of the most famous charts; one day it may appear somewhere over in the National Archives, because it is history. It is history in our country. Unfortunately, it is bad history, not good history. And we keep things because we have to make sure we never make this mistake again.

In the 224 years prior to this President and the Republican Congress getting their opportunity to have free rein on borrowing, 42 Presidents before President Bush only borrowed $1.01 trillion. That is a fact. Anyone can check it out. This is the U.S. Department of Treasury. That is our third-party validator, Madam Speaker.

President Bush, along with friends and colleagues in the Republican Congress, has borrowed $1.01 trillion and counting from foreign nations.

Let us talk about these foreign nations just for a second. This is a silhouette and map of the United States of America, one of the greatest countries on the face of the Earth. I think it is important that we talk about the people that own all the parts of the American apple pie.

I challenge Mr. Ryan and Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and any Member of this U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat or Republican, that can explain to me a better way to say that this is a good thing for the American people.

Canada. We will put that up there. They own $53.8 billion of the American apple pie.

Korea, they own $65.5 billion of the American apple pie that we have borrowed from these countries. $65.7 billion, Germany owns a piece of the American apple pie, thanks to the Republican majority and the President, with their policies. The UK, some may say friend and ally, they are friends and allies of our efforts that are going on. They own a piece of America right now at $223.2 billion. That is a lot of money. OPEC nations. I am going to put that here, down there by Texas. They own $67.8 billion of the American apple pie. And I think it is important.

I will yield.

$67.8 billion and counting, Mr. Ryan.

Did you say Iran?

So it is not shocking from this administration to get anything from folks that may have a questionable past in the effort against terrorism. Am I correct, sir?

So they hold the note on the United States of America?

You are 110 percent right, Ms. Wasserman Schultz.

There are so many people, so many countries, questionable and nonquestionable, ally and non-ally, Madam Speaker, that have a part of the American apple pie.

China. There are a lot of concerns about China. Red China, Communist China. Guess what? In the shining example of a democracy, they own $249.8 billion of our debt. They have it.

Taiwan, a lot of things are made there in Taiwan. $71.3 billion in Taiwan that they own of U.S. debt.

Japan. You heard of Japan and we just finished talking about Japan, $682.8 billion.

Now, Mr. Ryan, if you were to take all of the State budgets, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and all of us, you were a senator, State senator, Ms. Wasserman Schultz and I were State Senators once upon a time, we understand State budgets. They have to balance. But I guarantee you can put all of the State budgets together in the United States, including Alaska and Puerto Rico and Hawaii, you name it. It doesn't total up to the amount of debt that Japan owns of the United States, which is the $682.8 billion.

Now, that is history and that is the present. The only one way we can have a paradigm shift, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, is to do what Mr. Ryan talked about earlier. We share with the Members, time, examples, page, routing numbers, all of those things that the American people and these Members and the Republican Members can go back and see where we have tried to stop them from doing this. You pay as you go, like you said.

If you end up finding yourself in a financial situation, what do you do, go out and get another credit card? No, you start saying I have to pay for things because I can't get any more credit.

But the thing about this Republican majority, Madam Speaker, and the President of the United States, they just feel it is okay. Oh, I can go out and talk to one of our other friends and say, buy our debt.

Mr. Ryan, would you take that chart where you talk about domestic borrowing. You go over that, but I want to make sure that you share with the Members exactly what they are doing.

Mr. Ryan, the bottom line is that you really started to paint a picture here. What has happened over the last 4 to 5 years of this Republican Congress rubber stamping what the President has proposed has driven this country almost to the point of the 50 percent mark of foreign countries owning the United States of America financially. We owe them. Countries that don't even recognize, folks want to talk about an effort against terrorism.

Right now there is something major going on in the Middle East. You have the countries that are a part of this port deal that don't even recognize Israel. I mean, they are like, well, we don't even want to do business with them. Okay? As a matter of fact, Iran wants to blow Israel off the map. You have folks that are there saying all these statements every week about our friends and allies: if this is about the war on terror, we have to make sure that we do what we need to do and stick close to our friends.

And what is wrong here, Mr. Ryan and Ms. Wasserman Schultz, is that the President is still making statements, Madam Speaker, such as, well, I have not changed my mind. They are going to have their 45-day review and all that kind of stuff.

It happens to be a U.S. statute, I must add.

Saying that if anyone, anyone, raised any concerns, any concerns, one of the lowest bars of statutory language, that there should automatically be a 45-day review.

Do you remember that we went for 72 hours, Madam Speaker, and no one bothered to open the statute books to say we should have had an investigation because there is a questionable pass of this country and that it should be done. But the administration came out stonewalling and trying to strong-arm this House of Representatives and the Senate, saying, we are going to do what we have got to do and we are going to stick with it, and we think it is the right thing to do. And the statutes were on our side, on the people's side, saying, no, there should be a 45-day review.

So we are going to see what is going to happen.

But I hope, Madam Speaker, that the Republican majority here in the House and in the Senate no longer says, well, Mr. President, we still have our stamp. If you say we should do it, we will figure out a way to do it, and we will not object because we have got to be close to our friends.

Well, we are going to find out the leaders from the followers. The bottom line, Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Ryan, is, are you with them or are you with our allies, our true allies? That is the question.

With that, Madam Speaker, we would like to thank Mr. Jim Moran, who was with us earlier, Mr. Artur Davis also and Ms. Wasserman Schultz and definitely Mr. Ryan for coming to the floor. We would like to thank the Democratic leadership for allowing us to have the hour.

Madam Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 5 o'clock and 20 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until Monday, March 6, 2006, at noon.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to one of our community's genuine unsung leaders, the late Leroy Richardson. His untimely passing on December 22, 2005 has truly left a deep void in our midst.

In many ways, this quiet but dignified leader represented the best and the noblest of our community. He was a man of strong faith who was known for his remarkable generosity. He was a dedicated member of the New Shiloh Baptist Church, where he faithfully worshipped and served under the late Rev. Dr. Arthur Jackson, Jr. and under its current pastor, the Rev. D.L. Powell.

Known as a man of limitless passion and dedication to the well-being of his fellow men, Mr. Richardson was a leader who went out of his way to focus on the socioeconomic well-being of countless families that came to know of his caring and compassion. Aside from his interest in the funeral industry, he founded a very successful business known today as the Richardson-Jackson Removal Service, Inc.

He served for many years as President of the #3 Usher Ministry and he was also a member of the Trustee Ministry, Assistant Lead-Servant of the Couples Ministry and the Assistant Director of Operations for the New Shiloh Baptist Church. Though a highly private individual, he dedicated his life to the service of others. In so doing, he symbolized everything that is good and noble about the American spirit of idealism and optimism in serving his fellowmen. Our community truly feels the loss of a decent and caring man in the late Leroy Richardson, and I know my colleagues join with me in celebrating his life and his many good works on behalf of our community.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to address the House once again. We would like to thank the Democratic leadership, Leader Pelosi, and also Mr. Steny Hoyer, Democratic whip, Mr. James Clyburn, who is our chairman, and our vice chairman and also our steering committee that is working towards making sure that we head in the right direction as Americans.

Working in a bipartisan way, I think, is very, very important for the development of our country; and I had an opportunity to talk to our vice chair, Mr. Larson, a little earlier today, and he was very excited about hopefully, maybe in this second stage of the 109th Congress, Mr. Speaker, we can work in a bipartisan way on behalf of the American people.

As you know, the 30-something Working Group comes to the floor every time we get an opportunity to come to the floor to talk about issues that are facing everyday Americans and projects that we should be working on in a bipartisan way. We also share not only with the Members but with the American people our efforts on this side, being in the minority here in this body, being a few numbers behind the Republican numbers here that are Members of this House, of how we would govern, how we would stand on behalf of the American people, how we would make sure that those individuals that punch in every day to go to work and know what it means to take a 15-minute break in the morning and one in the afternoon and a solid 30 minutes of lunch, if they get that; and to give voice to those seniors and those veterans that have served our country.

We said we would uphold the commitment to them of lifelong health care and making sure that we are there for them, because they have allowed us to salute one flag today, Mr. Speaker. Those individuals that are getting sand in their teeth right now, our men and women in uniform right now in Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the world, the Horn of Africa, as we start working this effort against terrorism, I think it is important we give voice to them; the families that are looking for how they are going to make ends meet on their health care needs.

On this side of the aisle we have many proposals that are stuck in committee, Mr. Speaker, and also proposals that will never see the light of day on this floor. Not because there is not a great effort on this side, not only in the area of ideas, but forward-leaning, hard facts of how we can provide health care for not only small businesses to offer to their employees, but also for individuals that would like to make sure their children can grow up healthy.

So I feel very good, Mr. Speaker, about the position of the Democratic Caucus within the House. The American people feel very good about it, and I think it is important that we allow the American people to see an opportunity for us to work in a bipartisan way.

Last time I was on the floor, Mr. Speaker, along with Mr. Ryan and Mr. Delahunt, we talked about the House Democrats innovation agenda. And in that agenda we talk about broadband access for all Americans, not just for some Americans. We talk about the fact that we need more scientists and math teachers in our classrooms, and that is going to be accomplished within a short period of time.

We also gave quotes from private sector company presidents and CEOs that are literally begging this Congress to move forward as it relates to our agenda and innovation. We talk about innovation. We are talking about preparing not only this generation, but the next generation to not compete against the next county, not compete against the next state, not even competing with one another as it relates to Americans, but to make sure that America stays ahead of or parallel to other countries and what they are doing.

There is a great deal of frustration out there, Mr. Speaker, of many Americans that are concerned about the fact that they cannot get a job. They try to train themselves. They try to educate themselves, but they cannot get a job because we are bringing individuals over from other countries to be able to fill those jobs because we have not stepped up to the plate to incentivize economically many of the citizens of the United States of America to be able to afford the education they need to rise to the occasion that many of these companies call for.

Competition is fierce, and the last thing that we should be doing, especially in this budget as we look at it and, Mr. Speaker, we are going to talk a little bit about the budget too today. But as we start looking at the decisions that are made here in Washington, D.C., it brings about a great deal of frustration on behalf of many of us here, especially on the Democratic side of the aisle.

I could say some of my colleagues on the Republican side, just a few of them, are very concerned with the direction that the Republican majority is taking us.

Now, we talk a lot about ``leadering up,'' making sure that we do what our constituents sent us up here to do. They did not send us up here to create a K Street project. They did not send us up here to be able to have the President's back as it relates to special port deals. They sent us up here to represent them. And I think it is important that they get their votes' worth.

And I think it is also important for the American people to pay very close attention, and I do mean very close attention, because if the 30- something Working Group has anything to do with it, Mr. Speaker, I mean we want to reveal all of the secrets that may be held in the dark halls of Congress that may have a reverse effect on what the American people have asked for out of its government.

And I think it is important also that we give light to the democratic ideas, which should be bipartisan ideas, but we know that the majority party has not accepted a bipartisan spirit on many efforts that we are pushing for as it relates to health care, many efforts that we push for as it relates to the budget, the direction this country is going to go financially. Many of the issues as it relates to education and, in some instances, as it relates to foreign policy, as it relates to our troops, as it relates to those families that are here, also as it relates to veterans. So there are a number of issues that we should be coming together on that we are prepared to work on.

We have legislation on this side of the aisle to increase transparency as it relates to the legislative process and how we function ethically here within this House. But there is not a bipartisan spirit at this time to be able to genuinely move forward in a way that we can give the American people what they need.

Once again, Mr. Speaker, I hold up almost, I would call, an executive copy of the Democratic side Innovation Plan. This is not a plan that, the ink is pretty dry on this plan. It has been around for 3, 4 months, and it has been in the works for a very long time now. It is not just Democratic ideas. They are American ideas to move us forward.

We ask and we challenge the Republican majority to do what we want to do. We wish that we could have this on the floor right now, and if we had anything to do with it as it relates to being in the majority of this House, we would perform just like we performed on the budget.

I would say that the Members can pick up a copy of this, if they want to get a copy of it, the American people too, at www.HouseDemocrats.gov. You can download it. It is on a PDF file. You can feel free to take a look at it, and we look forward to hearing from many of you as it relates to how we can work together.

The President talked about innovation, but we have to do more than talk about innovation; we have to do something with it. The President's budget does not speak towards innovation.

Have you ever heard the saying, Mr. Speaker, You put your money where your mouth is? Well, in this case we are not putting our money where our mouth is. We are putting rhetoric where our mouth is. The Republican majority is in charge. They are also going to go through a long budget process. They say trust me, trust me, trust me.

Well, I think as it relates to how we iron out the facts here, Mr. Speaker in

the remaining time that we have, and I must say, Mr. Ryan will be back here claiming another hour in between for us to have an opportunity to really be able to drive this issue home.

Trust us: When you start talking about special port deals, until it was revealed to the American people, it was going to be business as usual here in Washington, D.C. And I can tell you that being from a city that one of these ports were going to be handed over to a foreign nation that has a checkered past it is working on and trying to improve its accountability in the effort against terrorism, I think it is important for us to remind ourselves that the ports, our ports especially, here in the United States, have a lot to do with our economic outcome. And I think it is also important to even reflect on how easy it is to allow foreign governments and foreign companies to have free rein in our country.

And I think it is important and it is disturbing to me as an American, let alone a Member of Congress, to see time after time, example after example of special deals, back-room talks, things that individuals would not even come out under the lights here on the floor to talk about until they have to. And the American people have spoken. They are concerned.

But what I am disturbed about, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Delahunt and Mr. Ryan, I am concerned about the fact that the President is saying, Well, I have not changed my mind. I know there will be a 45-day review. The White House did release a statement saying that we agree that there should be a 45-day review.

Hello, Mr. Speaker. That is the law. And I think it is important for everyone to understand that making laws and carrying out what is on U.S. Code statutes, that it is important that we abide by it. I mean, oh, well, goodness, you mean to tell me we have to follow the law this time?

Mr. Ryan, I have been talking, maybe for the last 10 minutes about ``trust us.'' We can run this government, we know how to run this government; that is what the majority is saying. But time after time, again, not just quietly here within the halls of Congress, but it is revealed to the American people. I am concerned about what else is going on that we do not know about right now.

Thanks to you both for your kind remarks.

Mr. Ryan, we are not going to focus on this right now.

Well, let me just say this, because I do not want you to get too far off on that. I want to thank the board members of the foundation for seeing fit to allow me to do it. And we are going to continue to do the good things we have been doing.

We provide internship opportunities for African American kids to come to Capitol Hill, be exposed to something that, for generations, they were not exposed to. We provide fellowships to many of the folks in research, desperately needed research on health and a number of other issues. So there will be things that we will continue to do as we move on.

But thank you so much, gentlemen. I appreciate it. And I thank the board members and also the Members. Thank you.

Mr. Delahunt?

Maybe that version is different now since he is no longer on the payroll of the Department of Homeland Security. I do not know. Maybe.

Mr. Delahunt, I can guarantee you this: on some given Tuesday morning about a year and a couple of months ago, I guarantee you that every last one of our constituents, if we had a sign out saying that we will rubber-stamp bad ideas, we would not be in Congress. We just would not be here. And time after time the Republican majority does it.

I mean, let us just get a rubber stamp. Staff, can we get a rubber stamp? I want to get a rubber stamp and the ink should be red, and it should say: We have the President's back no matter what. No matter what. If it puts our country in debt to other countries, no matter what. If it comes down to a lack of intelligence and putting our men and women in harm's way, no matter what, we are with the President. The American people, we will tell them something when it comes down to election time through marketing commercials, but we are here to serve the President.

I mean, that is what I am hearing from the majority side. Imagine, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, before I yield to you, if there was a Democratic President in the White House right now? Imagine. For far less this Congress, Mr. President, moved to impeach the President of the United States, for far less.

So, Mr. Delahunt, I am so glad that you took us through memory lane about what people have said, especially when it comes down to Mr. Brownie, whom we do not necessarily hold high up as a person that we take a great deal of input from, Mr. Brownie; but I think it is important that we understand exactly and spell out to the Members and the American people what they have said, what they are doing. And our purpose for being here is to say that, listen, a lot of this would not be going on if the oversight were there.

That is us.

And, Mr. Ryan, those decisions would be made if we had Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, if we had the Democrat leadership team.

We have the Republican Congress, the Republican majority. We have the rubber stamp Republican Congress.

The staff is trying to find some red ink for me. They brought some black ink, but I need some red ink. We need to stamp this bigger. So I think we will get that by the end of the week.

But I think it is important, Mr. Ryan, that we point out to the American people and also to the majority that enough is enough. It is not their country, it is our country, it is all of our country. And the bottom line is we cannot sit idly by and let historians say some Members of Congress did not participate in trying to stop what is happening right now.

They have the desire and the will to be coached by this administration into a fiscal nightmare, and that is what has happened, and that is what is happening throughout.

Mr. Ryan, would you please get that chart, because I think it is time for us to really get into the nitty-gritty, because folks do not understand, Mr. Speaker, they just think, Mr. Delahunt, that the 30- Somethings, we just kind of get together over a hot dog and a Diet Coke and say, Well, what are we going to say today? What are we going to share with Members today?

But, guess what, Mr. Speaker? We have third-party validators, and we have the facts here and we want to share that at this time.

OPEC.

OPEC.

Again, Mr. Ryan, it is just amazing. I want to put my Secretary of Treasury's picture up, Mr. John W. Snow. Like I say, he is an accountant type of figure within our government. We appreciate his service to our country, appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate.

You know, you have seen this letter before about where Secretary Snow wrote one of our respected Senators on the other side basically saying, ``I will be unable to continue to finance government operations if we don't raise the debt ceiling.'' It said, ``Currently the limit is $8.184 trillion, and we will breach that by February 2006.''

Well, the month of February has passed, and, guess what? We got another letter right here dated February 16, 2006, to the Honorable Ranking Member John Spratt on the Democratic side on the Budget Committee. This is what it says. I am going to read it slowly.

On December 29, Mr. Ryan, that is this letter right here, I want to make sure the Members see it.

This was actually the 29th. Mr. Speaker, on the 29th of December, I was back in Miami with my family. We were finished polishing off what was left over from Christmas dinner, what have you, looking forward to New Year's. You all were doing the family thing.

But that letter was written saying we need to raise the debt ceiling, when no one was paying attention.

Now it comes down to, ``On December 29, I wrote the Congress regarding the need to increase the statutory debt limit. Because the debt limit has not risen, I must inform the Congress, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 8438(h)(2) that in my determination, by reason of the public debt limit, I will be unable to fully invest in the Government Security Investment Fund, called the G Fund, of the Federal Employees Retirement System in special interest-bearing Treasury securities beginning on February 16.''

Mr. Ryan and Mr. Delahunt, this letter was written on February 16. So that means that the Secretary, Mr. Snow, had to suspend. He waited until the last day. He didn't say in 2 weeks I am going to have to suspend payments to the G Fund, which is the retirement system for Federal employees. He waited until the day he could no longer wait any longer to write this letter. He is informing the Congress on that day.

The statute governing the G Fund explicitly authorized the Secretary of Treasury to suspend the investment to the G Fund to avoid breaching the statutory debt limit.

Now, let me just tell you, he goes on and on and on. But the bottom line is, gentlemen, that the Secretary now has to exercise his statutory authority to freeze payments to the G Fund.

I want to just say to the Federal employees, because some of them work here in this building, within this Congress, he goes on in the second paragraph saying, ``We can replenish it when you raise the debt ceiling.''

I want to tell you something, and I want to let the Secretary know on behalf of the Republican Congress, even though I am a Democrat, if we were in charge, Mr. Speaker, I wouldn't have to ink up this rubber stamp, and I am going to do it on behalf of the Republican majority and just go ahead and rubber-stamp it for him, because, guess what? That debt ceiling is going to be raised.

I guarantee you, just like before, in the past, every Democrat will vote against raising that debt ceiling, because it will be giving our country away to other countries financially. That seems to not be a value of the Republican majority.

I just want to point something out. I have already read this letter.

Mr. Delahunt, if I may reclaim my time, I am going to tell you right now, you are talking about giving the country away. We are at the point where half of our debt is going to be owned by foreign nations.

If I may, I just want to, if I can, like you said, bear with me for a minute. I want to make sure that all of you can bear with me for a minute. You have seen this chart before.

The President and this Republican Congress. Well, let me just go ahead and put the Republican Congress on here. We want to make sure that they get good credit for this, because the President could not do it by himself. $1.05 trillion has been borrowed by this administration within 4 years between 2001-2005.

Forty-two Presidents before President Bush and this Republican Congress were only able to borrow $1.01 trillion: 224 years. World War I, Mr. Speaker, Vietnam, Korea, Great Depression. You name it. Hurricanes. You name it. Earthquakes. You name it. $1.01 trillion, 224 years. $1.05 trillion and counting, if the Republican Congress is not stopped.

What does this mean, Mr. Ryan? Well, this is a map of our great country, the United States of America. We even thought enough to make sure that everyone is in there, Florida Keys and Hawaii and the great State of Alaska. What does it mean? Well, in that $1.16 trillion that Mr. Ryan talked about as it relates to the foreign investment, Korea owns a little bit of the American pie coming in at $56.5 billion of our debt.

Well, we can go on down. Germany. Everybody has a piece of this thing thanks to this Republican Congress and the President of the United States. Germany comes in at $65.7 billion. This bothers me putting these countries on this map, but I just want to make sure, because it is up to us to break this thing down so not only the Members know exactly what they are doing to the country, but not for the country, and they understand exactly what is going on here, because I do not want anyone to say on our watch that this

happened and we did not try to do something about it.

Now, the UK, quote unquote our friend and partner. They own a piece of the American pie at $223.2 billion, buying our debt. Meanwhile, the President says, follow me. The Republican Congress says, we know exactly what we are doing. Taiwan. Taiwan. People laugh, oh, Taiwan this, Taiwan what. But guess what? They own $71.3 billion of the American pie and our debt. That means that they own something.

The President says he wants an ownership society. Hello. It is going to other nations. Our neighbor, Canada. I am going to put them right here: $53.8 billion that they own of our debt. That means that we owe them; financially we owe them.

Just got finished talking about Red China, Communist China. A lot of our jobs are in China. A lot of Americans have to train Chinese workers to take over their jobs, and then they are fired and they are put on some sort of government assistance.

China comes in at a whopping $249.8 billion. A whopping $249.8 billion, using a lot of our money because they have a positive trade with us, and we have negative trade with them. But better yet, you let the Republican majority tell you, and the President tells you, oh, we know exactly what we are doing, do not worry, we got you.

OPEC nations. Mr. Delahunt, I want you to talk further about this, including Saudi Arabia, comes in at $67.8 billion of the American apple pie, the American apple pie.

And Japan, the island of Japan I must add, comes in big time, $682.8 billion. $682.8 billion. Mr. Ryan, it is not the Meek Report, the Delahunt Report or the Ryan Report. This is reality. And these numbers, Mr. Speaker, as you talk about third-party validators, are from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

And I guarantee you, Mr. Snow does not report to us or anyone that has a Democrat behind their name. And anyone, I challenge them on the Republican side to march out here and start talking about how they are going to explain this, how they are going to explain selling America to other countries.

How they are going to explain with a straight face, come in here and say, we should make tax cuts permanent for billionaires, meanwhile we are borrowing from other nations to pay for it. How do you explain that, Mr. Delahunt? So when you start talking about special deals on ports and folks come out and say, well, I did not know anything about that. Wow, that is not anything new.

I did not know anything about the fact that there were not any weapons of mass destruction. I am tired of folks saying they do not know and we were wrong. I am tired of that. That is not the American way, Mr. Delahunt.

Mr. Delahunt, you know what OPEC means and what they owe? I just want to make sure, Mr. Speaker, in case someone may say, well, they pointed out the obvious. Some may say the negative, if you ask the Republican majority. Oh, they are so negative. Well, guess what? We believe in telling the American people the truth.

There you go. I do not how to do it.

Mr. Delahunt, let me just real quickly, because our hour is coming to an end. We, the Democrats, Mr. Spratt who is our Democratic leader on the Budget Committee, 2006 budget resolution failed 165-264.

Republicans 0-28. The bottom line, no Republicans voted for it.

What this is saying is basically that we want to balance the budget, we want to pay as we go, Mr. Speaker.

Not this borrow money from foreign countries stuff. Again, in Spratt substitute amendment to Resolution 393, 2005 budget, again, voted down 224, not one Republican voted to pay as we go, Mr. Speaker.

Now what I am going to do, Mr. Ryan, when we come back in an hour, I am going to read off other examples, at least five others within the last couple of years. We have tried to put this country on the right track. But guess what? The Republican majority has blocked us.

No, they are saying that they are going to cut taxes. Only we have balanced the budget, the Democratic Congress.

With that, thank you, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Delahunt. We would like to thank the Democratic leader for the time.

You know, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, I think it is important for us to continue to say it and say it again, that this Congress, the majority side has the President's back. It has the President's back.

I think it is important, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, that we continue to explain that and let it be known they are more committed to the President's back versus the American people's back, and I think it is important that you continue to outline that.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Ryan and I had to run down to an Armed Services Committee meeting. We had a roll call vote. And of course we want to be there for every vote. That is the reason why the people sent us to Washington.

I think, Mr. Speaker, it is important to verbalize that those of us on the Democratic side of the aisle have tried to do everything we could to stop the Republican majority and the President from running this country literally into the debt where it is now. Foreign nations owning what they own.

I just want to come for the record because I believe in third party validators. March 30, 2004, Republicans voted 209 to 209, Republicans vote against our resolution 209 to 209 to reject the motion by Representative Mike Thompson to instruct conferees to include PAYGO requirements in that budget, in the FY 2006 budget resolution, in 2004. I am sorry. That was 2004 vote number 97.

A similar measure was on May 5, 2004, Republicans voted 208 to 215. They voted 215, we voted 208 to reject a similar motion by Representative Dennis Moore of Kansas, Democrat. That is 2004 vote number 145.

Another resolution or a vote that we put forth, an amendment similar to November 18, 2004. Republicans voted to block a consideration by Congressman Stenholm at that time to not raise the debt limit which also had PAYGO requirements, not to increase the debt limit. It also had PAYGO requirements. That is 2004 vote number 534.

There are a couple of other votes that you have, Mr. Ryan. Would you call those out.

Mr. Ryan, as we come in for a close there is so much information to share there is just not enough time to do it, but it is important that we go through that to make sure that not only Members on the majority side know, the American people know, Mr. Speaker, that we are doing everything in our power to be able to stop them from selling our country off to foreign nations.

Let me illustrate this a little bit more. The U.K. owns $223.2 billion of our debt, Mr. Speaker. I think that is important to identify. You also have Germany. Germany owns $65.7 billion of U.S. debt. That is what they own of this country. OPEC nations, including Saudi Arabia and other countries, $67.8 billion of our debt. This is what they own of the United States of America.

It troubles me to put this on the silhouette of our country, but I think it is important that we break this down so the Members know exactly what they are doing.

Taiwan, some may have products and toys from Taiwan, and you say ``little Taiwan.'' Guess what? Little Taiwan owns $71.3 billion of our debt.

People are so concerned about China, Mr. Speaker, and I am a member of the Armed Services Committee. We are all sworn to protect this country. Ms. Wasserman Schultz, yourself included, Mr. Ryan and other Members in this Chamber, but guess what? Red China, Communist China owns $249.8 billion of U.S. debt.

The Republican majority is so much out of control until we are running to countries that are communist countries saying, buy our debt. We need it. We cannot stop ourselves. We cannot help ourselves.

Canada, some folks up on the northern border like to go over to Canada but guess what they own? $58.8 billion of the American pie. You also have Korea, Korea, $65.5 billion of the American apple pie. And guess what, Japan, the island of Japan, some folks look at Japan on the map, Mr. Speaker, and say, well, it is not as big as the United States of America. But guess what? They own $682.8 billion of U.S. debt.

We are well on our way, Mr. Speaker, to half of our debt being owned by foreign nations, some that we have some issues with.

So Ms. Wasserman Schultz talked about secret port deals and all this stuff, this is what is going on right now. Mr. Ryan, we are going to bring this out as many times as possible. I want the majority side to figure out a positive way to talk about how we owe these countries that I have put here, and others that are unnamed, this kind of money.

Mr. Ryan, you go back and you say, well, the majority side says, well, we are doing fine. We want to cut the deficit in half. Do not worry. Let us do it. Trust us.

Well, ``trust us'' has gotten us to this point and this has to stop, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the attention of my colleagues the passing of a Miami native and a sports legend, sprint star Larry Black, who died last Wednesday, February 15, 2006.

Born on July 20, 1951 in Miami, Florida, Larry Black was an athlete of extraordinary ability and striking grace. He didn't run as fast as the wind; he was faster.

While still a student at North Carolina Central University, Larry Black won two medals at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. He won a gold medal for running the lead leg of Team USA's winning the 4x400 relay squad, and he also captured the silver medal in the 200 meters event, which he ran in 20.19 seconds.

Larry Black was an 11-time collegiate All-American who won four individual national championships and was a part of 3 national championship relay teams. He won NCAA outdoor titles in 1971 (220-yard) and 1972 (200m), and the NAIA indoor 60-yard dash crown in 1974. Black also set the NAIA Championship meet record in the 200m dash in 1972 (20.0 seconds) to help the Eagles win the 1972 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Billings, Montana. His record still stands today.

As a relay team member, Black won national championships in the 1970 NCAA outdoor 440-yard relay and the 1972 NAIA 4x100m (39.5 seconds) and 4x400m (3:04.8 minutes) relays. Both of these relay times still stand as meet records for hand-timing. For his efforts, he was selected as the 1972 NAIA Championships Herbert B. Marett Outstanding Performer. For the last 10 years, Black has been a personal trainer in Coral Gables.

Larry Black is survived by his wife Cheresse, 4 daughters and 2 grandsons. I know that my colleagues join me in sending to Larry Black's family our deepest condolences for their loss, and in celebrating the life of a man of extraordinary ability who had the discipline and desire to hone his talents so finely that he became the best in the nation and in the world.

Mr. Ryan, anytime we get the opportunity to share with the Members of this House and the American people what the truth is all about, and sometimes the truth hurts, as we share with America and also the majority our positive message for change and putting this country on the right track, because we know that working together with the American people that we are going to put this country on the right track.

I mentioned once before, just as late as last night, on some of the last hours of our Innovation Agenda that we have, the Innovation Agenda that we would like to carry out, Mr. Speaker, but the bottom line is the difference between the Republican message on innovation and investment in our young people and our message is the fact that the Republican majority has everything at their fingertips to bring about true innovation here in the United States. They have control of the House of Representatives, have control of the U.S. Senate, have control of the executive branch. We are stopping the Republican majority from moving forward. We have made some very strong statements, and I encourage the Members to go to housedemocrats.gov, and you can download our agenda for innovation.

The real issue is that we want to create an educated, skilled workforce for the future; and the bottom line is that we want to make sure that we can move forward in the math and sciences and engineering. We cannot get there by just saying it, Mr. Speaker. We have to put the investment in.

But guess what, guess what, the President's budget does not speak to what he said here in the Chamber during the State of the Union, that he is committed to innovation. If you are committed to innovation, you do not cut off the very lifeblood that young people need to be able to pursue an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree. You do not say that we are going to slash student assistance. We are no longer going to assist you in a way of being able to achieve the American Dream in educating yourself.

I think it is also important that we have made a commitment on this side of the aisle to guarantee access to broadband in every home.

In 5 years. We do not want some neighborhoods to have access to broadband and other neighborhoods, they do not have access. If we are going to move together as a people and society, people in rural America, folks in urban America, individuals that are living from paycheck to paycheck, we have got to level the playing field.

This thing of two Americas is not going to get us past other countries in this world that are competing against us. U.S. companies, what I want you to do before we leave this hour, if you would, just read off the comments of the CEOs again. You know, someone might have heard it once before, but they need to hear it again.

American technology companies are saying, please, please come together in a bipartisan way, please move in the direction of innovation so we can be competitive; but we cannot complain, Mr. Speaker, when they have to go overseas and hire individuals from other countries to fill jobs that can be provided to Americans right here. So that is the difference between us and the majority.

We need the corn growers, Mr. Ryan.

The reality of the situation is the fact that the Republican side will come to this floor, if not within minutes, in another couple of hours or when we come back off of the break that we are taking for a week to go back to our districts and work and what have you, they will come and say, oh, we have an innovation agenda. They will come and say, we want to cut the budget, we want to cut the deficit in half, and we believe in the things that the President believes in, we believe in veterans affairs, we believe that veterans should have health care, we believe that American families should have health care. They will say all of these great things; but guess what, the evidence does not reflect the action that they have taken.

The President comes here and says that he believes in innovation, he believes in investing in America's future, and in so many words, he believes in the good old American spirit of saying that we will be first, that we will leap forward, that we will lead the world in the areas of education and in sciences and engineering, all of those things.

All of those things, but his budget doesn't reflect that, Mr. Ryan. One may say, well, why do you have to identify the negative part of this argument? I have to identify it, Mr. Ryan, because it is the reality of the legislative process, because the President sets the tone on what the budget will look like.

You have our Republican majority here, and we have these partisan votes all the time. They vote in the spirit of the President's budget. Now, one says trust us with the money, Mr. Ryan. Every time we come to the floor, I have to identify what is going on as it relates to trust us with the money.

Here is our friend, Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Snow. He is a good guy. He is a good guy.

But I want to make sure we understand that he has a responsibility to make sure that this government doesn't run out of money. He is paying attention to what is going on, Mr. Speaker. By him paying attention, all he can do is react to the bad policies that come out of this Chamber, right here. He didn't do it by himself. He doesn't have the checkbook to write checks that he is not authorized to write.

He is almost what you might call, Mr. Ryan, the accountant for the United States of America, the individual that makes sure we get a warning when we are heading down the wrong track. Here is a letter to Senator McConnell by Secretary Snow, dated the 29th of last year. This is almost on New Year's Eve, Members. This is like on New Year's Eve. This is during the high holy time. This is during the time that folks are with family and all and the Congress is out of session.

But the last act of the Secretary, probably in 2005, was to write this letter, to write this letter so that hopefully maybe one day someone will pick it up and say, oh, wow.

In this letter he is saying that we project that the debt limit, which is currently at $8.1 trillion, will be reached by mid-February, 2006, which is now, ladies and gentlemen.

At that time, unless the debt limit is raised, or the Department of Treasury authorized extraordinary actions, we will be unable to continue financing government operations. It is not that we are not going to be able to keep the snack room open over at the Department of the Treasury. We will not be able, Mr. Speaker, to continue government operations.

What is government operations? Government operations is making sure that we have enough dollars to be able to fulfill what the American people want us to fulfill, make sure that we have adequate education dollars, and make sure that we can run the government and that we have agencies that are performing services for the people, make sure that the troops have what they need that are in harm's way right now, all of these very, very important things, to make sure that the veteran hospitals are open, to make sure that children with free and reduced lunch are able to get what they need. They are saying unless the debt ceiling is raised, we will not be able to do any of that.

Now, Mr. Snow, I can tell you, who is appointed by the President of these United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, is not a member of the Democratic Caucus. As a matter of fact, he can be an independent, because he is just an accountant for the United States of America, Mr. Speaker. The bottom line is, it is not his fault, but he wrote that letter 2 days before the end of 2005. While the rest of us are thinking about New Year's resolutions, he is back here in reality, because the Congress left here trying to pass a budget.

He knows that he is going to have to write another letter. There are five other letters that have been written like this by this Republican majority because of their actions. Now, this is letter number six, Mr. Ryan?

It is letter number six, letter number seven, letter number eight is coming. The reason we have to do it is because we have to pay on the debt, and it is irresponsible policy by saying that we want to make tax cuts permanent for billionaires.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ryan, we cannot carry out an innovation agenda, we can't carry out a true health care agenda. The President comes here and says, hey, let's talk about health care. Okay, let's talk about health care. No, it is not really a discussion. I just want to expand a program that only those that have disposable income to put on the side for a rainy day for when they get sick, but the folks that are living from paycheck to paycheck, I want to tell you something, many of those individuals are making good money. Many of those individuals are trying to pay for college loans and tuition, many of them are trying to do that. Many of them have sick family members. They don't have $1,000 or $2,000 to put to one side for the rainy day fund for when they get sick. That is not a health care policy. That is a health care policy for a couple of folks that can afford to do it.

I think it is important that we engage, Mr. Ryan, as we do, we come to this floor in this 30-something Working

Group, we engage the majority, not in the political sense, but in the sense of saying that the American people deserve better. In the same breath, Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we identify, not only to the Members but to the American people, the only way we will be able to get on track to be able to deal with the issue of health care, to deal with the issue of innovation, to be able to make sure that we do away with the culture of corruption and cronyism and incompetence and do away with the corruption tax that the American people are paying because of the incompetence and the cronyism and the corruption that is going on right now in Washington D.C.

This is not my report. This is you pick up the paper, you turn on the television. It is going on, Mr. Ryan. We talked about the K Street Project. Folks are saying, well, that is not news. We know it exists. We have Members on the majority side boasting about the K Street Project: Yes, we created it. What's the problem?

Now, after a certain lobbyist here in this town gets indicted, does he go to trial? No. Was there a jury pool call? No. He said, guess what, I am guilty, and I am willing to help.

Then all of a sudden, 3 days later, oh, well, the K Street Project, we are doing away with that, as though it was right in the first place. I use that example, Mr. Ryan, so that the Members and the American people understand that what we are talking about now is not fiction; it is fact.

I said that last night, Mr. Speaker, and I am going to say it every time we come to the floor. We are not promoting fiction. We are promoting facts. That is where we are right now. Mr. Ryan.

Mr. Ryan.

As you know, I am the ranking member on the Management, Integration and Oversight Subcommittee in Homeland Security.

I will tell you the reason why I was a little delayed here, Mr. Ryan, is we had two individuals, one from General Services and another from the Department of Homeland Security. We are about to move into what we call this American Shield Initiative, which is along our borders using technology to protect America from illegal immigration.

We set out with an initial program, Mr. Speaker, similar to the one that is about to start now. In that program, there was a quarter of a billion dollars wasted because of incompetence. A quarter of a billion dollars. Now, let me tell you, a quarter of a billion dollars, Mr. Ryan, it is not even in some sort of program that was at some university and someone was to work on some sort of research project and it went south. This is protecting the borders of the United States of America, a quarter of a billion dollars. The four individuals that were involved, Mr. Speaker, only received a demotion. A demotion.

Mr. Speaker, let me tell you, I used to be a State trooper. If you have a trooper that damaged equipment, let us just say $1 million, they are gone, period, dot. It is not anything to where you say, oh, well, Tom, I know it was rough and all, and you made a mistake. Guess what, it's just a quarter of a billion dollars, just the taxpayers' money. Don't worry about it. Forget about it.

They will get over it.

Mr. Ryan, we have to disabuse ourselves of that kind of attitude here in Washington D.C.

Let me tell you something. My constituents who can either be Republican, Democratic, Independent, or Green Party, would be highly disappointed, highly disappointed if we were in charge and this were going on. But we are not in charge. We are asking to be in charge of this Chamber.

What is happening right now, Mr. Speaker, and what is being printed in the press right now, Mr. Speaker, and what is being said in the Halls of Congress right now, Mr. Speaker, is unprecedented in the history of this Congress.

When we speak into the Congressional Record, Mr. Ryan, here on this 30-something, I sleep well. I sleep well because I know that, hopefully, historians will look at this time and say, you know something, the minority side was saying that we could do better, and that we can do better, and that we will do better. We have the history on our side to the majority side. On the Democratic side, we have the history of balancing the budget. Do you? No.

We have the history of investing in education and making sure that children have what they need to learn and teachers have what they need to teach.

On your side? No. We have the history of putting together things as it relates to a bipartisan agenda on innovation and education, Leave No Child Behind, working with the Republican side, passing that piece of legislation, being there at the bill signing. Then when it came down to funding that bipartisan piece of legislation, it was the Democrats standing there all alone while on the Republican side we had desert tumbleweeds flying through saying, well, you know, we just don't have the money to do that. Meanwhile, on the other side, we have got to give this tax break to the top bracket of Americans who are millionaires. As a matter of fact, not only do we want to give it to them, we want to make it permanent.

Mr. Ryan, we start talking about the commitment to making sure that we carry on our constitutional responsibilities. Mr. Speaker, I think it is very clear that we are prepared, and that we are ready. The President came here talking about innovation. He must have been walking down the hall and picked up a copy of the Democratic plan and said, oh, maybe we need to talk about this.

We have CEOs who are Independents and Republicans and are Democrats, who are now talking that they are supporting a Democratic initiative.

No, what they are supporting is an American initiative that we are committed to.

Mr. Ryan, you showed this chart a little earlier, but you cannot show it enough.

I just want to make sure, Mr. Ryan, that the American people understand what is happening in the present. We do not even have to go as far back as what happened 4 or 5 years ago or what happened 2 years ago. We just have to talk about what is happening right now.

Once again, this President could not do it by himself, Mr. Speaker, needed the partisan vote in this Chamber on the Republican side to accomplish $1.05 trillion in borrowing from foreign nations. Knocking on the door of China, saying can you help us, because we are fiscally irresponsible.

That is what the debt ceiling letter comes from, Mr. Speaker. We did not write this letter. Democrats did not set this letter into motion. It was the Republican policies in this Republican House that set this policy into motion raising the debt ceiling, not paying as we go. This is not the responsibility of the minority on the Democratic side. It is the majority.

I want to make sure, because we need to break this thing down in 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, so that no one can go back home and tell their constituents, well, you know, you have got a point there, but I did not quite catch that, and I did not know that we have borrowed $1.05 trillion more than 42 Presidents before this President, 42 other administrators before this President, $1.05 trillion that other Presidents and administrations and Congresses have borrowed from foreign nations in 224 years.

Folks say, well, you all act like you are alarmed by this. We are alarmed, Mr. Speaker. The American people should be alarmed, Republicans and Democrats. It is almost like saying, Mr. Speaker, if you had your daughter or son that you gave a credit card to and they went out and they just charged that credit card up, as a matter of fact, they charged it to the point that it is at the limit. Let us say they had a $2,500 limit on it. What the Republican Congress is doing now, Mr. Speaker, is that they are going, even though they are maxed out, they are calling the credit card company that happens to be China, that happens to be Saudi Arabia, that happens to be other countries of interest, as it relates to the defense of this country, saying we have maxed out right now. We need your help to pay our bills.

And then at the same time, Mr. Speaker, as I continue to go to C here, through the ABCs, they are saying this on one side, but, on the other side, they are saying, hey, make the tax cuts permanent. Make them permanent for the most well-financed Americans, for the top tier of the individuals that are making 2 and $3 million a year. On this side of the debate, Mr. Speaker, they are saying it is okay to give not only royalties but other benefits and tax breaks to the oil industry while they are making record profits. They are saying that it is okay.

But then here in the middle are the American people; and the American people are having to suck it up, Mr. Ryan. The American people who want to educate themselves, parents who want to see their children educated. If you have a prepaid college program, you better revisit that program, because it will not assist your child or your son or your daughter in paying for their college because we will just yank the carpet out from under young people. And the Republican majority did.

We voted against it. The Democrats voted against it. So if we are going to have a paradigm shift, and I am hoping that we put the pressure on the Republican majority, that we are here to play. We mean business. We are very serious about having the opportunity to give this country what it deserves, and that means representation, representation for them and not the special interests.

Mr. Speaker, I speak all of the time about I do not have a picture of the special interests in my office, saying I really dislike the special interests. I really dislike individuals that are paid lobbyists. I really dislike them. No, no. It is not them. It is the individuals that allow the raw needs of those special interests to make it into statutory language. It is those individuals that appropriate in those areas where it gets into the appropriations act and into the budget just the way they wrote it, without saying, you know, I know you have a concern, I know you have an issue and you have needs, but we have to make sure that the American people are represented in this budget. We have to make sure that the American people are represented in this bill. We have to make sure that the future of this country as it relates to innovation plays a major role in what we do here, and that is where we are lacking, Mr. Speaker.

So, you know, Mr. Ryan, as we go on, and many Members will return back to their districts and speak to individuals that live there. We challenge those Americans to challenge your Member of Congress. It is almost too late for us to wait until Election Day for you to speak the way you want to speak. But you have the opportunity. I tell you, give the Republican majority the benefit of the doubt that they are going to take a paradigm shift. But I am going to let you know right now, the evidence does not speak to a paradigm shift or a change in thinking or their ways.

So I say, Mr. Ryan, that, yes, we do have a couple of friends over here on this side of the aisle that believe what we believe. And it will be those individuals, those very few, Mr. Speaker, that will join in with a Democratic leadership if the American people see fit to have it so that will allow us to move in a bipartisan way. And it will not be like it is now, and it will not be business as usual, and it will not be, well, I don't care if you do not like it.

We cannot afford business as usual.

So Mr. Ryan, I think it is important as we are in, you know, the closing minutes of our time here of sharing with, I know it is, you know, 15, 20 minutes it is closing for us because we like to share the information.

We are in the fourth quarter right now. We like to share the information, and we like to give it to folks the way it is. There is no icing on this, Mr. Speaker. Because there is no icing when a child is denied an opportunity to enroll in a free lunch.

There is no icing on the cake when it comes down to a family that is trying to figure out how they are going to pay a copayment or they need to keep running down to the drugstore to get children's Motrin or Tylenol. There is no icing on the reality of individuals having to wait at an HMO or at a clinic, that they are on a waiting list to be seen by a doctor. There is no icing on the reality of the American experience right now.

So I think it is important for children, if it is from, you know, from a double-wide to the west side, wherever they may live, who do not have the opportunity to broadband access so that they can be just as advanced as the next community or as the next family. That is what we are talking about. It is not a liberal agenda. It is a sound agenda to put this country back on the right track, and it is serious business, and anyone that feels that it is not serious business, we challenge them to say otherwise.

Mr. Ryan, it is okay. I am talking about, Mr. Ryan, for the majority. It is okay. No, it is fine.

Oh, people make mistakes of wide application, you know.

Just this morning, Mr. Ryan.

Is that like a C, Mr. Ryan? Is that like a C minus?

It is not a B or an A, am I correct?

Mr. Ryan, there were hundreds of hearings for far less under the Clinton administration. Hundreds.

Mr. Speaker, here is the bottom line: history does not speak straight talk to the American people about what is happening here under the Capitol dome. But I feel obligated to report it. I think it is important that in the last budget reconciliation bill that we had that passed this floor and the Senate that the Republican leadership did know 5 days before it came to the House for a vote, in the final conference report, that it was an inaccurate report and it was an identical bill between the House and the Senate.

It is so interesting that one of the issues, one of the areas where the language was wrong was regarding direct loan payments to parents of post-secondary students in one section. One of the other sections dealt with bankruptcy fees. We did not know it. The majority knew it and the White House knew it and they still signed it. And it is unconstitutional, but they are saying that that is okay.

I think, also, it is important to identify, Mr. Ryan, when we start talking about individuals being able to receive good information, I asked the Members, I challenged the Members to go on democraticleader.house.gov, pull up the statement that was put out on February 15, which was just yesterday, on Wednesday, talking about the partisan committee, Mr. Speaker, that was put together to look into Katrina, and basically you know what they are saying? No recommendations for changes or corrections, but they are saying what did we get out of the Department of Homeland Security? We did not get the answers that we deserve. What did we learn from the process that we are not prepared to take on a natural disaster?

All right. Let us talk about natural disaster versus terrorist attacks. A natural disaster is something that we see is coming in many cases, outside of an earthquake or what have you, but in

many cases we see it coming, nine times out of ten, whether it be a great rain, flood, what have you. What happens, as I am speaking here on the floor hypothetically, God forbid, if a terrorist attack takes place? How do we respond to it? We are not prepared, and we have to be prepared.

Mr. Ryan, I want to thank you for coming down and starting this hour. I look forward to working with you, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and others on the 30-something Working Group as we try to improve this government.

But I will tell you right now and I will share it with the Members and the American people that we must have a paradigm shift in this Chamber if you want the accountability that you deserve.

Corruption tax.

No. Mr. Ryan, I just want to make sure that the Members know that they can get all the charts and information that we shared today off of that Web site starting tomorrow, sir. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the late Shepard King, a remarkable man with tremendous talent, energy and generosity whose many contributions to our entire South Florida community comprise an enduring and lasting legacy that will be with us for many years to come.

Shepard King was a doer and an achiever. He was co-chair of the National Tax, Trusts & Estates Practice at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, one of Florida's most successful and influential firms. He served as a President of the Miami Chapter of the American Jewish Committee, AJC, and strongly believed in its mission. Additionally, Shep served as a Director of the Miami-Dade County Bar Association; an Adjunct Faculty Member in the Masters in Taxation Program of the UM School of Law; a Member of the American College of Tax Counsel; the Executive Council, Tax Section of The Florida Bar; the Law Revision Council of Florida; the Board of Directors, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation; co-founder, the Family Business Institute at Florida International University and Hands Across the Campus; and Chairman, South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry.

Through the work of Ms. Bernita M. King, Mr. Russell L. King and the American Jewish Committee, however, Shephard King's legacy will is alive and well because of the Shep King Endowment Fund, which was established in 2004, one year after Shep King passed away. Throughout his life, he had a profound appreciation for the insights and opportunities that his education had provided him, and he always encouraged his own children and others to get as much education as possible.

Because he believed so strongly in the power of education, the Shep King Endowment Fund is dedicated to providing scholarships to underprivileged children in South Florida. The Endowment aims to identify recipients while they are still in elementary school and to provide hands-on guidance, as well as financial support, to aid children and offset private school educational expenses during junior high school, high school and college. Although the scholarship is established through the United Jewish Philanthropies, the recipients are students of any race, religion, or ethnicity. Currently, the first Shep King Scholar is studying at a private junior high school in Miami, and an additional student is anticipated to be added this fall.

My hope is that over the years, the Shep King Endowment Fund can bring the opportunities that come through education to many others and that Shep's legacy will continue to live on through their accomplishments.