Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, this morning the British Government failed to auction its debt. This news lowered demand for U.S. debt at the auction we held this afternoon. In short, no one would lend the British Government money, and now they are increasingly reluctant to lend to Uncle Sam. When news of this development hit the markets this afternoon, Wall Street fell by over 200 points.

But this news is more important than just market movements today. After approving the stimulus and the omnibus, we now know the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt must auction $150 billion of U.S. Treasuries a week.

Like canaries falling over in a mine, the markets are now telling us that they are increasingly unwilling to lend us money. China is reluctant to lend, as are others.

Mr. Speaker, we are entering into a very dangerous time in which the creditworthiness of the United States, the legacy of President George Washington and his successors, is being called into doubt. Will the President listen?

Mr. Speaker, political liberty is founded on economic liberty, and history teaches that liberties are attacked during a crisis. The White House Chief of Staff has said never pass up an opportunity inside a crisis.

Secretary Geithner wants Congress to give the executive branch authority to seize any financial institution in America. It is an awesome power that will be quickly abused after just one Federal Reserve Board vote among all Presidential appointees. No judge would rule. No vote of the Congress would happen. This is a historic lunge for power.

Americans, remember, it was government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that caused this crisis. I am from Chicago, and I know about government abuse and corruption.

We should reject Geithner's opportunistic thrust for control or rue this Congress when it gave only one branch of this government such a corruptible economic authority.

Mr. Speaker, last week the administration announced plans for veterans to rely on private insurance company payments for the treatment of their war wounds. The American Legion's Commander Rehbein and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Executive Director Reickhoff have already expressed very strong concerns.

The government broke these soldiers in battles across World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We, the citizens of America, owe veterans care through our government. Veterans should not depend on private insurance companies who bear no moral bond to soldiers or their pain.

One of President Washington's first missions was to care for veterans. President Lincoln promised ``to care for him who bore the brunt of battle, his widow and his orphan.''

President Obama eloquently portrays Lincoln as his hero, and it is clear what Lincoln would advise today.

Care for our veterans, Mr. President. Private companies owe them very little. We, the American people and our Federal Government, owe them everything.

Today's Chicago Tribune includes a report by Michael Hawthorne that the administration has decided not to move nuclear waste from the Great Lakes. This leaves thousands of tons of plutonium and other transuranic poisons in outdated storage facilities next to the drinking water of 30 million Americans and millions of Canadians. What would happen if plutonium leaked into the Great Lakes? It would contaminate 95 percent of America's fresh water for thousands of years.

We know that respected scientists would never recommend permanently storing nuclear waste next to major lakes and rivers. But that is what Senator Reid got our President to do. Under this administration, 35 States will have to permanently store plutonium and other poisons on the Long Island Sound, in the Mississippi River basin and throughout the Great Lakes. This policy writes the first chapter of an inevitable environmental tragedy of biblical proportions that will hurt our country for a very, very long time.

Madam Speaker, the stock market's loss over the last six weeks suggests that the policies of this Congress are magnifying the depths of this recession, not aiding its recovery. Let's look at recent events:

1. Stocks are now traded in a bear market that declined 20 percent since the President's inauguration. This decline is faster than any other President since the First World War. The decline is steeper than Presidents Hoover or Roosevelt experienced. In fact, by this point in the Roosevelt administration, the market showed gains.

2. The market decline accelerated as the Congress and President promulgated their policies:

a. From the year's-end to the inauguration, the market fell 5 percent.

b. From inauguration to Secretary Geithner's speech, the market rose 2.5 percent in anticipation of good economic policies.

c. From Secretary Geithner's speech to the budget release, the market fell 12 percent.

d. From the budget release to March 6, the market fell another 11.2 percent.

As details of congressional legislation and the Administration's plans were published, the market accelerated its fall. A number of ``recession-proof'' industries lost value after the President released his budget. Oil prices rose nearly 4 percent, but the value of American energy companies fell by the following amounts up to 20 percent.

In other words, Americans are paying higher gas prices while the American companies that hire our people for this sector expect to see lower returns on capital. This is not a good trend and sends a strong market signal to serve the U.S. market (where prices are higher) from offshore facilities (where costs are lower).

Congress should consider more than just spending and borrowing from abroad. Key policies that would make stocks more attractive include:

Suspending the Mark-to-Market rule that makes banks look less valuable than they actually are.

Reinstating the Uptick rule so that short sellers do not have an advantage in driving down the value of stocks.

Today, I am introducing the ``Stock Market Recovery Act of 2009,'' mandating the SEC to implement these reforms. I am confident this will be a first step continuing the 4 percent rise we have seen today.

Mr. Speaker, the stock market has rendered a bipartisan verdict on the policies of this Congress. From the year end to the inauguration, it fell 5 percent. From Secretary Geithner's speech to the budget, it fell 12 percent. From the budget to today, it fell another 11 percent.

We are now suffering from the fastest market decline ever, faster than even under Presidents Hoover or Roosevelt. The market has fallen in part because it has learned more about this Congress--record borrowing, rigged union elections, 9,000 earmarks, and nationalizing health care.

I think it's time to look at new policies to help stocks, like suspending the mark-to-market rule that triggers bank runs and restarting the uptick rule to undercut the short sellers.

Today, I will introduce the Stock Market Recovery Act with these two key reforms. We are digging an economic hole, and it's time to get out, and these reforms will help.

Madam Speaker, it is increasingly clear that the stock market is voting against many of the policies put forward by this Congress. With stocks falling to 12-year lows, we have to reexamine the policies that we are pursuing here and ask are they not helping and potentially actually hurting our future?

In past years losses in the stock market hurt Americans indirectly. Most people in the middle class did not own stock or rely on it for their retirements. But today after the rise of the individual retirement accounts and the investor middle class, losses in the market directly affect the income and especially the retirement savings of many Americans.

Now, in this Congress we have embraced a high-spending, high- borrowing, high-tax future for the American economy. As the details of our plans became clear, America's long-term investments rapidly declined in value. If the losses sustained in recent days continue, then the market DOW increase would actually fall to zero by this summer.

In my judgment, it's time to reassess, in a truly bipartisan way, the legislation that we need to improve our policies towards the long-term future of our economy, towards investors and especially equities on the stock market.

Recently, I joined Congressman Gary Ackerman, Democrat from New York, to back legislation that would reimpose the uptick rule and suspend the current application of the mark-to-market rule. These two reforms, and a ban on issuing insurance to buyers who have no insurable interest in property, would do a great deal to reassuring our markets. These reforms would not directly confront the policies of President Obama or his current vision; they would actually add to his policies, and they would quickly act to reassure markets, right now on a downward asset spiral that is crippling both credit and equity markets.

On the mark-to-market rule, look at what a typical transaction looks like today. We know that 90 percent of mortgages are being paid on time and in full. But any collection of mortgages right now, if bunched together, will have a market value of zero; even though 90 percent of the mortgages are paid; even though for the 10 percent of homes where mortgages are not paid, the mortgage owner would be able to foreclose on the property, taking control of land and potentially a house or buildings that do have a value. The current mark-to-market rule is generating the wrong answer, that these assets actually do not have zero value. But because the mark-to-market rule forces accountants to place a zero value on these assets, there is a downward spiral in banking and financial equities that is ruining our long-term retirement savings.

We faced this problem in the past. President Roosevelt, when he faced this problem actually five times worse than the one we face today, put forward the Home Owners' Loan Corporation that looked at this problem in which half of all mortgages, not 10 percent, were in trouble. And what he said was this, through the Home Owners' Corporation: We would look at a more bureaucratic formula of the rental value of a property, of its underlying salvage value, or of a value of other properties that did have a market in recent days in which we looked at the sales over a longer period of time. The answer that was generated by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation showed that the asset actually did have a value and stopped the downward spiral of the market.

Right now we need to impose a formula well understood in the 1930s that would generate the correct answer, that a collection of mortgages, 90 percent of which are paid, do not have zero value and therefore should suspend the mark-to-market rule to prevent the attack on equities today.

Likewise, with the mark-to-market rule generating the wrong answer, calling assets which actually have a value being valueless, we should reimpose the uptick rule to prevent the sustained negative attack on equities that are going on, driving a number of public companies who have substantial values into bankruptcy.

Lastly, we should look very carefully at credit default swaps, engineered and put forward most strongly by AIG. We need to prevent anybody from buying insurance on an underlying asset of which they have no interest whatsoever.

Next week I will introduce the Stock Market Recovery Act. It will include these reforms to stop this downward spiral. We have spent enough. We have added $2 trillion in debt. Now we need these commonsense, bipartisan reforms to send a different signal to the stock market.

Madam Speaker, today I join my colleague from Illinois, Ms. Bean, in introducing legislation to enhance the innovative health care resource sharing underway between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense in North Chicago, Illinois.

Ten years ago the VA was trying to close the North Chicago VA hospital, claiming it was underutilized and that veterans could easily commute 40 or 50 miles into Chicago for treatment. At the same time, the Navy was planning to close its 40-year-old hospital at Great

Lakes that had earned a reputation for being ``30 stories tall with 30 patients.'' Even though there were four brand-new, unused inpatient wards at the VA hospital a quarter-mile away, the federal government was preparing to spend $180 million to replace an outdated military hospital and close a VA hospital with an increasing number of patients. This simply made no sense.

In 2001 I began urging the Navy and the VA to examine ways they can coordinate their efforts and share resources in North Chicago. After four years of intense work, and thanks in large part to the efforts of then-Navy Secretary Gordon England and then-Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Leo McKay, the two departments in 2005 agreed not only to share resources, but to fully integrate the two facilities. Last year, they announced that the joint facility would be named for a local hero, Captain Jim Lovell, hero of Apollo XIII.

This bold plan is now recognized as the model for future collaboration between the VA and DOD, and integration is well underway. They have already merged inpatient care, mental health, surgery and the emergency room. When the new facility opens in the summer of 2010, Navy and VA will fully integrate the two organizations by combining clinical and administrative operations.

In order to fully integrate the two institutions, though, a few statutory changes are required. This legislation would give the Defense Department and the VA the authority needed to open an integrated federal health care facility in 2010. The bill authorizes the departments to transfer property and personnel as needed and in a manner consistent with existing law governing transfers of civilian federal employees between agencies.

Our bill also extends the VA/DOD Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund until 2020 from its current expiration date of 2010. The daily operations at Lovell Hospital will be so integrated that it will be difficult to determine whose resources produced the care given, whether VA or DoD. This account is funded by both the VA and DOD, and both departments agree that it is the most appropriate mechanism to fund the joint facility and give its leadership the greatest flexibility to operate in a combined manner.

Finally, our legislation designates Lovell Hospital as a military treatment facility, a technical designation needed to prevent military retirees under the TRICARE system from being forced to make costly co- payments when they receive care at the joint facility. Given that the inpatient, surgical, mental health, and emergency services are already combined, thousands of TRICARE beneficiaries in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin are already subject to co-pays that should not come out of their pocket. The vision for Lovell Hospital is to provide care for active duty sailors, DOD beneficiaries, and veterans side-by-side in one fully integrated facility. The integration has been so successful, we need to update current law to recognize that Lovell Hospital serves both veterans and Navy personnel.

Jim Moran worked to save tours of the Capitol, and Congressman Loebsack and I have now authored a bipartisan letter to the Architect of

the Capitol urging him to restore the rights of Members and staff to offer tours to our constituents.

The red coats of the CVC do not own the Capitol. Members of Congress do not own the Capitol. The American people bought and paid for it, but the CVC red coats now block Americans from seeing the Capitol with their Congressmen or staff.

We are headed to a train wreck when CVC red coats turn away thousands of American families from the Capitol over spring break. They say, sure, we'll handle your constituents, no problem. Actually, they're going to block the access of the American people to the Capitol.

Now, a recent Facebook posting by a CVC red coat reflected a stunning arrogance that should not be tolerated towards American citizens.

I urge Members to sign the bipartisan Loebsack-Kirk letter to ensure that your constituents can see the Capitol when they want, with their Member of Congress, and not be blocked by the CVC red coats.

Madam Speaker, today, the Senate will consider the $412 billion omnibus appropriation bill in the same month as the Fiscal Responsibility Summit.

The legislation contains 9,000 earmarks, including 12 potentially criminal earmarks. It is the spending for the clients of Paul Magliochetti & Associates, a lobbying firm raided by the FBI 3 months ago. We expect indictments soon. But the leaders of this House approved those 12 potentially criminal earmarks, and they are separate budget items now, totaling over $8 million of the taxpayers' funds.

The Politico reported that the Speaker is concerned about the vetting process used by the Appropriations Committee. The concern is well- placed, and now the Senate should delete funding for these 12 potentially criminal PMA earmarks.

Mr. Speaker, as the lead Republican sponsor I am pleased to rise in support of the Captive Primate Safety Act. This legislation, supported by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Jane Goodall Institute, among others, would protect public health and safety and enhance animal welfare by preventing people from keeping nonhuman primates as pets.

On February 16, 2009, Travis, a 200-pound chimpanzee, attacked a 55- year-old woman in Connecticut. Travis, a popular figure in his home town who appeared in television commercials and posed for photographs, inflicted such massive injuries on the victim that she now awaits a face transplant.

This gruesome incident highlights the fact that keeping a primate for a pet is both dangerous to the owner and inhumane to the animal. Over the past decade, roughly 100 people have been injured by primates, many of whom are children. Acts of neglect have also occurred in my home state of Illinois. In October 2008, Chicago police seized a ring-tailed lemur that was reportedly found with no food, little water, and standing in his own waste.

Although nonhuman primates are our closest living relatives, because they have unique needs and can be dangerous, they should not be kept as pets. With an estimated 15,000 primates in private hands, federal legislation is needed to reinforce this fact.

This legislation would amend the Lacey Act by adding nonhuman primates to the list of ``prohibited wildlife species,'' declaring it illegal for any individual person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any prohibited wildlife species. The bill exempts zoos, universities, and wildlife sanctuaries. Having passed in the 110th Congress overwhelmingly, I strongly encourage my colleagues to join me again in passing this needed and timely legislation.

Madam Speaker, I am proud to join my good friend Congressman Chris Carney as an original cosponsor of the Congressional Medal of Honor Commemorative Coin Act of 2009. This bipartisan legislation will assist the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation in raising the funds it needs to promote heroism and selflessness among our nation's youth--qualities which the Medal of Honor embodies.

First authorized by Congress in 1861, the Congressional Medal of Honor is our nation's highest award for valor in action against an enemy force. It is a symbol of how ordinary Americans can risk their lives and go above and beyond the call of duty in defense of our great nation.

Since its inception, fewer than 3,500 Medals of Honor have been awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces--approximately half during the Civil War. Today, there are only 111 living recipients. These select few exemplify the values of our great nation through their incredible acts of bravery and commitment to our country.

As the first U.S. Representative-reservist to be deployed to an imminent danger area since World War II, I know first hand the sacrifices and challenges our men and women in armed forces face. It was an honor to serve with uniformed Americans in Afghanistan and it is in their honor that I join Mr. Carney in introducing this legislation today.

Mr. Chairman, as a Republican moderate, I rise in support of the rule, but against the bill that it governs.

This rule would deny a pay raise to the Congress, and since Americans are not getting a raise, neither should we. But the ominous appropriations bill underlying this legislation is not responsible. It contains 9,000 earmarks, with no irony in the very same week as the Fiscal Responsibility Summit.

The earmarks in support of projects come from Republicans and Democrats, but none of them face the time that we see. Earmarks, remember, are sole-source Federal grants given without competition, many for clients of entities who paid lobbyists to reach into our Treasury.

Now, one set of earmarks in this legislation deserves particular scrutiny. The bill contains no less than a dozen earmarks for the clients of Paul Magliochetti and Associates, known as PMA. Agents from the FBI raided PMA 3 months ago, and yet I have seen, coming from Illinois, the signs of a Federal criminal investigation and know what they look like. And the signs are all there now that the Justice Department is moving to soon indict the leaders of PMA, but stunningly, this House is ready to approve no less than 12 PMA client earmarks in this bill, reaching into the taxpayers' Treasury for $8.7 million. It is simply not responsible to allow a soon to be criminally indicted lobbying firm to win funding--all borrowed money--in this bill.

This bill also dramatically accelerates spending by the Federal Government. We have approved a $1 trillion stimulus bill; this is a $410 billion omnibus appropriation; and then we will take up a supplemental appropriation bill--all borrowed money. The legislation contains no analysis of the borrowing required to support this spending.

The Bureau of the Public Debt reports that we will have to borrow $150 billion a week to support this spending.

We will have to borrow an additional $150 billion a week, the Bureau of Public Debt reports, to support this spending.

Now, the number of lenders to the United States Government used to total 45; they are now less than 17. And our top lender is China, its government and central bank, that just announced that its lending to the United States will drop from $450 billion last year to just $150 billion this year. Now, they've already lent us $1 trillion, and they're worried that we can't repay. Would you blame them?

So I would hope, at a minimum, that when the conference meets on this legislation we delete the criminal earmarks, the 12 PMA earmarks, in conference. These leaders from PMA are likely going to jail, and their work should go unrewarded from our Treasury.

Mr. Speaker, the House will vote on the $410 billion ``ominous'' appropriations bill this week. The bill's text was finished weeks ago but kept secret from the American people, and now we know why. The legislation contains 9,000 earmarks to be approved, ironically, the same week as we had a fiscal responsibility summit.

Last night, my staff and I stayed up to read this bill, longer than the stimulus. We found no less than 12 earmarks for clients of a lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI 3 months ago. The leaders of Paul Magliochetti and Associates will likely go to jail, but their earmarks from this criminal enterprise are in this legislation, totaling over $8 million of the taxpayers' money, all approved by the leaders of this House. This is irresponsible spending by a criminal enterprise to the detriment of this Congress.

Madam Speaker, then they came for the Baha'is.

The Baha'i Faith is the youngest of the world's independent monotheistic religions. Founded in Iran in 1844, it now claims more than 5 million adherents in 236 countries and territories. Gathering worshipers from nearly every national, ethnic and religious background, the Baha'is preach tolerance, diversity and equality.

To an Islamic dictatorship that denies its people basic political and human rights, this religion founded in Iran on the tenets of religious tolerance remains an anathema to the Supreme Leader. And the world is standing by as Iran's state-sponsored persecution of its Baha'i minority nears its final stages.

In 2006, Iran's Armed Forces Command Headquarters ordered the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard, and the Police Force to identify members of the Baha'i Faith in Iran and monitor their activities.

In that same year, we saw the largest roundup of Baha'is since the 1980s. The Iranian Interior Ministry ordered provincial officials to ``cautiously and carefully monitor and manage'' all Baha'i social activities. The Central Security Office of Iran's Ministry of Science, Research and Technology ordered 81 Iranian universities to expel any student discovered to be a Baha'i.

In 2007, the situation worsened. More than two-thirds of the Baha'is enrolled in universities were expelled once identified as Baha'is. Police entered Baha'i homes and businesses to collect details on family members.

Twenty-live industries were ordered to deny licenses to Baha'is. Employers were pressured to fire Baha'i employees and banks were instructed to refuse loans to Baha'i-owned businesses. Baha'i cemeteries were destroyed.

In November 2007, three Baha'i youths were detained for educating underprivileged children.

The following month, the Iranian Parliament published a draft Islamic penal code, requiring the death penalty for all ``apostates''--a term applied to Baha'is and any convert away from Islam.

On May 14. 2008, seven members of Iran's national Baha'i coordinating group were arrested. This is reminiscent of the mass disappearance and assumed murder of all the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran in August, 1980.

On August 1, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H. Res. 1008, condemning the persecution of Baha'is in Iran and calling for the immediate release of all Baha'is imprisoned solely on the basis of their religion.

Our bipartisan voice bought the Baha'i leadership some time--but it appears only 6 months.

This week, the Government of Iran charged the seven Baha'i leaders with ``espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic.'' Deputy Tehran Prosecutor Hassan Haddad declared, ``The charges against seven defendants in the case of the illegal Baha'i group were examined . . . and the case will be sent to the revolutionary court next week.''

It is time for the international community to act.

Today, along with my colleagues Jim McGovern and Brad Sherman, I am introducing a bipartisan resolution calling on the Government of Iran to immediately release the seven Baha'i leaders and all others imprisoned solely the basis of their religion.

I urge President Obama and Secretary Clinton, in concert with the international community, to publicly condemn Iran's persecution of its religious minorities and demand the release of these seven community leaders.