Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time, and I thank him for his leadership in bringing this very important motion to the floor.

I stand here beside this photograph of the first responder with the President of the United States with great pride. We can all associate ourselves with that moment. As the President embraces the firefighter, so did the entire Nation.

On September 11, the whole world watched in horror when we saw the tragedy unfolding in New York and elsewhere and resolved that we must do everything in our power to make sure that such a tragedy never happens again. We also watched in awe to see the courageous action of the first responder, the police and firemen. That is why it is so hard to understand why we even have to go through this today.

Does not the entire country agree that these firefighters and policemen, the first responders, are owed a debt of gratitude by our Nation? Do we want people to take risks to save the lives of others when we will not even fund a study to take a measure of what impact their courage may have had on their personal physical health?

In the President's State of the Union Address last year, he promised to help local communities train and equip their first responders and provide for other homeland security needs. I listened with interest as the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Appropriations said that this is not just a national responsibility, it is also a State and local.

It is indeed that. But as elected officials at the national level, our first responsibility is to protect the American people, to make this country safe. Certainly we do that jointly with the local and State governments, but they have incurred tremendous costs, $2.6 billion as far as the municipalities are concerned; practically $75 billion in terms of the States in order to help take up some of our national responsibility that we have not funded.

And why have we not funded it? Because the administration and the Republicans have said that, for example, the $5 billion that was proposed in the other body as an amendment for first responders was well-intentioned but unaffordable. Well-intentioned but unaffordable. And the $1.5 billion that Congress passed and the President refuses to spend cannot be spent because we are on a war-time budget.

How do we explain this to the American people? How do we explain it to this brave firefighter and his family, that we can afford a $674 billion tax

cut, largely benefiting the wealthiest people in our country, but we cannot afford $1.5 billion already passed by Congress for our law enforcement, for homeland security, and we cannot afford the well- intentioned, but unaffordable, $5 billion for homeland security? And this amendment includes a $90 million study.

Nothing could be clearer in terms of the need. Nothing could be more specific in terms of the remedy. Nothing challenges our conscience more that we would turn away from the first responders when they are suffering effects from the courage that we all identified with, worshipped at the shrine of, embraced, yet now we cannot do it. We are too busy giving $674 billion largely to the wealthiest people in our country. Where are our priorities?

So tonight when the President comes to the floor to give the State of the Union address, I, like every other person in America, will welcome him with great anticipation and great respect. We all want our President to succeed. We all want to be in as much agreement with him as possible. But we cannot listen to rhetoric about first responders. We cannot look at photo ops and see the sincerity that we know is there, because our President is a sincere person, if this Congress refuses to match the compassion with the $90 million that is necessary for this study.

I commend our colleagues from New York for bringing this to our attention and just say that this all takes place in the context of rejecting the $5 billion; rejecting the $90 million, rejecting the $1.5 million, the pocket veto of the $150 million in emergency responder grants in August of last year, and the Justice Department temporarily suspending award grants to the first responders that I already referenced, and, according to calculations, the slashing in the budget is roughly $200 million out of the $3.5 billion for first responders.

It just goes on and on and on. There is a consistent pattern of saying we cannot afford this. Well, if we cannot afford to come to their rescue, how can we expect them to come to ours? If we cannot afford to come to their rescue, how on Earth can we afford a $674 billion tax cut for the wealthiest people in America?

I know that is not the sentiment of this body. I know that is not the sentiment of our distinguished chairman. So let us all follow the lead of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and get this over with quickly before more people find out what is going on on this floor today; that this House may reject this $90 million study.

Mr. Speaker, with that I urge my colleagues to support the Obey motion.

First, congratulations to each and every Member of this

House on your swearing-in to the 108th Congress which is about to occur. A special congratulations and welcome to the freshmen to the Capitol and certainly to their families and friends. Let us all welcome our freshmen Members.

Let me also thank my Democratic colleagues. I am humbled by the honor they have bestowed upon me to become the House Democratic leader. I know that I speak for all of us when I express profound gratitude to our esteemed colleague, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt). We thank the gentleman for his unwavering service to this institution and to our country. It is a great honor to follow in his footsteps.

And to my family, my dear husband, Paul, our five children, and our five grandchildren, and to my D'Alesandro family, I thank them very much for the love, support, encouragement, and joy that they have given me.

Because of you, and the people of San Francisco, whom I am honored to serve, I had the unprecedented privilege today to have my name placed in nomination as the first woman ever to do so in the history of the House of Representatives.

I am grateful to my colleagues for the confidence and proud of my party for breaking down another barrier and leading America closer to the ideal of equality that is both our heritage and our hope.

We serve in the people's House; and today, I want to pay tribute to the American people. It is their greatness, their fair-mindedness, their commitment to family, their willingness to hope and dream that sustain our country.

I especially wish to acknowledge the men and women in uniform whose courage keeps our country free and safe and makes it possible for us to strive for peace on Earth and goodwill toward mankind.

For more than 214 years, the American people have issued a most awesome challenge to those of us in Congress. Debate, the American people tell us when they send us here, debate the great issues of our Nation. Decide matters of war and peace. Fashion laws and policies that will make our economy sound, our institutions fair, our society just, our environment protected, our people educated and healthy, our religions and beliefs free from constraint, and our homeland secure from terror.

Debate policies, the American people tell us, which will ensure peace and justice throughout the world, comfort the afflicted, give voice to the oppressed, and make the future brighter for our children.

Today I speak as the leader of the minority in a closely divided House of Representatives. We are on different sides of the aisle, but we have shared oath and a greater obligation to serve our country together, both to find common ground wherever we can and to stand our ground wherever we must to be true to the people we represent.

My colleagues, I commit to all of you and to the American people that our party will always stand for the principles in which we believe, for I believe those principles represent the mainstream beliefs of our Nation: fairness, opportunity, patriotism, community, equal rights and a strong America, safe and prosperous at home, and committed abroad to a more secure and just world, free from the fear of terrorism.

So in that spirit, I ask the majority in this House and the administration to join us in a new spirit to get our economy moving again in a way that helps working families. I ask that you join us in creating jobs and providing access to quality health care for America's families, including a prescription drug coverage for our seniors.

I ask that, after having passed the Leave No Child Behind Act, we act now to pledge to put our children first and fully fund their education.

Finally and fundamentally, on the great and fateful issues we have all faced as Americans, especially since September 11, let me pledge for my party our absolute commitment to our national security, to winning the battle against terrorism and countering the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

At times, we will have to debate on how best to provide for the common defense. That debate is not only right and necessary, it is at the heart of our democracy. But let there be no doubt, in our commitment to the strength and safety of America, there are no Democrats, there are no Republicans. Together, as Americans, we must and will prevail.

We have great and grave issues to decide, as fateful as any faced by any of the 107 Congresses before us. So let us reach across party lines as we stand for principle, and let this be our own test, to advance and defend what is best for America.

Now it is my privilege to present the Speaker of the House with my hardiest congratulations. Mr. Speaker, I hope in the next Congress our roles will be reversed, and you will have this wonderful privilege of presenting the gavel.

In introducing our Speaker, let me first pay tribute to his skill, his decency and his integrity. We all hold the title of ``honorable'' by virtue of the office we hold; Dennis Hastert holds the title of ``honorable'' by virtue of his character. He is a man of honor.

It is my privilege, colleagues, to present the Speaker of the House for the 108th Congress, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert).

Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution (H. Res. 8) and I ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I support the majority leader's comments.

Mr. Speaker, I want to join my colleagues from California in honoring the memory of Joe Remcho, who was a great attorney in our State and who pled cases before the Supreme Court there very successfully. His daughter, Morgan, has been an intern in my office. So I know the values that this family shares and how committed they were to public service and for improving the lives of everyone in our country. Our sympathies go to every member of Joe Remcho's family. He was highly respected in the State of California. His death is a tragedy for many of us. He will be sorely missed, and I hope it is a comfort to his family that so many people share their loss and are praying for them at this sad time and that his passing has been recorded by the California Members of Congress in this very distinguished House of Representatives.