Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, $2.32 for a gallon of gas, $2.99 for a gallon of milk, $20 or $25 for a single day of childcare. These are real prices and, too often, real choices that working Americans face every day.

In Vermont, and across America, we have had a proud tradition of self-reliance and sense of community. We need to combine these two values, self-reliance on the one hand and community on the other, by rewarding work and making work pay.

We send a message every day to our citizens and our workers that we value work and that government has a role to play in ensuring opportunity to everyone willing to contribute. It is time we matched that message with our own leadership.

It is no accident that in Vermont and more than 20 States around the country, Republicans and Democrats, working together, have led in the effort to reward work with a reasonable minimum wage above our national minimum last set nearly a decade ago.

There are few more important tasks before us than addressing the growing economic gap between America's wealthiest citizens and low income workers.

Last year, millionaires were given tax breaks that put an average of $40,000 in their pockets, and yet middle class workers who earn less than $20,000 received just two dollars. Two dollars--for the whole year. That is rewarding wealth rather than work.

Today a full-time minimum wage worker earns just $10,712 annually-- more than $2,000 below the poverty line for a family of two. Asking millions of our neighbors to work full time without a wage above poverty is wrong.

I believe that Congress must raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour to help life every minimum wage worker out of poverty.

Today and together, we can begin to restore a balance, by rewarding work and not just wealth, acknowledging we are all in this together.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

Together, we have a lot of work to do: To help working families get ahead, restore America's standing in the world, and bring our budget back in balance. Making progress is what our constituents in 435 districts around this country have elected us to do.

To be sure, our differences will be intensely debated. However, our mutual obligations is to do everything we can to move our country forward by confronting directly and immediately the challenges before us. To succeed in the job our constituents sent us here to do, we must lay out rules in a regular order that Members can count on. These ground rules will not guarantee an outcome, but they will set out a framework where we, as an institution, make progress and serve the public.

That is why the Democratic leadership embraces three very simple,

straightforward principles that will help us succeed. As the Member from California has laid out, we set out today to establish a regular civility in this body.

Civility, it is mutual respect, really, requires straightforward ground rules to guide debate. It requires adherence to rules that apply to all. Each of us will know and be able to assure the citizens who elected us when it comes to votes in this, their representative body: Members will have time to read what they are voting on; Members will have time to vote, but votes will not be held open for the purpose of changing the outcome; and Members will vote on conference reports that are the ones agreed upon by the conferees, not ones altered after the fact.

These rules, applied to all, will help us do the work of the people we represent. Our debates at times will be intense, as they should be, but we must strive to have our debates on the merits. The rules we propose for your consideration are basic. They are rules that apply to legislators in Vermont where I am from, and probably rules that your own legislators take for granted: Time to read and review before voting, timely voting procedures, and considering conference reports as signed.

Mr. Speaker, I served 13 years in the Vermont legislature, sometimes in the minority and sometimes in the majority. We in Vermont were proud of the legislative process and standards that we set. Those in the majority couldn't do things simply because they had the power. Minority voices were heard, Members were kept informed, and our legislative process was respected. We did have intense debates on the issues, but more often than not, not always, at the end of the day, good ideas were considered and we were able to move Vermont ahead.

These changes that we present for your consideration today are not just about process, they are about passing good, substantive legislation.

These new rules to establish civility to this body are essential for Congress to do the work of the American people and to build the trust of those we serve.

We face looming challenges in America, to the security of our families and to the security of our country. And nobody and no party has a monopoly on the good ideas required to steer us forward. The simple and straightforward rules of engagement will help all of us do that.

Yesterday, the minority leader, in handing over the gavel to the new Speaker, was graceful and was wise when he reminded us that we can have disagreements without being disagreeable. Both the Speaker and the minority leader stated on our behalf what we all know to be true: All of us are here for the common purpose, to make America a better place. There is and must be room for all of our voices to be heard to achieve our common purpose.

The rules we propose will help us do that. How? By establishing very clear ground rules that apply to all, the majority as well as the minority, to every Member, committee chairs and ranking members, House veterans and House freshmen. One and all alike.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Natural Resources be discharged from further consideration of the Senate bill (S. 159) to redesignate the White Rocks National Recreation Area in the State of Vermont as the ``Robert T. Stafford White Rocks

National Recreational Area,'' and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, it is with mixed emotions that I stand here on my first full day as a Member of Congress to say good bye to a great Vermont statesman. Senator Bob Stafford passed away last December at the age of 93. I feel a deep sense of pride to have the first Bill I introduce be one that honors Bob Stafford's commitment to Vermont by redesignating the White Rocks National Recreation Area as the ``Robert T. Stafford White Rocks National Recreation Area''.

Senator Stafford was born in Rutland in 1913. He had a long and distinguished career as a civil servant to the state, serving the state for nearly 30 years first as Governor, Representative, and Senator. Robert Stafford was a man who knew Vermont, and understood how to best serve Vermonters.

It was through his many public service positions around the state that he learned the importance of moderation and bipartisanship. He served as Rutland County State's attorney, as Deputy State Attorney General, and then as State Attorney General. In the late 1950's he was elected Lieutenant Governor, and in 1959 he became Governor.

In 1960, Bob Stafford was elected to Vermont's sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won five successive re-elections. In September 1971, he resigned his House seat to accept appointment to the U.S. Senate following the death of Senator Winston Prouty. After winning a special election in 1972, he proceeded to represent Vermont in the Senate for the next 17 years.

When he came to Washington, a member of the Republican Party, he formed many close relationships with members of both parties. Senator Stafford was able to be effective because of his reliance on moderation and compromise. He was a leader among his peers, and became an advocate for issues that were close to him and to Vermont. Affordable education and his dedication to the environment became his most important issues. The Stafford Student Loan program has made higher education more accessible for millions of Americans.

While his achievements in the areas of education and federal disaster relief were very important, it is the legacy he has left behind for the work he did in protecting the environment that he was most proud of. Bob Stafford shared Vermonters' belief that we have a moral obligation to leave for our children a cleaner environment than the one we inherited. He was a leader and visionary who helped shape and strengthen some of our Nation's most critical environmental laws for over two decades. Serving as Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee from 1981-1986, he led the charge to expand and strengthen the Superfund toxic waste cleanup law in the mid 1980's.

Please join me today in honoring the tremendous life and service of Senator Bob Stafford. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and pass the Congress by unanimous consent.

The Senate bill was ordered to be read a third time, was read the third time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the table.