Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, we are all descendants of immigrants--legal immigrants. America is a good and a generous Nation. We open our arms to the world. It is that spirit that makes us unique, inviting and vulnerable.

The world has changed. Our borders must be secure for our Nation to be secure. This week we finally have an opportunity to fulfill our responsibility to our constituents. We have an opportunity to address the issue of border security for the first time in years.

Madam Speaker, if our borders are not secure, our Nation is not secure. A solution to this crisis is being demanded by our constituents. This should be a positive action. It should be one respectful of history and all Americans.

I urge my colleagues to be respectful of the institution, to be respectful of the wonder of the deliberative process, to be respectful of motive, to be respectful of each other. Madam Speaker, it is time we take the honorable steps necessary to ensure that our borders and our Nation are secure.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time to address both the rule and the bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and the bill. And frankly, I never cease to be amazed by some of the discussion from the other side, for oftentimes they accurately identify the problem, and then completely ignore the solution.

Madam Speaker, traditional pension plans once the legacy of a lifetime of work are crumbling. They are crumbling. We are able to bring this bill to the floor today for swift passage because there is an ever-growing coalition of support behind it from labor and employer groups to other individuals who know acutely the problem that we have.

Action by Congress is necessary to protect the important retirement of all hardworking Americans. Large and small businesses need changes to current law in order to have greater flexibility to help their employees plan for their financial security.

Current plans, defined benefit plans primarily, have not adapted to the times. They have used the same formula since their inception: The number of years worked multiplied by a certain amount of money. This formula does not account for a changing marketplace, and it does not result in the most benefit for workers. Today, a retirement plan must be as dynamic as our society. Inflexibility for both employers and employees is imperative. This Pension Protection Act is a step in the right direction, and it is important that Congress pass it.

A couple of the provisions I would like to highlight are reforms. These are significant changes and require employers to make significant contributions to the plans to meet 100 percent of the funding target. That is an improvement. This bill provides for a permanent interest rate to more accurately measure liabilities. That is an improvement. It appropriately raises premiums that employers pay into the PBGC. We understand and appreciate that the PBGC, that cushion between pension plans and the taxpayer, needs to be more financially secure. It requires defined benefit plans to include detailed information and greater disclosures, and allows employees to receive better investment advice. Madam Speaker, these are all improvements.

The other side says this allows employers to shirk their responsibilities. Frankly, that is just plain wrong. Without reform, the system may very well collapse under the weight of mounting deficits and the government and taxpayer bailouts are not fair for employers, they are not fair for employees, and they are not fair, certainly, for taxpayers. Americans expect us to solve difficult problems. The Pension Protection Act is one of those things that requires and deserves ours attention.

I urge my colleagues to support both the rule and the underlying bill. I also look forward to the discussion with the chairman of the committee during the debate on the bill itself, and highlight the need for reform in the airline industry, which, in my area and across this Nation, is so drastically calling out for reform.

Madam Speaker, would the chairman engage in a colloquy with me and my colleague, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline), concerning the difficulties facing the airline industry, particularly in terms of assisting airlines and that they fulfill their pension promises to their employees?

Mr. Chairman, I thank the subcommittee chairman for yielding me this time to speak on this issue.

I rise to strongly support the reform of our border security and enforcement and strengthening of current law.

My constituents keep asking me: When are we going to do something about illegal immigration? When are we going to take this problem seriously? Our borders must be secure, and our laws must be enforced.

America is a good and a generous Nation. We open our arms to the world. It is that spirit that makes us unique and inviting and vulnerable. And the world has changed, and our Nation is not secure unless our borders are secure. And it ought not be too much to ask to bring accountability to the prevention of illegal immigration. And is that not what it is all about, accountability? Those who break our immigration laws should be held accountable. Those who hire illegal aliens should be held accountable. And those who turn the other way and claim that there is no problem should be held accountable.

Mr. Chairman, we have a large and a growing crises in our country, and it is our responsibility to act on behalf of our constituents and our Nation. Simply put, if our borders are not secure, our Nation is not secure. The time to act is now.

Mr. Speaker, Iraqis tomorrow will vote and America will stand firmly behind them for this historic milestone. While we look into the future, it is instructive to look back just a few short years. Iraqis lived in fear. ``Freedom of expression'' were three words most Iraqis thought they would never experience, and a brutal dictator oppressed millions of people.

Now optimism and success are sweeping Iraq. Hundreds of candidates vying for 275 representative spots are a product of this success. In the span of a few short years, Iraq's economic sector is setting the stage for growth. Introducing a new currency, reopening their stock exchange, loans to encourage small businesses, and infrastructure improvements are just a start.

More Iraqi security forces are being trained every day; and today, over 210,000 have been trained and equipped. The election this week is the next important step that must be taken in order to allow our men and women to begin coming home, having accomplished a great deal.

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow will be a historic day for Iraq, and all America will watch proudly as we witness freedom and democracy coming to reality before our eyes.

Mr. Speaker, as we prepare for the Christmas holiday, it is important that we remember those who will not be home for Christmas, our men and women in the armed services. Next week is Thank the Troops Week. While we celebrate the holiday, our troops all over the world defend our freedom.

Since 9/11, much support and concern has been shown, with yellow ribbons and clothing drives and helping families and sending care packages. Just recently, I posted a thank you letter to our troops on my Web site and shared it on TownHall.com.

A creative program that caught my eye is based in my own district in Georgia. It is called Armor 4 Troops Foundation, which is doing great things for our soldiers. Founded in December 2004 by marine officers, it provides state-of-the-art antiballistic glasses and other critical equipment directly to our troops in the field, and it also provides financial assistance to families of our soldiers who have been admitted to Walter Reed or Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent a district that will not forget those who serve, and we are all blessed to live in a Nation of heroes like the men and women in our military who fight every single day.

Mr. Speaker, traditional pension plans, once the legacy of a lifetime of work, are crumbling. And with time running short on our legislative year, action by Congress is necessary to protect the retirement of hardworking Americans.

Large and small businesses need changes to current law in order to have greater flexibility to help their employees plan for their financial security. Recently, Verizon Communications, a large, vibrant company, froze its pension plan for 50,000 employees. These defined benefit plans have not adapted to the times.

They have used the same formula since their inception, number of years worked multiplied by a certain amount of money. This formula does not account for a changing marketplace and does not result in the most benefit for workers.

Today, a retirement plan must be as dynamic as our society. Flexibility for employers and employees is imperative, and the Pension Protection Act is a step in the right direction; and Congress should pass it this year.

I urge my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, to step up and help provide this needed reform now. Americans expect us to solve difficult problems, and pension protection is one that requires and deserves our attention.

Mr. Speaker, did you see the great economic news? Last month, November, 215,000 new jobs were created. Just another sign that the positive, productive policies of tax relief are working.

In the past 2\1/2\ years, 4.4 million new jobs, an unemployment rate of 5 percent, lower than the average for the 70s, the 80s and the 90s.

Look at the economic growth that has occurred over the last 10 quarters, more than 3 percent growth each quarter, 10 straight quarters. Mr. Speaker, this is very good news.

The American people expect us to do the responsible hard work that respects their hard work. I call on all Members of Congress to put aside politics and vote in favor of the extension of tax relief for all Americans and not to raise taxes at this pivotal time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank the chairman for bringing this bill forward and to express to him, as he understands, the extreme importance of this, and I rise to support the underlying bill.

Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman knows, in committee there was an amendment that was added regarding the lawful international travel and the life insurance coverage, and I expressed concern about that amendment at that time and the language that was included in that amendment, which I believe not to be consistent with either current law or insurance practice.

Although we have been working to correct that language, we have not yet gotten to an agreement on that, and I would simply ask the chairman for his commitment that we have the opportunity to correct that language in conference prior to reporting this bill back to the House.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, and I look forward to working on this positively and productively and look forward to this bill coming back.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the leadership for allowing me to spend some time this evening talking about an issue that is of utmost importance to the American people. I am constantly amazed at news reports at home, when I go home and I watch television news and I read the newspaper and see what is being portrayed as usual for the American public.

If you just followed those stories, you would not believe that there was anything that was good or positive going on in our Nation. You would not believe that the economy, for example, was doing very, very well. So one of the things that I try to do, and I know others try to do as well, is to try to assist and bring about some truth in reporting. So tonight what we would like to do is spend a little time talking about the economy, for the American people know better than what they see on the nightly news and what they read in the newspapers.

In fact, so many of the folks that I talk to at home are really tired of the gloom and doom that gets reported on the news and frankly gets stated over and over and over here in Congress by some Members. They are tired of Congressmen and -women who put politics and partisanship over good policy, and I hear so often back home that folks say, Why can't you just get something done on behalf of the American people?

Well, a lot of good things are getting done, and we are going to spend a little time tonight talking about our economy and some things that Congress is doing and has done to assist the American people, to help American families, to help American children, to help American communities. It is important that we do that, because there is good news to tell. So what we would like to do is spend a little time tonight and review so many of the positive things that have been done to create really an economy that is on the move. I would like to begin by just sharing a number of different charts that demonstrate clearly that the economy is growing.

This is a chart here that I think really crystallizes so many of the good stories that we have to tell. This chart begins in the first quarter of 2001; and along this axis here is the annual change in GDP, or gross domestic product, that is, how well is the economy doing. As you see for the first number of quarters of 2001 and 2002, it is kind of going along, kind of bumping up and down, and then there is a remarkable change that occurs in early 2003. From then on, from the second quarter of 2003 on, what we see is a gross domestic product growth in every quarter, 10 quarters in a row of a growth of greater than 3 percent and oftentimes greater than 4 percent. In fact, the most recent quarter grew at a rate of 4.3 percent.

The individual who wants to know how to continue that kind of growth and who is excited about policies that encourage growth would say, Well, what happened? What happened at that point to bring that kind of growth about? As most people know, what happened was that the tax cuts, the tax relief that Congress enacted on behalf of the hard-working American taxpayers went into effect, and that has resulted in this incredible, incredible growth in the economy that continues, that continues unabated. And what Congress has an opportunity to do this week is to continue and extend that tax relief, hopefully, to be able to continue the lines that we have seen grow in the economy.

This is another chart that demonstrates the kind of response that the American economy has to that kind of activity. This talks about the creation of new jobs in our country. In fact, since the spring of 2003, there have been 4.46 million new jobs that have come about, and this chart shows the percent increase each month from early 2002 through the current time. You see, again, there is that remarkable change that occurs in the early part and mid-part of 2003, where the growth in the number of jobs is remarkable. Again, the inquiring individual would want to know, Well, what changed there? What made it so that we did not have negative growth in jobs, we had positive growth in jobs? As everybody well knows now, that change was the tax relief, the tax relief that Congress enacted that took place in early 2003.

Just to put those numbers all together, this chart, which is a little busy, shows two very clearly distinct lines. One is the green line down here that is the number of jobs that increase in our Nation each month; the red line is the level of unemployment. And as you see, at the beginning of 2003, the unemployment rate was taken up here somewhere around 6 percent and the number of jobs began to increase at this point when the tax relief package went into effect. We see that continued increase; and in fact right now the unemployment rate is down at 5 percent, which is lower than the average for the decades of the 1970s and the 1980s and the 1990s.

Some economists will tell you that 5 percent unemployment rate is full employment, because you have got a number of folks who are between jobs or are working to find other places of employment that is their design. So 5 percent is basically full employment. The number of new jobs that was created last month, 215,000 new jobs. So there is good news to tell.

I have been joined tonight by many of my colleagues, and many of them will share some of the same kinds of good-news stories with you. First, I would like to yield the time to Congresswoman Blackburn from Tennessee. She has been such an incredible leader in this Congress in the area of tax relief and in making certain that we enact the kinds of policies here that result in smaller government, lower taxes, and more opportunity for Americans. With that, let me yield to Congresswoman Blackburn.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee and thank her for her leadership in so many areas, but especially in the area of focusing on right-sizing government, making certain that savings are appropriate for the American people and tax policies appropriate for the American people.

You have been such a leader, and I know that you were planning on leading this hour this evening but you had another engagement. I look forward to sticking around for the vast majority of this hour, but at this point, I am going to yield back to the Chair so that the Chair may allow you to control the hour that you had planned on earlier and I look forward to working with you.

If the gentleman will yield for just a moment, I appreciate the gentleman's insight and expertise because it really crystallizes so importantly the correct way to view tax relief and deficits.

This is a chart I know the gentleman is familiar with, and it shows the current deficit that we have and it shows a decreasing deficit, in fact, a significantly decreasing deficit, with the deficit declining $138 billion. That is $138 billion in the last 18 months, and that is at the same time that we have seen tax relief.

I wonder if the gentleman would mind commenting about that and how it is that tax relief can result in deficit reduction.

If the gentlewoman will yield.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's pointing out the increase in tax revenue and the gentleman from Texas pointing that out, because it is lost on some folks.

It was not lost on President Kennedy, by the way, nor was it lost on President Reagan, who understood clearly that if you decrease tax rates for individuals and corporations, what happens is that the economy becomes vibrant. It becomes enthusiastic in its zeal. And what happens is that you increase tax revenue.

This is a chart that shows the tax revenue, total tax revenue for the Nation in 2003 of $1.78 trillion. And, remember, that is when the tax relief, the tax cuts went into effect. As the gentlewoman and the gentleman from Texas so clearly stated, now we have tax revenue of $2.14 trillion in 2005. And that is a done deal. That is fiscal year 2005. That year is over. That year is over.

So what we see is a decrease in tax rates for individuals and corporations and an increase in tax revenue. And as has been so clearly stated, if we allow, if Congress allows the Democrat tax increase that they are planning on this week, if we allow that to occur, then what we will see is a decrease in revenue and a decrease in the vibrancy of the economy.

If the gentlewoman will yield, I want to get this straight, because I think it is incredibly important for the American people to understand what is going to happen this week in the House.

As I heard the gentlewoman say, if an individual in this Chamber votes ``no'' on H.R. 4297, that means that they want to see the American people not be able to deduct sales tax, State and local sales tax?

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman pointing out some of the specific provisions of H.R. 4297 that we will be dealing with tomorrow.

I served in the Georgia State legislature, and we worked for years to try to get tax deductibility for teachers for their out-of-pocket expenses. I do not know a single teacher that does not spend some of their own money to kind of fill the hole, to provide some of those items in the classroom, especially in the elementary grades, that make so much more valuable the education that our children receive.

As I understand it, a no vote on H.R. 4297 means you do not want to allow for those deductions, you want to increase taxes on teachers if you vote against this bill? Is that accurate?

Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of other items that are included, and one that I want to highlight is the 2-year extension on the reduced tax rates on capital gains and dividends. It is so incredibly important for Americans to understand and appreciation that if a Member of Congress votes no on this provision, it means that they do not want to extend that tax rate decrease on capital gains and dividends, which is so incredibly important and vital for small businesses, as the gentleman from Texas talked about so eloquently.

Mr. Speaker, while home over the past 2 weeks, constituents kept asking me, when are we going to do something about illegal immigration? When are we going to take this problem seriously?

Congress should act now, and one thing is critically clear: Our borders must be secure. Before we do anything else, we must stop the flow of illegal immigrants, and this must be done now.

A hard deadline is important, a date after which we will tolerate no violation of the border, and that is exactly what H.R. 3693 does. It ought not be too much to ask to bring accountability to the prevention of illegal immigration.

For that is what it is all about, is it not? Accountability. Those who break our immigration laws should be held accountable. Those who hire illegal aliens should be held accountable. Those who turn the other way and claim there is no problem should be held accountable.

Mr. Speaker, we have a large and a growing crisis in our country. It is our responsibility to act on behalf of our constituents and our Nation. Simply put, if our borders are not secure, then our Nation is not secure. The time to act is now.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Conaway for organizing this hour and giving us an opportunity to present what we will call ``correct the record.'' How does that sound? I served, as you know and others, four terms in the State Senate in Georgia, and in three of those terms I was in the minority. At that time, we used to kind of call the majority party on the carpet and we would make certain that people knew exactly what they were doing. We got to where we were giving away what we were calling a stuck pig award. And we called it a stuck pig award because when you put the truth out on the table, some folks sometimes squeal.

That is kind of what I heard tonight from the Blue Dogs. They were very eloquent in their presentation, but what I heard was squealing. That is what I heard. I heard squealing.

They talked about the Deficit Reduction Act and why they thought it was done and why they felt it was to cover tax cuts. And we are going to talk about that a little tonight, and I appreciate the gentleman's bringing that up and putting that on the table. But I think it is important for people to appreciate and understand that across the Nation the reason that we took that step 2 weeks ago with the Deficit Reduction Act was not to cover for tax cuts, which, as I said, we will mention and talk about very specifically, because we are very proud of the tax decrease package we have that we will be putting on the table, but the reason we did the Deficit Reduction Act was to decrease the size of government. It was to cut waste and fraud and abuse and it was to fulfill the promise that we make, and I know some folks on the other side of the aisle make to their constituents, and that is that it is a principled position of decreasing the size of government, making the government smaller and spending less money.

That is why we passed that bill. That is why we put it on the table. We would love to have had some support from the other side of the aisle from some folks who say so often that they do believe that the government spends too much. We gave them a chance to put that vote up, and you heard them tonight themselves say, and they said so proudly, listen to this, not one Democrat voted for that. Well, now, that is real leadership. You put a spending cut, a savings bill on the table and not a single Democrat supports it.

Now, Congressman Conaway mentioned the increased tax revenue, and I think it is important to say that when you decrease taxes, what happens. What happens when you decrease taxes? The other side would have you believe that revenue plummets, that revenue to the Federal Government plummets. Well, if you look at the facts, the facts are that when you decrease taxes, what happens is that you increase revenue, as the gentleman said.

This chart is from the CBO and it shows clearly, as my colleague mentioned, in 2003, tax revenue to the Federal Government, $1.78 trillion. That is when the most recent tax decreases, tax cuts, took effect at that point. In 2004, $1.88 trillion. In 2005, $2.14 trillion.

I appreciate that so much, because that is exactly right. Anybody that is opposed to extending these tax decreases is in favor of, in fact, a tax increase.

And what could we expect from continuing the tax decrease? Well, I would expect, just as I know my colleague would, that the revenues to the Federal Government will increase, more than enough, I am certain, to continue the appropriate programs that we should at the Federal level, and, in fact, what we ought to be able to anticipate is the opportunity to further continue those tax decreases.

Now, I have some other examples of what happens when you decrease taxes that I would like to share with my colleagues. Remember, 2003 is when the tax decrease went into effect, and this chart here shows the amount of growth by each quarter, the amount of growth by each quarter before the tax cuts took effect and after tax cuts took effect.

What you will see very clearly, this is as vivid as it gets, before the tax cuts took effect, you had kind of variable growth. We had the difficulty, as the gentleman mentioned, of the challenge of 9/11, the extreme hardship that we faced at that point and the difficulty of recovering from that. The tax cuts were put in place and they took effect at the beginning of 2003, and since then, since then we have had 10 straight quarters of plus 3 percent or more growth in GDP. In fact, every one of those quarters is greater than every one of the quarters before when the tax cuts were not in place.

That is the kind of remarkable growth that occurs when you put more money in people's pockets. It increases the amount of economic activity throughout our country.

This is the remarkable chart that demonstrates again what happens with tax cuts, with tax decreases. This chart demonstrates the change in employment. These are the jobs across our Nation. Again, this line in the middle is when the tax cuts took effect. Before that you see from January 2001 through the beginning quarter of 2003, before the tax relief occurred, you see decreased job growth.

Again, 9/11 took an incredible toll, but decreased job growth. What happens when the tax cuts takes effect? You have increased job growth, with 4.4 million jobs created since the tax cuts took effect. Every single quarter you have job growth. Sometimes less, oftentimes a lot more. This past month, we had 215,000 new jobs created across our Nation.

So what happens when you cut taxes? You increase revenue to the government, you increase the economic productivity and growth in this Nation, and you increase jobs. That is what happens when you cut taxes.

Would my colleague agree with that?

Let me just share a few more charts with my colleagues, because I think these charts just speak loudly. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these charts can say it so much better than I can.

This shows again the jobs as it relates to the unemployment rate since the tax cuts took effect. So again, we have jobs that we see in this line down below here, the green line as it heads up; unemployment rate in the red line, and time across the bottom. So the tax cuts take effect right here. Job growth is relatively low. Continued upward increase in the amount of jobs. And in terms of the rate of unemployment, topped off in early 2003, and since then, has been steadily declining.

In fact, we are now at an unemployment rate in this Nation of 5 percent, which many economists will tell you is full employment; that people are changing jobs or moving or from between one position or another, that 5 percent unemployment is virtually full employment.

The unemployment rate right now is less than, less than the average unemployment rate for the 1970s, for the 1980s, and everybody remembers the boom time in the 1990s, for the entire decade of the 1990s. Less than the average rate right now for those decades. So I think that demonstrates clearly exactly what happens when you decrease taxes.

And the wonder and the beauty of our economy is that it responds so consistently and so clearly and really so quickly.

Let me share one more chart, because I think that oftentimes, we have the other side talking about the spiraling deficit and how the tax decreases add to that deficit. Well, in fact, what has happened over the past number of months and years is that the deficit in fact has decreased. With a decrease in taxes, the deficit has decreased. And over the past 18 months, what we have seen is a 30 percent decrease in the deficit. In fact, this year, a $138 billion decrease in the deficit.

So I want to thank my colleague once again for providing this time, but I think it is important that the American people appreciate that the responsibility that we believe we have in Congress is to make certain that individuals have more money in their pocket, are able to determine greater their destiny, to decrease the size of government, and that all of those things play into increasing the ability of the market to increase jobs and increase the productivity of our private sector and economic development.

Mr. Speaker, our economy is continuing its move up, with the housing market in the driver's seat. Since the 1990s, the housing market has been on the rise, and last quarter this increase was even bigger, reaching record-breaking growth. This is good news and something that we all should applaud.

Mr. Speaker, this housing boom should be creating a lot of news, and there are a few facts that you may not have seen in your morning paper. New homeowners have been able to build hundreds of billions of dollars in equity in ownership. Consumer spending has increased, putting more and more dollars back into our economy. New jobs, that is an increase in jobs, has occurred in each of the last 25 months. And, of course, the increased rate of homeownership to record levels have helped millions of Americans realize the American dream.

With a stronger economy and an increase in jobs, the trend of continuous economic growth should only grow stronger in the months ahead. As we approach Thanksgiving, we should all give thanks for the incredible opportunities we have in our Nation, opportunities that give every American greater hope and optimism about their future.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a Republican. I am proud to be a Member of the party of Lincoln, who knew and understood that you cannot build up the poor by tearing down the rich. The class warfare being waged by the other side belittles a once-proud party.

What we are trying to do here is to renew our commitment to hard- working American taxpayers, reforming the process, cutting red tape, and setting priorities. This is smart spending, and it is what we should be doing in every area of government. And contrary to what our colleagues say, there is more money for education.

We know and understand how difficult it is for some to get funding for college. I, myself, was the recipient of student loans during my education, and this bill gets more money to students. It simplifies the process, gives greater flexibility, and protects taxpayers. There are no cuts. Student aid money increases. All you have to do is look at the numbers. Increase in Federal loans, increase in Federal grants, increase in Federal work study money, and increase in education tax benefits. That is more money, that is not less.

We are providing common-sense proposals to reform and strengthen student aid for education. That is more money for students. To characterize this as anything else is demagoguery and deception and does a disservice to all Americans. I urge all of my colleagues who are truly concerned, truly concerned about education, to support this positive move in the right direction with more money for education.