Thoughts on Addressing Economic Disparity

Floor Speech

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I am delighted as chairman of the Select Committee on Economic Disparity to welcome the ranking member and the Republican appointees to this very important committee for this Special Order where I think the members of our committee are going to try to highlight some of the early and initial thoughts that we have on how we might address this issue of economic disparity.

I will note that in our first hearing one of our witnesses called this committee ``a committee of historic potential.'' It is based on the National Economic Committee of 1938, and that committee operated in a moment of economic crisis worse than any of us have seen in our lifetimes really since the Great Depression.

The Great Depression showed America that far too many citizens of the richest and most powerful country in the world could be impoverished by unpredictable forces beyond their control.

It showed that free market capitalism was both an unparalleled engine of economic growth, and if left unregulated, subject to manipulation, indifferent to fairness, and prone to collapse as it did in the early 1930s.

In most respects, the American economy is more stable and the safety net is more robust than it was 80 years ago, but today our economy demonstrates more income and wealth disparity and less mobility than it ever has. And, Madam Speaker, that is not a red problem or a blue problem. It is not a northern or a western or an eastern problem. It affects every single one of our communities, every single one of our districts.

It is not a trivial problem. Market economies don't work if they are perceived as fundamentally unfair. Our Democratic political system rests now uneasily on the premise that every American counts equally. Economic mobility, the idea that hard work and playing by the rules allows one to climb the ladder has always been essential to our understanding of ourselves. It defines the American Dream, and yet, when my parents were born, more than 90 percent of American children could expect to make more money than their parents. Today, fewer than half the children will outearn their parents.

Madam Speaker, I see this every day at home. Some of the towns I represent in Connecticut's so-called ``Gold Coast'' include some of the wealthiest people on the planet, but a 15-minute drive from their neighborhoods will take them into cities with horrendous poverty and neighborhoods where opportunity is scarce at best.

Addressing that issue in a thoughtful way, in a bipartisan way is the remit of this committee.

Having made that point, before we enter into a colloquy, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Steil), my friend and the ranking member of the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth to make any comments he wishes to make.

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member. We will be engaging in a colloquy, just so all the Members know. We will be having an informal chat without having recognition from the Chair.

I know that we are both anxious to get to our members and their affirmative but early ideas on what we might do here, but the ranking member and I were in Lorain, Ohio, last week, courtesy of the gentlewoman from Ohio, who we will hear from later. I think we were both struck by a couple of things.

I came away from that visit impressed by the optimism of people in a town that had suffered badly, associated with the closing of a steel mill. I came away remarkably impressed by the potential role for education. One of the best things I heard there was the amazing work that the community college of Lorain was doing, training people who had both lost jobs but also training young people.

I personally hope--and I know there is a conversation to be had about this--that training and education won't start at the community college level but will start as early as possible. I would hope that maybe education and training might be one of those areas in which we might find bipartisan agreement.

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, that is right, I say to my friend from Wisconsin. I was startled by that sign as well. Here we are in a depressed, if optimistic, town, with a big, closed steel mill with ``Help Wanted'' signs on the outside of that steel mill.

Now, there are probably lots of reasons for the current disconnect. Nationally, I think it is in the millions of jobs that are going begging, even as some people are having a hard time getting those good- paying jobs. But I was really impressed by the fact that you had in a town where there were certainly surplus workers a steel plant looking for more employees.

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member and look forward to working with him and his members. I know both of us feel strongly about making sure that the members of the committee have an opportunity to offer up their ideas, so I will begin. Again, the Chair won't be yielding. I will just give a wave when I think maybe time is running low.

Let me begin by inviting the gentlewoman from California, who really has already made a dramatic contribution to the committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Jacobs).

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California. I take real pleasure in welcoming the gentlewoman from Oklahoma to the committee and invite her to make any remarks she would like to make.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Mrs. Bice).

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Oklahoma.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Craig).

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota.

Madam Speaker, I am just going to note to the ranking member, I have four members, a good, enthusiastic turnout, so we are going to need to be a little disciplined with time, about roughly 2 minutes each.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson).

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his generous comments.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore of Wisconsin), another one of our stalwart midwesterners, who was with us in Lorain, Ohio.

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Wisconsin.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cammack) for her remarks this evening.

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida. We may not totally agree on the role of government, but I am grateful to her for really highlighting the importance of education which has been the theme that we have heard a lot here tonight.

Batting cleanup, our last Member to hear from is our hostess from Lorain, Ohio.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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