30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, to Mr. Meek and to Mr. Ryan, I am very pleased to be standing in the normal place of Ms. Wasserman Schultz.

I know that because as a candidate for office and as a student of American politics I have had the honor of watching you stand here and really speak for the American people, for the last 4 years in your case, Mr. Meek, and for the three of you, for the last 2 years. I have been able to serve in the State legislature and now obviously have just a unique opportunity to be here and advocate on behalf of those people with all of you.

If I could start by saying a tremendous and unconditional thank-you to what you have been able to do. Those of us in the political world and nonpolitical world sometimes do not get to turn on the TV until late at night. I will tell you, and speaking especially for a lot of the younger people in the State that I am from, Connecticut, who are interested in this process either as their profession or simply as an interested American, the work that you have done in talking about the agenda that was so badly needed, that was reaffirmed by the American people this November, made a difference, made a difference for me. I think I stole a lot of your lines over the course of my work this last fall.

So let me just say, by means of introduction, that it is a privilege to be able the stand here with you as a new member of the 30 Something Caucus. There are a few of us that came down here, and I think that speaks to the agenda that you have put forth that said the American people need change. We need change.

We especially heard it in our generation those of us who are looking at not just the next 10 years, but the next 20, 30, 40 years and want to make sure that things are happening here in Washington, D.C., whether they be on the 100-hours agenda or whatever we do for the next 2 years is looking to the future of our children and grandchildren, and that's what the 30 Somethings have been all about.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. While we were down here, you were probably running through bingo halls and bowling alleys; and Mr. Altmire, who is just across the border from me in western Pennsylvania, I think the impact that you have already had on Congress, you have all spoken on the floor. You all did and have done numerous press events representing our party, and I think you have done a tremendous job. So it is good to have you here with certain expertise, whether it is health care or labor, whatever the issue may be. We have got a very talented freshman class.

The reason we are still down here and we just did not quit when the elections were over is that this is about more than just the 100 hours, and we are going to hammer this 100 hours home and get it through and do what the American people asked us to do. But kind of the new energy and spirit that you guys bring is going to move us well past that 100 hours into something that is going to be very special.

So I would be happy to yield over to my friend from Pennsylvania right across the border, the same media market.

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I am coming off of my first weekend back in the district after having spent a glorious first 1 1/2 weeks down here getting sworn in and starting to work the 100-hour agenda. And people back in Connecticut are just so enraptured by the idea they have their House back, they have their House back in their hands.

You talk about the bill we are going to vote on tomorrow. Last summer, as those oil prices and gas prices rose through the roof and people started to make those terrible decisions about whether they were going to afford to pay for their family's basic needs or they were going to fill up their tank, they looked at their government which was giving away more and more tax breaks to oil companies, allowing these excessive royalties to go on in the Gulf Coast, and they just wondered who was in charge down here. They wondered who was in charge.

And that went for student loans as well, as they were crying out, clamoring for more assistance to try to get their kids to school, as students were asking, ``I need just a little more help to finish this degree.' Congress said the opposite. In fact made it harder for them to get that degree by raising student loan interest rates.

There was just this sense out there, almost a sense of disbelief, and you all felt it I know as well that we had lost control of the people's House here. And what I felt when I was back in the district this week was just a sense of euphoria, that the people's agenda, just regular middle class families' agenda was finally being heard in this place.

And you are very right, Mr. Ryan, when you said that it certainly doesn't end with the 100 hours agenda. This is just a preview of whose priorities are going to be heard here, and it is an exciting place to be.

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. I think one of the things that makes a lot of what we are doing attractive, we are not just talking about pay-as-you-go, as Mr. Meek stated, we are doing it in almost every piece of legislation that has been brought forward.

Today, for example, the reason we saw such support for the student loan interest rate is because that program was paid for with efficiencies within that program. That is at no cost to the American taxpayers.

Tomorrow, when we go forward on our new energy policy, that is not even going to be PAYGO, that is going to be pay-it-forward. We are actually going to take the savings from all of the programmatic changes that Mr. Ryan talked about and we are going to put it into a fund, a strategic investment fund, that we are going to be able to use down the line as we start to change our energy policy towards renewable and alternative energy.

We are exercising on a daily basis that kind of fiscal restraint that was lost for so long here, and I think that is why you see a real coming together of people in this Chamber, and why people were so excited back in our districts. Not only do they see things that are helping average families, on education, on energy policy, but they are seeing it done in a really fiscally sound way.

And tomorrow we will continue to do that by taking that money that we are going to save through repealing those tax breaks and repealing those very bad royalty policies and putting it into a fund that we can then use to promote clean energy and use to promote conservation, all of the things that have been so dearly lacking in this country for a very long time.

We are doing the right things, and we are doing them in a way that, as Mr. Meek has talked about so often, are true to the fiscal restraint that really should be the hallmark of this Congress.

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Ryan, thank you for yielding, and I think you are right, this is kitchen-table type of stuff we are doing now, and I think you are absolutely right, this is going to affect the lives of all the people in our districts.

I would go one step further. Before I came down here, I had the chance to go to my friend Adam Garner's elementary class at Highland Elementary in Cheshire, Connecticut, in my home town. And I looked at those kids, and we had about 50 kids in that place, and I thought about what their impression is of Congress, what they think happens in this place. And all they see and all they have read about for the last 10 or 12 years is bickering between the two sides. All they have seen is special interests and lobbyists giving untold millions to campaigns and having their business be brought before the House of Representatives.

So I thought, what kind of world are they going to grow up in, in which they think their government is for sale, where they think their leaders care more about arguing with each other than getting work done.

And you are exactly right, Mr. Ryan, this is going to mean money on the table for people who have very little to work with. This is going to mean a better quality of life for families.

I think of my little friend, Adam Garner, and his friends in Cheshire, Connecticut, and what this says to them about their faith in government. That is what, in the end, is our greatest legacy. Not just the fact we raised the minimum wage and not just the fact a few more kids get to go to college, but what we are doing here, and I think you are very right in this historic moment, is in some small way about restoring faith in the process of government.

The hundred hours is so brilliant because not only does it mean real, tangible results for people, but it means, I think, as Ms. Clarke said, a paradigm shift, a paradigm shift that will be noticed by people who pay attention and watch C-SPAN late at night, but might also be noticed by those little kids who haven't thought much of their government over time.

I think the 30 Somethings being on this floor trying to expose what has become of this place, Mr. Meek, has been part of that healing process.

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Thank you, Mr. Ryan, and let me just add my thanks not only for allowing us to come down and join you this evening, but for everything you have done over the past 4 years, in particular over the past 2 years, to help us get here and be part of this healing process, which I think this week and a half has been.

You will hear some acrimony from the other side, but when you look at the votes, as Mr. Meek ran through, in the end, there is a lot of healing that happens here because we are working on things that benefit both sides.

I tell you, all of us new Members, and there are 50-some odd new Members, we all may have certain different issues that were accentuated to a greater or lesser degree in our races, but we have found in talking to each other these first few days that what binds us is the sense our constituents sent us here to get this place working again, get it working again for the right people.

I know from our side of the aisle we will do that with whoever it is. If you are liberal, conservative, Democrat, or Republican, we want to make this a place where we work together again. That is maybe why that sense of euphoria in my district that I talked about in the beginning is maybe due in part to the issues, to the substance that has happened here; but in part it is due to the sense they have that this place is back at work in a way that it hasn't been.

So I am just so grateful for what Mr. Ryan and Mr. Meek have been able to do for everyone, us and all of our constituents, over the past 4 years, and grateful to have a few moments.

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