Do-Nothing Congress
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. And so this 112th Congress convulses to an ugly end of its time before the national elections. All of us must be sad, and the American people are angry and sad that this Congress has been so inattentive to the needs of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, today House Republicans are leaving town and will not return until after the November elections.
Two very respected political scientists--not Democrats or Republicans; one a representative of the more conservative think tank and another a more liberal think tank--have written a book about the dysfunction they have seen in this Congress. Mr. Mann and Mr. Orenstein--quoted by many reporters from many journals, from all different perspectives--they said this:
We have been studying Washington politics in Congress for more than 40 years, and never, never have we seen them as dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, said these two respected political scientists and observers of Washington, today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
They went on to say that the GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. That is the nub of the problem.
Our Republican colleagues are leaving without getting their work done. I said, ``their work done.'' Without getting our work done, the work of the American people.
Comprehensive jobs bills, middle class tax cuts have not been extended, farmers are left on their own to face the worst drought in decades--the worst drought in decades--and a farm bill reported out of the Republican committee lays unconsidered by this floor. Reported out of their committee, from their majority, and they haven't brought it to the floor, while farmers remain in trouble. We've not reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, and we have not passed the postal reform bill.
I am glad to take this Special Order, Mr. Speaker, to say to the American people that we're prepared to stay. We're prepared to stay and work on these bills. And I'm going to talk about some of these bills, but my colleagues are here as well.
I first want to yield to the former president of the Senate of Vermont for his observations as we leave this town, my friend, Mr. Welch from Vermont.
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments. He is absolutely right.
Mr. Speaker, just for the knowledge of all of our Members, the Senate did pass a middle class tax cut, making sure that 98 percent of our taxpayers would not get any increase in their taxes on the 1st of January. That bill is over here. It has not been brought to the floor, notwithstanding the fact, I believe, that every one of us believes that those taxpayers ought not get an increase. So there is overwhelming support for that bill, bipartisan support, but it won't be brought to the floor.
On the Violence Against Women Act, to ensure that women and families are not subjected to dangerous domestic violence, it passed 68-31 through the United States Senate; not passed here. Postal reform passed 62-37 in a bipartisan vote in the United States Senate; not paid attention to here. The farm bill, which passed with 64 votes--almost 2-1 in the United States Senate on a bipartisan vote with 16 Republican Senators voting for it--has not been brought to this floor. Yet we walk away. We walk away from the American people.
I now yield to my friend from Illinois, the gen tle lady from Illinois, Jan Schakowsky.
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments. He is absolutely right.
Mr. Speaker, just for the knowledge of all of our Members, the Senate did pass a middle class tax cut, making sure that 98 percent of our taxpayers would not get any increase in their taxes on the 1st of January. That bill is over here. It has not been brought to the floor, notwithstanding the fact, I believe, that every one of us believes that those taxpayers ought not get an increase. So there is overwhelming support for that bill, bipartisan support, but it won't be brought to the floor.
On the Violence Against Women Act, to ensure that women and families are not subjected to dangerous domestic violence, it passed 68-31 through the United States Senate; not passed here. Postal reform passed 62-37 in a bipartisan vote in the United States Senate; not paid attention to here. The farm bill, which passed with 64 votes--almost 2-1 in the United States Senate on a bipartisan vote with 16 Republican Senators voting for it--has not been brought to this floor. Yet we walk away. We walk away from the American people.
I now yield to my friend from Illinois, the gen tle lady from Illinois, Jan Schakowsky.
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Leader, thank you for your comments and your leadership.
You are so correct in studying the statistics of the Dow, having doubled. It's actually up now probably about 105, 110 percent. The Standard & Poor's is up more than double, and the NASDAQ is up more than double over those years. In January of 2009, I'm sure most people tragically remember, we lost 818,000 private sector jobs that month. Last month we gained 92,000 jobs.
Is there anybody who could say a loss of 818,000 jobs isn't a lot worse than the gain of 92,000 jobs--92,000 jobs is not enough. We need to do more. The President offered a jobs bill. It has not been brought to this floor, notwithstanding the fact in the Pledge to America they said this is a transparent Congress that would be allowed to work its will. That bill has not been brought to the floor.
For the last 30 months we have gained, straight, more jobs, 4.6 million jobs to be exactly correct, while 4.4 million jobs were lost in 2008 alone. Are we better off gaining 4.6 million as opposed to losing 4.4 million jobs?
We have had 12 straight quarters of economic growth. The last four quarters of 2008 in the last administration was a net 13 percent decrease in GDP. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the leader is correct. We're better off today, but we could be much better off. We ought to be better off if we hadn't walked away from a jobs bill, hadn't walked away
from investing in an infrastructure bill that gave certainty.
We didn't even bring that bill to the floor. We walked away from making sure that the health care bill works properly, walked away--and I'm going to recognize Mr. Costa--walked away from the farmers of America, walked away this day as we have walked away in the past.
Mr. Costa is from farm country. He understands the pain being experienced in farm country, and he knows how terrible it is to have simply walked away, walked away from the House-passed bill out of committee and walked away from a bipartisan Senate bill. My friend is such a strong voice on this floor, such an active member of the Agriculture Committee and such a proponent of farm country, not only California, which he represents but through this country.
I yield to my friend.
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Mr. HOYER. The gentleman may know this better than I because he works so closely with the ag community, but over 70 farm organizations and farmer-focused organizations came to town a week or two ago and all said pass the Senate bill, not because they believed it was perfect, but because they believed it was a bipartisan bill that would bring relief to farm country and give some certainty to the farming community. I think I'm correct on that.
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman from California for his leadership, not only for farm country but for all of the people in this country on behalf of getting people back to work, making jobs available, and making sure our farmers are secure, and particularly for making sure that we address the epidemic of violence perpetrated against family members. I thank the gentleman for his leadership.
I yield to somebody who is as strong a voice as we have in this House on behalf of the working men and women in this country, the gentlewoman from California, Lynn Woolsey.
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gen tle lady for her comments, and I yield to my friend, Suzanne Bonamici, who was such an effective State legislator. She was overwhelmingly elected in a special election. And every day since that election, she has been working hard on behalf of hardworking men and women not only in Oregon, but throughout this country. And I know that she's disappointed that we're walking away from our responsibilities.
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his very compelling comments.
I know that, Mr. Speaker, you've heard us speak and the Members have heard us speak, and one might say, well, these are Democrats speaking about the non-productivity and non-attention to the people's business of this Congress.
But some years ago, just a few years ago, 4 years ago, the Republican Party, our friends on that side of the aisle, nominated John McCain to be their President. What does John McCain say of this Congress? ``The worst since 1947 statistically, the worst ever as far as I'm concerned,'' Senator John McCain told reporters Wednesday when asked to assess this Congress. That was September 19, 2012, just a few days ago. Bipartisan observation.
This walkaway Congress is the least effective in which I've served, and I've been here for 31 years.
I want to yield to my friend who came to Congress the same year I did, who unfortunately is leaving, one of the great leaders of this Congress and responsible for putting the referee back on the field so that we will not have another financial meltdown that plunged this country almost into depression, the distinguished Member from Massachusetts, Barney Frank.
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his very cogent comments. I would remind him the Leader talked about that, and he's talked about it.
Mr. Speaker, I think you will recall--George Bush, Republican President of the United States; Hank Paulson, Republican Secretary of the Treasury; and Ben Bernanke, who I think is neither Republican nor Democrat but appointed by the Republican President.
Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. He was a registered Republican but was three times appointed by George Bush to high economic positions.
Mr. HOYER. President Bush came to us and said: The country's in trouble, at risk of going into depression. We need you to act.
Who acted? The Democrats, in a bipartisan response to President Bush. Who walked away? Two-thirds of the Republican Party, the President's party. Two-thirds of them walked away. As a result, we failed the first time. We came back and added another 30 Democrats, 172, and the Republicans couldn't even get to 100 to support their own President to keep this country out of depression.
Ladies and gentlemen, 2 years ago as the previous election approached, Republicans unveiled a long list of pledges. Their Pledge to America reads, and I quote:
A plan to create jobs, end economic uncertainty, and make America more competitive must be the first urgent domestic priority of our government. So, first we offer a plan to get people working again.
That's what they said. We are still waiting for that plan, and we have walked away.
Twenty-one months later, Republicans have not offered a comprehensive plan to create jobs and boost competitiveness. Nor have they allowed Democrats to bring major items of our Make It in America--expand manufacturing, create jobs, give good-paying jobs with good security to Americans that will then redound to the benefit of all agencies and job creators and small businesses that service those manufacturers.
When President Obama proposed his plan, the American Jobs Act--which economists say would have expanded by 1 million or 1.5 million jobs--Republicans blocked it outright, not brought to the floor, not given a vote. Instead of making jobs their priority, it seems to have been last on their to-do list, at a time when it remains the first concern for millions and millions of Americans and for our side of the aisle.
Mr. Speaker, let me read another excerpt from the Republican pledge:
With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending, putting us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt.
However, over the last 21 months Republicans have torpedoed every serious attempt to reach agreement on deficit reduction. Why? No revenues from the very wealthy in America. Not because we don't like the very wealthy, not because we want to penalize the very wealthy, but because we need to keep our country on a financially secure path, and those of us on this floor can contribute a little more to that effort.
Pushed to the extreme by their Tea Party wing, House Republicans early on embraced an ``our way or no way'' that made compromise impossible, refusing to accept any solution that included revenues or that ended unnecessary tax breaks for the wealthiest in our country. That's why the middle class tax cut passed overwhelmingly in the United States--well, passed by a majority--in the United States Senate languishes here unconsidered, which would keep 98 percent of America from any concern about having their taxes increased on January 1. Why? To protect the 2 percent. How sad.
In pursuit of their extreme budget agenda, they pushed our country to the brink of default, leading to--for the first time ever in the history of our Nation--the most creditworthy nation on Earth being downgraded by the Standard & Poor's rating agency. To avert that default, Republicans insisted on creating the sequester that so many of them now lament. It was their creation. In fact, in their cap, cut, and balance bill, what is the default position they take? Sequester.
Meanwhile, led by Chairman Paul Ryan, Republicans passed two budgets that would end Medicare as we know it, end the guarantee, end the security that it gives to people who are seniors and going to be seniors; guts social programs that keep millions out of poverty; and doesn't balance over the next 30 years.
Susan Collins, Republican Member of the United States Senate--I showed you John McCain, Mr. Speaker--she says:
It is very frustrating to have worked on legislation that really matters to our country, like the cybersecurity bill and legislation to save the postal service, and just have them gather dust.
In other words, she worked in the Senate across the aisle with Democrats
and sent that bill here--both those bills--and we have not acted. We have walked away.
Mr. Speaker, we have made our point: Walking away has been the practice of this Congress. Not getting the work done has been the practice of this Congress. How lamentable it is for the American people. But as President Obama said: They have a choice. May they make it well.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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