Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3058
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3058, TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2005)
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 6 minutes.
(Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this rule and to the bill. Simply put, this bill significantly and irresponsibly shortchanges key funding for Amtrak and several programs in the Housing and Urban Development Department. While this bill provides slight funding increases for highways, transit and aviation programs, it slashes Amtrak to the point of extinction and eliminates important HUD programs like Brown-fnl;fields and Youthbuild.
This bill provides $550 million for Amtrak, an amount that places the future of national passenger rail in jeopardy. This $657 million cut will not only terminate all intercity passenger rail service, but will also cause a massive disruption of the commuter and freight rail system across the country. Quite literally, this allocation is a death sentence for Amtrak.
Ironically, the amount provided in this bill is a whopping $1.25 billion below the level that President Bush's appointed Amtrak Board of Directors recommended. President Bush and the Republican leadership believe that starving Amtrak will save it. The administration and the Republican leadership believe that a forced bankruptcy upon Amtrak will bring about a change for the better, that it will create a more efficient system.
Mr. Speaker, this just does not make any sense. You do not save starving children by denying them food, and I cannot understand how the President believes Amtrak can be saved by slashing its funding. I guess by ``better,'' Amtrak opponents mean no intercity rail service anywhere, and by ``more efficient,'' apparently these same opponents mean costs of upwards of $900 million for severance payments and mandatory debt service and labor payments. All in all, the closure of routes will result in layoffs of thousands of workers, which in turn creates hundreds of millions of dollars of immediate debt.
Mr. Speaker, this backward argument that squeezing the life out of Amtrak will save it is unacceptable and irresponsible. The only thing that starving Amtrak will do is destroy it.
On top of making Amtrak extinct, this bill eliminates several critical programs within HUD. Programs like brownfield cleanup, Empowerment Zones, section 108 loan guarantees and La Raza activities have all been eliminated. Every single one of these programs has contributed to the overall improvement of our communities, and it is shameful that Congress is turning its back on our neediest communities.
In my home State of Massachusetts, brownfields cleanup has proven to be a highly successful, efficient tool for cleaning up the environment and revitalizing a community. In the 2005 annual report of the Massachusetts Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, it is noted that 4,500 new housing units and 3,250 new jobs have been created by the Brownfields program. Because redevelopment is concentrated in areas that are already in use, brownfield cleanup preserves open space, bringing opportunity to economically distressed parts of a community. Zeroing out Brownfields is a bad move, and I encourage my colleagues to offer any amendments that could provide for its funding.
Another important program that has been placed on the chopping board is Youthbuild. Youthbuild is a nonprofit program which pays at-risk youth to build houses in low-income neighborhoods. This community development program offers job training, education, counseling, and leadership opportunities to unemployed and out-of-school young adults ages 16 through 24. These at-risk youth build and rehabilitate affordable housing in their own communities, garnering life skills and adding to revitalization in their own backyards.
Mr. Speaker, how can such a thoughtful program that is full of incentives be eliminated? There are 226 Youthbuild programs in 44 States across the country, attracting 7,000 young adults. In 2004 alone, 10,000 young men and women had to be turned down for the program due solely to the lack of funding. The demand is high and the need is even greater for programs like Youthbuild. We should not turn our backs on the youth of America.
It is clear that the Republican leadership is doing its best to protect tax cuts for the wealthiest in this country while eliminating programs that benefit the neediest. At the same time, the Republican leadership hides behind a veil of fiscal discipline.
Well, Mr. Speaker, that argument just does not cut it, and the American people know it. These programs are being starved simply because the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate refuse to acknowledge their mistakes. Their tax cuts have drained the Federal surplus. Their policies continue to drive this Nation further into debt.
This is an important bill. We have a responsibility to fund Amtrak, to fund Brownfields and Youthbuild, and we have the means to do it if the Republican leadership would just acknowledge their mistakes.
My friend from Massachusetts, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Transportation of the Committee on Appropriations, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), offered an amendment in the Committee on Rules yesterday that would have restored $1.2 billion of funding to Amtrak, as well as funding to Brownfields and Youthbuild. This funding would have been paid for by a slight reduction in the tax breaks given to millionaires.
Unfortunately, the Republican leadership once again proved that protecting millionaires' tax breaks is more important than keeping Amtrak trains running, and they denied the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver) the opportunity to have his amendment voted on.
Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve a fully funded, nationwide intercity rail system that services the entire country. They deserve effective housing programs. They deserve Brownfields funding and Youthbuild, which revitalize our communities and improves the quality of life.
I will vote ``no'' on the rule and vote against this bill because the American people deserve better than this.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me just respond to the gentleman from Florida, my good friend.
Mr. Speaker, those on the other side keep on talking about the tough decisions that have to be made. My question is, why do always the tough decisions fall on the backs of middle income families and those who are most vulnerable? Why can not, for example, some of the sacrifice be made by those who are earning over $1 million? That is what the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver) tried to do yesterday in the Committee on Rules.
We disagree with your budget priorities. We disagree that all of this money should be going for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. We think that protecting programs like Youthbuild, that protecting Amtrak is important.
This bill, if it passes and the funding for Amtrak is not adjusted, is the death knell for Amtrak. It is that simple. There is no way to spin your way out of it. For those of us who support a vibrant, strong, intercity rail system, this bill, with these numbers right now, is unacceptable.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Appropriations.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) had asked who would have the chutzpah to come on the House floor and to object to his provision regarding credit cards. I should tell you that last night in the Rules Committee, I offered an amendment to protect this language, the language that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) championed, the language that the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) has said he agrees with. I offered an amendment to protect this from a point of order, and every single Republican on the Rules Committee that was present last night had the chutzpah to not protect it, which I think is outrageous.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver).
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me clear up one fact for my colleagues who are listening to this debate. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) just said that the rules of the House prohibit us from adding legislation to appropriations bills; that is the rules of the House. Well, the majority does that all the time. We routinely waive points of order on these appropriations bills. And this bill is no exception. We had a supplemental appropriations bill where you added the REAL ID legislation to that bill.
We had just recently a legislative branch appropriations bill where you added the continuity of Congress legislation.
The gentleman talks about how great this economy is. I want to tell you, there are a lot of people suffering out there. Poverty has increased since you guys took over here, since George Bush became President. There are more people that are hungry in this country. These jobs that you are talking about being created, a lot of them are jobs that provide people with less pay than they were making before.
Our problem here, and the reason why we want to amend this bill, is we think your priorities are wrong. We think it is more important to save Amtrak than to give a millionaire or billionaire a tax cut. In fact, we are even willing to give millionaires and billionaires a tax cut. What the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver) was trying to do was to reduce the amount of tax cut a millionaire would get from $140,000 a year to $131,000 a year. That money saved by doing that could have funded Amtrak, could have funded the Hope VI program for the revitalization of severely distressed public housing. It could have funded more money for community development block grants. It could have funded Youthbuild. It could have funded the Help America Vote Act.
But your priorities are different. You come on to the floor and you debate passionately about the need to give those with the most even more while you neglect what is happening to those who have the least.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson).
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
The recession began in March 2001 under the watch of President Bush. Secondly, poverty in this country has increased dramatically, and for anybody to get up here and to try to boast about this President's job creation record when he is dead last amongst all Presidents is pretty outrageous.
Go outside the Beltway and talk to some people about how they think this economy is going right now. I will tell you, people feel it is not going as rosy as you think it is. This President has also accumulated the largest debt of any President in history. That is not something we should be proud of. That is passing on a credit card bill to our kids and our grandkids. That is something you should be ashamed about.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds.
I urge my colleagues to support any amendment that will be offered today to relax the travel restrictions on Americans to Cuba. I have met with Sergeant Lazo, who is a veteran who served in Iraq who, as a result of the U.S. law, is unable to visit his own parents in Cuba. That is wrong. This man served our country. We should be able to adjust that.
Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).
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