Build Back Better Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader and a real champion of this institution.

Just before I recognize the distinguished majority whip, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the around-the-clock work of the staff who made this evening possible.

First, my team on the Ways and Means Committee that have helped bring about this evening. They have poured their hearts into developing these policies that will make America a better place. In their pursuit, they have sacrificed holidays, sleep, and time with loved ones, and their service to our country will not be forgotten.

Let me also acknowledge the CBO with a round of applause because of the great work that they have done this evening, as well as legislative counsel--who have not put down their pencils--to make sure that this extraordinary pressure that they have been under has helped to get us here.

Now, it is always a pleasure to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the majority whip.

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Mr. NEAL. There are a lot of reasons tonight that this legislation has come forth. We can argue about why income inequality in America happened; globalization, technology, skill set, the decline of unions. But what we can't argue about is it happened. And we have a chance tonight to reverse that course.

We speak frequently in this institution, sometimes in terms of hyperbolic rhetoric about history. Tonight, the vote we cast is about history. And the Committee on Ways and Means, since spring of a year ago, wrote much of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I call attention to 33 years ago when I joined this institution, to just above the Speaker's rostrum. It is very hard to visualize; it was easier 33 years ago for me to read it than it is now when I walk in. But Daniel Webster said, here in this Chamber, ``Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its great powers, build up its institutions, promote all of its great interests and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.''

Mr. Speaker, tonight, that is what we intend to do. We are going to make transformational changes that are going to lift the people of America to a new sense, born of optimism, as that son of Massachusetts, Mr. Webster, acknowledged. We are going to change the lives and livelihoods of Americans for generations to come; and as he noted, we will do something tonight that truly will be worth remembering.

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