Waiving Requirement Of Clause 6(a) Of Rule XIII With Respect To Consideration Of Certain Resolutions
WAIVING REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 6(a) OF RULE XIII WITH RESPECT TO CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS -- (House of Representatives - September 29, 2006)
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Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.
Mr. Speaker, on Thursday night the Rules Committee met and reported a rule for consideration of resolutions reported by the Rules Committee on the same day. The rule waives clause 6(a) of rule XIII and applies a special waiver to any resolutions reported this legislative day.
Mr. Speaker, it is of the utmost importance for the House to pass this rule and move the debate along so that important legislation may be considered before the House adjourns. Legislation that may be considered under this same-day rule may include the fiscal year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act and the Port Security Act and other measures brought to the floor through a special rule reported by the committee. This rule will provide the House the flexibility and ability to move the remaining legislation in a timely and efficient manner so that we can adjourn this legislative day.
To that end, Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the rule and the underlying bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to just disagree with my good friend from Massachusetts on his characterization of the accomplishments of this Congress. As a matter of fact, if you start ticking off the record, it is pretty impressive: bankruptcy reform, class action lawsuit reform, a transportation bill that put more money into our infrastructure than any transportation bill in American history, significant energy legislation passed last year, dealing with the entitlement spending problem, an across-the-board budget cut.
All of those are genuine accomplishments. Pension reform, bill after bill after bill. Some of them bipartisan, some of them, frankly, passed without the cooperation of our friends.
And, frankly, to criticize us for minimum wage, when in this House we have voted on and passed the minimum wage increase and passed, along with it, a reform of the death tax and tax extender bills that are important, I think is somewhat disingenuous.
That legislation passed with a majority vote on this floor; and, frankly, a majority of the other body favored that legislation. Our friends on the other side of the aisle used their friends on the other side of the rotunda to routinely block progress. Even when the majority of the United States Senate agrees with the will of this House, as was the case with the minimum wage, with ANWR, and another piece of legislation with the tax extenders, with reform of the death tax, an obstructionist minority of Democrats on the other side keep a bipartisan majority from actually reaching the magic 60 vote level that is required in moving legislation forward.
We are not responsible for that. Frankly, I am proud of what we have moved through the floor here.
I also want to disagree with my good friend on the Medicare measure that he discussed in his remarks. Quite frankly, it is something that I think our good friends on the other side of the aisle are embarrassed that they did not support. It was the largest expansion of spending for senior citizens and entitlement spending since 1965. Since 1965.
Now the argument that the Democrats advanced that night, and I was here, was it is not enough. They were not willing to vote for something that was the largest increase in almost 40 years. It simply was not enough. And I think now that tens of thousands of seniors are getting health care that in the past they were not able to get, and that our friends on the other side had nothing to do with that accomplishment puts them in the position where they feel like they have to take away from the achievement that they could have been part of but rejected the opportunity to participate in.
Finally, let me just conclude my observation that there are only two times when we get criticized from the other side of the aisle. That is when we do something and when we do not.
Day after day, and particularly morning after morning this week, we have heard demands from the floor or from the well of this body on the floor that we have up or down votes on issue after issue after issue. Now when we are bringing important issues for up or down votes, issues that in many cases have been dealt with for months through the committee process, we are dealing with conference reports or providing an up or down opportunity, we are criticized for that. So I suspect we are going to be criticized regardless of what we do.
What I am pleased with is the record of accomplishment that this Congress has to offer to the American people in issue after issue. My only regret is that, frankly, our friends on the other side of the aisle have so often chosen to obstruct rather than participate, in my opinion, constructively in this process.
I hope that that changes ahead. Frankly, there have been times when it has been different on this floor. I would hold the pension reform bill out as an example of that. I would also point out on things like the PATRIOT Act, where we had 40 odd of our friends from the other side participating; tort reform, where 70 odd of our friends participated on the other side; there have been many instances of bipartisan reform cooperation. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it has diminished as we have moved forward in the Congress and moved closer to November.
I hope on the other side of November that will change. But I, for one, am very proud of this Congress and what it has accomplished; and I look forward to working with our friends on the other side of the aisle so we can accomplish more in the months that remain in this Congress and, frankly, in the next one.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to take a moment to respond to my good friend from Massachusetts. We simply, I guess, see the world differently. The reality is most of the legislation that comes to this floor that passes is bipartisan, passes with at least a bipartisan vote. It is my friends on the other side who so often find themselves in lonely partisan isolation, less frequent on this side of the aisle.
Again, I could go issue after issue, whether it is tort reform, the PATRIOT Act, bankruptcy reform, the transportation bill, defense bills, there are overwhelming bipartisan votes.
Frankly, I think our friends at this point are more interested in problems than solutions. They simply do not want to run on them. They want to create the impression that the Congress has been neither productive and is overly partisan. That is something we are going to have to agree to disagree on.
I also want to again remind my friend, on the Medicare bill, it is this side of the aisle that provided tens of millions of seniors with prescription drug coverage for the first time ever, and I think if my friend checked the polling reports or checked the rates of satisfaction he would find that it is very, very high. I personally think our friends are disappointed in themselves for not having participated, not having worked with us.
Many times our friends want to negotiate, but they also tell us what is nonnegotiable before we sit down to negotiate. They certainly did that during the Medicare situation. They certainly did that when the administration wanted to discuss Social Security earlier last year: these are the things we will not talk about; now, let us sit down and talk. That is not a negotiation in my opinion.
Finally, I want to remind my friends, when they move on education spending, I would be delighted to debate the record of this Congress and frankly this administration in the area of funding education. The largest increase in spending for education at all levels has occurred during the Bush administration, over 50 percent since 2001. It is this party that has delivered time and time and time again when it came to funding.
Finally, last point, my friend made the point that the minimum wage would pass quote ``if.'' It did pass. This is the point. It came to this floor and passed. It went to the United States Senate. Over half, 57 of our Senators out of a body of 100 of the other body, were in favor of that legislation. It was a minority that blocked the passage of the minimum wage and a minority in the United States Senate. I regret that. We still have time before the Congress is finished to deal with that, and I hope that we do after the election.
I think there are some that would rather have election issues than have a solution. I think when you offer a compromise solution, we had many Members in this body who did not want to raise the minimum wage. We had many Members in this body that did want to raise it. We had also Members that wanted to reform the death tax, those that did not. Most of us on both sides of the aisle were in favor of the extenders. That was actually a very finely crafted compromise that had something for everybody. Our good friends wanted everything for themselves, but nothing for anybody else in terms of the compromise.
I think we have put on this floor a fair bill, a bill we can be proud of. I am very proud to be able to go home and say I voted for a minimum wage increase; when it came to the floor of the House, I voted to reform the death tax; and I voted to extend some important economic tax incentives and a reduction. I wish more of the Congress could, but the majority of us actually can go home and say that.
The majority in the United States Senate can say it. It is the obstructionist minority in the other body that chose not to participate in the compromise with us, but again, there is still time left in the Congress. We will be back here in all likelihood in November and December. I hope that opportunity on the other side of the election will lead us to be able to pass significant compromise legislation. Frankly, I trust that it will.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to just note for the record I am delighted to finally hear something good about Wal-Mart coming from the other side because generally that is not what we hear, but I agree with my good friend. It is a great company and not just a great Arkansas company, but a great American company.
I also want to say, Mr. Speaker, that I am very proud when I had the opportunity to vote to give tens of millions of seniors drug coverage for the first time in the history, I did.
I am very happy and very proud that when I had the opportunity on this floor to vote for an increase in the minimum wage, I did.
I am very happy when I had the opportunity to vote for, first, the elimination and then the reform of the death tax so small business people and farmers can keep their properties, I did.
I am very glad when the PATRIOT Act came up for reauthorization I had the opportunity to vote to make our country safer and stronger, and I did.
I am very glad I had the opportunity to vote for liability reform for medical cases, and when the opportunity came to vote on the floor, I was pleased to do so.
Finally, when I have had on a number of occasions the opportunity to vote for measures that would increase the energy independence of this country and hold down the escalation of gasoline prices, I have done that. I am very pleased that I had an opportunity to do so.
I think what we are hearing today is unfortunately regret that so many of our friends on the other side of the aisle did not vote for those things when they had the opportunity; and rather than simply express their disagreement, they are simply trying to denigrate the work of the Congress, which has been productive and good for the American people.
So I am pleased with the record of Congress and look forward to going home to talk about it and look forward, again, to the balance of the Congress after the election.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I know we are not at Halloween yet, but we must be getting close, because we have to scare the American people on issue after issue after issue.
Frankly, most of the measures that my good friend talked about, if they were brought up, would have to be brought up under the very same closed rules he so often voices his concern about.
We are told this Congress somehow operates differently than the others. I simply want to provide for the information of our body some information provided to me by the Congressional Research Service. Same day rules during the last week of session during the final three Democratic Congresses, the Hundred First, the Hundred Second and the Hundred Third, totaled six. Same day rules under the last three Republican Congresses, the Hundred Seventh, the Hundred Eighth and the Hundred Ninth, totaled five. Basically, the body operates about the same way procedurally that it has operated throughout most of its history and certainly throughout its recent history.
I also want to remind my friends who talk about the minimum wage that they had the opportunity to vote for a minimum wage increase. I voted for it. I certainly am happy that I did. I wish more of my friends had. A majority of this body did. Indeed, a bipartisan majority. A bipartisan majority of the United States Senate favored it.
It was my friends' friends on the other side of the rotunda that decided not to enter in and allow that increase to take place because they wanted a perfect bill from their perspective. They didn't want to compromise. They didn't want to give and take. They didn't want to have some discussion. Frankly, what they wanted is what they got, or what they believe they got, which is a political issue for the November elections.
I am hopeful that after the elections are over we can come back here and actually have a discussion and come to a compromise solution, such as was crafted on the floor in this body.
Our friends talk to us a lot about education. I think they should. They probably ought to thank President Bush for being the best friend education ever had. It is President Bush who came up with No Child Left Behind, and it was President Bush who has recommended throughout his tenure over a 50 percent increase in Federal funding of education.
My friends are concerned about the cost of tuition. So am I. I just had a son who graduated. I am very grateful. But, quite frankly, most of that problem is at the State level, where we have State government after State government running enormous surpluses, yet not passing some of that surplus on to higher education institutions and to their own students.
The reality is that after coming in with a recession beginning in 2001, followed by September 11, something that all of us on both sides of the aisle recognize as a dastardly and disastrous event, this administration and this Republican Congress has gotten the economy moving again and has accomplishment after accomplishment to run on. I am not surprised that our friends on the other side see it differently or want to obscure it, but I have profound faith in the good judgment of the American people to understand fiction and understand fact and know the difference between the two.
Mr. Speaker, today, in closing, I want to reiterate the importance of passing this rule. This rule allows us to move forward, pass the necessary legislation, and to do the business of the American people. It is interesting how we have heard complaints by the other side of the aisle that this is a do-nothing Congress, yet at the same time the other side wants to slow down the process today to prevent important bipartisan legislation from being passed. It wants, in effect, to do less, not more.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure it is no surprise that I intend to vote for the rule and the underlying legislation, and I would urge my colleagues to do the same.
The material previously referred to by Mr. McGovern is as follows:
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http://thomas.loc.gov/