30-Something Working Group 1/31/07

30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Well, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) for yielding.

One of the things I realized when I came down here in January was that you get a lot of analogies, and some of them work, some of them don't. But listening to our colleagues criticize the budget, the continuing resolution we just passed here, you kind of think of the old ``bull in the china shop' analogy.

This is kind of like the bull walking into the china shop spending a good half an hour breaking everything in the china shop; the owner finally having the good sense to kick him out, and then him showing up about 2 days later and asking why everything hasn't been fixed yet. I mean, that is essentially, what has happened here is that there has been so much damage, Mr. Speaker, done to this budget by virtue of nine of the 11, nine of the 11 appropriations bills not being completed by the end of business.

And an important thing to note is that, you know, Congress was back here in the holiday season in November and December trying to finish those budget bills. And I am just learning, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, about the budget process, but from what I know, November, December is pretty late to be even working on those budget bills. Those budget bills were supposed to be done over the summer and fall. And so even giving themselves an extra 4 or 5 months to complete those bills, they still weren't done on time.

And so when the Democrats finally were put back in charge of this place by virtue of the millions of Americans who stood up across this country to start putting common sense middle class values first, the people who put Mr. Altmire and myself here in Congress, when they finally, we finally sort of reentered the china shop and realized that everything had been broken, we realized it was going to take a little while to clean everything up. And what we did today, this continuing resolution which keeps this government running for the next several months, is an important first step because there are some critical programs, veterans benefits at the top of that list, Mr. Altmire, that are funded here.

What else are we talking about? We are talking about Pell grants. Even after coming before this body and, with remarkable bipartisan support, decreasing the rate of student loans for millions of students across this country, we came back in this budget, we increased the maximum Pell grant by $260, to over $4,000, $4,300 for the average student.

We put in new money or in schools that are failing to meet the Head Start standards. Mr. Altmire, you know that both of us heard so much about that from our school districts over the course of the campaign and over the course of the last month. Now, 6,700 schools across this country that are failing to meet those No Child Left Behind standards are going to get new funding from this government in order to keep on operating.

We increased community health center funding by $207 million. Community health centers in this very broken health care system are sometimes the place of last resort, often the place of only resort for so many uninsured families. We are now going to make sure that they get the funding that they deserve.

So in so many ways we started to clean up the mess that that bull made for the last 12 years. We are starting to put the china back together. We are starting to buy a little bit of new stuff to put on the shelves. And it is going to take a little while. It is going to take a little while.

But it is important to remember that the work we did here today, I think, is just a beginning on that front, Mr. Altmire. And I join Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Ryan in commending you for standing up for the veterans in your district, because when you speak for those veterans, it is not just in your district, it is for all the veterans in my district and, as an extension, it is for all the future veterans, because as you know, we are so lucky to have an all volunteer military.

But if they think that by going into the service they will return home and find a country and a Nation that does not honor their service, well, then we are going to have a lot harder time than we are already having finding people to fight the future battles and wars that this country may engage in.

I would yield. I see Mr. Meek has joined us. But I would yield to Mr. Altmire and thank him again for his advocacy over the past several weeks.

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Would the gentlewoman yield for a moment? And I think she is exactly right, and I think that that disconnect that you talk about, that certainly was in existence here for a very long time was one of the reasons why we now have a Democratic majority. The people last summer were fueling up their cars at $3.50 a gallons. We are finding that all of a sudden, they were having to pay $50 co-pays rather than $25 co-pays. And they looked at a Congress which seemed pretty incredulous to their concerns, that seemed to watch without listening. And you are right, people get hurt by the decisions they make down here. And I will give you an example.

In my district I have a senior housing complex in Torrington, major place where a lot of seniors live in one of the biggest cities in my district, and we have had some security problems there, some people coming in off the streets and had a couple violent incidents. Well, most of the facility and the staff there are financed through Federal grants. Well, because this Congress, over the last 12 years, slashed Federal housing funds to the bone, they have had to make major layoffs at that housing complex.

In fact, it finally came down to a very difficult but unfortunately necessary decision that that housing facility made to lay off their security guards. That is going to put hundreds of senior citizens at risk in this senior housing complex. And they come to their local elected officials, their State-elected officials and ask, what can you do to help? And everybody points back to where the problem came from. It was years of neglect down here in Washington of housing programs, just as there were years of neglect years to health care programs, years of neglect to defense and certain national security programs.

And in order to reinstill that commitment to the seniors of Torrington, to those veterans in Pennsylvania, it is going to take a little while.

But if you are back in your communities, if you are talking to people, regular middle-class, working folks people, you will hear those stories on how the votes we take here affect people back in Connecticut, back in Florida, back in Pennsylvania. And for some reason, whether it was the power that went to people's head, whether it was the pomp and circumstance that surrounds being a Member of Congress, for some reason, over the last 12 years, and in particular, I think, Mr. Altmire, over the past 4, 5, or 6 years, there was a wall that was put up around Washington, D.C., and folks that were controlling the committees here and the budget here just were not listening to people back in State of Connecticut, State of Pennsylvania, Florida, and throughout this country, because if they did, they would know we have to put more money in housing.

If they listened to those veterans that you and I talk to every day at people's doors, they would know that men and women who came back from Iraq, came back from Vietnam, World War II veterans are struggling. And what we are now doing here in starting to clean up that mess is also to start listening again. And I believe Ms. Wasserman Schultz is very correct on that notion.

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, let me thank you, Mr. Meek, on behalf of my constituents and the people throughout this country for the vigilance that you and Ms. Wasserman Schultz and Mr. Ryan showed for the last 2 years, and in your case longer than that. There were a lot of things you could be doing late at night when Mr. Altmire and I might have caught you on TV into the wee hours. But you were out here spreading the message that it was time for working class, regular folks throughout this country to have their day here again. There had been enough time for the special interests and lobbyists and everyone else to have their day in Congress. It was time for regular people to have their day in the people's House.

I want to add something. We use this term ``Republican leadership,' and I think that is important. Because one of the things that you have figured out over the last couple of weeks is that there is a difference between the Republican leadership and a lot of the rest of the folks in the Republican Party.

Maybe I should be careful to not give too much credit to the other side. But it seems like on every measure the Republican leadership trots out and says, the Republicans are going to be against raising the minimum wage, and they turn around to see who is following. And, guess what, they vote for it.

The Republican leadership says, we are going to be against cutting the student loan interest rates. They run out here and turn around to see who is following them, and there are even more of their colleagues voting with the Democrats.

They say, this process is broken, we are going to

vote against this continuing resolution, and they turn around, and there are 50-some-odd of their Members supporting it.

Why? Because, on average, we had 60-some-odd votes for every piece of the 100 hours agenda from the Republican side and 50-plus votes for the continuing resolution.

Why do you have so many Republican votes? Because there are Republicans, just as there are Democrats, who are in touch with their constituents. When they go home for weekends, they hear about the struggles that middle-class families are going through to pay for health care and education.

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. That's right. I think what happened here for the last 12 years, the agenda on the House floor was a Republican agenda. Republicans supported it, and they twisted some Republican arms to support it.

The agenda that is now before the House of Representatives is a people's agenda. That is why you see Republicans and Democrats supporting it. Because the agenda doesn't have to do with somebody on the seventh floor of the Republican National Committee or somebody on the third floor of the Democratic National Committee. The agenda has to do with the people that we meet at the diner and the senior housing center.

That is why I think for the next 2 years, I know for the next 2 years, we are going to see Republicans and Democrats coming together. Because this isn't a party agenda anymore. This is a people's agenda. That may sound corny, but it is probably the best way to articulate what is happening here.

As a new Member, it fills me with joy and pride to be part of this.

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