Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008

Floor Speech

RECOVERY REBATES AND ECONOMIC STIMULUS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - February 07, 2008)

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Mr. GRASSLEY. First, Madam President, following on where Senator Baucus left off, I thank him for his remarks, and I would be glad to associate myself with them and put his words in my mouth so that I would say the same thing about him. It is a pleasure to work with him but, more importantly, a pleasure to have this opportunity to say that a product we have worked on, that was an expression of 59 Members of the Senate, is finally going to go to the President of the United States.

So I say that about Senator Baucus personally, but I also say, for those people who are listening, and who think that nothing in this city ever gets done in a bipartisan way, we are proving to the rest of the Nation that everything in Washington is not partisan and we eventually get things worked out in a bipartisan way. I will add to that: Nothing gets done in the Senate unless it is bipartisan.

I would add a second point, and that second point is that a week before the House of Representatives passed their product, the House of Representatives, Republican and Democratic leaders, reached an agreement with the White House of a so-called perfect package that was going to stimulate the economy. They wanted to get it to the President immediately, and it was something that the Senate ought to go along with, without question. Then in a speech a week ago, I spoke here about the functions of the Senate--to distill and cool and observe and put in a laboratory the legislation that comes from the other body--and that it wasn't the function of the Senate to rubberstamp the House of Representatives.

I mean, we are not, I guess you would say, like the Senate of France, as an example, or the House of Lords of London, we are the United States Senate representing our constituents and are not a rubberstamp body.

And the Constitution was written with the Senate to give greater deliberation to legislation than what the House of Representatives does. This action right now is a perfect example of what we are set up to do as the Senate, and that perfect piece of legislation that we were told was so perfect, after it went through the process of 21 members of the Senate Finance Committee looking at it, came to the conclusion there were about three things wrong with it: 20 million seniors citizens left out. If you want to stimulate the economy, including low-income seniors as consumers in America who need to spend money as one of the chief stimulants; and then the House of Representatives did not honor the disabled veterans of America the way they should have--I should say the low-income disabled veterans of America the way they should. And then the second one was the possibility, very real possibility, of people who are here illegally maybe being able to qualify for a rebate check. So all of those are shortcomings in that perfect piece of legislation worked out between the White House and the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives.

As intelligent as those people are, and they are intelligent, it was not so perfect. So the Senate did its work. Here we are. I am pleased we are prepared to finish the job on the economic stimulus package this very day--in fact, within a few minutes.

One week ago today, I spoke at length about the improvement the Finance Committee made in the House bill. The key improvements were on the structure of the rebate. The Finance Committee members added 20 million low-income seniors, and several hundred thousand disabled veterans are now about to be able to participate in the rebate checks.

Illegal immigrants will not benefit from the rebate checks, and they should not. I know that is a no-brainer, but it is something you have to make certain is in law because it will happen.

All these changes are a result of the work, under the leadership of Senator Baucus, of 21 members coming together to do what needed to be done to correct the House bill. Now, this took a while. But my leaders saw the light of the Finance Committee improvements.

My understanding is the House and the White House agree with us as well. Through the process, we will approve a truly bipartisan, bicameral bill. The American people will witness, in this process, a deliberative body, deliberating as we should but doing it in an expeditious way.

The best bill would be the full Finance Committee bill. That bill would have provided more business tax relief, more incentive for investment with probably longer--the certainty of the creation of more jobs. And, of course, we had an energy investment package in it.

Well, those will come up another time. My colleagues who favor those issues are not going to be left out in the cold. The House and the White House did not want these provisions in this bill. So in the interests of compromise, those provisions are dropped but not dropped out of sight.

I wish to thank our leaders for accepting, after some reluctance, the Finance Committee changes. We have a better product because the chairman and the committee process has worked. The committee members made this a better deal, and I thank Chairman Baucus for his leadership.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent when we come back to this side, Senator Alexander would have 5 minutes.

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