Providing for Consideration of Conference Report on H.R. 2112, Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the ranking member, Congresswoman Slaughter, for her incredible work and rise today, Mr. Speaker, to support the rule for fiscal year 2012 appropriations for agriculture, transportation, training and justice. Technically--or maybe untechnically--this bill is called the ``mini-bus.'' I completely commend the conferees for including language based on legislation we introduced directing additional resources for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's White-Collar Crime Division for Wall Street financial crime prosecution.

Moreover, with the Federal deficit requiring our rigor, this mini bill makes difficult cuts, but also provides support for those most hurt by the current recession. Let me state for the record that the trillions of dollars of deficit being racked up in this country come from some pretty clear sources: first of all, two wars--the longest wars in American history, lasting over a decade now; also, the cost of unemployment to this economy caused by Wall Street malfeasance; and, finally, looking back, the tax cuts for the rich enacted during the last Bush administration that continue to rack up mounting deficits every year. It's very clear what's happening to cause the deficits. And then with the rising deficit, the cost of added interest is included in the debt total.

This bill meets the spending caps set in the Budget Control Act compromise and includes a clean continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown, which would only further hurt our economy.

With over 15 percent of Americans living in poverty now, our moral responsibility as a Congress must be to help our fellow citizens weather this storm--which they didn't create. Thus this bill maintains funding for key programs, such as for food for needy children and poor women who are pregnant, for food commodities for food banks across this country that are strapped with rising need, and for food sustainment for the unemployed.

In particular, this bill includes language, based on legislation I authored, to allow the FBI to hire hundreds of new agents to fully investigate white-collar crime in the financial services sector. People across Ohio, from Toledo to Cleveland, are hurting because of the recklessness of Wall Street. Those who broke the law in order to get rich at the expense of everybody else should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I commend the conferees for including my language to help provide the FBI with the necessary resources to investigate those who are responsible.

I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying bill, which is quite balanced despite the very difficult choices that they had to make.

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