Conference Report on H.R. 4520, American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4520, AMERICAN JOBS CREATION ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - October 07, 2004)
Mr. REYNOLDS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 830 and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I want to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I guess it is refreshing that the Republican leadership is allowing this House to debate and vote on a bill that now has actually been filed, and I am glad that the majority has finally provided paper copies of this massive bill to Members of this House.
Unfortunately, we are still considering a flawed bill under a very flawed process.
Let me remind my colleagues this rule waives the normal 3-day layover of the conference report. Those are the rules of the House. Members of Congress and the American people deserve to have at least 3 full days to read and examine and analyze this massive tax cut, but this rule waives that layover and allows this body to consider this bill today when most Members have not read the bill in its entirety.
Like I said this morning during debate on the martial law rule, this is not the first time the Republican leadership has broken and flaunted the rules to get their way. And while I continue to be disappointed by the way the Republican leadership continues to misuse the House rules, I want to talk for a few minutes about the substance of this conference report.
Mr. Speaker, to describe this bill as flawed does not do it justice. This conference report is a legislative grab bag filled with goodies for special interests. Every Member of this body knew about the export subsidy that was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization. Thousands of U.S. exporters are needlessly paying tariffs to European countries simply because the Republican-controlled Congress has failed to pass legislation to avoid these penalties. Thanks to the Republican leadership of this Congress, jewelry, textile and small manufacturers in my Congressional District have been especially hard hit by these sanctions.
Now, our colleagues, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Crane) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) joined together and sponsored a bipartisan bill to fix this problem a long time ago, and 177 Members are cosponsors of that bill. The Crane-Rangel bill was clean, it was simple, and it would bring the United States into compliance with the WTO without the extra add-ons that the Republican leadership felt compelled to include in this conference report as sweeteners or incentives for passage of this bill.
Crane-Rangel would have been approved by this House if the Republican leadership would have allowed the bill to come to the floor for an up-or-down vote. It would have been sent to the President and signed into law by now, if the Republican leadership did not drag its heels while pretending to address this problem. And its small cost could have been completely paid for.
Instead of bringing a clean bill fixing this problem to the floor, the Republican leadership has delivered this monstrosity. Once again, the Republican leadership has turned a noncontroversial issue in a noncontroversial bill into bad policy.
Does this conference report fix this problem we have with the WTO? Well, according to the Republican leadership it does. But according to press accounts, the European Union is hinting this legislation may not accomplish its goal; and, if true, the sanctions on American exports will not be lifted.
Mr. Speaker, there was a better way to do this, and I am disappointed that the Republican leadership took the hard way out of what should have been an easy problem to fix. But while this conference report should be about eliminating the WTO sanctions against American corporations, it is really about the tax breaks and other goodies provided to special interests.
This conference report gives tax breaks to various corporate interests. There are 276 separate tax breaks that benefit everyone from restaurant owners to foreign gamblers. Provisions like the one that will help native Alaskan whalers were inserted to help vulnerable Members in the other body win reelection. Home Depot and General Electric, two companies who have donated large sums of campaign funds to the Republican Party, get significant tax breaks in this bill.
Mr. Speaker, this conference report should not be used to reward corporate contributors. This is no way to do tax policy. We can and we should do better.
Now, if that were not bad enough, Mr. Speaker, several provisions that actually do help average Americans, which were included in the other body's version of this bill, were stripped out by Republican leaders. When the Republican leadership had a chance to actually do something good for a change, they turned away and ignored the needs and concerns of everyday Americans.
Included in this conference report is a bailout for tobacco farmers. This provision will provide $10 million to financially vulnerable tobacco farmers in tobacco communities. These funds would come from an assessment on tobacco companies, not from taxpayers.
While this bailout provision is important to a small segment of the American population, the heart of the amendment adopted by the other body was FDA regulation of tobacco. The Senate amendment would give the Food and Drug Administration the broad authority to regulate the sale, distribution, and advertising of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.
We know that each day, 5,000 children try their first cigarette; that 2,000 children will become daily smokers, and nearly 1,000 will die prematurely from tobacco-induced diseases. The other body included this language as a bipartisan amendment adopted by a vote of 78 to 15. But instead of supporting this bipartisan amendment, the Republican leadership stripped FDA regulation from this conference report, leaving only the tobacco bailout.
By stripping out FDA regulation, we continue to leave our children vulnerable to the dangers of tobacco. This is unconscionable, and I am disappointed by the Republican leadership's action.
During debate on the other body's version of this legislation, two amendments were adopted to block President Bush's overtime regulations that recently went into effect. These regulations are yet another nasty attack by this administration on American workers.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that these overtime regulations will deny six million workers overtime protection. The House has voted against these regulations twice, and the other body has voted against it three times. These overtime cuts are pay cuts. When workers lose their overtime pay protection, employers force them to work longer hours for no extra pay. That is wrong.
Protecting the 40-hour workweek is vital to protecting the work-family balance for millions of Americans in communities in all parts of this Nation, and I am disappointed that the Republican leadership did not stand up to the corporate interests and support these two amendments. Instead, they caved to pressure from their corporate friends and allowed these misguided regulations to continue to stay in effect.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I must express my extreme displeasure with the Republican leadership for stripping out the provision that would provide tax relief to every company in business that voluntarily makes up the difference in income to an employee activated in the National Guard or Reserves. This provision would also have provided support to those same companies to train temporary companies to fill the jobs left vacant by active duty employees.
The gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and I attempted to offer this amendment during the debate on this bill when it was considered in June, but the Republican leadership denied us the opportunity to offer that amendment to the bill. However, a similar amendment offered by Senator Landrieu was adopted.
During this time of national emergency, when members of the Reserves and Guard are serving extended deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is vital that the Congress provide help to the hundreds of small businesses suffering from long-term vacancies or the families whose loved ones have been activated for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. But instead of showing a little compassion, instead of doing the right thing, instead of standing with the troops, their families, and their hometown communities, the Republican leadership in both Chambers stripped this provision from the final bill.
Mr. Speaker, it is truly a sad day when this body turns its back on those who are fighting for this country.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this conference report. We need to draw a line in the sand when it comes to corporate giveaways and legislative sweeteners like the ones written into this conference report. It is time we say enough is enough.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I just wanted to comment on some of the words of my colleague from New York (Mr. Reynolds) who read very well from the Republican talking points on this bill. I would say that if we followed the rules of this House and he actually had the 3-day layover to actually read what was in this bill or what was not in this bill, he would have noticed that this bill actually undercuts the will of the House and the other body with regard to President Bush's nasty overtime regulations which was removed from this bill.
He would realize that the Republican leadership stripped out a provision that would provide tax relief to every company and business that voluntarily makes up the difference in income to an employee activated in the National Guard or Reserves. I think he would see that of the 276 separate little provisions that benefit special interests, makers of bows and arrows, tackle boxes and sonar finders and even importers of Chinese ceiling fans, let me say to my colleague from New York that I think those who are serving in our National Guard and Reserves and those businesses that are struggling as those brave men and women are fighting overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, I think they are more important, quite frankly, than Chinese ceiling fans. I think they deserve a bigger break than makers of bows and arrows and tackle boxes and sonar fish finders.
That is the complaint here, that this bill is filled with special goodies for people who do not need it when in fact some of the people who need it most do not get anything. What is even more frustrating is the fact that people are going to vote on this bill today, this conference report, when it was just brought before us today, breaking the rules of this House, waiving the rules of this House where we are supposed to have 3 days to know what is in it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), the coauthor of the Crane-Rangel bill.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) mentioned it is almost an election year. Judging from all the special goodies that are in this bill, it is an election year.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch).
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).
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