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. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the conference report for H.R. 4520, the so-called American Jobs Creation Act.
There has been a lot said here tonight, but if I could simply point out three numbers: One, this was intended to fix a $4 billion problem, a real problem of tariffs that were going to be asserted against us by the EU because of violations or noncompliance with international trade agreements. But instead of fixing a $4 billion problem, we now have a bill before this body that costs $140 billion, $42 billion of which go to special interests.
Mr. Speaker, this country really does need a true jobs bill, but this is a snow job bill. This is what we would call in my neighborhood a snow job bill. I cannot believe some of the people getting up on this floor tonight with a straight face and saying that this is good for America. That is truly unbelievable.
Politics is the art of the possible, but tonight it is politics is the art of the unbelievable. It is simply unbelievable, what I am hearing tonight.
Some politicians in Washington claim things are getting better here, but we have got to really ask ourselves, are they really? Just this past August, we had 8 million people unemployed in this country, 40 million people without health insurance, and we have a bunch of companies in this country being convinced to ship their jobs overseas.
While the conference report before us calls itself a "jobs act," in reality it does little to address the unemployment numbers in this country. Instead, we have 276 separate tax breaks for corporations who are being actively encouraged and being encouraged by our Tax Code to ship American jobs overseas. That is the truth. And even worse than that, the conference report strips out language that would have provided incentives to companies for keeping jobs here in the United States. That is the truth. And beyond that, the conference report strips the Harkin amendment, which would have restored overtime pay rights for 6 million Americans. That should have happened in this bill. It has been stripped out.
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